Rainy, cold and icy weather here in Oklahoma City. A small group of us gathered at KAMP's for a time of worship and prayer. Always good to be together. Here are some of the random, not so put together talking points from the talk I would have given. Join us this Christmas Season as we Worship More, Spend Less, Give More and Love All.
Here goes...
We have seen Christmas become something…crazy! We have begun to dread the holidays rolling along. The internal pace of our lives get faster and faster, busier and busier. The lists get longer. Anxiety over things left undone gets higher. We get quicker when we should be getting slower. And what we need to do is STOP! Nobody else is going to do it for you. End the business and just be present to the people God has put before you, the need put before you. How would Christ have us celebrate his birth? It wouldn’t be full of stress and anxiety but peace. And we experience anything but peace.
Part of saying “YES” to Jesus means that we say “NO” to over-spending and over-consumption. We say “NO” to these things so we can create space to say “YES” to Jesus and the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The National Retail Federation is forecasting that Americans will spend around $474.5 Billion this Christmas, an average of $859 per family. And many people will be paying off this Christmas 7 to 8 months from now.
1. Total US consumer debt (does not include mortgages) reached $2.46 Trillion in June 2007(Source: Federal Reserve).
2. Around $1.5 Trillion on credit cards.
3. At least one in 10 consumers have more than 10 credit cards in their wallets. However, the overall average number of credit cards per consumer is four.
4. U.S. consumers racked up an estimated $51 billion worth of fast food on their personal credit and debit cards in 2006, compared to $33.2 billion one-year ago.
5. The size of the total consumer debt grew nearly five times in size from 1980 ($355 billion) to 2001 ($1.7 trillion). Consumer debt in 2007 now stands at $2.5 trillion.
6. The average household in 2007 carried nearly $8,500 in credit card debt.
7. This data tells us that Americans carried approximately 786 billion dollars in credit card debt and that number is expected to grow to a projected 965 billion dollars by the year 2008.
See Matthew 6:19 - For Jesus, it is about what we treasure. And where our treasure is there our heart will be and our heart is the wellspring of life, so we guard our heart in ways. Beyond your needs, it is easy to see what you treasure measure by money. When we are dealing with money, we are not dealing with money, but rather the heart. When Jesus talks about the Kingdom he uses metaphors of passion and desire. Because we can move anything to get to our treasure.
See Matthew 25 - The king, Jesus, identifies himself with anybody anywhere that has a need. He refers to those in need as his brothers and sisters. There are these people that he calls “righteous” that didn’t think they had seen a king in need. Oh No. For Jesus it is about being generous. Jesus speaks of 2 people that actually went to hell in Luke 16 and again with the parable of the man who built bigger barns.
See Luke 21 - Don’t give out of your wealth. For Jesus, it is about proportion. What can you give? Debt is keeping us from even thinking about generosity.
We are saying how much we love people by the amount of the price tag.
A few estimates say that:
1. $20 Billion would provide water, basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world lacking it. Roughly the same amount Americans spend on ice-cream in one year.
2. $18 Billion provides food to everyone in the hungry and lacking food. Roughly the same amount Americans spend on make-up in one year.
3. $10 Billion provides solves the water crisis. While Americans spend $15 Billion on perfume and cologne in you year. One child dies every 15 seconds because of lack of clean water.
How do you think God feels about how we live and the suffering in the world? Are we not all God’s children? We are enjoying the very best of life. Yet at times for many of us we feel like we don’t have that much because we see all these people that have more. And our stuff seems average, outdated and not good enough.
See Genesis 1:26-31 & Genesis 3:1-2
From the beginning in Eden, Adam & Eve, men and women, you and me had everything they and we could ever want, yet they feel they need MORE. The children of Israel, again you and me, were liberated from slavery in Egypt.
See Exodus 16:2-35 & Numbers 11:4-20
God is leading them through the wilderness with a cloud by name and pillar of fire by night. And I’ll the while, bread comes from heaven and water from rocks. And they are not pleased from the menu selection…they complain.
Maybe what we have is enough. Perhaps it is more than enough. You’ve heard it said that, “You cannot have too much of a good thing.” I suspect Jesus might have something different to say on the matter.
See Luke 18
Christmas has become about getting what you “want”. We hear, “what do you want for Christmas?” What if giving people what they want isn’t actually kind to them? Too much of a good thing ceases to be a good thing. You can have good in excess.
In saying “NO” to over-spending and over-consumption we are then invited to say “YES” to giving more and to giving in relational ways. If this stops at spending less money, we have stopped short the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
What if the best question isn’t, “What do you want for Christmas?”, but “What can you give for Christmas?”
Jesus redistributed wealth.
See 2 Cor. 8:1-15
Nothing tells the story better than when the church lives like Jesus.
See 1 Timothy6:7-19 & 2 COR. 9:6-14
This Christmas Season join us as we Worship More, Spend Less, Give More and Love All!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
The Story Continues Again...
Just wanted to pass along another piece of our story, journey and life together...
Be Encouraged.
Ben.
"After reading your last update, it left me thinking how refreshing it is to see a church actually DOING..... That has been my biggest frustration as an adult church-goer. It seemed like most of the churches I attended in college and thereafter were self-serving. They did wonderful work for members----but everything was self-contained. It felt wrong to me not to be out in the community serving others. I think it's great that your church is holding on to the true charge that comes with being a Christian."
Be Encouraged.
Ben.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The Story Continues.
The amazing story of God and his people continues...
This was received from a member of our community in relation to sharing a Thanksgiving meal at a local AIDS hospice that is home to 29 men and women living with and dying from HIV/AIDS. I love the honesty. It is inspiring. Loving is not always easy but it is right and it is good. They took a leap into unknown God territory. It takes a leap of faith to follow Jesus into the places that naturally we would rather not go. I am proud to be the church with people just like this.
They say, "Just wanted to let you know that I will be at North Winds tomorrow. I have to be honest with you, I’m excited for the chance to grow and learn and love on people, but I am very anxious about it as well, because I hate to say it, I have never done anything like this before. Is that not crazy? I committed my life to Christ over ten years ago and have never stepped out of my comfort zone enough to love on people...... I am looking forward to it, but I wanted you to know, in case you saw me acting a little weird, or not looking like, I know what I’m doing, it’s because I don’t know what I’m doing. I know it’s just about sharing life with people, which I am good at, but anything you can point out to me would be helpful."
This was received from a member of our community in relation to sharing a Thanksgiving meal at a local AIDS hospice that is home to 29 men and women living with and dying from HIV/AIDS. I love the honesty. It is inspiring. Loving is not always easy but it is right and it is good. They took a leap into unknown God territory. It takes a leap of faith to follow Jesus into the places that naturally we would rather not go. I am proud to be the church with people just like this.
They say, "Just wanted to let you know that I will be at North Winds tomorrow. I have to be honest with you, I’m excited for the chance to grow and learn and love on people, but I am very anxious about it as well, because I hate to say it, I have never done anything like this before. Is that not crazy? I committed my life to Christ over ten years ago and have never stepped out of my comfort zone enough to love on people...... I am looking forward to it, but I wanted you to know, in case you saw me acting a little weird, or not looking like, I know what I’m doing, it’s because I don’t know what I’m doing. I know it’s just about sharing life with people, which I am good at, but anything you can point out to me would be helpful."
Friday, November 2, 2007
The Dangerous Taste of Hope.
"Signs of Emergence" continued.
...if we are seeking the new, then what we were practicing was the old, and therefore God was not in what we were doing anymore.
Such a divine departure is rightly shocking to us. We see an example of it described in Ezekiel 10: God ups and leaves the temple. "No temple, no place, no people, no box, no church, not agenda, no theological position will ever require me to stay where I am don't want, be co-opted into something I only half agree with, be pressed into the service of some cause you made up because I am who I am."
We believe that there is no box that God fits all nice and tidy into...There Is No Box!
To admit that God can and will leave is to allow the dangerous taste of hope into otherwise stagnant waters. It is to admit that the life of the disciples is not sedentary but nomadic - moving on to where sustenance lies, not staying where sustenance once was. It is to appreciate that the journey of faith is not a static conversion but an evolution of the Spirit. The very fact that God can move on means that hope is possible. That we are not stuck with what we have. That this isn't it.
We are beginning to move on, to let go of the side of the pool, to wade into the deep. We at times seems to live, move and be in this place between where sustenance was and where sustenance is. We must keep moving forward rather than lunging back in times of uncertainty. Aren't you glad that in all areas of life, that this isn't it.
...if we are seeking the new, then what we were practicing was the old, and therefore God was not in what we were doing anymore.
Such a divine departure is rightly shocking to us. We see an example of it described in Ezekiel 10: God ups and leaves the temple. "No temple, no place, no people, no box, no church, not agenda, no theological position will ever require me to stay where I am don't want, be co-opted into something I only half agree with, be pressed into the service of some cause you made up because I am who I am."
We believe that there is no box that God fits all nice and tidy into...There Is No Box!
To admit that God can and will leave is to allow the dangerous taste of hope into otherwise stagnant waters. It is to admit that the life of the disciples is not sedentary but nomadic - moving on to where sustenance lies, not staying where sustenance once was. It is to appreciate that the journey of faith is not a static conversion but an evolution of the Spirit. The very fact that God can move on means that hope is possible. That we are not stuck with what we have. That this isn't it.
We are beginning to move on, to let go of the side of the pool, to wade into the deep. We at times seems to live, move and be in this place between where sustenance was and where sustenance is. We must keep moving forward rather than lunging back in times of uncertainty. Aren't you glad that in all areas of life, that this isn't it.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Only Grief Permits Newness.
We continue to look at "Signs of Emergence"...
...the first stage of the waiting process is grief.
There is a spectacular lack of grief in our churches today. The texts of so many Christian magazines, sermons and songs are all woven into an enormous blanket of denial that we wrap warmly around us, smothering the honest doubts with an ever-optimistic hue of "everything is good and God is with us." Hands are raised , but never to ask questions, only in surrender to programs of services, outreaches, prayer meetings, and worship. Eyes are shut, less blinded by glory as blind to the facts that numbers are falling, churches are closing, the "revival" didn't come, society is losing interest, and our circle of influence is decreasing.
This is a moment of repentance. We have allowed our culture and the Church to drift apart. We ought to find truth each Sunday: instead we go for doses of fiction, enough to cloud our perception for the week ahead that everything is OK.
We must do it, we must stop all the programs, stop the meetings, stop the denials, dismantle the structures, face our fears and disappointments, and weep for the absence, weep for the emptiness, weep for the pretense, weep for the fiction. Weep until we can see our barrenness clearly, for only then will we have made room for newness.
...the first stage of the waiting process is grief.
There is a spectacular lack of grief in our churches today. The texts of so many Christian magazines, sermons and songs are all woven into an enormous blanket of denial that we wrap warmly around us, smothering the honest doubts with an ever-optimistic hue of "everything is good and God is with us." Hands are raised , but never to ask questions, only in surrender to programs of services, outreaches, prayer meetings, and worship. Eyes are shut, less blinded by glory as blind to the facts that numbers are falling, churches are closing, the "revival" didn't come, society is losing interest, and our circle of influence is decreasing.
This is a moment of repentance. We have allowed our culture and the Church to drift apart. We ought to find truth each Sunday: instead we go for doses of fiction, enough to cloud our perception for the week ahead that everything is OK.
We must do it, we must stop all the programs, stop the meetings, stop the denials, dismantle the structures, face our fears and disappointments, and weep for the absence, weep for the emptiness, weep for the pretense, weep for the fiction. Weep until we can see our barrenness clearly, for only then will we have made room for newness.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Quotable.
Last night I hung out the backroom at Bridgeway (www.BridgewayChurch.com) and listened to Floyd McClung who is currently living, serving and loving in Capetown, South Africa. You can read more on Floyd's adventures at www.FloydandSally.org. For now, here are the big ideas and thoughts that I scribbled down during the evening.
Floyd and his community are working with a group called African Hope Crafts (www.AfricanHopeCrafts.org) - a jewelry company that employs only people living with HIV/AIDS. Crafting jewelry for two days provides enough money for a month of low-level living. You gathered the feeling that people living with HIV/AIDS have become unemployable in many regards, thus the power of this effort. It causes me to want to spend money with compassion in mind rather than consumption.
He talked a bit about his recent book release, "Starting A House Church" (http://www.amazon.com/Starting-House-Church-Larry-Kreider/dp/0830743650), stating its purpose and premise being to provide principles that encourage the church of tomorrow to do and be church simply enough that it will work everywhere.
I have not fact checked the next series of statements that he made. I only have room to believe they were communicated with integrity and right intention.
"If we don't trust, we will give up."
"We need a values conversion."
"Africa is the only country not experiencing economic growth."
"There are 860 million people in Africa and 460 million claim to be Christian."
"Africa has been evangelized but not discipled."
"We need to serve those that were once enslaved."
"There are 540 unreached people groups in Sudan."
"It is the aim of Islam to have a mosque every mile in Africa."
"What would happen if we sent soldier of love not war to the middle east?"
"Lead by not leading."
"We don't institutionalize community, we inspire it by living it."
"I believe in functional leadership, leaders are those that lead."
"There are 3.5 million whites (total population 45 million) in South Africa that have never been in the home of a black person."
"The strength of the American culture is our initiative, can do attitude, optimism. This is bad if it is not married incarnation, can't do and shouldn't do. Just because you can doesn't mean you should."
"Leadership is more horizontal than vertical. There are times where we are in front of, next to and behind."
"Spirituality in the US is about hype and promotion."
"Church should be done in all spheres of life...church is life."
"Sunday is not the game. Sunday is halftime. And the game is played outside the church walls."
"How does God see his church?"
"Let God breathe on our hearts so that we will hope again."
Floyd and his community are working with a group called African Hope Crafts (www.AfricanHopeCrafts.org) - a jewelry company that employs only people living with HIV/AIDS. Crafting jewelry for two days provides enough money for a month of low-level living. You gathered the feeling that people living with HIV/AIDS have become unemployable in many regards, thus the power of this effort. It causes me to want to spend money with compassion in mind rather than consumption.
He talked a bit about his recent book release, "Starting A House Church" (http://www.amazon.com/Starting-House-Church-Larry-Kreider/dp/0830743650), stating its purpose and premise being to provide principles that encourage the church of tomorrow to do and be church simply enough that it will work everywhere.
I have not fact checked the next series of statements that he made. I only have room to believe they were communicated with integrity and right intention.
"If we don't trust, we will give up."
"We need a values conversion."
"Africa is the only country not experiencing economic growth."
"There are 860 million people in Africa and 460 million claim to be Christian."
"Africa has been evangelized but not discipled."
"We need to serve those that were once enslaved."
"There are 540 unreached people groups in Sudan."
"It is the aim of Islam to have a mosque every mile in Africa."
"What would happen if we sent soldier of love not war to the middle east?"
"Lead by not leading."
"We don't institutionalize community, we inspire it by living it."
"I believe in functional leadership, leaders are those that lead."
"There are 3.5 million whites (total population 45 million) in South Africa that have never been in the home of a black person."
"The strength of the American culture is our initiative, can do attitude, optimism. This is bad if it is not married incarnation, can't do and shouldn't do. Just because you can doesn't mean you should."
"Leadership is more horizontal than vertical. There are times where we are in front of, next to and behind."
"Spirituality in the US is about hype and promotion."
"Church should be done in all spheres of life...church is life."
"Sunday is not the game. Sunday is halftime. And the game is played outside the church walls."
"How does God see his church?"
"Let God breathe on our hearts so that we will hope again."
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
A Dangerous Invitation for Newness.
Thoughts on Advent from Signs of Emergence continue:
...The perception of the new step will come only to those brave enough to stop dancing the old. We fear that if we stopped for a week, a month, a service, a moment, we might be forgotten, or lose our momentum, weaken our profile, appear ill-thought-out and failing.
Our friends at NorthView Community Church recently cancelled their weekend worship services at the church campus and encouraged those in their community to get together in homes so that they might know and be known, life on life. Our friends at Bridgeway cancel their celebration gatherings a couple of times a year. One reoccurring Sunday that gets the boot is on Memorial Day weekend. Services get canned so that people can go play and enjoy friends and family without feeling any kind of obligation to show up. And even in the Mars Hill community, we've shifted gears or cancelled our weekly KAMP's Gathering in order to foster life, not church life, but life to the full. We have to stop dancing from time to time so that we can get caught up in the song of God and his people the church all over again.
We must be brave enough to stop if we are to see change. Our structures must serve us, not us serve them. The only way to consider whether our structures are serving us is to stop and reflect on them. To dismantle them; take them apart piece by piece. Expose them to the air. Lay them on the ground and let everyone walk around them and get a good look at them. This is the beginning of empowerment; we must allow people space and time to return to the deep simplicity of things, and spend time mulling over the fundamentals.
What in your life are you "mulling over"?
To stop people in their tracks, to stop yourself, and suggest that the way to higher peaks is actually to return to the valleys, is a brave act of true leadership.
I hope I am found brave.
This is a dangerous invitation for newness, carrying the risk that those we give such freedom to might freely walk away, or freely imagine something better than we had. But freedom must be what we are about. So the truly free, the brave who truly seek God, will always have periods, commas, full stops, punctuation marks, pregnant pauses, silence. Where those around them are given the freedom to reimagine and rethink.
My hope is that together as the church and together in local communities we can have genuine dialogue, and that we will reimagine and rethink TOGETHER. Pockets of the frustrated and embittered do us no good. The best form of criticism is creativity and the best form of creativity comes out of community.
It seems that at the start of this new century we are living in a particular advent, that we are being called to wait for new birth again. No matter how impatient we get as a society, with processing speeds rising and our whole culture velocity increasing ever faster, we cannot speed up pregnancy. In this advent that we find ourselves in, between the "modern" church that was and is dying, and the emerging church that is not yet, we must exercise patience. We must stop and wait.
The church is experiencing separation, marginalization, trivialization, and exile from the world it seeks to serve. And it is therefore experiencing these things from God too, for if the church is not connected to its host culture and society, it is not where God wants it to be, and therefore not where God is. If the church is not missionary, it has denied its calling, for it has departed from the very nature of God.
So, we seek for where God is already at work among us and we join him there.
If God is doing a new thing, we must apply ourselves to perceiving it or risk becoming custodians of empty stone buildings and historical curiosities ourselves.
...The perception of the new step will come only to those brave enough to stop dancing the old. We fear that if we stopped for a week, a month, a service, a moment, we might be forgotten, or lose our momentum, weaken our profile, appear ill-thought-out and failing.
Our friends at NorthView Community Church recently cancelled their weekend worship services at the church campus and encouraged those in their community to get together in homes so that they might know and be known, life on life. Our friends at Bridgeway cancel their celebration gatherings a couple of times a year. One reoccurring Sunday that gets the boot is on Memorial Day weekend. Services get canned so that people can go play and enjoy friends and family without feeling any kind of obligation to show up. And even in the Mars Hill community, we've shifted gears or cancelled our weekly KAMP's Gathering in order to foster life, not church life, but life to the full. We have to stop dancing from time to time so that we can get caught up in the song of God and his people the church all over again.
We must be brave enough to stop if we are to see change. Our structures must serve us, not us serve them. The only way to consider whether our structures are serving us is to stop and reflect on them. To dismantle them; take them apart piece by piece. Expose them to the air. Lay them on the ground and let everyone walk around them and get a good look at them. This is the beginning of empowerment; we must allow people space and time to return to the deep simplicity of things, and spend time mulling over the fundamentals.
What in your life are you "mulling over"?
To stop people in their tracks, to stop yourself, and suggest that the way to higher peaks is actually to return to the valleys, is a brave act of true leadership.
I hope I am found brave.
This is a dangerous invitation for newness, carrying the risk that those we give such freedom to might freely walk away, or freely imagine something better than we had. But freedom must be what we are about. So the truly free, the brave who truly seek God, will always have periods, commas, full stops, punctuation marks, pregnant pauses, silence. Where those around them are given the freedom to reimagine and rethink.
My hope is that together as the church and together in local communities we can have genuine dialogue, and that we will reimagine and rethink TOGETHER. Pockets of the frustrated and embittered do us no good. The best form of criticism is creativity and the best form of creativity comes out of community.
It seems that at the start of this new century we are living in a particular advent, that we are being called to wait for new birth again. No matter how impatient we get as a society, with processing speeds rising and our whole culture velocity increasing ever faster, we cannot speed up pregnancy. In this advent that we find ourselves in, between the "modern" church that was and is dying, and the emerging church that is not yet, we must exercise patience. We must stop and wait.
The church is experiencing separation, marginalization, trivialization, and exile from the world it seeks to serve. And it is therefore experiencing these things from God too, for if the church is not connected to its host culture and society, it is not where God wants it to be, and therefore not where God is. If the church is not missionary, it has denied its calling, for it has departed from the very nature of God.
So, we seek for where God is already at work among us and we join him there.
If God is doing a new thing, we must apply ourselves to perceiving it or risk becoming custodians of empty stone buildings and historical curiosities ourselves.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Rwanda Clean Water Project.
Just wanted to update our reading community...
We raised the $3,000 necessary to provide clean water to 750 people in Rwanda.
I encourage everyone to read and learn more at http://www.rwandacleanwater.com/.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Advent.
Signs of Emergence...
...But before the church can change, before I can change, before anything changes, comes waiting. A pause. A rest.
I have felt for sometime that I am having to learn, what I refer to as "Slowness". It's not laziness. Not unproductive. Not aimless. But slow. Gradual. Incremental. Subtle. And in this slowness I am finding patience, energy, focus, discipline, growth, change. The more I "slow" down, the more I accomplish. Weeks feel like months.
This is nature's way, decreeing as she does that movement from one direction to another cannot happen instantaneously.
The ship is turning just as surely as the earth is rotating. You don't necessarily feel it but you sense it, know it, experience it.
So against our hasty judgement, before we can experience the transformation that is vital to our survival, we will be required to wait. To be acted on gently, gracefully, and peacefully. Shaped, not crushed; guided, not dragged.
Matthew 16:18 tells us that Christ is building his church. Not you. Not me. Christ. We are caught up in his movement, his story, his work. We are joining him rather than asking him to join us. I really resonate with the author's words, "Acted on gently, gracefully, and peacefully. Shaped, not crushed; guided, not dragged."
It is vital to note that the task is urgent, but if our response is to be anything more than another flash in the pan or botched attempt to become culturally aware, then we must avoid haste.
Good things come to those that wait...strength will rise...we run and don't get weary...walk and not faint...do you not know...have you not heard...our father does not get weary...he brings passion to a willing heart...even when youth get tired and faint...strength will come to those who wait.
We must realize that if we are to see real, long lasting change, then it is going to take time; it is going to be a lifelong quest.
Are you committed to a lifelong mission with Christ in community with people?
Violent change tend to shear, to break the whole as one surface part moves and leaves the rest of the body behind unaltered.
In his seminal work "Future Shock", Alvin Toffler describes the psychological damage that occurs to people when they are overwhelmed by intense change. He talks about future shock being a disease of change, a sickness that people suffer that is not so much about the direction of change as the rate of it.
For our own health, we need change to occur not at revolutionary speeds demanded by power-wielding dictators or company boardrooms but at the evolutionary speeds of the empowered human body.
So, here we are again at the importance of the empowered individual, you. Consider yourself empowered to lead the way, to initiate the changes needed.
Before the church can change, before I can change, before things change - before change, we must wait. Caught "between the now and the not yet".
We wait for the one who whispers, "Behold, I am doing a new thing...Do you not perceive it?" (Isa. 43:19)
...But before the church can change, before I can change, before anything changes, comes waiting. A pause. A rest.
I have felt for sometime that I am having to learn, what I refer to as "Slowness". It's not laziness. Not unproductive. Not aimless. But slow. Gradual. Incremental. Subtle. And in this slowness I am finding patience, energy, focus, discipline, growth, change. The more I "slow" down, the more I accomplish. Weeks feel like months.
This is nature's way, decreeing as she does that movement from one direction to another cannot happen instantaneously.
The ship is turning just as surely as the earth is rotating. You don't necessarily feel it but you sense it, know it, experience it.
So against our hasty judgement, before we can experience the transformation that is vital to our survival, we will be required to wait. To be acted on gently, gracefully, and peacefully. Shaped, not crushed; guided, not dragged.
Matthew 16:18 tells us that Christ is building his church. Not you. Not me. Christ. We are caught up in his movement, his story, his work. We are joining him rather than asking him to join us. I really resonate with the author's words, "Acted on gently, gracefully, and peacefully. Shaped, not crushed; guided, not dragged."
It is vital to note that the task is urgent, but if our response is to be anything more than another flash in the pan or botched attempt to become culturally aware, then we must avoid haste.
Good things come to those that wait...strength will rise...we run and don't get weary...walk and not faint...do you not know...have you not heard...our father does not get weary...he brings passion to a willing heart...even when youth get tired and faint...strength will come to those who wait.
We must realize that if we are to see real, long lasting change, then it is going to take time; it is going to be a lifelong quest.
Are you committed to a lifelong mission with Christ in community with people?
Violent change tend to shear, to break the whole as one surface part moves and leaves the rest of the body behind unaltered.
In his seminal work "Future Shock", Alvin Toffler describes the psychological damage that occurs to people when they are overwhelmed by intense change. He talks about future shock being a disease of change, a sickness that people suffer that is not so much about the direction of change as the rate of it.
For our own health, we need change to occur not at revolutionary speeds demanded by power-wielding dictators or company boardrooms but at the evolutionary speeds of the empowered human body.
So, here we are again at the importance of the empowered individual, you. Consider yourself empowered to lead the way, to initiate the changes needed.
Before the church can change, before I can change, before things change - before change, we must wait. Caught "between the now and the not yet".
We wait for the one who whispers, "Behold, I am doing a new thing...Do you not perceive it?" (Isa. 43:19)
Thursday, October 18, 2007
We've Been Workin' On The Railroad.
Signs of Emergence...
If Christianity is to remain "vital", then it is, in the truest sense, "vital" that we understand change: for an organism to show signs of life, it must show it can respond to its environment, and for the church to retain a vibrancy about its faith it must "adapt and survive".
Even if there is little evidence of change visible to the external observer, the process of the church thinking is a healthy sign that we know that things cannot stay as they are.
I am in agreement and feel the above statement is indicative of where the church is today. A conversation is underway and the church is thinking again. But we must not confuse our talk and thought and theory will real change, with action.
From biology to economics science concurs: to stop changing is to die.
It has perhaps been our reluctance to think, and thus our slowness to change and respond to a civilization that since the Industrial Revolution has phenomenally accelerated (increased its rate of change), that has put us in this near death situation.
The question, then, is not shall we change, but how to do so.
If the people who built the railroads in the US were actually interested in transporting people, they would now own the airlines. But they don't. The industrial historians tell us that the reason for this is that once the railroad companies had completed the huge task of driving the lines across the US, they lost their focus. Instead of continuing to pioneer ways of allowing free movement of people, they lost sight of the key end and focused internally on the one means to that end that they had made.
How have we Christians lost our focus and begun to focus internally?
For a century or so, this was no problem because the railroad was still the best way to get around, but with the advent of the airlines the railroad companies were overtaken by a mode of transport that was massively better.
Perhaps our "century" has come to an end?
What the railroad owners failed to appreciate is that if you are to "keep the main thing the main thing," as the management speak goes, it is highly likely that at some point you are going to have to fundamentally change the way you operate, and this will probably involve having to deconstruct the very modus operandi that you are currently using.
What is the main thing for Christians and the church?
The route to change must not be through the exercise of power but through an exercise in empowerment.
To me this means that change will come by and through the people, not the paid ministry professionals.
Can we as the church buck our own trends by working to change alongside other institutions, rather than twenty years behind them? I believe we can. I believe we have a unique opportunity to show how an institution that is widely acknowledged to be out of touch, is largely ignored by those it seeks to serve, and is completely detached from the blossoming interest in things spiritual, can face its fears, stop tinkering with the railroad, step down into the dark alleys, and explore completely new ways of being.
If Christianity is to remain "vital", then it is, in the truest sense, "vital" that we understand change: for an organism to show signs of life, it must show it can respond to its environment, and for the church to retain a vibrancy about its faith it must "adapt and survive".
Even if there is little evidence of change visible to the external observer, the process of the church thinking is a healthy sign that we know that things cannot stay as they are.
I am in agreement and feel the above statement is indicative of where the church is today. A conversation is underway and the church is thinking again. But we must not confuse our talk and thought and theory will real change, with action.
From biology to economics science concurs: to stop changing is to die.
It has perhaps been our reluctance to think, and thus our slowness to change and respond to a civilization that since the Industrial Revolution has phenomenally accelerated (increased its rate of change), that has put us in this near death situation.
The question, then, is not shall we change, but how to do so.
If the people who built the railroads in the US were actually interested in transporting people, they would now own the airlines. But they don't. The industrial historians tell us that the reason for this is that once the railroad companies had completed the huge task of driving the lines across the US, they lost their focus. Instead of continuing to pioneer ways of allowing free movement of people, they lost sight of the key end and focused internally on the one means to that end that they had made.
How have we Christians lost our focus and begun to focus internally?
For a century or so, this was no problem because the railroad was still the best way to get around, but with the advent of the airlines the railroad companies were overtaken by a mode of transport that was massively better.
Perhaps our "century" has come to an end?
What the railroad owners failed to appreciate is that if you are to "keep the main thing the main thing," as the management speak goes, it is highly likely that at some point you are going to have to fundamentally change the way you operate, and this will probably involve having to deconstruct the very modus operandi that you are currently using.
What is the main thing for Christians and the church?
The route to change must not be through the exercise of power but through an exercise in empowerment.
To me this means that change will come by and through the people, not the paid ministry professionals.
Can we as the church buck our own trends by working to change alongside other institutions, rather than twenty years behind them? I believe we can. I believe we have a unique opportunity to show how an institution that is widely acknowledged to be out of touch, is largely ignored by those it seeks to serve, and is completely detached from the blossoming interest in things spiritual, can face its fears, stop tinkering with the railroad, step down into the dark alleys, and explore completely new ways of being.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Signs of Emergence.
Today we will begin working through a recent read, "Signs of Emergence - A Vision for Church That Is Organic / Networked / Decentralized / Bottom-up / Communal / Flexible / Always Evolving" by Kester Brewin.
As I've done before, thoughts, ideas and quotes will be shared from the book and then I will make my comments or pose questions in bold and hopefully you'll make a comment and contribute to this conversation.
So for now, a couple of thoughts from the preface.
It is the idea of a constantly re-forming, learning community that is one of the driving passions behind this book (and series of blogs). We have for too long been trapped in cycles of boom or bust: hailing each new movement as the be-all and end-all of faith, only to slam it into the ground in a flurry of burnt-out ministers and angry members a few years later. It need not be this way.
We are not looking to become the next "thing" or be a part of any new "model". The dream is the church - simple, powerful, subtle, radical, evolutionary, revolutionary. Let us not put our hope in some expression of the church but rather put our hope in the person of Jesus.
We must restrain ourselves from being too quickly critical of the successes or failures of emerging congregations. Instead, we must attempt to form them as learning communities, with the mechanisms for their regular renewal built into them, and seek to commit ourselves to the relationships within them, rather than the structures around them.
The key to Christ's Church being built and his kingdom being advanced is RELATIONSHIP. I invite you to commit yourself to a people and community, not an organization or institution.
This is one of the beauties of a faith built on death and resurrection. The body of Christ will continue, eternally. But these little bodies that we build, trying to bring some structure and rhythm to the relationships we share, need not carry on forever. While the relationships continue underneath, the vehicles we commandeer to take us on various stages of our journey will zoom and splutter and will - sometimes - need abandoning. This has certainly been my experience in the communities I have journeyed with, and I suspect that we will see many more emerging churches, or umbrella groups, fail in the coming years. In a healthy learning environment, such things ought not to be perceived as failure (though many may want to spin it that way); rather the shedding of an old skin, to allow the inhabitation of a new one, better fit for purpose.
Remember, Church is not the point. Jesus came so the might have life and life to the full NOT church life and church life to the full. LIFE. And life is made up of a series of personal encounters and meaningful relationships. If we miss people, we miss life.
It is desperate if we can imagine nothing will ever change; we are, on the other hand, filled with hope if we believe that Christ is still desperate to incarnate himself in every myriad community in every changing season.
Christ is still desperate to incarnate (make himself know) himself in YOU. God took on flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. And God taking on flesh and blood looks a lot like you.
Chesterton's famous quote comes to mind: "It is not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, rather it is that it has been found too difficult left untried."
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
New AIDS Walk Photo.
Somehow we failed to get a photo of the entire group.
But this photo contains a couple of the members missing from the last photo.
Wheelchairs.
I mentioned in the last email update that the North Winds Living Center (AIDS Hospice) is in need of 3 new or slightly used wheelchairs for their residents living with and dying of HIV/AIDS. Here is a response from an old friend (she lives in Texas with her husband and baby daughter) and reader of the Mars Hill Update.
"I've really been enjoying reading the updates on what's going on with your church. Makes me wish we lived in OKC so we could be a part of it. I was just wondering if you still need wheelchairs for the AIDS hospital.....if you do, email me the church's address and I'll ship one to you. Take care and God bless you."
So jump on board if you can help.
And let me know if you'd like to be added to the Mars Hill Update list.
"I've really been enjoying reading the updates on what's going on with your church. Makes me wish we lived in OKC so we could be a part of it. I was just wondering if you still need wheelchairs for the AIDS hospital.....if you do, email me the church's address and I'll ship one to you. Take care and God bless you."
So jump on board if you can help.
And let me know if you'd like to be added to the Mars Hill Update list.
Monday, October 15, 2007
The Story Continues...
Just wanted to pass along a message from Danny Morton, my new friend and the President of the AIDS Walk of Oklahoma City, Inc.
"Thank you so much for your support of AIDS Walk 2007, your contribution of advertising in the Gazette and your presence at the Walk were both a great gift to the HIV/AIDS Community.
I will keep you informed as we start planning for AIDS Walk 2008 (we have set the date for Sunday October 5th 2008) and will certainly seek your help and input as those plans progress. Thank you again to you and Mars Hill."
So, mark your calendars for October 5th, 2008, can't wait! I assured Danny that we will engage and rally the faith community to participate in this wonderful event and important cause.
"Thank you so much for your support of AIDS Walk 2007, your contribution of advertising in the Gazette and your presence at the Walk were both a great gift to the HIV/AIDS Community.
I will keep you informed as we start planning for AIDS Walk 2008 (we have set the date for Sunday October 5th 2008) and will certainly seek your help and input as those plans progress. Thank you again to you and Mars Hill."
So, mark your calendars for October 5th, 2008, can't wait! I assured Danny that we will engage and rally the faith community to participate in this wonderful event and important cause.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Big Blue.
If you ever want to stir some serious curiosity...just blow up a 25-foot blue elephant that has Porn Sunday on it. We had several great conversations with people from the community as to the purpose of Big Blue.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Porn Sunday.
This past Sunday we participated in Porn Sunday. A couple hundred other churches joined in to "Confront The Elephant In The Pew". You can learn more at www.PornSunday.com. I encourage you and your church to make plans to participate in '08.
We have a wonderful couple in our community that can offer wisdom and experience in handling with sexual brokenness and/or addiction. Please contact me privately at Ben@MarsHill.tv if you need help!
Here are some of the stats on porn...
Number of pornographic web sites: 4.2 Million (12% of total websites)
68 million daily pornographic searches (25% of total search engine requests)
2.5 billion pornographic emails (8% of total emails)
People who regularly visit Internet porn web sites daily: 40 million.
Christians who said pornography is a major problem in the home: 47%.
Breakdown of male/female visitors to pornography sites: 65% male - 35% female.
30% of unsolicited e-mails contain pornographic materials.
Women, far more than men, are likely to act out their behaviors in real life, such as having multiple partners, casual sex, or affairs.
Porn revenue is larger than the combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises.
US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC at $6.2 billion.
The porn industry is a $57 billion dollar industry
Average age of first Internet exposure to porno is 11 years old
Largest consumer of Internet porn 12-17 age group
90% of 8-16 year olds have viewed porn online (most while doing homework)
"Americans aged 13 to 18 spend more than 72 hours a week using electronic media--defined as the Internet, cell phones, television, music, and video games." Source: CNet
"87% of all teens are online." Source: USA Today
70% of teens have viewed pornography.
20% of men admit to accessing porn at work
10% of adults admit to Internet sexual addiction
Child pornography generates $3 billion annually.
13% of women admit to accessing porn at work
17% of all woman struggle with pornographic addiction
Women favor chat rooms 2x’s more than men
1 out of 3 visitors to adult websites are women
9.4 million women access adult websites each month
We have a wonderful couple in our community that can offer wisdom and experience in handling with sexual brokenness and/or addiction. Please contact me privately at Ben@MarsHill.tv if you need help!
Here are some of the stats on porn...
Number of pornographic web sites: 4.2 Million (12% of total websites)
68 million daily pornographic searches (25% of total search engine requests)
2.5 billion pornographic emails (8% of total emails)
People who regularly visit Internet porn web sites daily: 40 million.
Christians who said pornography is a major problem in the home: 47%.
Breakdown of male/female visitors to pornography sites: 65% male - 35% female.
30% of unsolicited e-mails contain pornographic materials.
Women, far more than men, are likely to act out their behaviors in real life, such as having multiple partners, casual sex, or affairs.
Porn revenue is larger than the combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises.
US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC at $6.2 billion.
The porn industry is a $57 billion dollar industry
Average age of first Internet exposure to porno is 11 years old
Largest consumer of Internet porn 12-17 age group
90% of 8-16 year olds have viewed porn online (most while doing homework)
"Americans aged 13 to 18 spend more than 72 hours a week using electronic media--defined as the Internet, cell phones, television, music, and video games." Source: CNet
"87% of all teens are online." Source: USA Today
70% of teens have viewed pornography.
20% of men admit to accessing porn at work
10% of adults admit to Internet sexual addiction
Child pornography generates $3 billion annually.
13% of women admit to accessing porn at work
17% of all woman struggle with pornographic addiction
Women favor chat rooms 2x’s more than men
1 out of 3 visitors to adult websites are women
9.4 million women access adult websites each month
Monday, October 8, 2007
Love Walks.
A remnant of the Mars Hill community at the 2007 AIDS Walk of Oklahoma City. (Courtney & Daniel are not pictured but a new pic will follow including)
We are becoming a community that loves mercy, does justice and walks humbly.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Facing Christianity's Crisis.
Here it part two from the Time.com article posted yesterday. I appreciate the comments from David McLaughlin. This is in interview, Q&A style, so it should lend itself well to a response...from you.
I'll highlight the statement made and questions posed by the interviewer.
Tuesday, Oct. 02, 2007
Q&A: Facing Christianity's Crisis
TIME: You seem like a low-key type. Would you be opposed to describing the change in non-Christian perception of Christians as a "crisis?"
Kinnaman: Actually, an early version of the book title was "The Crisis of Christianity." Mental and emotional barriers regarding Christianity are higher than ever. As the young generation becomes the dominant part of the population, skepticism of Christianity will become a permanent and unavoidable feature of life in America. Christians do not have to like what outsiders are saying, but we have to deal with the negative image we have.
Yet Christians constitute a large majority.
Sure. For instance, Christianity is still the main spiritual route through adolescence. But because this generation of adolescents is exposed to a whole range of spiritual perspectives through entertainment and friendships, and puts a high value on individualism and experimentation, it is more and more affected by non-Christian attitudes. Even among the 'outsiders,' a majority tell us that they've attended a Christian church, usually for several months. They give it a test drive. But despite these experience — often because of them — they come to many negative views about Christianity.
Can you give an example of one of the complaints by non-Christians and a possible response?
Christians are known as judgmental, arrogant and quick to find fault with other people. Well, biblically Christians understand that we all sin, so we shouldn't be finding fault with individuals. But you often get situations where, say, a single mother comes to a congregation looking for assistance and spiritual help, and all she hears is, 'You shouldn't be a single mother.' That gives the impression that while Jesus loved flawed people Christians do not. Young outsiders knew the phrase 'Love the sinner, hate the sin,' but said what Christians really mean is 'Hate the sinner along with the sin.'
But there are some areas where Christians and many non-Christians do have differences of principle and not just practice, right? What about homosexuality?
A majority of Americans continue to believe that homosexuality is inappropriate. And the Christian biblical perspective is that it is not consistent with Christian discipleship. But non-Christians regarded it as our biggest negative, and most of the Christians we sampled agreed. Many Christians say, "That's not something we're willing to negotiate on." And, certainly, this is based in historical Christian convictions and scripture. But they need to guard against not wanting to grapple with the complexity of homosexuality, against trying to give very simple answers to very complex stories, and against feeling they can solve some of these deep issues without personal friendships with gay men and women. Christians are reluctant to admit sexual issues such as divorce and pornography that are more widely accepted within the Christian community than homosexuality. That opens us to charges of hypocrisy, both by people who genuinely want to talk and those who just want to score points. The two sides ought to have some respect for each other — and the responsibility should be on Christians to lead by example instead of just shouting at others through the ballot box or talk shows.
Is there some danger that Christians who read your book would feel you are telling them to compromise their beliefs for the sake of popularity?
We are quite clear in the book the popularity is not the goal, and people should not determine faith convictions based on whether they make sense to everybody else. But for Christians to understand, accept and learn from critics is something else.
I was struck by the criticism that Christianity had become too political. Do you think that that concern is the driving force behind the major shift toward criticism on the part of non-Christians?
I truly think the different perceptions stem primarily from changes with the generation doing the perceiving, not the Christians. The age group we interviewed is very skeptical and savvy and exposed to a wider array of information and worldviews than at any time before in human history. The research was spread out over three years, so this is not a brand-new, anti-Iraq, anti-Bush impulse. But the political arena has certainly contributed to people's perceptions of Christianity and Christians are perceived to have used their influence to gain or control sources of power. Critics point out that this is a very different engagement than Jesus modeled. Right or wrong, it's a fascinating point of criticism.
"Too involved with politics" also garnered a 50% negative rating among churchgoers. Do you think this bodes a future political withdrawal?
A Christian withdrawal from politics is unlikely, especially since born-again voters typically have higher turnout levels than other groups. However, born-again Christians have become more sensitive to being used for political purposes.
If Christians take your book seriously, what might the Christian future look like?
Whether they read the book or not, they'll have to respond to the issue. Christians will be forced to deal with hostility and frustration on the part of outsiders. They will be pulled in many different directions. People will do their best to address the crisis, but disagree on its severity and solutions. For instance, there is a strong push by many Christian leaders take seriously the commands to love and serve others and contribute to the common good of society. Many different voices will compete to define that movement.
Do you hope non-Christians will read your book? What could they get out of it? In what ways might it help solve the problems it describes?
It is written primarily for a Christian audience, but we hope non-Christians see our efforts to face reality. We are saying that the Christian community in America, in all its varieties, has to own up to its problems. That starts by simply admitting we've been un-Christian.
Given the proportion of Christian young adults who have attitudes and criticisms similar to the non-Christians, what is it that keeps them in the church?
Kinnaman: I don't know. We haven't explored it in depth�yet. That's our next project, actually.
I'll highlight the statement made and questions posed by the interviewer.
Tuesday, Oct. 02, 2007
Q&A: Facing Christianity's Crisis
TIME: You seem like a low-key type. Would you be opposed to describing the change in non-Christian perception of Christians as a "crisis?"
Kinnaman: Actually, an early version of the book title was "The Crisis of Christianity." Mental and emotional barriers regarding Christianity are higher than ever. As the young generation becomes the dominant part of the population, skepticism of Christianity will become a permanent and unavoidable feature of life in America. Christians do not have to like what outsiders are saying, but we have to deal with the negative image we have.
Yet Christians constitute a large majority.
Sure. For instance, Christianity is still the main spiritual route through adolescence. But because this generation of adolescents is exposed to a whole range of spiritual perspectives through entertainment and friendships, and puts a high value on individualism and experimentation, it is more and more affected by non-Christian attitudes. Even among the 'outsiders,' a majority tell us that they've attended a Christian church, usually for several months. They give it a test drive. But despite these experience — often because of them — they come to many negative views about Christianity.
Can you give an example of one of the complaints by non-Christians and a possible response?
Christians are known as judgmental, arrogant and quick to find fault with other people. Well, biblically Christians understand that we all sin, so we shouldn't be finding fault with individuals. But you often get situations where, say, a single mother comes to a congregation looking for assistance and spiritual help, and all she hears is, 'You shouldn't be a single mother.' That gives the impression that while Jesus loved flawed people Christians do not. Young outsiders knew the phrase 'Love the sinner, hate the sin,' but said what Christians really mean is 'Hate the sinner along with the sin.'
But there are some areas where Christians and many non-Christians do have differences of principle and not just practice, right? What about homosexuality?
A majority of Americans continue to believe that homosexuality is inappropriate. And the Christian biblical perspective is that it is not consistent with Christian discipleship. But non-Christians regarded it as our biggest negative, and most of the Christians we sampled agreed. Many Christians say, "That's not something we're willing to negotiate on." And, certainly, this is based in historical Christian convictions and scripture. But they need to guard against not wanting to grapple with the complexity of homosexuality, against trying to give very simple answers to very complex stories, and against feeling they can solve some of these deep issues without personal friendships with gay men and women. Christians are reluctant to admit sexual issues such as divorce and pornography that are more widely accepted within the Christian community than homosexuality. That opens us to charges of hypocrisy, both by people who genuinely want to talk and those who just want to score points. The two sides ought to have some respect for each other — and the responsibility should be on Christians to lead by example instead of just shouting at others through the ballot box or talk shows.
Is there some danger that Christians who read your book would feel you are telling them to compromise their beliefs for the sake of popularity?
We are quite clear in the book the popularity is not the goal, and people should not determine faith convictions based on whether they make sense to everybody else. But for Christians to understand, accept and learn from critics is something else.
I was struck by the criticism that Christianity had become too political. Do you think that that concern is the driving force behind the major shift toward criticism on the part of non-Christians?
I truly think the different perceptions stem primarily from changes with the generation doing the perceiving, not the Christians. The age group we interviewed is very skeptical and savvy and exposed to a wider array of information and worldviews than at any time before in human history. The research was spread out over three years, so this is not a brand-new, anti-Iraq, anti-Bush impulse. But the political arena has certainly contributed to people's perceptions of Christianity and Christians are perceived to have used their influence to gain or control sources of power. Critics point out that this is a very different engagement than Jesus modeled. Right or wrong, it's a fascinating point of criticism.
"Too involved with politics" also garnered a 50% negative rating among churchgoers. Do you think this bodes a future political withdrawal?
A Christian withdrawal from politics is unlikely, especially since born-again voters typically have higher turnout levels than other groups. However, born-again Christians have become more sensitive to being used for political purposes.
If Christians take your book seriously, what might the Christian future look like?
Whether they read the book or not, they'll have to respond to the issue. Christians will be forced to deal with hostility and frustration on the part of outsiders. They will be pulled in many different directions. People will do their best to address the crisis, but disagree on its severity and solutions. For instance, there is a strong push by many Christian leaders take seriously the commands to love and serve others and contribute to the common good of society. Many different voices will compete to define that movement.
Do you hope non-Christians will read your book? What could they get out of it? In what ways might it help solve the problems it describes?
It is written primarily for a Christian audience, but we hope non-Christians see our efforts to face reality. We are saying that the Christian community in America, in all its varieties, has to own up to its problems. That starts by simply admitting we've been un-Christian.
Given the proportion of Christian young adults who have attitudes and criticisms similar to the non-Christians, what is it that keeps them in the church?
Kinnaman: I don't know. We haven't explored it in depth�yet. That's our next project, actually.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Christianity's Image Problem.
Below is an article featured on www.time.com. This comes from a highly anticipated book on my part, "UnChristian". You can learn more www.unchristian.com. I invite you to read and reply here. I'll post part two tomorrow...
Tuesday, Oct. 02, 2007
Christianity's Image Problem
By David Van Biema
It used to be, says David Kinnaman, that Christianity was both big and beloved in the U.S. — even among its non-adherents. Back in 1996, a poll taken by Kinnaman's organization, the Barna Group, found that 83% of Americans identified themselves as Christians, and that fewer than 20% of non-Christians held an unfavorable view of Christianity. But, as Kinnaman puts it in his new book (co-authored with Gabe Lyons) UnChristian, "That was then."
What do you think are some of the unfavorable views that non-Christians in Oklahoma City have? What can or should we do to remedy?
Barna polls conducted between 2004 and this year, sampling 440 non-Christians (and a similar number of Christians) aged 16 to 29, found that 38% had a "bad impression" of present-day Christianity. "It's not a pretty picture" the authors write. Barna's clientele is made up primarily of evangelical groups.
Kinnaman says non-Christians' biggest complaints about the faith are not immediately theological: Jesus and the Bible get relatively good marks. Rather, he sees resentment as focused on perceived Christian attitudes. Nine out of ten outsiders found Christians too "anti-homosexual," and nearly as many perceived it as "hypocritical" and "judgmental." Seventy-five percent found it "too involved in politics."
It would seem that the love the sinner, hate the sin bit has not been convincing. When it comes down to it, there are some who just plain hate the sinner. Tragic!
Not only has the decline in non-Christians' regard for Christianity been severe, but Barna results also show a rapid increase in the number of people describing themselves as non-Christian. One reason may be that the study used a stricter definition of "Christian" that applied to only 73% of Americans. Still, Kinnaman claims that however defined, the number of non-Christians is growing with each succeeding generation: His study found that 23% of Americans over 61 were non-Christians; 27% among people ages 42-60; and 40% among 16-29 year olds. Younger Christians, he concludes, are therefore likely to live in an environment where two out of every five of their peers is not a Christian.
I like the shift away from unchurched to non-Christian.
Churchgoers of the same age share several of the non-Christians' complaints about Christianity. For instance, 80% of the Christians polled picked "anti-homosexual" as a negative adjective describing Christianity today. And the view of 85% of non-Christians aged 16-29 that present day Christianity is "hypocritical — saying one thing doing another," was, in fact, shared by 52% of Christians of the same age. Fifty percent found their own faith "too involved in politics." Forty-four percent found it "confusing."
Maybe when we begin to have problems with our own religion will we begin to change and begin following Jesus.
Christians have always been aware of image problems with non-believers. Says Kinnaman: "The question is whether to care." But given the increasing non-Christian population and the fact that many of the concerns raised by non-believers are shared by young Christians, he says, there really is no option but to address the crisis.
Tuesday, Oct. 02, 2007
Christianity's Image Problem
By David Van Biema
It used to be, says David Kinnaman, that Christianity was both big and beloved in the U.S. — even among its non-adherents. Back in 1996, a poll taken by Kinnaman's organization, the Barna Group, found that 83% of Americans identified themselves as Christians, and that fewer than 20% of non-Christians held an unfavorable view of Christianity. But, as Kinnaman puts it in his new book (co-authored with Gabe Lyons) UnChristian, "That was then."
What do you think are some of the unfavorable views that non-Christians in Oklahoma City have? What can or should we do to remedy?
Barna polls conducted between 2004 and this year, sampling 440 non-Christians (and a similar number of Christians) aged 16 to 29, found that 38% had a "bad impression" of present-day Christianity. "It's not a pretty picture" the authors write. Barna's clientele is made up primarily of evangelical groups.
Kinnaman says non-Christians' biggest complaints about the faith are not immediately theological: Jesus and the Bible get relatively good marks. Rather, he sees resentment as focused on perceived Christian attitudes. Nine out of ten outsiders found Christians too "anti-homosexual," and nearly as many perceived it as "hypocritical" and "judgmental." Seventy-five percent found it "too involved in politics."
It would seem that the love the sinner, hate the sin bit has not been convincing. When it comes down to it, there are some who just plain hate the sinner. Tragic!
Not only has the decline in non-Christians' regard for Christianity been severe, but Barna results also show a rapid increase in the number of people describing themselves as non-Christian. One reason may be that the study used a stricter definition of "Christian" that applied to only 73% of Americans. Still, Kinnaman claims that however defined, the number of non-Christians is growing with each succeeding generation: His study found that 23% of Americans over 61 were non-Christians; 27% among people ages 42-60; and 40% among 16-29 year olds. Younger Christians, he concludes, are therefore likely to live in an environment where two out of every five of their peers is not a Christian.
I like the shift away from unchurched to non-Christian.
Churchgoers of the same age share several of the non-Christians' complaints about Christianity. For instance, 80% of the Christians polled picked "anti-homosexual" as a negative adjective describing Christianity today. And the view of 85% of non-Christians aged 16-29 that present day Christianity is "hypocritical — saying one thing doing another," was, in fact, shared by 52% of Christians of the same age. Fifty percent found their own faith "too involved in politics." Forty-four percent found it "confusing."
Maybe when we begin to have problems with our own religion will we begin to change and begin following Jesus.
Christians have always been aware of image problems with non-believers. Says Kinnaman: "The question is whether to care." But given the increasing non-Christian population and the fact that many of the concerns raised by non-believers are shared by young Christians, he says, there really is no option but to address the crisis.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
The Rise of Apostolic Leadership.
Today, I will highlight the last of six new realities presented in "The Present Future". I hope that this has been beneficial to you and that we are better for it.
I'll turn my thoughts and this blog to another recent read next week.
I'm headed to Ft. Worth with a great group of men and leaders in the Church of Oklahoma City. You can learn a bit more about our endeavors at www.Vision360.org. And I look forward to sharing some thoughts on our time with you.
New Reality Number Six – The Rise of Apostolic Leadership.
You are being asked to lead during a time when you are not sure where all this is going. If previous history is an accurate indicator, the kinds of changes we are undergoing will not settle out for another century or more.
This really encourages me to slow down and seek an evolutionary approach to change rather than a revolutionary approach that demands change now. Let's not euthanize an old model and latch on to a new up-and-comer. The cycle of change may in fact be: conception, celebrate, wait, birth, infancy, grow up, life, come of age, death, grieve, resurrection.
Wrong Question #6: How Do We Develop Leaders For Church Work?
This is probably harsh, but who cares about church work? Kill the bubble -Serve the world!
We are training mechanics to work on machinery of the church industry when we need a new engine. We need transitional leaders who will help the church find a new expression in the emerging world. What does this leadership look like and how will it be developed?
I'm sure I'll get to this in more depth with a future blog book review, but try this on for size. If the railroad people were really concerned with transporting people then they would own the airlines. But instead railroad people became about the railroad and were passed by, left in the dust, reminiscing about the good ole days of superior travel by rail. Meanwhile people are whizzing by overhead. What is our version of transporting people? What does this mean to the Church? Let's not miss the point.
Tough Question #6: How Do We Develop Leaders For The Christian Movement
While the term "movement" is becoming quite cool of late, I still love what it entails, movement, journey, change, go, new, next, flex, give, take, stretch, etc.
The goal of a congregation’s leadership development process is to create a core of leaders who are capable of strategizing, launching, and conducting a mission for expanding the kingdom of God.
What strategies do you often think about? What are you becoming convinced of? What new thing would you like to see? What has never been done? Where does the light of the kingdom of God need to push back darkness?
I believe Jesus is the hope of the world. I believe God has called out a people to make sure the world knows this. These people are the church. Nothing less than dying to ourselves will free us from ourselves so we can come alive to God and become captured by his heart for people.
Let's be a people that are full of hope. Let's extend that hope to people everywhere. Let's be the church. What do you need to die to? Be freed from? Come alive to? Be captured by?
I'll turn my thoughts and this blog to another recent read next week.
I'm headed to Ft. Worth with a great group of men and leaders in the Church of Oklahoma City. You can learn a bit more about our endeavors at www.Vision360.org. And I look forward to sharing some thoughts on our time with you.
New Reality Number Six – The Rise of Apostolic Leadership.
You are being asked to lead during a time when you are not sure where all this is going. If previous history is an accurate indicator, the kinds of changes we are undergoing will not settle out for another century or more.
This really encourages me to slow down and seek an evolutionary approach to change rather than a revolutionary approach that demands change now. Let's not euthanize an old model and latch on to a new up-and-comer. The cycle of change may in fact be: conception, celebrate, wait, birth, infancy, grow up, life, come of age, death, grieve, resurrection.
Wrong Question #6: How Do We Develop Leaders For Church Work?
This is probably harsh, but who cares about church work? Kill the bubble -Serve the world!
We are training mechanics to work on machinery of the church industry when we need a new engine. We need transitional leaders who will help the church find a new expression in the emerging world. What does this leadership look like and how will it be developed?
I'm sure I'll get to this in more depth with a future blog book review, but try this on for size. If the railroad people were really concerned with transporting people then they would own the airlines. But instead railroad people became about the railroad and were passed by, left in the dust, reminiscing about the good ole days of superior travel by rail. Meanwhile people are whizzing by overhead. What is our version of transporting people? What does this mean to the Church? Let's not miss the point.
Tough Question #6: How Do We Develop Leaders For The Christian Movement
While the term "movement" is becoming quite cool of late, I still love what it entails, movement, journey, change, go, new, next, flex, give, take, stretch, etc.
The goal of a congregation’s leadership development process is to create a core of leaders who are capable of strategizing, launching, and conducting a mission for expanding the kingdom of God.
What strategies do you often think about? What are you becoming convinced of? What new thing would you like to see? What has never been done? Where does the light of the kingdom of God need to push back darkness?
I believe Jesus is the hope of the world. I believe God has called out a people to make sure the world knows this. These people are the church. Nothing less than dying to ourselves will free us from ourselves so we can come alive to God and become captured by his heart for people.
Let's be a people that are full of hope. Let's extend that hope to people everywhere. Let's be the church. What do you need to die to? Be freed from? Come alive to? Be captured by?
Monday, September 24, 2007
Wake Up.
Here are the thoughts and ideas shared at this past week's KAMP's Gathering.
We continue our journey of The Art of Living.
See Mark 14 1-9.
3-5Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves. "That's criminal! A sheer waste! This perfume could have been sold for well over a year's wages and handed out to the poor." They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.
6-9But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me. She did what she could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial.
She did what she could when she could…
People sitting around are mad, upset, they are criticizing…talking about perfume and money
Jesus says they missed it…what she has done is beautiful…preparing for burial…act of worship to god…holy sacred act
Teaching us to see a whole other world, other story, greater depths…
they see jars, perfume, etc…
Jesus see something holy profound…
Jesus is aware of the sacred and the holy…in the midst of the mundane
See Genesis 28:10-22.
“10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway [c] resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."
Jacob is on the move…not aware…odd dream…calling…work…God was here the whole time…wakes up to a god that has been present all along…not god just showed up…wakes up from his sleep and his spiritual sleep…finding the god who has been there all along…becomes aware of a god who has been there…and I’ve missed it…
Come into the awareness that god has a call a work for you to do…what do you want nothing more than…purpose…what you’re made for…what needs to happen to accomplish that…divine urging…and we are waking up to it…and then God showed up…no you did…and then we became aware…
See Exodus 3:1-12. "1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, [a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
12 And God said, "I will be with you."
Ends up in midian standing at a bush that’s burning…the bush happened 40 years after he arrived in midian…God speaks to him…how long has he been walking through this section of land…was god speaking the whole time…or did he hear when he stopped…is the ground you walk on holy or has god been present the whole time…waking up to holiness and deepness….we wake up…
As a follower of Jesus, a person of the way, mastering the art of living… Developing radar for the sacred and the holy…not that god shows up…we show up
See John 5:1-18.
The Authority of the Son
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working." 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
At this point they believed the prophets quit speaking…Romans are in control…no freedom to worship…that maybe god has stopped working…my father is always at work…we believe this..school, work, buying things, interacting…god is doing something here, right here where you are…every relationship, person, time, mess, those rejecting god, interactions with people you cannot stand, pursuing, loving them, what if we internalized that god is always at work…Jesus sees a depth to the experience that others are missing…Jesus is fully awake
Mastering the art of living is becoming fully awake…shaking off the slumber…cutting through the fog…
God is speaking, at work, convicting, showing us, prodding, pushing, tapping on shoulder, telling us your loved, that we are ok, your not alone, always at work with you doing something, calling, reminding you, speaking into you values
John Robinson, “Honest to God” – “For Christianity, the holy is the depth of the common, just as secular is not a (godless) section of life but the world (God’s world, for which Christ died) cut off and alienated from its true depth. The purpose of worship (church) is not to retire (escape) from the secular into the department of the religious, let alone to escape from this world into the other world, but to open oneself to the meeting of the Christ in the common. The function of worship is to make us more sensitive to these depths; to focus, sharpen and deepen our response to the world and to other people. The test of worship is how far it makes us more sensitive to the beyond in our midst, to the Christ in the hungry, the naked, the homeless and the prisoner."
the purpose of worship is not to escape, but to opens oneself up to the Christ in the common
The point of church is not to meet god, but that we learn to see and find god everywhere in life…being woken up to the Christ who is present everywhere
The function of worship is to make us more sensitive to these depths…
This opens us up and wakens us up…
See Genesis 28 Again.
Certain Place – in between nowhere and nowhere…not a temple, tabernacle, church, Christian bookstore, event sponsored by a church, wilderness, rocks and stones, god has been here, anyplace, a certain cubicle, hall, dorm, driveway, neighborhood, home, road, store, relationship, phone call, email, certain place…
We feel like we’re missing it…that its over there…it’s easy believe that if I went there…challenge who you are and what’s going on here…lameness follows you from town to town…wherever you are there you are…learn to be here…hear god here…wake up…
What happens when you master the art of living…taking steps…now…the revolution is alive and well within you…love has to spill over…the revolution is alive and well wherever you are…my god is always at work…we want to make sure that we don’t look for it over there…but that the revolution is here…in you…around you…take off your shoes…stop listen…here…the kingdom of god is among you, in you
God is alive all over the place…enter in and the kingdom will be alive here, now…waking up to a god that has been here all along and we were sleeping
God is near…god is always at work…not somewhere else or just there…here near…you and me right now near…speaking, convicting, wake up I have things for you to do…too much noise…listen to me and you’d understand…Jesus on palm Sunday…if you only knew what was happening today in your midst…waking up to the sacred
Luke 19:41 When the city came into view, he wept over it. "If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you!"
Closing Prayer.
Ephesians 1 says, “15-19That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn't stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
Pray that the eyes of your heart may me enlightened…here all along, just not aware…show us how loaded place and people are…give us radar to see what me miss…eyes to see what’s around us…
We continue our journey of The Art of Living.
See Mark 14 1-9.
3-5Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves. "That's criminal! A sheer waste! This perfume could have been sold for well over a year's wages and handed out to the poor." They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.
6-9But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me. She did what she could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial.
She did what she could when she could…
People sitting around are mad, upset, they are criticizing…talking about perfume and money
Jesus says they missed it…what she has done is beautiful…preparing for burial…act of worship to god…holy sacred act
Teaching us to see a whole other world, other story, greater depths…
they see jars, perfume, etc…
Jesus see something holy profound…
Jesus is aware of the sacred and the holy…in the midst of the mundane
See Genesis 28:10-22.
“10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway [c] resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."
Jacob is on the move…not aware…odd dream…calling…work…God was here the whole time…wakes up to a god that has been present all along…not god just showed up…wakes up from his sleep and his spiritual sleep…finding the god who has been there all along…becomes aware of a god who has been there…and I’ve missed it…
Come into the awareness that god has a call a work for you to do…what do you want nothing more than…purpose…what you’re made for…what needs to happen to accomplish that…divine urging…and we are waking up to it…and then God showed up…no you did…and then we became aware…
See Exodus 3:1-12. "1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, [a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
12 And God said, "I will be with you."
Ends up in midian standing at a bush that’s burning…the bush happened 40 years after he arrived in midian…God speaks to him…how long has he been walking through this section of land…was god speaking the whole time…or did he hear when he stopped…is the ground you walk on holy or has god been present the whole time…waking up to holiness and deepness….we wake up…
As a follower of Jesus, a person of the way, mastering the art of living… Developing radar for the sacred and the holy…not that god shows up…we show up
See John 5:1-18.
The Authority of the Son
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working." 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
At this point they believed the prophets quit speaking…Romans are in control…no freedom to worship…that maybe god has stopped working…my father is always at work…we believe this..school, work, buying things, interacting…god is doing something here, right here where you are…every relationship, person, time, mess, those rejecting god, interactions with people you cannot stand, pursuing, loving them, what if we internalized that god is always at work…Jesus sees a depth to the experience that others are missing…Jesus is fully awake
Mastering the art of living is becoming fully awake…shaking off the slumber…cutting through the fog…
God is speaking, at work, convicting, showing us, prodding, pushing, tapping on shoulder, telling us your loved, that we are ok, your not alone, always at work with you doing something, calling, reminding you, speaking into you values
John Robinson, “Honest to God” – “For Christianity, the holy is the depth of the common, just as secular is not a (godless) section of life but the world (God’s world, for which Christ died) cut off and alienated from its true depth. The purpose of worship (church) is not to retire (escape) from the secular into the department of the religious, let alone to escape from this world into the other world, but to open oneself to the meeting of the Christ in the common. The function of worship is to make us more sensitive to these depths; to focus, sharpen and deepen our response to the world and to other people. The test of worship is how far it makes us more sensitive to the beyond in our midst, to the Christ in the hungry, the naked, the homeless and the prisoner."
the purpose of worship is not to escape, but to opens oneself up to the Christ in the common
The point of church is not to meet god, but that we learn to see and find god everywhere in life…being woken up to the Christ who is present everywhere
The function of worship is to make us more sensitive to these depths…
This opens us up and wakens us up…
See Genesis 28 Again.
Certain Place – in between nowhere and nowhere…not a temple, tabernacle, church, Christian bookstore, event sponsored by a church, wilderness, rocks and stones, god has been here, anyplace, a certain cubicle, hall, dorm, driveway, neighborhood, home, road, store, relationship, phone call, email, certain place…
We feel like we’re missing it…that its over there…it’s easy believe that if I went there…challenge who you are and what’s going on here…lameness follows you from town to town…wherever you are there you are…learn to be here…hear god here…wake up…
What happens when you master the art of living…taking steps…now…the revolution is alive and well within you…love has to spill over…the revolution is alive and well wherever you are…my god is always at work…we want to make sure that we don’t look for it over there…but that the revolution is here…in you…around you…take off your shoes…stop listen…here…the kingdom of god is among you, in you
God is alive all over the place…enter in and the kingdom will be alive here, now…waking up to a god that has been here all along and we were sleeping
God is near…god is always at work…not somewhere else or just there…here near…you and me right now near…speaking, convicting, wake up I have things for you to do…too much noise…listen to me and you’d understand…Jesus on palm Sunday…if you only knew what was happening today in your midst…waking up to the sacred
Luke 19:41 When the city came into view, he wept over it. "If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you!"
Closing Prayer.
Ephesians 1 says, “15-19That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn't stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
Pray that the eyes of your heart may me enlightened…here all along, just not aware…show us how loaded place and people are…give us radar to see what me miss…eyes to see what’s around us…
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Shift from Planning to Preparation.
This continues our look at "The Present Future"...
God is making waves all around the North American church. Some churches are going to get to ride them. These are the churches that are prepared to get in on what God is up to.
Wrong Question #5: How Do We Plan For The Future?
Tough Question #5: How Do We Prepare For the Future?
People tire of visionless activity and organizations, but people never tire of vision when it’s the right one.
Vision is discovered, not invented.
Listen. Listen to the heart hopes of the people you lead. Ask them what they would like to see God do in their lives and in the lives of the church and in the community.
So, we're listening. What do you have to say? I love this language. What are your heart hopes? Stop and listen to your own heart. What is it telling you? Not your head. Your heart. What would you like to see God do in your own life? What would you like to see the church, our church become?
I recently posed this question to some in our community. Here are the short one or two word responses to what they hope Mars Hill would be and become: a place of challenge, pursuit of God, know Jesus, be Jesus to people, full, deep reservoir, functionally and usefully deep, diversity, scandalous grace, radical inclusion, people of peace, whole, complete, abnormally normal, social work church, accept the rejected, go to the margins, love everybody, you add to the list.
Look. Look at your town, your city. Look at where you are. Look at what’s going on around you.
So, what do you see around you? Your neighborhood? Workplace? Community? City? What is happening all around us? What is the most natural response?
Talk. When do you see the energy go up?
What gives you energy? What are you passionate about? What are you indignant about?
In the emerging world people are increasingly looking for intentionality and organic to be joined together. What do we value? Values are demonstrated by behavior.
Here are some values that have risen the surface: culture, ideas, change, relationships, knowledge, real, alive, local church, spirituality, creativity, openness, family, risk, life together friends, evolving, leadership, flexible, poor, adaptability, marginalized, gospel, forgotten, future, next generation, urban context, you add to the list.
Create venues where people can practice the core values.
Where do you, me and us practice what we preach? Let's remember that we the kingdom of God is not a kingdom of words but rather a kingdom of action. Because after all, talk is cheap!
Every idea for ministry needs to be accompanied by a list of values it champions.
Our world is in no shortage of ideas. Let's be a value-driven community.
Often we tell children they need to spend more time on the things that come the hardest to them, leaving underdeveloped those talents that are most natural.
What are your most natural talents? Are you putting them to use? And for whose benefit?
Balance is a myth. Leaders are “out of round” in the areas of their passion, their giftedness and their vision. Your best shot at making your best contribution is for you to get better at what you are already good at.
In what ways are you "out of round"?
Someone in our community said that, "the world and the Church is being robbed because people are not utilizing their giftedness and uniqueness."
The church is so self-absorbed that most inquiries will tend to perpetuate innovations in doing church, not being church.
Together, let's keep turning outward. Serve our community. Extend mercy. Exist for others. And love more than others think is necessary.
God is making waves all around the North American church. Some churches are going to get to ride them. These are the churches that are prepared to get in on what God is up to.
Wrong Question #5: How Do We Plan For The Future?
Tough Question #5: How Do We Prepare For the Future?
People tire of visionless activity and organizations, but people never tire of vision when it’s the right one.
Vision is discovered, not invented.
Listen. Listen to the heart hopes of the people you lead. Ask them what they would like to see God do in their lives and in the lives of the church and in the community.
So, we're listening. What do you have to say? I love this language. What are your heart hopes? Stop and listen to your own heart. What is it telling you? Not your head. Your heart. What would you like to see God do in your own life? What would you like to see the church, our church become?
I recently posed this question to some in our community. Here are the short one or two word responses to what they hope Mars Hill would be and become: a place of challenge, pursuit of God, know Jesus, be Jesus to people, full, deep reservoir, functionally and usefully deep, diversity, scandalous grace, radical inclusion, people of peace, whole, complete, abnormally normal, social work church, accept the rejected, go to the margins, love everybody, you add to the list.
Look. Look at your town, your city. Look at where you are. Look at what’s going on around you.
So, what do you see around you? Your neighborhood? Workplace? Community? City? What is happening all around us? What is the most natural response?
Talk. When do you see the energy go up?
What gives you energy? What are you passionate about? What are you indignant about?
In the emerging world people are increasingly looking for intentionality and organic to be joined together. What do we value? Values are demonstrated by behavior.
Here are some values that have risen the surface: culture, ideas, change, relationships, knowledge, real, alive, local church, spirituality, creativity, openness, family, risk, life together friends, evolving, leadership, flexible, poor, adaptability, marginalized, gospel, forgotten, future, next generation, urban context, you add to the list.
Create venues where people can practice the core values.
Where do you, me and us practice what we preach? Let's remember that we the kingdom of God is not a kingdom of words but rather a kingdom of action. Because after all, talk is cheap!
Every idea for ministry needs to be accompanied by a list of values it champions.
Our world is in no shortage of ideas. Let's be a value-driven community.
Often we tell children they need to spend more time on the things that come the hardest to them, leaving underdeveloped those talents that are most natural.
What are your most natural talents? Are you putting them to use? And for whose benefit?
Balance is a myth. Leaders are “out of round” in the areas of their passion, their giftedness and their vision. Your best shot at making your best contribution is for you to get better at what you are already good at.
In what ways are you "out of round"?
Someone in our community said that, "the world and the Church is being robbed because people are not utilizing their giftedness and uniqueness."
The church is so self-absorbed that most inquiries will tend to perpetuate innovations in doing church, not being church.
Together, let's keep turning outward. Serve our community. Extend mercy. Exist for others. And love more than others think is necessary.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
The Story Continues...
Here is the latest feedback on our journey together...
"I've been around Mars Hill a couple of times in the past month or so and it's been really refreshing. I'm pumped about your heart for a church that is ACTIVE and moving. I spent the summer overseas and coming home has left me aching for ministry outside the walls of a church."
What refreshes you in life?
What do you ache for?
Tell us your story.
Much Love.
Ben.
"I've been around Mars Hill a couple of times in the past month or so and it's been really refreshing. I'm pumped about your heart for a church that is ACTIVE and moving. I spent the summer overseas and coming home has left me aching for ministry outside the walls of a church."
What refreshes you in life?
What do you ache for?
Tell us your story.
Much Love.
Ben.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
The Return To Spiritual Formation.
Here are the continuing thoughts from "The Present Future" by Reggie McNeal. Specifically we'll be looking at New Reality Number Four – The Return To Spiritual Formation.
Wrong Question #4: How Do We Develop Church Members?
Have you ever joined something? What was it like? Good, bad, indifferent? Did it feel holy? Sacred? Were you joining an organization or becoming family? Have you found your tribe?
We have made following Jesus all about being a good church member. The truth is, the North American church culture extracts salt from the world and diminishes the amount of light available to those in darkness who need to find their way.
I think I'd rather be a good husband, dad, son, friend, neighbor, citizen than a good church member. A good church member sounds so sweet and tame. I want to be a good follower of Jesus, his words and his actions. A follower of Jesus sounds like a risk and adventure.
Tough Question #4: How Do We Develop Followers of Jesus?
What does discipleship mean and look like to you?
The church is there to help people develop an abundant life promised to them by Jesus. Imagine helping people see how God can get into the life they already have instead of asking them to give up their life for the church. This means less church activity and more people development. Life has been getting pushed to the side.
If we miss living life in all of this, well, we've really missed it.
In many cases, we’re not peddling Jesus – we’re peddling church with the assumption that if people will come to church and convert to churchianity they will get Jesus. What they often get is a poor substitute. Evangelism that will introduce Jesus to this culture will flow from people who are deeply in love with Jesus.
I've probably said this before and I will most certainly say it again.
If we pursue community we may not find a cause worth living for.
But if we pursue a cause worth living for we will most assuredly get community of the best kind.
If we pursue friendship we may not find discipleship that changes us.
But if we pursue discipleship that changes us we will most assuredly get friendship of the best kind.
If we pursue church we may not find a Jesus who saves.
But if we pursue a Jesus who saves we will most assuredly get church of the best kind.
Wrong Question #4: How Do We Develop Church Members?
Have you ever joined something? What was it like? Good, bad, indifferent? Did it feel holy? Sacred? Were you joining an organization or becoming family? Have you found your tribe?
We have made following Jesus all about being a good church member. The truth is, the North American church culture extracts salt from the world and diminishes the amount of light available to those in darkness who need to find their way.
I think I'd rather be a good husband, dad, son, friend, neighbor, citizen than a good church member. A good church member sounds so sweet and tame. I want to be a good follower of Jesus, his words and his actions. A follower of Jesus sounds like a risk and adventure.
Tough Question #4: How Do We Develop Followers of Jesus?
What does discipleship mean and look like to you?
The church is there to help people develop an abundant life promised to them by Jesus. Imagine helping people see how God can get into the life they already have instead of asking them to give up their life for the church. This means less church activity and more people development. Life has been getting pushed to the side.
If we miss living life in all of this, well, we've really missed it.
In many cases, we’re not peddling Jesus – we’re peddling church with the assumption that if people will come to church and convert to churchianity they will get Jesus. What they often get is a poor substitute. Evangelism that will introduce Jesus to this culture will flow from people who are deeply in love with Jesus.
I've probably said this before and I will most certainly say it again.
If we pursue community we may not find a cause worth living for.
But if we pursue a cause worth living for we will most assuredly get community of the best kind.
If we pursue friendship we may not find discipleship that changes us.
But if we pursue discipleship that changes us we will most assuredly get friendship of the best kind.
If we pursue church we may not find a Jesus who saves.
But if we pursue a Jesus who saves we will most assuredly get church of the best kind.
Disney Princesses On Ice.
Hope the week is going well for everybody out there.
I spent last night at Disney Princesses On Ice with my wife, 4 year-old daughter Harley AND some wonderful friends of ours along with their 3 year-old little girl. Both of the girls were decked out in the princess get up, darling. I
was first of thankful that I was able to bring Harley to such an event. She was completely mesmerized by it all. The climax for her was the appearance of Cinderella.
In the midst of overpriced everything there was a wonderful moment provided us by the Make A Wish Foundation (www.Wish.org). Two beautiful little girls were invited on to the ice to spend time with their heroes, these Disney Princesses. Make A Wish grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. So you can only imagine what these little girls and their families have endured.
I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here exactly. But it was Good, Kind, Just. It made me wish I could bring every underprivileged little girl in OKC to such an event, so that their dreams could come true OR to help them begin to dream again OR for the first time.
What if the church helped people live again, dream again, love again, smile again, dance again, cry again, give again, on and on and on?
I spent last night at Disney Princesses On Ice with my wife, 4 year-old daughter Harley AND some wonderful friends of ours along with their 3 year-old little girl. Both of the girls were decked out in the princess get up, darling. I
was first of thankful that I was able to bring Harley to such an event. She was completely mesmerized by it all. The climax for her was the appearance of Cinderella.
In the midst of overpriced everything there was a wonderful moment provided us by the Make A Wish Foundation (www.Wish.org). Two beautiful little girls were invited on to the ice to spend time with their heroes, these Disney Princesses. Make A Wish grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. So you can only imagine what these little girls and their families have endured.
I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here exactly. But it was Good, Kind, Just. It made me wish I could bring every underprivileged little girl in OKC to such an event, so that their dreams could come true OR to help them begin to dream again OR for the first time.
What if the church helped people live again, dream again, love again, smile again, dance again, cry again, give again, on and on and on?
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Move Into The Neighborhood.
Here is some thoughts, ideas, scriptures shared in our journey toward living the best possible kind of life.
See Genesis 1.
Genesis 1 is this beautiful creation poem. Good…good…good…
Genesis 2:18 says, “God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone;”
Break in the rhythm…its all good…and then something about a person being alone that is not good…something about loneliness…tragedy and suffering…tragedy and suffering alone…something about loneliness…somebody left you…taps into something deep…as bad as it gets…our primal origin…loneliness is the first thing God said is not good…
The flip side…somebody saying they won’t leave…or I’ve been there…telling their story and its your story…they understand…I could have sworn I’m totally crazy in this feeling…and you realize you’re not the only crazy one…somebody voices something that you have been feeling all along…a music album…that puts words and sound to you…powerful words, ME TOO…yes I’m not alone…when somebody joins us understands gets it…and when somebody puts in word what is a loose rumbling in your soul…loneliness is not good…loneliness is conquered with connection…you’ve gone through something terrible and somebody committed to going through it with you
See Hebrews 4:15-16 - The High Priest Who Cried Out in Pain.
Does God know what it’s like?
Jesus is the high priest…he knows what we’re going through…early Christian belief was that God came to earth…god in the flesh…knows what it’s like…
John 1:14 says, “14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
14The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
Jesus is showing us what God is like…love, compassion, passion, patience, kindness, etc.
See Hebrews 12:1-3.
The one who came among us…who understand…knows what we’re going through…
Endured, to go through the worst kind of suffering possible, betrayed, denied, spit on, slapped, mocked, insulted, falsely accused, condemned, humiliated, scorned, killed
In addition to knowing what’s its like to be human…he knows what its like to suffer
The God who knows what its like…not distant…someplace else…waiting up there…not sitting up above with a beard…crash in like a parent at a high school party…on the cross…I know how you feel…”you don’t know what its like”, yes I do
See John 14:9-14.
Do you want to know what God is like…look to me…God is working through me…living in me doing his work…God took on flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood…living in and working through what God is like…in my actions and words what God is like
Incarnation – in the flesh, personification, embodiment, manifestation, materialization, living form
God coming among us taking on flesh and blood
The first Christians didn’t stop there…this historical moment had endless ramifications that went on to today…not a one time historical event…it had implications for everyone of Jesus’ followers
See I Cor. 6:19.
The group of you it’s a plural…speaking to a community of people…god lives in your midst…he lives there…living in you…working through you…same language…all of you working together…a body of followers…a body of Jesus
See I Cor. 12:12-13.
You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this.
Like a body…something to add…everybody does its part…you would be acting like Jesus…you are a temple…as you act and speak…you as followers of Jesus are showing the world what Jesus is like…they would get a sense of what God is like…If you were there loving serving accepting…if they came into the group…they would see what Jesus is like…the same way that God is present in Jesus…Jesus is present in us
That is the point of the incarnation…God came into the world and screamed alongside of us
I’m thirsty, forsaken me, I don’t want to do this, wrestling, sweating drops of blood,
God is not distant, removed, knows what its like, present
God loves to show up dressed as people…and he’ll show up looking like someone you least expected…he has know concept of favoritism, status, prestige…that why we are like a temple of God…we have the potential to show the world what God is like…Jesus showed God in the flesh, now you show Jesus in the flesh…Jesus looks an awful lot like you…
We don’t sit around passively…we are the temple, the body, Jesus on display, making an appearance that looks like you
Incarnational possibilities…developing radar for when God wants to show up…they were like Jesus to me…at the moment they needed it…god showed up…
If you keep the cross a one time historical event we are robbing it of its mystery and power…the incarnation…a God who shows up…and you have the opportunity to put this in action…
Be-Incarnation – God shows up as people, show the world what I am like…Jesus is teaching us Be-Incarnation…simply trying to act like Jesus in the world…orienting your life how god is…
See Genesis 1.
Genesis 1 is this beautiful creation poem. Good…good…good…
Genesis 2:18 says, “God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone;”
Break in the rhythm…its all good…and then something about a person being alone that is not good…something about loneliness…tragedy and suffering…tragedy and suffering alone…something about loneliness…somebody left you…taps into something deep…as bad as it gets…our primal origin…loneliness is the first thing God said is not good…
The flip side…somebody saying they won’t leave…or I’ve been there…telling their story and its your story…they understand…I could have sworn I’m totally crazy in this feeling…and you realize you’re not the only crazy one…somebody voices something that you have been feeling all along…a music album…that puts words and sound to you…powerful words, ME TOO…yes I’m not alone…when somebody joins us understands gets it…and when somebody puts in word what is a loose rumbling in your soul…loneliness is not good…loneliness is conquered with connection…you’ve gone through something terrible and somebody committed to going through it with you
See Hebrews 4:15-16 - The High Priest Who Cried Out in Pain.
Does God know what it’s like?
Jesus is the high priest…he knows what we’re going through…early Christian belief was that God came to earth…god in the flesh…knows what it’s like…
John 1:14 says, “14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
14The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
Jesus is showing us what God is like…love, compassion, passion, patience, kindness, etc.
See Hebrews 12:1-3.
The one who came among us…who understand…knows what we’re going through…
Endured, to go through the worst kind of suffering possible, betrayed, denied, spit on, slapped, mocked, insulted, falsely accused, condemned, humiliated, scorned, killed
In addition to knowing what’s its like to be human…he knows what its like to suffer
The God who knows what its like…not distant…someplace else…waiting up there…not sitting up above with a beard…crash in like a parent at a high school party…on the cross…I know how you feel…”you don’t know what its like”, yes I do
See John 14:9-14.
Do you want to know what God is like…look to me…God is working through me…living in me doing his work…God took on flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood…living in and working through what God is like…in my actions and words what God is like
Incarnation – in the flesh, personification, embodiment, manifestation, materialization, living form
God coming among us taking on flesh and blood
The first Christians didn’t stop there…this historical moment had endless ramifications that went on to today…not a one time historical event…it had implications for everyone of Jesus’ followers
See I Cor. 6:19.
The group of you it’s a plural…speaking to a community of people…god lives in your midst…he lives there…living in you…working through you…same language…all of you working together…a body of followers…a body of Jesus
See I Cor. 12:12-13.
You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this.
Like a body…something to add…everybody does its part…you would be acting like Jesus…you are a temple…as you act and speak…you as followers of Jesus are showing the world what Jesus is like…they would get a sense of what God is like…If you were there loving serving accepting…if they came into the group…they would see what Jesus is like…the same way that God is present in Jesus…Jesus is present in us
That is the point of the incarnation…God came into the world and screamed alongside of us
I’m thirsty, forsaken me, I don’t want to do this, wrestling, sweating drops of blood,
God is not distant, removed, knows what its like, present
God loves to show up dressed as people…and he’ll show up looking like someone you least expected…he has know concept of favoritism, status, prestige…that why we are like a temple of God…we have the potential to show the world what God is like…Jesus showed God in the flesh, now you show Jesus in the flesh…Jesus looks an awful lot like you…
We don’t sit around passively…we are the temple, the body, Jesus on display, making an appearance that looks like you
Incarnational possibilities…developing radar for when God wants to show up…they were like Jesus to me…at the moment they needed it…god showed up…
If you keep the cross a one time historical event we are robbing it of its mystery and power…the incarnation…a God who shows up…and you have the opportunity to put this in action…
Be-Incarnation – God shows up as people, show the world what I am like…Jesus is teaching us Be-Incarnation…simply trying to act like Jesus in the world…orienting your life how god is…
Friday, September 14, 2007
A New Reformation - Releasing God's People.
A new reformation is upon us. And as Rick Warren suggests, its a reformation of deeds. If we could find a way to turn an audience into an army, consumers into contributors, spectators into participants it will change the world…it’s time to stop debating and start doing…it’s time for the church to be known for love and not legalism…for the church to be known by what we are for rather than what we are against…it’s time for the church to be the church!!!
The first Reformation was about freeing the church. The new Reformation is about freeing God’s people from the church (the institution). The original Reformation decentralized the church. The new Reformation decentralizes ministry. The new Reformation is moving the church closer to the world. The new Reformation is distinguishing followers of Jesus from religious people.
Where do you need to experience freedom to go and be? Where has the institutional church seemed to bog down or hold you back? Are you moving closer to the world? Maybe you've identified yourself as "christian", but can you identify yourself as a follower of the way?
People outside the church bubble are not waking up on Sunday morning hoping to find a church they can help make successful.
This is such a simple and profound idea that it blows the mind. Why do we fool ourselves into such nonsense? I hope for people to begin to connect with people, not people connecting to an organization. What would it look like for the church to spend time and energy serving those not in church on Sunday morning? What if we measured the size of our churches by the number of people in our community that we are engaging and serving? For example, Mars Hill could have a church of 32,000 inner-city kids and teens that are represented in our community. Let's spend time and energy going and serving them and their families.
Wrong Question #3: How Do We Turn Members Into Ministers?
Tough Question #3: How Do We Turn Member Into Missionaries?
How do we deploy more missionaries into community transformation? This will require that we not only release ministry but that we also release church members.
To be a christian, a follower of Jesus, a person of the way is to be a sent one. So, to stay is not to follow. Jesus is on the move. Will we go? Will you follow? Where is he already at work among us?
If you are a church leader, be aware that when you head down this road toward developing a missionary force, you are going to do some significant soul-searching and ministry reprioritization. You are going to be challenged not only to release ministry, you are also going to be challenged to release members from churchianity, to quit gauging their spiritual maturity by how much they "support the church."
Let's not self-protect and self-preserve our position, power or profession at the expense of the world and the kingdom breaking in and through. Lead by letting go, giving away, resourcing, inspiring, encouraging, equipping, etc.
This is what life in the church bubble can do to you. It shrink wraps your vision down to the size of your church.
Let's dream big dreams. Be faithful with small. Act where we are. Here. Now.
An honest search for God today would lead the church back into the world.
Maybe this is why Jesus said the poor would always be among us, so that we would go to them and in doing so enter into the kingdom and find God. We ask, "Where are you, God?" God asks, "Where are you?" We invite God to come into our midst, our church services, our meetings. God invites us to join him in the forgotten places among forgotten people.
The problem is that when people come to church, expecting to find God, they often encounter a religious club holding a meeting where God is conspicuously absent.
God be with us and let us be with God.
Create a culture informed by missiology and create venues where people can practice being missionaries. The key is to have a practice of saying “yes” to people’s ideas about ways to be on mission.
I want the culture of our church to be freedom - to say yes, find away, make a way, remove the barriers, etc. AND a culture of passion - where people are chasing their dreams and fulfilling what God has put in their heart to do and be.
Adopting a missionary approach will require changing the scorecard. Until we start making heroes of people who decide to be and act like missionaries, we will fail to turn club members into missionaries.
Be a hero of the faith today. Be the church to somebody.
The first Reformation was about freeing the church. The new Reformation is about freeing God’s people from the church (the institution). The original Reformation decentralized the church. The new Reformation decentralizes ministry. The new Reformation is moving the church closer to the world. The new Reformation is distinguishing followers of Jesus from religious people.
Where do you need to experience freedom to go and be? Where has the institutional church seemed to bog down or hold you back? Are you moving closer to the world? Maybe you've identified yourself as "christian", but can you identify yourself as a follower of the way?
People outside the church bubble are not waking up on Sunday morning hoping to find a church they can help make successful.
This is such a simple and profound idea that it blows the mind. Why do we fool ourselves into such nonsense? I hope for people to begin to connect with people, not people connecting to an organization. What would it look like for the church to spend time and energy serving those not in church on Sunday morning? What if we measured the size of our churches by the number of people in our community that we are engaging and serving? For example, Mars Hill could have a church of 32,000 inner-city kids and teens that are represented in our community. Let's spend time and energy going and serving them and their families.
Wrong Question #3: How Do We Turn Members Into Ministers?
Tough Question #3: How Do We Turn Member Into Missionaries?
How do we deploy more missionaries into community transformation? This will require that we not only release ministry but that we also release church members.
To be a christian, a follower of Jesus, a person of the way is to be a sent one. So, to stay is not to follow. Jesus is on the move. Will we go? Will you follow? Where is he already at work among us?
If you are a church leader, be aware that when you head down this road toward developing a missionary force, you are going to do some significant soul-searching and ministry reprioritization. You are going to be challenged not only to release ministry, you are also going to be challenged to release members from churchianity, to quit gauging their spiritual maturity by how much they "support the church."
Let's not self-protect and self-preserve our position, power or profession at the expense of the world and the kingdom breaking in and through. Lead by letting go, giving away, resourcing, inspiring, encouraging, equipping, etc.
This is what life in the church bubble can do to you. It shrink wraps your vision down to the size of your church.
Let's dream big dreams. Be faithful with small. Act where we are. Here. Now.
An honest search for God today would lead the church back into the world.
Maybe this is why Jesus said the poor would always be among us, so that we would go to them and in doing so enter into the kingdom and find God. We ask, "Where are you, God?" God asks, "Where are you?" We invite God to come into our midst, our church services, our meetings. God invites us to join him in the forgotten places among forgotten people.
The problem is that when people come to church, expecting to find God, they often encounter a religious club holding a meeting where God is conspicuously absent.
God be with us and let us be with God.
Create a culture informed by missiology and create venues where people can practice being missionaries. The key is to have a practice of saying “yes” to people’s ideas about ways to be on mission.
I want the culture of our church to be freedom - to say yes, find away, make a way, remove the barriers, etc. AND a culture of passion - where people are chasing their dreams and fulfilling what God has put in their heart to do and be.
Adopting a missionary approach will require changing the scorecard. Until we start making heroes of people who decide to be and act like missionaries, we will fail to turn club members into missionaries.
Be a hero of the faith today. Be the church to somebody.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
The Right Kind of Heroes.
We have heroes in society, culture and the church. We have witnessed large fast-growing churches that have an enormous personality of a pastor at the core and/or top of the church. And we have traditionally and currently been making these and other stage personalities the heroes of the faith. I recommend that we begin making heroes out of the right kind of people...people just like Zach Hunter. I want our church and every next generation church to be full of Zach Hunters.
September 2007
True Story: A Modern Day Abolitionist With Zach Hunter
Zach first heard about the plight of modern-day slaves three years ago. He realized slavery is not just some outdated thing found in history books, and he felt motivated to do something. At age 12, Zach launched a campaign called Loose Change to Loosen Chains to raise awareness and funds to help end slavery. Hundreds of groups are now furthering the campaign and students around the world consider themselves abolitionists.
I Have A Dream
My dream is that my generation would develop a love for the poor and the oppressed; that we'd serve them and in doing so would grow closer to God. God tells us who He's for and who He's against: He's always on the side of the poor, the orphan, the widow, the oppressed. When we get closer to the hurting people in the world, we get closer to the heart of God. Specifically, I hope that in my lifetime we will see the end of slavery. A big dream, but one I believe we can see happen.
Gathering Up Courage
In May 2006, I was given an opportunity to speak about modern-day slavery to nearly 15,000 people - one of the biggest crowds I'd ever seen, let alone spoken to! I previously struggled with an anxiety disorder in elementary school, and when I looked out on the crowd, some of those old fears came rushing back. But I knew I had the chance to let people know of the millions who are suffering around the world as slaves. I decided to take the stage, trusting God would give me courage. I explained the truth of slavery to thousands of people that night.
The courage I need to show is nothing compared to the courage of many others who face death and danger every day. Soldiers who put their lives on the line to defend their countries. Firefighters who enter burning buildings. And certainly, the courage required of every man, woman, and child in slavery who must wake up today and face their oppressors. Each of us faces situations in which we need to gather up our courage. When we do, it's as though the courage multiplies like yeast in dough, allowing us to be even more courageous the next time we're called upon.
Passion Awakened
My generation has been numbed to passion in many ways. We have been anesthetized by all of the stimulation in our culture. But I also hear in students a desire to wake up and feel something deeply - to be moved. It seems as though God is doing this as my generation comes face to face with some of the awful suffering occurring around the world. When I speak, I often meet students afterwards who are experiencing something new - passion. It's like a troubling in their spirits that I believe is the call of God to join Him in bringing relief to others. I'm confident that if they answer, they will experience the closeness to God that they dream of.
Taken from The Catalyst GroupZine Volume 3: Courageous in Calling, © 2007 by Catalyst and Thomas Nelson Publishers. Used by permission.
Zach Hunter is a 15-year-old abolitionist and author of Be the Change. Visit his website at http://www.lc2lc.com/.
September 2007
True Story: A Modern Day Abolitionist With Zach Hunter
Zach first heard about the plight of modern-day slaves three years ago. He realized slavery is not just some outdated thing found in history books, and he felt motivated to do something. At age 12, Zach launched a campaign called Loose Change to Loosen Chains to raise awareness and funds to help end slavery. Hundreds of groups are now furthering the campaign and students around the world consider themselves abolitionists.
I Have A Dream
My dream is that my generation would develop a love for the poor and the oppressed; that we'd serve them and in doing so would grow closer to God. God tells us who He's for and who He's against: He's always on the side of the poor, the orphan, the widow, the oppressed. When we get closer to the hurting people in the world, we get closer to the heart of God. Specifically, I hope that in my lifetime we will see the end of slavery. A big dream, but one I believe we can see happen.
Gathering Up Courage
In May 2006, I was given an opportunity to speak about modern-day slavery to nearly 15,000 people - one of the biggest crowds I'd ever seen, let alone spoken to! I previously struggled with an anxiety disorder in elementary school, and when I looked out on the crowd, some of those old fears came rushing back. But I knew I had the chance to let people know of the millions who are suffering around the world as slaves. I decided to take the stage, trusting God would give me courage. I explained the truth of slavery to thousands of people that night.
The courage I need to show is nothing compared to the courage of many others who face death and danger every day. Soldiers who put their lives on the line to defend their countries. Firefighters who enter burning buildings. And certainly, the courage required of every man, woman, and child in slavery who must wake up today and face their oppressors. Each of us faces situations in which we need to gather up our courage. When we do, it's as though the courage multiplies like yeast in dough, allowing us to be even more courageous the next time we're called upon.
Passion Awakened
My generation has been numbed to passion in many ways. We have been anesthetized by all of the stimulation in our culture. But I also hear in students a desire to wake up and feel something deeply - to be moved. It seems as though God is doing this as my generation comes face to face with some of the awful suffering occurring around the world. When I speak, I often meet students afterwards who are experiencing something new - passion. It's like a troubling in their spirits that I believe is the call of God to join Him in bringing relief to others. I'm confident that if they answer, they will experience the closeness to God that they dream of.
Taken from The Catalyst GroupZine Volume 3: Courageous in Calling, © 2007 by Catalyst and Thomas Nelson Publishers. Used by permission.
Zach Hunter is a 15-year-old abolitionist and author of Be the Change. Visit his website at http://www.lc2lc.com/.
The Shift From Church Growth To Kingdom Growth.
Here is the next post in a series of six regarding "The Present Future" by Reggie McNeal.
We will turn our thoughts to new reality number two: The Shift From Church Growth to Kingdom Growth.
Our working definition for "the kingdom" is how things really are and how they should really be.
Here goes...
New Reality Number Two – central to church growth teaching was an admonition that church leaders should assume responsibility for the growth of the church. We have the best churches men can build, but are still waiting for the church that only God can get credit for.
I immediately think of two stories Jesus told pertaining to growth and his kingdom.
The Parable of the Growing Seed 26He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
The Parable of the Mustard Seed 30Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."
Wrong Question #2: How Do We Grow This Church? (How do we get them to come to us?)
Several decades of the church growth movement’s emphasis on methodologies have conditioned church leaders to look for the next program, the latest “model,” the latest fad in ministry programming to help “grow” the church. I am constantly asked, “what’s next?” The focus of the church is on itself, on what it takes to succeed.
I believe wholeheartedly that we must change. But there is a difference between revolutionary change and evolutionary change. We are not looking for the next model or expression of church. Our church model will flow from the people that make it up and the nature in which they live their life. We want to be value-driven, not model driven. We can drive ourselves crazy in pursuit of the perfect model, living in a world of either-or, when we desperately need to adopt a both-and view of church. Either-or thinking leads to inaction because your mind will never stop and your feet will never start. We buckle under this kind of pressure, throw our hands up in the air in frustration. Remember that if we pursue church we may in fact miss Jesus. But if we pursue Jesus. who is alive and active today, we will get the best church imaginable.
People who are successful or competent in one way of thinking frequently resist a new approach. This is why revolutionaries wind up as the defenders of the status quo.
Tough Question #2: How Do We Transform Our Community (How do we hit the streets with the gospel?)
If they aren’t going to come to us, then we’ve got to go to them. This is turning the church inside out. We can keep trying to get them to want what we have or we can start offering what they need.
It's a bit cliche I know, but we are a church that says "go and be" not "come and see".
Missional spirituality requires that God’s people be captured by his heart for people, that our hearts be broken for what breaks his, that we rejoice in what brings him joy.
Our hearts need to be captured for all of his people, not simply the church-going ones. What breaks God's heart? What brings him joy?
The message to people outside the bubble is: Become like us, believe like us, dress like us, vote like us, act like us, like what we like, don’t like what we don’t like.
Remember that Jesus was full of scandalous grace and radical acceptance.
Kingdom thinking challenges church thinking.
Where are you currently being challenged in your thinking?
I think we are unaware of what we have to offer people.
Are you in touch with your story in God? Is your faith fresh and active? Is it easier for you to talk about church than Jesus? It it personal?
We’ve got to take the gospel to the streets. This is the only appropriate missional response to the collapse of the church culture.
I agree. It is time to put the ministry of the church in the hands of the people and the church back on the streets where it belongs.
Where are you seeing the kingdom grow in your own city and community? Where is the kingdom breaking in? Let us know.
We will turn our thoughts to new reality number two: The Shift From Church Growth to Kingdom Growth.
Our working definition for "the kingdom" is how things really are and how they should really be.
Here goes...
New Reality Number Two – central to church growth teaching was an admonition that church leaders should assume responsibility for the growth of the church. We have the best churches men can build, but are still waiting for the church that only God can get credit for.
I immediately think of two stories Jesus told pertaining to growth and his kingdom.
The Parable of the Growing Seed 26He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
The Parable of the Mustard Seed 30Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."
Wrong Question #2: How Do We Grow This Church? (How do we get them to come to us?)
Several decades of the church growth movement’s emphasis on methodologies have conditioned church leaders to look for the next program, the latest “model,” the latest fad in ministry programming to help “grow” the church. I am constantly asked, “what’s next?” The focus of the church is on itself, on what it takes to succeed.
I believe wholeheartedly that we must change. But there is a difference between revolutionary change and evolutionary change. We are not looking for the next model or expression of church. Our church model will flow from the people that make it up and the nature in which they live their life. We want to be value-driven, not model driven. We can drive ourselves crazy in pursuit of the perfect model, living in a world of either-or, when we desperately need to adopt a both-and view of church. Either-or thinking leads to inaction because your mind will never stop and your feet will never start. We buckle under this kind of pressure, throw our hands up in the air in frustration. Remember that if we pursue church we may in fact miss Jesus. But if we pursue Jesus. who is alive and active today, we will get the best church imaginable.
People who are successful or competent in one way of thinking frequently resist a new approach. This is why revolutionaries wind up as the defenders of the status quo.
Tough Question #2: How Do We Transform Our Community (How do we hit the streets with the gospel?)
If they aren’t going to come to us, then we’ve got to go to them. This is turning the church inside out. We can keep trying to get them to want what we have or we can start offering what they need.
It's a bit cliche I know, but we are a church that says "go and be" not "come and see".
Missional spirituality requires that God’s people be captured by his heart for people, that our hearts be broken for what breaks his, that we rejoice in what brings him joy.
Our hearts need to be captured for all of his people, not simply the church-going ones. What breaks God's heart? What brings him joy?
The message to people outside the bubble is: Become like us, believe like us, dress like us, vote like us, act like us, like what we like, don’t like what we don’t like.
Remember that Jesus was full of scandalous grace and radical acceptance.
Kingdom thinking challenges church thinking.
Where are you currently being challenged in your thinking?
I think we are unaware of what we have to offer people.
Are you in touch with your story in God? Is your faith fresh and active? Is it easier for you to talk about church than Jesus? It it personal?
We’ve got to take the gospel to the streets. This is the only appropriate missional response to the collapse of the church culture.
I agree. It is time to put the ministry of the church in the hands of the people and the church back on the streets where it belongs.
Where are you seeing the kingdom grow in your own city and community? Where is the kingdom breaking in? Let us know.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
What Is Success?
I recently had the thought that goes a little something like this...
What if "successful" is not really success at all? What if we've been playing with the wrong scorecard? The wrong set of rules?
At MH we are committed to measure success by stories of transformation. Here are a couple comments I received this week from those participating in the journey.
"Just wanted to say we really enjoyed Mars Hill this last Sunday. We're both really drawn to the mission and ideas about being the church/followers of Jesus, instead of just going to church. Thanks for all you (that's you too) do!"
"Hi there! I just wanted to let you know that your message last week had a huge impact on my friend. She has gone through a big unexpected life stress and she has picked up the phrase "unforced rhythms of grace" (see Matthew 11:25-30 in the Message) as her motto. I know it is God's awesome compassion and love that prodded her to come on Sunday. I appreciate the sacred space that Mars Hill creates that allows for grief and celebration. Have a super great week!"
We'd love to hear bits and pieces of your story - your journey!
What if "successful" is not really success at all? What if we've been playing with the wrong scorecard? The wrong set of rules?
At MH we are committed to measure success by stories of transformation. Here are a couple comments I received this week from those participating in the journey.
"Just wanted to say we really enjoyed Mars Hill this last Sunday. We're both really drawn to the mission and ideas about being the church/followers of Jesus, instead of just going to church. Thanks for all you (that's you too) do!"
"Hi there! I just wanted to let you know that your message last week had a huge impact on my friend. She has gone through a big unexpected life stress and she has picked up the phrase "unforced rhythms of grace" (see Matthew 11:25-30 in the Message) as her motto. I know it is God's awesome compassion and love that prodded her to come on Sunday. I appreciate the sacred space that Mars Hill creates that allows for grief and celebration. Have a super great week!"
We'd love to hear bits and pieces of your story - your journey!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The Collapse of The Church Culture.
Hey - Going to blog my way through a recent read, "The Present Future". Read this through with a group of serving leaders to our new and forming community. I'll throw out the thought and ideas shared in the book, make a few comments here and there and hopefully respond to your own reflections and responses.
Here goes...
I believe the search for models can often short-circuit a significant part of a leader’s journey into obedience to God. The Bible is not a book of models; it is a record of radical obediences of people who listened and responded to the direction of God for their lives. I am not looking for the next way to do church, I am looking for and following the person of Jesus, the most loving gentle revolutionary I've met.
New Reality Number One –The death of the church culture as we know it will not be the death of the church. This church culture has become confused with biblical Christianity, both inside the church and out.
A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith. Do you know anybody that has an active faith and life in God, and does not participate in a local church? I do.
Wrong Question #1 – How Do We Do Church Better?
We've talked a lot about this through the MH Journey. Our aim is to BE the church. What does BEing the church look like and entail for you? What do you value along the way? How do you spend time? What does your community look like? What role does the local church play in all of this?
Faced with diminishing returns on investment of money, time, and energy, church leaders have spent much of the last five decades trying to figure out how to do church.
Many congregations and church leaders, faced with the collapse of the church culture, have responded by adopting a refuge mentality. This is the perspective reflected in the approach to ministry that withdraws from the culture. We want to engage and shape the current culture and create the future culture of OKC? What ministry are you a part of that does not directly benefit other Christians?
Evangelism is this worldview is about churching the unchurched, not connecting people to Jesus.
Some churches go to the opposite extreme. Instead of choosing refuge, their response to the collapse of the church culture is to sell out to the culture.
I am beginning to think that we need to "unchurch" the "churched" a bit.
The point is, all the effort to fix the church misses the point. You can build the perfect church – and they still won’t come. Church-hopping is for church people. Church leaders seem unable to grasp this simple implication of the new world – people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them.
I am sick of trying to dream up or craft a perfect church. I'll take it messy and beautiful. In the hands of wonderfully ordinary hero people like you and me.
Tough Question #1 – How do we deconvert from churchianity to Christianity?
North American Christians think in terms of its institutional expression, the church, as opposed to thinking about Christianity in terms of a movement.
A movement necessitates, well, movement. Where are we going? Where are we stuck?
Are we inviting people to become followers of Jesus OR to convert to the church.
I want to put the person of Jesus on display and invite people to put their faith in him by beginning to live a certain kind of way, the best kind of way, the way of Jesus.
Is there a chance that the nonchurch culture doesn’t associate Jesus with the church.
We need to recapture the mission of the church. In the bible we encounter a God who is on a redemptive mission in the world. The central act of God in the OT is the Exodus – a divine intervention into human history to liberate his people from oppression and slavery. The decisive act of the NT is the divine intervention of God into human history to liberate his people from oppression and slavery. And now God has a purpose and an assignment for the liberated people. They were chosen to be the priests of God, representing him to the whole earth.
The vision seems clear, consistent and ongoing.
The church was never intended to exist for itself. Jesus preached that God was for people, not against them. People don’t trust religious institutions because they see them as inherently self-serving. So they are off on their own search for God.
The church has lost its influence because it has lost its identity. It has lost its identity because it has lost its mission. The church’s mission: to join God in his redemptive efforts to save the world.
When I read the above mentioned mission of the church, bells went off in my head and heart. That's the mission and identity of Mars Hill: to join God where he is already at work among us in downtown and midtown Oklahoma City in his redemptive efforts to save not condemn those he loves both Christian and UnChristian.
Here goes...
I believe the search for models can often short-circuit a significant part of a leader’s journey into obedience to God. The Bible is not a book of models; it is a record of radical obediences of people who listened and responded to the direction of God for their lives. I am not looking for the next way to do church, I am looking for and following the person of Jesus, the most loving gentle revolutionary I've met.
New Reality Number One –The death of the church culture as we know it will not be the death of the church. This church culture has become confused with biblical Christianity, both inside the church and out.
A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith. Do you know anybody that has an active faith and life in God, and does not participate in a local church? I do.
Wrong Question #1 – How Do We Do Church Better?
We've talked a lot about this through the MH Journey. Our aim is to BE the church. What does BEing the church look like and entail for you? What do you value along the way? How do you spend time? What does your community look like? What role does the local church play in all of this?
Faced with diminishing returns on investment of money, time, and energy, church leaders have spent much of the last five decades trying to figure out how to do church.
Many congregations and church leaders, faced with the collapse of the church culture, have responded by adopting a refuge mentality. This is the perspective reflected in the approach to ministry that withdraws from the culture. We want to engage and shape the current culture and create the future culture of OKC? What ministry are you a part of that does not directly benefit other Christians?
Evangelism is this worldview is about churching the unchurched, not connecting people to Jesus.
Some churches go to the opposite extreme. Instead of choosing refuge, their response to the collapse of the church culture is to sell out to the culture.
I am beginning to think that we need to "unchurch" the "churched" a bit.
The point is, all the effort to fix the church misses the point. You can build the perfect church – and they still won’t come. Church-hopping is for church people. Church leaders seem unable to grasp this simple implication of the new world – people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them.
I am sick of trying to dream up or craft a perfect church. I'll take it messy and beautiful. In the hands of wonderfully ordinary hero people like you and me.
Tough Question #1 – How do we deconvert from churchianity to Christianity?
North American Christians think in terms of its institutional expression, the church, as opposed to thinking about Christianity in terms of a movement.
A movement necessitates, well, movement. Where are we going? Where are we stuck?
Are we inviting people to become followers of Jesus OR to convert to the church.
I want to put the person of Jesus on display and invite people to put their faith in him by beginning to live a certain kind of way, the best kind of way, the way of Jesus.
Is there a chance that the nonchurch culture doesn’t associate Jesus with the church.
We need to recapture the mission of the church. In the bible we encounter a God who is on a redemptive mission in the world. The central act of God in the OT is the Exodus – a divine intervention into human history to liberate his people from oppression and slavery. The decisive act of the NT is the divine intervention of God into human history to liberate his people from oppression and slavery. And now God has a purpose and an assignment for the liberated people. They were chosen to be the priests of God, representing him to the whole earth.
The vision seems clear, consistent and ongoing.
The church was never intended to exist for itself. Jesus preached that God was for people, not against them. People don’t trust religious institutions because they see them as inherently self-serving. So they are off on their own search for God.
The church has lost its influence because it has lost its identity. It has lost its identity because it has lost its mission. The church’s mission: to join God in his redemptive efforts to save the world.
When I read the above mentioned mission of the church, bells went off in my head and heart. That's the mission and identity of Mars Hill: to join God where he is already at work among us in downtown and midtown Oklahoma City in his redemptive efforts to save not condemn those he loves both Christian and UnChristian.
Monday, September 10, 2007
People of The Way.
Great Gathering this week. Loved worshipping with Jenna Davis (http://www.jennadavismusic.com/).
The Art of Living.
John 10:10 says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
I came that they (A)may have life, and have it abundantly.
I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it [a]overflows).
My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
I came so they might have life, a great full life.
I have come so they can have life. I want them to have it in the fullest possible way.
I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”
John 8:31 says, “31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
"If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you."
The truth gives freedom to be you...The best version of you…the best possible way to live.
If…Then...The truth will set you free
Live as I made you to live…
Jesus is not inviting us to know things in our heads, believe
Inviting us to live in such a way that we experience something, the living god
Not interested in a head full of facts, live a certain way
Before they were called Christians (AD 60), they were called Followers of the way or “People of The Way”…known for how they lived…the way…huge meals…make sure everybody has enough…needy…share…take care of each other…widows and orphans…compassion…poor and needy
If you make the Christian faith this floaty spiritual thing…you miss Jesus’ message…
Knowing comes from living….then you know the truth
THE WAYS OF JESUS
Matthew 6:12 says, “12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Center of the new way of living is to live as we have been forgiven and to extend forgiveness to others.
See Matthew 18:21-35 says, “A Story About Forgiveness"
Live as if you’ve been forgiven by god…and when you’re wronged, set them free…
WHO DO YOU NEED TO FORGIVE…SET FREE?
See Matthew 6:25-34.
What is a better way to live? Full of panic, bound by worry, anxiety or not.
Where do you need to be set free from panic, worry, stress, anxiety.
Living as if you trust god, don’t worry don’t be anxious
Let god take care of you
See Matthew 11:20-30, “The Unforced Rhythms of Grace"
Take my teachings, my yoke, my way
Different rabbis had different sets of rules, which were really different lists of what they forbade and what they permitted. A rabbi’s set of rules and lists, which was really that rabbi’s interpretation of how to live the Torah, was called that rabbi’s yoke. When you followed a certain rabbi, you were following him because you believed that rabbi’s set of interpretations were closest to what God intended through the Scriptures. And when you followed that rabbi, you were taking up that rabbi’s yoke.
One rabbi even said his yoke was easy.
The intent of a rabbi having a yoke wasn’t just to interpret the words correctly, it was to live them out. In the Jewish context, action was always the goal. It still is.
See James 1:22-25 & James 2:14-25.
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Every once in a while, a rabbi would come along who was teaching a new yoke, a new way of interpreting the Torah. This was rare and extraordinary.
Where are you weary? What is the burden you now carry? Could your soul use some rest? What do you need to learn about the unforced rhythms of grace?
See Matthew 18:15-17.
Who has hurt you? Do they know about it? Or are you just spreading it all over the place?
See John 17:20-23.
Who do you have junk with? What are you avoiding? Who are you severed from? What funky relationship?
See Matthew 20:25-28.
I came to serve you, when you live in my flow you serve and give your life away
People that are selfish live in a world that is shrinking…those that give and serve their world gets bigger and its growing…you are here as a gift to the world…try living this way as a servant wired by god to give to others
How do you orient your life, as one who is serving? Have you come to serve and give your life? In giving our life away, we find it!
See John 20:24-31.
Bunch of stuff Jesus did that is not in the bible, but what I’ve written down is so that you would believe and that by believing you might have life…live it out…believe it so that it will affect how you live so you will have life in his name
If it’s a head thing…you’ve missed it…you believe so that you begin to live…start to live a certain way…just try it…take a leap and try living…the best way
If you were to visit a church gathering in the first 200 years, “I want to be a Christian” they would say begin living the way and teachings of Jesus…to begin living this way…not to start believing a particular way or getting all of your questions answered...if it stuck after a year or two…you would stand up in front of the community…and say it is true…you would say I have become a “follower of Jesus”…
The Art of Living.
John 10:10 says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
I came that they (A)may have life, and have it abundantly.
I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it [a]overflows).
My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
I came so they might have life, a great full life.
I have come so they can have life. I want them to have it in the fullest possible way.
I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”
John 8:31 says, “31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
"If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you."
The truth gives freedom to be you...The best version of you…the best possible way to live.
If…Then...The truth will set you free
Live as I made you to live…
Jesus is not inviting us to know things in our heads, believe
Inviting us to live in such a way that we experience something, the living god
Not interested in a head full of facts, live a certain way
Before they were called Christians (AD 60), they were called Followers of the way or “People of The Way”…known for how they lived…the way…huge meals…make sure everybody has enough…needy…share…take care of each other…widows and orphans…compassion…poor and needy
If you make the Christian faith this floaty spiritual thing…you miss Jesus’ message…
Knowing comes from living….then you know the truth
THE WAYS OF JESUS
Matthew 6:12 says, “12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Center of the new way of living is to live as we have been forgiven and to extend forgiveness to others.
See Matthew 18:21-35 says, “A Story About Forgiveness"
Live as if you’ve been forgiven by god…and when you’re wronged, set them free…
WHO DO YOU NEED TO FORGIVE…SET FREE?
See Matthew 6:25-34.
What is a better way to live? Full of panic, bound by worry, anxiety or not.
Where do you need to be set free from panic, worry, stress, anxiety.
Living as if you trust god, don’t worry don’t be anxious
Let god take care of you
See Matthew 11:20-30, “The Unforced Rhythms of Grace"
Take my teachings, my yoke, my way
Different rabbis had different sets of rules, which were really different lists of what they forbade and what they permitted. A rabbi’s set of rules and lists, which was really that rabbi’s interpretation of how to live the Torah, was called that rabbi’s yoke. When you followed a certain rabbi, you were following him because you believed that rabbi’s set of interpretations were closest to what God intended through the Scriptures. And when you followed that rabbi, you were taking up that rabbi’s yoke.
One rabbi even said his yoke was easy.
The intent of a rabbi having a yoke wasn’t just to interpret the words correctly, it was to live them out. In the Jewish context, action was always the goal. It still is.
See James 1:22-25 & James 2:14-25.
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Every once in a while, a rabbi would come along who was teaching a new yoke, a new way of interpreting the Torah. This was rare and extraordinary.
Where are you weary? What is the burden you now carry? Could your soul use some rest? What do you need to learn about the unforced rhythms of grace?
See Matthew 18:15-17.
Who has hurt you? Do they know about it? Or are you just spreading it all over the place?
See John 17:20-23.
Who do you have junk with? What are you avoiding? Who are you severed from? What funky relationship?
See Matthew 20:25-28.
I came to serve you, when you live in my flow you serve and give your life away
People that are selfish live in a world that is shrinking…those that give and serve their world gets bigger and its growing…you are here as a gift to the world…try living this way as a servant wired by god to give to others
How do you orient your life, as one who is serving? Have you come to serve and give your life? In giving our life away, we find it!
See John 20:24-31.
Bunch of stuff Jesus did that is not in the bible, but what I’ve written down is so that you would believe and that by believing you might have life…live it out…believe it so that it will affect how you live so you will have life in his name
If it’s a head thing…you’ve missed it…you believe so that you begin to live…start to live a certain way…just try it…take a leap and try living…the best way
If you were to visit a church gathering in the first 200 years, “I want to be a Christian” they would say begin living the way and teachings of Jesus…to begin living this way…not to start believing a particular way or getting all of your questions answered...if it stuck after a year or two…you would stand up in front of the community…and say it is true…you would say I have become a “follower of Jesus”…
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