The Gospel Playboy

Memphis, BDC, and the Church

2012-01-23T16:29:00.007-06:00

"So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" 2 Corinthians 5:17, NRSV

This weekend something incredible happened.

250 volunteers from all over Memphis gathered to help the Binghampton Development Corporation (BDC) begin renovation on 20 apartments located in one of the poorest areas of Memphis. It was incredible because no one expected 250 people to show up. It was incredible because we filled more than four construction dumpsters full of gross, smelly, moldy drywall, carpet and vinyl. It was incredible because most crews finished hours ahead of schedule. It was...incredible.

As I stood looking out at the crowd who had gathered, it struck me that this event - probably more than any gathering I had attended - embodied the coming new creation when all things would be made new, not just this decaying building.

In the midst of this crowd were people of many tribes, languages, and nations. They came from many Christian traditions, and at no time did I hear anyone argue about Baptist vs. Methodist vs. Catholic vs. Evangelical. No one debated transubstantiation. No heated conversations about worship styles, old hymns vs. contemporary praise music. Mega-church vs. house-church. Small groups as opposed to Sunday school.

We prayed together, we worked together (yes, I believe that we will have good work to do in the new creation!), we ate together. We celebrated what we were doing in Jesus' name.

In a tabloid-media-soaked culture where only the scoundrels get noticed, the body of Jesus quietly came together without fanfare to transform a community in Memphis. What a marvelous day.

For more about the Binghampton Development Corporation, check out http://www.bdcmemphis.org

The Christmas Gospel

2011-12-15T17:30:00.003-06:00

Want a good addition to your Advent readings? Scot McKnight has a great gospel series going over at Jesus creed. Really, really good reading for Advent.

Check out the first post here.

So Long, Moses

2011-12-08T15:51:00.004-06:00

A friend turned me on to Andrew Peterson today, and specifically this fan video for "So Long Moses".

So good!

Who Are The Soterians?

2011-10-19T14:03:00.003-05:00

Here's a follow-up to yesterday's review of "The King Jesus Gospel" over at Scot McKnight's blog. Check it out here. It will help clarify the "Salvation Culture" vs. "Gospel Culture" I spoke about in my review.

Book Review: Scot McKnight's "The King Jesus Gospel"

2011-10-18T18:08:00.006-05:00

Some things in the Bible mess you up. Anyone who has spent even a nominal amount of time in scripture knows there are "difficult" passages, both difficult to understand or interpret, and difficult to put into practice. Something I read a few years ago didn't fall into either of these categories, but it messed with me just the same.

After his resurrection, Jesus engages two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. They are confused about the events of Jesus' trial and death, and even more by rumors of his resurrection (at this point, they don't know who he is). Luke then says in 24:27 "Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures" (NET Bible).

What messed with me on this particular day was the thought that I - a lifelong church attender - could not trace the story of Jesus "beginning with Moses and all the prophets". Yes, I knew that there were lots of footnoted texts in my New Testament where Jesus would quote the Old Testament. But I was sure there was something more.

Then, on studying in earnest - especially Luke - it amazed me how often Luke quoted or alluded to OT scriptures. This is Luke, the Gentile, not Matthew, the Jew. Luke knew the Old Testament story in great detail. Then I noticed it everywhere I looked: each time someone preached in Acts, they didn't give a compressed salvation story based on the passion narrative of Christ, they gave a long history of Israel, with Jesus as the culminating event. The early church fathers, even those who were gentiles, spoke in detail of Israel's story and referred often to the Old Testament.

Then, finally what messed me up was this: all my evangelical life I had been told a gospel that began with Paul. It was a justification / salvation story extracted from Paul's atonement theology. But how could this be "the good news", when all through "The Gospels", Jesus went around telling people "the good news"? The gospel that I professed for salvation was only a part of the story. The gospel included the Old Testament Israel story, and the story Jesus was telling his audiences. It was not just "Jesus died to take away your sins. Believe and you'll be saved".

That's probably the longest introduction I've ever made for a book review, but I hope you'll see why I was intrigued enough to snatch up a copy of Scot McKnight's new book, "The King Jesus Gospel" as soon as it was released. In "The King Jesus Gospel", Scot pleads the case for a broader understanding of gospel and a new gospel culture. He contrasts his understanding of "The Gospel" and a gospel culture with the current "salvation culture", based on a small piece, albiet truth, of the good news of Jesus. "I want to raise a red flag right now", he writes, "our Method of Persuasion is shaped by a salvation culture and is designed from first to last to get people to make a decision so they can come safely inside the boundary lines of The Decided" (p. 43).

The gospel, he says, is a culmination of the story of Israel. "The Story of Jesus though, is first and foremost a resolution of Israel's story and because the Jesus Story completes Israel's story, it saves." (p. 37) "The fundamental solution in the gospel is that Jesus is Messiah and Lord; this means there was a fundamental need for a ruler, a king, and a lord." (p. 137)

Scot's argument is that the common pressure in evangelicalism to "make a decision" for Christ doesn't lead people to become disciples. Instead, it allows them to escape hell. A gospel that says "Jesus is Messiah and Lord" demands a very different decision: submit, follow, or...rebel (my interpretation). And because of that decision, it creates a very different culture.

I'm sketching ever so briefly here, but this has the potential to change so many things in our churches, beginning with the way we "do" evangelism. At one point Scot says "There is no way to reduce this (the gospel) to four points, and there is also no way to sketch the gospel in a minute or two." I was relieved to hear him say this. I have long been a student of evangelism methods, and frankly, I'm dismayed at how many books, videos, and sermons have been dedicated to creating a napkin sketch or an elevator pitch that presents a coherent gospel. It can't be done. And I think it does a disservice to the story that God has put together to try to minimize it to this level. A napkin sketch gospel is perfectly suited to create the Jesus disciples we have been making. I don't think we have to fret over lost opportunity if we don't have a planned 3 minute testimony or elevator pitch. I've had plenty of opportunities to tell a complete gospel story. It's a story that takes time to tell, and it won't always be told in one setting. But it's a good story and if it's told well, then it's hearers can make informed, committed decisions about the God they choose to follow.

I'll close with two points. First, Scot mentions in passing a book by Sean Gladding called "The Story of God, the Story of Us" as an example of telling the gospel. I met Sean last year and heard him do a live reading from his book. I bought a copy, took it home and read it to my family over a series of months. It was a wonderful experience. There were so many conversations that flowed from those nights. I highly recommend the book. Scot also presents a shorter, but also very solid telling of the gospel in the closing chapters of the book. These are great examples of how to do the story well.

Second, I'll have to say that though the material was good, sometimes I had trouble following Scot's writing style. The only other book of his I've read was "The Blue Parakeet", and I didn't have the same issues with that book. Something about this book was a little clunky. It's almost like his editors didn't read the book for clarity. The book presented its case, but not as concisely as perhaps it could.

On Prayer

2011-08-02T21:34:00.003-05:00

An Embarrassment by Wendell Berry

"Do you want to ask

the blessing?"

"No. If you do,

go ahead."

He went ahead:

his prayer dressed up

in Sunday clothes

rose a few feet

and dropped with a soft

thump.

If a lonely soul

did ever cry out

in company its true

outcry to God,

it would be as though

at a sedate party

a man suddenly

removed his clothes

and took his wife

passionately into his arms.

The Problem of Time

2011-07-14T15:01:00.000-05:00

There's just not enough time.

If you're a parent, you've probably heard that your relationship with your kids isn't about quality time (you can't budget such a thing), or the quantity of time you spend with them. It's about the quality of quantity time. The more time you spend with someone, the more opportunities you have to find moments of quality within the time spent.

The bedrock of relationship is time.

And I'm sure you have your finger on the left-mouse button, ready to click on another link, because you know this already. And in your mind you're saying, "I knew that already", and I know that just like me, you don't have any margin in your day. BUT DON'T LEAVE YET.

Here's what I'm discovering: I have begun moving among a population of people who demand my time. Maybe they always have, but I'm just now discovering it. And they are demanding that time because they have lots of time to spend.

My neighbor, who doesn't have a "real" job, but instead does odd jobs as he finds them.
The old lady down the block who cares for several of generations of children, but who has no need to be anywhere "on time".
The retirees who meet at Starbucks every morning.

They all want chunks of time from my day. Not just bits of "hello", but long swaths of storytelling, reminiscing, and problem solving. Sometimes I'm annoyed by what I perceive as theft. I tell my wife when I go check the mail, "If I'm not back in 15 minutes, come get me". But if I'm humble and open to learning from someone else, I realize that these people are rich. Besides having what I consider to be "too much time on their hands", what these people have in common is two things: One, they are never in a hurry. How many times have I yelled at my kids for playing with Star Wars figures instead of getting ready to go? How many times have I argued with my wife because she's lost her keys and we have somewhere to be right now? How many times have I cussed the car in front of me (who is driving the speed limit) because I can't get there fast enough? You can't hurry your way to peace.

The second thing these folks have in common is that they are always surrounded by people. My neighbor always has two or three guys hanging out with him. They share the work, they share a beer (or two or three), they share laughs. The old lady down the street is surrounded by children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. The retirees are gathered together, a congregation of world-problem solvers.

I'm afraid of what it would take to create enough white space in my life to support this kind of time. How would your routine have to change? Would you need to change careers? Would you have to drop a hobby, an association, one of your kids' sports teams? Would you have to stop going to the church you attend? Is it even important enough to make a change?

Pour Me Another Cup - Thoughts on Lent

2011-04-28T14:37:00.000-05:00

I couldn't wait until Monday. It had been a full 40 days since I had gulped down a caffeinated cup of coffee. I had also sworn off caffeinated tea, any kind of soda and anything alcoholic, all for Lent.

Now here are a few things you need to know. First, I am a huge consumer of coffee. In fact, the coffee producers of the world may have thought that their drop in sales over the last month was due to increased fuel prices, but in reality, it was because I had sworn off the stuff. Second, this is the first time I've ever practiced any kind of fast for Lent. The Protestant tradition I grew up in did not recognize Lent (or, really Easter) as a religious celebration or observance. So in celebrating this season, I was breaking new ground personally.

I tried to keep the whole thing quiet - Jesus says that our fasts should not be done to gain attention for ourselves, so I merely told folks that I was trying to decaffeinate, which was completely, honestly, true. Though I didn't tell them why I was decaffeinating.

Which I suppose is the reason for this post. Why give up anything? And why coffee, soda, and alcohol? And did it make a difference?

First of all, the reason I chose to give up my big three is because the time of Lent is a fast to remind us of Jesus' 40 days of fasting in the desert, and to remind us of the days leading up to his death, burial and resurrection. And, usually in the tradition of fasting, it leads us to change something about our own lives. And there are some things I needed to change. I felt that more than anything else, these outside inputs had the potential to alter my personality and mood. Why am I so dang grouchy? It might be because I take in too much caffeine. Why do I lack energy? It could be because of too much sugar. How does a couple of glasses of wine affect me physically, mentally, and relationally? In the big picture, all of these areas of my life and health affect the way I treat others, so I wanted to remove them from the equation to see if it improved the way I relate to my wife, my kids, and my neighbors.

The results are mixed. I have some good news, and some bad news. The good news is, coffee doesn't affect my sleep. What I mean by that is, I've had a terrible time getting a good night's sleep for years. I go through cycles where I don't sleep at all. I've chocked it up to too much caffeine every day. But it's a vicious cycle - you drink too much coffee, you don't sleep, so in the morning you're tired, so you drink more coffee. But it turns out, during the 40 days of Lent, I still didn't sleep worth a darn. And that's good news how? Because that means I can drink as much coffee, soda, and alcohol as I want, and it wont' make a difference in my sleep patterns. That's good (in a warped kind of way).

Here's the bad news. I was really, really, hoping that the change in my inputs would change my own outputs. I was hoping that too much caffeine was the reason I was angry so often. I was hoping that the reason my kids got on my nerves so quickly was because I was electrified with coffee and soda. I was sure that I would quit jumping down my wife's throat once I removed the black stuff. I was envisioning me being a peaceful, encouraging, Jesus-like husband and father after 40 days, but, no. It turns out that's not necessarily the case.

Which means it's just me. I'm just that way, and I have to deal with myself - the stuff on the inside, instead of the stuff coming from the outside. Gee, I think Jesus said something about this: "Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean." Mark 7:15.

But I think it's worth 40 days to discover this. It means I have a lot of work to do, but I at least know where to start. No more excuses.

What about you - have you ever practiced a fast for Lent? Did you discover anything about yourself? Tell us.

Unplug

2011-03-09T01:00:00.002-06:00

Last Friday evening we unplugged. No phones. No computers. No video games. No television/movies.

If you know me well, you know that I have a love/hate relationship with technology. It's my bread and butter. God has blessed me with a pretty good understanding of how technology works (or DOESN'T work, in many cases). However - and I know this may sound funny - I have a huge respect for the Amish approach to adopting technology.

In general, the mainstream approach to any technology, be it computers, 3-D televisions, air conditioning, tractors, or GMO food crops, is to leap first, then clean up after the mess. We are often enamored with the whiz-bang of new technologies and can't wait to climb aboard. Then we try to figure out why our wives ran off with their Facebook lovers, why our kids are obese after playing video games all day, and why our husbands are addicted to porn.

The Amish, as I understand them, carefully evaluate technology from the perspective of how the technology will affect the community. For example, an Amish community may choose to avoid petroleum driven tractors and stick with horse-drawn plows for many reasons; The debt load that modern tractors and implements puts on a small family farmer is foolish in most cases. Heavy tractors compact the soil and make it less productive. Diesel-powered farm equipment allows for quicker harvest by fewer workers, but drives up unemployment and destroys the sense of community that is built when several families come together to help each other. The Amish are a people who recognize the value of inter-dependence instead of the buying in to the impossible dream of independence. But get this - each community may come to a different conclusion. What one Amish community may decide is verboten another may implement because the community functions in a different way. But regardless, they examine the affects together and make decisions together. They are skeptical first instead of accepting first.

So when "National Day of Unplugging" rolled around I couldn't wait to climb aboard. We try to regularly practice a fairly tech-free, commerce free sabbath anyway, but turning everything off was extreme even for us. When Jacob, my 13 year-old heard the news, he flatly declared "Well, I'm going to (insert friend's name here) for the weekend!"

But the weekend was great. We played games. We lit candles. Each family member made home-made, personalized pizzas (with home-made, from scratch pizza dough!) We went to bed early and got up late. We ate lots of good food. My 11-year old spontaneously screamed, at the top of his lungs "This is terrific!"

If I could encourage you to take anything away from this post, it would be this:

Carefully evaluate how you consume every kind of technology. How will it affect your family? How will it affect the way you interact with your neighbors? How does it make you feel?
Take a day off. Eat. Sleep. Rest. I promise God will keep the world spinning even if you don't check email, text messages or voice mail. Trust God to do what only He can do. (A great resource on Sabbath is The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel).

Do you take a day off? How much thought do you put into it? What does it look like? Tell us?

Welcome Back?

2011-03-08T17:18:00.000-06:00

First of all, let's get the introductions out of the way:

"Remember me? I'm Dave. Yes, I know it's been a while, but I've been busy."

And that's the truth. At the beginning of the year I started making some changes to my online identity. I have too many passions, too many hobbies to dump everything in one blog and one twitter account. So I'm currently splitting those off into different "identities". For everyday stuff, along with ministry topics, @d_w_scott and The Gospel Playboy blog (here) will be the place to go. For gardening, bee keeping, and all things food, the hub is now @memphisfarmer on Twitter and memphisbackyardfarmer.wordpress.com. This is where most of my posting energy has gone lately. And finally, I'm working on a tech persona that has some pieces released, but is not yet complete. It will essentially be my business blog and twitter account, and will come online soon.

I have several posts built up for this blog that I'll be releasing over the next few days, so - welcome back, and stay tuned!

Work-Life Balance

2011-02-17T10:00:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Judah for this link. Excellent thoughts here.

Never Underestimate Small Changes

2010-08-02T13:42:00.000-05:00

Quick post.

Since mid-January we've had a friend living with us. She recently moved back to Memphis and needed a home base while she got a job here in town and found her own place. We had an empty room so it seemed like a good fit, and from our perspective, it's gone well.

This weekend she moved out. She landed the job she wanted and found an apartment in mid-town Memphis, much cooler, I'm sure, than our house full of kids.

One thing I've lamented over the summer is the lack of traffic from neighborhood kids. We usually have lots of kids coming in and out here at the house, but honestly, it's been rather slow. I attributed the change to the heat, and I'm sure that had something to do with it (it's currently over 100 in Memphis, and I know MY kids would rather stay inside and play video games than go outside).

But it turns out that one of the major factors keeping kids away was our boarder. When she moved in she brought with her two dogs: a husky-mix and a boxer. Both are wonderfully gentle female lap-dogs. They wouldn't hurt a flea, and truthfully are more scared of outsiders than you would expect. Compared to our Jack-Russell terriers, however, they're big dogs.

Big enough to scare off neighborhood kids.

This morning I have 2 kids wandering the house, thrilled to be back inside. They're high-fiving me and exploring the recent changes we've made to the boys' rooms. They've been scared of coming in the house because of the imposing presence of our friend's two dogs. Now that they're gone, these kids feel safe to come back.

Never underestimate the power even the smallest of changes can have on your ability to reach people. In trying to do good for our friend, we were oblivious to how it would impact others we cared about. We ignored the social and ethinic differences between us and our neighbors that would alienate us from them. Given the opportunity, would I say "no" to my friend and tell her to find another place? Absolutely not. But I would take the time to find out how it would affect the kids in my neighborhood. Maybe invite them to come check out the dogs for themselves to ease their concerns.

Just another example of how we can underestimate the differences between people and cultures.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

2010-07-29T21:57:00.001-05:00

Just 6 days ago I finished up a week with kids from Memphis Urban Ministry's day camp. What a week.

If you don't know MUM, they've been ministering to urban, poverty soaked areas of Memphis like Frayser, Foote/Claiborne homes downtown, and my neighborhood of Raleigh for years. Sure they've planted churches, but they've also poured themselves into neighborhoods by relocating their own families there. They've held day camps during the summer that not only gave kids a safe place to be, but also helped with life skills like reading and writing. MUM holds "school stores" where parents can purchase discounted school supplies for their kids and "Christmas stores" where parents can shop for Christmas presents for their kids. All with dignity and respect.

The first days of camp were rough as the kids tested me to see if I really did want to be with them. They always test for the first few visits, after all, there are a lot of people that come and go in their lives. And let's face it, Memphis isn't known for close relationships between whites and African Americans (after the 1971 court decision to force bussing in order to desegregate public schools, more than 30,000 whites left the school system, creating the largest private school population in the country. Yeah, you could say we don't always get along).

But after two days, things changed. Beautifully. Huge hugs from little girls. "Sit by me!" screams at lunch. "Can I ride shotgun with you?" during van rides. Suddenly I had a whole new group of little friends. Meanwhile, my wife had a bunk mate during the week. A little girl scared to sleep alone came to sleep with a camp "mama". Little kids just crawled up in her lap. And my boys fell right in with the crew - they basically made friends and disappeared for the week.

One of the highlights for me was watching Josh. Not my Josh, but Big Josh from camp. I don't know how long Josh has been coming to MUM camps, but I remember him and his sister from years past. Josh is now 14 years old. He wanted to be a counselor this year and was crushed when he was told "not yet". But leaders are leaders no matter what title they're given. The younger kids looked up to him and came to him for advice. In situations where many kids would have lost their cool, Josh kept his, no doubt because of the example he's been given. Josh is positioned to be a leader. He has the potential to lead a whole generation of young kids in his neighborhood to something different, with the help of MUM. But I can't imagine the pressure he'll face just in the next year to do things that could completely derail his future. I want to go to camp with Josh next year and watch how he uses the leadership God's given him.

Pray for Josh. Pray for Dorn and Jim at Memphis Urban Ministries. Support these guys as they raise indigenous leaders in urban communities of Memphis. And hey - GIVE to Memphis Urban Ministries. They've just launched out as a 501c3 and they need funds to continue being Jesus to the City of Memphis. You can give to MUM at http://www.memphisurbanministry.com/donate.html.

Flip the Funnel

2010-07-06T22:39:00.000-05:00

I was thinking the other day about some of the things that "work" in our neighborhood. What helps us connect with the kids on the block?

It occurred to me that much of what I do with the kids here is what I learned as a minister to children and youth. Youth ministry and children's ministry is a mission field; you study the culture and engage your audience with the things that connect with them, things like sports, television shows, music, and video games. You must speak their language and try understand what kids are experiencing.

Then I really started thinking...Maybe our churches have their ministry paradigms turned upside down.

Even in this era of "family ministry" and "partnering" with parents, we professionals are still doing ministry essentially the same way. The ministries I've seen are still planning the next big, attractional thing. We're still trying to get the kids in the door with the "wow" factor. And children and youth ministers still seem to be focusing on making themselves the cool connection point (I've been there, so I can say it). Often we try to be a hipster so that our kids and students will like us, will confide in us, and will keep coming back. Meanwhile, our parents are struggling to make those connections with their own kids, much less kids in their circle of influence. Many parents feel inadequate because of the failures they experience at home every day. In the shadow of the student pastor, many feel down right inept.

But what if we turned the funnel upside down? Professionals, what if - instead of focusing our efforts on making ourselves and our ministries look cool - we spent our time making parents look cool? What if we gave them the secrets to our success? What if we taught them how to connect with the kids in their neighborhood and gave them access to the resources we use? What if we helped them plan the next big thing at their houses so that kids from all over the neighborhood would flock there? I imagine that besides making great connections with neighbors, the cool factor of our parents would skyrocket with their own kids when the kids saw that their parents were the adults other kids wanted to be with.

Is it that we don't trust the adults in our churches? Is it too much work to train parents how to engage the culture? Are we afraid that our own influence might be diminished?

I don't know if it's as sinister as that, but I think equipping our church members to be the attraction - the "light" - in their neighborhoods is probably a worthy effort. Who wants to flip the funnel first?

Going Into Hiding

2010-05-10T16:29:00.000-05:00

One of the reasons I quit my job as a children's minister a few months ago had to do with rest. I just wasn't getting any. Between 2 jobs, a wife and four kids, extracurricular activities, and neighborhood ministry, I was burning the candle on both ends, with a wick that was about to meet in the middle.

Five months later, I've found that there still isn't much time for Sabbath. It's a particularly sticky problem. We try to pour ourselves into our neighbors, and the return is a rich relationship with so many kids, adults, and teenagers in the neighborhood. But what happens when there is a steady stream of people through your house at all hours, especially on weekends? I value my Saturday as a do-nothing, buy-nothing, sleep late, hibernate day of rest. But it seems that Saturday is still full of people. Last weekend I found myself at my wits end as one person after another showed up unannounced for either extended conversation or relief. There was no rest. And when I'm not allowed to recharge my relational batteries, I begin to short circuit. It pours over into my relationships at home, in my small group, with my ability to minister to others, and my ability to focus and be satisfied with my work.

This weekend I escaped. I whisked my family away into the woods for 3 days of uninterrupted family time. When my kids invited the kids in the next campsite to come play, I actually took my boys aside and said, "Listen - you won't hear me say this much, but - I don't want anyone else in our campsite this weekend. It's just us. Be nice, but don't invite anyone else to invade our time together".

It was worth it. I feel so much better today.

Sometimes I wonder if I should feel guilty for wanting to escape, but this weekend I remembered that my example, my Lord, found himself in the position of having to escape the crowds. Several times we read where Jesus tried to get away by himself. I figure if the creator of the universe needed to escape in order to recharge, then it's O.K. for us to do the same.

But I wonder - how do we position ourselves in such a way where we are deeply invested in the needs of our community, and yet still have a way to engage in restful solitude from time to time? I wonder how the "new monastics", who are even more deeply invested in their neighborhoods than my family, get some time for rest. Do they hang "Do Not Disturb" signs on their doors? How do you encourage relationship, but recharge when it's needed? Or is this a problem for introverts only? Do you thrive on relationship - the more the better - or are you drained of energy the more you interact with people (that's me)?

How do you recharge?

When Helping Hurts 5: Chapter 4 - Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3?

2010-03-31T15:50:00.000-05:00

Chapter 4 of "When Helping Hurts - How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting The Poor and Yourself" starts a new section. But before I dive in, let me take a minute to sum up my thoughts from Chapters 1-3.

Two thoughts that come to mind: First, we should closely examine the reasons why we are involved with the materially poor. Because we are financially better off than those we wish to "help", we put ourselves in a place of financial, moral, and spiritual superiority, even if we aren't aware of it initially. And, second, poverty alleviation is a relational endeavor. When we come to the realization that we are all in a place of poverty and in need of God's grace, we can enter into relationships with others where all can benefit. The need for mutually benefiting relationships in poverty alleviation is something I've heard John Perkins and Shane Claiborne talk of as well.

With those thoughts behind us, how, then, do we approach poverty alleviation? We're met with three choices in Chapter 4: Relief, rehabilitation, and development. Each has their own place, but how do we choose where to begin?

Relief is that place of immediate trauma or need. Think Haiti after its recent earthquakes. Think of a family in your neighborhood after a house fire. Money, clothes, and food are probably all needed to stabilize the family. This is material help.

But what the authors argue is that often we apply "relief" assistance in too many situations. Money, clothes and food are not always the answer. In fact, the authors state that seldom does anyone need relief-type assistance, but it's the easiest to apply (and it's easy to solicit), so we are quick to give.

Rehabilitation is what starts after the crisis is over. It's walking along side those in poverty (in relationship), supporting them as they help themselves leave poverty.

Development, then, is the process the two parties go through together as they help each other grow in giving glory to God in all of parts of their lives.

A couple of thoughts about this chapter.

Haiti is still fresh on all of our minds, but especially on mine for several reasons. First, because I finished reading this book just before the quake happened. Relief was (and is) needed in such a desperate way. Second, our (U.S.) history of relief and poverty alleviation in Haiti has been a disaster that instead of helping to lead Haiti out of poverty has led them deeper into poverty. Right now the world has a tremendous opportunity to do this right. What if...instead of heaping relief on this country, and using our own resources to rebuild the infrastructure, we taught the people of Haiti to do it themselves? What if we gave them the skills to be construction workers, engineers, architects, medical personnel, and shopkeepers? What if we used microfinance principles to help local business people buy supplies to aid in the rebuilding process, and set them on a course for future stability?

Something else that is emphasized in this chapter is the need for churches to have a handle on these three concepts in order to most effectively use benevolence funds. Great point. I wrote in my margin, "What assessment tools do we use?", knowing that my church doesn't have anything formal in place.

And last, poverty alleviation takes relationship, relationship, relationship. And that's what makes effective poverty alleviation so hard, isn't it? It means we have to be in a place physically where we are in relational situations with people who are materially poor. It's the concept of relocation in CCDA. It's the example of Jesus, moving among those who were economically and spiritually poor. This isn't comfortable for us. It also takes time. Lots of time. I think about it like this: I have never entered into a true friendship wondering how long the friendship will last. When we decide to come alongside someone who needs help, it means that we must be open to the chance that it may mean a life time of relationship. But that's OK when it is built on two people mutually helping each other. That's a friendship.

This is a great chapter. I underlined a good portion of the content. Please take the time to pick up this book and read it.

Stop, Children, What's That Sound?

2010-03-10T15:34:00.000-06:00

Spring has exploded on the scene here in Memphis. It was one of the coldest winters I can remember, but suddenly it's 70 degrees and my first buttercups have opened, revealing their bright yellow faces.

With the coming warmth, I've been putting around the yard working on garden plots, putting out early vegetables, and cleaning bee equipment. It sounds a little weird here in the middle of a Memphis neighborhood, but hey - that's how I roll.

I've discovered something about my time in the yard that really hit me full force last year. There are sounds in my neighborhood! I never noticed them before because I always had an iPod strapped to my hip and headphones firmly dug into my ears. There are unwelcome sounds, like loud cars and occasional gunshots (infrequent, thank goodness!). But there are wonderful sounds. Sounds of kids playing, sounds of birds singing and dogs barking. I've realized how out of tune I've been with neighborhood by failing to listen. It's like some tone-deaf man singing in the choir. Everyone else is working together to produce a beautiful melody except that one man, doing his own thing, oblivious to how the whole works together.

When you listen, you engage. When I hear the dogs bark, then I know they have encountered something that makes them anxious. When the kids are laughing and singing in the yard across the street, then all is well. When the loud music is banging away from the neighbor's car stereo system while he washes his car, then you know that you're not alone in enjoying the gift of good weather and creation that God has provided.

Now that I listen, I hear the children walk up behind me, suspicious of what I might be up to. I can spend anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour enrolling the neighborhood kids in gardening, cleaning, or just conversation. When I notice the man next door cleaning his work truck, it gives me an opportunity to ask how the business is going. When I hear a car roaring down the street, I can step out and give a nod, letting him know that I care about the kids on my block, and that he should too. Slow down.

It's easy to withdraw into our cocoons. I like to shut out the world and keep to myself. But the community - and I - am so much richer when I take the opportunity to listen and engage.

When Helping Hurts 4: Chapter 3: What's The Solution?

2010-03-01T18:26:00.001-06:00

In my last blog post we defined the problem of poverty using the definition from "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. But if we were successful at defining the problem, the next step would be to define the solution. Chapter 3 gives us two definitions of poverty alleviation:

1) The ministry of reconciliation: moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation.

2) Material Poverty Alleviation is working to reconcile the four foundational relationships so that people can fulfill their callings of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their families with the fruit of their work.

In terms of the relational nature of poverty, this is a great way to look at poverty alleviation. It's about restoring relationships, both personal and systemic, to the best of our broken ability within a broken world. And note how #2 is not about bringing people to a certain income level or trying to define what a non-poverty lifestyle looks like.

There's a lot more I can say about this chapter, but I want to camp out on a quote that comes within this section. Read this and think about it:

"The goal is not to make the materially poor all over the world into middle-to-upper-class North Americans, a group characterized by high rates of divorce, sexual addiction, substance abuse, and mental illness."

This was a tough quote for me, and more than likely is a hard quote for most of the people I know. I am not materially poor. I have a 2,400 sq ft. home, with two (albeit very used) cars, an income above the federal poverty level, health, life, and auto insurance for my family, and I can afford to eat healthy food every day. My picture of poverty alleviation looks like me. I'm not rich, but I'm not poor. Chances are, for most people like me, "success" looks like us.

But we have our own set of problems, don't we? Can we really say that middle-class America is what we want to transfer/export to the rest of the world? Is that what we want to transform our materially poor brothers and sisters into? One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received was from a guy named Ryan Fowler over at Memphis Urban Ministry. I was at my wits' end working with some families in my neighborhood who - I would say - live in a general state poverty. Looking for help, I fired off an email to Ryan asking for his help. I was way out of my league.

"What do I do?" "How do I help?" "I can't relate!"

He calmly told me to spend some time listening and learning from the people I was trying to help. That advice didn't make sense to me. I thought I was in the position of authority in the relationship. These people needed to learn from me, I didn't need to learn from them. But determined, I went back and decided to learn. It's hard to humble yourself and admit that you don't have all the answers (at least it's hard for me). What if they had more going for them than I thought? Could they know something I didn't? Could there be a part of their lives that was richer than mine?

We have to come to a point where we realize that God doesn't tell us to clone ourselves, instead we are to create disciples. We are to help each other come to a point where we glorify God in all we do, including our work and the support of our families. So the question leads us to the solution: How do we help each other grow to the point where we glorify God in all we do?

A last note: I don't want to leave this chapter without emphasizing something the authors do as well. Often the most important thing we middle-class church-going folk can do for those in poverty is open doors that we control. For business owners in your church, this means identifying and taking the risk to hire those who are poor, and paying them a wage that allows them to get ahead. It may be that the church itself hires poor people in order to train them in basic job skills and give them experience that will help them launch into a career. We (the church) certainly can help them see a vision of what it means to be whole, presenting a full gospel. For me, job programs like Memphis-based HopeWorks is a great effort by the church to coordinate all these efforts.

So how would you define the poverty alleviation? Have you ever thought about what you can learn from someone you would call "poor"? How is your church working toward a holistic approach to poverty alleviation?

Ash Wednesday Reflections

2010-02-17T09:16:00.000-06:00

(image courtesy of markdroberts.com)

I grew up in the Bible belt among many good protestant denominations. I only had one Catholic friend, and the only time I went to mass with him I felt like I was in an aerobics class.

Stand, sit, stand, kneel. Stand, sit, kneel, stand.

But in 1989 my wife and I moved to Charleston, "The Holy City". It's called the Holy City because it was the first colony where true religious freedom was practiced. The other colonies practiced freedom of religion by practicing the religion of their choosing, but only one was allowed. Charleston allowed you to practice any religion you wanted, as long as you practiced. So Charleston is full of some of the oldest, most beautiful churches in America. The first First Baptist church is in Charleston, SC.

February 28, 1990, my wife and I set out for a romantic dinner at our favorite restaurant in downtown Charleston, Garibaldi's. What a wonderful place: small, intimate, candle-lit and lots of garlic and butter. As we ate, the restaurant filled with people. I looked over at the table next to me and noticed that the guy had a big spot of dirt on his head. He was dressed impeccably otherwise, complete with coat and tie, but he had an amorphous blob of dirt right in the middle of his forehead! How embarrassing! I whispered and nonchalantly pointed so that my wife could see. We giggled.

Then we noticed he wasn't the only one. The restaurant was full of dirty faced patrons. Did they come through a sandstorm? What the heck?

Imagine my surprise when I got to work that night and my coworker walked in with - you guessed it - a big splash of dirt on her head. Being the nice guy that I am, I told her, "Uh - you know you got a spot of dirt on your face?"

"Ash Wednesday", she told me? "Ash what?" I asked? And my Catholic friend proceeded to explain to me what Ash Wednesday was, that it marked a time leading up to Easter where people reflected on their savior and their sins, often by giving up something they valued during that time. It's marked on the foreheads of those who practice by a cross drawn with ash. Cool.

I don't practice Ash Wednesday, or Lent for that matter. Nothing wrong with it, it's just not something I do. But I have one request for those of you who do: Tell your priest to be exact.

I've decided my ignorance was exacerbated by the ambiguity of the placement and shape of the ash on people's foreheads. It wasn't a cross, it was a smudge. Would a good piece of drawing charcoal count as ash? I could do some nice work with some charcoal. Make it big, dark, and pronounced, bordering on a tattoo. Make it loud. At least then us ignorant protestants will know there's some religious reason for your artwork, and won't think you've just been crawling around in your attic or replacing the transmission in your car.

I'm A Guest Blogger!

2010-02-11T22:08:00.000-06:00

Henry Zonio over at Elemental Children's Ministry has done a great job pulling together a team to review "Think Orange", by Reggie Joiner. I got to finish the series of reviews today. You can check out the post here.

Thanks to Henry and the whole team who made this happen. The shift that is happening in our churches is a movement that has the potential to change generations. Spirit+Parents+Church=Disciples. Awesome.

When Helping Hurts 3: Chapter 2: What's The Problem?

2010-01-30T18:26:00.000-06:00

Have you ever put a pen to paper and tried to define poverty? It makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, if we're serious about solving the problem of poverty, then we probably ought to define what it is we're after.

In "When Helping Hurts", the authors contrast how many American evangelicals would define poverty with how many of those actually living in poverty would define it. Whereas, folks like me would define poverty in terms of lack of resources, those in poverty would describe it in social and psychological terms. As the authors point out, shame, powerlessness, humiliation, hopelessness and more are the words that the poor use to describe their situation. So at the outset we have at least two problems: One is the problem of poverty, and two, we can't even agree on what poverty is!

What often happens is that the caucasian American church seeks to provide resources: food, water, money. But those resources are delivered in a way that does not cultivate relationship. We have good intentions, but we fail to recognize the shame we can bring on those we wish to help. Because we haven't taken the time to connect, we don't realize that the poor have gifts, talents and abilities that can be used for the good of themselves and their communities.

Relationships are key, but relationships are broken, even in the best of circumstances. Our broken relationship with God affects how we connect with ourselves and with others. That is carried into our relational systems: Government, religion, family, society. Realizing our common brokenness allows us to see that we are all living in poverty of some kind. A relational poverty. Our approach to relieving poverty must be a common walk with the poor, where we each work to help the poverty of the other. Each of us has something to gain from the strengths of the other. Huge paradigm shift.

The authors close with a convicting picture of how our brokenness affects and even extends the poverty of those we are trying to help. We must be willing to examine our reasons for helping the poor. Corbett and Fikkert would argue that many times it's to serve our own "God complexes". We think we have the answers to why someone is materially poor. We have control of the resources that the materially poor need to possess. We can save them.

"And now we have come to a very central point: one of the biggest problems with many poverty-alleviation efforts is that their design and implementation exacerbates the poverty of being of the economically rich - their god-complexes - and the poverty of being of the economically poor - their feelings of inferiority and shame." (p. 65 Authors' emphasis)

What we end up with is a formula much like this one from p. 67:
Material definition of poverty + God complexes of materially non-poor + Feelings of inferiority of materially poor = Harm to both materially poor and non-poor

Ouch.

I can tell you how often I've put myself in the situation of the man with all the answers. Because I'm not materially poor, then I must be smarter/wiser/more educated/financially smarter, etc. But rarely have I put myself in a long term, cooperative relationship with the poor, seeking mutual learning and development.

Share a time that you've done "poverty alleviation" as a long-term relationship. What were some of the challenges? What were some of the successes or failures? I'd love to hear your experiences.

* Update to 2010 Reading List *

2010-01-26T22:59:00.002-06:00

Thanks to Daniel White over at six degrees of Daniel C White I can now add The Search for God and Guinness: A Biography of the Beer that Changed the World to my reading list under "On the shelf". Daniel gave away 5 copies of the book after reading it himself (you can read his review here).

I've been intrigued by the book every since it was released, for a number of reasons. First, it's Guinness, a fantastic beer! Second, Guinness sponsors my local rugby team, the Memphis Blues. And third, (and seriously), it seems Arthur Guinness started and ran a company that was able to weave social good into the business culture he created. I'm fascinated by that as a small business owner. I want the customers I serve, the employees I one day may have, and the city that I live in to be able to encounter God's goodness and generosity through the work that I do. Any pointers I can get are welcome.

Can't wait to go to Celtic Crossing, order a Guinness, and start reading!

The "God Card"

2010-01-25T09:33:00.002-06:00

I got skewered on another blog the other day for suggesting that the blogger should think twice about heading off to Haiti to join in rescue efforts. Reports coming out of Haiti include

Overall chaos and disorganization
Lack of qualified medical personnel
Clogged air/sea ports, unable to handle the influx of people and aid from around the world
The wrong kinds of aid and supplies being sent.

MSNBC had a report Saturday describing how well intentioned, soft-hearted volunteers end up gumming up the system, even needing aid themselves sometimes, because they lack the skills and experience required for effective disaster relief.

My suggestion was, why not find a relief organization already on the ground, and donate what you can stateside to support that organization? After all, they will best know what is needed to carry out the relief.

"When people give $1, it translates into $7 in the field," [Jeff Nene, a spokesman for Convoy of Hope] said. "If they spend $5 for bottled water, that's nice and it makes them feel good, but probably it costs us more than $5 to sent it. If they give us $5, we can get $35 worth of water."

"That's a sentiment echoed by virtually every aid agency." (From the MSNBC article)

Frankly, I eat my own dog food: I know I have nothing to offer this situation but money. We gave to Samaritan's purse, who has a proven disaster relief pipeline.

Staying put and donating to relief organizations keeps the channels open for people who do have the experience to make it through. There will be time for people with softer skills to get to Haiti - now is not the time. I think patience is a virtue, isn't it?

One thing that really got me, though: I was vetoed by the "God card". God had called this person; Who was I to question that? God wants us to feed the hungry and care for the sick; I was going against God's will. Once you play the "God card", there's no bit of argument, wisdom, or advice that is valid. I thought it was good to listen to people who don't always agree with you. Doesn't Proverbs council that you should listen to advice? Isn't there a danger in surrounding yourself with "yes men"? I believe in God putting a calling on one's life. I live out of that calling by living where I live, and doing what I do. But I constantly solicit input on what is best in the situations I encounter that are new and foreign to me.

A few questions: Am I being too cold, throwing a wet blanket on someone's passion and God's calling? What do you think of the idea that perhaps what is not needed is more volunteers, but more support? Have you thought about your response to the Haitian earthquake, and what God is calling you to do?

The Power of Influence

2010-01-21T20:16:00.001-06:00

So I got this text message the other day:

How many lines do you make your kids write?

It was from a young parent and friend from our church. It came not long after I heard another parent at our church tell my wife that his kid couldn't come over to our house because he had lines to write.

All the parents seem have their kids writing lines these days. It's a trend. Where did it come from?

Uh - me.

See, I'm a less than patient parent. It is a character flaw. My initial reaction when one of my boys does one of those dumb things that boys do is to lose my cool, scream and jump up and down. But in a baby step of trying to overcome my loud mouth with my kids, I decided it was better to give my kids a line to write over and over (and over and over) until I cooled down, and hopefully they would learn a lesson somehow. It's not a great way of disciplining children. After cool down I can always think of things I wish I'd said or done that would be better. But it's better than the previous method.

But since the word got out, and since I'm in a position of leadership in our church community, people have followed my lead. I've noticed this in more than one area of life and parenting. And I'll be honest, it's scary.

It's so easy to underestimate the influence of leadership. We have an incredible power that can be dangerous. Take parenting, for instance: I think both of these parents do a much better job of nurturing their children than I do. And yet they are following my lead, because, after all, I've been put in a position of leadership and authority in the area of family.

A couple of things leaders absolutely have to keep in mind:

1) Be aware. I don't mean be paranoid, but be aware that like it or not, people are watching and will follow your lead, either because you're a natural leader or because you've been assigned the title of "leader" in an organization.

2) Be transparent. It's up to me to share with these families why I parent the way that I do. It's because I'm a screw up when it comes to disciplining my kids, it's not because I have some hidden insight into "what works".

3) Be humble. Being able to let people into your reasons why means letting them see you are as messed up as anyone else. Our temptation as leaders is to project this idea that we have it all together.

Anyone else have "followers" imitate your bad habits? What were they? How did you handle the situation?

When Helping Hurts - 2: Chapter 1

2010-01-19T22:27:00.002-06:00

There are lots of poverty-alleviation strategies. There are plenty of secular programs aimed at development. But what makes Christian poverty alleviation different?

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert begin their book "When Helping Hurts" by laying out how the gospel affects our approach to poverty.

Jesus came to "preach good news to the poor", "proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind." (Luke 4) Jesus goes on to say, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God...because that is why I was sent" (4.43)

Tim Keller says that "The kingdom is the renewal of the whole world through the entrance of supernatural forces. As things are brought back under Christ's rule and authority, they are restored to health, beauty, and freedom. (p. 32)

Jesus is at the center of that kingdom and that renewal. That's what makes Christian poverty alleviation different. Our efforts must begin with Christ and be rooted in Christ.

A couple of notes here: The Kingdom of God is not just about personal piety. "keeping oneself from being polluted by the world" is tied to "looking after widows and orphans in their distress" (James 1)
We can't just be about saving our own souls and we can't just be concerned with the souls of others. Poverty alleviation is holistic, connecting the broken soul to God, but also connecting the soul to the self, and the self to others. It also includes (which we'll talk about later), the reform of broken systems, perpetuated as a result of our own brokenness.

The authors, rightly so, list the many passages where God chastises his people for failing to care for the needs of others and failure to bring justice. And they close the chapter speaking about "The Great Reversal", a period from 1900-1930 where the church retreated from social action as a reaction to the "social gospel". They warn against withdrawing from action and focusing on "saving souls".

I think this Great Reversal is over. As I look at the current evangelical climate, at least those of my generation and younger, I see an amazing turn toward those in need, both locally and world wide. I think we're in the "bull in a China shop" phase, probably causing more harm than good because of our excitement but lack of wisdom and knowledge of how to best help those in poverty. But I'm looking forward to seeing the impact of this generation on the next.

When Helping Hurts - 1

2010-01-17T23:17:00.003-06:00

On a mission trip to a poverty-ridden slum in Africa, a white, North American Christian man encounters a shocking situation: a regular church goer is found in her empty house, lying on a mat, unable to speak. Because she is HIV positive, and because she is poor, she cannot go to the nearby hospital to have her tonsils removed. So she has her neighbor cut out her tonsils with a kitchen knife. She is now very weak, very sick, with no one to care for her, and a certain candidate for serious infection.

What should he do?

In "When Helping Hurts, How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting The Poor...And Yourself", Steve Corbett, the author (and the white, North American Christian man) relates how he reached into his pocket, pulled out a few dollars - enough to cover the cost of penicillin - and handed it to a local church leader just before jumping on a plane to head home. It probably saved her life. But was it the right thing to do?

That seems like a simple answer, but in the book by Corbett and co-author Brian Fikkert, they argue that often when it comes to poverty alleviation, the North American church is it's own worst enemy. The book is aimed at North American churches, and is a primer on how to truly help in situations of poverty.

It's truly a challenging read.

I'm going to go through a couple of chapters at a time over the next few weeks. But let me encourage you, especially now in light of the challenges and opportunities the world now faces in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake tragedy, to grab a copy of this book. Read it quickly. Read it with your church's benevolence team. Read it before you consider sending any further aid to Haiti. If ever there was a country who needed true poverty assistance, it's Haiti. This tragedy could well be the turning point for this impoverished nation. But even if your poverty alleviation is limited to people in your neighborhood, an inner city ministry you're associated with, or the work your church does among the poor, this book will make you think.

As we start this journey together, what is your context for poverty alleviation? Where is God using you among the poor currently? Share with us what that work looks like.

My 2010 Reading List

2010-01-09T22:04:00.002-06:00

I love reading. No - I love learning. My bookshelves are full, and I always have a list of books that I'm ready to read. I know people are sometimes disappointed, even downright insulted, when they give me a book to read and it sits on my shelf for months, because it has to be placed in a queue.

I'm a firm believer that if you want to find out what makes your influencers tick, find out what they're reading. One of the first things you'll see me do when I walk in someone's home or office, is peruse their bookshelf. If you're someone I admire, then you can be guaranteed that I'll head to Amazon after our encounter to order some books (or at least put them on my "Wish List").

Since it's a new year, I thought I'd put together the list of books I started in 2009, but haven't finished, books already on my shelf, waiting to be read, and books already in my mind, waiting on my pocketbook to expand. What would you add? What have you already read, that you'd recommend me skipping?

One note: These are books for my personal development, not necessarily my professional development. Those are generally long, boring, technical tomes that don't deserve mentioning here!

Currently Reading

When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves (Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert)
Think Orange: Imagine the Impact When Church and Family Collide... (Reggie Joiner)

On The shelf (In no particular order)

Follow Me to Freedom: Leading As an Ordinary Radical (John Perkins and Shane Claiborne)
Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. (Mitch Joel)
The Way of Ignorance: And Other Essays (Wendell Berry)
The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary (Joseph A. Michelli) (I started this over a year ago and walked away from it. But I can't not finish a book!
The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society (Henry Nouwen)
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (David Allen) (Again - started it but never finished. That's why I need this book.)
The New Testament and the People of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God) (N.T. Wright)
Mother Teresa: No Greater Love
Do the Right Thing [Huckabee]; Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to America [Later Printing Edition] (Mike Huckabee)
COME ON PEOPLE: On the Path from Victims to Victors (Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D.)
Sacred Marriage: Celebrating Marriage as a Spiritual Discipline (Gary Thomas)

Waiting for Moolah

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer (Novella Carpenter)
Acts for Everyone, Part 1 (N.T. Wright)
Acts for Everyone, Part 2 (N.T. Wright)
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Chip and Dan Heath)
Focus : The Future of Your Company Depends on It (HarperBusiness Essentials) (Al Ries)

Chalmers Center Resource

2010-01-07T10:09:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post today about a resource I've found that I wanted share.

I'm currently reading "When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. So far it's an incredibly challenging read. The verdict isn't in on how I feel about it, simply because there are some questions I hope will be answered in the last half of the book.

But the book isn't the resource, the Webcast is.

Corbett and Fikkert work with The Chalmers Center at Covenant College . They have hosted a series of webinars that correspond with chapters in the book. I downloaded the MP3 archives of the sessions, imported them into iTunes, then turned them into podcast episodes. I've listened to two episodes so far, and they've done a great job at providing specific examples to illustrate principles in each chapter, and they have fielded dozens of questions for webinar participants to address other situations of helping those in poverty.

A note, though - many of the things they discuss in the webinar come directly from the book, so I'd recommend picking up the book and reading each chapter prior to - or along with - listening to the webinar sessions.

I'll post a book review later, but I wanted to let you all know about the two resources.

Wordpress Suggestions

2009-12-22T01:36:00.002-06:00

I'm looking to start a new blog/site based on Wordpress instead of blogger. I need some help from you WP folks. Here's what I'm looking for:

What has been your best resource for getting up to speed on customizing WP?
What's the best hosting service for WP? I need to be able to use themes and a personal domain name, and it needs to be cheap.
What's your favorite WP theme, and why?

Tough Talk

2009-12-02T21:56:00.004-06:00

I had a tough conversation with a kid in the hood today. It was hard because this kid has really become a part of our family. I even told him so tonight. I told him that I love him and that I'm really concerned about his future. But it's gotten to where we regularly get calls from his teachers about his behavior at school. He often sleeps in and doesn't go. When he does go, he doesn't have his homework assignments completed.

But he isn't much different than many of the other kids around here.

One thing I've discovered about being in this neighborhood is that kids have a strike against them that makes the normal pain of growing up even greater than it would be for an "average" suburban kid (if there is such a thing). What is internalized in these kids is a lack of hope. It's hard enough to be motivated to get an education when you're a goofy middle-school kid. But try motivating a kid who absolutely can't see a future for himself. No one in his family has graduated from high-school. No one has gone to college. One brother died this year at 21. Another's in prison. One's on disability, and the two remaining are working at fast food joints. Not much to look forward to.

So what do you do? How do you motivate a kid staring off into a black hole? What do you say? How do you illustrate the possibility of something better? Give me your thoughts. Please.

The Perfect Storm

2009-11-27T18:02:00.004-06:00

I'm a long-time BlackBerry user. But as an iPhone developer and heavy iPod touch user, along with the popularity of social network sites like Twitter and Facebook, I found myself discontent with my BB. First of all, the small screen just wouldn't cut it next to that gorgeous iTouch screen. But then also my BB lacked a camera and GPS, two options that really enhance social networking. When it came time for my free phone upgrade in August, I marched down to the Verizon store and picked up a Blackberry Storm.

Large touch screen? Check.
3 megapixel camera, with video? Check.
GPS? Check.
App store? Check
Great network coverage? Check.

Seems I was set and ready to enter the next era of smartphones. Boy was I wrong.

From the start, the phone was buggy. It would randomly reboot. Then, the longer it stayed on, the phone would freeze. Just lock up. You know a phone is bad when someone writes an application that simulates pulling the battery out for a hard reset. "There's an app for that." Ouch. Add to that the frustration that there was not a fully released Blackberry Desktop application for the Mac, and the lack of features of the beta (There is now a released version for the Mac but it still isn't as useful as it could be). As of a month ago, the phone was to the point that it could not receive calls, and rarely could place calls. Even after uninstalling all the apps, it was painfully slow to the point of being unusable.

Saving The Storm
Thankfully, all the elements came together to save my phone and the BlackBerry reputation - at least for me. First of all, I found an option that would wipe the phone's memory and applications. I held my breath and reset the device and result was - a working phone! But my previous experience kept me from reloading any applications out of fear that they might lock up my phone again. Enter the 5.0 firmware update for BlackBerry. Just after wiping the phone, I received a notice that version 5 was available for my phone. I updated and found, to my delight, several bug fixes, UI enhancements, and a solid, usable phone. Text messaging is now threaded. The clock controls, which really were a bother to me, are now more "iPhone like". The phone has yet to randomly reboot since the update, and I've only had to reset the phone manually once.

The final juicy bit of goodness that has really made my Storm a useful device is some new-found software. I wish I could report that the BlackBerry Desktop app for Mac had all the bells and whistles I need, but it doesn't. I don't know about the Android phone sync apps out there, but if BlackBerry and Android are really going to chip away at the iPhone's base, they simply must spend some time on an iTunes replacement. Although the BB Desktop syncs my contacts, calendars, etc., it doesn't do much for media. This is a big #fail. I found myself lugging my iTouch and Storm everywhere because I couldn't manage my podcasts and music library efficiently through the Desktop app. I could set up some very complicated Smart playlists in iTunes and get some of what I needed, but never all. Enter Salling Media Sync from Salling Software. It's a gem of a package, with a freeware and pay version. The only difference between them is the speed at which they sync your music with your device. If you have the full version, it only syncs necessary changes between the device and your desktop music library. If you have the free version, it syncs your entire library each time.

A second terrific app for my Storm is UberTwitter . It is by far the best BlackBerry twitter app out there. It is free, but is supported by adware. I'm not bothered a bit by the ads. It's worth it. UberTwitter does a great job displaying detail about tweets, including TwitPic previews, GPS coordinates, followers/following breakdowns, etc. I love TweetDeck for iPhone and the desktop, but this little app does some things that even they don't do.

So now I have a stable smartphone on a great network, with a touch large touch screen, a beautiful camera, GPS, an awesome Twitter app, and all my podcasts.

BlackBerry, I'll let you off the hook for the first two months of agony.

I Quit - Part 4

2009-10-20T17:58:00.005-05:00

True story.

A few Sundays ago my family came home from church after a long morning of setup, worship, production, and tear-down. As usual, we were exhausted. Three of our four boys had gone home with some of their friends, so the only kids we had with us were my youngest and his best friend.

Awesome.

"You guys take turns playing Wii, keep the sound down low so we don't hear you, and have fun. We're going to take a nap."

Just as I was heading down the hall to the bedroom (where my wife had already gotten horizontal), there was a knock at the door. Two neighborhood kids had seen that the van was in the driveway and wanted to come in. "Sure thing," I told them, "but please keep it down because I'm going to take a nap."

And nap I did. An hour and a half later I awoke to a commotion in the living room. I got up, threw on some clothes (this is beginning to sound like a Christmas poem), and rushed to the den.

When I got there I was a little taken aback. The house was full of kids. The two who had originally shown up were gone, and now there were five other kids to take their places. This is in addition to the two who belonged to me. And the really interesting part of this is, I had never seen these kids before.

But that's not uncommon here. As I've said on this blog before, we have a neighborhood full of children. Many of these children are left at home to fend for themselves. Several come home from school to an empty house and have no key; they must wait until their parents show up to let them in, which will often be after dark. Many, if not most, are being raised in a single-parent home, and it's dad that's absent.

In addition, because this is fast becoming an urban area, and because we aren't far from the interstate, we have more homeless guys wandering nearby then I've ever seen before. Often they cut right through our neighborhood. One gentleman routinely stops by the house to do odd jobs and get a sandwich. All my kids know him and are genuinely glad to see him when he shows up.

Here is our ministry. It's among the people God has placed in our life. In the 12 years we've been in this neighborhood we've seen all our original neighbors move away, replaced by the scenes I've just described. We are surrounded by a rainbow of color, ethnic and religious backgrounds. We daily have opportunities to live out the beatitudes in the midst of our neighbors; forgiveness, generosity, non-violence, humility.

And as I've said before, it seems a shame to tell a neighbor you can't talk because you have to rush to a "church" meeting. Can I justify telling a kid to walk home because I don't have time to give him a ride due to a production deadline? How do I tell someone who's shown up late on a Saturday night in the middle of a crisis, that I don't have time to talk because "Sunday's coming", and I'm not entirely prepared? Then there are all the other relationship opportunities: tutoring, counseling teen-agers, rushing kids to the hospital, feeding entire families (like, 7 kids at a time!)

This is just me - you don't have to agree - but I think that we manufacture "ministry" opportunities at "church". Is "ministry" really filling the coffee pots on Sunday morning, counting people in seats, being on the worship team? Church leaders, ask yourself this question, because I have, and I didn't like the answer: Do you sometimes feel that people aren't "spiritual" enough because they don't engage in a ministry at your church, especially your ministry area? Do you judge people because they aren't "involved"?

I think maybe we've got our idea of ministry turned around a bit. No doubt, some great things happen on Sunday morning, but the Kingdom is wherever Jesus is present and active, whether it's at church on Sunday, at work on Monday, or in your neighborhood each and every day. I quit so that Stacey and I can make our home the center of our ministry. We will disciple our kids, and minister to our community. We have a huge children's ministry right here in our home.

I've asked this question before, but I'll end with it here: If Jesus lived in your house, how would that affect your neighborhood? What would it look like?

Review: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King

2009-10-08T08:48:00.003-05:00

I have a confession to make. I haven't ever given much weight to Martin Luther King, Jr. His movement was largely before my time, and those who have attempted to inherit his legacy (ex. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson) are almost caricatures. Add to that the African American preachers I've been exposed to both as televangelists and in real-life pastoring experiences here in Memphis, and the yes, I've had preconceived notions about MLK.

So why would I read his autobiography? Two reasons 1) More and more I have seen him quoted in other books I've been reading. If he's influencing those who are influencing me, then I should pay attention. 2) The hardback was on sale for $5 at Hastings.

Wow, what an eye-opening read. I live in Memphis, home of the Civil Rights Museum and the place that holds the (dis)honor of where King was assassinated. But I've never spent time trying to understand what King was trying to accomplish and his methodology.

What I've come to see is that King was a deep thinker: a real theologian and pastor. In the first chapters you get a brief glimpse of his early life and influences, but then you hear him working out his theology through college and seminary (Ch. 3). A few quotes:

"The gospel deals with the man - not only his soul but his body; not only his spiritual well-being but his material well being" (p. 18)
"Any religion that professes concern for the souls of men and is not equally concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried." (p. 18)
"...I must attempt to change the soul of individuals so that their societies may be changed. On the other I must attempt to change the societies so that the individual soul will have a change. Therefore I must be concerned about unemployment, slums, and economic insecurity." (p. 18)

He wrestles with liberalism and neo-conservatism, Marxism, capitalism and socialism. And, especially, application of non-violent resistance, "a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love, in the faith that it is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflicter of it".

A few things that impressed me about King. First, he was a strategist. It's interesting to watch what is going on "backstage" in the different civil-rights demonstrations he helps to organize. In the beginning there is less focus and strategy. But at each step King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference takes a stop back, examines their successes and failures, examines their future prospects and are constantly taking corrective and strategic action.

Second, he was a prophet. I literally got chills reading chapter 27 where King describes the Watts riots in L.A.
"The issue of police brutality loomed as one of major significance. The slightest discourtesy on the part of an officer of the law was a deprivation of the dignity that most of the residents of Watts came west seeking. Whether it was true or not, the Negro of the ghetto was convinced that his dealings with the police denied him the dignity and respect to which he was entitled as a citizen and a human being. This produced a sullen, hostile attitude, which resulted in a spiral of hatred on the part of both the officer and the Negro. This whole reaction complex was often coupled with fear on the part of both parties. Every encounter between a Negro and the police in the hovering hostility of the ghetto was a potential outburst." (p. 292)

Fast forward to L.A., 1992 and the Rodney King riots. The unrelieved powder-keg of economic stress once again erupted in the same outburst of violence experienced in Watts in 1965, only with larger, more serious consequences. L.A. however, seems to be incapable of learning from their mistakes, or from the advice given by King: "The paramount problem is one of economic stability for this sector of our society. All other advances in education, family life, and the moral climate of the community were dependent upon the ability of the masses of Negros to earn a living in this wealthy society of ours." (p. 293) "When persons are for some reason or other excluded from the consumer circle, there is discontent and unrest." (p.295)

Repeatedly I read his critiques and observations about the conditions of inequality that he observed and how they expressed themselves through injustice and tension. I couldn't help but compare them to situations in the city of Memphis, and even within my neighborhood.

A few last observations: We see King grow in this book. Or at least, his thinking is revealed progressively. I always understood King to be primarily a force against racial discrimination. But what we see is King revealing three inter-locking forces, racial injustice, poverty, and war. As his life comes to crescendo he speaks out more about how these three forces are combined in American society. That one cannot be confronted and relieved without at least touching on the others.

And, finally, I can't help but feel some sadness as I look at the kids in my community and think of what should be King's legacy. King fought for the right for black children to have a quality education. But many of the kids I know don't see the value of education, and their parents - some contemporaries of King - don't see the value, or have not passed that value on to their children. I see King as a coalition builder, not a Black Nationalist. But my home city of Memphis is incredibly racially divided. We will never overcome the poverty and injustice in Memphis until both sides learn to trust each other and work together. And I see MLK as a community activist. King knew the value of mobilizing whole communities against evil. But it seems that we have either become accustomed to the evil or feel helpless in it's face. But what we know from King is that evil cannot stand when confronted by the Gospel and Christian community.

What Do You Do With The Kids?

2009-10-01T22:05:00.003-05:00

Whenever I explain that we are a cell-based church, and that rather than meet at a building during the week, we meet in homes, the first question I'm always asked is, "But what do you do with the kids?"

This blog post comes from an email conversation I had with Liz Perraud over at Logos Ministries about inter-generational small groups. It's a break down of how we (Cordova Community Church) have decided to best create community among children, teens and adults. It ain't perfect, but it's a blessing.

We're a small church (~100-120 folks), and our cell groups are really a core of who we are. Before we embarked on a family ministry paradigm, we were already working within a cell group structure, so it's been a huge thing for us to make IG work. Super hard. But we believe that kids are best discipled within the overall community. When multiple adults are involved in a kid's life, it creates multiple connection points with the community at large. It gives parents another reliable voice speaking into their kid's life. It helps transfer the beliefs and traditions of the community in a stronger way than if mom and dad are the only influences.

We have 6-8 groups meeting around the city. One or two don't have kids at all, but most do, and lots of 'em! We originally tried to break our teens into their own cell group, but that didn't exactly work because it was too hard to have parents driving kids all over town AND attending their own group. So we put our teens back in their parents' groups, and we have a separate teen small group environment on Sunday.

Surprisingly, each group does their IG concept a little different, but we have some core concepts: Adults in the group are spiritual aunts, uncles and grandparents to the kids. They have a spiritual responsibility to disciple the children God has placed in their midst. Kids are involved in meal time, worship time, and service projects that the cell group does. Most groups are unanimous in having a "kids slot" teaching time during the group where kids will meet separately from adults. But we try to keep our adults and kids on the same lesson theme, just in an age-appropriate way. I write a "kids slot" using material from each Sunday's sermon. Our cell leader writes a lesson for adults using the same sermon. It's important that the adults and kids be able to connect around a common Biblical principle.

Here's what my group looks like:

1) We eat a meal together. We try to mix kids and adults as much as possible, seated together or mixed in different rooms. Kids assist with cooking, serving, setting table, etc.

2) We come together for joint worship. Usually a child picks the songs for the evening. Sometimes they're all kids action songs, but most of the time they are standard contemporary worship songs.

3) 3 weeks of the month we break up, and kids have their kids slot in one room, while adults have their adult lesson in another room. The last week we stay together for one lesson. It's great to hear the kids' thoughts on the topic, and it's good for them to hear an adult's perspective. It's amazing the conversations that get started.

4) The kids always finish before we do, but that's OK. Once their lesson is finished, they can play, watch movies, etc. We don't care to make them sit still and be quiet since they've been required to do that all day at school. When they're done, they play together!

Since we have some older middle-schoolers in our group, they typically lead the kids slot. Groups without middle-schoolers will generally rotate an adult teacher to spend with the kids, OR they all do the Kids Slot together (adults and kids) and then break for the adult teaching time, allowing the kids to play.

And one more note - we emphasize things like mixing adults and kids during worship and teaching so that the adults aren't on one side of the room, and kids on another side to be distracted by each other. And we also don't want kids sitting with their parents, since kids can typically push and manipulate mom and dad's buttons. And, finally, we don't let our kids sit on the floor by themselves. They are more engaged if they are sitting at the same height/level as the adults.

We picked up a lot of ideas from Daphne Kirk years ago, and though we've changed them a bit to fit our environment, she has some great stuff.

One last comment: inter-generational cell groups is sometimes a synonym for "organized chaos". Sometimes it's messy, loud and disruptive. But that's life, isn't it? One group member, looking back at his family's time in group remarked, "When the kids were little I felt like I never got anything out of group, but we kept coming. Now that my kids are older and have relationships with those adults, it was worth it."

I Quit - Part 3

2009-09-29T08:53:00.003-05:00

The big question in this is, "When is the right time?" How do you know that it's the right time to let go of a ministry or leadership position? I'm not sure if I've answered these questions to my satisfaction, but here are some questions I've asked myself leading up to resigning:

Will this ministry survive without me? That may sound a little narcissistic, but here's what I mean: Have we created a culture where the vision of the organization continues regardless of the person in charge? I've been in ministry a long time. Frequently, a leader comes to a church and creates a movement with his/her personal vision. He creates a following, and the vision becomes action. But then when the leader moves on, the vision dies. A new leader comes on the scene, casts a new vision, and the organization leaves the old vision behind for the newest, latest, greatest, vision. I think, instead, the vision should always outlast the leader. Organizations have to be willing to scrutinize a vision and make sure it is a true direction for them, reflecting the opportunities and personality of the organization. Then, when a leader leaves, the organization matches the leader to the vision. So back to my question - will the vision we've cast for family ministry last beyond me? I think we're at a point where I can say, "yes". We have hammered, over and over again, our mission to "partner with God and parents as they raise children to know, love, follow and share Jesus." In short, "what happens at home is more important than what happens on Sunday." Our church owns this vision, and I believe, will measure the next leader by how he/she matches the vision.
Have I done all I can do? This has been a tough question for me. As leaders, we often dream of the ideal. We can see the end we have in mind. It compels us to keep going to work every day. It sustains us when we're attacked by the mobs. Each successful step toward that vision builds momentum in us. But there are limits to each person. Each leader will be limited by the resources available to him. This includes organizational resources such as money, time, creativity and personnel. And to some extent, there are personal resources that also limit what can be accomplished, like family responsibilities, physical, spiritual or emotional health, and even calling. I see a huge amount of potential in our family ministry, and the disciples of Jesus that can be produced. I've been instrumental in starting the ball rolling. But I have reached organizational limits and personal limits that have stopped the amount of forward movement I can effect. It's time for a new leader to step in who has a different set of personal limits and who can work within the organizational limits (or change them) so that our family ministry can move forward. Again, this is a hard question to answer, but is relieving my tendency to feel like a failure for not achieving every goal I've visualized. If you've done all you can, if you've reached the organizational and personal limits imposed upon you, then it's probably time to move on. If not, then get busy until you reach those limits. But either way, to stay in a position without moving forward would be selfish and bad for your organization.
Is this what I'm called to do? As I mentioned in my first post in the series, I am sure that I was called to do the ministry that I've been about for the last five years. I couldn't not do it. But as our lives and situations change, I think God can give us a new calling. I'll be writing more about this in my next post, but for now, I'll say that God has given me a new calling, a new ministry to be about. I don't care what job it is that you do, if you don't feel called to it, then you'll be miserable in that job. You may make a great living at it. You may excel in it. You may achieve success in it. But that doesn't mean that it will give you joy and satisfaction. Each person has to examine his position and decide whether leaving a job is the wise decision to make. It may not be prudent to up and leave a job, just because you aren't excited about it. But wisely preparing to transition out of a job to pursue what you're called to do is worth it.

I Quit - Part 2

2009-09-23T22:29:00.004-05:00

Over the past two years I've been looking at my life in comparison to what I see of Jesus', and it's a lot different.

That's bad for someone who claims to model his life after Jesus.

Although changes in time, technology and culture are unavoidable, motivation and method can be largely constant. A long study in spiritual disciplines led me to a few observations about the simplicity of Jesus' life, patterns of rest and retreat that he observed, and openness - spontaneity - to encounters with people. And I noticed that my life had none of those qualities. I had built a life of complexity around two jobs, acquisition of "necessities", and down-to-the-minute time schedules that allowed no room for spontaneity in any relationship.

Over the past two years our family has made a concentrated effort to simplify. I make less money than I have in years, but need far less. We eat out less. We grow some of our own food. Our house is warmer in the summer and colder in the winter, but we're comfortable. We wash fewer dishes, but use less paper products. We keep our clothes longer because they don't wear out as fast since we have changed our laundry habits. We take - whenever possible, which isn't enough - an unplugged, sleep-as-late-as-we-want, commerce-free sabbath, and it's wonderful.

But the complication of time still exists. There just simply isn't enough time for two jobs, a wife, four kids, and spontaneity. So my kids, my wife, my neighbors, and both jobs get a small slice of my time, but not enough. It's like slicing a cherry pie into pieces that just aren't big enough for anyone to get up from the table satisfied.

The wife can't go.

The kids can't go.

The neighbors won't move.

My geek job pays most of the bills.

That leaves my ministry job as the only option.

So, in an effort to simplify my schedule, to allow for regular times of rest, to allow for unplanned conversations with my kids, to allow for those unexpected visits and emergencies from neighbors, I've quit my ministry position.

I'll sign off with this question that has bugged me for years: Am I letting the "job" of ministry interfere with real ministry? The answer, very often for me as a professional minister was, "yes". If you find yourself saying no to the people God has put in your life so that you can attend one more meeting, write a class outline, put together one more script, build another set, train another volunteer, then I think you - like me - are missing the point.

I Quit - Part 1

2009-09-15T09:19:00.003-05:00

Sunday I resigned from my position as the minister over our elementary age kids.

There are a host of reasons, and I thought I'd spend a few days briefly reviewing a few of them.

Today, however, a confession: I've been in this position going on six years now. I already had a job as a business owner of a computer services firm. I had no desire to go back into ministry (I had previously been a youth minister on staff at a church that blew up). Been there. Done that. In addition, though I loved teens and had literally a life-time of ministry in children's programs, I thought the paradigm we were living in was how church life and children's education went: parents go to Sunday school class, kids go to Sunday school class and ne'er the two shall meet. And frankly, since I was a father of four kids, I welcomed the break.

But then I stumbled on Barna's "Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions". When I did, it broke my heart, and I found myself - in the words of Jeremiah - with a "fire in my bones". I couldn't not be the guy to lead this transformation of our children's ministry. I couldn't shut up. I couldn't sit by and watch. And since our children's ministry position had recently become vacant, I am convinced that God had provided the calling and opportunity.

I believe, first of all, in discipleship. That's our mandate from Jesus. If you look at the recent history of the church, however, we have done a terrible job discipling new generations. In my lifetime the church has been strong on doctrine, but low on loving action. We've emphasized apologetics, but lost our place in God's story. Changing that means, first of all, creating new habits for a new generation. We start with discipling parents, and help them - enable and empower them - to create disciples of their children. Thank God that we are at a time in the history of the church where we see this.

Back to the Story

2009-08-24T17:06:00.006-05:00

I'm a believer in context. It's important to know what's going on around you, where you've come from, and where you're heading. I've said it before, but I don't think I can say it enough, that when it comes to ministry, it's important to know the story. So often in church environments it's easy to forget the story we're a part of, and we sink - unknowingly - to a level of morality messages, Aesop's fables, instead of helping people find their place in God's story.

This morning I had an extended drive, so I was able to soak in Rob Bell's hour-long sermon from a few weeks ago at Mars Hill. What a fantastic sermon. I think it's essential listening for those who are in teaching ministry. It's just good for us as leaders to be reminded of what we're doing, and what the big picture is. It helps us focus our teaching and messages, helping connect those smaller stories we tell each week to the bigger story.

So if you haven't listened to the Mars Hill podcast called "The Importance of Beginning at the Beginning", do it.

Two more observations: First, I know at our church we do a "vision casting" sermon series each year to remind our partners what we're about. It doesn't include a "big picture" like this, and many other vision casting sermons I've heard by other leaders don't include a full telling of God's story either. This should be required regularly.

Second, can you imagine being at a church where you can teach an hour long sermon on a Sunday morning, and have people so engage that the randomly "Amen" in agreement all the way through, instead of randomly getting up and leaving because the preacher has cut into the lunch hour? What an environment. That would be great.

Of course, as a children's minister, it would drive me crazy trying to keep up with everyone's kids for an hour ;)

Environmental Wackos

2009-08-18T00:14:00.002-05:00

A couple of years ago I was turned on to the idea of church "environments" by North Point Community Church during one of their "Grow Up" conferences. The idea is to create an place and/or experience where people get a certain vibe that encourages them to move into a closer relationship with God and other Christians. There are "foyer" environments that serve as front-door, first impression experiences for visitors. There are "living room" environments that are a little more engaging, but still a little formal, such as a typical worship experience. The ultimate goal is the "kitchen" environment, where - now think of your own home - people hang loose. They feel comfortable sitting around, chatting about the deep things of life. This is an intimate small group.

As a children's minister, my challenge has been to create environments that engage visitors and members alike, and help them move into those close, life-changing relationships. We've poured energy, creativity, training and money into them, so that people will feel comfortable inviting their friends to church, and so that all those who show up will be engaged and challenged to stick with it.

But I wonder if some times we focus too much on our church environments. What if we put our energy into teaching our people to invest in their real foyer, their real living room, their real kitchen environments? What if the goal isn't inviting our neighbors to church, but inviting them to encounter Jesus in the person living in your house?

What would your neighborhood look like if you started asking the question, "What would this house look like if Jesus lived here?" How would your neighborhood change if it suddenly became a place where there was a true outpost of the kingdom, right there on your street?

It might look like the picture above. We've been very purposeful about bringing the kingdom to our neighborhood. And after 12 years, incredible things continue to happen. This picture was taken today with a few (a very SMALL few) of the kids who live on our street. But check this out: the two kids in the middle, the ones with blue uniforms on, are brand-new neighbors. They moved in today. They look comfortable, huh? They fit right in. They were immediately welcomed to the cove, to our home, and played here until the sun went down.

This isn't a bragging rant. This is a celebration. It's an investment. It's a good day among many sad, confusing days (like the overdose death of a 21 year old neighbor this summer).

I think it's time to help our people open the doors of their homes; It's counter-cultural in white suburban America. I think it's time to take the focus from inviting people to church to inviting people to meet Jesus. I think it's time for our Kingdom outposts to be more than just the church buildings where we meet: they should include the homes where we live. It's time to teach our people to be environmentalists.

Monday Morning Hangover

2009-05-19T09:23:00.003-05:00

I had big plans yesterday, a long list of "to do's". But like just about every Monday, I ended up so mentally exhausted that I just couldn't get much done.

Is it just me?

I've found that as a children's minister Mondays are generally a wash-out. The adrenaline is a steady stream on Sunday. Since we're a mobile church meeting in a city community center, Sunday starts around 5 am so that we can get everyone up and at 'em, supplies loaded, and at the center by 7. Then it's staging, props, sound, classrooms. Then the excitement begins with worship, kids small groups, KidZone (our Family Experience). Once that's done it's time to break everything back down again.

Sunday evening comes with LifT, our middle-school/high-school environment. We usually end up with 7 or 8 extra kids (besides my own family) so making the rounds of picking up and dropping off keeps us out until 9 or so. Then dinner and put the kids down.

So when Monday morning pokes it's head in, our whole family is wiped out. It's generally 9-9:30 AM before we budge out of bed. And although I think of all kinds of follow-up tasks to take care of after Sunday, they don't happen. My kids barely get school done (we're homeschoolers - yea!). I've gotten to where I don't book any appointments on Mondays anymore. If I have to call on a customer, I will, but generally not before 10.

Yesterday (a Monday), I had a lunch date with some church planters, and had an afternoon of work planned. Instead, I loaded up my kids and dogs and went to the park. I had plenty of physical energy for that, but not enough mental energy for much else.

How do you spend your Mondays?

A Different Gospel 4

2009-05-14T10:37:00.003-05:00

I started this series a few weeks ago, and because of conferences, work and life, haven't been able to continue. In the mean time, someone I admire has taken up the cause in my absence, and I'm tempted to pass the torch to them.

If you've been following this at all, let me encourage you to follow the discussion at Scot McKnight's blog, because I swear the guy's reading my mind. And, he's a heck of a lot smarter than I am. He has a series called "Kingdom Gospel" which appears to be heading in the direction I'm going (I'll let you know if he veers from my destination, and then I'm sure I'll agree with him).

The first post is here. I believe he's on installment 3.

Also, there's a discussion about Scot's posts over at internetmonk.com, another blog I don't agree with as often as McKnight, but still enjoy.

Thoughts from Orange Session 4 - Perry Noble and Andy Stanley

2009-05-05T10:22:00.002-05:00

Andy and Perry (along with Reggie and Lanny) brought the heat with the theme of "Refine your message". Can't say there is anyone better than Andy on message. I've read "Communicating For A Change", and heard him speak on message enough that he has had a huge influence on the way I think of message.

I preach occasionally, but every week as the "Word" guy in our Family Experience, I get to bring a Bible message. I have a broad audience - parents, kids, and teens (who volunteer). A lot of times it's easy just to fall back on what's easy - I can tell a story to kids. But occasionally I hear comments from adults and teens about how the message connected with them. That always blows me away, because I forget how many of our audiences today missed the connection (or never had an opportunity to connect) when they were kids. Some are hearing these messages for the first time.

Andy and Perry reminded us of how important it is to look not just to the audience we have, but also the audience we want to attract, and craft our message to connect with them. We have to connect their stories with the story. We have to remember that people think in terms of story, not in terms of points. If we're throwing a bunch of facts out - especially to kids and teens - then we'll lose them, in the same way we've been losing them for two generations or more. We have to be planning far enough in advance to use big, fat, crazy visuals effectively. If you wait until the last minute to select your visuals, then what you'll get is a poorly constructed visual, and your message won't be built around the visual, it will merely include it as a passing illustration. Do whatever you have to do to help your families get the picture.

God has a great, big, exciting story that includes each one of us, each one of the kids and parents that visit our environments each week. Take the time to refine your message and connect their stories to God's story.

Thoughts from Orange Session 1 - Reggie Joiner

2009-05-04T12:01:00.003-05:00

I had a parent come to me a few weeks ago, asking if she and her husband could spend more time with my wife and I. Not just because we're wonderfully witty and entertaining folks. But because she was hoping her husband could see how our family worked, and it might rub off on him. He's not the spiritual leader in their home, and she desperately wants him to be. So far, nagging hasn't worked.

Reggie's session gave me the greatest take-away of the week. He presented the idea that we have pictures that we idealize of what the perfect family, perfect child, perfect Christian is, and consciously or unconsciously project those either in our own minds or in the minds of the parents we minister to. You could call it Family Ministry Pornography. The images are more fantasy than reality. They represent something that in many cases in unattainable for many of our families.

In addition, Reg pointed out that what's more realistic is to help our families take the next step in their spiritual process. He linked Deut. 6 to the idea of everyday steps to take. It made me wonder if what I'm doing by pushing resources each week is putting the idea in parents' minds that "a good parent will use all these resources". Am I painting an unrealistic picture for the parents I minister to? It made me think of "7 Practices of Effective Ministry", and "think steps not programs". Are we making the next step easy and clear for people in our ministry?

So two "action steps" from this talk:
1) In keeping with "begin with the end in mind", help parents develop a realistic expectation of what they need to work towards, both as a family, and as individuals, keeping the talents and gifts of their children in mind
2) Help them visualize the "next step" in the process. It may be as simple as deciding to pray with your son each night before bed. It may be that a father needs to take his middle-school daughter on a "date" once a month. It may be getting through a Bible story once a week. Help your parents visualize and take the next step in discipling their kids.

Help your families take the next step.

Notes from Brown Bag Collaboraters Luncheon

2009-05-01T13:20:00.003-05:00

Sam Luce (I'm late for this, missed Kenny Conley)

Being able to share wins is a huge benefit to collaboration.

Jonathan Cliff

- What IS collaboration? The act of working with someone else to produce action or creation.

- Collaborate, not compete. Not based on benchmarks - the benchmarks will exclude and lead to judgment "I don't have anything to add, because he's so big" or "I don't have anything to offer because he's too small"

- Collaborate don't complain

- Don't talk theology right off

Gina

The exchanging of ideas

- Things to add to your filter (blogs, twitter, mogulus, etc.)

1. Simply because someone blogs, doesn't make them an expert. They are the author's thoughts and idea

2. You're not bulletproof. If you put it out there, then expect to get beat up.

3. When you put an idea out there, before you implement it, it could blow up, so you don't put it out until it's been tried. But just because it didn't work for you, doesn't mean it won't work elsewhere. Go ahead and put it out.

4. Don't take yourself too seriously.

If you read, but don't WRITE

1. It's a conversation - add comments!

2. Disagree sometimes

3. Monitor the conversation. If you've added a comment, keep up with the conversation.

Matt

Tools to use (free, accessible, cross platform)

1. cmconnect, smconnect web sites

2. Facebook (look for private group)

3. Twitter

4. Toxbox / skype

5. Google docs.

6. Google voice

7. Email (boo)

8. Phone (it works!). Don't forget to pick up the phone. Try to do what's quickest.

9. Link as much stuff as possible.

Emerging tools

1. Mobile

2. The art of collaboration is accessibility

Notes from Orange Session 4 - Perry Noble and Andy Stanley on Message

2009-05-01T09:31:00.002-05:00

Today's theme: Refine your message

Reggie: "Why are there so many young people at your church?"

Perry: "Cause we're not afraid to piss old people off."

Why is it so important to spend time crafting our messages? Are we really spending the time and effort we need to to craft the message?

- Andy: There are smart people out there, and if we really want our folks to bring unchurched people, you have to create a message where the funnel is wide, and unchurched people can connect to.

"How much time do you think it takes to prepare a message?" (To Andy)

- Andy: All day Wednesday for outline and half of Thursday, then all day Saturday

- Perry: "I download Northpoint's podcast on Tuesday..." "I just invest the time I feel the Lord wants me to spend. Student and Children's pastors - everybody's been bored, but especially children, so we should work really hard. There are 2 questions parents will ask: What did you learn? Did you have fun?

- Andy: Present like your kids are sitting on the back row listening. If there's nothing relevant in your message, then you're not ready. It's not enough to cover the material, you have to make a connection.

Authenticity

"Can you learn to be authentic?" You gotta be who you are.

Andy: People have seen inauthentic preaching modeled, so they imitate it instead of making an authentic connection with their audience. We're not ready until until we're more concerned about what THEY do, instead of how WE do?

Perry: He's struggled with being authentic in messages because of the way churches treat sin. Jesus forgives your sin, but church people don't. If you preach from your experience and pain and dumb mistakes than what we do right.

"Who has inspired you in terms of speaking"

Andy: John Maxwell when he speaks to leaders.

"All of you value the power of story. Why are they so important?"

Andy: We think in terms of story. Jokes, fables. Story is how we think. No one lives by points. Give them story.

Perry: Jesus didn't teach by points. He taught in parables. Children love stories.

Perry: "We run from people we shouldn't run from. If God has given us a vision from the Holy Spirit, don't run from the people in your church."

Andy: We are called to a ministry, but not to a model. We don't have to be stuck in a speaking model.

Reggie: Use visuals and use them effectively.

Andy: You have to be far enough ahead to use good visuals.

What's the process for connecting your message with your audience.

Andy: We need to preach for the people we want to be there, as much as who is already there. (People have to know that their unchurched friends will be able to connect with a message for them to invite their friends). Church people have far more in common with unchurched than things we DON'T have in common. Preach to PEOPLE. "Who's here, and who do I WANT to be here?"

Lanny: Sometimes Andy reviews a scripture over and over and over until God gives him what to say about it.

Andy: (on Lanny's comment) The Bible is extraordinary. But the pressure of Sunday coming makes it east to just create a sermon instead of waiting on a message inspired by God (my wording). Be committed to allowing the text to speak.

Perry: You've been lied to for years. Your kids and students are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today. If THEY don't get it, the church will be dead. It is UNACCEPTABLE to make your students stand in front of Walmart to sell doughnuts so they can attend a field trip. We don't make senior adults do that. Children and student ministry should be the most funded areas of the church.

Notes from Orange Session 3 - Nancy Beach

2009-04-30T17:26:00.001-05:00

Help! I'm a leader trapped in a woman's body!

Does the spirit discern gifts based on sex? Don't think so.

At school she could be a leader in any area, but there were no female leaders in her church. Deacons, speakers, all leaders were men. Women with gifts of mercy and compassion were called "deaconesses", but were not allowed to make strategic decisions.

Why does this matter so much? Compared to huge needs in the world, why does this matter?

4 "Winners"

1. The church congregation as a whole. The local church that excludes women loses the contribution of women and their creativity and strategic thinking. Judges 4:4 "Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth was leading Israel at that time."

2. The non-churched people in our communities. In the secular world they see women showing strength and leadership. But when they look at the evangelical subculture, they see women excluded.

3. Pastoral and church leadership team. Women in your circle of leadership will add a perspective and balance to your team.

4. Our daughters and our next generation. They need a current generation of male leaders who will open the doors for them.

3 Simple Things We Need To Do

1. Get into it: We need to make this a front-burner issue. We need to recognize that at first glance it may not seem like a front burner issue. But the culture needs to see the church as a place where the balanced image of God is illustrated. STUDY. "The Blue Parakeet" from Scot McKnight LISTEN: To the women in your congregation. Lunch. Ask them, "What opportunities have you found to lead in this church?" "How safe do you feel expressing yourself on teams with males?" "Do the male teachers ever say things that are not inclusive or hurtful?" "What else do you need me know?"

2. Get over it: These new realities may feel uncomfortable. We need to acknowledge the awkwardness of having a woman on your team. The "old days" are gone. A sense of humor is required. Get over your fear. There are plenty of opportunities to sin without it involving a woman leader. Don't allow your fear from allowing women to live up their leadership gifting. Grow up, get over ourselves for the sake of the kingdom.

3. Get on with it: Where ever you end up, there are plenty of ways women can contribute, but is there room for growth? Will the women and daughters in your church have a place to lead? Or will they get busted for being where they "don't belong"?

Final Statements

Men - Thank you for your openness. Be bold. You may take heat.

Women over 35 - Sometimes the barrier is other women, not men. Some of you may be hurt, but some may be holding tight to a view you haven't fully explored. Are you envious of someone's leadership gifts or opportunities (especially younger women?) Be quick to celebrate the success of other women. Some of you have been squishing this down for a long time. It's time to speak up.

Women under 35 - You are the future of the church. Using your gifts in the church may not be the easiest place. Academia or business may be easier. Young women, the church needs you to show up.

Notes from Orange Session 2 - Francis Chan

2009-04-30T10:52:00.002-05:00

If I love my neighbor as myself, then I would come together to mobilize others, not to come and sing songs and grade the sermon.

A lot of times we try to calm down the passion people have for others. We do that with students and their passion.

Acts 4:13 - "When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and recognized they were common uneducated men, they were astonished."

Now we have educated believers, and we should be astonished at their lack of action. Many feel they can't tell the gospel story. They don't see the power of the spirit living within them. They're scared.

What happened to our first love?

"When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God courageously."

Anytime we have a passion from God, the church tries to calm you down. "Be responsible". "You can't save the world"

We're talking people out of thinking for eternity, rescuing for eternity.

We never look more like Christ than when we're rescuing.

Notes from Orange Session 1 - Reggie Joiner

2009-04-30T10:51:00.002-05:00

Sometimes our pictures don't become reality

Oftentimes we have an image of how we want things to be, and some times that applies to our families. Where did our picture of family/parenting come from?

A lot of times we try to get families to conform to our image of family. The "stock" family. But sometimes something happens (finances, divorce, out-of-control son/daughter, special needs). So some times families don't have the option to become the "picture" we have in our mind. But they are very real families. Who are our families? What do they look like? How do we meet families where they are?

Do we try the "better picture approach"? Over time it makes us feel like we can't measure up to the ideal.

Beyond the pictures that seem to have, God is interested in our stories. God isn't really interested in a picture in our minds, he's interested in using broken people to communicate a message. Every time we encounter a parent or family, how will we perceive them?

Never buy into the myth that you have to conform to a picture before God can use you. Remind them that God is a God of restoration and redemption. Right now, today, God can use them.

Help parents take the next step. A little change can make a big difference in a family. Our unrealistic pictures can paralyze a generation of families. We lose cred with some parents because they know we don't live up to, and they can't live up to.

Give them a picture of the next step.

Deut. 6 When the picture gets better for you..."Be careful" don't forget who God is. Don't forget the story.

Something happens when you realize that God is behind the scenes working a bigger story.

Moses tells the people, "If you want your children to have an every day kind of faith, then it has to happen every day". Simple steps of how this looks, "along the road, when you lie down, when you get up", etc.

Leaders - leverage your 40 hours to tap into the hours a parent has. Help them take the next step.

A Different Gospel 3

2009-04-22T23:17:00.003-05:00

This is day 3 of a series exploring what "gospel" is.

Yesterday I asked, "Is your gospel 'good news'"? When a kid walks in to your church, or better yet, when you meet a kid in your neighborhood, how do you express "the gospel"?

Easter has come and gone, but Easter's a big time to share the good news of Jesus. You've got a packed house full of two-timers (Christmas and Easter church goers) and so you pull out all the stops to tell people the gospel. But the good news we share is typically an atonement theory. Atonement theory is a way of explaining why Jesus died. Think penal substitution. Think ransom. Think satisfaction.

"You're a sinner, separated from God by your sin, and Jesus died on a cross! to take away your sins."

OK, if you teach kids you might put it this way: "God loves you so much that he gave his only son [read - His son died because of your sins] so that you can go to heaven."

Here's the problem with atonement theory as gospel: It isn't good news for the vast majority of people.

We spend our "gospel dollars" trying to convince people of their utter depravity so that our "gospel" might possibly be perceived as good news. If someone believes they're a dirty rotten sinner, then maybe, just maybe they'll think that having their sin taken away (or avoiding hell) is good news.

In our culture, I'm convinced that most people don't "hear" this message, even if they are sinners, even if they do need God's forgiveness. And us trying to convince them of that fact simply gels in their minds the negative perception of Christianity as narrow, judgmental and useless in the context of solving real problems.

So if the "good news" isn't Jesus died for your sins, what is the gospel? And how do we express it?

A Different Gospel 2

2009-04-20T23:12:00.005-05:00

First of all we have to state the obvious in this discussion: Gospel is "good news". That's what the word means. "Of course it is", you say, but really, ask yourself this question: Is my good news good news?

Think about how "gospel" is used in the Old and New Testaments. In Isaiah 40 and 52 the good tidings or "good news" is that God is finally bringing Israel's exile to an end. God himself is leading his people back to Jerusalem and will put things back to they way they should be. God himself will be in charge. The pagans won't hold the people of Israel under their thumbs any longer. God's people will return to their land, a rich land, and all will be healed. To a people living in slavery and bondage away from their homeland, this is some great news.

You find something similar in the opening pages of Luke:

"But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people...Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11

That's good news to people living in oppression under the Romans; A savior is born, a king of the line of David who will finally bring peace!

Then when Jesus appears, he goes back to Isaiah to announce his mission: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Ask yourself these questions:

What is good news to the poor?
What is good news to someone being held prisoner?
What is good news to a person who is blind?
What is good news for people being oppressed?

Now think about your "gospel" message and ask yourself this question: Would your gospel message be perceived as "good news" in any of these situations? Think about your gospel in terms of the children, students and adults you encounter. What would be good news to them?

What is good news to a 10 year old girl whose dad just walked out?
What is good news to an 11 year old kid living in the city who doesn't know where his next meal will come from?
What is good news to a nine year old little girl who is bound to a wheelchair?
What is good news to a teenager who just lost her dad to cancer?

This is where we live. And if we don't have good news to apply to situations like these, then I'm afraid our gospel just isn't good news. How does the church present a gospel that isn't just "pie in the sky in the great by and by", but good news here and now?

A Different Gospel 1

2009-04-20T16:29:00.005-05:00

With the coming (and going, thank goodness!) of Easter, the idea of gospel is on my mind. After all, for Christians Easter is the climax of the gospel story.

At least...I think it is.

Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11 warns his readers about receiving "a different gospel". I used to think I knew what that meant, but now I'm not so sure. Luckily, I don't seem to be the only one. There is some debate going on these days about what "gospel" really is. Some folks would say it's something to do with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, "the gospels". Others would say they "presented the gospel" to a friend over lunch. I've heard people say that any message from a church pulpit is a "gospel message". But when you take a look through the Old and New Testaments, you see the gospel or "good news" presented in ways that seem very different. Isaiah presents the gospel. Jesus preached "the good news", and Peter and John preached "the gospel" through Samaria. But gospel, or evangelion isn't limited to Christian literature, it appears through Roman Caesar language as well. When you read through many of the gospel messages, they can seem at odds, or not even vaguely related. A different gospel? Which one are we using as the standard measure?

Here's what I've noticed: In our sound byte age we are trying to make the most of the 15 second we have with any one person or audience. We've concocted methodologies, illustrations, and programs to gel "the gospel" into the most concise expression we can.

A few questions I want to explore:

Is the sound byte gospel we've created an accurate depiction of the gospel message? Is there a better way of communicating the message?
Is our gospel effecting transformation in people? Why or why not?
How can we effectively communicate the gospel to children and teens? Are we presenting a gospel to them that is appropriate at their developmental stage?

I don't claim to have answers, but I have questions, and I have ideas. I hope to lead a discussion more than anything.

Where I want to start is with your input: What is your gospel?

Children's Ministry in the age of Tom Wright

2009-04-20T15:12:00.004-05:00

As a minister to families and children, I'm typically the guy who choses curriculum for what is taught - at least in corporate environments - to kids. I'm also someone who does a great deal of teaching in those environments. As I look at the current choices in children's curriculum out there, I see a very traditional, almost simplistic approach to theology in kids ministry. OK, I know what you're thinking: "They're kids - it's supposed to be simple!". But how we frame the story of Jesus matters, I believe, from day one. Is the Bible simply a collection of morality lessons or examples of virtue, or is something larger going on? What really matters? Is the end-goal "going to heaven when we die", or is the cosmos moving toward a grand crescendo that is far more exciting? And what about Jesus? How does he fit into what's going on? And where do we start with the story of Jesus? Tom Wright and his place in current scholarship, both in terms of the "Historical Jesus" studies and "New Perspective on Paul" (NPP) are having a huge influence on churches around the world. Whatever change is occurring, however, doesn't seem to be pushing it's way into children's curriculum yet. But I believe some of his views have the potential to really change how and what we teach our kids.

Here are a few reasons why I bring this up - some observations I've made in ministry over the last 15 years or so:

Research bears out that kids in evangelical denominations are leaving at incredible rates. One reason is that when a kid graduates high-school, he thinks that he's heard all there is to hear about the Bible. We've covered all the big morality stories, so what else is there to know? How does the Bible really inform a person's life and work?

We have produced several generations of "Christians" who are anemic in their discipleship. We haven't connected their professed faith to a missional lifestyle. How does the story of God affect the way people live their lives? If Christianity is simply about being saved from my personal sin, then I either A) can go about living however I wish, thank you very much, because God loves me and I'm "saved" or B) must live a life of personal piety, seeing to my own righteous bubble, and let others tend to themselves.

At least anecdotal evidence bears out that in general, the concept of "going to heaven when you die" is not all that appealing. Let's face it, most people find the idea of sitting on a cloud, playing a harp and singing hymns incredibly boring. I'm not sure anyone wants to sit through an eternal church service. Most folks can't wait until their mandatory Sunday appearance is over so that they can go out to eat lunch.

Though the evangelical climate is changing, many denominations who profess a disembodied, heavenly existence see no problem with pollution, dumping toxic waste in poor neighborhoods, clear cutting forests, or personal health because, after all, God's just going to burn this earth up and whisk my spirit off to heaven. So why care?

Here are some very generalized perceptions I have about Wright's teaching that could change what we teach, and what curriculum writers should be paying attention to:

The emphasis on the Bible as story. The Bible is a grand narrative that has a beginning that moves toward Christ's first coming, but then points us forward to his second coming and God's future. My take: That may sound no different to many of you, but it is and here's why; The way we teach children (and often, adults) is typically in bits and pieces. A little Moses here, some Daniel there, perhaps some Noah or Joshua along the way. Each is broken into a morality lesson for kids to model. Then we suddenly switch gears when we get into "salvation" mode. When it comes to salvation, most curriculum teaches New Testament only (unless it jumps back to Genesis 3 and the fall) but for the most part Jesus is plucked from his place in God's story and works outside of his Jewish history. We teach salvation as atonement theory only (and mainly one atonement theory as well, but that's a whole other post), instead of looking at what God has done, is doing and intends to do through the big lens of scripture. We must always be asking the question "How does this fit in to God's big story?" How do we present any content in light of the whole of scripture?

Wright places a high value not just on Jesus' resurrection, but our own resurrection as well. In addition, he does a great job at painting a picture of New Creation, all of which is, to me anyway, far more interesting than "going to heaven when I die". My take: In five years of teaching from my current curriculum, I have yet to encounter an eschatology that includes resurrection and new creation. The teaching from Isaiah 65, John 11, Romans 8, 1 Cor. 15 and Revelation 21 are conspicuously absent. How do we communicate a physical, resurrected existence and new creation to kids?

Carrying 1 and 2 in mind, Jesus' death and resurrection is taught so that "we can go to heaven when we die". No mention of the fact that Jesus died and was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, not so that a prophetic checklist can be completed, but because that's what God promised the coming messiah would do all along as a part of his plan. My take: Much of the curriculum I see makes salvation, and especially the death and resurrection of Jesus, something done strictly on my behalf, for my pleasure. It's an extremely selfish presentation of Jesus' work. Jesus' resurrection was to glorify himself and prove that he really was who he said he was. Through his death, sin was conquered, as well as death, and yes, it provided a way for us to have a relationship with God. But what seems to have happened is that we've turned the selfish message of "you're going to hell when you die" to a selfish message of "You can go to heaven when you die". Neither of which are adequate or appropriate.

Wright's eschatology places us firmly in God's new creation. I think I've heard it called "partial preterism". According to Wright, the Jews expected resurrection to happen in "the age to come", the time when God's reign would be active over his creation. Through his resurrection, Jesus inaugurated a new age. All authority on heaven and on earth have been given to him. Discipleship is living under the authority and power of Jesus in this present age. My take: This has huge implications for discipleship. We aren't saved for our own personal piety, we are saved and now live under His rule in His Kingdom. Regardless of what's going on around us, as a part of his new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) we are called to live through his authority in his example by the power of his Spirit.

Related to resurrection and new creation, if we will live in some kind of "new creation" with a resurrected, physical body, then we should care about environmental and health issues. We should be living a life that prepares us for our ultimate stewardship of God's new creation. This should inform our teaching on social and environmental issues.

The New Perspective affects our view of Judaism, and especially (I think) its place in reformation thinking. Judaism has been generalized to be a religion that was about works righteousness, a religion that teaches that one can earn his own salvation through good works. Luther grabbed hold of this theme and it's influence has been held strongly ever since, even to the point of anti-Semitism, even if unintended. The NPP has said that Paul (I suspect in Romans and Galatians in particular) is not talking about works righteousness. So if you put all your teaching on grace, works, and salvation in that basket, you have a problem. Which leads me to #7.

Justification - there is a huge debate surrounding Wright's view of justification, but it has the potential to affect our ideas of discipleship as well. If I understand his position correctly, justification happens at the time we believe the gospel and put our faith in Jesus. Nothing new there. However, many would say that regardless of how our lives are lived in this present life, Jesus' righteousness is permanently imparted to us and we are judged righteous when we stand before God. Wright would say, I believe, that our life of works until that time is factored into God's judgement somehow. That's a pretty big paradigm shift, especially for all you Calvinists and Lutherans out there. I've heard Wright use 1 Cor. 15:58 a good deal in his talks surrounding the importance of works. "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." (NIV) So in light of #6's discussion on works-righteousness, how would this change your teaching and discipleship training?

For those of you who are N.T. Wright fans, how is this changing your teaching and curriculum choices? Have you found yourself in tension with your curriculum publishers or in tension with parents? Would you add or subtract anything from this list?

Sparks In The Soil

2009-03-20T09:24:00.003-05:00

Hey fellow gardeners - I stumbled on the blog "Sparks In The Soil" today. It's a really great resource not only for gardening tips, but she also keeps up with what's going on in urban gardens, which is especially of interest to me.

Spring Fever

2009-03-06T17:30:00.004-06:00

It's 5:30 pm in Memphis and it's 73 degrees here. Last Saturday we had the biggest snowfall in 30 years. What a difference a week makes.

I believe that God has put it in each one of us to be gardeners. It may be that that calling expresses itself in you as a devoted yard man. It may be that you can't get enough hiking, sailing, or skiing. My calling is to garden, like vegetable gardening. But the land, the creation, is a part of us (literally), and I think God's call to us as stewards of the creation is irrevocable.

Living in the 'burbs makes it harder to grow food (unless you're this guy). At least, my yard makes it hard because it's almost completely shaded. I have a strip of land on the side of the house, and then the front yard, but I think if I plowed the front yard and fenced a cow out there, someone might have - well - a cow.

Anyway, all winter I've been anticipating what I'd grow this year. Last year we made an experimental plot with some tomatoes and peppers. We got lots of tomatoes, but only a few peppers. But it proved to us that we had a spot that would work. So all winter we've been composting: coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable scraps, leaves, and ash. Right now we have a beautiful dark, rich mound of compost. Mmmm. And this year we went back to doing something we did when we first moved in the neighborhood, but quit because probably no one else was. We didn't bag all our leaves this year. We raked some, left some, and mulched the rest. As I worked today, it was wonderful seeing the soil, as dark and crumbly as coffee grounds, beneath the leaves, and the worms wriggling away, feeding the soil and feeding on the soil.

If you know the neighborhood, then you know that our street is full of kids. These kids have never seen a vegetable outside of a grocery store in their lives. As I worked today gathering topsoil for my starter plants, I was surrounded by little kids. They loved just running their hands through the soil. They were fascinated by worms (even the little girls). They couldn't believe that we were going to grow food! And I ended up with an army of volunteers to help me in my garden this year (yeah, right!)

I can't help but feel that in moving to the city, the suburbs, we've lost a connection to the land that leaves us - leaves me at least - empty. We've lost the tradition, lore, and experience of our father's fathers. We've become completely and utterly dependent on a food system that leaves us helpless to provide for ourselves. In the words of Wendell Berry (roughly paraphrased), we've made our homes little consumption factories where we input food and output waste instead of living within the circle of reuse that is the way of nature and creation.

I don't know where I'm going with this, other than to say that I feel my best when I'm working in the dirt. It's a day like today when I feel I'm doing what God put in me to do.

What's On YOUR iPod?

2009-03-02T11:42:00.002-06:00

First of all, I know that this is a lightweight post. But I feel the need to post because I think I got called out on a friend's blog for not posting recently. At least I think she was talking about me. It's like the old Carly Simon song: "I bet you think this song [blog] is about you". Well, I have felt guilty for not posting in so long, but let me assure you, I have a series coming soon that I've been waiting to start on. I'm currently reading "The Early Christians in their own words", and will start a series of blogs on things I've gotten for the reading. Definitely too much to put in one blog post.

But enough guilt - on with the post!

Besides entertainment, my iPod is probably my primary source of education. I absolutely love podcasts, and I'd like to share some of what I'm listening to. If you want to see where my head is at, what I'm fascinated with, you can look at my bookshelf or my list of podcasts. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast Andy's one of my favorite communicators anywhere, and this peek into his leadership side is great for any organization, secular, church or non-profit.
Catalyst Podcast Another leadership podcast on which you'll find Andy as well, but also a great spectrum of church, business and thought leaders
Fermi Podcast (from the web site) "... a broad collective of innovators, artists, social entrepeneurs and church and societal leaders experimenting with ways to advance the common good in culture"

Now - off the "leadership" stuff. Here's some more quirky podcasts:

Shane Claiborne Podcast If you don't know Shane and what's up with "The Simple Way" in Philly and other sister communities, you should. But I promise you, it will mess with you. I would also highly recommend his books "The Irresistible Revolution" and "Jesus for President"
Agroinnovations Podcast This podcast has to do with agriculture and sustainable living. The quality on this one isn't that great, but still has great content.

And some links that aren't podcasts, so you may have to do a bit of digging for these, but worth it. If you're not aware, but the way, there's a section in iTunes called "iTunes U" where schools and universities put entire classes, lectures, and special programs online. These are so incredibly useful, and generally, FREE.

Summit 2008 - I went looking for the tracks for Brian McLaren and Matthew Sleeth, both of whom I have an appreciation for (this is not the best presentation I've heard from Sleeth, but it's OK). Mclaren is another one of those guys that tweeks my mind.
President's Symposium on Cultural Engagement - From Seattle Pacific University. I specifically went after N.T. Wright's lectures here. Wright is my theological hero.
Dean's Lecture Series - From Pepperdine University. This is another presentation from Wright. This is Wright at his most basic, I think. A good starting point for his perspective. However, these tracks are in video format, so I recorded the audio and put in in MP3 format for my iPod.
Let's face it, any audio I can get from Wright, I get. A good starting point for downloading his work is here.
I think my last recommendation in this section would be the Allelon Netcast. You can get audio from Dallas Willard, Brian McLaren, Eugene Peterson and more here. You may have to do some wrangling to download the audio (I can't remember), but these are some great teachers.

Regular sermon podcasts:

Mars Hill podcast. Rob Bell
Buckhead Church weekly messages
Northpoint Community Church "Best of" series.

And finally, since I am a geek, I have a few nerdcasts:

Other stuff? I have "Coffeebreak Spanish" loaded, though I don't listen to it much anymore. I have a class from UC Berkley on the Roman Empire, an "Elementary Greek" class from Concordia Seminary, several screencast podcasts, and my morning news from the NPR 7 am podcast.

So...what's on your iPod?

Digital TV

2009-01-06T09:52:00.003-06:00

I was watching TV at a restaurant the other night, and one of those "Better get your digital converter box" commercials came across. Stacey and I had a brief discussion and made the decision to let the digital conversion on Feb. 17 pass us by. No converter box. No TV. We've been weaning ourselves off it for years, and really the only time we watch TV is on Saturday morning during the time advertisers get pornographic in front of our kids.

Now, don't get me wrong - we watch more movies than most people do, just not mainstream broadcast television.

So, we're officially "checking out" of TV-land. Anyone want to join us?

Enlist The Parents

2008-12-18T20:05:00.004-06:00

First of all, I feel compelled to issue this little disclaimer: although I work as a family minister with Cordova Community Church, I don't speak for the leadership there. But I wanted to share some stuff that's happening this year that I hope can be some encouragement to some other folks out there.

We've been all about the "Orange" philosophy of family ministry for years (5?). We believe that God has charged parents to be the primary spiritual influence on their kids. So our ministry is all about partnering with the Holy Spirit and parents as they lead kids to follow Jesus. We're equippers. CCC is not a place where you drop your kids off at Sunday School to be "churched".

As equippers, we've done everything possible to build environments and provide resources for our parents to use at home. After four years we did a survey of our parents and found they still weren't using the resources the way we hoped they would. That's a big deal, but what was even bigger, to me, is the fact that it took us four years to figure that out. It seems that no where in the Orange models I've seen is there an effective feedback loop to find out what's going on at home. Barna would say ("Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions") that the best churches have regular evaluations of how kids and parents are doing. We weren't.

So this fall we started a new environment, "P.E.P. Club" (Parents Encouraging Parents, or ParentStuf for you KidStuf-ers out there). Throughout the month we keep parents and kids in a common environment so that parents see and hear what their kids are learning. But on the fourth Sunday of each month, we split the parents out and talk about what's happening at home. Mainly we ask questions:

How are things at home?
How did your family show the virtue this month? (wins)
What was hard about showing the virtue?
What tools did you use? Did you do anything new?
What tools are you having trouble using?

This lets parents hear

that other parents screw up, too
that not every parent uses every tool
how some families use tools in ways that might work for their family.
the struggles other families are having

It's been really well received. It's relaxed, we serve light breakfast, and review what the kids will be learning (we still want the parents to be on the same page!).

As an addition, last month we started a series on discipling your kids. What spiritual gifts and leanings do parents already recognize in their kids? How do we encourage those gifts? Where are kids falling short and how do we help them leave those behind? What does a disciple look like, and how do we provide home environments where kids are discipled? Hopefully we'll figure this out together.

But CM/FM - if you aren't doing something with your parents, you should be. Close the loop.

Review of "A Continuous Harmony"

2008-11-22T09:17:00.004-06:00

What I love about Wendell Berry is that he speaks to a disquiet in me. As I read his work, I find that he articulates beautifully what I feel, but haven't had the ability to express. Maybe I will when I am his age.

"A Continuous Harmony" is a collection of essays, many of which could be expressed in the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven..." Berry calls us back to the cyclic nature of - nature, of the earth, of agriculture, of culture. He repeatedly emphasizes that much of the cultural and environmental upheaval we are currently experiencing is our own doing; We have created this mess by ignoring the fact that nature dictates that what must continue must be cared for. That our economy, which values consumption, ignores the value of production. In order to keep producing, we must tread lightly and care for the earth and our communities.

What I find most interesting is that this book was originally published over 30 years ago, but sounds as contemporary as reading the morning news. It's Berry's sermon come to life.

"A Continuous Harmony" speaks of economy, ecology, politics, education, discipline, and industrialization, among other topics. Here are a few underlined quotes:

On politics:

The time is past when it was enough merely to elect our officials. We will have to elect them and then go and watch them and keep our hands on them, the way the [lobbyists] do.
While the government is "studying" and funding and organizing it's Big Thought, nothing is being done. But the citizen who is willing to Think Little, and, accepting the discipline of that, to go ahead on his own, is already solving the problem.
...our contemporary men of power have produced in their wake an industry of journalistic commentary and interpretation because it is so difficult to determine what they have said and whether or not they meant it.
If we all behaved as honorably and honestly and as industriously as we expect our representatives to behave, we would soon put the government out of work.

On freedom:

A person dependent on someone else for everything from potatoes to opinions may declare that he is a free man, and his government may issue a certificate granting him his freedom, but he will not be free. He is that variety of specialist known as a consumer, which means that he is the abject dependent of producers. How can he be free if he can do nothing for himself? What is the First Amendment to him whose mouth is stuck to the tit of the "affluent society"? Men are free precisely to the extent that they are equal to their own needs. The most able are the most free.

On consumerism:

Most of us, for example, not only do not know how to produce the best food in the best way - we don't know how to produce any kind in any way. Our model citizen is a sophisticate who before puberty understands how to produce a baby, but who at the age of thirty will not know how to produce a potato.
Nearly all the old standards, which implied and required rigorous disciplines, have now been replaced by a standard of efficiency...Instead of asking a man what he can do well, it asks him what he can do fast and cheap.
Efficiency...means cheapness at any price. It means hurrying to nowhere. It means the profligate waste of humanity and of nature. It means the greatest profit to the greatest liar.
The constitution of the natural man probably does not permit him to shorten his labor-time and enlarge his consuming-time indefinitely. He has to pay the penalty in satiety and aimlessness.

On the environment:

...if you are fearful of the destruction of the environment, then learn to quit being an environmental parasite.
Americans have gone to the moon as they came to the frontiers of the New World: with their minds very much upon getting there, very little upon what might be involved in staying there.
A more realistic and accurate version of ourselves would teach us that our ecological obligations are to use, not use up; to use by the standard of real need, not of fashion or whim; and then to relinquish what we have used in a way that returns it to the common ecological fund from which it came.

On agriculture and urbanization:

What are we to say, by contrast, of a society that places no value at all upon such a tradition or such a man, that instead works the destruction of such imperfect agricultural tradition as it has, that replaces the farm people with machines, that values the techniques of production far above the techniques of land maintenance, and that has espoused as an ideal a depopulated countryside farmed by a few technicians for the supposedly greater benefit of hundreds of millions crowded into cities and helpless to produce food or any other essential for themselves?
...we have created a society characterized by degrading urban poverty and an equally degrading affluence - a society of undisciplined abundance, which is to say a society of waste.
Our cities have become almost unlivable because they have been built to be factories and vending machines rather than communities.

On education:

Education is coming to be not a long-term investment in young minds and in the life of the community, but a short-term investment in the economy.
...a teacher's best work may be produced in the children and grandchildren of his students.
By their ignorance people enfranchise their exploiters.

Brilliant Quote

2008-11-10T20:09:00.002-06:00

"It seems to me that one of the most important things in ministerial training would be to teach them do do something besides be a preacher. Because...it's a bad thing to be professionally trapped. And I can't imagine a worse trap to fall into than a total dependence on being a minister. They ought to be taught to garden, to farm, carpenter, take care of themselves in some other way. And THEN they can tell the truth." - Wendell Berry, 2007 Convocation and Pastor's School.

Shutting down

2008-11-04T21:12:00.002-06:00

It's 9:13 on election night and I'm turning off the T.V. The Presidential race is still very much alive, but that's OK.

I already know who wins.

For those of us who live in the Kingdom, we're an outpost here. This really isn't our government. Each one of us, and each of our little communities - churches - are embassies here. We are under the rule of a King. There's nothing these so called "rulers" can do to us.

Throughout this election, I've been reminded of how short-sighted so many Christians are. The emails I've received, the "forwards" trying to scare me into voting one way or another, coming from my "Christian" friends and relatives are scare tactics. Four years - or eight - of a presidency, decades of party rule, are nothing in the big picture of our father. He wins.

In Daniel 9, Daniel receives a big shock. He's understood that Israel will be held accountable for their sins for seventy years. Seventy years is a long time. It's a lifetime (or even two for folks in Daniel's day). Daniel figures that the seventy years is up, so he asks God, essentially, "OK, God, when is this going to be over?" God sends an angel to Daniel and says, "Sorry - it's not seventy, but seventy sevens." Over four hundred years. Now that's a long time to wait. A long time to be faithful and live in expectation. Meanwhile, however, Daniel plods away, living an incredible life of faith and service to God.

Four years is a drop in the bucket. Let it come. Let it go.

"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

In Their Own Words

2008-10-27T17:53:00.005-05:00

Since I've never been to a Christian school or seminary, my church history has been limited to the fairly recent history of my own tradition. Recently, however, I've found more and more folks calling back to the early church fathers for inspiration and guidance. I think it's fascinating.

So you can imagine my pleasure today when I stumbled on this. It's an e-book called "The Early Christians, In Their Own Words", and it's freely downloadable. I've read some excerpts, but not the whole thing yet. But I thought I'd at least send it out as a resource.

For Eric

2008-10-24T00:08:00.004-05:00

There's an interesting conversation going on at Eric Henton's Facebook page. I tried to add a comment, but - because I'm so long-winded, I ended up going over the character limit for comments on Facebook. So - this is for Eric:

It's been a while since anyone's posted here, and since you called my attention to this post, I'm going to add my $.02.

I am fiscally and morally conservative. I believe in small government, because I want my taxes to be low so that I can afford to let my wife stay home with my kids, and so that I can give money and resources to the poor, the hungry, the sick. I favor a government that gives the people the freedom to exercise their religion so that they can mobilize to help the same groups mentioned above. As far as a party platform goes, that would be the Republican platform.

However - as you've mentioned - we have an exploding national debt that cannot be serviced without an increased tax burden. The tax burden and war debt distract our country from caring for the poor among us (by the way, for some good theology on caring for the poor and "redistributing wealth", see Deuteronomy 15, tied in with Acts 4). Our moral obligation to care for those in poverty is being ignored while those of us who oppose the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are being labeled as "American Occupiers" by the countries we've invaded in this un-Godly war. And, finally, our current Republican agenda seems to encourage unchecked, run-away capitalism that, let's face it, is pure greed, and has allowed the disparity between rich and poor explode in the same proportion as our national debt.

But what do we do? I believe that there are elements of the Democratic platform that are more in line with what God would have us to do. And I believe that a vote for Obama would get us out of Iraq and let us use the funds we are wasting there to begin to pay down (or at least stop increasing) our debt and increase local and international aid to those in poverty. Fantastic (seriously)

BUT-(there's my big but sticking out), here is where I am nervous: If I vote for Obama, do I increase my chances of closing doors that - once closed - can never be opened again? What kind of laws will be put on the books concerning same-sex marriage, abortion, and faith-based initiatives (restricting proselytizing by organizations) - traditional evangelical issues? It's a package deal, isn't it? To get one, you have to accept the other. And I don't like the suitcase full of goods either party is handing me right now.

I am VERY confused, can you tell?

Emma Jane

2008-10-14T10:51:00.003-05:00

There is no image of boyhood more sterotypical of this one. A boy and his dog. So you can imagine the sadness at our house this morning. Our six month old pup, Emma, died last night after contracting parvo. Explaining that to four boys is heart wrenching. We are a Jack Russell family. The energy level of our four boys more than compensates for the energy level of a Jack. In fact, we had two - Emma, and her mother, Jessie. We still have Jesse. In fact, she's due to deliver pups any minute now. She's been the best dog I've ever had. Emma was quickly following in her footsteps. Incredibly playful and good natured, but a great snuggle companion at night. At night she'd run to the boys' room, jump in a bed, and watch the door, waiting for a boy to join her for the night.

No words of wisdom or contemplation. I'm sad, and my boys are heart-broken. We'll celebrate her with a funeral tonight. I will need a HUGE box of tissue.

Poet on Call

2008-10-09T21:21:00.004-05:00

Usually I don't get into Andrei Codrescu when he does his audio commentary on NPR. But today? Well, today was classic. Take a listen.

Cliff's Notes for Christian Books

2008-09-30T22:08:00.002-05:00

I stumbled on this resource a few years ago called "Christian Book Summaries", and really love it. It's basically a snapshot of Christian-themed books, from classics to popular titles. They regularly publish a very nicely done summary of different titles in a PDF, and offer an email notification service to alert you whenever a new title comes out.

Why not ask?

2008-09-25T00:10:00.002-05:00

I have a new accountability partner - kind of. My 13 year old son.

Last week his mother and I took him away, kidnapped him, and spent a few days with him, just the three of us.

While on the trip, I asked him, "So how am I doing? As your dad, what do I need to do better?"

If you don't want to know the answer, don't ask a kid.

I don't think it made him to uncomfortable, because he was very honest.

"You know those days you work out of town, and you come home late? You come in and you get angry real fast when we don't obey you and we haven't done our chores. I think you need to go to bed the same time we (the kids) go to bed so that you're not so tired when you come home. And you need to quit drinking so much coffee."

Excellent advice.

So on Monday he comes up to me and says, "You're not doing what I told you, are you? You're still drinking too much coffee and staying up late."

What I didn't know, is that he'd ask about this. Boy was I surprised.

But what he didn't know is that I had been taking his advice. At least some of it. I cut my coffee way back. (OK, I haven't changed my bedtime, but I've changed my coffee habits, and that's HUGE).

But how great to have my 13 year old give me such wise advice AND follow up with me on it.

Investment Bank Bailout

2008-09-22T08:56:00.002-05:00

OK, so we have all these investment banks failing, and this morning NPR ran a piece about a government bailout to cover the bad debt these firms had accumulated.

The big question is, "How do we pay for this?" The Treasury Secretary is asking for something like $700 billion. Someone has to foot the bill, and obviously, it will be the taxpayers. Some politicians are talking about increased taxes.

My suggestion? Shut down the Iraq war, bring the troops home, and pour the money from the war into the bailout.

I'm just sayin...

Conventional Wisdom (Or Foolishness) - Part 3

2008-09-17T13:02:00.004-05:00

I've had a hard time getting to this post because the last few weeks have been so busy. But I gotta get to this before I forget the RNC altogether.

Initial thoughts - things that stand out to me:

"God bless John McCain and God bless America". Please. After every speech? Isn't that a little much? Gives new meaning to the word "pandering".
The speakers I saw were, overall, good at delivering their message. I hit the "big" names: Giuliani, Huckaby, Thompson and Palin. I probably saw fewer "no names" than I did with the DNC, so I may be biased when I say the RNC speakers were a bit more polished.
On overhwelmingly white crowd. The RNC looked like (maybe it wasn't, but it looked that way) a bunch of fired up rednecks. Lots of cowboy hats, country music, and white people. Sadly, there were not many people of other races represented. This party has failed to be the party of Lincoln.
I still wish that Huckaby had gotten the nomination. There - I said it.
Sarah was a pit bull. Even if she's not totally forthcoming (no politician seems to be), she is a forceful speaker and I can see why she's caused such a stir.
McCain, by comparison, was a let down. Although parts of his story may be inspiring, he is not. That's going to be a real problem. No wonder Palin and McCain have been traveling together since the convention.

Now, from a guy who has traditionally been a Republican, I'm having trouble voting for this ticket this year. Here's my brief list of "whys":

Overwhelmingly, Iraq. We had no business going there, and it's a sinkhole for our economy. The deficit is overwhelming, and we're forking over tens of billions of dollars propping up the Iraqi government. I know there's the issue of stability if we pull out, but we had no business going in in the first place! Fighting multiple wars simultaneously has made low taxes in this country impossible. No matter who comes into office, taxes must be increased to pay for debt service.
Energy policy. This party has got to be more creative on how to deal with energy problems. Sarah Palin is committed to drilling in Alaska. Well, of course she is, it's more income to her state, more income to her family! But we have to have some policy decisions that spur new energy research. We need incentive programs that create a reason to find new and cleaner energy sources, with less reliance on foreign - and domestic - oil.
I'm just sickened by the Republican's invocation of God's blessing on their party. Every time I hear either party pull out a scripture or blessing on their agenda, it drives me crazy. Because Repubs seem to be the evangelical party of the moment, the rhetoric is full of religiosity. Do what you're going to do, but don't pretend God likes it.
Overall hypocrisy of the leadership. For a party that uses family values and Christianity so much in their speech, the guys at the top have had a pretty rocky road when it comes to marriage and family. Again, Huck seems to be the only guy who knows how to manage a family. Then there's the pro-life position: life doesn't stop at birth. It extends throughout all phases of adulthood. To protect the unborn, yet be willing to kill tens of thousands in the name of homeland security is a huge contradiction. Then add to that the hypocrisy when it comes to tax policy, smaller government, and government reform, and - well - do I need to say any more?
Militarism. These candidates are hell-bent on saving the world from evil using our military might. The "Bush Doctrine" of striking first is against what I believe is right. In my own family, if son#1 was about to attack son#2, it would be wrong for son#2 to attack first, just because he knew it was coming. Restrain, yes. Attack, no. This administration (and this country's) reluctance to address the hard questions of why other countries hold such animosity toward us is a matter of being afraid to look in the mirror because of what we might see there.

I am for a party of small government. I am for a party that supports a parent's right to choose the educational path for his kids. I am for a party that supports "faith-based initiatives". I am for a party that does its best to keep taxes low so that both parents don't have to enter the workforce because the tax burden is so high. That would be like - well - that SOUNDS like it would be the Republican Party. So where is it?

Conventional Wisdom (Or Foolishness) - Part 2

2008-09-08T21:31:00.004-05:00

I'm going to start with the Dems tonight, only because their convention was first. So before you bash me for bashing your candidate(s), save it for something of more substance.

Here are some impressions I had of the convention overall:

The Democrats put on a good show. I don't mean that negatively - there was general excitement in the crowd, and Obama's teasers throughout the week (showing up onscreen after his wife's speech, coming out onstage after Biden's speech) helped generate anticipation, for me at least.
A diverse crowd. The crowd was a general melting pot.
It was obvious that Biden as a veep is a very traditional pick for this candidate of "change". He was the attack dog in his speech. Good cop / Bad cop.
Too much messiahnic speech. C'mon - he's just a senator.
Obama's speech was easy to listen to, but I can't say there was a whole lot to cling to. There was one positive that I do remember, however:
"we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents, that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework, that fathers must take more responsibility to provide love and guidance to their children."

That said, here are a few problems I have with Dems right now:

With all their talk of education reform and how bad the schools are, and how the education system is keeping poor people poor, and keeping folks from their right to the "American Dream", it's interesting to note how many of the speakers at the convention said, essentially, "I came from the South Side of Chicago, lived in poverty, got an education, and went to Harvard." Gee - sounds like the education system worked for these folks, doesn't it? The democrats' involvement in education of late has been to push public education to younger ages, which, I believe, is a bad thing. Yes, the earlier you begin reading to a child the better that child does. But I believe this responsibility belongs with parents. Pulling kids out of the house and putting them into the public education system allows them to be "indoctrinated" at an even younger age. I believe that Dems in general think they - through public education - can do a better job of raising my child than I can. Thus the recent attacks on home schooling in several states.
It is not the government's responsibility to care for me. It's not the responsibility of government to provide health care and retirement to each American. Personal, family, and church is where that burden lies. True story: I went to hear a local senator give a keynote at a fund-raising dinner for a local non-profit agency I support. They agency has done wonders for their clientele, and has made bridges into state and local government, doing things the government could never do. But the message this senator had for the crowd was, "Yes, they've done a good job, but if you'd let us, the government could do it better." Church, it's time to get it in gear and do the job of caring for the poor, hungry, sick, and family. History has shown that no government can do this job better than those who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so.
The promises made by Obama can not be carried out, and especially can not be carried out with the level of tax relief promised by Obama. The money does not exist without additional tax burden. I believe in small government (thus the Republican leaning) because the smaller the tax burden the easier it is for parents to stay home with their children. As the tax burden grows, more families will find it necessary for both parents to work outside the home. What we need is tax relief that allows parents to be home with their kids. If a parent is home with his or her child, that child is more likely to do better in school, stay out of trouble, and off drugs. You've just solved two of the largest social issues we have: education and crime.

I believe this party has a heart for people, in general: The aliens among us, the poor, the sick, people of different ethnic groups. I like those principles, I believe as Christians we are called to care for people. But I don't believe that the ends justify the means in this case. I think parents should be supporting their kids, walking along side them throughout their education, ready to assist them when they walk in from school every day, mentoring them in morality and ethics and spirituality. I believe children should care for their parents as they age. I think the church should remember it's history, a history of caring for the sick when no one else would, building hospitals and clinics. Reaching out to orphans, widows and single-parent families. This is what our Kingdom (not our nation) should be about. If we did the job we've been given, many of these "issues" wouldn't be "issues". We certainly wouldn't be fighting over them in national conventions.

Conventional Wisdom (Or Foolishness) - Part 1

2008-09-06T14:29:00.006-05:00

If you've been following me on Twitter the last two weeks, then you have received my "play by play" of the two national political conventions. I hope I was equally cynical of both parties, because I tried to be. I'll confess to you guys: I've been a rabid voter all my life, but this is the first year I've examined the candidates this closely.

Some history: I've been a lifelong Republican. In my grandparents' generation, both parties were equally, and enthusiastically, represented. But my parents, for whatever reason (I have no idea why, really), became Republican and taught us to be good Repo men as well. You need to know this, because as I start this series of blogs, you're going to see my bias coming through. I will assert that I am firmly independent, and an undecided voter. But I'm sure my history will bleed through the virtual ink on these pages.

So let me start with these questions:

What did you think of the conventions, and
Have you already chosen your candidate?

I'll answer #1 over the next few posts, and I've already answered #2 - I am undecided.

Now, I'm not asking you WHO you're voting for, but if you want to volunteer that, great. But please - if you comment - keep it civil.

Honey Harvest

2008-09-05T18:58:00.005-05:00

I live in the city, like most of you, probably. But unlike most folks, I keep bees.

Yes, bees. Thousands and thousands of them.

Now, I don't keep them here at my house (any more), I keep them on a field not too far from home. It's my way - my family's way - of connecting to God's good creation. There is nothing like standing in a sunny field, early in the morning, watching the bees fly, doing what God has told them to do.

Last Sunday we celebrated the harvest. Throughout scripture, God's people celebrated this time of goodness and provision. But in our economy, it's hard to do. How do you celebrate going to Kroger and picking up a bag of chips?

Well, our celebration is a party! It grows each year, but includes our closest friends, people who appreciate the event for what it is - a time to thank God and enjoy the fruit of the land. We also have lots of homeschool folks join us. They just can not believe what it takes to get honey from a hive to the jar they get on the shelf. And no one can believe just how good honey is that has been harvested with their own hands.

Here's a gallery of the day. Enjoy!

Parents Encouraging Parents

2008-08-27T17:11:00.006-05:00

Hope to get some input from you guys.

Our ministry focus is "partnering with parents" as they raise their children to know God, which is an equipping ministry, not a "drop your kids off with us" ministry.

We're taking a huge leap this year in the equipping phase with what we call P.E.P. club (parents encouraging parents). It's an environment that will happen once-a-month, where all our K-5th grade parents will come together to talk about how they're using the tools we give them, their successes and failures in communicating spiritual truths with their kids, and (hopefully) open up their hearts to each other so that we can support and pray with each other.

If you were hosting such an environment, what would it look like? What kinds of questions would you ask? Would you divide up into smaller groups, or make it a large group environment (we'll only have about 20 parents)?

Amazon Kindle

2008-08-26T10:19:00.003-05:00

I had an anxiety attack on the way to work today.

I was listening to tech news about the launch of a new Kindle ebook reader for student textbooks, plus an update to the existing Kindle.

Now at first thought, I'm like, "Cool, love to own one." But then it hit me - what will I do if people start opting for the Kindle instead of a bookshelf full of books?

I'm a learning nut - I read everything I can get my hands on. And one of my favorite past times is seeing what other people are reading. If you're someone I know and admire, I take a look at your bookshelves as quick as I can. I want to see what you're reading, who's influencing you, so that I can better understand your perspective. (I'm sure lots of my friends have seen me standing in front of their bookshelves examining their tomes).

So - what happens if I go to someone's house and they have no bookshelves, only an ebook reader sitting there? What will be the new protocol for ebooks? Will it be considered rude to pick up someone's Kindle and scroll through their list of ebooks?

I need a brown paper bag. It's happening again.

Wisdom for a 13 Year Old Boy

2008-08-13T20:38:00.003-05:00

I'd love to hear some feedback on this. My oldest son is about to turn 13. His mother and I are planning to take him away for a weekend and have some time together.

During this time, I hope to have fun together (before we lose our cool-ness), but the purpose of the weekend is talk and dream of what kind of man he will become. I want to help him see the importance of Godliness, humility, integrity, and purity.

If you had a son about to become a teenager, what would you tell him?

What do you wish your parents had told you?

I have a month to work on this.

Making Changes

2008-08-12T19:32:00.004-05:00

I wish I had more time to write, but evidently I'm in a season of incredible busy-ness that just doesn't want to give.

By the way - today is my anniversary - 19 years to my wonderful wife.

But I want to ask this question: How important are age specific programs? Do they work? Are the harmful or helpful?

Our church is embarking on what I would call "Phase 2" of a redesign of children and teen ministry, creating a much more integrated strategy of ministry. As a part of that, we're moving kids more and more into an integrated model of community. It's very exciting, I think it's very scary, but I think it's going to do wonders for our kids.

How "integrated" are your kids and teens in your church community? Why are they that way?

Quick Post on Heschel

2008-08-06T09:00:00.003-05:00

I was getting ready for my small group Bible study tonight, and went back to God in Search of Man : A Philosophy of Judaism for a reference.

It's been a while since I read this book, but I have to tell you, every time I open it it blows me away. Heschel's language is to the point, but beautiful.

This is what hit me today:
"'In future generations, people will find difficulty in understanding how at one time generations existed who did not regard the idea of God as the highest concept of which man is capable, but who, on the contrary, were ashamed of it and considered the development of atheism a sign of progress in the emancipation of human thought'"

"Dazzled by the brilliant achievements of the intellect in science and technique, we have not only become convinced that we are the masters of the earth; we have become convinced that our needs and interests are the ultimate standard of what is right and wrong", p. 35

Prophetic.

Holy Simplicity Batman!

2008-07-30T10:17:00.006-05:00

Sorry - I couldn't resist that one.

I finished "Holy Simplicity - The little way of Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day & Therese of Lisieux" by Joel Schorn this morning. I was intrigued by these three women, mainly because Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day are mentioned so frequently in Shane Claiborne's books. I have to ask: where has Dorothy Day been? What a terrific lady! I'd never heard of her, Peter Maurin or The Catholic Worker movement until recently. Incredible ideas, work, and people.

Anyway, the book tells of "the little way", the way of humility in relation to God, the way of simply going about the tasks of the day, pouring love into each one. "God walks among the pots and pans", said Saint Teresa of Avila, the namesake of Therese, Mother Teresa, and Dorothy Day's daughter. It's among the ordinary, the small tasks of life that we express the love of God. "We can do no great things, only small things with great love" - Mother Teresa. One thing that came to mind repeatedly was "Practice of the Presence of God", the letters of Brother Lawrence. His approach to Christianity was very similar. "Holy Simplicity", however, attempts to apply the concept to broader topics.

Now, even though these women are fascinating, the writing was not. Sorry Joel. I understand the problem to some extent. First of all, I'm not Catholic, so many of the people and concepts are a bit foreign to me. But second, Schorn quotes at length biographers, who are quoting biographers, or the writings of the women themselves, or writings or letters of people who knew them, etc. He just doesn't do a good job of organizing and quoting his sources.

Pastors and leaders: if you read the quotes, below, pay special attention to the emphasis on "little" things. We are easily caught up in the big, the flashy, the numbers, the building. I can't tell you how many times I was reminded of my ministry to children and families by these women. The smallest. The fatherless. The poor (both materially and spiritually). The "big show" on Sunday morning, instead of hugging a kid I meet in my neighborhood or small group.

To finish up, here are some things I underlined in the book - they are truths that hit me, but may not do anything for you. But hey - this blog is mainly for me ;)

Peter (Maurin) emphasized "the need of building a new society within the shell of the old...in which it is easier to be good." p. 17
"You know very well", she wrote in a prayer, "that never would I be able to love my Sisters as You love them, unlesss You, O My Jesus, loved them in me...Yes, I feel it, when I am charitable, it is Jesus alone who is acting in me, and the more united I am to Him, the more also do I love my Sisters.", p. 23
In the midst of our endless stream of cell phone calls, emails, text messages and television channel options, we humans are having more and more trouble focusing on what is right in front of us. Adjusting our vision to the small things around us can put the big things in perspective., p. 26-27
The mandate to see the light of God in everyone, including the least, leads us to love the person. We start by loving the poor for Jesus, Dorothy Day thought, but we soon love them for themselves and see each one to be special. p. 37
Doing good works without prayer is not futile, but it can be a joyless grind and perhaps a misguided one.
"In you, today, He wants to relive his complete submisstion to His Father." - Mother Teresa p. 46
In contemplating the Holy Face, she would confront suffering: Christ's, her own, her community, the world's...In seeking the Holy Face of the suffering one, Therese also found a way through the suffering. She could be at peace in the darkness because she knew that the only way to get to the light was to go through the darkness. p. 47
The movement turns the margins into the center. Instead of centering on competition for wealth, power and advantage, we hold first the value that all people have as God's beloved children. Here the poor and the resourced join hands and pull one another to the same level of value and justice. p. 49
"God has shown his greatness by using nothingness, so let us always remain in our nothingness - so as to give God free hand to use us without consulting us." - Mother Teresa, p. 49
The little way brings our attention to the small things, things from which the glamour and allure of the big, sleek and glorious can distract us. p. 55
To "make" oneself one of the abandoned creates a situation where it is easier to see others as one's own people.
We must be careful not to see in Therese's intent of "always doing the tiniest things right" a recommendation of perfectionism or a constant fear of making mistakes. p. 62
[Therese's] life - meant first of all paying attention to the small tasks that make up a day.
"Do you play well? Sleep well? Eat well? These are duties. Nothing is small for God." - Mother Teresa, p. 63
The way to deal with big problems was not with big solutions but by doing little things that add up to big things. p. 64
...if we look at time as holy time, our use of it changes. We can "invest" it rather than just use it up. p. 64
Treat a person you dislike as if that person were the one you liked the most. - Therese, p. 65
"...to give up our own possessions and especially to subordinate our own impulses and wishes to others...At least we can avoid being comfortable through the exploitation of others" - Therese, p. 69
Every life has absolute value. p. 71
Subtracting one life from misery or a lonely death is God's arithmetic of love. p.73
A person, no matter how small and vulnerable and even without much chance of survival, is worthy of love...that person deserves love because he or she is a human being who is a child of God. p. 73
Mother Teresa firmly believed that poverty did not just happen: It existed because people let it happen. Human beings have enough resources to eliminate poverty if they want to. p. 100
We can experience what we are doing in a spirit of joy, not a pain to be endured because we want to do the right thing. p. 110

Big Question

2008-07-18T15:33:00.004-05:00

Hey folks - I need your help.

This summer we've been doing a series in our childrens' class called "The Big Story". We've traveled (quickly) through the Bible, picking up God's promises along the way. The goal of the series is to show "You can trust God will keep his promises", to go along with one of our big, overarching, 252 basics themes, "You can trust God no matter what".

Here are some promises we've covered:

To Abraham:
1) God will make his name great
2) He'll be the father of many nations
3) God will give him/his descendants a land
4) All nations of the earth will be blessed because of him

To David:
Someone from his family line will sit on God's throne forever

Through the prophets:
1) God will forgive (Hosea 14:4)
2) God will heal (Jeremiah 15:19)
3) He will save his people (Zechariah 8:7, 8)
4) He will make a new heavens and a new earth (Isaiah 66:22)

Starting last week, we're showing how "God keeps his promises through Jesus". We see him healing, forgiving, saving, blessing. We'll be continuing that this week through stories in the gospels.

But next week is a big week - Jesus' death and resurrection. What to communicate? What would you communicate to K-4th graders about Jesus' death and resurrection, and how it fits into "God's Big Story"? It needs a workable bottom line, and it needs to be told in a way children can understand (so the word "propitiation" is out!)

Ideas? Let's work together here.

Bella Review

2008-07-18T00:17:00.002-05:00

This is going to be short, but I absolutely had to post tonight.

My wife and I just finished watching "Bella", and it turned out to be great. I wasn't sure what to expect. The reviews I've heard (mainly Christian media, which I generally take with a grain of salt) gave it high marks. But in my mind, "Bella" and "Juno" were covering similar ground, and since "Juno" got the most publicity, it must be the one to see. Well, I haven't seen Juno, but the reviews from those I know say "Yeah, it's good, but..." and the list of caveats begin.

Not so with Bella.

I was afraid it would end up being a cheesy, low budget family film, but my wife and I both ended up in tears during the movie. The screenwriter/director did a great job of comparing events so that you could see how situations in life are connected, and how people have the ability to impact others.

Bella is a movie of compassion, a celebration of life (but it's not just a pro-life vs. abortion fight - you see real celebration here).

Youth workers, families with older teens - this is a great movie that you can't afford to pass by. There are way too many lessons in here to miss: again, compassion, and pro-life but also redemption, ethnic stereotypes, making hard choices - there all in here. Without a single curse-word, I might add. But I say "older teens" because the movie can move a bit slow - which is OK for mature folks. I'm afraid that if you force younger teens to watch, they may get bored, move on, and never come back. That would be a shame.

Bottom line: Rent it.

Children and the Myth of Redemptive Violence

2008-06-24T10:25:00.002-05:00

Going through Shane's books the last few weeks, I've noticed a recurring phrase: "the myth of redemptive violence". Never heard that before.

So I went digging to find it's origin. Not sure that I have the person who originally coined the phrase, but came across a book called The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium. Published in 1989, the book deals with redeeming the "powers" (institutions, governments, corporations, etc.) which have been created by Christ for Christ, but, as with individuals, become corrupted and turn away from their created intention.

In comes "the myth of redemptive violence". Remember the myths of Greek mythology and Roman mythology? A myth is a religion that affects the worldview and actions of entire nations. It seems this "myth" is that we can redeem or reform the "powers" through violence. That in order to overthrow the powers and restore order and God's intention for the institution, we are sometimes allowed to use violence. That violence used by the "good guys" against the violence of the "bad guys" is sometimes necessary, and sometimes justified, in order to bring peace. (Justified="just" war).

This is over and against Jesus' teaching to "love your enemy", "do good to those who persecute you", "turn the other cheek", "walk the second mile", etc., and Jesus' example of taking Roman torture and death upon himself, rather than call down "ten thousand angels" as the old hymn goes. (By the way - Wink interprets Jesus' teaching not so much as pacifism or "passivism", but as a way of using imagination to coerce and redeem the enemy. You'll have to read this for yourself.)

Anyway...here's an excerpt from the book that, as a father of four boys and a church leader, made me stop and think:

The head of programming at a major network was asked to describe the thinking process that led to the network's selection of programs. He answered: there was no thinking process. Film producers provide what the ratings tell them will generate the most profit. With important exceptions (Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street, and a few of the more benign cartoons), the entertainment industry does not create materials that will be good for children to watch...Instead, what children themselves prefer determines what is produced.

The myth of redemptive violence is the simplest, laziest, most exciting, uncomplicated, irrational, and primitive depiction of evil the world has ever known. Furthermore, it's orientation toward evil is one into which virtually all modern children (boys especially) are socialized in the process of maturation. (Author's emphasis)
...
In a period when attendance at Christian Sunday schools is dwindling, the myth of redemptive violence has won children's voluntary acquiescence to a regimen of religious indoctrination more extensive and effective than any in the history of religions. Estimates vary widely, but the average child is reported to log roughly 36,000 hours of television by age eighteen, viewing some 15,000 murders. What church of synagogue can even remotely keep pace with the myth of redemptive violence in hours spent teaching children or the quality of presentation? (Think of the typical "children's sermon" - how bland by comparison!)

No other religious system has ever remotely rivaled the myth of redemptive violence in its ability to catechize it's young so totally. (My emphasis) pp. 53-54

Take a look at the movies out right now, aimed at our kids: "The Incredible Hulk", "Indiana Jones: Crystal Skull", "Iron Man", "Speed Racer" and even "Prince Caspian". All propagate the myth that good is allowed to use violence to overcome bad. And you know that virtually every kid identifies with the "good guy" in these films (if he identifies with the "bad guy", then you really have a problem on your hands!) I'm not sure what to do here, but the tough choice would be to keep our kids from these films, and to provide some alternative forms of entertainment that include nonviolent options.

Gee, that seems boring, though, doesn't it?

Thoughts In The Presence of Fear

2008-06-17T18:34:00.002-05:00

Stumbled on this 2001 article by Wendell Berry. It's obviously posted as a 9/11 response piece, but I think it's brilliant and, essentially, timeless.

I especially like his last two points regarding our education system and our culture of consumption. I can tell you that I really REALLY wish I had taught my children differently regarding peace, consumption and capitalism. This is horse that's hard to dismount.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/214/

Discipleship

2008-06-16T22:08:00.003-05:00

Letting some thoughts about discipleship simmer the last few days.

I was looking through materials sitting on my shelf today, and read a blurb by some guy talking about what a leader should look for in a potential disciple - what makes them someone you want to disciple? What makes them the kind of person who will be a great disciple? This guy listed many characteristics of what we would call "great leadership potential".

Then I thought about Jesus. The guys he chose really didn't have "great leadership potential". They were fishermen, not theologians. They were tax collectors, hated by the general public. They were violent revolutionaries, who are generally considered nut jobs.

We have to be careful not to overlook those folks who don't seem to have "what it takes" (whatever that "it" is) only to latch on to the natural-born leaders in our group. My experience has shown that the humility of the "have-nots" generally lead to great servant leaders, disciples who truly live out what Jesus taught.

Out of the closet

2008-06-14T14:39:00.002-05:00

Here's a departure from my usual content.

I was thinking back over my week, and one thought kept coming back to me as the highlight of my week: I "came out" this week at my cell group. Not what you think, though. For over a year, now, I've been playing my son's drum set in the privacy of my own home. This week, though, we had group at my pal Carney's house, whose living room is essentially a music room. Guitars hanging on the walls, a drum set and keyboards on the floor. He wanted to play. I wanted to play. So I had my first "gig" in public. I don't think I've ever had so much fun. What a blast! And Carney was great. We just went from song to song, playing what we could, but I think it was legible enough to where others knew what we were doing and could sing along. I think I'm hooked!

Thought's from Jesus for President

2008-06-13T09:44:00.002-05:00

I'm going back through Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals right now, taking final notes. But I had a few comments to post now, things I don't want to forget.

First of all, the authors make a statement to the effect, "If your gospel isn't good news to the poor, then it's not good news." I'm sure this is based off Jesus' initial claim that he had come "to preach good news to the poor" in Luke 4, quoting Isaiah (not to mention that "blessed are the poor" in Matthew 5). Here are some observations on this: First of all, based on the gospel I grew up with, I always imagined that is was future-tense. "One day when the poor die and go to heaven, they'll have everything they need, or they'll have some kind of preferred status." But Shane and/or Chris make the connection between Luke 4/Matthew 5 and the new creation community of Acts 4:32-37. As a new, Holy Nation, our economy eliminates poverty in our midst. Now that's good news! In contrast, though, the "gospel" I hear preached comes in two flavors: 1) Self-help and 2) Get saved. I listen to a LOT of podcasted sermons, and these are the two versions of "gospel" I hear. Add to that what I see - there are a lot of church plants going on, a lot of missionary efforts happening, but in most cases, these are merely vehicles to export this "good news" that isn't very good. It's just news. I find it interesting that many of the mission efforts I'm aware of go to poor countries, poor cities, urban areas, and we spend time and money building buildings so that people can come hear "the gospel". How do we more effectively use that time and money to build Christ communities that work toward alleviating the poverty, sickness, and health crisis in these areas?

Along the same lines as watered down gospel: The authors point out (and if you read this blog much, you know I do, too) that we have lots of "believers" running around, but very few disciples. Perhaps it's because we're preaching "get saved" and "if you follow these guidelines your life/marriage/job/relationships will get better" instead of preaching the hard stuff of discipleship: feeding the poor, caring for the sick, visiting the prisoners, loving your enemies, doing good to those who hate you. Of course, then our churches might get smaller, and that would be hard for our egos. Mine, at least.

And, finally, as I look at all the church building campaigns going on in the city (I'm in the Bible belt, so there are plenty!) I wonder: When was the last time we had a $10 million capital campaign to raise money to feed the hungry and house the homeless? Wouldn't it be cool for a church community to have a campaign just for the sake of "the gospel"? Or - how about this - build your buildings, but only through matching campaigns. If you want a $2 million building, then you raise $4 million, 2 of which go toward efforts to bring good news to the people of your city. I know this sounds crazy, but Cornerstone in Simi Valley, CA is doing this kind of stuff. Their "building campaign" includes an outdoor sanctuary (it's Southern California, for Pete's sake!) so that all the neighbors can be a part of worship, it has a Bible College on campus, and headquarters Children's Hunger Fund. This is some creative thinking and bold leadership. It truly flies in the face of what most churches would do.

The Irresistible Revolution

2008-06-05T15:29:00.001-05:00

Occasionally God puts together "the perfect storm" in my life, bringing together forces and influences that collide at the precise moment for maximum impact.

It's happened again.

If there is a religious "movement" afoot in this generation, it is a Kingdom movement, an emphasis in writing, speaking, podcasting, blogging that is attempting to glimpse what God's Kingdom will look like on earth in advance of it's final appearing. In the circles I run and what I choose to ingest, it has been inescapable.

I ran across Shane Claiborne through the Catalyst podcast, the Fermi Project, and then heard him speak at Catalyst '07. After the conference, I bought his book and put it on my shelf for my 2008 reading list. That was eight months ago. Finally, three weeks ago, I picked it up. Since then, I've read it twice!

Now, rewind a bit. As many of you know, I'm Bi - bi-vocational, that is. I'm a computer geek by day, and a children's pastor during every free moment, it seems. Two months ago, I lost my biggest customer, probably a third of my yearly income. The jury is still out on how this will affect us long term, but it blew a major 2008 goal for me. I desperately want to get my house fixed and move out of my increasingly urban, racially diverse, downwardly mobile neighborhood. After 11 years in this house, my goal was to have the house fixed, ready to sell by the end of the year (and hopefully, the end of the housing crisis).

Meanwhile, a family moved in to the house across the street. It's a huge family, a grandmother caring for her dead daughter's four adult children, along with three children 18-under who she has custody of, but no relation to, and her great-granddaughter. No one in the house is employed.

I decide to pick up The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical only because it's next on my list. And that's when things come together.

Revolution is another vision of God's will "on earth as it is in Heaven". It's about living within your community, but looking at how your footprints are walking across the globe. But it is the neighborhood community that got me. What if...God's not ready for me to move out of my neighborhood? What would it look like if I became involved in the lives of my neighbors - truly involved, not just a "friendship evangelism" relationship, but truly involved in the poverty and diversity of their families? What would it look like to bring beauty and hope to my neighborhood, with its abandoned houses (three of five houses facing mine are for sale or in foreclosure) and overgrown vacant lots? How do I step into the lives of a family who, with nine children living in one house in Memphis in June, has been living without electricity for two months? How would my "children's ministry" change, knowing that we have a neighborhood full of children, who just happen to love coming to my house because I have more children in my house than anyone else?

It might look like this: The small group that meets at my house willingly took on the project of moving the family across the street to their new house down the block when their house was foreclosed. We also helped them find assistance to get their utilities turned back on. The 17 year old granddaughter and mother of a four-year-old is now attending "life skills" training with HopeWorks, looking forward to a job and financial stability. Children would be welcomed, with lemonade, Popsicles, and Wii tournaments, along with rides to the library, park, and community center. (Yesterday there were 13 kids at my house. My fellow minister, Barry stopped by and asked "Was this planned?" "Nope." "You've got a children's ministry right here." "Yep.")

I'm excited about the vision God has given me of what life in my neighborhood can look like. I'm excited about the opportunity to say "This is what Jesus is all about. This is what God's economy is like." I am afraid of how it will all shake out. One question I have for Shane is, "When do you get a break?" I feel like I have to leave home to get a moment alone with my family. Sabbath seems hard to come by. I would normally claim Saturday as my Sabbath, alone with my family, but I now have kids who beg me to spend the night on Saturday night so that they can come to church with us on Sunday. Not sure what to do with that.

I have to say this about Shane before I close. There are two things that stand out about Shane when I hear him speak and read his writing: Imagination and Humor. Far from being a wild-eyed protester, Shane is a funny guy. When I hear him speak or approach issues that might be controversial, he laughs a lot. And he has a terrific laugh that disarms your defenses. Man, how great is that? And finding truly creative solutions to emphasize and solve issues - like a Jubilee Party on Wall Street - Wow!

Imagination and sense of humor - now that's something in short supply in both evangelical AND activist circles.

I Want To Believe

2008-05-19T16:59:00.001-05:00

Today I'm posting a review of I Want to Believe: Finding Your Way in an Age of Many Faiths, by Mel Lawrenz. It's a very recent release, and a manageable apologetic, checking in at 232 pages in a very small binding.

I was excited to receive the book for two reasons: First of all, I found out about it by Scot McKnight over at Jesus Creed, so I assumed it would be a good read. Second, it was free. For a book nerd, a free book is like Christmas. The publisher had a deal where if you had a book review on your blog, you could get a free copy. Yipee!

"I Want To Believe" approaches apologetics from the argument of what the author calls "Divine allure", or the fact that we want to believe. Something in us calls us to spirituality. It manifests itself in many different ways, many different religions, but the fact that there are so many religions confirms that thing in us that recognizes there is a god, and he/she/it calls us to himself/herself/itself. Since I've recently read "Simply Christian" (see my review here), I would compare it to the "voice" of spirituality in Wright's apologetic.

Within the book then, Lawrenz explores and explains how that works. He also does some work comparing different religions, including Hinduism, Islam, and Atheism (I especially liked this section) and how they attempt to satisfy the hunger for spirituality, but how they fall short.

I had one major problem with the book, though. I couldn't tell who the intended audience was. Was it aimed at non-Christians or Christians? "The Case For Christ" is an apologetic that, I believe, can be very useful for a modern skeptic outside of the church. "Simply Christian", by N.T. Wright, can be useful as an apologetic to a post-modern outsiders. Other apologetics (though I don't have any on my shelf at the moment) are aimed more at believers to aid them in articulating their faith to outsiders, so there is more technical church language included. I couldn't figure out which camp Lawrence intended to appeal to. It's language was way too "churchy" to be effective in reaching outsiders, but the fruit was too low for many Christians. Perhaps in an attempt to reach a broad audience, Mr. Lawrenz spread his net a little too wide. Of course, I may be totally missing his point, too, so my apologies if this is the case.

Prince Caspian

2008-05-18T17:36:00.002-05:00

We went to go see Caspian today. Out of the gate, I'll say it was good. But it was long, and it wandered away from the book in several places.

However - I was very pleased. The kids loved it, and there were some great tie-ins with what we're doing with 252basics right now. Our virtue this month is "Patience, waiting until later for what you want now." If you've seen the movie already, let me point out how easy it is to tie the movie in with this month's virtue, today's bottom line, and our memory verse this month. DON'T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY to tie in this virtue with Caspian if your kids have seen it.

Some points you can bring out:

SPOILER ALERT! - If you haven't seen the movie, you may not want to read below. I'll be as vague as possible, but it still may give something away.

* The whole movie had to do with waiting; Where's Aslan? Has he abandoned us? Will he ever show up? "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord", Psalm 27:14 is our memory verse this month. Perfect. Sometimes we just have to wait for God to do his thing.

* How many times in the movie did characters try to rush to make things happen, instead of having patience (waiting until later for what you want now)?

* Today's bottom line - "If you don't wait, it could hurt others". Wow - how many times did THAT happen in Caspian? I was absolutely blown away when Peter stormed the castle, against advice, and then so many paid for his mistake with their lives.

Make the most of every opportunity (heard that before?) If you have a chance, talk to your kids this week about PATIENCE.

Orange Session 5: Louie Giglio

2008-05-08T14:42:00.001-05:00

ReTHINK amounts to church in changing culture.

Are we using culture, taking what some other creative, secular ideas and piggybacking off it? Or are we ready to LEAD culture?

Instead of leading/being relevant in culture. What if we just wanted to BE THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST?!!

John 1:14 The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory the glory of the one and only who came in grace in truth.

The church is - INCARNATE - "became flesh and moved into the neighborhood" (message) full of grace and truth. Not just Grace, not just Truth. Jesus was FULL of both
Grace - come as you are, Truth - you can become more than you are

OTHER

HELP

TRANSCENDENT
"This is the one of whom I said he who comes after has surpassed me, because he was before me". Was/Is/Is to Come
Relevance means "in step with", but if you're in step with, then you are now behind someone, the one who started the movement. There's always someone ahead, and there's always someone behind - you can never be "in step with" your culture. But if we're in step with Jesus...

Cultural infatuation / Relevance could be the golden calf of this generation. But WE are the only ones who transcend culture (think time-machines)

(Social action MAY become the golden calf of the next movement)

We need to be more interested in Jesus than in being relevant.

On ramps

1. More about doing the gospel than telling the gospel. Teaching AND Compassion. Principles AND Engagement.
2. Supernatural acts plus supernatural stories
3. More about movement than walls. It's Movement + Walls. More about kingdom than campus.
4. It's about the future more than the past.

Orange Session 4: Q & A With Andy Stanley

2008-05-08T14:39:00.001-05:00

How do you balance evangelism and discipleship?
Isn't the whole thing evangelism and discipleship? Is there really tension? We have far more in common with non-Christians than we realize. More similarities than differences. Just think about building environments for people. If you build irresistible environments, people will come. Then learn how to talk to both groups. FInd the tension in a passage or topic and it will apply to all people.

How do we decide when we stop holding people's hand?
At some point in every model people have to become "self-feeders". The better question is, "What is spiritual growth?" "What are you trying to accomplish?"
Five categories of spiritual growth:
* Practical teaching - "Somebody invited me to a bible study..." "Somebody taught the Bible in a way I could understand..."
* Providential relationships - "Then I met this guy/girl/family..."
* Private disciplines - "Somebody taught me how to pray/have a quiet time/journal..."
* Pivotal Circumstances - "Then my mom got sick" "Then we had our first child" "Then my husband left me..."
* Personal Ministry - "Then somebody invited me on a mission trip" "Then I started working in kids ministry..."

Program to the five categories. You can be heavy in one or more of these areas (especially teaching)

When you understand these, it changes your role of a small group leader.
* A small group leader has more opportunity to speak into these five categories than anyone else.
If there's no one to speak into our lives during pivotal circumstances to help define the situation, that's when our worldview changes and we either grow or collapse in faith.

Investing in leaders
1. Concern is with the people who "kick off the wall" to get to the other side. If you're doing something new, don't be critical of everyone else.
If you're not teachable, you have to learn things the hard way.

2. Concern because people are against big church, they don't do much evangelism (but lots of social issues). People are going to spend eternity somewhere. But the person who is willing to strap on the power of the gospel and walk into the places of poverty and injustice are awesome.

Choosing to Cheat
Instead of praying "God, I'll do as much as I can at church, and I'm trusting you to fill in the gaps at home", pray "God, I'm doing as much as I can at home, and I'm trusting you to fill in at work."

As father/mother (and husband lesser), this is the only unique role in life. In every other role I CAN BE REPLACED

Orange Session 3: Donald Miller

2008-05-08T14:34:00.001-05:00

I'm going through the notes I took at Orange. I've decided to post my notes - as typed, no editing - in case anyone's interested. I just hope you can decipher!

Leadership

Good leader (Don Miller's definition) - A person who gets to know me in such a way that I want to take part ownership in their vision (the vision they have been given)

Consistently involving your people in the vision along the journey

Great leaders follow other great leaders. I'm being mentored and led.

I need to know who my peers are, but you also need to know who you are leading. Write it down. Review the list. They are the people I need to pay special attention to.

The ambition that a leader has is a big part of the story. The ambition should be huge and partly absurd. What matters is the unity of trying to accomplish the task, not that you actually accomplish the task.

A leader speaks someting into the nothingness, the void. It's not "that's just a sexed-up culture" - it's a void! How do we speak something into that?

Bummed

2008-05-06T22:52:00.001-05:00

Let me just say that child #3 is getting to me. Driving me crazy, is more like it. What do you do when you've done all you know how to do, but your kid just doesn't get it? He is the most uncooperative kid. Not mean, not throwing fits, just strong-willed and focused on what he is interested in, not what I want him to be interested in.

Big sigh.

Just had to get that out.

Another Orange Thought

2008-05-02T11:30:00.001-05:00

I didn't get to post near as much as I wanted to at Orange. I started strong, but was absolutely blown at then end of each day. I'll try to let some notes trickle out over the next few days.

Here's something I walked away with, and yet didn't walk away with.

Nobody gets partnering with parents of teens.

I've tried posting on the Orange Leaders' Facebook group, I've asked other student pastors, and I attended the "Practical Ways To Partner With Parents" session led by Mike Clear, and - I'm serious here - got NOTHING. I hate to be critical, but in his fill-in-the-blank notes, he had parents broken down into 4 levels (I think - I don't have my notes sitting next to me). Beneath each of these was a list of "Characteristics" and ways to partner. He gave us the characteristics. He gave us practical ways to partner with the first level of parents of young children. The last categories offered nothing - not one word to fill in the blanks with! He basically said, "you'll have to go home, talk to your team, and figure this out for yourself". I've been trying to figure this out and wanted some help. That's why I came to the session!

I know I'm being crazy negative here, but let me say this - this was the ONLY session I had issues with. However, this was the ONE session I was hoping to walk away with PRACTICAL answers.

Now that I have purged this, I'll offer some good stuff next time.

Patrick Lencioni on Catalyst Podcast

2008-05-01T14:50:00.002-05:00

I've just recently been introduced to Patrick's stuff, and I really love it. He spoke at Catalyst '07 and was terrific, and as a church staff we're doing our best to use his book Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business to guide our meeting times.

This month he's the guest interview on the Catalyst Podcast. There's some great stuff in the interview for any leaders, but especially church leaders. Get on over there and take a listen.

Orange Session 1: Reggie Joiner

2008-04-28T23:20:00.001-05:00

Just a few notes about tonight's session:

First - worship was great, as usual. Steve Fee and the band do such a great job.

Second, Reggie's session - his "one thing" about the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Bottom line - "What would have happened if the prodigal had encountered the Older Brother on the road home, instead of the Father?" What would the Prodigal have done? Where would he go next?

Our churches - modeled by us, first, should be Loving Fathers instead of Older Brothers, preoccupied with the missing instead of preoccupied with who's leaving. Operating from a context of forgiveness instead of a context of shame. We should be people who throw parties instead of throw fits. And be willing to confront Older Brother thinking, instead of criticizing Fatherly thinking. We should be keeping the lights on as long as it takes instead of closing the door and turning off the lights.

How do we model for the next generation how valuable each lost person is? By treating each prodigal the way a loving father would treat his own son.

A few personal thoughts: First of all, I thought about how my "fatherly thinking" was when it comes to my own kids. I love my kids, but I'm not a very gracious dad. I'm a very critical dad. When my kids have their independence and start spending time outside of my house, will they be willing to come back because they know I'll take them back, throw them a big party, celebrate each time they come home? And I don't mean "leave" just in a prodigal way, I mean when my kids walk out the door, will they be glad to have a place to come home to, where they are accepted, loved, and forgiven? Or will they stay away, expecting to be criticized, judged, shamed?

Second, at the close of the session, we were asked if we could identify a prodigal that God was putting on our hearts. If we closed our eyes and thought of who was missing, who would it be? I saw a parade of young faces who have been through ministries I've been connected to who are now MIA. There are times when I'm overwhelmed with how many kids haven't made it. They checked out - they're a part of the 70% drop out rate. It's painful to think of how much time, love, and effort has been put into these kids, and I can't help but wonder what happened. Big sigh. Really big groan.

Wrapup of unChristian

2008-04-26T08:08:00.002-05:00

I'm going to try to summarize unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters today. I've already posted some initial thoughts in my April 8 post.

First of all, if it's any indication of what I thought of the book, my copy now looks like it's bleeding orange (the color of my highlighter). If you don't already know, unChristian is from Barna researcher David Kinnaman and former Catalyst guru and now Fermi Project leader Gabe Lyons. Its goal seems to be to see how the next generation sees the "brand" of Christianity. In examining the perceptions of 16-29 year olds, they found these ideas floating to the top:

Christians are Hypocritical. We just love pointing out what everyone else is doing wrong, all the while pretending to have it all together. In a culture where image is everything, and big companies have to protect their brand, Christianity is no different. Our movement is all about rules (what happened to "my yoke is easy and my burden is light"?) and sin management.
We're only interested in getting people "Saved". In other words, this group thinks we value people only as a notch on our belt. This is my beef with the evangelism series from my last post. It teaches that we befriend people so that we can "save" them. At first glance this may seem noble, but take a second look and you'll see how it cheapens relationships. We should value people, relate to people, serve people, simply because they are made in the image of God. As Andy Stanley has said, "every person you meet is someone for whom Christ died". They have value to God, and therefore they have value to us. Period. I don't give a homeless guy a sandwich so that I can earn credibility and an opportunity to "share the gospel". I give the guy a sandwich because he's hungry and because he has value simply because God made him. I'm ranting here (as usual), but many of our ministries are geared so that we can measure the "return", the number of people we've "saved". It's very capitalist thinking - seeing the return on your investment. I don't want to be a bad steward, but how about gearing our ministries by measuring how many people we can serve most effectively, given the amount of people, funds, gifting, and the needs of our community?
Christians are antihomosexual. Let me say a few things of my own on this one. #1, we've earned this label. Now, I think (not Lyons and Kinnaman), that we are ultra-sensitive to homosexuality for two reasons. First of all, any kind of sexual sin seems to carry a heavy impact theologically - I won't go into all this verse by verse, but "all other sins are outside the body", but sexual sin unites Christ - who lives in us - in the act of sexual sin. Let's leave it there. But, second, to take a sexual sin and amplify it with what many would consider an un-natural act (if sexuality is meant for pro-creation and the uniting of a husband and wife a la Genesis 1-2, Romans 1) is particularly offensive. I think most of us would be equally repulsed by the act of pedophilia and bestiality. But, funny, the sexual sin of pornography, slipping off to strip clubs, and adultery don't seem to phase us near as much. But all are sexual sin. I believe we've lost credibility in the arena of sexuality because we condemn one sin and hide the other. We will only regain credibility by first cleaning our own house and then by seeing homosexuals as created by God and valuable to him.
We are sheltered. We have separated ourselves to the point that we're out of touch with reality. Some very short thoughts, here. I think sheltering is good, overall. I believe that the culture, in general, is so saturated with sin that I have to shelter my kids, my family, my own eyes. My kids are, admittedly, naive. I love it. I think they are appropriately naive. The kids I meet in the neighborhood know way more at 7 and 8 years old than they should. They've seen more, heard more, experienced more than a child should. Me personally, there are places I just can't go. I'll sin. I avoid those things, cutting off my hand, plucking out my eye. "Guard your heart" Proverbs would say. That said, I don't hide myself from culture. I still engage it, I still live and work in it. We have to examine ourselves and say, "Where can I go and not sin?" But what we've done is completely removed ourselves from culture. We go to church, we go to Christian schools, listen to Christian radio, etc. We have to be aware of culture. We have to be engaged enough to influence the culture at large, through art, music, politics and, most of all, through relationships.
Too Political. My thoughts - politics and religion is really a struggle for me right now. Brought up in a very conservative Republican household, my feelings are shifting in many areas. I'm struggling with the concept of the empires of this world vs. the Kingdom of God. I want less military conflict - is there such a thing as a just war? Is our military for protection only? What I see King Jesus do in scripture is bow to the attack of his enemies. I see the early church being fed to lions rather than organize a militia. Social Programs? I want more opportunities to serve the poor without busting the budget on social spending or raising taxes. I had a late night conversation with a liberal Democrat who works in the TN governor's office. He was openly combative with the conservative Christian Republicans he was surrounded by. His statement over and over was "We're the United States. Can't we do better? Can't we do better than the failed socialists of the world? Can't we do better than we have done under this administration?" My answer is, "No". The government - the Empire - can not. But the church can. Our Kingdom is empowered by the Holy Spirit to move in ways the government will never be able to. Think of how Christians have effected social causes throughout the decades, centuries, millenniums, outside of politics. Instead of pouring our resources into lobbying groups and political action committees and campaigns, how about we co-opt the social spending agendas by building health clinics in under-served neighborhoods? How about adopting single-parent and low-income families, helping them with their needs so they can climb out of their poverty? How about funding job-training, drug rehab centers, and tutoring programs? Why do we have to head straight into combat politically? I can't help but think that when the culture at large sees our good deeds, that they'll give God the glory, and political action will be less necessary.
Judgmental. Instead of hating the sin and loving the sinner, we just hate them both. Ouch. This one seems to tie in with #1, Hypocritical. Instead of being known for our love (John 17) we are known for condemnation. And funny, we seem to be condemning people we have no business being worried about. We have to be concerned about our family enough to help each other through sin, but those outside of God's family are none of our business (I hope you read that appropriately). From the inside, we believe our churches are loving communities, but outsiders see it very differently. We're all talk. We want to tell everyone else how to live, but we do little ourselves. We're carrying 2x4's picking specs. Kinnaman says that it's a prideful attitude. The church at large is full of the sin of pride and arrogance, and we let it go on. To outsiders, via Kinnaman, it comes down to respect (see #2, above). This generation sees our motives, they know we don't have all the answers, they see through our agendas (p. 194-195). Come clean. Be genuine. Be real. Listen.

A few closing comments: First, pastors, read this book. Pay close attention to the last chapter, "From unChristian to Christian". Recognize, in particular, the importance of communicating in a way that reaches this group. In many cases, we are still doing church as usual. We are still using very modern ways to reach this generation. It just doesn't work. To this generation, talk is cheap, and besides, they think they know it all, anyway. My personal belief is that a 30-40 minute sermon is a waste of time to this generation. You need to find a better way to communicate.

Second, it's easy to think that "outsiders" have these perceptions because they don't really know us. The truth is, though, that much of the research here points out that our insiders of the same generation think the same things. That hurts.

Third, we have to be people of action. We are known by what we don't do. We are not a community who brings life and light to dead and dark places. We should be people who are imitating the Kingdom, who are being examples of God's kingdom to come. We need to get this generation involved in projects that bring life to others. Children and teen pastors, our core programs must include ways of serving in the dark places. It has to be more than collecting pennies and helping missionaries. Our kids need ongoing, hands-on opportunities to see the hurting, and see how they are bringing life to those people.

Last - discipleship, discipleship, discipleship. As long as we're about putting notches on our belts, getting people in the water, building our own "empires" of churches, we're not going to change lives. We have to be about the slow, hard, painful process of making disciples, changing attitudes, bringing life.

Observations from unChristian - so far

2008-04-08T09:28:00.001-05:00

I'm reading unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters right now and have just a few observations. Nothing many of us didn't know, but I had to put them down with an "Amen".

Chapter 4, p. 72: "...for every one hundred people who are not born again by the time they reach age eighteen, only six of those individuals will commit their lives to Christ for the first time as an adult."

p. 75 on the fact that the vast majority of Americans claim to have made a decision to follow Christ: "...this raises the question of the depth of their faith. If that many Americans have made decisions to follow Jesus, our culture and our world would be revolutionized if they simply lived that faith. It is easy to embrace a costless form of Christianity in America today, and we have probably contributed to that by giving people a superficial understanding of the gospel and focusing only on their decision to convert."

Anyone who knows me knows that this is where I camp out as a family minister. Two observations.

1) We should not give up on spreading the Good News of Jesus to adults, but to put all our eggs in that basket is irresponsible. It's bad stewardship. Our best hope lies in giving our children a Godly worldview. Where some may be saying, "Gosh, we have Sunday school for kids, what else do you want?", I say that we need to prioritize our content for transformation, we need adults who value relational teaching to baby sitting (or simply finding a person who is breathing to fill a teaching position), and that churches need to pour their money, their time, their people into kids and teenagers. Adults are adults! They should have the ability, the education, and self-discipline to "work out their salvation". Kids don't have this yet. Close adult Sunday school and pour everything you have into your kids.

2) The cheesy ways we have of trying to get people to "say the prayer" or get in the water are working against us. A conversion statement without a conversion lifestyle does not produce a "Christian". Christians are disciples. They are people who follow Jesus; they learn from his teaching, they do what he said (and did), and they teach others. Getting someone to the point of just saying a prayer does not change their life! How can they "taste and see that the Lord is good" if we are not, step by step, walking with them, mentoring them as they enter into the Kingdom as new creations?

I was recently reminded of this while going through an "evangelism" training series. Here's a summary. "Learn these techniques so you can befriend your neighbor, tell your story (in five minutes or less - how is that possible?!!!) and 'convert' them to Christ using a cute picture that wraps up the whole of the Gospel and New Creation." Ridiculous. Nothing about discipling people so that they truly experience a new life in Christ. Say the prayer, "accept" Jesus, move on to the next person.

Another reminder: We've had several young guys commit their lives to Christ in the last few weeks. The temptation is say, "Oh good, they're in, now who's next?" But what we've done, I hope, is something much different. First, we spelled out to them, pretty plainly, I think, the expectation of discipleship. We had a coordinated class on God's story and where they fit in, what discipleship is, and how "putting their faith in Christ" means actually doing what he says. If we truly believe, then we do. And we outlined what that looks like. Next, we have taken the step of asking men in the congregation to commit to the spiritual growth of these kids as mentors and accountability partners. These men are guys who are already strategically placed in the kids' lives, as grandfathers, small group leaders, intergenerational cell members, or ministers. The next step, I think, will be to see how we equip them along the way. This is still in the works, but we have some materials already being used through other programs in place. The challenge is to move that to another level based on their spiritual commitment.

We have to rethink the way we "convert" people. Conversion is repentance. It is change of life. It is Romans 12:1-2. It is leading people, step by step, to put away the things that lead to death (both here and hereafter), and helping them enjoy life as it was designed to be lived, in love, both here - and hereafter.

Simply Christian

2008-04-01T20:10:00.001-05:00

I don't mean this to be just a book-reviewing blog, but that's how it's turned out lately. I don't have much time to blog these days in-between books, plus, jotting down a few notes helps me to remember the content a bit more, so this is, I suppose, a selfish reason for the reviews.

My latest is Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N.T. Wright.

First of all, I've heard Wright compare this to Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis, so if you notice a similarity in titles, I think you'll find this Wright's attempt to update Lewis' work. Of course, it will have Wright's distinct theology attached, and more contemporary language and understanding. I'm sure there's more, but I haven't read "Mere Christianity" in 20 years, and was such a neophyte with this type of literature at the time that I was thoroughly confused by it. This has inspired me to go back and give it another try.

I will say this, right off; Simply is written in a way that is accessible to those outside the faith, and newcomers. This was an objective of Wright in composing the book, and he largely succeeds, though a few times in the book I found myself thinking "There's no way an outsider will get this". But this isn't a book to rush out and buy for your friend, thinking this will be an easy apologetic. It's not light reading, and takes some work to get through.

Second, if you're familiar with much of Wright's work already, and don't have time to waste, I wouldn't recommend this book. Much of the content can be found elsewhere in his catalog.

Now for some of my favorite parts:

The "four voices" of justice, spirituality, relationship, and beauty are great ways of breaking through to non-Christians. I found myself reading this thinking of people in my life for whom one or more of the different voices appealed to.
The concept of how heaven and earth meet in different parts of life was a great analogy as well. Church (both individual and corporate), scripture, sacraments, prayer, worship are all places where heaven and earth overlap and interlock, like God coming to the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, or the temple. Giving hints toward the future when they will completely be one in God's new heaven and new earth.
I found myself highlighting passages in sections on the Spirit and mission. Specifically, how the Spirit empowers our mission, and, I suppose, the mission itself. A few excerpts:

"But the point of the Spirit is to enable those who follow Jesus to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up, and that we are to help make it happen."

Of our vocation, revealed through scripture: "...the performance isn't just about our own private pilgrimage. It's about becoming agents of God's new world - workers for justice, explorers of spirituality, makers and menders of relationships, creators of beauty. If God does indeed speak through scripture, he speaks in order to commission us for tasks like these."

"...the Bible isn't simply a repository of true information about God, Jesus, and the hope of the world. It is, rather, part of the means by which, in the power of the Spirit, the living God rescues his people and his world, and takes them forward on the journey toward his new creation, and makes us agents of that new creation even as we travel."

Anger - Handling a Powerful Emotion In A Healthy Way

2008-03-04T06:09:00.001-06:00

Anger: Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way gives some great advice on dealing with anger, both your personal anger and the anger of people you encounter.

Gary Chapman is the The Five Love Languages guy. As good as I've heard this book is, I've never read it. But "Anger" is very practical and easy to work through.

A few highlights:

The Study Guide: The book is good reading, but the real value comes by working through the study guide at the end. I would have finished this book long ago, except that I really wanted to go through the exercises. They were very helpful in examining some issues that I really needed to process.
Advice for parents: I have one child who is just like me. That includes an almost irrational approach to handling his anger. Between the chapter especially devoted to kids, and the last chapter on "Confronting An Angry Person", there's some great advice on guiding your kids through their anger in a healthy way.
Breaking down the difference between definitive and distorted anger. I know that most of my anger is distorted anger. It generally comes when things don't go my way. Yes, I knew that already, but I've had to try to explain to my mini-me the difference between my unjustified anger and God's justifiable anger. This helps.

Any problems I have about the book generally come from my own personality issues. The techniques Chapman suggests often entail stopping and thinking about where your anger is coming from, and where it's heading. Most often, I feel my anger is from 0-60 in 2 seconds. The thought of stopping at any point in the process seems impossible to me. When I'm angry, I'm ANGRY. No in-between, no point in the process for reflection. This, I've seen already, is very difficult. My hope is that as I practice, I'll become better at realizing what's going on, and be able to pause.

I will definitely be recommending this book to folks in my circle of influence.

Seven Checkpoints

2008-03-03T10:02:00.001-06:00

I've been multi-tasking on books lately, but I've come to a point where I can finish up a few, and this week I'm "closing the book" - literally - on The Seven Checkpoints for Youth Leaders by Andy Stanley.

Stanley is one of the most practical church leaders out there. He is excellent at applying his material to the "real world". Churches and youth ministries typically communicate too many messages through schizophrenic teaching, high expectations, mission trips, and retreats. We hope that each of our kids will leave our youth ministries with a sold-out love for Jesus, unwavering faith in God, and most of all, sexual purity ;) Wouldn't it be lovely if that would happen, but we can't even get our adults to that point!

Stanley boils it all down to this question: If we could permanently imprint anything we want upon our students' minds, what would it be? That's a whole lot more realistic and manageable. He comes back with these "checkpoints":

Authentic faith - I love his emphasis on many students' (and adults') definition of faith: "What's happening now, what I'm feeling now, determines what I believe right now." This definition sets our kids up to look at God as a vending machine, and sets them up for failure when God doesn't deliver the goods. Instead, faith is "confidence that God is who he says he is, and that he'll do all he's promised to do."
Spiritual Disciplines - It seems to me that Andy is emphasizing "listening" to God here, giving him a chance to talk, rather than, again, the vending machine God. I like that he boils this down to only a few disciplines; prayer, journaling and scripture reading/memorization. These are manageable for most kids who really desire to have a genuine relationship with God. Though I would add sabbath to this. One thing our kids absolutely need is down time, time to switch off all the gadgets and just be quiet and rest.
Moral Boundaries - As youth pastors, we're generally good at pounding the sex hammer. A few thoughts, though: Guys can prepare for a relationship with their wives by loving their moms and sisters. Interesting thought. Also, something I never noticed before reading it in here (OK, I'm a little thick) is the line in 1 Thes. 4, "...and in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him" Sex outside of marriage is predatory. It's taking advantage of someone. And, finally, the two questions at the end of the chapter; The normal question teens ask is "How far should I go?" But the question should be "How far would I want my future wife to go with the person she dated right before me?"
Healthy Friendships - Not much new here. His theme verse is Proverbs 13:20, "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm." This has become an old saying in my house with my four boys. It's simple - what kind of person do you want to be, a wise one, or a foolish one. Break it down - what do wise people enjoy in life? What happens to foolish people? We can probably all look back at decisions we made or situations we found ourselves in that could have been avoided if we had chosen a different set of friends. Stanley would even say that we generally don't choose our friends, that our friends choose us. That we are largely unintentional about how we choose friends, and therefore anyone - really - can have influence over us.
Wise Choices - I won't go into too much here, but I will say that if you've read The Best Question Ever by Stanley, this is a miniature version of that book. What is the wise choice? "Be very careful then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:15-16. Again, do you want to be wise or foolish?
Ultimate Authority - Now here's a great chapter. In our Western, post-modern society that questions all authority, this is a tough concept for our kids (and adults). When it comes to authority, the question we ask is generally, "Why should I respect you?" We make people earn our respect, and then obey, rather than respecting the office and obeying from the position. Learning to respect the position - parents, teachers, police and government - sets the stage for obeying God, and, I believe, points back to #1, "Authentic Faith". Paul talks about "the obedience that comes from faith", where we obey simply because we believe. This is one of those times where we trust that God knows best, that he truly has everything under control, even corrupt rulers and authorities. It's not the situation or how I feel at the time, it's having faith. I'm not sure that you could teach this principle unless you have the foundation laid in #1. One last comment - Stanley does a great job of illustrating how freedom is found under authority (pp. 156-159)
Others First - I'm not sure there's much new ground here. p. 194 has a good breakdown on the results of being a serving person. I am also a firm proponent of getting kids involved in ministry early, by plugging them into roles at the local church, when they would otherwise be sitting in a Sunday School classroom. Of course, this comes from Northpoint's Student Impact philosophy. I'm seeing it work right now in my own church, so I'm all over the concept. One problem I'm having with teaching kids about service and ministry is giving them the answer to "So what?" If a kid knows Jesus, then the key verse for this checkpoint, Phil 2:3-11 makes sense. But if not, then why serve? I'm also experiencing some tension with how the world is co-opting our mission of service to others. Watch the Disney channel on Saturday mornings, or watch "Extreme Home Makeover" on Sunday night, and you'll see the world enlisting people for service, taking it out of our hands. Now, I know that God's purposes will be fulfilled - if he chooses to glorify himself through the work of secular service organizations, then great! But is our connection of service to Jesus weakened? I do believe that without the Spirit of God, we can't continue a life of service. To me, this lifestyle is empowered by the Spirit. Then again, I love the idea of cooperating with secular organizations that are truly serving the orphans, the widows, the poor and hungry. We followers of Jesus should be all over this! I think that I'm probably rambling on about this because of "The Big Give" premier last night. It struck me wrong because it's based on a veil of service to others, but at it's heart I think most of it's folks are looking for their 15 seconds of fame. And, of course, Oprah has another hit TV show on her hands. I'm a skeptic. So sue me. But I hope you see where the tension comes from.

One final comment. When I bought "The Seven Checkpoints", I also bought the student journal. After looking it over, I think the journal is beyond the reach of most students. There are large swaths of the book copied and pasted in, and clearly the verbiage and content was not aimed at teenagers. It will take more discipline than I think we can expect from the bulk of our kids. At the least there needs to be some introductory, "low hanging fruit" for less committed kids, new Christians, and middle-schoolers. My kids are about to start middle-school, and will be using this curriculum, but I'm pretty sure I'll be writing my own God Time journal for them.

Surprised By Hope

2008-02-29T09:05:00.002-06:00

I just finished N.T. Wright's new book Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church and I have to say it was a great read. I've become a huge Wright fan simply because he helps me make sense of it all. Through historical contextualizing, he uncovers purpose and meaning behind scriptures I just didn't understand.

His emphasis in Hope on the resurrection, it's meaning, and it's importance both historically and currently, resonates with me deeply. It calls us away from a dualistic view of heaven and earth, spiritual and physical. It's not just "say this prayer so that you can go to heaven when you die", neither is it "it's up to us to make the world a better place", it's "Jesus has been resurrected, thereby defeating all other powers, so that makes him king. Now we've got a job to do" (very roughly paraphrased from Wright)

I know I'm thick, but I think it's a statement about my faith tradition that has emphasized Jesus' resurrection mainly as an act of atonement. Wright explains the many faceted meaning of the resurrection. But what resonates for me is the idea that Jesus is Lord because he has defeated death, sin, and the earthly authorities through his resurrection. And because he has been resurrected, New Creation has begun. We are in the last days between the beginning of New Creation and the resurrection of all the dead, and the marriage of heaven and earth (Revelation 21). Note Wright's brief exposition of John's gospel narrative of the resurrection and New Creation. A guy like me would have never seen any of this.

What does this mean for us? Jesus is the prototype for the redemption of our bodies. When he finally appears to us, all things will be redeemed. In the mean time, we don't let the current creation go to hell in a handbasket because, after all, God's going to whisk us all up to heaven some day. God's creation is good. He said so. The earth, wildlife, and most of all, people. As kingdom people, we begin redeeming these things in anticipation of the final redemption and perfection. Wright puts it in terms of justice, time, space, and matter. It's important to note that this is not just another attempt at social justice. It is empowered by the Spirit in anticipation of the final redemption, always aware that we will not bring the kingdom by our actions, always aware of the myth of progress, always aware of the presence of evil in this world and its power to corrupt.

A final thought; The Eucharist (Lord's Supper) and Baptism are two acts, sacraments, that are undervalued in many traditions. One thing I especially enjoyed in this book is how Wright points out how the resurrection and new creation hope inform the sacraments. Because of the resurrection, the sacraments are "time machines" (my words, not Bishop Wright's) that take us back to Jesus' victory, his present work, and the future hope that is ours because of his work.