Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

These are the words to the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley. This poem was kept by Nelson Mandela during his 27-year prison sentence during the period of Apartheid in South Africa. It is also the title of a new movie about the South African rugby team during the 1995 rugby world cup held in South Africa. Everyone should see this movie. It is more than just a movie about rugby. It is a story about the forgiveness and grace of Mandela. It is remarkable how a man who suffered so much at the hands of his oppressors could be so forgiving and full of grace towards them after being elected president. There is a line from the movie that may be real and may not be, but it is very telling. A white security guard is escorting the captain of the rugby team into Mandela's office and remarks that under the previous president he was invisible, simply a force to provide protection. He said that with Mandela no one is invisible. This shows a level of grace that seems to be reflective of Jesus himself.

How many times do we not offer forgiveness to those who have wronged us? Considering what we go through and what some have endured, our pains seem rather pitiful. How many times do we hurl insults at people simply because we don't like their philosophies or the way they live? How much more could we be bringers of peace?

I love the last two lines of the poem:

I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul

We can't control what others do; we can only control how we respond. Can we not be more forgiving and full of grace?

Reproduction

I spent the afternoon yesterday with a group of church planters, which was very exciting, and had an interesting thought upon waking this morning. In Genesis, when God created the universe, he enabled every living thing to make more living things, to reproduce, to be fruitful and multiply. Basically he's telling us to go make more of us because life is better when there is more life. If this is true of us as people, shouldn't it also be true of us as churches? (Perhaps this thought is old to you. If it is, please excuse my tardiness in thinking it.) Shouldn't we as local iterations of the Body of Christ try to make more bodies? It was put this way by one of my friends last night. "We want to plant church-planting churches who plant church-planting churches." Shouldn't there be more of us than there are? They also made the comment that church plants grow faster than established churches because they have to. If they don't reach out to the lost, they don't grow, and they fail. If it's easier for a church-plant to reach the lost, maybe that's what we should be doing, training others to go plant churches, to go plant churches, to go plant churches...

Perhaps now is the time for us in the Body to be fruitful and multiply.

Matt Chandler @ RightNow

Friday morning and Saturday morning Matt Chandler was the featured speaker at RightNow. I enjoyed him because he speaks with authority. Listening to him reminded me of John Piper. He is also a Reformed Theologian (buying into at least some if not all of the points of Calvinism). What is remarkable about this, though, is that he isn't mean about it. Both of his messages were difficult, but filled with truth. This is an overview of both sermons.

We tend to present two sides of the gospel. One is very traditionally evangelistic. This says that God created man, man sinned thereby separating himself from God, God sent Jesus, accepting Jesus can restore our relationship to God. This is a very straightforward presentation of the gospel, ending with a moment of decision.

The other side is that God created the world, man brought evil into the world, Jesus came to rid the world of evil, we must continue the work of Jesus on earth. It is a very social presentation of the gospel. We must meet people's physical needs in order to restore justice to the world.

When we choose one of these camps or the other, we pervert and hinder the gospel. Traditional evangelism without meeting people's needs leads to rigid religion (an "I'm in, you're out" kind of mindset). The social gospel without the saving power of Jesus is simply doing nice things. We must have both! We must emphasize the saving power of Jesus while meeting physical needs and seeing justice done. It must be both. Faith without works is dead, but works without faith is futile.

Jesus' death is what paid the price for our sin. Jesus' resurrection is what paves the way for us to have a new life. Life begets more life. Jesus' new life at the resurrection told us there was more than just a sacrifice, there was a new way to live. Now we can fulfill our purpose in the world because we have the power of Jesus' resurrection. Paul emphasized the resurrection as what gave us power. We don't have to fear death because it is not the end. We are brought into new life in order to take this life to others, to leave our old lives behind and join with Jesus in his.

May we spend our lives in radical generosity because of the radical way He has been generous to us.

Francis Chan @ RightNow Conference, pt. 3

Friday Night, Nov. 6, 9:45 pm

This was Francis Chan's final session with us @ RightNow. It was late Friday night and I had been awake for almost 15 hours at that point, much of that time spent in sessions. My brain was mostly fried at this point and several hours earlier a pain had begun in my left shoulder and had worked its way through my neck into the back of my head, but still God spoke.

Chan began this talk with a statement that went kind of like this: We're not worried about living; we're worried about our standard of living.

Francis Chan is a gifted communicator, but is also a best-selling author. When the profits from his first book began to come in, he and his wife decided to allocate that money to a specific charity. He said he was confronted with well-wishers who told him he should save some of the money for an emergency. His question to us was, "What qualifies as an emergency?" Is it only an emergency if it applies to me? Does Darfur not constitute an emergency? Does the AIDS pandemic not apply in this situation? Is the fact that there are 138,000,000 orphans in the world not sound like an emergency?

Why are we so concerned with self? Why do we hang on to money simply to die and pass it on to others, who will then die and pass it on to others?

This is not to say that we should all liquidate our assets and run out to the nearest United Way advocate. What it does mean is that we should at the very least be thoughtful with what we've been given, to be good stewards of the blessings we've received.

He went on to discuss our methods of preaching and teaching to the church. We who have a different perspective on the way ministry should be done must be more thoughtful about how we approach change. I am certainly guilty of this myself. I want things to happen my way, right now. Perhaps this is not the way it's supposed to happen.

Chan made this statement: "For so many years we've spent our lives trying to move the church along by our own power. The church in scripture, though, moved itself because of the power of the Spirit." His point is this, if we will focus on the Spirit, on following Jesus, the church (us) will become more like Jesus. This means our leadership should honestly be seeking the leadership of the Spirit, but it doesn't mean that we as members of the Body shouldn't begin ourselves to see life this way. We can lead by simply following Jesus. Instead of trying to use our own power, shouldn't we simply spend more time in prayer, more time in scripture, more time seeking God himself? We can't create movement. Movement comes from God when we humbly seek Him.

Everything comes through knowing Jesus. Scripture says everything we need for life and godliness is freely given to us through the divine power of God. We are divinely prepared. Perhaps if we feel like we don't have enough, we haven't spent enough time with the Father.

This post seems a bit disjointed to me. Perhaps that's a result of my being zombie-like during this session that night, not able to take adequate notes. I'm sure my notes made sense to me at the time, but this is the best I could get out of them today.

Francis Chan @ RightNow Conference, pt. 2

Redefining Church

On Friday morning, we had an opportunity to attend several connection sessions in order to speak to more specific areas we were concerned with. Amanda and I chose to hear Francis Chan again as he talked about redefining the church. He made the point that when he and his team planted their church they were trying to be all things to all people. They wanted to have great worship so they could feel the Spirit move. They wanted to have solid Biblical teaching in order to present the truth. They also wanted to connect with people so they would feel at home. In designing their church, these were the three things they wanted to have happen. They succeeded. They drew large crowds, had authentic worship and Biblical teaching, and connected with people in meaningful ways. But there was still something missing.

He confessed that in designing their church, they had neglected to seek God's guidance, to search the scriptures as to what the church should be, not programming wise, but who they should be as people. They sought the things man said were important and forgot about the leading of the Spirit. After all, if we are the "Body of Christ" shouldn't we look at what Jesus did? Shouldn't we seek to do the same things?

He made the point that we are a people who seek after miracles, just like the Pharisees. We want to see amazing things happen, sick people healed, lame people walk, and the lights flicker in our sanctuaries because the Spirit of God moves. As rational and linear as we are, we long for the mystical, as if we need God to prove he exists. If we look at scripture, we find this is exactly who the Pharisees were. They wanted Jesus to perform miracles to prove his deity.

Cool worship services are not the answer. Engaging and charismatic preaching is not the answer. Programming that fills our lives with busyness is not the answer. Jesus is the answer. Following him is the goal. Why do we offer up offerings that God didn't ask for? In Samuel, Saul was condemned for offering up a sacrifice that was illegal. His excuse seems pitiful to us, but don't we do the same thing? "But I thought you demanded sacrifice! I thought you wanted us to sing you worship songs!" And the reply of Samuel is the same to us as it was to Saul. "To obey is better than sacrifice." We should give God what he wants, our obedience, our lives.

Chan walked us through parts of 1 Peter. One of the scriptures that caught my attention was 1 Peter 2:5. "You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

His point was this: we are the stones the church is made of. Peter called us living stones. Therefore, the church we are building is a living organism. It's the same message Paul gives us about spiritual gifts and unity within the body. Peter goes on in chapter 2 to talk about how we once were not a people, but now are God's people. We are his people. We are of his tribe, of his family. We have his DNA. We are a global race of Jesus followers set aside to show the world what God is like.

The mission of the church matters. It matters how we build up a fellowship. It matters how we set things up because it sets the pace for what is to come. We must do things the way God wants them done and give him what he asks of us.

Church = Body
Church = Living Building

These are two of the metaphors we've been given to help us understand the role of the church.

What do our churches look like?

Francis Chan @ RightNow Conference

Continuing from my last post, here are my notes from Francis Chan at the RightNow Conference this past weekend.

Understand that as I was listening and writing notes, not everything I heard was written down. Taking that into account, some of what I write here will seem a bit disjointed and you may wonder how these things were said in the same talk. I may not remember myself, I'm going based on what I wrote and trying to remember what feelings were conjured up that made me feel like that was important.

Friday, Nov. 6, 9:00am

Do we really desire truth or do we discover what we want and then work to craft an argument designed to defend our assumed position?

Truth should be our objective, our goal. When Jesus said he was the way, the truth, and the life, we should take that to mean that Jesus is our goal. We should read scripture in its entirety and let it speak to us out of its own context. We must be as unbiased and objective as we can when we approach scripture. We will never be completely objective and unbiased, but we should at least be aware of our biases and assumptions.

What's the point with this?

Truth always leads us into greater fellowship with the Father, who is the source of all truth. When we present the gospel of Jesus, we must keep this in mind. Is what we're saying going to lead someone to Jesus or to ourselves?

As we look at scripture searching for truth about the church and her mission, it becomes clear to us that unity was important, was necessary. Looking in John 17, Jesus even prayed that we might experience unity, that we would be one. If this is the case, why are we surprised when we face division? Do we think the enemy is going to rest and simply allow us to be who Jesus wanted us to be? Isn't it possible that division comes from the enemy? Shouldn't we then re-think possibly why we say or do certain things? If we're not concerned about building up the Body, maybe our motives are wrong.

The church must also be outward-focused. Very rarely are people going to walk in the front doors of our buildings and say "I want Jesus." It certainly could happen, but most of the time we're going to have to be focused outward. It doesn't matter how inviting, contemporary, post-modern, or anything else our services are. In order to reach people, we can't force them in, we must take the church to them. We must exist to go into the world, willing to meet people where they are, and sharing with them the love of Jesus and how he is still active in the world today.

Then we must not be surprised at the trials we face. We will face oppression doing the work of Jesus. Instead of running from it, however, we must choose to embrace the persecution, counting the suffering as joy because it draws us closer to Jesus, who also suffered for the truth.

RightNow Conference: George Barna

Spent the weekend at the RightNow conference in Dallas. In the following days, I'm going to be posting some of my notes from the weekend.

Thursday night George Barna presented church leaders with a talk about his latest book in which he spoke with 30 of the nations prominent and famous leaders, from Mike Huckabee to Lou Holtz. Following are 6 leadership checkpoints that he learned.

Leadership checkpoint #1

~Leaders can strategically change reality, but they cannot intentionally change people.

The point here is that we can create a compelling environment, we can set up circumstances to promote change in people, but we can't do anything to actually make the person change. The desire for change must come from within.

~Nobody is the "complete leadership package." It's important to work in a leadership team

None of us is as smart as all of us - Ken Blanchard
The best leadership teams are small in number, know each other well, have established an environment of trust, share vision, values, and passion, are vulnerable and communicate well with each other, and most importantly empower people to achieve the vision of the organization.

~One of the most under-valued and least common skills among leaders is listening.

You cannot listen effectively if you aren't willing to have your mind changed - Ken Blanchard
You never learn anything by talking - Lou Holtz
Good leaders aren't afraid to listen. They always want to learn, always want to grow, aren't afraid of change

~Leaders must master conflict and confrontation.

Good leaders aren't afraid of conflict and in fact, sometimes inspire conflict by the way they lead. Good leaders cause conflict because of their passionate pursuit of truth. Anytime truth is sought, those who believe the lie are going to be at odds with it.

~Success is helping people achieve their potential.

You can't change people; you can only help them achieve what they are capable of.

~You get what you measure.

We must learn how to measure things the right way. Not all measuring systems are objective. We must learn how to measure the subjective things. For ex. if we measure church success by large buildings, large crowds, or number of programs, that's what we'll get. If we measure quality of discipleship we may struggle to accurately measure it, but we'll get better disciples.

~Do not accept a leadership position unless you're ready to pay a stiff price. The more significant the outcome you seek to achieve, the more substantial the price you can expect to pay.

Leaders can expect to suffer for their convictions, but they never shy away from pressure or criticism. You really do get what you pay for.

Barna is incredibly thorough in his presentation. Often dry and occasionally so thorough as to be boring, he still presented a great talk with grace and poise. Made me reconsider my role as a leader and how I carry myself. Also made me think about the price I must pay to lead well. I pray that I always lead well and that God is honored in what I do.

The Subjective Nature of Discipleship

What have we done in this world to turn a concept such as discipleship into a binary system? We’ve muddled up the whole Bible and watered down the truth of scripture by boiling it all down to bullet points. We’ve turned salvation into a 5-step process dependant upon our belief in key scriptures and removed the lordship of Christ from the whole equation! The fact of the matter is this: discipleship has no objective measure. I can’t pull out a disciple-stick and see how much of a disciple you are. In truth, I can’t really know anything about your level of discipleship because I can’t read your heart. True, there are certain outward actions you’ll have if you are a disciple like love and the fruit of the Spirit, but I’m no one’s judge and can only truly know my own heart, which is often easily swayed and confused.

Why am I writing this?

Who really cares anyway?

If we can’t come up with a better way to disciple people, the church, the Body of Jesus Christ on earth, is going to die. We’ve already seen a steep slide in the faithfulness of Jesus-followers, so much so that there aren’t many true followers of Jesus left. We are living amidst the Pharisaification of the church, so much that the church has become what the Temple was and is to Jews, a place to worship, not a living, breathing organism bent on doing the will of God.

Perhaps it would serve us to look at why this has happened to Jesus’ beloved bride.

It is my belief that in the beginning, the simplification of the gospel was pursued in order to provide a concise, easy-to-remember method for leading people to Jesus. It still serves as that. I believe that church leaders were in pursuit of an easy way to evangelize. What has happened because of it though is that we have turned it into a rite of passage, a secret handshake if you will: a way to tell who’s in and who’s out. Then we used this methodology to exclude those who were out and to make them feel like garbage because they weren’t in. “Don’t you want to believe in Jesus too? If you don’t you’ll go to Hell! Hell is a terrible place, filled with demons that look like they came out of some demented video game and with hot air blasting in your face all the time! You don’t want to go there, do you?” The problem with this is that no one in their right mind would answer, “yes” to those questions. No one wants to spend forever in that situation.

So we have thousands of converts or proselytes, but no disciples. Isn’t that what Jesus told us to do? Make disciples?

I’m reminded of the passage in Acts 15 when the church had a huge committee meeting to determine whether the new Gentile converts needed to participate in all the Jewish rituals in order to become “real” Christians. It became such a big deal that Paul and Barnabas came back from the mission field and even Peter showed up to have a say. They came to this basic understanding (forgive me if I paraphrase): “What a ridiculous argument to be having! We know that God determined to save the Gentiles as they were, giving them the same Holy Spirit he gave us. Why on earth would we require them to perform the same rites and rituals we’ve been doing since we were Jews? He cleansed their hearts by faith, not by some outward show!”

What does this say to us?

Is it possible that what we understand, coming to the Bible with all the assumptions and cultural biases we have, that we might not understand everything about salvation? Is it possible that the five scriptures we use that belong to our favorite evangelistic method aren’t the only ones that are necessary for understanding Jesus? Could it be true that, while noble, our evangelistic intentions aren’t complete? Doesn’t God want more from us than proselytizing? Didn’t Jesus ask us to make disciples?

This leads us back to the subjective nature of discipleship. How do I know when someone is a disciple? The simple answer is, you don’t. We can’t know the hearts of men. All we can do, then, is lead by example. It seems that early teachers and philosophers had a pretty good method for teaching. They would take on one or two pupils at a time and let them observe. Then they simply lived their lives, engaging their disciples in conversations about life. In this way, the pupil learned from the master. It is the same with apprenticeship. The apprentice spends time with the master, learning from what the master does. When the time is complete, the apprentice strikes out on their own, eventually taking on their own pupil.

This creates tension for us, though, because it requires something from us we don’t want to give. It requires effort. It requires time. It requires patience and love. Evangelism in itself, while intense and demanding, is really the easy way out. When we make our efforts about winning a convert or making a proselyte, whether we succeed or fail, the job is done. Taking on a disciple not only requires an ongoing effort to teach and love, it requires us to be active all the time. Little is gained by telling an apprentice to “do what I say.” Only by actually doing the work ourselves can our disciples see what truly needs to be done. Then we’re never completely sure that they get it. It is, however, much more likely that they will if we give them an example. That’s why it’s not arrogant for Paul to tell other believers to “do what I do.” It’s simply discipleship.

May your eyes be opened to the need for discipleship. May you become the discipler Jesus needs you to be.

Shalom

Sunday night starts the most holy day of the year in the Jewish faith, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This is the day of the year on which, traditionally, the sins of the nation of Israel would be forgiven. Being that the Jewish faith is the history of the Christian faith, I decided to do some research on Yom Kippur and found some interesting facts.

Even way back in the Old Testament, God was very interested in being at peace with his people and with his people being at peace with him. I find it somewhat amusing (sad?) that this was a very hard thing for them both to accomplish. The more I read the Old Testament, the more it sounds like the journal of an exasperated parent more than the musings of a lover. God simply wants his people to get it and be at peace, but they refuse to. So he implements these ceremonies that give visual, very clear pictures of what God wants from his people. There was a specific ceremony on this day involving two goats. One of the goats was sacrificed as a sin offering in accordance with those laws. The other was led out into the wilderness.

This second goat is the focus of an interesting visual. Upon this goal was placed all the sins of the nation of Israel, then it was released into the wilderness. This goat was set free. The visual picture is stunning. On the one hand, you have a sacrifice, we are familiar with that visual. Blood covers over sins, the sacrifice is burned, no more sin. But on the other hand you have this goat, being set free with the sins of Israel on it's head. Technically the sin still remains, but the goat is gone. And the Israelites saw it leave.

I wonder if it was frustrating for God to have to resort to minute detail and very specific ceremonies in order for his people to get what he was saying. I wonder if he wouldn't rather people just understand him. Instead, he had to send a goat into the wilderness for people to see their sins departing. I understand the wrath of God and I kind of get the holiness of God, but it seems that at his heart, like John says, God is love. I wonder if he wouldn't rather his people simply be at peace with him.

Which brings me to shalom. In researching this word, it has such a greater definition than peace. It means completeness, wholeness, perfection, health, safety, tranquility, prosperity, fullness, rest, harmony, welfare, soundness. It is this term that God desires for his people. Perhaps this Yom Kippur can be a day of atonement for us. Perhaps we can begin to be still and rest in knowing God is God. Perhaps we can begin to understand shalom.

Another interesting tradition in Jewish life is Erev Yom Kippur, the day before Yom Kippur. I believe this is just Jewish tradition, but I still find it interesting. On Erev Yom Kippur, people go to those whom they have wronged and ask for forgiveness. Before they seek atonement for their sins on Yom Kippur, they ask forgiveness from men. This sounds like Jesus when he exhorted us to leave our sacrifice at the altar to ask forgiveness from a brother we had wronged.

May your Yom Kippur be blessed and may you find shalom.

Pride (Not in the name of Love)

Throwing that title out for my friend Rick. U2 fans should get that one.

This morning I was spending some time reading and praying and I discovered something about myself that I knew, but didn't really grasp the depth of it. I did not like what I found. I am a prideful person. Perhaps most of us could say that, but I am a prideful person. I never realized how deep it goes, either. I'm reading John Burke's (No Perfect People Allowed) newest book "Soul Revolution" and was very convicted. Throughout the book he invites readers to take the 60-60 challenge. This is to spend 60 minutes a day with God for 60 days. In the first chapter he asks a couple of questions, "What do I really desire?" and "How will I really get it?" As I sat and thought about my answers, I didn't like the response I got from myself. I want really selfish things. I want people to like me. I want to be thought of as intelligent. I want to be thought of as cultured. I want people to come to me for advice. I want money. I want nice things. I am very ashamed as I write this right now. The other thing is (this hurts) I thought I was above all those desires.

It's a painful thing to realize how deep you are into this stuff. I only hope that I can allow myself to be rescued. In my spirit, I don't want to be like this. Deep inside there's a longing for me to let go of these desires and completely trust in the Father. I want to experience him in a very real way every day. I want to know him more.

I pray you'll all forgive me. This is one of the most painful things I've ever written. I would welcome your prayers.

Make Disciples

I was just reading back over the Great Commission and something stuck out to me. I've heard many discussions on what Jesus meant when he said "go." I've heard some say Jesus meant "as you are going, make disciples" and I've heard others say Jesus meant "go and make disciples." The difference is subtle, but there. One implies Jesus means to actively go and make disciples, sort of a call to missions. The other implies that as you go about your normal activities, pursue relationships in which you could make disciples.

I'm not sure that either is 100% accurate. I am no Greek scholar, so I have very little credibility with this subject in the area of languages, but it seems to me that Jesus might not have been making a distinction. Perhaps the verb tense and usage are not as important as the simple idea that we are supposed to make disciples. It seems to me that Jesus is more concerned with our action in this area as opposed to our understanding of ancient languages. Now I'm all for scholarship and accuracy, but I think Jesus is more concerned with action and lifestyle.

I pray that I'm more focused on making disciples than debating theology.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians

Just picked up this book by Rob Bell last Sunday. Remarkable! I've always enjoyed hearing Rob preach, but had a hard time getting into some of his books, but this one has been amazing! He walks through scripture parallelling Old Testament promises with New Testament realities. It's really been an incredible journey. Check it out!

Up next: The Jesus of Suburbia by Mike Erre

Living with Risk

A few years ago there was a movie starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston called "Along Came Polly."  In this movie Ben Stiller was a risk analyst for an insurance company, a person who looked at a person's life and determined if they were too risky to insure.  In the end, he comes to the conclusion that all of life is a risk and we can't isolate ourselves from everything dangerous.

I believe we've become a "riskless" people.  We strive so hard to make ourselves safe from everything, burrowing ourselves into the ground and hiding from everything that might prevent us from living to be 100.  In doing so, we limit our effectiveness for the Kingdom of God.  By eliminating risk, we tell God that we aren't willing to depend on him for everything.

I'm finishing up a book by Francis Chan called "Crazy Love."  This read has been a combination of joy and conviction, reveling in the love of God and then immediately facing the conviction of my pathetic response to this love.  In the last chapter of the book, Chan talks about our desire to build up a safety net that will catch us just in case God doesn't come through.  I pray this isn't what my life is like.  I understand about responsibility and taking care of my family, but I pray I lead my family to rely on God.  I pray we rely on God so much that if he doesn't come through, we fail miserably.  I think of Job, the kind of pain he went through.  I pray my response to every situation is "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."

I pray I never fear risk.

The Persistance of the Church

I wonder how long churches are supposed to be incorporated. If the church is really the people, then why does First Baptist Church of Anywhere last for 200 years or more? Why aren't churches more fluid and organic, living while the people who started it are alive and transitioning to something else as the people die away. I don't believe this is heretical or even mean. I'm just trying to understand the nature of the church as a body.

As I think about this, I'm trying to understand what the original intent of the church was supposed to be. As I read scripture, I'm convinced that the church is much more of an organic body than a static structure. If the body doesn't change and grow, it stagnates and dies. In my mind, I'm beginning to wonder if that means a body should morph into something else as members die away and new life comes into it. If a church is really the people, this seems to be the only way it can persist. It must change, it must grow, painfully if necessary. The church is alive, it is moving. To limit its growth or its ability to redirect its focus is to risk killing it altogether.

Perhaps churches shouldn't try to exist for hundreds of years. Perhaps churches should be planted with the mindset that after a certain amount of time they would re-incorporate as something different, a new body with a new mindset.

If we began to view the church as a living organism and not a static body, I believe it would help us understand what and who we're supposed to be as individuals. I think we would be more loving as a people and less interested in maintaining our political power. I think establishment breeds pride and apathy, two things that bring about destruction wherever they are allowed to exist.

I'm not completely sure how to process all of this, just an thought I had this morning.

Going to Mars

I think we as the human race should put forth an effort to go to Mars.

I know this sounds ridiculous to most people, but the human timeline of history has been a list of discoveries. In the past, discovery was all about beating someone else, being the first person or nation to do something or go somewhere. Now it seems there is no more competition to do anything, except make more money so we can better rule the world. What has happened to our sense of awe with creation? Why would we not want to learn more about the universer we're in?

I remember in school being overwhelmed by space. I loved studying space and the history of space travel. I own the HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon." I am still awed by the space travel that happened 40 years ago. July 20 of this year marks the 40th anniversary of man's landing on the moon. After a few short trips (only 12 people have ever set foot on the moon) the lunar program was cancelled. Since then, space travel has been limited to low-earth orbit, space stations, and telescopes that don't always work right away. We've sent probes to other countries and even out of the solar system, but no man has left the gravitational pull of the earth in over 30 years.

Isn't there something to be said for exploration just to see what's out there? Isn't there something exciting and stirring about that? Or have we all become so crass and cynical as to only be moved by financial gain anymore?

I ask these questions because to me there is a greater thing at risk. If we fail to be awed by the physical universe around us, what's to keep us from failing to be awed by an invisible God? I'm sure some pious people will tell me that we're not supposed to worship creation but the Creator. I understand that and I don't believe that's my mistake. I believe that by being dazzled by creation we are being awed by the Creator himself, by the work he has done.

I believe we should go to Mars.

What Kind of Day Has It Been

Disciple Now 2009 is over. As I recover from the many hours spent planning and pick up and put away decorations, stage sets, and various other bits lying around, I pause to reflect on what we experienced. The theme for the weekend was "One." It dealt with pursuing our relationship with God, our Father. We asked of our students nothing more and nothing less than them pursuing and maintaining an intimate relationship with God. Like any of us has to work on our marriage or the relationship with our children or our parents or our employer, we must work on our relationship with God. We challenged beliefs and the status quo. I'm sure we offended some people. I pray only that the Spirit of God was heard.

I've never experienced the kind of effort that went into this event. Not that we tried to contrive anything, but just the planning and execution of a community-wide event of this nature required a lot of work, work I never dreamed of. I've never spent so much time in prayer for an event. I've never seen people in the community get as involved as they did in this event. There were three sponsor churches involved, but at least 8 churches represented by students. I even had one couple volunteer their house and they attend a church in another city. It was remarkable how that worked out because the husband and oldest daughter of this family turned out to be on a prayer team for a tribe in Africa that the group leader in their house had just spent two weeks with this past January. Though I expect things like this to happen, I never cease to be amazed at how God chooses to work.

This past weekend we experienced a moving of God. As with any movement of the Spirit, lives are changed. How much and for how long largely depends on the individual's response and commitment. This is always the intangible you long to know, but for which you can never plan. My only prayer in that is that each of us will take what the Lord revealed to us and put in to action in our own lives.

What kind of day has it been? It's been a good day. Now I rest in the arms of the Father.

A Change is Gonna Come

You know that place between something old and something new? That place where you can sense a change is coming, but you don't know what or when it is? That's where I am right now. It seems to me that change is coming, but I don't know what it will be or when it will arrive. It's one of these things that you wish would go ahead and happen. Even if it's difficult and painful, at least it would be here and I could get on with my life. I know there's a lesson in the waiting and surely there's some wisdom to be gleaned from being patient, but come on already. I know that life is a journey and not just random events placed at random places, but it sure can get frustrating in the mean time.

In a rather humerous coincidence this reminds me of National Lampoon's Vacation. In what is obviously a spoof on family vacations during the height of family vacationing, Chevy Chase determines to take his family to Wally World in California. His family lives in Chicago. Instead of flying, which is obviously what one would do if one was a successful food-additive exec, he decides to drive. What ensues is a comedy of errors as the family encounters set-back after set-back on their journey.

Why do these two things coincide? I'm not entirely sure, but there's got to be something in there about the journey being fun. In my own life I've not been so concerned with the journey as the destination. I always want to just get there so I can partake in all the destination has to offer me. Then it's get back home as quickly as possible. My parents and now my wife are always gracious with me, but I think they would have appreciated it more if I had enjoyed the journey a little bit. I can think of one instance when my wife and I had not been married for even a year. We had gone skiing and were driving home. We left Denver, CO at probably 9:00am, not rushing out the door. We had predetermined to stop somewhere around Wichita Falls, TX to spend the night. When we arrived at Wichita Falls, it was only 6:30pm or so. After stopping for supper and not feeling too tired, we decided to push on to Ft. Worth. We would get a room there. When we got to Ft. Worth, it was probably 10:00 or so. and me in my wisdom and hurry to get home (also secretly not wanting to buy another hotel room) I decided that since we were so close, we might as well go on home. Being on the far west side of Ft. Worth and driving all the way to Marshall, we arrived home between 1:30 or 2:00am. Amanda didn't talk to me much the next day, probably because we both were too tired to say anything.

The point being, and answering my own angst, perhaps I should just shut up already. It sure would be nice if the change revealed itself to me, though.

No Perfect People Allowed

I'm reading a book by this title written by John Burke, a pastor in Austin, TX.  I am convicted by my lack of authenticity and transparency with those around me.  I  constantly hold back for fear that people won't like me or worse still, think that I am not as good as they used to think I was.

I fall prey to the lie that I am a good person.  I fall prey to the menace that is Pharisaism.  I fall prey to my own pride, that I don't want to admit I am not as good as I want everyone to think. This book has changed the way I perceive relationships.  It's been a long time coming, but it seems I've found something that puts into words what I've been trying to articulate to myself for a while.  It's also nice to have some confirmation of my own beliefs by someone I have never spoken with once.

I desire to live in a real community with other believers.  In a narrative that often reads like a setting for a support group, Pastor Burke has written about whole-ness that has come through honesty and openness between people.  Perhaps this is what a church is supposed to be, a support group for broken, searching people.  Becoming whole together, while each on our own journey.  Through an atmosphere of love and acceptance, we see people open up to the gospel like they never would have if confronted with the poise and eloquence of a televangelist.

I thank God that I can still learn.  I wish these concepts had been made clear to me 15 years ago. I wish I didn't have to struggle to find the truth.  I pray that I become the man God wants me to be.  I am becoming more and more haunted by the phrase the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth, "I have become all things to all people that by all means I may save some."  I am afraid I am not all things to all people.  I can hear the longing in the heart of Paul that none would perish without knowing the love of God.  More and more this is what I desire for myself.

Flag-football results

Thought I would let everyone know about the results of the flag-football game we had the other day. I know you all just can't wait.

The students got the drumming they so richly deserved, 78-48. There was some talk that the adults only scored 68 points, but this is simply misguided propaganda. In fact, 42 of the students' points came in the 2nd half, when all of us were stiff and tired because we failed to stretch before we came back out on the field.

Anyway, we had a good time and it was fun to fellowship like that across generational boundaries.

Flag-Football

Saturday, Jan. 24 HPBC is hosting a flag-football game between the student ministry and the adults. I am very excited about this because, in my man-ness, I enjoy a good game with the possibility of collisions and concussions. I realize that flag-football is supposed to limit the contact between players, but there are always ways around this rule.

This began as a friendly competition between two generations, but has blown (hopefully) into a full-on church-wide event. There will be hot dogs, chips and drinks, and the aforementioned collisions. We even have a real referee coming out to call the game.

The build-up to this game has been ferocious, with even our pastor getting in on the trash-talk. It will certainly be a spectacle, possibly a debacle or some other kind of "-acle," but will definitely be entertaining. Come one, come all. Witness what happens when two generations of believers take (illegal) shots at one another on a grassy field (without knolls).

The life and times of...life

A few years ago there was a movie entitled "Life or Something Like It." I never saw this movie and couldn't honestly say what it's about at all except to say I thought the title was quite poignant. I think most of us could say this about our own lives. Maybe our lives are only "something like it."

I recently finished the curriculum for our community-wide Disciple Now. It's called "One: Developing Our Primary Relationship." It's come to my attention that life is less about the things that happen every day or even the things we do, and more about our relationships, specifically for me, my relationship with God. It has been a refreshing journey.

That's all I have for today. I leave with this. My friend Edward has a T-Shirt that I love. It says on the front "It's against my relationship to have a religion." I like this shirt.

Something New

It's been a while since I've written. The Christmas/New Year's holidays are done. The Cowboys will once again be without a Superbowl championship. I'm sitting on my sofa with my wife sleeping next to me. I'm about to watch the Eagles play the Vikings. I'm not really interested in the game, but at least it's football.

As we enter the beginning of a new year I pause for a moment to consider this opportunity for newness and change. I find that I talk a lot about what I want to do and don't spend much time doing it. When it comes time to actually do things I want to do, I tend to find something infinitely less interesting that takes decidedly less energy and thought to accomplish.

This summer I have the opportunity to take two overseas trips during the month of June. A group that I go to youth camp with is taking a trip to Haiti to build a school. Amanda and I plan to go with them. Recently, however, we've also been invited to go to Greece and lead and camp/retreat for IMB missionaries and their children. I'm excited about both of these opportunities but I also realize that it's going to cost quite a bit to be able to do both. We're talking between $6000-$7000 for both Amanda and myself.

Am I cautious because I know that I can't possibly do everything I want to do, or am I hesitant because it's going to be hard to raise the money to go? I don't know. I want to take every opportunity because I want to be available, but I also want to have wisdom and make good decisions.

Any thoughts/money would be welcome at this juncture.