New Year's Revolution

As we come into a new year, I like most, are thinking about my goals for the next year. However, I want to make goals that aren't so much 'new' as they are a return to doing things right that may have been overlooked in the past. Things like running. Concepts like reading more of the Bible, and letting the Bible read through me. Giving more. Things like that.
One of my goals is to continue to write. I was inspired by Mark Batterson in his latest prose, Primal, where he shares about "taking every thought captive" and what that means to him. He explains how it does capture the idea that historically we would hold: namely, that we are to take any sinful thought and put it in the pokey, and not dwell on it. But with a sense of revelation, Batterson also shares that for him, this verse has come to mean something in the realm of creativity. When a 'God-thought' comes, we must capture it.

"But whenever or however a God idea is conceived in your mind, you need to take it captive and make it obedient to Christ. God ideas are like melting snowflakes. They are delicate things of beauty, but they have short shelf lives." (Primal, pg. 119)

One God thought that I am capturing here in this blog is an idea that I hope takes hold in all of church culture. I want to coin a term for our culture: "Our Rugged American Anti-Individualism. " There. Now, you may have heard of the phrase "rugged American individualism", and this concept is in large part a foundational value of our country. It had value in breaking free from the tyranny of England, and their heavy handed rule. Perhaps this self-reliance has become the undoing of us now.
God lives, exists in community himself. Jesus lived with 12 men, and did not afford himself the luxury of a private room in the cities he visited. Jesus' prayer was that we would be one; one unit, not a group of a bunch of individual "ones". The early church as seen in Acts was very communal, very tied to one another. We must return to this understanding, and we must begin to apply ourselves to the truth contained in this. To do Christianity alone isn't optional, it's forbidden. God made us to depend on one another.
I realize that there may be some great hurts in our lives from being so dependent on others, and being so vulnerable to people, but this is the Jesus way. Even in the Garden, God sees that it isn't good for man to be alone. In the church, we must develop a deep sense of dependency on one another. It must become culture to us. It must become a strong, visible, tangible part of our faith, and it must be rugged, unable to be sifted out of the fabric of our lives. We must value our rugged American anit-individualism as a counter-cultural prophetic lifestyle.
So for my new year's resolution, I determine to capture God thoughts, to live them out, and to do so in the context of deep immersion in the community of God, the Church.

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Mark Batterson's new book, Primal, is outstanding.

As most college kids, I was very into music and found great meaning and solace in it. During one descriptive conversation with a fellow student regarding the power of music and why it held such sway on our young souls, I found myself in an epiphany regarding the source of such force: "Music has the ability to put words which are tangible entities, around a feeling, which is in-tangible. Music puts flesh on the soul of a thought or feeling, that otherwise can't be expressed". Then I ate my $.59 bean burritto from Taco Bell.
Primal has had the same effect on me. It has managed to gather some of the thoughts, feelings, musings, and prayers I have emoted toward the church and christianity at large and put them into a tangible, logical, inspiring format.

"When all of the rules and regulations, all of the traditions and institutions, all of the liturgies and methodologies are peeled back, what's left is the Great Commandment It is Christianity in its most primal form." (pg 5) Agreed.

One of the concerns that I see in friends, and in congregants, is the lack of a LOVE of God in their lives that translates to willing obedience. Many of them have a belief in God, and a reverence for him, but they have lost the soul of their faith: a primal love for the person of God. Primal addresses that in four sections. These four sections are straight from the response Jesus gives to the lawyer-Pharisee, who was trying to test Jesus, recorded in Matthew 22. Jesus tells him, and all of human history that the greatest commandment is to LOVE the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And thus, an outline for a book's take on that passage.

Batterson is easy to read, and has poignant stories, quotes and illustrations that are effectively concise. It's only 174 pages long, which show discipline, as Batterson could have elaborated in many places. He hits strong with a call back to the place of faith that is filled with wonderment: "In fact, it's our capacity for wonder that determines the size of our soul." (pg 57) He starts with the heart, and then moves to the soul, followed with how we can love God with all our mind, and ends with our strength. His call involves many well known biblical disciplines, but they find great life and freshness, if you will, when placed in the context of a love-passion relationship to Jesus, as is the point of this book. For instance, a whole chapter on giving and tithing? Chapter 3 no less? And you feel as though he is right, that you should give more, and consequently love Him more. Wonderful treatment of such primal, essential issues of our grand Faith in Christ.
If you received a Barnes & Noble or Amazon gift card for Christmas, this should be a first choice for you to read in 2010.

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Don't kill the Pizza Delivery guy

This is kind of a free-flowing devotional thought from Acts 7-8. To get this, you need to read these chapters about the young man named Stephen.
Okay, are you done with that? Go ahead and continue here...

I love that Stephen was a Spirit filled food distribution guy.

But his message to the Jews was to show that throughout the history of God's people, they rejected God's ways in favor of their own. They killed the prophets, rejected Moses, sold Joseph, and crucified Christ. And now, they are about to murder Stephen for doing miracles.
The funny thing is that Stephen's message to them is about rejecting the leaders that God has sent them, and that ultimately they reject the Holy Spirit. He says we have Heathen-Hearts, which to me is heart bent on doing my own thing, pleasing myself. The irony of Stephen's sermon, his last Opus, is addressed to a group of religious, powerless leaders who are from a group called the Synagogue of Freed Slaves.
We all want our freedom, but our Heathen Hearts tend to want freedom from leadership, God-sent leadership, and from leaders who call us to the reality of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. We will kill those voices, in the name of "freedom", in order to maintain our maintainable sense of religious duty, our own controllable religion.
Jesus reveals himself to Stephen from the place of honor in Heaven, and Stephen get's the honor of seeing Jesus standing, Himself in a place of submitted authority to the Father (at His right Hand).

Stephen's life speaks of being Spirit empowered in any position or title life gives us. God can use the common person to do extraordinary things.
Stephen's life message also speaks to the power of being submitted to the authority in his own life, from the church. Why do we buck at this so much? It's what gave him his power to do miracles.
And Stephen's life is truly speaking to us about the nature of what freedom really is--the ability to obey God, and the leadership he sends us.

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Driving with Abandon

Luke 18:15 One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him.
16 Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.

I am trying to extend the days of my little girl staying my little girl. My boys have grown so fast, and somehow I believe that I have the power to stop the growth process for my girl. Just to keep her enthralled with me, the man in her life, the wonderful daddy that she looks up to. Though it's in vain, I am still cherishing all the little wonderful moments that make her special to me.

One of these moments I'll never forget happened in my green Honda Civic. Trying to be a good neighbor, I slow way down to the speed limit when I enter my Cul De Sac. It's habit now, and I can wave to the folks I pray for as I drive in. One of these times coming home with my princess as the co-pilot, she asked if she could drive. With big eyes, full of anticipation and wonder, she had me. "Sure, but I will have to help", I replied.

I scooted my seat all the way back and placed her in front of me. I remember smiling a bit, noticing how proportionately huge the steering wheel was in comparison to her small frame. She was so full of joy, the sheer joy of handling a big car, with the safety of her (amazing) father right behind her. I asked her later why that was so fun for her and she said, "because you do it, daddy".

Part of the joy for fathers is to see their children love to do what they do. They should have a healthy sense of wonder and ambition to be like their parents. I believe God wants us to have this simple sense of wonderment and joy at the prospect of being able to "take the wheel" and become busy "doing my Father's business". Jesus healed people, loved the sinner, included the outsider, and sacrificially gave to people in need. Our joy is to do the same.

In fact, we can't come into his kingdom without this kind of joyful, run-up-to-Jesus kind of love. All He has is ours, and belongs to us. Although the joy is ours to do what we see Him do, the Father gets great joy out of seeing his children doing the things that belong to us.

Jesus, keep me childlike in my faith, joy and love!

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When Doubt & Honesty Build Faith

Our culture wants it all.

I know that when the new iPhone 3Gs came out, suddenly my regular old pitiful 3G seemed slow and out of date. Which is funny, because my kids would die to have my phone. But I want more, or should I say, I want it all. I tend to be this way in other ways as well.
For instance, when I am going to a movie theater. Now before I throw my selfishness out in plain view, let me contrast that with my friend Phil's approach to movies. Phil, a godly man, when he hears that I want "to watch a movie", will offer me the option of one of his downloaded movies from his computer, and excitedly tell me that its free! Whereas, when I think of going to watch a movie, I am thinking of Cinetopia (an all digital, leather recliner seat, waiter-take-my-order theater, with a butter bar), I am thinking opening night, and I am thinking of the full bucket of perfectly seasoned and buttered tub of corn; all while paying full price to make the most of the experience. I want it all.
Now I realize that this is a basic selfish response. However, when their are options out there, or when you have already had an experience one way or another with a part of life, you can tend to want to match or one-up that experience the next time. And some of this is good. We should want more in our relationship with God for example, and never live on the times of the past.

Not only do we seem to want to have all the latest things, but we as a culture also want more out of our leaders. I find myself politically torn between complete disinterest and unashamed bias at different times. When I am disengaged, it is because another public servant has fallen morally (and to add salt to the wound, more of these have been exposed from the party I grew up "believing in", then from the "other side"). And when I am passionately interested is when I feel that someone rings true, in their speeches, conduct, record and character. I can track with those people, especially when they seem to go against the grain, and when they tend to blur the traditional party lines. That is when I am engaged, interested; when the established systems are challenged and chided in the public arena. Those people seem to be who I think can actually bring a change. I want that from a leader. To quote an old Switchfoot lyric, "We want more than this world's got to offer, We want more than this world's got to offer, We want more than the wars of our fathers..."

So something struck me about a passage out of Mark 15 today along these lines.

³³ At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. ³⁴ Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”^f]">[f]

³⁵ Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. ³⁶ One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. “Wait!” he said. “Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down!”

³⁷ Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last. ³⁸ And the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

³⁹ When the Roman officer who stood facing him^h]"> saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

The part regarding the Roman officer gets me. Here, his battalion is assigned to take Jesus from the court, all the way to the cross. They beat him, mock him, crucify him. But this one guy, a Roman officer who was posted right in front of Jesus, sees a person dying who blurred the lines of the existing political parties. This Roman officer probably wanted all life could give him, like I do. He probably enjoyed many of the finer things in life, and was looking for a bit more than what he had experienced. And then he hears Jesus' last words, which seem like despair and failure and desperation all wrapped in one. "My God, why have you abandoned Me?".

Something about Jesus' life; something about how He did and didn't respond to his accusers; something about the visceral, emotional, and honest cry from Jesus captured this worldly-wise Romans attention. This guy actually believes in Christ, at the moment when the disciples had all fled away in hiding. Jesus' honesty and his fearlessness of the moment captured his heart.

Maybe we can learn from this.

People are expecting more from their leaders today. There is competition for our time today. podcasting, and internet access have made it easy for truth-seekers to find leadership. Because of all those options, some local church sermons are boring in comparison. Leaders with character flaws are less attractive. Our options have raised the bar for all church leaders today. People are comparing us, our character, our teaching, our life to those around the world. And they are following those who ring true, not just the ones who promise good times and cost-free faith. Jesus led with hope and with honesty. For us to lead well today, we must let Jesus' character permeate all we do and all we say. And the Romans will be saved.

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Jesus Observations Pt 2: Believing is the Only Thing

Jesus.

Some people won't believe no matter what. I might be prone to believe, however. As a kid I was pretty gullible, especially when uncle Jerry was doing magic tricks. I loved those, and wanted to believe so bad that he could pound that quarter through my grandpa's table. But even when he did the trick a third and fourth time, I would begin to doubt that he had super-powers. I don't know why. I want to believe.

What if all we had to do to please God was one thing? What would that be? Writing the rules of the universe, I would require someone to save a life--that would do it for me; if I were God. Or maybe if we took care of two people worse off than us in the world. That would seem to do a lot of good, actually. But what would God want for us to do for Him, and to get to Him?

In John 6, we get a clear answer.

They replied, "We want to perform God's works, too. What should we do?"
Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent."

Whoa, way to simple. Okay, we can do that. Or can we?

Believing in Jesus seems so hard for the folks in John 6. First off, Jesus secretly escapes from a crowd of thousands and no one can find him, even if they yelled "Ollie, Ollie! Ox in free!" Then Jesus shows up on the water mysteriously at night. I would have pooed. They get him in the boat and then they are instantly across the lake. The next day, the folks notice that Jesus is gone, and they want their free 100+ points Chalupas again. But they note that he is on the other side of the lake, but miss the miracle in that. This is after the BIG miracle the day before, where Jesus, in some kind of magical sea-monkey-like expansion trick, makes one lunch feed a whole town. Everyone knew about that one. That's exactly why they were chasing him across the lake. And also why they wanted to make him king immediately.

So here's what I caught from this: Jesus does some miracles out of compassion for the people, and to teach his disciples. But in that, some people still didn't believe. Do we really just want to believe if we get our personal wish list met? Maybe.

Jesus goes on to get ticked off at the folks in this chapter. You can read it in the text, he gets mad at the disciples too, and some of them leave. But his point here is that we need to believe in who Jesus was saying he was. I believe it was in Brennan Manning's book, The Furious Longing of God, where I got this concept: that faith produces miracles, but miracles don't always produce faith. True. Jesus wants us to believe in Him as God. To do that, would require some changes in our lives.

Obedience is the expression of faith. So teaches Bill Johnson, of Bethel, in Redding, California. To really believe Jesus, is to obey what he teaches. That's where it gets difficult, honestly. I have chosen in my life to believe in Jesus, & to believe Jesus (both are crucial, but that would make this entry too long to develop). In that, I accept that his words are life, and that his words are spirit and produce life in me. My belief also means that I accept that Jesus is the only one who ever saw God the Father, and that he claimed exclusively to be the Savior for the world. That is so narrow, so limiting in today's mindset. But that is what Jesus said. I'm either following a crazy Jewish person, or I am following God.

Jesus by the way, can pound Himself through doors (and tables too, I bet) when He wants to.

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Jesus Observations Pt 1. Unafraid of Criticism

I am on a passionate pursuit of the person of Jesus right now. Really, I'm fascinated by him. In re-reading the Gospel accounts, I find him to be such a rich character, such a majestic man, and he has more complexity than the "americanized" paintings we have seen of him. His words are life, literally, and they are obviously from the Father, and Jesus didn't change his mission or his words based on peoples' biases. He responded so differently than I would have or you may have. And the miracles: how he touches and changes people really shows us the love that God has in his heart for us, through Jesus. I love this man.

Observations about Jesus, Part 1:

John Chapter 5.

Here Jesus heals a guy, about my age, who has sat near healing his whole life. Jesus makes him well and then the world turns against him. First, the Pharisees can't believe that he would say to the cripple "pick up your bed and walk", on the Sabbath. But to add gas to their fire, they find out that Jesus actually HEALED the guy on the Sabbath. This was bad. They now plot to kill Jesus.

What strikes me about this episode, and all of chapter 5 of John, is that Jesus never backs down from who He is or what his mission is. Later in the Gospels, people want him to plainly admit who he is, and Jesus veils it to them, not answering directly to his critics. But here, in Chapter 5, very early on in his ministry, Jesus come out with it. He makes radical claims, does radical things, and says clearly who He is, why He came, and where He came from.

It is so clear in fact, that soon everyone wants to leave him, except his closest disciples. But Jesus detects that they may want to leave as well, when they complained, "Master, these are hard things you are saying. Who could stand to hear this?".

All this because Jesus heals a guy.

I just watched a recommended youtube video called Disneyland Revival. In it, this un-named couple goes to Disneyland with a camcorder, and documents some real live healings that happen to teenagers there that day. And then, more kids get healed! They keep bringing their friends around for prayer, too. (Which seems pretty normal to me.) Some of them pray to follow Jesus with their lives, others get touched with the power of the Holy Spirit in a manifest way. God's presence is so strong that one girl keeps saying, "holy s^*t" over and over again, not knowing how to describe what she is feeling.

The couple praying for the teens are full of joy, and laughing and pointing everyone to Jesus. "Jesus is healing you!", they declare. They talked to them about how great God is and how much He loves them, and that's why He is healing them. Wow. Does God really love sinners that much? Would He heal them right there, in Disneyland, while they are swearing? I think that is exactly what He would do.

And I think, that He would go on to say out loud, in the Magic Kingdom, un-ashamedly declare that the Kingdom of God is near, no matter what anyone said.

What anyone else said? Oh yeah, I almost forgot. People said stuff about this couple praying for teens at Disneyland. Youtube's comments were along these lines:

* These are fringe religious wackos

* Why would they invade teens' space, when they came to enjoy Disneyland?

* Where are the parents of these kids?

* The couple is not of God, they are from a cult, using mind manipulation techniques

* Why didn't people get out of wheelchairs then? Why don't limbs grow out?

These comments make me mad.

But they said that junk to Jesus. But He didn't shrink back. He says things like:

* If you believe in me and who I am, you will live forever

* (to the critics, who were the church leaders of the day) You are already judged, and not from God

* God is my Father. (think about that. If someone said that today, we would have them committed.)

* I have been given power to judge the whole world (ouch)

* If you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will die. (this statement is weird.)

Jesus drew the line in the sand, and did what his Father told him to do. And where I would have backed down and tried to explain it all in a culturally relevant manner, Jesus says things that make it even harder to follow him if you already had issue with him. And so it is for the "mystery healers" at Disneyland. And may it be so for me. May I be bold enough to obey God, love people like Jesus did, perform miracles in His name, and declare exactly who I am in God.

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To Structure or not to Structure, that is the question

Church is a passion for me. I hope that's for the right reasons; I mean the way I read scripture it seems as though it's super important to Christ, to God. So I hope that my passions are for what He is passionate about in the church. For instance, I don't think God cares what color the carpet is, or if we even have carpet. But I know that He is passionate about two elements in the church, and these are not just the recipients of His passion but the essence of the church as well. Those two things being: our relating to Him, and our relating to others. I am, and want to stay, passionate about those parts of church.

Some wonderful lady sat by me at a wedding the other day, whom I have known previously, as she and her family had attended our church for a number of years. They had done some ministry in their life, and now are a part of another church. Although, I don't think they refer to it as a church, per se'. For them it's a gathering, a fellowship, a converging of like-minded believers who have shed the "weight" of the traditional church, and are living out their faith together in a more "organic" fashion.

Her comment to me on this particular sunny and breezy Sunday afternoon, at the wedding, was that she was "Quite refreshed." They had a writer (of some top selling christian books) come to visit them and he shared with them. He told them that what it is all really about is the true connections that you have with people that you really gel with. You know, the people you really feel a bond with. That's church. That's how Christ wants it. Anything else is built on a structure, and inherently, you are forced to invited people unnaturally to the structured organized thing, and it's not based on relationship as a foundation. "I just really like that kind of language," she mused, sincerely "when speaking about these kinds of things".

"Uh-huh," I said, not sure how to take it all right there in the middle of ties, dresses and hairspray. But I have reflected on this, and am ready to share my feelings now.

1. First, I like the aspect of the church being built on relationships. This part is positive. And honestly, you do have to see eye to eye on some level if you are going to "have" church together.

2. Next, I tried to be objective and think about what the Bible actually teaches about church. You know, I'm sure it would be somewhat if not a whole lot different today if we were to just start over and model it from the ground up. This is the beauty of young eyes and young visionaries who plant churches and do ministry with faith in God, and little else. But her statements don't echo much of what I recall the Bible teaching about the church. I like the Bible's language when speaking about these kinds of things.

3. Structure is really what the Bible speaks of, when it speaks of church. It's all the other stuff we get wrong, like the details, the dogmas and the delineations. But Jesus was pretty structured from what I see. He sends them out in pairs (no exceptions). They didn't pick their partner and best friend for this--Jesus picked the pairs for them, even when it was to put a Zealot with a Tax Collector. He gave structure when He told them that He'd show up even in the smallest meetings, as long as a few would gather in his name. He gave structured guidelines on disciplining one their own who had sinned and not been repentive. And He names Peter as the head of the thing for when He's gone.

And surely I don't have to go into the epistles to show that they are primarily about the structure. "when you gather..." / "if one of you restores a sinner..." / "An elder should have these qualifications..." / "therefore, if you have disputes, appoint judges..." / "don't forsake the assembling of yourselves...". Etcetera.

4. Some people are attracted to this new-ish version of church that seems to be free from the restraints and organizational restrictions and clutter that I seem to belong to. And it is good to try new things, mix it up a bit: like speaking first, then worship-Whoah! That would be crazy. Or just have a night to pray without a sermon. Okay, fine, I actually like thinking outside the box, but not the "box" that God sets up. Some of the structure keeps the nice looking summer hut from caving in during the rainy season. So innovate yes, eradicate, no.

5. It is always interesting to me that people who jump out of the "traditional" church end up having some of the same structures anyways. They meet at a location, usually they have a start time, and they usually do it on the same night of the week each week. Sounds organizational. They have some sort of worship, perhaps more artsy, but often involving music. Weird, I do that. And then someone shares. I like preaching, they like sharing, but really isn't this teaching the Bible and doesn't that make you kind of institutional? Even if you sit on a couch when you share?

6. Last comment is that I am okay with what they do if God is in it, but my fear is that if it's all comfortable and relational, how do they propose to obey the great commission? I'm sure they have a way, and I am ignorant, in that I haven't been to the Barn to see a service yet, but sometimes I feel an urgency to share Christ with the world. If they do, do they bring that person to their "gathering"? Who sends others out for missions, church planting, and ministry? Who approves ministry? If someone is in charge of making those decisions, does that border on control?

A well structured House of God will fail rarely. A loosely structured House may last only up to 18 months (direct quote from Frank Viola, who states that his vision of organic house gatherings don't last beyond this time frame). I want to see the Kingdom come. I want to have long term relationships. I want to minister with like-minded people, but also be forced to stick it out with some stinkers. I like the "multi-faceted wisdom of God" that is displayed when the differences amongst us is put aside as we gather around Christ as His church.

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:18-22 (ESV)

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My Problem with Pentecost

This is a long one, but worth the read.

Acts 2 has made my life what it is. I remember being fourteen years old and walking into a youth group of seventy-five or so teens with their hands all in the air, singing with their eyes tightly closed, as though they were having visions. Whoa! What is this?! I thought. The presence of God was strong in that room, and since I grew up born again, I recognized that this dynamic was right; it was God. Pastor Wendell, Pastor Bob, Pastor Rick, and Pastor Wayman were all up front, leading our charge into the presence of God. This was so different from the sing-a-long and chitchat youth ministries I had been to previously. I was changed for life.

Pentecost

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit that forever launched, changed, and empowered those men and women of God in the upper prayer room during the festival season in Jerusalem has continued to change, empower, and launch people to this day. I remember hearing a passionate Pentecostal preacher speak on this, and one statement made me think twice about this great day in church history. He said that when God moves in a dynamic way like he did in Acts 2, no one has to explain it. God can and will do the explaining. He went on to infer that if some folks didn't get the move of God, their hearts may be hard to the things of God, so any explanation would be futile. He quoted Acts 2:8 to show that the event itself was sufficient explanation: "And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?" Why was it sufficient? Because they all heard it in their own language.

But I went on to read verse 12: "And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, 'What does this mean?" Some blamed the bottle for the craziness. But Peter, being filled with the Spirit, did what I perceive to be a very cultural and spiritual act: he explained it. Peter went back to the Scriptures and told what has happened. He also used this extraordinary event as a means to preach about the Messiah-ship of Christ. At this point the crowd begged to know what they ought to do, and revival began.

I do not have a problem with bringing Pentecost to our churches toady. But I do take issue with a mindset that says that we can stay in church and experience the presence, renewal, or the moving of the Spirit without offering this to the community we live in with some relevant explanation. Any Holy Spirit activity has to point people to Jesus. I have found that our greatest church altar calls are timed when we all can sense the manifest presence of God, and then the Gospel is preached in the middle of that. When God is on the move, we stop to explain what He is doing, and people get saved. Those are great times.

Recently, a church that I have some loose relational ties with, changed fellowships to reflect their change of position on this issue. Embracing wild manifestations, they desire to be in "the Throne room" and be with their Father (and act like children). They have made statements that indicate that they are truly unconcerned with whether their church grows or whether visitors feel embraced, or if the unbeliever that walks in can understand anything that is going on in this new, wildly charismatic gathering. And sure enough, two things have happened: first, their numbers have gone down, and evangelism is all but done. Second, charismatic “experience seekers” are the only people drawn to the church. They come to “swim in glory,” if you will. So what about the community of unbelievers that don't understand what is going on it there? What about presenting a clear story and testimony of the grace and love of Jesus and what He has done for us? Wasn't the outpouring really for the onlookers in Acts, anyway? It was in their language, and it was explained in their context, with their starting points of understanding. In Acts, the church grew, and others were drawn into experience Jesus via the Holy Spirit.

My mom (many of you know this amazing woman of God) received her own new Mac computer from my dad, both as a gift and as a means for my father to not have his files inexplicably erased anymore. I am a Mac guy, so I rejoiced with her. That is, until she began to consult me as her personal Genius Bar representative. One event is lodged in my memory from this era. One night I got a call from my mother (who lives nearly an hour away). She just wanted to add a picture to an email that she hoped to send, but she just couldn't quite figure it out on her own. For starters, she couldn't find the picture she wanted on her computer. "Mom, you need to open a new finder window." After a few “what's that?” moments, I had to try to describe what the hard drive icon looked like, and where it was on her desktop. I found out soon that she was looking on her literal desktop, the one the computer is sitting on, for this mysterious icon that I swore to her was there in the upper right hand corner. Frustration occurred for both parties. We have since had healing.

Can you see in this story a picture of our generation and our churches? We can see so clearly what the lost need to do, but what is so natural, ingrained, and easy for us is not clear to them. We may have to go over to their homes, look at their computer screen, use their language, and show it to them at their starting point of understanding. When we do that, we can convert the whole world to Mac's. (Wait, what am I writing about today? Sorry.)

Starting Points

We are challenged today with reaching a generation of non-believers—but not just first generation non-believers. As a college pastor, I deal with college-age kids who haven't ever been in church. Ever. And their parents never went to church. Ever. They don't own a Bible, a tie, and they don't put a roast in the oven for the after-service meal. What are their starting points?

I have heard is said that "The first word of the kingdom is Repent." That is true. Jesus told followers to repent, and Peter told the crowd that day to repent, and then be baptized. This may be the first word for us, but it may not be for our neighbors today. I often start my personal witnessing with a word of knowledge carefully stated in language they can understand. I start with the existence of a God that knows them, loves them, and wants a relationship with them. Oh, I get to the repentance part, but if they don't believe that there is a God—or that Christ was real—how are they going to want to repent? Perhaps Hebrews 11:6 is a closer starting point for today: "Anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who seek Him." Faith starts at these two points: believing He exists and believing He cares. Surely we all know that from this corner on the life-map, His kindness will lead us to repentance.

For my own story, I had a working knowledge of God, so that atmosphere in the youth meeting I attended at fourteen had an essence of familiarity to it. I recognized God there. My friend Greg who came with me that night did not perceive what I was sensing, and the ride home was filled with questions from his racing thoughts. I want to introduce my "Gregs" to Jesus, so they can appreciate His Spirit.

Passover

Currently my home, or slice of paradise as I like to call it, sits at the end of a cul-de-sac. We live in one of thirty-eight homes in our development. When we moved into our house eight years ago, it was brand new. There was excitement among all the new neighbors for our new houses. But some of the nice houses were not nice homes. Seven houses went up for sale in under sixteen months due to divorces or separations in the homes. We decided to take action. As a result, five families have come to visit our church from our own invitations over the years and something like fifteen of the teenagers in our neighborhood have come to youth group or camp with us because of our boys' invites. We really care about these folks and have a vested interest in seeing them come to a place of faith in Christ.

Let me describe some of these middle-America neighbors of mine. One mother is an alcoholic but tries to hide it. Our next-door neighbors are living together, with four kids. One of my daughter’s eight-year-old friends stays the night often and really likes it when I come in and say prayers with her and Abbi. At her last sleepover, she told me about how when she stays the night with her auntie, she does some spells, rubs her hands with crystals, and tells her what her aura is looking like. She told me this was right after my world-changing good night prayer! Another man, a father of three, was accused last year of being a child molester, which he denies. That's my neighborhood. You wouldn't know the messed up lives were there when driving through, but they are. I cry over them when I think about them. I have prayed for and loved these people for a long time now. I can only imagine how much the Lord loves and misses them.

To them, Pentecost is so far away, so distant; it isn't their starting point. They need to understand Passover before they understand Pentecost. As a pastor in our local church, my passion is to explain it to them. I want them to go through presbytery, to have the blessing of the manifest presence during worship. I want them to feel safe with the covering of multiplicity of elders, and to see a functioning local church. I want them to see the power of theology rooted in covenant, and I want them to pray in a heavenly language that changes, releases, and empowers them. But honestly, what I have as a vision for a starting point is that they come to know Jesus.

Focus

I recognize that our fellowship is first for pastors and leaders, so those topics are not just important, but critical for the longevity of ministry. I am deeply rooted in as a local church guy. And I believe everyone should and can be baptized in the Spirit. This is who I am. I take those foundation stones of our movement as a presupposition now. I do not want in any way to abandon my roots. However, I do want to take all of that benefit and strategize what we preach, how we market, what we pray for, and why we gather. I don't want to sit in my office during the week and enjoy church on the weekend, full of Holy Spirit activity, and leave out the Missio Dei. I want all those values to launch me into the lives of people who are lost, separated from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to all of these wonderful promises. I believe that Peter preached Jesus at Pentecost. We must use Pentecost to preach Jesus. Get ready for a bold saying: I can say that at this point I don't really care if my neighbor ever speaks in tongues. I just want to see him in Heaven. Now, please know that I want him to experience glossolalia, some day. But my efforts and my strategies for our church are going to be geared toward reaching an increasingly godless culture, not on how we can have more manifestations.

Here are a few practical ideas we have put to practice in our church.

1. We have had our small groups work together to adopt whole apartment complexes in need of ministry. We take church to them, instead of just inviting them to come to us for outreach services.

2. We have routine services that are geared to the preaching of the Gospel. We let our people know in advance that this is coming up so that we can pray and they can plan on inviting friends.

3. As the Spirit leads, we have spontaneous altar calls during services.

4. Pastor Bob's preaching is geared toward strengthening the believer for the purpose of the Gospel. People want to be equipped to know what to say and what the Bible says.

5. We read about churches that are successful in evangelism. We listen to podcasts of pastors that are having good fruit in this arena. Many are in MFI, and some are not, but we glean what will work within our values and try to add their innovations to our mix.

6. We pray for people by name. Before a special outreach Sunday, we will gather the names of real people that are going to be invited to church and pray for these who are heirs of salvation.

(This article was originally written for MFI leaders' quarterly)

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Jon & Kate, Minus Two

Our weekends are crazy. Crazier than yours, I'm sure. In fact I'll challenge you to a busyness-duel anytime. Here was my 48 hours: This weekend our oldest child had a baseball tournament, and a basketball camp. Our middle child had two All-Star scrimmages. I had men's prayer breakfast, three weekend church services, laundry help, yard work, a date with my youngest (to Krispy Kreme). Our family stops one night to watch Marly and Me as a family. Somewhere in the mix, our personal friends called in a panic and asked if their 16 year old son could stay at our house for the weekend, since they were out of town, and the pre-arranged billet canceled on Friday. And all of this happened on Father's day weekend, which for us began at around 3pm. Meanwhile, I have two guy friends texting me about the demise of their marriages, and looking for some support. In addition, Sunday was our 18 year wedding anniversary, which we postponed celebrating till Monday, our day off together, since Sunday was church, Father's day, and sports. I slept somewhere in there, too.

Now it's Monday evening and Lisa and I just watched Jon & Kate's big announcement. In case you are unaware, try opening up your Facebook once in awhile, or watch the entertainment portion of the evening news anywhere, and you'll hear about it. The basic story of this reality show is around this couple, Jon and Kate, who at one time were happily married with twins. Then they got pregnant again, with sextuplets! That's six, for those of you from Cougar. So for the last few years, cameras have been in their lives, following their story and watching the chaos and joy unfold. They have become the darlings of family proponents and Christians alike, as they have held to their Christian roots and made church appearances.

But tonight, as we were celebrating 18 years, these two announce that they filed for divorce after 10 years.

I'm sad for them, but mostly for the kids. Jon, who will be referred to as the Idiot from here onward, said some dumb things on the show. The Idiot said he was doing this to be true, and to do what's best for him and the kids. Hey Idiot, your kids will for the rest of their lives say and feel that the truest thing and best thing for them would have been if you would have worked it out and stayed married to mom. He felt overwhelmed.

I get the overwhelmed thing, but I never have had a thought that I should walk away. I don't get my way all the time, but that's what love is: giving and doing what is best for the other person. I would love to see a reality show scene where the one on one interview goes something like this: "Yeah, well, I guess I just have to do what's best for her. I guess I had my teen years to find myself, so I don't have to go looking for it now. I took a vow, so I'll just have to be true to that."

I heard two great lines in the midst of this last crazy weekend that really will stay with me on into the future. The first was from Pastor Bob during his message to Fathers. "Sometimes as men, it just doesn't matter what you feel. You have a duty to do." Amen. The second nugget of relationship gold came in the hour-and-a-half of calm when we were watching Marly and Me, when they were discussing the reason for the longevity of their relationship. "Mend it. Don't end it." Amen, again.

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Experience and Truth in the "None Zone"

Having coffee with college kids at Tully's is one of the great joys of my daily work routine. I can down my daily allowance of caffeine (generally in a double tall, sugar-free vanilla latte) and enjoy a meaningful conversation centered around following Jesus. I'm sure this is what Jesus meant by discipleship. Well I had one of those moments yesterday with a young man who just got kicked out of his parents' house 3 weeks ago. He is living with his drug and alcohol consuming brother who is not a follower of Christ, although the young man I talked with is a believer. Believer is used intentionally because he would not say he is a follower right now. So here is how the conversation went...

When asked about how his life is going in relationship to his personal walk with God, I heard some tell-tale signs that mark many of his generation. "Well I haven't been to church in awhile". "I have a hard time with church as an organization". And, "I believe in God/Jesus and know I should be going to church, but I honestly don't like people when they are in that setting [church setting]". In one of my final inquiries, I asked him this probing question--"What is the reason or purpose we gather for church?". After a long pause, this young man says, "It's for us primarily. You know, to bolster our beliefs and reinforce that stuff." Interesting. We will come back to this in a moment.

Neue Ministries sends out a quarterly box of resources geared toward college age ministry leaders, and included is their 'book-a-zine', packed with articles that relate to my ministry niche. One article was reprinted from a Chicago based publication The Christian Century, which identifies the Northwest as the "None Zone". In the last U.S. Census the national average for responders who marked "none" in the field requesting info on their religious identity was 14 percent. But lucky us, in the Great Northwest the percentage is 25. In an interesting caveat in the article we are told to not be too concerned because Northwesterners are "more likely to seek individualized experiences with God outside the structure of organized religion." Well that's reassuring.

What is the purpose of gathering for church in an organized manner? Is it more important to have a personal experience with God, than to be attached to a formal organization? Is church for us anyways-so if we don't need it right now we can go without? These are the questions in the None Zone. People do sincerely wrestle with these questions, and though they may be the wrong questions in my opinion, these are the questions that are relevant and that we must answer today, if we hope to see folks established in the truth of all that God wants for them. So a couple of thoughts...

1. Church is for God. Ephiphany for me, but when the light bulb moment hit, it was clear. We don't gather for church to bolster our like-mindedness or to strengthen the faithful, although that is clearly an effect. We don't gather for church to be primarily a place to preach the Gospel. In fact, that is the job for us as the church individually, you and me, our job to preach the Gospel, in and out of church. Although this is often an effect of our services. No--we gather to glorify God, and to worship him. We exist for his pleasure, and church attendance is for his pleasure first; and we may be blessed in the experience as a by product. The opening of The Purpose Driven Life gets this right: "It's not about you". To get this right sets up a whole thread of right thinking.

2. Truth and Experience partner. Truth is the Senior Partner. Charlie Peacock wrote about this in a brilliant song, Experience, where he talks about the two:

We can only possess what we experience

We can only possess what we experience
Truth to be understood must be lived
We can only possess what we experience

There is a difference, a qualitative difference
Between what I know as a fact, and what I know as truth
It stands as a great divide to separate by thinking
From when I'm thinking foolishly and when I've understood

The facts of theology can be altogether cold
Though true in every way they alone can't change me
Truth is creative, transforming and alive
it's truth that keeps me humble, saved and set free

I like the emphasis on truth must be lived out. Experience will validate God's truth. Truth will measure the validity of our experience. In all of this however, I have come to believe that God's Word, his Truth, will be proved right and thus it trumps my present understanding and my present level of experience. In relationship to church, God has truth for us. He calls us his body, and he calls us to gather, to love one another, to use our gifts to encourage and serve one another, and to not forsake the routine assembling of ourselves for Him.

3. The desire of God is for us to be together. Ephesians 2 speaks of the Jews and Gentiles coming together in one family. It speaks of God, in Christ, gathering those who are near and far to him. In Christ, God reconciles all things to Himself. There is a "together" in the heart of God. Even if we don't like people, or church people, or even churchy people, God still is trying to gather us together. Ephesians 3 speaks of the purpose of God in connection with this gathering of the church, and Paul writes "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms". It's the "mani-fold", the blending of all of us in unity as His body that has authority in the earth, over darkness.

To conclude, may I recommend reading Ephesians 2 and 3 in light of the topic. Also, see Glenn Packiam's insightful blog entitled, In Defense of the Institutional Church. You can find that here.

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Secondhand Jesus

So here is a refreshing resource, the second book by theMILL pastor and worship pastor, Glenn Packiam. theMILL is the young adult ministry of the large and influential New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The book is Secondhand Jesus: Trading rumors of God for a firsthand faith.

Starting with what he calls his "what the heck?" moment, he delineates his journey of trading rumors of God for a firsthand faith. Using the story of the Ark of the Covenant as a icon for for the way we engage (or distance ourselves from) the living, vibrant Presence of God in our lives, he constructs four questions meant to confront our possible misunderstandings of the true nature of God. I found the book to be very interesting, personally challenging, engaging, and particularly honest and transparent.

Packiam's "what the heck?" moment occurs when his pastor, the now infamous Ted Haggard, is exposed as having a moral failure while leading not only the church where Packiam is employed, but also the leader and head of the Evangelical Association of America. This moment, and other subsequent events linked to this caused Packiam to stop leaning on his rise to fame based on the popularity of his worship song writing abilities and based on his influence because of the profound influence of the church as a whole, and to begin to go back to his first Love, and get real and vulnerable with the person of Jesus.

Second Hand Jesus is both a journal of these events and Packiam's personal growth while also being a brutally honest look at American Christians as a whole. Some of our problems in the church today are because we have it so easy and have so much available to us. This can cause us to develop a "rumor" of God that makes Him fit into our prosperity mind-frame, instead of causing us to forsake everything stable in our life and pursue the dangerous adventure of personal contact with God.

There is a middle section of the book where Packiam revisits some basic theology. Topics such as God's holiness, and our implausible and impossible ability to please him, and the need for atonement. Yet where in other contexts these topics appear lifeless and rote, here, because of Packiam's experience and resolve to encounter the living God they become topics filled with life. This return to our roots of our faith at their base elements was refreshing and strengthening to me as I read.

"I admit I once lived by rumors of you;

now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!
I'm sorry—forgive me. I'll never do that again, I promise!
I'll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor." (Job 42:5-6, the Message)

A great book for those that desire to shake themselves out of the rut of life and faith. Also, an encouraging prodding for people going through their own "what the heck?" moments. With the economy where it is, this book is quite timely.

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Bringing the Magic Back.

Well, I called it. Seriously.

I thought that the Magic would beat LeBron, I mean the Cavaliers, in the Eastern series. I knew that LeBron was great, maybe one of the greatest individual players ever, but this is basketball which is a team sport. They really should have lost 4 in a row, but LeBron's amazing 3 pointer at the end of game two was amazing. But a superstar is only as good as his team.

I believe that in ministry you have to be on a team to be successful. The one-man superstar shows of days gone by are out, and the Orlando Magic is in.

Now I know that teams need a standout player, both in B-ball and in a church setting, but those standouts must be surrounded and released as well, for the team to win games. For a church, the "role players" must be more than adequate in their talent, and they also must be given freedom to shoot, dribble and pass if you will, when they see the opportunity to help their team. For instance, I appreciate my Pastor letting my speak to the congregation once in awhile, and sometimes I think that I help the team in doing so.

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, is a great book which was recommended to me by my churchbud Patrick Kitley. I had previously read Gladwell's Tipping Point, and so I was looking forward to this read. Outliers is about success and how it is found, how it is fed and how it flourishes (nice alliteration, huh?). In it, Gladwell retells the story of some famous plane crashes from the 1970's to the year 2000, and how the rate of failure was dramatically changed by some small adjustments that made major impact in certain sectors of the world-wide industry. At one point in this chapter, Gladwell shares portions of an interview with an expert in air traffic safety and an interesting team-idea emerges. The expert explains that the idea of having two pilots (a senior pilot and a less experienced co-pilot) is done for the simple reason that it takes two to fly the plane. Now we now that one pilot can certainly fly today's airbuses, but the design of all cockpits is for two pilots. This is so that there is a double-checking of procedures and potential problems and the like. The second man, in the non-leading seat, isn't there incase the lead suddenly passes out. He is there to be doing all that the lead is doing, seeing all the data that he is seeing, and to hear all the commands that the lead is hearing. This is what helps to prevent crashes.

One statistic that is brought out is that more often, when there have been airline crashes, the more experienced pilot was in the lead chair. That's right: the MORE experienced pilot was in the LEAD seat. Less accidents occur when the younger pilot is in the lead chair. And the hypothesis (rooted in fact and studies) is that the older, more experienced airman is unafraid to speak up to the lead chair and to have him look at this or check out that. When the opposite is the case, the younger pilot 'over revers' the older pilot and though he may see some potential danger, he doesn't want to make the experienced pilot feel as though he is missing something.

Interesting. The team is needed in flying a jet full of people. So even though the LeBron James can fly the plane with amazing panache' all by himself, with a cabin load of people following you, nay, counting on you, the team-pilot approach is the better way. Let's bring the Magic back.

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Old men. Young men.

I had a unique opportunity to go to a leadership conference with some younger ministries (mostly my age) and some older ones (mostly twice my age). This really brought some clarity to me and put some vague thoughts into a precise focus. I hope to be able to write about some of those ideas and observations in the writings to follow.

One of my friends noted another author who stated something to the effect that 'it's in the nature of young men to take risks; to go after something with abandon and go whole-heartedly after it. While it's the nature of older men to protect that which they fought for and have won in earlier days. They lean towards protecting their prize, and risk much less in their latter years.' Therein lies an essential difference between generations. As I am on the younger side of this story, I would agree that I have a higher tolerance for risk, innovation, and new ideas than those in ministry older than myself.

A couple of examples come to mind regarding this difference in ministry pursuit. First, let me talk about my slice of paradise, my home. When I first bought the house and property it was new of course, but bare bones. No fence, no grass, no trees or landscaping. No pretty paint colors. Bland, taupe colored carpet covered all the floors, except the bathrooms. No work done in the garage walls. And no deck to barbeque on. So in that first year, I went to work on it like trailblazing pioneer. I worked long hard hours shoveling in soil for the grass. I dug holes, poured posting concrete, and hammered up my fence with my bare hands. And we build a nice 10 x 20 deck for our future outdoor evening of bliss, in my slice of paradise. And in the year or two that followed, we partitioned the garage, painted custom colors in the house and put in some Pergo and shag carpet downstairs. But lately, all I have been able to do is keep up with repairs and maintenance. I mowed the jungle, twice in one week, just to make a dent. I fix curtains, attempt to do minor plumbing under the sink, adjust the ice-maker (that stopped making ice: c'mon, that's all you have to do!), touch up chipped paint, and replace burned out bulbs. I still have a dream of more "project" items to get done, but am resigned temporarily to the world of maintaining what was already built and installed. So it is with church at times

And remember the days of being young? I mean really young, when you were single and pursued the girl of your dreams? I was creative, romantic, and would do anything to please and impress her. I still have that same passion for her, and really, even greater love now than before. It's not maintenance mode, but the dreaming about the life together is now in a time of living out the life you have with her. (Although I still have some dreams up my sleeve). In counseling I find men that enjoyed the chase in the blissful days of singleness, but don't enjoy the "journey" of their marriage now. Can ministry have an effect like that in our churches?

Lastly, my memory is always stirred by the story of Nehemiah, and the rebuilding of the city. It was when I first started my ministry and the story gave me such hope and vision in what God could do for a city; what He could do for a city through me, to be specific. Historically, it falls into a timeline with Ezra who rebuilt the Temple. You can imagine the joy of rebuilding something that was so meaningful to the people of that day. The young men had to carry the load of the the construction, because of the physical weight of the stones and the demands of the building project. In my mind, there is probably conversation around the camp fire that goes something like this: "Man! I can't wait to build this thing, what an honor. Our fathers can tell us how it was, what it looked like, and what God is wanting in the design." And so they go find out. Back at the campfire, "Let's build it like that, but let's add some cool elements to the foundation that will glorify God and be attractive to our people. We can also build it faster than they did if we use this new technology called pulleys, to get it done easier. And we will celebrate by putting a brand new color of paint on it! Something to say, 'this is new-look what God has done'". And off the the young men go, building it, but with the characteristics and style and technology of the new day they lived in; but with a heart to build what would please God and to honor the memories of the fathers.

Ezra 3 then haunts me:

Ezra 3:11-13 (New Living Translation)

¹¹ With praise and thanks, they sang this song to the Lord:

“He is so good!
His faithful love for Israel endures forever!”

Then all the people gave a great shout, praising the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s Temple had been laid.

¹² But many of the older priests, Levites, and other leaders who had seen the first Temple wept aloud when they saw the new Temple’s foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy. ¹³ The joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance.

Some of them wept, some of them shouted for joy. Old men who did it one way, young men who did it another way. Both tried to honor God in the building of their Temples. Maybe the older ones wanted to protect what they had fought for and keep it the same for their own memories. Maybe the young men wanted to risk taking it to another level of excellence, and wanted to build for God what God was putting in their minds. Hopefully the mingling of noise will be both generations worshiping one God in the Temple.

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Mylanta

Somehow, I ended up in an MFI conference in Atlanta GA, with my buddy Phil, and my Pastor Bob. Southern hospitality is great, but I got a 24 hour stomach flu that was no fun.

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