a stoners journal

concerning Rob Bell's new book and the face of theology today

2011-03-18T13:24:00.000-05:00

Opening statements:

If an orthodoxy cannot withstand questions, it is already dead.

Teachers will face a double judgment

Yes I have Rob Bell's book, and no i haven't finished it. But the conclusions of the book are already in grave doubt because of the methodology of his arguments.

His exegesis is terrible. He heads into using word studies as a way around difficult biblical realities. He often pulls texts from their paragraph because the paragraph itself wouldn't support his conclusions. He also simply ignores major texts that would work against his argument.
He starts the book with a presupposition and reaction. A presupposition that God is so loving that Hell cannot possibly be what the bible and historical orthodoxy postulate that it is; and he didn't like what someone said in a note at his church art exhibit.
His trying to lump Origin into being a representative of orthodoxy is suspect at best. Universalism is not part of the great big stream of historical orthodoxy.
His use of questions as a rhetorical device is deeply manipulative and a dodge of responsibility. "Have you quit beating your wife," sort of questions.

But this is simply the increasingly complex difficulty with theology today

Postmoderns / Emergents

Don't do a good job with exegesis. Their logical and theological fallacies are often terrible.
They use word studies and find obscure definitions to dodge difficult realities.
In trying to be relevant they avoid the fact that the cross is a stumbling block.
They don't like Gods wrath (and other things) so they seek to remove them.
They quote historical [Ancient / Future] texts conveniently and often out of context.
They say "i'm just asking a question" like it gives them license to speculate on anything.
While deconstructionism is all fine and good for paradigm shifts, this group increasing tells you what they are against and don't like while being unable to clearly articulate their dogmatic doctrines.

but: lest the sword not be shared equitably

Emerging / New-Calvinists

Ignore the Corinthians passages about love
Ignore Matthew 18
Gossip and slander through blogs and justify it through rationalizing it as truth telling / prophetic thus showing them to tip their hand that the means does justify the ends. They have no sense of ethics in how they accomplish their inquisitions and can justify almost anything with a defending-truth mantra of some sort
Rarely show compassion in their confrontations
Ask for repentance but show no initiative of reconciliation
Are smug, arrogent, and prideful concerning truth in ways that are very ugly to those inside and outside the church

In short, younger evangelical Orthodoxy is in terrible shape because of both these movements

1. Errors on doctrine and truth

1. Errors on love and relationship

Both damage Orthodoxy deeply.

1. Damages the head

1. Damages the heart

Both damage the gospel.

So while i have a soft spot for people to be able to question things, there is also a need for me to be an elder in Christianity. And while there are grey areas of conscience and opinion and paradox and culture...the gospel is not one of them.

Christ died for sinners, of whom I am chief. He atoned for my sin by facing the full wrath of God on the cross. There is only one name by which men can be saved, and that is the name of Christ.

There are vague scriptures that do allude to other possibilities, but they offer us only speculation. And speculation cannot offer hope. The hope of the nations and the world is Jesus.

but what about those who never heard

what about those who have a limited IQ

what about an infant who dies

yes yes I know the questions

and yes there ARE possible speculations

but I trust these people and these questions to the character of Christ

and he hasn't clearly answered these questions

so we CAN speculate...there are some groovy things he says

i have flocks you know not of...?

he descends to hell to preach and set captives free...?

the light one has been given argument from Romans...?

but we must be very careful to not give false hope...it is just that...speculation

I write this while sitting in a catholic monastery with my brothers in Christ who I disagree with about a host of things.

I write this still having learned a ton from other Rob Bell books and Nooma videos that i will still recommend.

I write this loving Rob Bell...and...loving John Piper

I write this knowing Augustine said "I have erred but I am not a heretic"

I write this trusting Jesus and not Calvin, Bell, Driscoll, McLaren...though i learn from all of them

I want love to win

I want truth to win

But in order for Jesus to win

we must speak the TRUTH.....IN......LOVE

so if your looking for guidance:

Read the book...and take every quote and go back to the paragraph it came from, it's not like there isn't some good points and questions in there...there are!

Read every verse in the Bible about wrath, vengeance, atonement, and hell

Pray for Rob and his enemies [or his brothers that have mistaken him for an enemy]. Rob isn't the anti-christ and don't let anybody tell you he is. Rob is asking questions, but he is also deconstructing orthodoxy with the way he is asking and answering those questions. Give him grace and space, while still confronting him.

finally i read something from Thomas Merton's journals today that cracked me up.

He is writing in the late 60's and basically he lists a few books he has written and says they are good and that God was in it, and then he lumps the rest together and says they were crap.

i laughed.

laugh a little. and move forward carefully.

if you hate Bell...be careful...if you say "you fool" you may be in danger of hellfire [Jesus said that]

if you love Bell...be careful...he may not be using the Bible as carefully as he should

and remember Rob is more of a pastor artist...sadly...he has painted himself into a corner. I will not throw stones, but i will seek to help him out. and I must help others to not go where he has gone.

Appetites for destruction

2010-10-07T10:48:00.000-05:00

Catalyst tension 2010

Our appetites for...food, sex, sleep, etc are high motivators in our lives
Desires are the drivers of our lives
Each appetite creates tension...because we always want more

Leadership tensions

Progress
Responsibility
Wins
Growth
Respect / Recognition / Fame / to be envied...jealousy
Achievement

Appetites:
God created them and Sin distorts them
Never fully and finally satisfied
Always whisper NOW and never later

Step 1 admit your reality

Your reaction to your appetites that are never and fully satisfied will determine the path and destination of your life

The internal battle must be won before the external war can be fought

Gen 25 Jacob and Essau
Both have appetites that are out of control

Birthrights and blessings deeply desired
Finances and inheritance
Position and respect-given authority over the rest of the family
Blessing...anointing and unique connection to God assumed

Essau: mans man fight club
Jacob: metrosexual, making dinner

Older bro never need younger bro
Younger bro always wants and needs something from older bro

But when the older bro needs something... The younger bro says hey let's pause while I figure out what I can get out of this. Negotiation trade.

The stupidest trade ever...because of inability to defer gratification
Who would throw away....for .....
Why?
Because we can't wait we want it now

Without this I will die! Bull... The appetite creates a brain impact bias and magnifies it completely out of proportion. Survival instinct on crack! Brain is lying to you and this is why you will have buyers remorse. And the brain does focalism where we see 1 thing and blur and forget everything else.

This happens every time an appetite gets provoked

This decision / these decisions are what Destroy the future!

Now decisions: good and bad are unleashed into the future like a bullet from a gun

The future essau: Moses lineage, Jesus, MatthewS gospel...
Look at your bowl again
It would be better if you died than if you did this
You are about to lose your future

YOU must mature enough to reframe your appetites

And God let's this happen.. Because the responsibility is OURS
This is the privilege and responsibility of freedom

If the appetite gets control
You will compromise everything to get it

10 years from now...
What do you want to see...desire to b an elder is a good thing
But
Control how you get there

What is your bowl of stew?

What are you desperate for to create excitement or ease the pain?

Talk yourself off the cliff?

What is not illegal or immoral that you do but you wish nobody ever found out about?

Make no private decision that can't stand up on a public stage

This pushes the appetite back into the right context

The Jonathan Edwards reality
The resolutions
The graveyard

And you are not just trading your stuff you are trading others hope, faith, etc.

Refrain
Retrain
Retame
And maintain

Or lose to good plans God has for you!

practical atheist week 1

2010-08-27T08:46:00.000-05:00

So here's the deal. Your computer is depressed, it's slow, it;s sad, and frankly it's depressed. You've tried to install patches, a new OS, and even some new security features. But it still just won't work right. So you go to some online forums to get some advice, but nobody really gives you anything new. Finally, after coming to the conclusion that you can't fix it yourself you make a cell-phone call to service. They tell you to go to a chatroom and they walk you through a bunch of stuff that doesn't work either. Then the worst thing happens, you get a virus and it just messes with everything. You don't know what you did wrong to download the virus but nothing you try gets it out and everything is screwed up. Now there is only one thing left to do. But you don't like it. There is a service where you go on-line and let a remote host have access to your computer. It's kind of freaky because you can see the disembodied mouse moving around on your screen doing whatever it wants to. Plus it makes you feel stupid watching it, because it will write weird coded stuff on black pop-up screens and actually change the software; all that stuff us mere mortals don't know how to do. At first it's not to bad, but then the operator asks for some passwords for some protected parts of the machine. You know; bank account stuff, internet history, and some other places that you aren't sure you want to open up. So you lie, and say you'll have to be back to them because you can't remember those pass codes right now. And then you sit there and are just stuck. Because while all this stuff sounds mechanical, intellectual, and scientific the fact remains that you will have to trust this person before anything changes. And we don't like trusting some ethereal and faceless stranger with our pass codes, secrets, bank account information, and web history. So now you will have to sit back an weigh your options. A new Mac is too expensive. Staying with the way things are is increasingly impossible. But am I willing to risk trusting this person? A person who if i let them in to total access could fix or destroy everything.

You walk away to think and feel your way through that decision.

It's so weird to let a stranger into your house. But then to let them access the fridge, and your checkbook is even weirder. What if they...?! And when it gets really weird is if they sneak into bed with you, yikes! And then...worst case scenario...they can even read your thoughts and feelings and motivations. Epic-weirdness!

my point?

These are all freakishly bizarre scenarios. So let me make it even stranger. What if this person loved you in spite of all the crazy stuff they have discovered about you. What if they had completely pure motivations and wanted into your life not for what they could get out of you but for what they could give you? Would you let them in, would you trust them, would you risk it?

This is after all, all about you and God. And God is both patient as well as intrusive in these sort of things. He wants into your hardrive. HHe wants into your checking account. And yes, he wants into your web browsing history. He wants remote access to all those password protected areas because of the virus that is infecting everything [the trojan horse we call 'sin'.] He wants full disclosure, full access, and full administrator rights and privileges. And as you sit in your seat you are gonna have to decide if you trust him or not. Not just a reaching-in-faith towards belief trust; but a rubber-hits-the-road of reality trust. In a good way, Jesus wants to go viral in you. He wants to shine his love, hope, power, peace, grace, discipline, truth, light...into every square millimeter and milibite of your life.

What's a practical atheist? A practical atheist is someone who believes in God but acts like He doesn't exist. Or to put it another way, they let God unto the computer but keep massive sections out of his reach. Places like sex, money, painful memories, etc. The sort of relationship where we say we have a relationship with God but really we are just acquaintances that chit chat from time to time.

So here is what I suggest you do when you get back to that computer that's busted up in epic-fail mode. I suggest you go all-in and trust the disembodied techie and let them have remote access and control of everything. Let God have it all. He will be patient, and we will try to keep him out. But simply choose to hand him they keys to every room of your life. And i'll promise you something. This "stranger" will become trustworthy to you. Because trust is earned, and it can only be earned if we risk. Every great story of faith is a story of risking trusting God.

Perez Hilton, Anne Rice and Christianity

2010-08-04T11:44:00.001-05:00

http://m.perezhilton.com/blog/91697/

the voice of...

2010-08-02T10:18:00.000-05:00

The Voice:

There is a voice that calls out to all of creation. The voice is in our very image; it lies within our conscience; and it can be read in creation itself. The voice calls out to us to come home, to a home we have never known. It calls out to us as creatures and leads us back to the creator. The voice is in a language we need to learn even as we had to learn our own native tongue. At first it seems garbled and broken, but as we ask for and enter into pursuit of the voice it comes to sing over us, and if we will let it in, it can sing from within us. And the song it longs to sing is full of tears of wonder, and laughter, and hope, but most of all it is a love-song. The song of God’s love calling out to us, a voice full of whispers and wind, an Mp3 from eternity.

The Voice is the Word of God and is the essential creative wind that breathes life into all we do and are. This core belief and doctrine means that God has not left us alone without code or creed, but that he has effectively written our binary code over the last few thousand years [downloading it bit by bit and generation by generation]; showed us exactly what the template of humanity could and should be in the person of Jesus; and is explaining and revealing fresh recordings through His indwelling Spirit within us. The word of God is both mystical in the sense that the Ghost of God issues revelation [fresh information and reminders of ancient information] and union with Her children. And it is Manifest in that it is embodied incarnationally in the person of Jesus Christ. That said, the Voice is our mothers milk as well as the meat we need to be sustained through our intellectual questions, emotional experiences, and search for practical answers for how to live life in a fractured and deconstructed society and civilization.

earning the right to be heard

2010-07-21T14:08:00.000-05:00

Love without the gospel:

An apologetic for forming a relational platform of love before sharing the gospel.

Each passage informs us to do good to unbelievers as well as people of the faith and NONE of the passages command us to preach-the-gospel at the same time.

Notice that nearly all these passages seem to infer building a relational reputation so that you can come to a place of influence: IE Show people the love of God so that you can earn the right to be heard and tell them about God.

There is neither command nor condemnation for doing good and not presenting the gospel. Therefore it is inappropriate to command or condemn such a practice.

Scriptural basis:

1 Peter 3

“Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives.”

Luke 6:33

"If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

Luke 6:35

"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men

Galatians 6:10

So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people

1 Timothy 6:18

Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share

Matthew 5:16

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven

1 Timothy 5:9-11

A widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than sixty years old, having been the wife of one man, having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and if she has devoted herself to every good work

Matthew 5:44-46

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

Titus 2:14-15

Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

Hebrews 13:2

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.

John 10:5

"A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers."

1 Peter 2:12

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

2 Timothy 2:24

And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.

1 Thessalonians 5:15

Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

Colossians 3:12

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience

Matthew 25:44-46

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. '"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

John Shore article on Batman and integrity

2010-06-23T19:53:00.000-05:00

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We tend to think of integrity as a quality that feels really good to possess and manifest. We think of, say, Batman -- hands on hips, chest out, cape flowing magnificently behind him -- standing triumphantly over one of his conquered enemies, and we imagine he's just glowing from the inside, from having just accomplished something wonderful. And he has done something wonderful. And of course he's aware that he has. But what fills Batman when he's finished doing something wonderful isn't a feeling of integrity. That's too complex. What he feels is pride. And pride is to integrity what sugar glaze is to a donut: it makes it more immediately gratifying -- which is great! But ultimately it's bad for you.
Of course Batman, being ... well, Batman, does have integrity. So what he does, after pausing for just a moment to process the legitimate inner pleasure that he gets from having, say, harpooned the Penguin -- is get right back to work. He hoists the squirming Penguin up off the ground, handcuffs him, and delivers him to the police station. Then he climbs back into his Batmobile, hauls it to his Batcave, and gets busy right away solving another crime (or figuring out Alfred's work schedule for the week, or making sure Robin is keeping up with his baking lessons, or whatever it is Batman does to keep his world running smoothly).
Point is, he gets right back to work.
And that's what we expect Batman to do. Because we know his character. We know he's not looking for accolades, or fame, or lavish shows of praise from public officials. We know Batman is a better bat man than that.
Now, what we don't know about Batman is whether or not he believes in God. We can hope that he does. Because a man who believes in a Higher Power (however he might define that) is more likely to look beyond himself for his self-affirmation than is one who doesn't. If the primary source of Batman's internal, personal affirmation is Batman, then it's a safe bet that eventually that will simply fail to be enough for him. Before long he'll want someone else to validate for him that he's a great man doing great things.
If he's doesn't believe in (for lack of a better word) God, then before long Batman is going to want to see his name in the papers. He'll crave a little of that warming, bright spotlight. He'll yearn for Commissioner Gordon to present him with the keys to the city before an applauding, adoring throng of Gothamites.
And from the moment he smiles and waves for the camera, it'll be all downhill for our beloved Caped Crusader.
Pretty soon he'll be scheduling his own press conferences. Then he'll start staging battles with evil-doers in such a way as to put him in the best possible light; he'll be arranging showdowns with his former arch-enemies.
Then he'll start to drink a little -- just at night, to help him sleep.
Before too long he'll just be some gaseous, bragging windbag who's forced Batgirl to change her cell phone number.
Why the inevitable down slide? Because a person of real integrity only cares about one kind of affirmation, and that's the kind he gets via a Higher Power speaking directly to his heart -- from what Christians, for instance, call the Holy Spirit. And, frankly, that kind of affirmation hardly amounts to a party being thrown in your honor twice a week. The affirmation one receives from God is about as subtle as subtle gets. It's certainly no less real for being subtle -- in fact, it's more real for being so subtle -- but it generates from a station to which one must be exquisitely attuned in order to hear from it enough music to keep one happily dancing.
A man of genuine integrity must live his life like a former fat person on a very strict diet. He can let himself have a little fat and sugar, but mostly he has to understand that his desire for fat and sugar is a false, harmful kind of desire; that it's bad, and works against his higher interests.
He has to pretty much forget about being gratified by fat and sugar. And when he does indulge a little, he knows that he must pretty instantly forget that taste and the pleasure it brought him, and keep on moving; he knows he has to get right back to work. He knows how easily transitory gratification can hook a man, how quickly it can wrap him in its nasty, downward pulling tentacles.
A man of integrity registers a pat on his back, for sure, and certainly appreciates it. But it's off his mind as quickly as that hand is off his back, because he knows that if he becomes attached to the idea that he's somebody worth complimenting and appreciating, that he's someone who deserves the respect and admiration of others, then before too long, by virtue of a huge part of his very nature (Christians would say the fallen part of his nature), he'll begin craving more and more of that sort of exterior, human kind of affirmation.
There's a reason we tend to associate our True Heroes with the image of them (in one way or another) riding off into the sunset. They do that -- they isolate, they move on -- because they don't care what other people think of them. They've learned to tune out that sort of input.
They're tuned, instead, to something deeper than that.
They're listening to WGOD. And if that's not what a hero is listening to as he rides off into the sunset, then it's only a matter of time before he turns his horse around and comes riding back into town, where he'll seek out anyone who wants to join him for a little drinkin' and carousin'. Because he'll want that stimulation and attention.
God can use any person for any reason he deems necessary. But a person of integrity can't help but be of special value to him. And a person of integrity is the rarest sort of person there is. But it's also the kind of person that each and every one of us has been training our entire lives to become.
Anyone over the age of seven (at the outside) knows the difference between right and wrong, between honorable and dishonorable, between worthy and worthless. We know it. We've lived it. We've learned it. That knowledge has become part of our DNA.
All we have to do now in order to become the person God has been trying to make of us our whole lives is to finally and thoroughly accept the fact that we were born to be persons of integrity. That that's why we were created in the first place. That the only one getting in the way of our being that person is us.
In order to become a person who possesses true integrity, all any of us has to do is accept the fact that the only thing stopping us from becoming a person of integrity is the ever-subtle, ever-seductive desire for any sort of exterior validation for being a person of integrity.
It's the Zen of wisdom: once you want or think you have it, you've lost it.
Related to this is my recent post, "Atheist and Christian: Who's the Fool?"
If you're an atheist angered by this post, please see my, "I, a Christian, Admit It: Atheists Have Been Right All Along."
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Show me some Facebooky-like, if you like.

put a rock in your mouth!

2010-03-25T14:13:00.001-05:00

Fun with spiritual disciplines:

“Put a rock in your mouth!”

My retreat at St. Meinrads has had some interesting twists and turns. I am trying to deeply engage stillness, silence, and solitude amongst other things. In doing this I wanted to share an interesting practice I have experimented with that comes from one of the desert fathers [Monks from the 3^rd-6^th centuries]

While practicing silence keep a stone in your mouth to remind you of your vow. In fact keep two stones on you at all times.

One is a smooth small stone that is easy to keep in your mouth. Think of this smooth stone as the type that David used to slay goliath. If your heart and mind are focused on God and his goodness, this is the stone to keep in your mouth as a reminder of how His presence is smooth and strong and can give you the strength to slay the Goliath’s of your life.

The second stone is for when your heart wanders towards evil. This is when you take the other stone and put it into your mouth. It needs to be larger than the first and rough and porous. It represents the discomfort of leaving Gods presence. It is also a reminder of how your heart and mind have not yet been smoothed over by the presence of the Holy Spirit. This stone humbles us, and it hurts. It makes you wish that it had remained a long time under the rushing waters of a stream and gotten smooth from the consistent flow of the waters. Get it? To be drowning in God’s presence and to have the rushing waters of His word and spirit makes us smooth inside.

And it works…trust me.

But a few notes:

1. Stone number 1 needs to not be so small you might swallow it. I nearly did this. Also, don’t sleep with it; even though the monk I read about did this for 3 years I just know this would be a ridiculous way to die…or…just bizarre trying to explain to an EMT.

2. Stone number 2 needs to be abrasive. It reminds us of our abrasive thoughts and how they become abrasive and abusive words in our mouths. And it needs to be big enough to really get our attention and be annoying to work around. You should really, really, really want to spit it out. As such it is a great motivator to reconnect with Gods peace instead of our rage.

Test

2010-03-14T21:07:00.001-05:00

Number 1

Sent from my iPhone and soon from an iPad

when in wonderland...

2010-03-13T21:00:00.001-06:00

Absolem, a hookah smoking 3 inch caterpillar in the new “Alice in Wonderland” movie asks Alice a simple but profound question:

Who are you?

After a brief dialogue 2 different times, he gives her 2 interesting retorts.

“You are certainly not nearly Alice”

And on the 2nd occasion

“You are almost Alice”

How about you?

Are you certainly not nearly who God made you to be; or perhaps you are now almost who you were designed to become.

As you are spring cleaning this year perhaps it’s time to throw away the you, that is not nearly at all who God intended you to be. Perhaps it’s time for people to see you becoming almost who God wants you to be.

What’s standing in the way? What things need to be forgotten, thrown out, and set aside. And what things need to be yearned for, fought for, and raced after.

For this is NO dream you can pinch your way out of. You must face and fight for your future. Beneath who you have become, is always lurking who you were made to be. And every now and then you simply need to be reminded of that, or else the world will steal your identity and make you a robot, a caricature, and an imposter of yourself.

is THE SHACK heresy? are the chronicles of Narnia

2010-03-05T15:16:00.003-06:00

By Wayne Jacobsen, collaborator on The Shack

We knew it would happen eventually. Frankly we thought it would happen far sooner and in far greater quantity than we have seen to date. But we knew The Shack was edgy enough to prompt some significant backlash, which is why so many publishing companies didn’t want to take it on at the beginning.

I never thought everyone was going to love this book. Art is incredibly subjective as to whether a story and style are appealing. I have no problem with a spirited discussion of some of the theological issues raised in The Shack. The books I love most are the ones that challenge my theological constructs and invite a robust discussion among friends, whether I agree with everything in them or not in the end,. That is especially true of a work of fiction where people will bring their own interpretations of the same events or conversations. I never view a book as all good or all bad. It’s like eating chicken. Enjoy the meat and toss the bones.

What is surprising, however, is the hostile tone of false accusation and the conspiracy theories that some are willing to put on this book. Some have even warned others not to read it or they will be led into deception. It saddens me that people want to use a book like this to polarize God’s family, whether it’s overenthusiastic reader thrusting it in someone’s face telling them they ‘must read’ this book, or when people read their own theological agendas into a work, then denounce it as heresy.

If you’re interested, read it for yourself. Don’t let someone else do your thinking for you. If it helps convey the reality of Jesus to you, great! If all you can see is sinister motives and false teaching in it, then put it aside. I don’t have time to give a point-by-point rebuttal to the reviews I’ve read, but I would like to make some comments on some of the issues that have come up since I’m getting way too many emails asking me what I think of some of the questions they raise. I’ll also admit at the outset, that I’m biased. Admittedly, I’m biased. I was part of a team with the author of working on this manuscript for over a year and am part of the company formed to print and distribute this book. But I’m also well acquainted with the purpose and passions of this book.

What do I think? I tire of the self-appointed doctrine police, especially when they toss around false accusations like ‘new age conspiracy’, ‘counterfeit Jesus’ or ‘heresy’ to promote fear in people as a way of advancing their own agenda. What many of them don’t realize is that research actually shows that more people will buy a book after reading a negative review than they do after reading a positive one. It piques their curiosity as to why someone would take so much time to denounce someone else’s book.

But such reviews also confuse people who are afraid of being seduced into error and for those I think the false accusations demand a response. Let me assure any of you reading this that all three of us who worked on this book are deeply committed followers of Jesus Christ who have a passion for the Truth of the Scriptures and who have studied and taught the life of Jesus over the vast majority of our lifetimes. But none of us would begin to pretend that we have a complete picture of all that God is or that our theology is flawless. We are all still growing in our appreciation for him and our desire to be like him, and we hope this book encourages you to that process as well. In the end, this says the best stuff we know about God at this point in our journeys. Is it a complete picture of him? Of course not! Who could put all that he is into a little story like this one? But if it is a catalyst to get thousands of people to talk about theology—who God is and how he makes himself known in the world—we would be blessed.

This is a story of one believer’s brokenness and how God reached into that pain and pulled him out and as such is a compelling story of God’s redemption. The pain and healing come straight from a life that was broken by guilt and shame at an incredibly deep level and he compresses into a weekend the lessons that helped him walk out of that pain and find life in Jesus again.

That said, the content of this book does take a harsh look at how many of our religious institutions and practices have blinded people to the simple Gospel and replaced it with a religion of rules and rituals that have long ceased to reflect the Lord of Glory. Some will disagree with that assessment and the solutions this book offers, and the reviews that do so honestly merit discussion. But those who confuse the issues by making up their own back-story for the book, or ascribing motives to its publication without ever finding out the truth, only prove our point.

Here are some brief comments on the major issues that have been raised about The Shack:

Does the book promote universalism?

Some people can find a universalist under every bush. This book flatly states that all roads do not lead to Jesus, while it affirms that Jesus can find his followers wherever they may have wandered into sin or false beliefs. Just because he can find followers in the most unlikely places, does not validate those places. I don’t know how we could have been clearer, but people will quote portions out of that context and draw a false conclusion.

Does it devalue Scripture?

Just because we didn’t put Scriptural addresses with their numbers and colons at every allusion in the story, does not mean that the Bible isn’t the key source in virtually every conversation Mack has with God. Scriptural teachings and references appear on almost every page. They are reworded in ways to be relevant to those reading the story, but at every point we sought to be true to the way God has revealed himself in the Bible except for the literary characterizations that move the story forward. At its core the book is one long Bible study as Mack seeks to resolve his anger at God.

Is this God too nice?

Others have claimed that the God of The Shack is simply too nice, or having him in humorous human situations trivializes him. Really? Who wants to be on that side of the argument? For those who think this God is too easy, please tell me in what way does he let Mack off on anything? He holds his feet to the fire about every lie in his mind and every broken place in his heart. I guess what people these critics cannot see is confrontation and healing inside a relationship of love and compassion. This is not the angry and tyrannical God that religion has been using for 2000 years to beat people into conformity and we are not surprised that this threatens the self-proclaimed doctrine police.

One reviewer even thought this passage from The Shack was a mockery of the true God: "I'm not a bully, not some self-centered demanding little deity insisting on my own way. I am good, and I desire only what is best for you. You cannot find that through guilt or condemnation...." That wasn’t mocking God but a view of God that sees him as a demanding, self-centered tyrant. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself as the God who would lay down his life for us to redeem us to himself.

The words, “I don’t want slaves to do my will; I want brothers and sisters who will share life with me,” are simply a reflection of John 15:15. Unfortunately those who tend toward legalism among us have no idea how much more completely Jesus transforms us out of a relationship of love, than we could ever muster in our gritted-teeth obedience. This is at the heart of the new covenant—that love will fulfill the law, where human effort cannot.

Does it distort or demean the Trinity?

One of the concerns expressed about The Shack is that it presents the Trinity outside of a hierarchy. In fact many religious traditions think they find their basis for hierarchical organizations in what they’ve assumed about the Trinity. To look at the Trinity as a relationship without the need for command and control is one of the intriguing parts of this story. If they walk in complete unity, why would a hierarchy be needed? They live in love and honor each other. While in the flesh Jesus did walk in obedience to the Father as our example, elsewhere Scripture speaks of their complete unity, love and glory in relating to each other. Different functions need not imply a different status.

This extends in other ways to look at how healed people can relate to each other inside their relationship with God that defines authority and submission in ways most are not used to, but that are far more consistent with what we see in the early believers and in the teaching of Scripture. It is also true of many believers around the world who are learning to experience the life of Father’s family without all the hierarchical maintenance and drama that has plagued followers of Christ since the third century.

People may see this differently and find this challenging, if only because it represents some thought they have not been exposed to before. Here we might be better off having a discussion instead of dragging out the ‘heretic’ label when it is unwarranted.

Does it leave out discussions about church, salvation and other important aspects of Christianity?

This is some of the most curious complaints I’ve ever read. This is the story about God making himself available to one of his followers who is being swallowed up by tragedy and his crisis of faith in God’s goodness over it. This is not a treatise on every element of theological study. Perhaps we should have paused in the story to have an altar call, or perhaps we should have drug a pipe organ into the woods and enlisted a choir to hold a service, but that was not the point.

Is this a Feminist God?

The book uses some characterizations of God to mess with the religious stereotypes only to get people to consider God as he really is, not how we have reconstituted him as a white, male autocrat bent on religious conformity. There are important reasons in the story why God takes the expressions he does for Mack, which underlines his nature to meet us where we are, to lead us to where he is. While Jesus was incarnated as man, God as a spirit has no gender, even though we fully embrace that he has taken on the imagery of the Father to express his heart and mind to us. We also recognize Scripture uses traditional female imagery to help us understand other aspects of God’s person, as when Jesus compares himself to a hen gathering chicks, or David likens himself to a weaned child in his mother’s arms.

Has it touched people too deeply?

Some reviewers point to Amazon.com reviews and people who have claimed it had a transforming effect on their spiritual lives as proof of its demonic origin. Please! How absurd is that? Do we prefer books that leave people untouched? This book touches lives because it deals with God in the midst of pain in an honest, straightforward way and because for many this is the first time they have seen the power of theology worked out inside a relationship with God himself.

Does The Shack promote Ultimate Reconciliation (UR)?

It does not. While some of that was in earlier versions because of the author’s partiality at the time to some aspects of what people call UR, I made it clear at the outset that I didn’t embrace UR as sound teaching and didn’t want to be involved in a project that promoted it. In my view UR is an extrapolation of Scripture to humanistic conclusions about our Father’s love that has to be forced on the biblical text.

Since I don’t believe in UR and wholeheartedly embrace the finished product, I think those who see UR here, either positively or negatively are reading into the text. To me that was the beauty of the collaboration. Three hearts weighed in on the theology to make it as true as we could muster. The process also helped shape our theologies in honest, protracted discussions. I think the author would say that some of that dialog significantly affected his views. This book represents growth in that area for all of us. Holding him to the conclusions he may have embraced years earlier would be unfair to the ongoing process of God in his life and theology.

That said, however, I’m not afraid to have that discussion with people I regard as brothers and sisters since many have held that view in the course of theological history. Also keep in mind that the heretic hunters lump many absurd notions into what they call UR, but when I actually talk to those people partial to some view of ultimate reconciliation they do not endorse all the absurdities ascribed to them. This is a heavily nuanced discussion with UR meaning a lot of different things to different people. For myself, I am convinced that Jesus is someone we have to accept through repentance and belief in this age to participate in his life.

Throughout The Shack Mack’s choices are in play, determining what he will let God do in his life through their encounter. He is no victim of God’s process. He is a willing participant at every juncture. And even though Papa says ‘He is reconciled to all men” he also notes that, “not all men are reconciled to me.”

Is the author promoting the emergent movement?

This guilt-by-association tactic is completely contrived. Neither the author, nor Brad and I at Windblown have ever been part of the emergent conversation. Some of their bloggers have written about the book, but we have not had any significant contact with the leaders of that movement and they have not been the core audience that has embraced this book.

That said I have met many people in the emergent conversation that have proved to be brothers and sisters in the faith. While I’m not nuts about all they do, a lot of the statements made about them by critics are as false as what some say about The Shack. They do deeply embrace the Scriptures. As I see it they are not trying to re-invent Christianity, but trying to communicate it in ways that captures a new generation. While I don’t agree with many of the conclusions they’re sorting through at the moment, they are not raving humanists. I have found them passionate seekers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who are asking some wonderful questions about God and how he makes himself known in us.

Does The Shack promote new age philosophy or Hinduism?

Amazingly some people have made assumptions about some of the names to think there is some eastern mysticism here, but when you hear how Paul selected the names he did it wasn’t to make veiled references to Hinduism, black Madonnas, or anything else. It was to uncover facets of God’s character that are clear in the Scriptures.

It’s amazing how much people will make up to indulge their fantasies and falsely label something to fit their own conclusions. Some have even insisted that Mack flying in his dreams was veiled instructions in astral travel. Absolutely absurd! Has this man never read fiction, or had a dream? Just because someone screams there is a demon under that bush, doesn’t mean there is.

* * * * *

We realize this would be a challenging read for those who see no difference between the religious conditioning that underlies Christianity as it is often presented in the 21st Century and the simple, powerful life in Christ that Jesus offered to his followers. Our hope was to help people see how the Loving Creator can penetrate our defenses and lead us to healing. Our prayer is that through this book people will see the God of the Bible as Jesus presented him to be—an endearing reality who wants to love us out of our sin and bondage and into his life. This is a message of grace and healing that does not condone or excuse sin, but shows God destroying it through the dynamic relationship he wants with each of his children.

We realize folks will disagree. We planned on it. We appreciate the interaction of those who have honest concerns and questions. Those who have been captured by this story are encouraged to search the Scriptures to see if these things are so and not trust us or the ravings of those who misinterpret this book, either threatened by its success, or those who want to ride on it to push their own fear-based agenda

sherwood's comments here:

a funny / odd reality is that the same sort of hyper vigilant criticism could easily be used on CS Lewis the Chronicles of Narnia especially the final book. Pilgrims progress, Dante's inferno...all narrative prose breaks down as imperfect representations of truth. Lewis's writings are the most interesting because they are nearly cannonized by evangelicals. Art cannot be judged with the same lens we judge an excel spreadsheet of facts...or doctrine. And while all writings could and should be open to some correction or critique the sort of condemning witchhunts and anti-grace lynch mobs that follow some blogs are completely off target with Jesus COMMANDS to love, and even to offer corrective teaching IN LOVE. So while there may be some heresy floating around in some of this fiction I can ASSURE you there has been a least an equal amount of defiant-rebellion / sin in those that have defied Christs orders to love in how they have handled this brother.

1 Corinthians 13 comes to mind...

happiness sucks...see article below

2010-03-05T08:23:00.001-06:00

Why Happiness Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be

By JESSICA HAMZELOU

2/27/10, 10:51 PM EST

Happiness seems to make people more selfish, research suggests.

The Founding Fathers liked happiness so much they considered pursuing it an inalienable right – but maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Happiness seems to make people more selfish, the latest in a series of revelations suggesting it changes how you think – and not in a good way.

Psychologist Joe Forgas at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, who has led many of these studies, suggests that happiness's negative effects all stem from a cheery mood's tendency to lull you into feeling secure. This makes you look inwards and behave both more selfishly and more carelessly.

"People in a positive mood generally rely more on their own thoughts and preferences, and pay less attention to the outside world and social norms," says Forgas.

To probe the effect of happiness on selfishness, Forgas and his colleague Hui Bing Tan put 45 students into good or bad moods by giving them positive or negative feedback on a "cognitive test" that they had taken. In fact the test was a fake and did not measure cognition, while the feedback bore no relation to their performance.

Caring, Sharing

After using a questionnaire to establish that the volunteers really were happy or sad, Forgas and Tan gave each one 10 raffle tickets for a A$20 prize. The students could choose between sharing some of their tickets with another, hypothetical student or selfishly keeping them all.

On average, those who had been praised kept more raffle tickets.

In a second experiment, Forgas and Tan used film clips to set the mood. Half of a group of 72 students were treated to a 10-minute clip of the British TV comedy Fawlty Towers, whilst the other half endured a passage from the gloomy film Angela's Ashes.

After taking another mood questionnaire, this time the students were shown pictures of a buddy they could share their raffle tickets with – with the intention of making the idea of sharing more vivid than the case of a hypothetical student. Again, the happy students were less likely to share.

Forgas's explanation is that happy people focus more on their own desires. "Positive mood is in a sense an evolutionary signal, subconsciously informing people that the situation they face is safe and non-threatening," he says. This encourages people to rely more on their own thoughts and preferences, with selfishness the result.

Grumpiness or sadness, on the other hand, produces more vigilant, outward-looking thinkers. "A negative mood produces a thinking style that is more detailed and attentive, and pays more attention to the demands of the external environment," says Forgas.

I've Forgotten Why I'm Happy

This latest finding adds to a wealth of data suggesting that being happy isn't all it's cracked up to be. In previous studies, Forgas has found that happy people are less able to develop a persuasive argument, more gullible and worse at remembering objects in a shop window than their unhappy fellows.

Happy people are also more likely to be influenced by stereotypes, says Forgas: in another study, happy non-Muslim Australians were more likely to make snap negative judgements about – and even to shoot – computer images of people in traditional Muslim dress.

Ed Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, points out that we shouldn't forget the benefits of happiness, which he says include "better health, social relationships and citizenship". But he adds that "it is wrong to say that it is always good to be happy".

Optimum Happiness

Robert Cummins, a psychologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and editor of the Journal of Happiness Studies, says he "loves" the research. "It is so very refreshing to hear an alternative to the view that happy is good, and more is better."

"High levels of happiness generate openness to new experiences and gregariousness, but they also generate a lack of attention to detailed information and recklessness," says Cummins. We all need to behave like this occasionally, he says, but not when we are confronted with a potentially dangerous situation. "Low levels of happiness generate introspection and the careful processing of information, where choices must be carefully made."

A happy person "may well benefit from lowered mood while engaging in a task involving detailed information processing", adds Cummins.

In another study, he asked Australians to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 to 100. The most common rating was 75. He suggests that this might reflect 75 per cent of our potential happiness, which may be an optimum level: enough to enjoy the benefits, but not too much

missional living

2010-02-06T21:33:00.001-06:00

Being Missional is simply a choice. But, 2^nd only to the decision to follow Jesus, this is the most dynamic and dangerous decision you will EVER make. For “Christian are lame and limp persons more times than not; but when one of them finds the mission for their life they become the most dynamic and dangerous of persons. For then, they become like Jesus!” Which one you will be is a matter of choice, but it is also a choice that must be made 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. And this choice will change you and the world far, far, far more than you could ever imagine!

Reflection Questions [The BIG questions God wants to ask you]

1. Am I participating in the “big picture” revealed in Scripture so that my life feels like an EPIC adventure rich with purpose, passion, and providence?

2. What does it mean that you are living in the Fourth Chapter [revolution]?

3. You are living in Ashland right now for a reason. You are here “for such a time as this” What do you think God wants to do through you?

4. What if my workplace is a mission field? What would happen if I started to think of my job as “ministry time” rather than just “work”? What specific things must change?

5. How can I practice paying attention to what God is doing, who God is putting in my path, on a daily basis?

Equipping Questions [Soul searching to find your unique / personal calling]

1. What things am I passionate about? What things are you willing to fight for? What gives you deep joy, peace, or meaning when you do it? What do you want to make a difference in? What is wrong in the world that you want desperately to make right?

2. What makes me come alive? What kind of things do I love to do? Think about those times that have brought out the very best in you. How could God use these sort of experiences as missional adventures in the future?

3. What, on a global scale / and a local level, breaks my heart? What can I do about these things? How can I leverage whatever resources I have at these challenges? [Time, money, prayer, etc.]

4. What, am I really good at? What spiritual gifts do I have? What skills have I cultivated? What experience do I have? How can these things be used to give the Gospel to people and to build the Kingdom?

5. Who can I talk to and dream with and practice with in order to experiment with finding my unique mission? How can my friends, spouse, small group…help me on this journey?

Resources [for you to explore so you can adapt your life into a missional adventure]

Missional Renaissance by Reggie McNeal

Unstoppable force by Irwin McManus

The Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll

Conspiracy of Kindness by Steve Sjogren

this sunday!!!! the end of boredom and beginning of sexy Bible study

2010-02-04T15:26:00.000-06:00

Just a moment of your time. And what if that moment changed everything? And in that moment…

What would it be like if God talked to you. Really talked to you. What if He shared His heart, mind, and dreams for you; answered the big questions; and gave you some advice and perspective on how to live your life. And what if he was funny, sarcastic, serious, passionate, tearful, and real?

That would be great wouldn’t it? And how would you respond if I invited you to an appointment to do this with God. And I promised His voice would be there?

That’s what I’m promising!

The trick is in learning how to hear. How to perceive. How to experience and respond to His voice. And this is what I am going to be helping people with on Sunday mornings at 5 stones.

Meet me at 9am on the 3^rd floor of the Bixler building [right behind the Chapel].

Learn how to read the Bible and hear Gods voice and thus His heart, mind, and desires.

Class will include

· How to have a quiet time with Gods word that is relevant, engrossing, passionate, and transformative. Not boring, perfunctory, and passive.

· How to understand the meaning of scriptures with online tools, websites, and other resources. Things that make you really perceive deeply and vibrantly what is going on.

· How to utilize the Bible to understand how to handle the real challenges of life. Parenting, sex, meaning, morality, emotions, marriage, etc.

If you are coming I’d love to hear from you ahead of time, so I can prepare some materials.

If you are not coming I’d love some feedback so I can understand how we might do things in the future that would better equip you and your spiritual life

Looking forward to hearing back from you

Hope I see ya

Learning to walk in the word. 9am 3^rd floor Bixler building at Ashland University

David Sherwood

david@5stones.org

finding courage

2009-10-21T06:41:00.002-05:00

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (New International Version)

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Courage, or the need for it presumes fear. What then are we afraid of? And what is the effect of fear?

For me, i have a deep seated fear of failure. I flunked a lot in High School, and flunked out of my 1st 2 years of college. There are also a host of other failures all that seem to bundle together and whisper "you are failing" in your ministry, family, personal life, etc. Most of the time i can keep these "demons" at bay; but if you add enough exhaustion and pressure to the mix they are quickly at my throat.

When this happens i slip into paralysis and survival mode. I go through the motions, watch tv, and allow a slow and deadly creep of depression to wash over me. I start to believe i am a failure and no longer have the energy or motivation to try and fight again. Hope and joy look like a mirage and it is here that i find myself check-mated by fear.

in my story, there is where Christ steps unto the stage of my life over and over again to rescue me. When i am a little black sheep curled up in a fetal position of fear i am usually a long way from Christ. I never mean for this to happen, i just get too busy, too overwhelmed, and i even view pressure as coming from Him. Pressure to be moral, a good example, etc. Then, time slips through my hands and Bible study fades, prayer becomes perfunctory, worship stale, and in general i neglect my relationship with God to the point of apathy and avoidance. But HE doesn't! He waits patiently for me to run out of gas, for the pressure to become too much, for the emptiness to become overwhelming, and for the loneliness of my soul to finally provoke my awakening. And then finally I call out for rescue.

And then the good shepherd comes. I may being laying in the frozen rain, trapped in some thornbush but i can see his lantern as he slowly comes towards me. Sometimes i want to hide, but mostly i feel hope and expectation. I practice my apology [as the prodigal son did] but when His intimacy gets close i start to hear his voice and remember how foolish this is. And when i see his broad and loving smile-and he lifts me up with his warm hands and carries me on his strong back-i just cry and cry and cry. His presence alone brings back those three things listed in the scripture above. His presence brings encouragement and the light of his love, his perfect love, casts off the darkness of fear. And hope returns, good hope-not my hopes for success and meaning-but his hopes for love, compassion, grace, mercy, and renewal. And when He is close I again start to feel strong. Not 'my' strength, but his strength being renewed in me.

And this is where i find myself today. After about 8 weeks of woundedness. The news of my mothers cancer had just overwhelmed me in the midst of so many other pressures. For 8 weeks i slowly dissolved inside and fell into paralysis, fear, stagnation, and depression. Not that i couldn't function but i wasn't functioning in His strength, His encouragement, and His hope. But today i can feel Him carrying me again. I feel His presence healing and awakening me. His strength is pouring into me as our relationship has become "real" again and not just theoretical.

But this relationship is always 2 sided. And i must stay with Him. I must stay dependant upon Him. And I must guard my busyness and make time for Him and take my pressures and pains to Him.

May you too....be rescued....be renewed...be strengthened...be given good hope...and be encouraged. By the One who gives these good gifts to His children and friends. And who rescues us...over...and...over again

idealism, the prophetic, and the problem

2009-10-05T21:06:00.002-05:00

Every Christian finds themselves on the threshold of deep passion from time to time. This passions is a seed of transformation that the Holy Spirit has often planted with a desire for change. We sense fully that something is very wrong, or something should really be made right; and at this place there are some deep choices that must be made or all will be lost.

pardon this adjust to scripture: from Matt 13

When anyone feels deep passionate conviction about the kingdom, Church, or Christ and does not integrate it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. It is trampled down because it is just a concept, mere idealism, wishful and noble thoughts. It must grow by becoming real in the person, then it can't be trampled on the path. In fact the path will have to work around this person because the idea has become so real, so big, and is producing so much fruit that it is unavoidable and unalterable. These are the intellectuals.

The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. This is the idealist who wants his passion without the pain of crucifying their flesh. They want a great marriage, or to worship deeply, or authentic community, or serving the poor...but don't want and are not willing to pay the price to actually do something about it. They talk big about it for a while, but it fades as their hypocrisy slowly drains adrenaline and they finally accept defeat from their lack of disciplines, sustainable actions. These are the emotionalists.

The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. These people hear the word, understand its implications and feel its need to be acted upon. But they are master craftsmen of excuses. They have rationalizations and excuses for everything they do and don't do. They are perpetual martyrs, whiners, complainers, and act defeated and doomed about everything. For them Christianity is a hope that can never actually be embraced. These are the compromisers.

The one who received the seed and showed it to everyone but never planted it in the ground and watered and pruned it is the braggart. These are the prophetic idealists who tell everyone what they should be doing but never do anything themselves. They accuse the Church but never transform the church by their example. The blow trumpets, write blogs, have passionate debates, and in general annoy people with things others should do but they don't do. These are the idealists.

the problem you see is two things. 1 the kind of soil you have [attitude, actions, etc] and 2 the kind of discipline you employ.

frankly it is easy to be idealistic, because it costs you nothing. It is fun to be prophetic, critical, and cynical in smug and self righteous and condescending ways. But to actually be an example and to allow that example to transform others is hard and patient work. It takes character and consistency. and who wants that?

thus we end up with two insufferable people:

1. the person who does nothing [for a variety of reasons] but annoys people with what THEY should be doing [even though they themselves don't]
2. the person who does something and slips into self-righteous, unbalanced, abrasive, condemning, legalistic, accusatory, and prideful wickedness [in the midst of doing something good]

what we need instead is a transition that looks like this:

a. feel conviction
b. look up what God's word says
c. pray about how God wants you to implement this in your life
d. implement it secretly
e. grow character and wisdom in this through consistency
f. invite others to join you
g. help them...others...the church...and the kingdom be transformed by your example
h. kill any self-righteousness, condemnation, or pride that as a weed grows alongside this good seed
i. maintain a humble, servant spirit
j. repeat with the next conviction and learn to balance these convictions with the whole of your life being ever more conformed to the image of Christ.

remember...the problem is never OUT THERE [in accusing others] it is always IN HERE [and in what you should be doing]

THUS the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

do you want godly fruit to come from your passions...then look at this backwards

fruit will show up in big ways
but first it shows up in small ways
it's in you 1st, before it can be planted in others
it needs to actually be produced before fruit or anything else is possible
you must understand it and its implications

so wherever and whoever you are as a christian

PUT up, or shut UP [and candidly when you do PUT up...shut up anyways and be a servant example of Christlikeness]

remember:

nobody follows a critic, and critics never create revolutions, and critics live in crowds but die alone.
prophets can gather a crowd, but if you don't do anything it won't last long.
to know and not to do is to not know.
seeds don't win ribbons at the fair, fruit does.
talk is cheap, but actions are expensive
leaders earn the right to be heard through actions not rhetoric.

most transformation happens through example and encouragement...not theory and condemnation

that you want to see OUT THERE, must happen IN HERE 1st. we must BE the change we wish to see in the church.

spiritual interest in young adults

2009-09-30T10:30:00.000-05:00

Most Young Adults Think They are Spiritual: A survey conducted by LifeWay research indicates the vast majority of unchurched young adults consider themselves spiritual. This contrasts a view of young adults as uninterested in God or spiritual matters. 73% of 20-29 year olds said they think they are spiritual and want to learn more about "God or a higher supreme being." Among those 30 and over, that number is only 62%. 89% of 20-29 year olds said they would be open to a conversation about Christianity – 14% higher than those over 30 years old. 63% said they would attend church if it presented truth to them in a way that "relates to my life now." 58% said they would be more likely to attend if they felt the church "cared for them as a person."

help us name our new space...survey

2009-09-11T15:19:00.000-05:00

http://www.5stones.org/surveys/help-us-name-our-new-space

is it well? / well it is / it is well!

2009-09-01T12:30:00.002-05:00

What happens when it all goes wrong. No, seriously...in a non religious / reality based way, how do we respond to the great ripping and ravaging pain of life. It seems like people can turn to God or run away when the pain really goes deep. Is God of any practical help when your guts are totally kicked out and you and your faith are left mangled on the floor?

So there you are with your spouse burying your 1st child...and then you are standing with them looking over the ashes of your home with no insurance almost all of your personal assets liquified in flames...finally you send your wife and 4 daughters to visit family. They leave on a ship, which encounters a storm...and you get a text message that says...saved....alone... what would you do...what would faith mean? Can you stand in those shoes for just a minute and feel the sickening nausea fill you up. Your chest tightens...you scream...tears break out and explode across your face. And your heart and mind start racing, and grieving, and searching for an answer...a reason...something to hold unto. and on the airplane flight out to be with your wife what would you be thinking, feeling...what would you tell her. This is what Horatio Spafford wrote...this was the comfort he gave his wife...this is what faith meant to him when his life was shattered.... this is a true story, from one of my brothers in my faith

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."
Though Satan should buffet, tho' trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin - oh, the bliss of this glorious thought,
My sin - not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
And, Lord haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,
"Even so" - it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Horatio G. Spafford was an attorney in Chicago during the year of 1874. He and his family were members of the Fullerton Avenue Presbyterian Church. Spafford and his wife had learned what it meant to completely trust God in every situation. First their only son died and then in 1871 most of their personal property were burned in the great Chicago fire. But their greatest testing came in 1874. Mrs. Spafford and their four daughters boarded the French ship "Villa de Havre" on their way to England. But just off the coast of Ireland the ship sank with 226 persons losing their lives. Horatio finally received a cable sent by his wife. It read "saved alone." As he traveled to England to comfort his wife, he was able again to gain his strength from God with the verse, "All things work together for good to them that love the Lord" (Rom 8:28) He then penned the words to our hymn "It Is Well with My Soul." (The tune was written by Phillip Bliss)

the death of christendom

2009-08-31T23:21:00.002-05:00

i wanted to clarify my own thoughts on this, so here goes. christendom is a term that basically means that christian ideas and values at some point so saturate a culture that those things inform everything that is created, rejected, or continued in that culture. In my case, this is what happened in America from her inception till...i guess the 1960's or so. But christendom also can mean simply propping up old and discarded values in forms and functions that the culture and her people no longer really believe. in such a case christendom is nothing more than nostalgia and narcissism for conservatism. It becomes a currency for dialogue using things and words that no longer matter much like the fact of having "In God we trust" imprinted on money that we spend on pornography. In our culture we [the christians] often spend a lot of energy propping up the relics of christendom. We fight for the 10 commandments, prayer in school, marriage ammendments to the constitution...as if forcing the form on other people would conform them to Christ. it doesn't. It simply makes Christianity appear to be another totalitarian cultural regime seeking dictatorship. Without a relationship with Christ, these are simply manipulation and pseudo-religious affiliations that are rammed down people's throats. The truth is, we have already lost the war for people's hearts, souls, paradigms, and perspectives. enslaving them to religious and moral constructs will do little to woo them to relationship with God. Christendom is doomed, and i for one am truly, truly happy. Why? It's obvious isn't it. or at least it is obvious to me. When we finally stop bombing people with our morality we may finally have the chance to love them. The sick need a doctor not smart-bombs, protests, legal-coalitions, and all the other weaponry we level at them. As archaic as leeching and electro-shock therapy is for the mentally ill, so are our techniques and tortures for this culture. Look at the middle-east, they hate us. We keep claiming we are liberating them as our bombs fall, our torture is rationalized, and our policies disrespect thier beliefs. The fact is: Christians are trying to water-board gays, abortionists, feminists, etc. "you only hurt the one you love," true...but confusing as hell for them. So then, finally we are running out of bombs and christendom can finally come to her fatal end. Amen. She has become such a religious prostitute of hypocrisy anyways. We are pimped out by politicians from both sides, and neither are indwelled by the fullness of Christ and his kingdom Gospel. At last the full wreckage will be revealed. Christendom in all her religious form and fury will be dead and paganism, humanism, mysticism, sensuality, science, etc. can reign supreme. And then, after the smoke has cleared we can finally get back to our business. Building the kingdom. Most of the church buildings will be gone or converted to art galleries and coffee houses. We will be 10% of the population or less. It will be like Rome in the time of Paul. And we will grow again of that i am sure. Because the death of christendom will purge the social, political, and other advantages of christianity from the church. Those who are left won't be televangelists. It will be unpopular, rare, and costly to be a Christian again. People will have to count the cost, because all the advantages [o this earth] will be removed. And what will win people over? The things we are supposed to be great at but have forgotten. We will again be great at trusting God and God alone as our everything. Not in some vague philosophical way, or emotive way...but in a substantial all-or-nothing way. God will again be our air and without him will will suffocate. And we will love again. We will desperately and death-defyingly love God and each other. And we will be great at suffering again. Prison, corrective thought facilities, all this and more will teach us how to smile, forgive, and die again. And the world...choking on the vomit of it's selfishness will see these people who are so disconnected to this world of lies, pleasure, and pointlessness and will be in awe. Like they used to be. Christians will look like st Francis again. They will walk and talk like st Patrick, Augustine, and others. Joy will again sustain us in our great pain. Our communities of love will shine like an oasis from heaven in the desert disaster of porn, disposable relationships, and empty romance and sexuality. Oh yes, the great hulking edifice of Christendom will totter topple and fall in a great flaming heap of ruins. And from those ancient and archaic ruins a seed will again be born. The seed of the true Church. The unstoppable force of God in this place. An irresistable revolution will be born-again. An impregnable fortress of joy, awe, and wonder will again have to be recond with. The Church will become the ark of truth, love, mercy, hope, and meaning in the great sea of insanity called humanity. Let's not call it a funeral, let's have a wake for the old girl. Her time came and went, and she lost herself in the living. But when she awakens on the other side she will be made new. And God knows she needs to be made new. Say something nice at her funeral, it's a lie, but say it anyway...it's what people do. But even as she dies, she is giving birth to a daughter who will live on. She will live on thankfully NOT knowing her mother. But her Father...her husband [Christ] and the Spirit will make her great. Her freshness will fill the world with laughter and light. Go oh Christendom, go away...and come Church, come and be born-again. The world needs you. The world will want you. The world will kill you. And you will forgive the world and go home to God. And the world will see this, and repent.

missional sanctification

2009-08-02T22:49:00.000-05:00

A MISSIONAL REVOLUTION

As the stories of our lives intersect, there are transformations that take place. This is a story of transformation, but not in the way that you might suspect.

The word “missional” gets kicked around a lot these days. Mostly it becomes a covert word for evangelism through social justice, altruism, or servanthood. Missional is rarely talked about as sanctification or incarnation or discipleship. But I suggest that missional living has two primary impact points. One is the effect that God has on the world through his people, and the second is the impact these moments have on God’s people when they are with God in his missions to the world. We want to be a church people that are moving into the world in such a way as to bless it, love it, rescue it, and transform it.

At 5 stones community church we are just exploring what it means to be missional. We have formed a leadership team to do this; reallocated a lot of our budget in this direction; and begun to search the scriptures to see how we can join God in his ongoing mission to the world.

Enter a phone call. On the other end of this phone call is a man who has lost his job, has no place to live, and a wife that is overwhelmed. There are drugs, alcohol abuse, and a huge warehouse of negative history for a couple that have lived most of their lives outside of Gods will and ways.

The phone is picked up and a church responds to this story with as many resources as can be found and bought. Rent on a new house is paid, furniture and clothes found, appliances purchased. And two people who know God enter into the lives of two who do not.

At first this story heads in the romantic direction we all so wish it would. The couple attends church services, begins to make friends there, and tries to kick the bad habits that they know have been destroying and enslaving their lives. Christ seems to be pressing into them with his transformational love, and they seem to be responding.

But then there is a fight, the loss of another job, and another night of binge drinking. Followed by promises of repentance and reform.

And those that have been investing in them don’t know what to do. They pray, they call, they visit…but the more they reach out the more it seems like this couple is slipping through their fingers. Finally after weeks of unreturned phone calls one of them visits church, and tells of the affair-the drugs-and the divorce papers being filed.

And this is where the heartbreak of being missional begins. At the juncture where romantic ideas about spirituality crumble and we are faced with the stinging truth that peoples lives are never clichés. Here is the fork in the road for Gods people, and here is the place of deep sanctification. For in this place we must be transformed the most deeply or we will exit the mission of God.

First of all we must stop trying to figure out who is to blame. When things go awry from our expectations we usually look for a source to assign guilt to. Sometimes we stand like a prophet on the wall and blame God; sometimes we blame those we are reaching out to; and often we blame ourselves. But if we stop blaming and start really feeling we can be transformed. Because if we would be missional and Christlike we must be called into his heartbreak for the world. To allow the worlds rebellion and lostness to shatter our hearts as Gods heart has been shattered. To sit with Jesus and watch the rich young ruler walk away, and to weep over a Jerusalem that will not come home. And when we let this heartbreak form in us, and we take it to our heartbroken God he can then fill us with his compassion, long-suffering, and faithfulness. Missional heartbreak opens the door for our hearts to be ravaged and transformed into the very heart of God.

Secondly we must become resilient. Jesus warns us that we will be battered, rejected, imprisoned, etc. and yet we often act emotionally surprised when these things actually happen. We say things like “I’m just not called to this; it’s too hard; or I guess this doesn’t work.” If we aren’t wise we will quickly stuff our pain and frustration into a simplistic and convenient excuse jar and reference it every time we feel called to again engage in the rescue of a dangerous world. But Jesus experienced the same thing. In some places he was rejected, in others no faith meant no miracles could be performed, and at other times his own disciples didn’t understand what he was saying. But Jesus always saw the “joy set before him” and understood the magnitude of the mission. The event or relationship before us is microscopic not macroscopic. We must like Jesus set our eyes on the prize not the person in front of us. Missional living is not an experiment it is a mandate; it is not a moment it is a lifestyle; and it is not about momentum but about obedience. We must learn to be a tougher and more resilient people, a people of tenacity and training. We must learn to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow Jesus as he leads us.

Third, and lastly, we must grow our interior world so that from it we can have the energy and resources for the mission before us. The immature disciple is still looking for some external event that will provide the motivation and momentum necessary to live the Christian life. They read books, attend worship events, and plug themselves into as many things as they can to acquire passion, focus, or intentionality. But the missional person must ultimately be a mystic. Because the world they are called to minister to is so dark and twisted they dare not find their courage and resolve in what happens “out there.” They must instead be focused on what happens “in here” and work their life…words…actions…thoughts…feelings…etc out from a deep and vitally vibrant relationship with God. In particular the God who has indwelt us with His Spirit. The missional community and a missional people are not naïve nor are they negligent. They have a high view of God and find pleasure in serving Him by serving others. They engage the world anticipating it might change, but are more expectant about the fact that they themselves will change. And it is in this fact that they take refuge and find rest, because he who is within them is greater than anything that is outside them. A person and a people that are spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually mature on the inside can face anything. This is what we had when we lived in the age of the martyrs and it is to this way of existing that we must return.

So is this a happy story? Does this have a happy ending? That my friends, depends on you. If heartbreak, tenacity, and mysticism are things to be avoided than this is a gloomy fable of tragedy. But if the experience of formational empathy, the discipline of resilience, and the call to a contemplative life are to be embraced then this is a narrative of epic adventure.

As Christendom dies in America the people of God will have to be transformed. Our lives, our morality, our politics, our church services have become so much rust and dust to the world around us. But from these ashes we are finding the true embers that lie beneath the rubble. The everlasting echoes from eternity that calls us into Gods deep and transformational love. And when we traverse into this love and are saturated with it, we are then unleashed by God to lavish the world with this love. And love is the backbone of the missional movement. God’s love residing in us being given freely to the world. This is revolutionary. And while Christendom may or may not ever be rebuilt in America, our goal is not to try and force this to happen. Our goals are simpler. To be a person of revolutionary love, amidst a people of revolutionary love, serving a world that is lost without love.

And the story I told you of is not over. The biography of those lives are still being written. Redemption is still within reach and restoration may yet happen. And our faithfulness and obedience have something yet to say on the chapters that have yet to be written. But for the two at our church who have embraced this call, their biographies have been forever changed. And the spiritual formation in them has been profound and painful. But I believe they would smile at you from a deep-deep place of intimacy with God, and they say “join us.”

Vacation

2009-06-21T18:00:00.001-05:00

Vacationing

chip addicted to waverunner
girls speedboating and on the tube
Amy tanning and cooking
me...

Poetry
hammock
jazz

nuff said

one service is coming...july 26th

2009-06-08T16:46:00.000-05:00

Blog post:

Churches united. Ya….right. That will be a cold day in ____.

As a person raised outside of faith I used to wonder why there where so many churches? Why did God do this, or as I was more likely to believe, why did God’s church splinter into so many freaky cults that were always at each others throats? Church folk, as I have found, can be an acquired taste. But I have learned to love and like church people…mostly because Jesus has showed me how. Plus, he loves me…and candidly I am not very lovable at times.

And yet, perhaps it’s not as simple as cynicism always seems to be. What if the diversity of churches was more like the diversity of flowers God has created? What if the beauty of the world-wide church is the diversity? Each accomplishing something beautiful and unique? Variety is the spice of life. And some churches are just a little more spicy and differently seasoned than others.

And most likely, what if there is some truth in both concepts? And what if the churches awoke to this and spent time with one another? Perhaps, just perhaps then the world would see something they long to see. God in us, through us, with us…merging and melting into each other in love. Just like the beauty of a botanical garden. Our distinctive colors remaining intact, but our diversity celebrated instead of condemned. A jambalaya of sorts, with Jesus being the one non-negotiable ingredient.

This then is our dream. To build a unity between the Ashland churches. Where the unity of our love in the person of Christ becomes a singular beacon of hope to all. A single light, seen through a prism of churches, movements, and denominations.

And our hope is that this love will be what Christ promised. “proof that we are His disciples.” The proof is in the pudding they say, and we are pudding together a unity service for any and all Ashland churches July 26th at the High School football stadium.

Come join the laughter, loving, learning, and life of the CHURCH in Ashland.

There might even be a frost that morning somewhere.

David Sherwood lead pastor 5 stones community church.

re-defining success

2009-05-29T08:41:00.002-05:00

Metric mania

Or…how does a church, ministry, or leader define “success?” What should we measure and evaluate to define impact?
Let me give you few things to chew on:

The Old Paradigm: most pastors and church leaders would define success from the following measurable quantities

1. Church attendance, membership, small groups, Sunday school
2. Baptisms, conversions, re-dedications
3. Money that came into the church

Notice how much this looks like a business model. It presumes we have products and services to offer and if they are “purchased” we are successful. The challenge of this is…how well would Jesus ministry be defines with this criterion?

quote from CG at swerve: "I was trapped in this for years, my emotions rode the roller coaster of attendance. After a strong week of attendance I felt good about myself and life. After a bad week of attendance, I felt like the world was crashing down around me." The same with budget, baptisms, etc.

Over the last 6 years I have looked at different criterion. The criterion I see God using in His word when talking with His servants.

These include:

§ How many can we bring in AND then disciple AND send into our communities to serve?

In other words Bringing people in matters…but so does Sending them out
5 stones is not doing great at bringing them in yet…nor are we great at discipling yet…but…we are getting much better at sending people out [Spain trip, Missional rev, VBS, etc]

How much money can we bring in AND then send out into the world to build the invisible Kingdom and transform people’s lives in tangible ways?

5 stones is dead-on-target with doing this pretty well. We are becoming a generous church. We no longer hoard money but give it to the denomination, the community, 5th Sundays, etc.]

How much love can we show God AND each other AND the world

In other words the attendance doesn’t matter so much as the attitude of those attending. How can we really love God in worship? Obey his word? And integrate His love for us into a love for one another and the world? How transformed are we by His love?

§ How many can we give AND send to help start new churches?

We are actively working to be a training church for seminary students who want to do this, and we will walk deeper and deeper into this in the coming years
How many Conversations with the world can we have instead of Converts?

IE: The means to salvations are relationships with the unchurched people of the world. Just trying to “convert” them is manipulative and annoying. Instead we should be looking for open doors to serve them and have compelling conversations with them about the substance of our lives. Being Missional w/o relationship is like being a used-car salesman. Instead of that we want to really love people no matter what, no matter how long it takes, no matter the results. And we trust, that love…over time…will transform others just as it has and continues to transform us.

Leaders being obedient to their call…no matter what others do or don’t do

IE: Jeremiah was alone and everyone thought he was nuts, Moses had whinners lining up around the block to complain, and Jesus watched many walk away when he said hard stuff. But when this happens to us we either blame ourselves or blame them…which is a waste of emotional energy and accomplishes nothing. Often leaders define success in weird ways but they need to define their obedience as something that brings glory to God, is the right example, and is worthy of testimony no matter what others think or do. Leaders lead…but also sometimes walk VERY, VERY alone. And in these places the leader must remember that part of the “success” God is looking for is INSIDE you and not OUTSIDE. IT is your character and Christ-likeness that is being defined and developed. Success sometimes is a long, hard, lonely obedience in the same direction. Noah understood this. Biblical success is always intertwinned in suffering and sacrifice. But in this you are NEVER alone.

What other things should we be looking to measure to redefine success in a more Biblical way?

ds

extreme ecclesiology and college ministry

2009-05-27T10:46:00.000-05:00

Extreme ecclesiology and campus ministry: “Church why bother?”

Or

Do college students need to attend a “church?” Especially if they are already involved in campus ministry.

As someone up to my ears in this reality, I would like to make a few theological, practical, and observational points. I will break these out of the following outline:

1. The ecclesiology extremes
a. Barna’s “revolutionaries.” A very fluid understanding of ecclesiology
b. Monastic local churches. A very brittle, enclosed, and isolationist approach.
c. Searching for a balance of church, kingdom, and Church.
2. Fear factors
a. What “para-church” campus organizations fear?
b. What “local churches” fear?
3. Pure and impure desires
a. Impure
i. Numbers and vanity in leadership
ii. College students as cliché’s of energy, perception, and free labor
iii. Rationalizing what “church” is in order to do what we want to do
b. Pure
i. Serve college students
ii. Missional impact to college students
iii. Opportunities for use of spiritual and servant gifts of college students
iv. Mentoring and Discipling college students
v. Getting college students ready for their next “ecclesiological” experience
4. 3rd paradigm possibilities

Prelude to dialogue:

Church or the concept of church seems to be the focal point of many arguments these days. Is church useless; is church just me and my believer friends; is church a building or attendance on Sunday mornings? These questions and many more populate the blogs, books, rants, and questions of students and those he seek to minister to them. An ongoing challenge seems to be that very few people start with a definition of what “church” is. What did Christ intend when he said he would build it? What did Paul and the apostles actually build? While I don’t have time for that dissertation let me say a few obvious things. These are “backbones” of general orthodoxy and not worth arguing over. They are easily proved by a cursory look at the plain teaching of scripture.

1. The Church is both universal [all believers everywhere] and local. IE: It is Glocal.
2. The Church exists to continue the ministry of Jesus. This includes the gospel; the kingdom; healing; social justice; teaching; morality; worship; miracles; etc. IE: it is missional
3. The Church has a structure. Jesus is the cornerstone; saints and apostles the foundation; Pastors; elders; deacons; etc. IE: There is ‘some’ structure to the relationships and these relationships have different leadership mandates and authority. And leadership and authority imply that there will be followers. IE: No loose cannons
4. The Church has a relational imperative. The gifts of church members are for building up, healing, teaching, maturing….each other. IE: Everyone is a contributor and Everyone is a consumer while everyone constructs the “Church.” It is both organic [relationships] and organization [systems, goals, and structures]
5. The Church is constructed with the principles, precepts, and promises of Gods word. Thus we cannot make the word “church” into whatever we want it to be. It is an idea and a living organism designed by God. Therefore we will attempt to build, plant, or rebuild the church always within sight of the obvious blueprints of scripture. IE: Church isn’t just one local assembly, and it isn’t a coach-a few friends-and a dialogue or social justice intervention. IE: He tells us what Church is; we don’t tell Him what “church” we want.

The ecclesiology extremes

In the book “revolutionaries” by George Barna the interviewed people had all abandoned institutional church for a variety of reasons. The veracity of their critiques I will applaud as probably very accurate. However, unlike the apostle Paul [who saw the same problems and more] they have chosen to abandon any form of church instead of focusing on constructing her. Barna never puts in play a comprehensive theology of what the church is, and thus panders to critiques that are to be expected from young idealists. Thus instead of asking “what does Jesus desire the church and me to be,” the reader is left instead to ask “what do I enjoy and want to do for Jesus?” Thus fellowship becomes blogging and slumming with Christian friends, deep involvement in social justice without the gospel being told, and a variety of other things that really look nice but are probably masquerading to some degree a deep seated spiritual selfishness. We become the primary authority over our own lives; we engage what we want, when we want, how we want; in short we get to be single and not enter into married life. Married life being in this case the family of the church. The messy, awkward, weird, fun, hilarious, etc life of the church. Having read probably 10 books and countless articles along these lines over the last decade I simply find this sad, blind, and stupid. The obvious and complete lack of biblical credibility for this seems not worth mentioning. Except for the fact that this position is gaining numbers exponentially and is in my mind a very real threat to the orthodoxy and orthopraxis of the church.

Monastic local churches

On the other extreme are the monastic churches that often believe every reference in the Bible to “church” means a local assembly. This is simply untrue and bad exegesis and theology. These churches believe everything in the church should be attended by everyone in the church family. Outside events, kingdom events, other churches are viewed with either suspicion or downright hostility. In these situations there is no connection between churches, all authority rests in the local governance of the church, and they often see themselves as the final outpost and remnant of orthodoxy. The message is “join us, do everything with us, hide from the world, and hope they join our freakish little cult.”

Searching for a balance of church, kingdom, and Church.

Any church situation needs to begin with some sort of general biblical definition that includes all the exemplary data, commandments, and obvious instructions.

Thus we must maintain balance and avoid the extremes. In other words Jesus didn’t say to the apostles “I am the CEO and I am creating VP positions for each of you. One will be social justice, one will be intentional community, one will be teaching…” Instead he appointed apostles and believers to make disciples that would then build churches [the Church] that would then integrate with one another and affect the world by building the Tangible Kingdom within it. This balance makes is akin to the family unit [the church] being the backbone of civilization [the Church]. Without this we end up splintered and fractured, or to put it another way without healthy local churches [families] we end up with either a highly dysfunctional civilization [see headlines on any given day] or we end up with a “Children of men” scenario where there are no children to populate the future.

This affects the average college student in a very real way. They [as we all do] need a balance of:

1. A fluid ecclesiology of peer relationships. A parachurch ministry at a campus can provide this, and give them natural and organic experiences and relationships to nurture and support one another. But this fluidity needs to be connected to something more.
2. A firm ecclesiology of hierarchical relationships. A local church where they can be mentored, serve one another through their spiritual gifts, be under authority, and be preparing for the fact that this is the last train-station for peer based / generational ministry.
3. A fortress ecclesiology of kingdom relationships. The Global Church connection where they can be a part of affecting the world-wide revolution of Christ. This includes mission trips, support for ministries world-wide, intercessory prayer, etc.

Without this balance they are prey to extreme autonomy; life without protective authority; a lack of family support; unhealthy focus on self spiritual pleasures; inability to enter a generationally diverse ecclesiology; stifling of spiritual gifts…and in general an indulgence of selfishness. And while America has turned college into a rebellious rite-of-passage against parental authority figures…anarchy will not be a reality-based option after they graduate. This delusion has isolated many college students and left them as easy prey for the enemy both at college and immediately afterwards.

Fear factors
What “para-church” campus organizations fear?

Most “para-church” organizations actively support local churches. However they have several fears about them that are mostly valid. These include:
1. Local churches just want free “labor” at their church.
2. Local churches will try to pull students out of involvement with us, and into them.
3. Local churches just want to use students as props of energy and momentum
4. Local churches fear they are getting old and want to “see” some young folks so they can feel better about themselves
5. Etc.

What “local churches” fear?

Most “local churches” want to support para-church ministries, except that:
1. “real” ministry is in the local church
2. “real” church is only the local church
3. Para-churches remind them of the fact that they are irrelevant and they secretly are annoyed at their own failures and displace blame on others.
4. Para-churches often don’t support their distinctive: Calvinism, Charismaticism, …ism’s galore etc.

Pure and impure desires
a. Impurity in the local church
i. Numbers and vanity in leadership IE: the numbers in attendance make me “feel” better about ‘my’ church.
ii. College students as cliché’s of energy, perception, and free labor. IE: “those college kids should run the youth ministry.”
iii. Rationalizing what “church” is in order to do what we want to do.
b. Purity in the local church
i. Serve college students
ii. Missional impact to college students
iii. Opportunities for use of spiritual and servant gifts of college students
iv. Mentoring and Discipling college students
v. Getting college students ready for their next “ecclesiological” experience

3rd paradigm possibilities

It seems to me that there are endless possibilities to facing these challenges creativity. This I will list some sketches which are meant to be erased and redrawn in various situations. They are neither exhaustive nor authoritative. They are ecclesiological dreams.

1. Local churches teaming-up with kingdom para-churches on local campuses. In order to do this:
a. Local churches need to support these groups financially, with deep relational resources invested, and with submission to the relevance of the missional approaches they use.
b. Para-churches need to support local churches by interlocking their programming with churches when possible. IE: don’t do so much programming that there is no room for local or global church involvement.
2. College ministries need to teach ecclesiology to college students in the generalities of the paradigms I have listed above. Most focus on missional, moral, or experiential agendas. They will need to broaden this if they wish for balance in the present and survivability in the future for their college students spirituality.
3. Deference for the sake of unity needs to become orthodoxy in these matters. College students are not clichés, toys, or objects of desire. They are God’s children and deserving of respect, foot-washing, love, care, etc. They are highly at risk in this developmental timeframe and “mom [para-church] and dad [local church] squabbling and getting a divorce, doesn’t help them. In fact this lack of stability and integration may be one of the reasons they are so at-risk to start with.
4. Local churches need to broaden their ecclesiology and para-churches need to narrow theirs. Both need a theology of kingdom to unite and bind them together.
5. We need models of this being initiated, evolved, and adjusted so that we can learn from one another. This is what 5 stones community church is attempting to do.

2009-05-16T16:22:00.000-05:00

The 5 D’s of Leadership [modified from swerve blog for our context]

Years ago I did a study of Joseph. On his way to God’s ultimate plan, Joseph (as well as many other leaders) experienced five specific phases on the road to his destiny.

This week we’ll talk about the four phases (or D’s) most leaders experience.
The first phase is the dream. Your destination needs to align with God’s destiny for your life
Long before he had any credibility with others, God gave Joseph a dream.
It is noteworthy that those closest to him didn’t like or understand his dream. In fact, Joseph’s dream of future leadership incensed his brothers.
How do you uncover your dream, burden, or passion? It helps to wrestle with these statements and fill in the blanks.

I’ve always wanted to _________________________________.I believe I was created to _______________________________.
My deepest passion is _________________________________.
I’ve never told anyone _________________________________.
I’ll regret this if I don’t try ______________________________.

Maybe God has planted a dream in your heart to do children’s ministry or youth, or to fund water wells for those without clean drinking water, or to disciple 12 underprivileged kids, or to write new intimate worship songs, or to create Christian movies for children, or to find a cure for AIDS, or something else.

When God gives you a dream, don’t be devastated if everyone around you doesn’t understand. Every leader is first “alone” with the dream. It starts in our private place with God and goes public in God’s timing.

The Living Bible translates Eph. 3:20 like this, “God is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of –infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.”

If God gives you a dream, remember, He is able to bring it about.
What are you dreaming about?

The Second “D”
To pursue your dream, at some point, you’ll likely have to take an aggressive step. Phase two is to make the decision to pursue your dream.
This sounds easier than it is.

A friend of mine who occasionally flies a small plane recreationally once described to me the point of no return on takeoffs. He explained that on the runway, there comes a point that the pilot must be absolutely committed to takeoff. If the pilot isn’t committed at full throttle, he’ll run out of runway and won’t get the plane off the ground.
The same is true of the dream. At some point, you’ll have to make a faith decision.
Your faith decision could be as bold as leaving a job or moving your family to another country. Or it could be as simple as going public with your dream, starting to raise money, or forming a 501c-3.
No matter what the decision, to step toward your destiny will often require a daring step away from your security. In other words, if you want to walk on water, you’re going to have to get out of the boat.
Remember, it is impossible to please God without faith.
When did you make a big faith decision toward your dream? Or… Do you have a decision to make?

The Third “D”
If you seek Him, God will likely give you a dream or a burden. Once you know you’ve heard from Him, you’ll need to make a decision of commitment to the dream.
The third “D” is not much fun. Not every leader must endure phase 3, but most do. The third “D” is the delay.
Joseph had a dream. After going public with his dream, his brothers roughed him up and sold him into slavery. After being falsely accused, our hero ended up doing jail time.
It appeared that his dream would never come to pass. But a careful reading of scripture shows that God was with him each step of the way.
Someone said, “God’s delays are not God’s denials.”
You may feel like your dream is on hold. God may be doing something in you during the delay to prepare you for what God will do through you.
If you are in a season of delay, let the Living Bible’s version of Hab 2:3 speak to you. It reads, “These things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day.”

The Fourth “D”
If you serve God, Satan will be upset. He will send everything at you to get you off-page with God’s destiny for your life.
The fourth “D” is the crucified life, a life of sacrifices and pain. The fourth D determines the strength you will need for your destination. This “D” will drive you into deeper dependence on God. The fruit of this dependence will be increased determination. The Fourth “D” is the discouragement and determination
Joseph had to endure accusations, and injustice. He was betrayed and hated. People guessed wrong at his motivations and character. And Joseph was at times surrounded by selfish and self-serving people. He could choose bitterness or grace; hope or hopelessness; faith or feelings of failure. But Joseph as a slave or in prison always did the best he could with what he had, where he was. Discouragement teaches us resilience on the anvil of pain.
If you are in a season of discouragement remember these promises and principles:
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 1 Peter 4:12 [ Suffering for Being a Christian ] Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.

The Fifth “D”
God gave Joseph a dream. Even as a very young man, Joseph made a decision to go public with his dream—even though he only faced resistance. If he experienced one step forward, he immediately fell two steps back with unfair treatment and false accusations.
Like many others, he had a dream, made a decision, and experienced a delay before reaching what some would call the final “D”—his destiny. God elevated Joseph to second in charge over all of Egypt.
Some might look at Joseph ruling like they do at other great leaders. People often say, “They are an overnight success.”
In reality, there is no such thing. When God blesses you with what others call your destiny, you’ll know God was with you each painful and grueling step of the way.
Like with Joseph:

§ He was with you when he gave you the dream.
§ He was with you when you made a decision of faith.
§ He was with you in divine delays.
§ He used discouragement to refine your determination

Because He’s been with you every step of the way, you won’t forget Him when you are living your dream. And even if you never get to experience your greatest dreams, He will be still with you.

Ultimately, that’s what matters most.

prayer summit this sunday night at a/u SEMINARY chapel

2009-05-01T13:04:00.000-05:00

We are growing as a church. Slowly numerically, good growth financially, spiritually, biblical literacy, missionally…but we also need to grow prayerfully.

It is part of becoming a “sticky” church. Get used to the term, you will hear a lot about it in the coming year.

A sticky church sticks together, and people that come into contact with it want to be stuck to it. A sticky church worships together; plays together; serves together; laughs and cries together and prays together.

Praying together allows our hearts to hear one another and enter into deeper community. It grows our empathy; it ignites our passions; and it teaches us about one another. Public prayer has more than one audience. It is aimed at God, but it also splashes over each other. We hear hopes, wounds, confessions, dreams…and knowing these things about each other helps us to become a deep community. Vulnerability and transparency heal wounds; bind hearts; and draw us into one another.

Thus this Sunday night we will enter our prayer summit with these expectations.

And we will have a rhythm. The rhythm goes like this:

1. Adoration:
a. We will have a time to worship God and thank him for who he is; all he has done; and all he is doing and will do through and with us. Our voices become songs which are prayers.
2. Confession:
a. We will have a time for you to ask God to forgive you. Both of the things you have failed to do as well as have done wrong. This includes our failures as church leaders, missional ambassadors, evangelists, etc. Failure is a NORMATIVE part of the Christian experience of yearning towards and never reaching perfection. Forgiveness and Grace fill us with hope, even as confession empties the burdens of our guilt and shame. Confession is just a healthy short-accounts apology. It helps us be responsible, and pulls us out of the delusions of excuses and rationalization. Confession is always the first step towards true joy, though it seems to be headed in the opposite direction. Confession without forgiveness leads to despair…but we have Christ and His grace…and forgiveness in his hands is hope!
3. Intercession:
a. We will have some time for people to be prayed for. For us to in unity ask God for help. In this way we no longer feel like islands, but feel like a part of a whole. Our voices are no longer monologues, but become a choir singing to heaven. Our loneliness is ended, and our longing is joined by others. In intercession we share burdens and carry one another. Indeed as the poet has said “each of us are one winged angels and can only learn to fly by embracing one another.”
4. Prophetic praise and revelation
a. We will end by having a time for anybody to share a scripture that has come to mind, and encouragement, or a revelation for our church family. A chance to say thanks to God and each other; a chance to see the future; a chance to see better where we are. Any “awkward” words become a chance for our elders to discern. It is a time for whatever God may desire to speak-back to us to be heard by all of us. For when we sing to Him, He sings back!

Hope you can be there, it will be great

ds

vision and the "tent of meeting" called prayer

2009-04-17T17:12:00.000-05:00

Vision:

Vision is when we invite God to show us what could / should be. That invitation is full of His responding to us by inviting us into His hopes and dreams for us. A great church, a great team, and a great leader enters into this “tent of meeting” with God often. In that place of intimacy with God our church no longer guesses, tries to be clever, or relies on it’s own strength; in that place His creativity, His will, and His resources are put on the table. And we then respond in joy, hope, love, obedience and faith to that which our Father wants us to do.

So I want to take a second to share with you a few things that I have been sensing in that time when I am with God in that “tent of meeting.” As leaders of our church I am inviting you to join with God in these dialogues through prayer. And I will explain each of them below.

1. We need to praise God and gush over his goodness. To do this sometimes we have to build an alter of remembrance for what He has done. It is too easy for us to forget His goodness. So let me take a second to remind you. From the pastors viewpoint. The 1st time I stood to preach at 5 stones I was overwhelmed with the feeling that this place is hanging by a thread, and that it could be gone in a week. I argued with Him when he pointed to Nehemiah, but looking back He was so very wise in starting with us there. Because not only did Christ start 5 stones, but after a time of turmoil He was about to rebuild it. So there we were…burnouts, wounded, a budget going over a cliff, gossip, back-stabbing, blame, fear…and many of us wondering if we wanted to be here anymore. Then, slowly and methodically He moved. He brought Nate in and we have watched him grow as a man of God in ways that have thrilled and awed us. We watched Josh Derr jump in with Kim and carry youth ministry, even while God was readying Josh Sumpter to become our youth pastor. The eldership formed with John and Dan initially and then Jody and Glenn entering in as well…slowly learning our roles and praying for our church. The deacons [servant board] after being shell-shocked with post traumatic stress syndrome was refreshed, and new people joined, and even more are now joining in a role that once was avoided like the plague. Lenore and Amy have prayed for us with invisible hours akin to the widow’s mite, and their words have helped undergird the strength that we are now feeling. Cindy and the whole children’s team have endured and emerged stronger than ever…how many churches get a free staff member….we are blessed beyond belief. Sarah and Dan have restarted women’s and men’s ministry and we are slowly moving into momentum in these new ministries. Our services have become more and more dynamic through the unappreciated and often unseen loyalty , tenacity, and commitment to excellence of Jon. Then Tony and other people have jumped in and now we have a worship environment that is more and more creative and intimate with our God. Amy Stephenson has created our atmosphere of hospitality and warmth, and her team make our rented space our home. Sandy has made our VBS truly missional joining with other churches, and we initiated the one-service last year with other churches and we had over a 1,000 last year and will have more this year. Heather has led our charge to be missional and we are going and loving people in more and more dynamic ways every day. Jeremy and Paul rebuilt our blogs and websites, did our invite cards, and a million other things. Jody has a team of dancers and God is carrying them around the nation and now the globe with worship-dance impact. We have repaired our relationships with Ezekiel church and Park Street, and others that were wounded in our time of captivity. We have started tithing to our denomination for church planting, we were given great officing space right across the street from the Chapel…and miracle of miracles we sold the ugliest building in Ashland when nobody believed we could! We gave over 10,000 dollars to Pumphouse after the fire; paid for thanksgiving for the Archway people; and are giving away nearly 1,000 a month to people in Ashland in need. I don’t have room for all the stories of what we have done for people! We have become a generous, outwardly focused church…we are becoming missional. This year we moved Nate to full time, brought Josh Sumpter in and now have a church that can really take care of people and families on every level. We were a church with a few college students but this year we have served the University in incredible ways. We moved in the freshmen, gave away all kinds of stuff, feed them at finals and sustenance meals, are about to have a senior service, students are preaching and have internships with us, adult mentors have jumped into the “grow small groups” and doubled attendance from last year, we will soon have some college deacons, filled the chapel with thousands of dollars worth of Bibles, and have helped the Well, FCA and other groups have a better worship environment. Wow! At this point I will slow down, not because I am out of stuff to say or people I could list but I’m not sure you will keep reading. So let me simply say PRAISE GOD!!! I mean really, look at how kind and compassionate He has been in rebuilding and restoring us. Our small groups are becoming a team under Nate Shultz; discipleship is growing deeper with Will; things are becoming what God wants. Our budget is healthy, more and more visitors, we Baptized almost 20 people this year, and are seeing people come and come back to Christ. I’m not making things up or trying to “spin” something from a perspective…this is Gods reality at work. Look at how good and gracious, how strong and mighty, how great is our God. Breath out a word of AMEN! We are not what we were, and we are becoming the Bride He wants us to be. We have passed through being victims, past through just surviving, past through our selfishness and are becoming servants to the community and college. Behold….look hard! Look at what he has done and say thanks.
2. That said there is more coming. And that more will be the things I write that I am asking you to pray about. They aren’t plans yet, they are simply prayers. We will then wait on these prayers and see what God says back as we move forward with and through Him and His strength. These things will take faith and obedience, they will take faith, courage and hope. They are impossible without Him, [as it should always be] for all things are possible with Him.
a. It is time. I have been waiting for 21 months for the day I felt I could say this and I will say it again this Sunday. It is time to grow. The time has past by for just surviving and stabilizing. We have built a good foundation and now is the time to grow deeper into God, deeper into community with each other, and deeper into the lives of the lost around us. It is time for each of us personally and as a church to really focus on these three things.
i. Set aside time for just God. It is time to grow strong in DEEP relationship with Him.
ii. Set aside time for deep community with our church family teams and small groups
iii. Set aside time for people who don’t know God. Really focus on your top 10 list. We now have a church that is ready for them. We aren’t perfect…but we are now strong enough to take care of more than ourselves…it’s time to take care of them. God loves them, and that is why we are here…to continue the ministry of Jesus as His hands, feet, and mouth.
b. It is time to fix a few things. This week we are bringing in some consultants to help us. They are a gift from God, apostles in a sense, and we will learn some wise things from them. Our sound system, the projectors…etc almost all our “stuff” that we use to create a “sacred space” for worship and ministry on Sunday is either cheap, broken, duct-taped, borrowed, or held together with bailing wire. We want to honor our space as the Temple was honored, and we desire to bless A/U which is going through a rough time financially. So here pretty soon we will do some fundraising to fix everything we use on Sunday and to also have better stuff for the center of religious life to use as our partners in ministry. Pray about what your part in this will, could, or should be. Doing things well is a part of stewardship and we want to do things well and bless others in how we do it and share it.
c. Lastly. Our offices are getting pretty cramped. We have an open office in the national office across the street that we pay 250 a month for. Me, Nate, Cindy, Josh…and an intern all try to use it. But it is getting pretty cramped. We need space for youth ministry, more offices, meeting space for the elders, deacons, and prayer teams. A place for the band to practice. Place for storage… And something MAY be on the horizon. I don’t yet know what God is doing, but I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing. I have been praying for us to have a place for us to spread out our stuff and do what we need to do, a place for our youth, a place for prayer and counseling, a place for small groups and fellowship, a place for meetings, a place for outreach, a place for younglife to borrow, and all of this in the context of being close to A/U. Where oh where could such a place be? Well, I have been praying for over a year for the old carpenter’s shop. I have prayed and waited, poked around and had conversations, prayed some more and waited. Nothing seemed to be moving, so I just kept praying and claiming and begging God. But I don’t want to pray alone anymore. So I am asking you to pray with me. The National office hasn’t rented it out yet and we aren’t yet at the place to be able to afford it at what they need. But what can God do?! I don’t know but I am asking him, and I am now asking you to ask him to. It is the perfect location, the perfect layout…we just need God to make the perfect timing, and the money available. Pray that IF this is His will, he will make it known. And if He makes His will known…H e will make a way for it to become reality.

That’s it friends. It has been such an honor being here. Moving here was not easy. It has cost me friends, a house, much heartbreak…but God through you is restoring my heart, my faith, my friendships. I have grown stronger as WE have grown stronger. And for that I deeply thank you.

God is good, all the time…and all the time God is good.

PS: I couldn’t mention everything, everyone has done in anything short of a novel. Rest assured if your name wasn’t listed above…God knows what you have done and He is well pleased. His pleasure with you, is enough. Believe me I know, for I have experienced it.

time

2009-02-25T20:49:00.000-06:00

I wonder if Jesus ever gets bored by watching us?

watching Aslan

2009-02-21T14:34:00.002-06:00

it was a long and dark winter,
the wind was knifen bitter,
from the platform i remember
there was snow...down below

and i walked the zoo, nearly alone,
but haunted and hunted by something,
a presence, descending...never ending,
mingled with my shadow,
it leaned into me, through the cutting rain,
and i was awakened,
perception re-emerged,
though veiled thoughts,
construed,
at the zoo.

where the lost roomates of Eden,
trapped and transported,
grieving,
in cages of wire, glass, steel and concrete,
look at us with forlorn eyes...weeping.

and there was a lion

and he stared at me a long, long time,
eye to eye for long-longing minutes,
as if his DNA was awakening to an instinctual dream,
dormant and dead,
but suddenly whispering.

and through his eyes he asked me
"son of adam,
are you here to set me free?
and if so we can run together,
and wrestle,
and laugh as we used to,
as we are supposed to,
before the apple fell,
from those crimson lips."

and he just stared at me, through me

so i answered out loud

"no...i have not come to set you free,
oh son of Aslan, i wish i could,
but i don't know how."

so he looked away, and never met my eyes again,
and the memory faded from his mind.

and creation seemed to groan,
the aches of her ancient heart,
and her lost glory.

and i walked away.

back into the zoo,
I live in,

full of steel, concrete, glass, and string,
back to pacing my own cages,
wondering when i'll be set free,
of the traps around me,
and handicaps inside me,
we are brothers...lost to one another in this time and place.

not just the animals,
but we ourselves.

I walked by the university of bearcats,
and we all passed each other in the streets, doorways.

I wondered for a second if i asked a stranger if i could...
groom them, like the monkeys do...
or run with them, like the wolves...
or play with them and wrestle...like the polar bear cubs...
or wipe away the tear i saw in that one lost little college girl with the yellow hat and brown gloves,
or bring sanity back to the shouting man outside the gyro shop,
or hope to the single mom screaming at her child,
or strength to the old man who asked for a quarter...and the dignity which long ago left his eyes.

but no

we keep ourselves behind our cages,
lest we be devoured,
lest we come to life...and live different.

and i drove back to the convent,
back where,
sacred time and sacred space converge,
where angels drip with water and icicles from the bell towers of saint elizabeth,
where i am no longer caged...at least for a spell of days

and i long for heaven,
as aslan's son yearns for the plains of Africa,

longing,
displaced time,
what a strange way to evolve?
it's as if,
we were instead,
trapped and caged,
by our own folly.

oh God
set us free!

being and meaning

2009-02-20T18:27:00.002-06:00

to be or not to be...that IS the question...

but how do we stop runing so fast and stop to drink in creation and our creator?
how do we enter solitude and silence?

i am cheating!

I am at a vineyard church retreat center that has an old church [lizzy]; an old convent [sister act]; an artist studio; a cafe; and some intentional [communal] communities living near by.

at least 2 times a year i need to stop completely. I need to end my swirling thoughts, exhausted pace, heart anxieties...and stop to be still and silent for a while. To touch the snow, to watch the birds, to eat slowly, to pray for wandering hours at an end, and to walk around and then rest in the strong arms of God's nearness.

It's a chance to give him BIG time, and to have some BIG conversations. To explore avenues of heart, habits, thoughts, choices, attitudes, relationships, ministry, family, love-loss-mystery-and majesty.

i'll share some of this as i go. But today was mostly just winding down. Forcing myself to stop thinking...stop fretting...stop planning...stop everything.

and let REST do her work. peeling my hands off of the world. "de-pimping and re-monking." stopping the worlds ways and going into seclusion to find Gods ways again.

fresh as crisp snow
warm as sunlight
mysterious as fog
warming as the fireplace
near as my own breathing
slow as the dawn emerging
still as 2am
playful as imagination
wise as the great oak tree who has seen so much
holy as the battered church that still smiles over this rugged neighborhood
inviting as the laughter downstairs
saturating as my morning shower
filling as my hot warm meal
observant as a poet
seductive as the Spirit
hushed as a mothers lulabye
protected as a fathers arms
twinkiling as stardust
purposeful as angels on mission

as i sleep away from the world, i am awakening to the other world...the REAL world. And as this place fades into mist, the next place supplants my roots in heaven. an i am upside down again...as i am supposed to be. With my roots in heaven, growing fruit to give to my earth.

but pulling the roots out of earth takes some time...and that is what this time means.

for only when we find our true meaning...can we start being...who we truly are.

slight edit of story: The skeleton woman

2009-01-07T19:56:00.002-06:00

The skeleton woman:

this story was heard by me the 1st time at a men's retreat "wild at heart." It is about how men treat women, and how they should. It is a cautionary and redemptive tale...

an eskimo legend:

Once upon a time --- She had done something of which her father disapproved, although no one any longer remembered what it was. But her father had dragged her to the cliffs and threw her over and into the sea. There, the fish ate her flesh away and plucked out her eyes. As she lay under the sea, her skeleton turned over and over in the currents.

One day a fisherman came fishing, well in truth, many came to thisbay once. But this fisherman had drifted far from his home place,and did not know that the local fisherman stayed away, saying this inlet was haunted. The fisherman's hook drifted down through the water and caught, of all places, in the bones of Skeleton Woman's rib cage. The fishermanthought, "Oh, now I've really got a big one! Now I really have one!" In his mind, he was thinking of how many people this great fish would feed, how long it would last, how long he might be free from the chore of hunting. And as he struggled with this great weight on the end of the hook, the sea was stirred to a thrashing froth, and his kayak bucked and shook, for she who was beneath struggled to disentangle herself. And the more she struggled, the more she tangled in the line. No matter what she did, she was inexorably dragged upward, tugged up by the bones of her own ribs. The hunter had turned to scoop up his net, so he did not see her bald head rise above the waves, he did not see the little coral creatures glinting in the orbs of her skull, he did not see the crustaceans on her old ivory teeth. When he turned back with his net, her entire body, such as it was, had come to the surface and was hanging from the tip of his kayak by her long front teeth. "Agh!" cried the man, and his heart fell into his knees, his eyes hid in terror on the back of his head, and his ears blazed bright red. "Agh!" he screamed, and knocked her off the prow with his oar and began paddling like a demon toward the shoreline. And not realizing she was tangled in his line, he was frightened all the more for she appeared to stand upon her toes while chasing him all the way to to shore. No matter which way he zigged his kayak, she stayed right behind, and her breath rolled over the water in clouds of steam, and her arms flailed out as though to snatch him down into the depths. "Aggggggghhhh!" he wailed as he ran aground. In one leap he was out of his kayak, clutching his fishing stick and running, and the coral-white corpse of Skeleton Woman, still snagged in the fishingline, bumpety-bumped behind right after him. Over the rocks he ran,and she followed. Over the frozen tundra he ran and she kept right up. Over the meat laid out to dry he ran, cracking it to pieces as his mukluks bore down. Throughout it all she kept right up, in fact grabbed some of the frozen fish as she was dragged behind. This she began to eat, for she had not eaten in a long, long time.

Finally, the man reached his snowhouse and dove right into the tunnel, and on hands and knees scrambled his way into the interior. Panting and sobbing he lay there in the dark, his heart, a drum, a mighty drum. Safe at last, oh so safe, yes safe, thank the Gods, Raven, yes thank Raven, yes and all-bountiful Sedna, safe ... at ... last. Imagine when he lit his whale oil lamp, there she/it lay in a tumble upon his snow floor, one heel over her shoulder, one knee inside her rib cage, one foot over her elbow. He could not say later what it was, perhaps the firelight softened her features, or the fact that he was a lonely man. But a feeling of some kindness came into his breathing, and slowly he reached out his grimy hands and using words softly like mother to child, he began to untangle her from thefishing line. "Oh, na, na, na." First he untangled the toes, then the ankles. "Oh,na, na, na." On and on he worked into the night, until dressing her in furs to keep her warm, Skelton Woman's bones were all in the proper order that a human's bones should be. He felt into his leather cuffs for his flint, and used some of his hair to light a little more fire. He gazed at her from time to time as he oiled the precious wood of his fishing stick and rewound the gut line. And she in the furs uttered not a word- she did not dare-lest this hunter take her out and throw her down to the rocks and break her bones to pieces completely.

The man became drowsy, slid under his sleeping skins, and soon was dreaming. And sometimes as humans sleep, you know, a tear escapes from the dreamer's eye; we never know what sort of dream causes this, but we know it is either a dream of sadness or longing. And this is what happened to the man. The Skeleton Woman saw the tear glisten in the firelight, and she became suddenly soooo thirsty. She tinkled and clanked and crawled over to the sleeping man and put her mouth to his tear. The single tear was like a river and she drank and drank and drank until her many-years-long thirst was satisfied. While lying beside him, she reached inside the sleeping man and took out his heart, the mighty drum. She sat and banged on both sides of it: *Bom, Bomm! ... Bom, Bomm!* As she drummed, she began to sing out "Flesh, flesh, flesh! Flesh,flesh, flesh!" And the more she sang, the more her body filled out with flesh. She sang for hair and good eyes and nice hands. She sang the divide between her legs, and breasts long enough to wrap for warmth, and all the things a woman needs. And when she was all done, she also sang the sleeping man's clothes off and crept into his bed with him, skin against skin. She returned the great drum, his heart, to his body, and that is how they awakened, wrapped one around the other, tangled from their night, in another way now, a good and lasting way. The people who cannot remember how she came to her first ill-fortune say she and the fisherman went away and were consistently well-fed by the creatures she had known in her life under the water. The people say that it is true and that is all they know.

[The story is from _Women Who Run With the Wolves_ by Clarissa Estes,a most remarkable book and a most remarkable storyteller.]

ultimately it is a story of salvation. And as we go into John 5 this week and think about a man broken for 38 long years, somehow this old story came to my mind.

i use the story to teach men about loving [and saving] thier wives. But i'll save that for another day.

is seeing believing?

2009-01-05T15:07:00.001-06:00

Eyesight, corrective lenses, glaucoma…

We can trust what we can see, right? After all we rely on sight to drive, read, eat, etc. It is completely trustworthy… never fails…pure scientific fact

Unless we are watching a magician, or looking at a retouched photo, or the CGI in a movie, or we are near-sighted; farsighted; have a stigmatism; colorblind; we have taken some illegal drugs…commercials…info-mercials

But most of life isn’t like those extremes. I really can USUALLY trust what I see. But can we trust what we don’t see. What do we “take on faith” or believe because of experience. We turn on a light and we don’t see the electricity running up the wall, but we trust it is there; we throw a football and trust that gravity is part of how to throw it; we push the brakes even though we can’t see the brake fluid or the brake pads. The internet etc.

In point of fact we have “faith or trust” is all sorts of things we can’t see, don’t understand, and couldn’t prove to other people to save our lives. Love; Pheromones; Brain waves; Wind currents; Electrons; Light waves and particles; DNA; black holes…

Yet all these “miracles” of modern science and technology are simply taking our discoveries of reality and placing them in convenient useful packaging. Cellphones, iPods, Wi-Fi, hard-drives, gene therapy…

What then are miracles? Does Jesus just know more about reality and uses what he knows…or is he so far removed from reality that he can shape it any way he so desires? We don’t know. We can’t see him do miracles, and we can’t see how he does them even if we experience one. A lot of people stop asking because they started asking with expectations that it would always happen, and when it didn’t they just gave up.

But do we believe, without seeing, that he can do them? And do we ask him to do them? And do we give him time to do them? And do we let him say no, if he thinks it is best to not do one?

It’s interesting, the Bible says that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing from the word of God.” And yet most people pursue faith by looking instead of hearing. People say “I would believe if I saw…” And yet the Israelites in Egypt saw incredible things, but didn’t always believe. Maybe our faith would grow more if we spent more time listening to Jesus, instead of watching for him to do some big carnival miracle. Maybe we should pray instead of trying to see.

Just a thought…

resolution practicum

2009-01-02T10:11:00.002-06:00

New Years resolutions [practical help]

1. Be un-realistic. The surest way to fall short of your goal is to make your goal attainable in your own strength. You should make a habit of anticipating and attaining the impossible ONLY through the help of God and His strength. Any resolution that is done without deep dependance on God is an investment in pride and vanity. A resolution is not a one time choice but the choice of repitition and habit, and the 1st habit is always to be closer to God in all things we do.

2. Plan ahead. Don't make your resolution on New Year's Eve, but let the whole month of January be a time for reflection and adjustment. If you wait until the last minute or do it suddenly or reactively, it will be based on your mindset, guilty feelings, or passions of that particular day. Instead, it should be an ongoing process bathed in prayer and with the input of those around you that love you. Put everything into a calendar like google-calendar and then ruthlessly and relentlessly aim in that direction.

3. Outline your plan. Decide how you will deal with the temptation to skip that exercise class or have one more cigarette. This could include calling on a friend for help, practicing positive thinking and self-talk, or reminding yourself how your bad habit affects yourself, others, and God. Try to replace vices with corresponding virtues. Aiming at NOT doing something is not as effective as aiming TO do something.

4. Make a "vision" and "consequences" list. It helps to visualize what life would be like 3 months, or a year down the line with these changes firmly in place. Also look at the consequences of not doing this and allow those negatives to be part of your motivation.

5. Talk about it. Don't keep your resolution a secret. Tell friends, your spiritual family and others who will be there to support your resolve to change yourself for the better or improve your health. The best case scenario is to find yourself a buddy who shares your New Year's resolution and motivate each other.

6. Reward yourself. This doesn't mean that you can eat an entire box of chocolates if your resolution is to diet. Instead, celebrate your success by treating yourself to something that you enjoy that does not contradict your resolution. If you've been sticking to your promise to eat better, for example, perhaps your reward could be going to a movie with a friend.
Track your progressKeep track of each small success you make toward reaching your larger goal. Short-term goals are easier to keep, and small accomplishments will help keep you motivated. Instead of focusing on losing 30 pounds, say, focus on losing that first 5.

7. Don't beat yourself up. Obsessing over the occasional slip won't help you achieve your goal. Do the best you can each day, and take each day one at a time. Let the Holy Spirit coach you. His desire is not to just point out faults, but to be a friend who comes alongside with encouragement, wisdom, and strength for the journey of life.

8. Stick to it. Experts say it takes about 21 days for a new activity, such as exercising, to become a habit, and 6 months for it to become part of your personality. Your new healthful habits will become second-nature in no time.

9. Keep trying. If your resolution has totally run out of steam by mid-February, don't despair. Start over again! There's no reason you can't make a "New Year's resolution" any time of year.

10. Cynicism is pessimistic cowardice. Being a victim [of yourself, others, or circumstances] is the quickest way to negativity, passivity, and self-destruction. People who remain vigilant, laughing, crying, and fully engaged in a responsible resolution move forward and see change. Be tough minded and strong hearted! Your enemy [Satan] prowls around seeking to devour us into his pessimism and pride.

Fast Facts About New Year's Resolutions
63% of people say they are keeping their resolutions after two months
67% of people make three or more resolutions

Top four resolutions:
Increase exercise
Be more conscientious about work or school
Develop better eating habits
Stop smoking, drinking, or using drugs (including caffeine)
People make more resolutions to start a new habit than to break an old one.

new years resolutions [long but worth reading]

2009-01-02T09:14:00.003-06:00

Johnathan Edwards wrote these at the age of 23. I think they are worth looking at as we start the new year. I have modernized and changed a few to reflect a more contemporary cultural and spiritual sense of our times.

The thing that is so amazing to me about these is that Edwards did a good job of staying focused on them through the years. I think in many ways he used this as a missions-statement before the term was coined.

I resolve: [written over a 2 year period 1722-23]

Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.

1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God' s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my life, without any consideration of the time, right now! Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever. I will gladly suffer to bring others joy as my Lord has done.
2. Resolved, to be continually endeavoring to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the aforementioned things. I will evolve in studying and learning how to better be a son of God through all means necissary.
3. Resolved, if ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again. I will wake up, get up, and charge forward again!
4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it. My life will shine as a blazing star pointing to Christ in all i say, think, feel, and do!
5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can. All time is sacred and has been measured and given to me as a precious gift. I will not waste it with the distractions of the world but will take every moment and live fully alive in Christ.
6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live. Carpe Diem!
7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life. I will not live a life that is stockpiling regrets i will eventually be ashamed of and bogged down with.
8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God. I will assume i am the worst sinner who has ever lived and thus be compassionate and gracious to all others that are above me.
9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death. I will remember that death is the great door to love and life above; but while here that door reminds me that i have work to do for and with Him whom i eventually will go home to.
10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell. My sufferings will be mitigated by remembering the sufferings of the persecuted church throughout the world.
11. Resolved, when I think of any theory in theology to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances do not hinder. I will ask the big questions and hunt for the big answers in Gods words.
12. Resolved, if I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by. I will remember that pride and autonomy are the poisons of Satan in all things. My ego is not addicted to self, but to my place of adoption in hrist.
13. Resolved, to be endeavoring to find out fit objects of charity and liberality. I will look hard for where i can love people in practical ways here and throughout the world.
14. Resolved, never to do any thing out of revenge. Vengeance is Christ's alone, and I have NO rights in these matters.
15. Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings or animals.
16. Resolved, never to speak evil of anyone, so that it shall tend to his dishonor, more or less, upon no account except for some real good. I will rarely speak of 3rd parties who are not in the room to defend and explain themselves.
17. Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
18. Resolved, to live so, at all times, as I think is best in my devout frame-of-mind, and when I have clearest notions of things of the gospel, and another world. When confused and angry and off-line with God i will make no major decisions of consequence to myself and others. I will wait as patiently as i can, upon the Lord.
19. Resolved, never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trumpet call me home.
20. Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance and moderation, in eating and drinking. I will filter whatever is about to go into my body through any of my senses and make sure it is worthy of being placed in the temple of the Lord.
21. Resolved, never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him. I will not become that which i despise.
22. Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of. I want to make my Father in heaven proud of me in all that I do.
23. Resolved, frequently to take some deliberate action, which seems most unlikely to be done, for the glory of God, and trace it back to the original intention, designs and ends of it; I will do as much secret good as I can.
24. Resolved, whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, till I come to the original cause; and then, both carefully endeavor to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it. I will relentlessly hunt down my motivations, my flesh, and the root of my temptations and failures.
25. Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it.
26. Resolved, to cast away such things, as I find do damage to my assurance of Gods love for me and my safe place of security in his hands.
27. Resolved, never willfully to omit any thing, except the omission be for the glory of God; and frequently to examine my omissions. What i don't say or do will reflect wisdom and not a covering of my failures.
28. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same. His words shall be as alive on my lips, in my heart, through my thoughts, and in my hands as is possible.
29. Resolved, never to count a prayer worthy that is double minded, selfish, half-hearted, and empty of faith.
30. Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in Christ-likeness, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.
31. Resolved, never to say any thing at all against any body, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said anything against anyone, to bring it to, and try it strictly by the test of this Resolution. "I will not throw anybody under the bus." through gossip or slander.
32. Resolved, to be strictly and firmly faithful to my trust, that that, in Proverbs 20:6, A faithful man who can find? may not be partly fulfilled in me.
33. Resolved, to do always, what I can towards making, maintaining, and preserving peace, when it can be done without compromising Christ.
34. Resolved, in narrations never to speak any thing but the pure and simple truth of what God is saying and has said.
35. Resolved, whenever I so much question whether I have done my duty, as that my quiet and calm is thereby disturbed, to set it down, and also how the question was resolved. I will not be dominated by guilt, but by peace.
36. Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it in a prophetic sense that is necissary for the good of the Church or the Kingdom. And to do so carefully and humbly...very close to God in all things after much prayer and fasting and gleaning of wisdom from others.
37. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent,- what sin I have committed,-and wherein I have denied myself;-also at the end of every week, month and year. I will journal about such things and seek to understand them.
38. Resolved, never to speak anything that is ridiculous, sportive, or matter of laughter on the Lord' s day. Sabbath will be enjoyed as sacred space and time. I will laugh and cry and feel alive in him and not in the things of this world.
39. Resolved, never to do any thing of which I so much question the lawfulness of, as that I intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards, whether it be lawful or not; unless I as much question the lawfulness of the omission. I have freedom, but that freedom must not be ensnared in the foollishness of the world.
40. Resolved, to inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to what i have let come inside of me that day.
41. Resolved, to ask myself, at the end of every day, week, month and year, wherein I could possibly, in any respect, have done better. I will own my mistakes: make restitution; apologize; and do penance in an appropriate manner towards killing these vices and planting the virtues of God.
42. Resolved, frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism; which I solemnly renewed, when I was received into the communion of the church.
43. Resolved, never, henceforward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God's; i am not my own i was purchased with a price.
44. Resolved, that no other end but christian spirituality, shall have any influence at all on any of my actions; and that no action shall be, in the least circumstance, any otherwise than the religious end will carry it.
45. Resolved, never to allow any pleasure or grief, joy or sorrow, nor any affection at all, nor any degree of affection, nor any circumstance relating to it, but what helps me become more like Jesus.
46. Resolved, never to allow the least measure of any fretting uneasiness at my father or mother. Resolved to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or motion of my eye: and to be especially careful of it with respect to any of our family.
47. Resolved, to endeavor, to my utmost, to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a good, and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented and easy, compassionate and generous, humble and meek, submissive and obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable and even, patient, moderate, forgiving and sincere temper; and to do at all times, what such a temper would lead me to; and to examine strictly, at the end of every week, whether I have done so.
48. Resolved, constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly an interest in Christ or not; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of.
49. Resolved, that this never shall be, if I can help it.
50. Resolved, I will act so as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent, when I come into the future world.
51. Resolved, that I will act so, in every respect, as I think I shall wish I had done, if I should at last be damned.
52. I frequently hear persons in old age, say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.
53. Resolved, to improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer.
54. Whenever I hear anything spoken in conversation of any person, if I think it would be praiseworthy in me, Resolved to endeavor to imitate it.
55. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if, I had already seen the happiness of heaven, and hell torments.
56. Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.
57. Resolved, when I fear misfortunes and adversities, to examine whether I have done my duty, and resolve to do it, and let the event be just as providence orders it. I will as far as I can, be concerned about nothing but my duty, and my sin.
58. Resolved, not only to refrain from an air of dislike, fretfulness, and anger in conversation, but to exhibit an air of love, cheerfulness and benignity.
59. Resolved, when I am most conscious of provocations to ill nature and anger, that I will strive most to feel and act good-naturedly; yea, at such times, to manifest good nature, though I think that in other respects it would be disadvantageous, and so as would be imprudent at other times.
60. Resolved, whenever my feelings begin to appear in the least out of order, when I am conscious of the least uneasiness within, or the least irregularity without, I will then subject myself to the strictest examination.
61. Resolved, that I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it-that what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done, etc. I will not be lazy or passive about keeping a firm focus on God in and through all things.
62. Resolved, never to do anything but duty, and then according to Ephesians 6:6-8, to do it willingly and cheerfully as unto the Lord, and not to man: knowing that whatever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord.
63. On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true luster, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, to act just as I would do, if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time.
64. Resolved, when I find those ‹groanings which cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26), of which the Apostle speaks, and those breakings of soul for the longing it hath, of which the Psalmist speaks, Psalm 119:20, that I will promote them to the utmost of my power, and that I will not be weary of earnestly endeavoring to vent my desires, nor of the repetitions of such earnestness.
65. Resolved, very much to exercise myself in this, all my life long with the greatest openness and transparency, of which I am capable of, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to him: all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and every thing, and every circumstance.
66. Resolved, that I will endeavor always to keep a benign aspect, and air of acting and speaking in all places, and in all companies, except it should so happen that duty requires otherwise.
67. Resolved, after afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them, what am I the better for them, and what I might have got by them.
68. Resolved, to confess frankly to myself all that which I find in myself, either infirmity or sin; and, if it be what concerns religion, also to confess the whole case to God, and implore needed help.
69. Resolved, always to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it.
70. Let there be something of benevolence, in all that I speak.

your story with God

2008-12-14T07:00:00.000-06:00

communicating your story

1 - Realize the Power of Your story
First and foremost - remember - there is power in your testimony! Revelation 12:11 says we overcome our enemy be the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

2 - Study an Example of a Testimony from the Bible
Read Acts 26. Here the Apostle Paul gives his testimony.

3 - Spend Time in Thought Preparation
There are a few things to consider before you start writing your story. Think about your life before you met Jesus. What was going on in your life leading up to your transformation? What problems or needs were you facing at the time? How did your life change after that?
4 - Start with a Simple 3-Point Outline

A three-point approach is very effective in communicating your spiritual biography. The outline focuses on before you trusted Jesus, how you began a relationship with him, and the difference since you've been in a relationship with him.

Before: Simply tell what your life was like before you knew Jesus. What were you searching for before coming to know Him? What was the key problem, emotion, situation or attitude you were dealing with? What motivated you? What were your actions? How did you try to satisfy your inner needs? (Examples of inner needs are loneliness, fear of death, insecurity. Possible ways to fill those needs include work, money, drugs, relationships, sports, sex.)

How: How were you transformed? Simply tell the events and circumstances that caused you to consider Jesus as the solution to your searching. Take time to identify the steps that brought you to the point of trusting Him. Where were you? What was happening at the time? What people or problems influenced your decision?

Since: How has your life with Jesus made a difference? How has his forgiveness impacted you? How have your thoughts, attitudes and emotions changed? Share how God is meeting your needs and what a relationship with him means to you now.

5 - Important Tips to Remember

Stick to the point. Your conversion and new life in Christ should be the main points.
Be specific. Include events, genuine feelings and personal insights that clarify your main point. This makes your testimony tangible - something others can relate to.
Be current. Tell what is happening in your life with God now, today.
Be honest. Don't exaggerate or dramatize your life for effect. The simple truth of what God has done in your life is all the Holy Spirit needs to convict others of their sin and convince them of his love and grace.
Be Relevant. Use the language of our culture and then write it; practice it; record it in Mp3 or video it to Blue Ray.

Then give it away!

sworn statement

2008-12-14T06:57:00.001-06:00

A screech of tires…the car flips over…then an eternity of silence…

You are stuck in the vehicle upside down, trapped inside. Blood trickles down from your head, and you try to not pass out.

Then suddenly you see another car coming down the highway towards you. It stops and someone gets out. They come over to the car, and smile at you, and you try to smile back. You start to try to explain that you were driving too fast on the ice…that you are trapped inside…that you need help.

And then he does the amazing. He grabs the car with two hands and actually flips the whole car over. He then rips off the doors and gently places both of his hands under you and pulls you out of the wreckage and close to himself.

You wonder if your hallucinating. Or if you are in an out-take of a scene from the next SUPERMAN movie. Then you pass out.

When you awake in the hospital you tell people the story. And there starts to be some buzz about it. Reporters visit the crash site and investigate the car. The find finger dents in the metal where the man grabbed the car and flipped it over. Evidence of what happened. The door to the car as well has fingerprints.

CNN picks up the story, and there is a search in the nearby towns for this stranger. And as you get better you too are obsessed to discover who has saved you. Your insurance agency asks you to fill out a sworn statement about the events. And the police ask for your testimony.

But you never find the man…BUT…what if you did? What would happen? To you and to him?

And after all, weren’t we all in a car wreck call life? And didn’t Jesus rescue us from ourselves? And if we revisit that in our minds aren’t our hearts filled again with wonder and joy?

And in light of the fact that it took his death to save us, shouldn’t we tell somebody.

Couldn’t we tell everybody!

Who should you tell?

intercession relationships

2008-12-11T10:21:00.002-06:00

i had a conversation about prayer with someone today, and thought i would share what intercession means for a church.

this will take several posts, but the simplist one is first

intercession relationships:

we all need to be back to back protecting one another. what this means for us is that we engage consistantly in praying for 3 groups of people...probably daily.

those in authority over us. Our boss, the president, our parents, our pastors, our small group leaders etc. We bring them before God and ask that God would be in thier lives; that his presence and protection would fill them. That His wisdom and agenda would infiltrate and influence them. etc.
those that are our peers. Our co-workers; spouse; other people in the church etc. we do the same as above.
those that are our disciples. our employees; our children; people on our teams or those we are mentoring. we do the same as above.

when we do this we find that prayer also has a call-back feature that effects us. We end up with Gods heart for these people starting to draw us into Gods will for them. we then find we can be gods agents in thier lives and give them grace, mercy, forgiveness etc. we also find that we then understand how to serve and love them. sometimes this means obedience, or confrontation, or 7 times 70 forgiveness, or a word of encouragement...

prayer is an act of God's people [or persons] caring for one another as a spiritual family with a Father figure leading us all.

many times we have unnatural breaks in relationships simply because we don't spend time with our Father searching to understand how he wants the family to operate. When we are with him, we enter into his feelings, wisdom, and will. Sure we can listen to Oprah, Dr Phil, and Dr Laura and all the self help books and therapists. But the 1st place to go is to God.

when a church does this, and invisible spiritual bonding begins to happen. the church becomes God's people...his tribe...his family. And in this context joy, hope, love, mercy, and compassion flow freely and strongly. in the absence of this...striving, resentment, bitterness, passivity, and hopelessness often saturate relationships. and in this atmosphere sin breeds and forms crusts and wounds in our hearts.

pray...and you will find and feel God pull you into his world. and in his world we change and can handle this world 1,000 times better.

the woman at the well [expanded edition]

2008-12-06T20:49:00.003-06:00

We listen to stories, because we find ourselves in them.

Everyone walks or rides a road. And sometimes you have to pull over and somebody you ask directions from says, you can’t get there from here. You need to know…they’re lying.

He goes through a farm road in Samaria. Another place Jesus isn’t supposed to be. But Jesus is often where he isn’t supposed to be; doing what he isn’t supposed to be doing; spending time with people he just isn’t supposed to be with. But this is one of the 1st times he does this.

Even the disciples wonder about this as the come up to Jacobs well. A famous place, infamous now. And as Jesus sits down to rest he sends his followers off to get supplies. Amongst those…they despise. Jesus is sneaky like that, teaching them early something they will understand much later.

And so he sits. Exhausted from so many miles through waves upon waves of undulating and scorching heat. He is weary, both from what is behind him as well as from what he knows is unfolding in front of him. His mind is tired of strategy, his heart is tired from the battle yet ahead, and his body aches from the footprints he has left in the sand. He wipes the sweat from his brow, and his hand comes down on the smooth stones of the well. He is alone, more alone than anyone who has ever lived. And he looks down into the well, and feels the cool breeze that comes up from it splash across his face. 100 feet down is an underground river, an unseen river much like his kingdom, rushing with power and life just beneath the desert that surrounds us. But for now in his human form, the river is inaccessible and the God of the universe cannot reach the very water he created. He smiles at the irony. Perhaps this longing in him, will help him understand the great longing in us.

And his irony looks out into the wind tearing desert, and off at a distance he sees a small black dot on the horizon. It bobs back and forth trudging forward resolutely against the driving winds, against the sun, and against exhaustion. And as it comes near him, he knows his Father is brining him someone. And so prays for them, and himself, as the sands of time fall all around him and the stage is set for the sacred to gush forth in the desert of the secular.

She is exhausted. She has come so far, and has so far to go. The rope on her shoulder and the bucket at her waist rub her skin raw; they are usually not just carried by an individual but a group. But she doesn’t have that option; she lost that option years ago. She is coming to the well at noon, the hottest hour of the day. The other women come at dusk, a cooling, and comfortable time. But she comes as a displaced daughter of Sychar with a scarlet letter upon her veil. She can take the sun starring at her, but the withering looks and blazing glares of accusation of the other women coupled with the whispering winds of their gossip about her…these she can no longer bear. 5 husbands, 5 weighty stones have come and gone as she has come her alone. And so her shoulder is torn and bloodied by the rope, and the bucket digs into her side. But she has learned to live with pain; it has become her 1 true companion…her bitter BFF. On her other shoulder is the water jar, and as hard as it is to carry it now, it will be worse when it is full. But she trudges on, as we all do from time to time. A survivor, an outcast, forsaken, broken and bruised…but still moving. Relentlessly moving. Running on empty.

And then she sees him at a great distance and her steps stumble and become heavier and harder somehow. Nobody is supposed to be there. She grits her teeth, trying to gather strength for another challenge she isn’t up for. She asks God for help, expecting none.

The bucket jostles when she takes a bad step, and it cuts into her ribs. And she thinks about the empty bucket. How alike she is to it. Once she was a bucket full of potential and options…now she is a bucket of emptiness and alleys. And as she walks forward she thinks about all that has gone wrong. She thinks about the wild liquids she has drunk and then drowned in, the great laughter and joy that they first seemed to offer and the hangover and regret they eventually-inevitably brought. She thinks of the empty relationship she is now trapped in. She has gone been passed around the boys. Each looks like an oasis, but in the end she finds herself drinking burning sand. Love has become a mirage to her, and even the man she lives with now offers nothing but a shot-glass of satisfaction. But for one such as her she knows that is all that is left. One there was laughter, then their were tears, and now there is just deadness and a great numbness that has scarred and calloused her heart into stone itself.

And then suddenly she is jostled back awake to her surroundings. The well is right in front of her, just a few yards away. She checks her veil, making sure it is adjusted for a modesty she no longer owns. But the man in front of her shouldn’t be here, and after all she knows she needs to be careful around men. So she averts his eyes while studying him from the edges of her view. He too is alone, but he is far more than that…he is hopelessly out of place. He is alone yes; but he is also a Jew [is he lost, they don’t come here amongst us “dirty” folk]; he has no bucket or rope for the well which is odd and amusing; and so her fear and weariness slowly drains out and is instead filled with humor and curiosity as he silently sits there watching her as she puts down her water jar…uncoils the rope…and carefully stands on the other side of the well. A safe distance from him, a length she believes no bridge will ever span. He is already unsettlingly close, best to maintain it as best she can.

She throws the bucket into the well, and as she does so he startles her with his words:

Will u give me a drink?

She can only be surprised, while we are shocked and chagrined as the God of the universe approaches one of us and asks for of all things…help.

But she isn’t some naïve seeker…she is a battle tested cynic and skeptic. And the sands of sarcasm scorch out with her words in return.

You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?

And her words are full of warnings, condemnations, and perhaps a slight edge of curiosity. Because Jesus in his simple words of asking for a drink is breaking a lot of taboos. Taboos that dam the distance between them.

1. Jews aren’t supposed to be here
2. Jews don’t talk to Samaritans anywhere
3. A man does not speak directly to a woman that is a stranger

And she wonders, doesn’t he know!!! But he does know, and as is so common for Jesus he uses the taboos of the world to build a bridge between himself and others. To rescue those trapped in a well, Jesus knows he will have to take risks and get dirty.

And so he smiles at the sarcasm and the banter…he retorts

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

So many things are dripping tantalizingly in these words.

1. What is the gift of God of which he speaks, and is it really available to me? Aren’t I disqualified…an outsider…a cast-aside
2. And who is this man that is talking to me, is there perhaps far more to him than has initially been perceived
3. And what is the living water? What is the water that makes life…life again?

Now they finally lock eyes. And as he looks at her he sees the cavernous cistern of brackish misery and parched emptiness that has made her heart and soul hollow and empty. And he knows he alone can fill it.

And as she looks she finds herself unwilling to stop believing that she can throw her bucket into him and finally pull up the water of life that has escaped her for thousands of desert noon’s.

Sir…she says respectfully…you have nothing to draw with and the water is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons, his flocks, and his herds?

And he smiles again. She takes the literal path, cautiously sliding around risking her heart and the growing hope that is bubbling up within her. And so she challenges him on several levels.

1. You don’t have anything to give, nor the means to give it. At least not to the observations of the naked eye.
2. And who are you…are you greater than our patriarch Jacob? Who do you think you are…who are you…to me?
3. We all so easily Jesus

Jesus uses his arms in a sweeping way as if to an unseen crowd of thousands who are listening…and indeed as the years stretch on billions will come to this story, this well, this Jesus. And he says everyone who drinks of this well will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

And as she stands there a refugee of failure and burnout, he offers her an internal everlasting oasis of refreshment and regeneration. And he uses big words like NEVER and ETERNAL. Her eyes are now wide open, even as she is overwhelmed with this staggering offer from a man who just a moment ago seemed to have nothing to offer her.

So she rushes headlong into the moment, diving like a bucket into this well of promises and opportunities. Sir! Give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water…she is almost giddy now.

But Jesus is about to stop this conversation on a dime, and turn it far deeper than she has expected. He tells her go call your husband and come back.

she says I have none

Jesus presses in, not to wound her, but to pull up the wound so he can lance it…bleed its poison, dress it, and heal it. And so he says You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had 5 husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is quite true.

The bucket stops on a ledge ½ ways down and lingers almost in mid air.

She speaks back slowly…looking at the ground, ashamed.

She retreats. Sir…she says coolly…I can see you are a prophet. Our fathers worship on this mountain but you Jews claim that the place to worship is Jerusalem.

This dodge Jesus understands. She feels shamed…exposed. But she takes her own situation and tries to duck around it by asking a religious question. A question that she hopes will distance him from her again, because she is mad she allowed herself to be tricked into a moment of intimacy and hope.

So he declares, in the plural to an audience of one. Believe me woman a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you don’t know; we Jews worship what we know, for rescue is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming, and has arrived right now when true worshipers will worship the Father is Spirit and in Truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father is seeking. God is Spirit and he must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.

While she struggles to take in the enormity of this theological statement, she asks dumbfoundedly a question. A question all the Jews and Samaritans have been asking. A question that is all the more poetic and ironic given she doesn’t know who this stranger is.

She says I know that Messiah is coming and that when he comes he will reveal everything to us.

And the smile on Jesus face is now a full grin. His eyes open with wonder, awe, and love for this woman who has waited so long to be filled.

And a hush of silence fills the desert, the winds die down, and a fresh breeze of coolness comes up from the well to splash upon her face.

And he says I who speak to you am he!

The bucket breaks loose and falls to the bottom of the well, and for the 1st time she can remember in several decades…she cries.

This forgotten lonely woman. On the backside of nowhere. Trapped in a loveless survival. This is for whom the God of the universe has come this day. And perhaps for you.

And we, who watch the story, may find ourselves in it from time to time. He states her past, but doesn’t crucify her on her sin. He gives no call to repentance but to refreshment. There is no structured plan of salvation, no prayer…ultimately he offers only himself-and what he alone can give her from inside himself to inside of her.

He shows her a true reflection of herself, and she is repulsed…but he is not. He who knows her even deeper than she knows herself is here. Here to be her Lord. Here to be her true love. A love far more secure…and infinitely more satisfying than the mere love of a lover.

So wherever you are at, and if you think you can’t get home to God from where you’re at. This story reminds you…you can. Or more importantly HE can.

abraham heschel quote of the day

2008-12-04T14:46:00.001-06:00

“Religion has declined not because it had been successfully argued against, but because it has become irrelevant, dull, oppressive, uninteresting. When faith is replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crises of today are ignored because of the remembered splendor of the past; when faith becomes an inherited heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority and rules rather than the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.”

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

video stories

2008-12-04T14:12:00.001-06:00

check out www.iamsecond.com and listen to stories of surprising people who have come to faith. Joe Gibbs, guitarist for Korn, d Waltrip etc.

very dynamic

staying fresh as a christian

2008-12-04T08:17:00.002-06:00

I am as susceptible to spiritual droughts as the next pastor. Because I know my vulnerabilities, I work hard to keep my passion alive.

Here are a few things I try to revisit:

See God working in another part of the world. God is so much bigger than what we see week in and week out and our churches. visit the operation world website or the blogs of some missionaries. The voice of the martyrs is good as well. Sometimes I also read stories from Butler's book of Saints

Visit an impoverished place / neighborhood and serve at least once a year. Some moms choose what to feed their children. Some moms have to choose which children to feed. Putting yourself in a place that crushes your heart keeps the passion alive. A friend told me once [who worked in the poverty of mexico city] that christians are to live life with [full but broken hearts]

Fasting. I don’t know why fasting works, but it does. Fast from something that consumes your time and use that time to feast on God's presence.

Develop friendships with non-Christians. Caring about people far from God helps keep me closer to God. Just to enjoy them and get to know them without pressure. Trust God and enjoy the people he has created. Someday his perfect timing may make room for more.

§Devoted time to prayer. If I don’t spend time with my wife away from all the other pressures, it is hard for us to stay close. My relationship with God is the same. If I don’t spend time with Him, how can I know Him? Get a copy of Richard Fosters book on prayer or get a copy of the Common book of prayer...or...in a pinch pray some of the Psalms out loud. I go to the park several times a week and pray about all sorts of things; and late at night sometimes just take a prayer-walk around the neighborhood.

Give extravagantly. Something about giving big breaks the grip of this world and connects me closer to God.

Cry hard and Laugh hard. Do some deep breathing. Do some deep CONFESSING and you will cry over your own faults; laugh at your own stupidity; and be able to give empathy and forgiveness to others in MUCH bigger ways.

Visit a cemetery. Seeing today in light of eternity always changes me. Jonathan Edwards [famous old pastor] and his wife used to go to the cemetery once a day on horseback and ride through it in silence. While there they asked God [silently] what they MUST do if today was their last day on earth. Then they shared with each other when they got through. This helps keep a dynamic sense of immediacy alive!

st augustine quote for the day

2008-12-03T18:53:00.000-06:00

"O, Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life. Amen."

your creativity in our church...sent from a friend

2008-12-03T18:21:00.001-06:00

Hey Dave -

This reminded me of something you said a while back about gifts and getting up in front of the congregation. Thought you'd like it.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing
enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel
insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our
own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission
to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our
presence automatically liberates others.

~Marianne Williamson

Prayers

2008-12-02T09:34:00.002-06:00

My prayers today:

For Kyle who just lost his father
For my church family and those struggling with laying down condemnation
For the couple that just loss a child
For fred finks, john shultz, and dan lawson
For several pregnancies
For the men of our church to lead themselves and their families
For this weeks service
Nate and his car
For faithfulness in our tithes in tough times
A/U students still struggling with the suicide
For a widow
For divorced persons
For those in Ashland that don't know god
For those here that are sick
For the lonely during the holidays
For boldness sensativity and love in telling others about Jesus
For breakfast lovin at a/u
For revival and churches being united in Ashland
For 3 churches mosaic westwinds and new hope
And Lifechurch ezekial and park street
For park street search team
For our new youth pastor
For vision
For heart renewal

planning mtg tonight [836 stone creek blvd 8pm]

2008-12-01T14:30:00.002-06:00

oh the weather outside is frightful

But the fires of fellowship are delightful.
And since we’ve no place to go [I mean really…in this weather]

Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

Tonight at planning meeting we will enjoy fellowship, creativity, maybe some hot coffee and cocoa…and plan what God has in store for our church family this week. Pray about being there, and what you might contribute to having a service where all our gifts are experienced by our friends and family.

This week we have a fun one…

John 4
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

[why?]

4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

[What is weird about Samaria?]

7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

[Is this odd in some way?]

9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[

a])
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

[when was the last time you said something like that around the water cooler?]

11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

[she takes it pretty literal…as nicodemus did a chapter back]

13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

[what is this like in the Christian experience?]

15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

[this seems a little odd…like he’s selling Amway or something]

17"I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

[yikes…who’s been hacking my computer and reading my e-mails?]

19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

[why is she distancing herself with religious arguments and jargon?]

21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

[what does this mean, and why does it matter….what’s he trying to do to her…and me and you?]

25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

[…]

john 3: 17-21

2008-12-01T14:27:00.002-06:00

John 3
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

Relevant reading and verses
Luke 6:37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Romans 2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
Romans 14:3 The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him.
John 12:47 "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it.
Colossians 2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
James 4:11-13 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
James 5:9 Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
Matthew 18:21-23 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Homework:
1.Who do you need to stop CONDEMNING
2.Who do you need to FORGIVE
3.Who do you need to CONFRONT with love
4.Who do you need to forgive 7 times 70
5.Ask God for help!

Johnny eight [modernized redux]

Jesus went to Ashland Ohio. At 10:30am he appeared at 5 stones community church, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.
But then things got interrupted. A group barged in suddenly with their own agenda. These were the professors and the fundamentalists who brought in a person caught in the very act of a sexual sin [but it could have been: lying; cheating; stealing; drinking too much; gluttony; gossip and slander; disobeying parents; being judgmental; lazy; addicted to meth; etc you pick the sin].
They made her stand before the church ½ naked wrapped in a bed-sheet and said to Jesus, “preacherman, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. In the Old Testament law Moses commanded us to stone such women to death. Now what do you say?" [uh oh…what’s Jesus gonna do?]
They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus just started to write on the whiteboard with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and sneered to them,
"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
Again he wrote on the whiteboard. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you,"
Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your sin.“
And then all the protest signs came down; and the negative petitions; and the slandering blogs-talk-radio-spam stopped being sent. And the crowd that was so focused on holiness finally learned to be truly holy by learning that love, grace, and forgiveness are a part of holiness. And people learned to confront each other with truth THROUGH love instead of accusation, judgment, and abandonment. Or at least that what should have happened….

Test

2008-11-26T20:40:00.001-06:00

Hi there testing posting from iphone

facebook, blog, website

2008-11-25T10:51:00.003-06:00

ok. I think I finally have all three linked in some fashion

if on facebook, link to blog and automatic blog insertions
if on blog, link to facebook [but you will need an account]
if on website, link to blog...need to figure out facebook connection

thinkin bout christians and condemnation

2008-11-25T09:42:00.002-06:00

John 3: 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

or to put it another way

God did not send his CHURCH into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world

or

God did not send YOU / ME into the world to condemn the world, but to save it

so...why...

why do we spend so much time protesting things?
why is christian talk radio so full of venom?
why do we expect non-christians to act like we should act as followers of Jesus?
why do we try to manipulate morality through politics instead of focusing on transforming peoples lives through influencing them to follow Christ?
why is church the most dangerous instead of the safest place to confess 'sin?'
why do people split churches and bail from churches instead of forgiving 7 times 70 and obeying the command to 'love one another?'
why is love such a low priority and 'holiness' such a high priority?

I guess i am frightened that we have become the very thing Jesus was opposed to: Self righteous; judgmental; mean spirited; thugs.

Jesus confronts...but notice the verse above and see that he doesn't condemn

Jesus forgives...even from the cross

and at times i wonder why we don't look, act, speak, and have the attitude of Jesus.

i am spending some time today looking hard at myself at who i have not yet forgiven and still hold in a position of condemnation. I suspect this won't be fun. But I also suspect that there will be more freedom in the flow of love, than the dam of emotional energy wasted on bitter roots and condemnation.

that trite John 3:16 sign at the football game

2008-11-21T15:36:00.001-06:00

Just in case those frozen signs held up in the bleachers that say JOHN 3:16 at Football games has caused us to numb over with a cliché white-noise when we read these words; let me try to remind us about just how incredible these words are that Jesus said long before before bumper stickers; t-shirts; and wristbands. Words that reveal realities behind them that are FAR FAR larger; more shocking; nearly unbelievable; and amazing…words that tell us about God…ourselves…and where we intertwine!

This is how much God [how much what…what quantity is about to be talked about? How much stuff God has at his disposal…how many pickles, or how many stars or electrons?] loved [ok this is the subject…love…and a lot of it…mountains, valleys, galaxies of limitless love is at his command and he about to do something with that massive amount of limitless and eternal love….what will it be? Where will that loved be aimed…who will be worthy of it?] the world: [the world…you’ve got to be kidding…why the world…why those who have rebelled against him, those that ignore him, those that cause human trafficking…pornography…wars…kidnappings…pedophiles…liars…thieves why in the world would he leverage all of his love towards the one place in the universe of eternity that is so most obviously in opposition and at war with him?] He gave his Son, his one and only Son. [whoa…what kind of a Father would send his son into this mess? What kind of a Father would put his child at risk in the hands of his enemies? What kind of a Father would ask his son to go to certain death? And what kind of a son would choose to go?] And this is why: [ Yes please, tell me why?...what could possibly be worth this? Why in the name of reason would God send his only son into the ghetto of his creation; the trailer-park torn apart by twisters, the hood being held hostage by gangs of the godless?] so that no one need be destroyed; [ oh so that is what he is trying to stop. Our self destruction. The justice we deserve for all those secret and not so secret things. He is trying to rescue us from the insanity of our self-destructive nature-nurture-and civilization. But how…how will this happen?] by believing in him,[is it really that simple? That profound? It’s like doing a u-turn in the garden of Eden where humanity made the choice to not trust God and started trusting demons and themselves. All he is asking is for us to reach out and re-engage again with him. To let him be what he has always been…EVERYTHING. He just wants to be the trust of our hearts; our minds; our money; our everything. But who is this available to? The Jews, good people, moral people, who gets to win this lottery ticket of eternity?] Anyone [are you serious? Anybody…everybody? Me. You! This is too much. The love of God…placed in his ONLY son…killed by us …somehow made alive again…given to us freely…asking us to re-enter into the way it always should have been…available to anybody no matter who they are or what they have done. And if we do this what will happen? If we accept this love is there a catch?] can have a whole and everlasting life. [Are you serious! Not only will the quality of my life here be dramatically better and full of Gods presence…but…the quantity of life will last forever! God wants to be with me forever! Limitless time stretching into a mind numbing forever! Never bored by me, always intimate with me. Wow! Those signs at the ballgames don’t seem big enough now.

Slow down and read this again till the whiplash of the ideas has slapped you fully awake again with the shocking avalanche of undeserved love that is offered to you. The staggering bigness of God, the huge limitless oceans of his love, focused on one small planet…one small group of creatures…one small person nearly microscopic…you! And his love and desire for you is given a razor sharp focus and will cost him watching his own son suffer and die in order to bring you back into right relationship with him. All of eternity; all of his emotions; all of his thoughts; all of his being crashing into you through his son dying on a cross to take the penalty of our rebellion against him. No love story; film; novel; or song. No painting; poem; or even imagination could ever create a greater story of love. It is so colossal it is almost impossible to even bring it into our hearts and minds to comprehend it. He made you; created you; he knows all the hairs on your head. And he wants you so deeply; his longing is so overwhelming; his ache at unrequited love is so massive; that he will sacrifice his most precious Son for you.

For you! [Romeo and Juliette; Twilight; Pride and Prejudice; all of these stories and more are a joke compared with this]

Stare up at the clouds today. Look through the stained glass windows. Lift your voice in the songs we sing. And listen for God in between the words the preacher says. And if you search you will find that He is signing back, shining through the sun, dancing invisibly all around you, and screaming and shouting through His SON “I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, ILOVE YOU!”

For God so loved ________________[your name goes here]______________ that he…

what is a missional church?

2008-11-21T12:44:00.000-06:00

Description of a Missional Church
A missional church is a collection of missional believers acting in concert together in fulfillment of the missio dei.1
A missional church is one where people are exploring and rediscovering what it means to be Jesus' sent people as their identity and vocation.
A missional church is faith communities willing and ready to be Christ's people in their own situation and place.
A missional church knows that they must be a cross-cultural missionary (contextual) people and adopt a missionary stance in relation to their community.
A missional church will be engaged with the culture (in the world) without being absorbed by the culture (not of the world). They will become intentionally indigenous.
A missional church understands that God is already present in the culture where it finds itself. Therefore, a missional church doesn't view its purpose as bringing God into the culture or taking individuals out of the culture to a sacred space.
A missional church is about more than just being contextual, it is also about the nature of the church and how it relates to God.
A missional church is about being -- being conformed to the image of God.
A missional church will seek to plant all types of missional communities.
A missional church is evangelistic and faithfully proclaims the gospel through word and deed. Words alone are not sufficient; how the gospel is embodied in our community and service is as important as what we say.
A missional church understands the power of the gospel and does not lose confidence in it.
A missional church will align all their activities around the missio dei -- the mission of God.
A missional church seeks to put the good of their neighbor over their own.
A missional church will give integrity, morality, good character and conduct, compassion, love and a resurrection life filled with hope preeminence to give credence to their reasoned verbal witness.
A missional church practices hospitality by welcoming the stranger into the midst of the community.
A missional church will always be in a dynamic tension or paradox between missional individuals and community. We cannot sustain being missional on our own, but if we are not being missional individually we cannot sustain being mission-shaped corporately.2
A missional church will see themselves as representatives of Jesus and will do nothing to dishonor his name.
A missional church will be totally reliant on God in all it does. It will move beyond superficial faith to a life of supernatural living.
A missional church will be desperately dependent on prayer.
A missional church gathered will be for the purpose of worship, encouragement, supplemental teaching, training, and to seek God's presence and to be realigned with God's missionary purpose.
A missional church is orthodox in its view of the gospel and scripture, but culturally relevant in its methods and practice so that it can engage the world view of the hearers.
A missional church will feed deeply on the scriptures throughout the week.
A missional church will be a community where all members are involved in learning "the way of Jesus." Spiritual development is an expectation.
A missional church will help people discover and develop their spiritual gifts and will rely on gifted people for ministry instead of talented people.
A missional church is a healing community where people carry each other's burdens and help restore gently.
A missional church will requires that its leaders be missiologists.

facebook

2008-11-21T12:29:00.002-06:00

my facebook page just got updated with a ton of photos and groups and comments and a host of other thngs.

take a look and tell me what you think

why an i-phone is the greatest invention EVER!

2008-11-15T15:56:00.002-06:00

you can get your e-mail immediately
you can update facebook immediately
you can access all your music on your home computer anytime using the free ap simply media
you can access the bible anytime
maps is a GPS tracker and search engine so you can never get lost
you can search ebay anytime
jott ap lets you talk to your phone while driving or walking in the woods...it records it...converts it to text...and sends you an e-mail
shazam lets you find any new music you hear...tuner lets you listen to any radio station in the world..and white noise lets you listen to rain on the beach while going to sleep
gas bag tells you where the cheapest gas is
urban spoon and around me ap's tell you the best food and sights around you
air share ap lets you have access to all documents on your home computer anytime

i think my next laptop is gonna be a mac!

sick makes you pray

2008-11-15T15:15:00.002-06:00

i have been sick for about 2 weeks.

and when i am sick i pray a lot.

and i usually find that i have gotten off-page with God and that he uses this [for me, not necissarily others] to draw me back into what he wants me to be doing.

these are my prayer discoveries:

i decide to do things so that people will be impressed by me, instead of choosing to do the things God wants me to do as his servant.
i give my leftover energy to my family far too often instead of giving them my best.
prayer gives me FAR more insight than study, dialogue, or my own thinking.
the best way to influence the visible world is to spend time in the invisible world.
i run at a speed-of-life that is unnatural and unhealthy, thus when most unhealthy i try to do things in the midst of exhaustion and absent of being connected and focused on God.
my mouth says a lot of useless stuff...what if i spoke only what God would send an angel to say?!
people are rarely villians, but are often victims speaking and reacting poorly to thier wounds; they need help not judgment or gossip.
denial doesn't work.
trying to explain everything you do to the people looking in the fishbowl is a fulltime job that is impossible to even start not to mention finish.
god is good all the time...alll the time god is good!

nehemiah and rebuilding your marraige [from our small group study]

2008-10-02T16:56:00.002-05:00

Nehemiah 4
Opposition to the Rebuilding

1 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed.

How might Satan oppose your marriage being built / rebuilt?
How might you oppose it?

He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?"

Do you ridicule your spouse?
In front of others…the kids?
How can you instead build up your spouse in the presence of others?

3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, "What they are building—if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!"

Do you believe it can be rebuilt?
Do you believe in one anothers potential?

4 Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of [a] the builders.

Do you ask God for help?
How often?
Does he…how?

6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.

Are you working on marriage with all your heart…1/2 hearted…no heart at all?
What do you expect to happen?

7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. 9 But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.

Do we punish our spouse when they try to improve?
Are we testing them to see if they will fail so we can say to ourselves “I told you so” and then not work on what we need to work on?

10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall."

How much rubble [bad memories] do you have? Is that all you look at?

11 Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work."
12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."
13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

How can you fight for a great marriage!

15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.
16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.

What does it mean to build and defend your spouse and your marriage?

19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!"
21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. 22 At that time I also said to the people, "Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and workmen by day." 23 Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.

What do we guard by night and work on by day?

excerpt from what i will be talking about at the religious life network retreat

2008-09-26T11:53:00.001-05:00

when you're dead...

What will the ripples in the pond be?
What will they say at your funeral?
What will your great, great, great grandchildren say?
What will God say?

The day before we are born God hands every man a bound book in which to write their autobiography. He also hands them a pen, and thus there can be no revisions of what really happened. And then this broken image of God is set loose to collide with planet earth, in the midst of billions of other intertwining stories. Most simply write their lives mindlessly mimicking what others say and do…but…a precious few stop suddenly one day and are awakened to a very different story and song. It calls out to them and collides in them in the midst of beauty, truth, and pain. It calls them home, home to the true author and architect of life. This spiritual supercollider creates a civil war within where each man must either choose to continue his life in ravenous and rebellious autonomy; or let the song become his own and merge with it learning to live life as a jazz improvisation of the song sung in his own unique voice. And if they listen hard enough and understand the song of creation they are liberated. And the liberation, far from fading, becomes a revolution within [building in power and passion day by day]. Eventually what is happening inside must be birthed outward and become a revolution around them, through them. And then their true story starts to collide with those around them with sparks of moral grandeur, spiritual audacity, and missional love the mere biography becomes a Gospel for all eternity to read and be remembered.

what we see

2008-09-16T16:16:00.001-05:00

We see what we want to. Jack Black in the movie “shallow Hal” sees women only through the lens of their physical appearance and our cultural values of beauty. Then he is given a gift. He becomes in a sense blind to the physical and somehow sees the inner beauty of a woman he then falls in love with. The tricky question then is…which one is truly “seeing?” The Jews of Jesus day were much the same. They had a cultural expectation about what the great rescuer would be like [the messiah]. And while their Bible told them a lot, they tended to see what they wanted to and ignored the rest. Today it’s really the same. People have assumptions and idea about Jesus and God. But very few take the time to really investigate him; really listen and study his words and actions; they know what they want…not…who he is. In essence they want to make him up, and make sure that he makes their “best life now” happen and love them just the way they are. Beyond that cliché…they really aren’t interested. How sad. The God of the universe knocking on a hearts door…and somebody saying [after the ‘knock, knock] “whose there?” God…Jesus. “Jesus / God who?” The Jesus God who loves you! “Oh….i gave at the office…I just stepped out of the shower…I don’t have any cash on me…the mormons were here yesterday give me a break…no I don’t want to take a survey or sign your petition…and Jesus says “I just want to come in and talk…love you…teach you…give you peace and rest…move into the spare bedroom” and we say “sorry lost is on and my Tivo is on the fritz…it’s the 4th quarter hit the road…come back later…I’m calling the police right now…I’ve got a wedding / funeral to go to now isn’t a good time…I’m holding up a finger, guess which one…”
And Like Jessie from Toy Story Jesus is discarded by those he most deeply loves.
No tragedy…not Romeo and Juliet…not Atonement…will ever be as sad. No wonder Jesus said “the son of man has no place to rest.” God’s truest home MAY be in heaven…but he left that place for something he valued even more…YOU!. Your heart…head…soul…you are his truest home.
Pull up the blinds. Unlock the door. Don’t worry about cleaning up [he likes to do it]. Then open the door and let him in. He may look different than expected, a stranger even. But once you get to know him, and you find out just how much he loves you, you will never be the same.
We all long to be loved, and that’s what he wants to do!

guest blogger...sarah wells [our poet laurette..sp?!]

2008-09-13T23:41:00.001-05:00

Preoccupied
John 1

“What do you want?”
I don’t want. I need.
Need to do the laundry,
vacuum, dust, wash, scrub.
He’s coming – I haven’t lit the candles,
the chandelier doesn’t sparkle just so,
rain-dust has dried on my windows.
These stains won’t come out –
call a steamer, chimney sweep,
plumber, landscaper. I need…
some flowers for the table,
cut and watered, captivating
in crystal, I need some time,
just a little more time.

“What are you looking for?”
Idon’tknowIdon’tknowIdon’tknowIdon’tknow
I looked under the sofa, but it isn’t there,
I even dug between the cushions –
I’ve pulled up goldfish crumbs
and a few dirty pennies, looking.
The trash’s innards are scattered,
soggy tea bags, a broken wine glass,
moldy bread. I combed the cold spaghetti
for some sauce, but all was hardened, stiff.

“Come and see.”
No thanks, I’ve been there before.
I’ve heard your type; you say you’re different
lamb, light, life, word, savior… yada yada yada
but I know. The water’s better over here,
thank you. Living water? I’ve got mold
growing in mine, does that count?
Living water… is it bottled? No?
The boil alert in town says boil it, or buy it
bottled. Nothing about living water.
I’ll check again and see if it’s safe.
Not safe, but good?… does it come in a jug, then?

“Follow me.”
My mother said not to talk to strangers.
This living water, it must be a trick. You want me
for my body… oh. You want me for my soul.
That’s odd. Well look, my friend said you weren’t
so bad. Okay, so he said you were the messiah.
I thought that was a bit of a stretch…
you came from where?! Nothing good can come
from there. Where are you staying?
Maybe you can show me this water.
I’ve got a few goldfish crumbs stuck under
my fingernails, do you mind? I only have
a few pennies to offer for your time.
Two cents, really. You want my two cents?
Who are you, really?
Oh.

john 1:1-18 redux

2008-09-08T09:10:00.000-05:00

This is mostly from Lynda Marshall a Christ follower in the UK. She posted it on a website as a creative way to modernize how the gospel of John has effected het.
Hey, in the beginning which was before or yesterday there was the reason why. The reason why sweat and stink, the reason why cornflakes, the reason why trees, grass, flowers break into purple VW Beatles, Mac’s, feet on babies, faces-hey, faces-there was a reason why when in a moment before now, that which was not, big black all over us became…one of us.
By us I mean the one to one squillion ape-likes, wondering why they like a bad cigarette lighter were snapped into a blue faming moment of existence, and a moment later which was always too soon, not sometimes even able to inhale life they more or less were caught and blown away.
The reason why became flesh and made his dorm and dwelling among the TV sets and buildings with no windows and we did not recognize, kept eyes glued to green screens, quiz shows, news, reality, sports-good feelings, happy endings, never think of this end, this matchstick of a life we are decreasing in the smoke of our vanity.
Hey, stood next to my shoulder this reason why, but I wasn’t looking in the peripheral vision just yet. But I began to see him like Brad Pitt blinking into my fight-club life. And then somewhere, somehow, someday I heard someone say “he loves you!” and it was him and he had been whispering this into a thousand moments I could finally hear.
And then somehow on that beach he unexpectedly breathed into me, and I was suddenly alive and awake for the 1st time.
Yeah the reason why became flesh and blood and we have perceived him, the glory of the one and only, woke up life and the colors in my eyes changed as I saw red, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange for the 1st time. And life cracked open and I climbed out of my shell, and looking down at who I was and feeling the wet water of who I am I smiled.
And deep inside the hey now reason smiled at me and laughed, for now he had made his dwelling within me

homesick

2008-09-02T20:34:00.000-05:00

Going away to college, no matter how far or close to home you are, the first few weeks may be a time of home sickness, when you just aren’t feeling like yourself, and when you’re longing for home. Don’t give up on college yet. You can beat it.To begin with, before you even move in, you should start thinking about what items you’d like to have with you. Pictures of family and friends are a must; I have yet to see a college student that doesn’t have pictures of friends around. You can put the pictures in frames and place them around your room in easy to see areas, or you can put them on your wall. If you have anything special from graduation, such as a gift given to you by a group of friends, or something signed, bring that as well. There are no limits to where you can place items such as these. Also, don’t forget pictures of the beloved family pet. You’ll find you’ll start to miss them as well.Other special items such as yearbooks, CD’s and video tapes can help as well. A list of family and friends email addresses and phone numbers will help you feel closer to them as you always have a way to contact those who you are close to. Websites such as Myspace offer a way for people to keep in touch. So if you don’t have all of friends contact information, don’t forget you can find many friends there or on Facebook. After you are moved in, take the time to decorate your dorm room and make it home. It is your home away from home, so make it a place where you are comfortable. However, the joy here is you can now make it your own home away from home. Don’t let it stop you from being creative. Don’t forget it’s important to go out and make friends! Don’t stay in the room the entire time hiding because you’re afraid to meet new people, college is a time where you are supposed to meet them. Have fun. Go to a few events offered during the first weekend you are there, say hi to the person you see on your floor a lot that you keep bumping into. Little contact like that can help you feel more involved with the campus community, and you won’t feel so alone.

christians are from mars

2008-08-30T21:43:00.001-05:00

At least they should be. Mars Hill is a famous place in Athens Greece. It was there that the parthenon presented the world with many great ideas; it was there that Socrates was tried and drank hemlock as a death sentence; and it was there that the Apostle Paul presented Christianity to the greek people.
But it was very different from Peter’s preaching to the Jews on Pentecost. Why?
Well Peter could take a bullhorn and yell at the Jews because they had witnessed the events around Jesus life for themselves and they were familiar with the Bible and the stories of a coming messiah [rescuer] So he could tee-off in a religious rhoid rage like any good flipped-out Old Testament prophet and the people understood.
But try that in Tokyo…or New York City…or Ashland. And what do you get?
Paul on the other hand is a much better example for our situation. He uses a poem about Zeus written by a famous stoic “in him we live and breath and have our being” and sets the stage for talking about God with pop-culture. On Mars Hill he uses what they know to explain what they don’t know. Just like if we use u-tube; films; music etc. This was Paul’s style…but the substance was the same as what Pete talked about at Pentecost. The substance was still Jesus.
So here’s the gig for you. What is your evangelism style? Do you really wanna act like a used car salesman shouting through a bullhorn?! Probably not. How about instead inviting people over for dinner…or making a video testimony…or some graphic art…or a short film…or baking some cookies…or…
This is the martian way of evangelism. And everybody loves martians because they are just strange little people from another world usually with cool powers. And yes our citizenship is from another world. Heaven. But while we are still here we have a job to do for Jesus. We need to tell people about him. The trick is to tell it in a way that provokes the response Paul got when they said in my paraphrase “freaky dude, let me mull it over…come back tomarrow and we’ll pick it up where we left off.”
“count conversations NOT conversions”

surviving your freshman year in college

2008-08-26T21:32:00.002-05:00

Go to all orientations. Do you really need to go on yet another campus tour? Yes. The faster you learn your way around campus -- and around all the red tape -- the more at ease you'll feel and the better prepared you'll be when issues arise.
Get to know your roommate and others in your residence hall. The people you live with, most of whom are going through similar experiences and emotions, are your main safety net -- not only this year, but for all your years. You may change roommates after the first semester or you may stay roommates for all four years -- just take the time to get to know your fellow first-year students. If you can join a 242 group through the center for religious life. These friends and a mentor make all the difference in the world.
Get Organized. In high school, the teachers tended to lead you through all the homework and due dates. In college, the professors post the assignments -- often for the entire semester -- and expect you to be prepared. Buy an organizer, a PDA, a big wall calendar -- whatever it takes for you to know when assignments are due.
Find the ideal place for you to study. It may be your dorm room or a cozy corner of the chapel, but find a place that works best for you to get your work done -- while avoiding as many distractions as possible.
Go to class. Obvious, right? Maybe, but sleeping in and skipping that 8 am class will be tempting at times. Avoid the temptation. Besides learning the material by attending classes, you'll also receive vital information from the professors about what to expect on tests, changes in due dates, etc.
Become an expert on course requirements and due dates. Professors spend hours and hours preparing course syllabi and calendars so that you will know exactly what is expected of you -- and when. One of the lamest excuses a student can give a professor: "I didn't know it was due today."
Meet with your professors. Speaking as an instructor at the Seminary, I can assure you there are only upsides to getting to know your professors, especially if later in the semester you run into some snags. Professors schedule office hours for the sole purpose of meeting with students -- take advantage of that time.
Get to know your academic adviser. This is the person who will help you with course conflicts, adding or dropping courses, scheduling of classes for future semesters, deciding on majors and minors. This person is a key resource for you -- and should be the person you turn to with any academic issues or conflicts. And don't be afraid of requesting another adviser if you don't click with the one first assigned to you.
Seek a balance. College life is a mixture of social and academic happenings. Don't tip the balance too far in either direction. One of my favorite former students always used to say her motto was to "study hard so she could play hard."
Get involved on campus. A big problem for a lot of new students is a combination of homesickness and a feeling of not quite belonging. A solution? Consider joining a select group -- and be careful not to go overboard -- of student organizations, clubs, sororities or fraternities, or sports teams. You'll make new friends, learn new skills, and feel more connected to your school. Go to 5 stones community church on Sundays and find a midweek service like the well, FCA, or Newman to attend as well. It will recharge your batteries.
Strive for good grades. Another obvious one here, right? Remember the words of the opening paragraph; while good grades could have come naturally to you in high school, you will have to earn them in college -- and that means setting some goals for yourself and then making sure you work as hard as you can to achieve them.
Take advantage of the study resources on campus. Just about all colleges have learning labs and tutors available. If you're having some troubles, these resources are another tool available to you. Another idea: form study groups.
Make time for you. Be sure you set aside some time and activities that help you relax and take the stress out of your day or week. Whether it's enlisting yoga techniques, watching your favorite television shows, or writing in a journal, going to the chapel prayer room, be good to yourself.
Don't feel pressured to make a hasty decision about a career or a major. It doesn't matter if it seems as though everyone else seems to know what they're doing with their lives -- believe me, they don't -- college is the time for you to really discover who you are, what you enjoy doing, what you're good at, and what you want to be. It's not a race; take your time and enjoy exploring your options.
Take responsibility for yourself and your actions. Don't look to place the blame on others for your mistakes; own up to them and move on. Being an adult means taking responsibility for everything that happens to you.
Make connections with students in your classes. One of my best students said his technique in the first week of classes was to meet at least one new person in each of his classes. It expanded his network of friends -- and was a crucial resource at times when he had to miss a class.
Find the Career Services Office. Regardless of whether you are entering college as undeclared or have your entire future mapped out, seek out the wonderful professionals in your college's career services office and get started on planning, preparing, and acting on your future.
Prioritize your life. It may have been easy in high school to wait until the last minute to complete an assignment and still get a good grade, but that kind of stuff will not work for you in college. Give yourself deadlines -- and stick to them.
Stay healthy/Eat Right. A lot of problems first-year students face can be traced back to an illness that kept them away from classes for an extended period of time that led to a downward spiraling effect. Get enough sleep, take your vitamins, and eat right. If you haven't heard the jokes about college food, you soon will. And without mom or dad there to serve you a balanced meal, you may be tempted to go for those extra fries or cookies. Stay healthy and avoid the dreaded extra "Freshman 15" pounds by sticking to a balanced diet.
Learn to cope with homesickness. It's only natural that there will be times when you miss your family, even if you were one of those kids who couldn't wait to get away. Find a way to deal with those feelings, such as making a phone call or sending some email home.
Stay on campus as much as possible. Whether it's homesickness, a job, or a boyfriend or girlfriend from home, try not to leave campus too soon or too often. The more time you spend on getting to know the campus and your new friends, the more you'll feel at home at school. And why not take advantage of all the cultural and social events that happen on campus?
Seek professional help when you need it. Most colleges have health and counseling centers. If you're sick or feeling isolated or depressed, please take advantage of the many services these offices provide students. You don't have to face these issues by yourself.
Keep track of your money. If you've never had to create a budget, now is the time to do so. Find ways to stretch your money - and as best you can, avoid all those credit card solicitations you'll soon be receiving. The average credit card debt of college grads is staggering.
Don't cut corners. College is all about learning. If you procrastinate and cram, you may still do well on tests, but you'll learn very little. Even worse, don't cheat on term papers or tests.
Be prepared to feel overwhelmed. There's a lot going in your life right now. Expect to have moments where it seems a bit too much. As one student says, be prepared to feel completely unprepared. The trick is knowing that you're not the only one feeling that way.

Top 10 Reasons College Students Leave/Drop-Out

Too much fun at the expense of classes and grades
A sense of not belonging; a sense of isolation, homesickness
Academically unprepared; burned-out on education
Financial constraints; low on funds
Personal family issues
Academic climate/fit
Choice of wrong major; major not offered
Lack of advising, guidance
Demands from part-time or full-time employment
Move to a different geographic location

7+19+364

2008-08-26T20:59:00.002-05:00

I dated my wife Amy for 7 years [she was 14 when we started!]
we have been married for 19 years
and 364 days

wed it will be 20 years of marriage
27 years of relationship

with that in mind i thought i would give some of you singles a few things to mull over at the 20 year point.

attraction is VASTLY over-rated. 3 things are real. 1 we all make-love in the dark! 2 making love is an act of intimacy with the whole of a person. 3 getting wrinkled, gray, and fat is a wonderful sign that vogue magazine and GQ are no longer your slave-masters.
having a mutual MISSION is more important in terms of compatability than you can imagine. Enjoying the same music, tv shows etc will seem crazy when you are up to your ears in diapers. But having the same mission in life will keep you drawn together.
FEELINGS are the product of actions and attitude. Feeling like you are in or out of love is funny to married people. We see each other sitting on the can...we do things that drive each other nuts...our emotions are all over the map. Covenant and committment are driven by a choice of attitude and a set of consistant actions. Feelings will follow.
ROMANCE matters and people want to feel pursued. BUT, learning to trust and feel comfortable with each other is really, really nice and losing the competative nature of neurotic pusuit is one of the great things about staying married. ENTITLEMENT attitudes suck...but so does Conditional love.
You will fret and fight over MONEY, SEX, and Child-rearing more than you think. Have a good plan for handling these things. and understand you are not alone, each decade will have new challenges which can be met with good communication, regular couselling, and a lot of faith.
The ability to give GRACE and COMPASSION for your spouses weaknesses and immaturity cannot be over-exaggerated.
This won't sound hip, in fact it will be VERY old fashioned. But men thrive and grow in ADMIRATON and RESPECT and women love to have true INTIMACY and nourturing PROTECTION.
He will never be JERRY McGuire, and she will never be ANGELINA Pitt. Get over it.
Having a sense of HUMOR and an ability to laugh at yourself and roll-with-it will get you through the hard times far more than skill, reason, etc.
Your spouse is the most dangerous person in the world, and the safest. Nobody will ever have the keys to your heart that they will. Marry somebody that is TRUSTWORTHY.
PS: Girls...try not to marry a boy...guys, frigin put down the PS3 controllers and grow up!

below is a book to look at. Not perfect but some good advice.

The Twenty Something Manifesto: Quarter-Lifers Speak out about Who They are, What They Want, and How to Get IT (New World Library), is out NOW! This book for women and men delves deeper into the issues of Expectation HangoversTM and the life skills needed to create the life you want! The book's format includes stories & guidance queries from twenty-something's, followed by commentary by Christine; Life Coach and quarter-life crisis expert. Order your copy today! Be sure to visit the 20 Something Manifesto WEBSITEThe Manifesto survey continues! Please take 5 minutes to share your twenty-something experience and become part of Christine's mission of "Transforming the Twenty-Something Experience!" CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY

luke 15 redux

2008-08-25T18:12:00.000-05:00

"There was once a Father who had two sons. The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want to go to college and have a limitless Visa card while I’m there, and a Mustang convertible. "So the father cashed in his portfolio and most of his retirement. It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant universe-city. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his [dad’s] money, there was not as generous a bell curve as he had expected, and he flunked out as well. He signed on with a local citizen who assigned him to clean at his farm. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. He even missed Convo... "That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those union guys working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I'm going back to my dad. I'll say to him, dad, I've rebelled against God, I've taken advantage of you; I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.' He got right up and went home to his dad. "When he was still a long way off, his dad saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, wrestled him to the ground and kissed him. The son started his speech: 'Father, I've rebelled against God and you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.' "But the dad wasn't listening. He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Go to American Eagle and dress him. Put the family AMEX in his wallet and Adidas on his feet. Then go down to the BBQ and fire up some ribs. We're going to feast! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!' And they began to have a wonderful time. "All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day's work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard Death Cab for Cutie playing and dancing. Calling over one of the caterer’s, he asked what was going on. He told him, 'Your brother came home. Your dad has ordered a feast—barbecued beef! And brewski’s—because he has him home safe and sound.' "The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His dad came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!' "His dad said, 'Son, you don't understand. You're with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he's alive! He was lost, and he's found!'"

an open letter to A/U students...new and returning

2008-08-20T17:21:00.001-05:00

Are you alone?

Every time you move, this question will jump up into your heart for at least a few seconds. If you indulge it the other questions will follow: “Will I make friends; do I have what it takes; was this the right decision?”
Nobody can answer all the questions that will creep into your heart and mind, but I can answer one with extreme clarity. The question might come in a lot of forms but the answer is “you will be loved and accepted…just the way you are.”

Our church is a sanctuary. A place of grace where “you can belong, even if you don’t believe” and “no perfect people allowed” are part of our spiritual DNA. You can be exploring faith; asking the question ‘church, why bother?’; or simply asking God how to be transformed more into someone who looks like Jesus-and how to teach and serve others as he did. We are passionate about being servants to the university and the community.5 stones community church exists to love God by helping others to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. It’s a tall-order, and none of us have it all figured out. But God is leading us into transformation; a world-wide revolution of love; spiritual experiences; moral grandeur and soulish audacity. We learn from each other and we love. We laugh and we cry. We ask questions and when we don’t have answers we don’t barf cliché’s and platitudes on people. Super ‘religious’ people don’t understand us; we are into relationships not religion.

And I’m the leader of this rag-tag group of misfits. Expatriates from heaven who are more than we were and less than what we will become. And we have made a few choices. 3 actually. 1 we will love God, because we choose to and because he loves us; 2 we will love each other, because we choose to and because God has shown us how; and 3 we will love YOU because we choose to and because this is part of the mission of our church family. So when you’re ready come see us. We will love ya, feed ya, cry or laugh with ya, answer questions as best we can, and in general just be that “safe place” you can go to if it is time to explore faith; come home to God; or need bail money after way too much drinking and assorted unsavory behaviors catch-up to you J And yes my teaching is full of Bible verses, sarcasm, and movie clips. I get paid to annoy people…it’s the greatest job in the world. I comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.

We meet at Miller Chapel on the A/U campus every Sunday at 10:30am. Bring your doubts, hangovers, desire for God etc. and join us. I have an office in the building right next to common grounds and I am available 24/7 for you as well. My cellphone number is 419-554-1447 and the e-mail is david@5stones.org.

PS: believe it or not God loves you more than you can even imagine. And you are never really alone; he is just a prayer away!

the chihuahua's are coming...you've been warned

2008-08-20T15:01:00.002-05:00

soon you will see some posters around a/u, they function as a public service warning for packs of angry chihuahua's that are roaming the campus.

these animals are dangerous. However they fear miller chapel for some strange / spiritual reason. Thus we [5 stones] are providing the chapel as a refuge / sanctuary.

they like to attack between the hours of 10:30am and noon on sundays.

and no...your dorm isn't safe.

before they complete thier revolution...and the coming concentration camps and cultural revolution. Join with us as the last refuge of safety.

10 reasons not to invite people into relationship with jesus

2008-08-20T14:36:00.002-05:00

10 Reasons Not To Invite People to Follow Christ at 5 stones

we are afraid of rejection.
we think everyone at church is already a believer.
we wouldn’t dream of offending someone. [ya right]
we don’t really believe the gospel changes lives.
we are so busy preaching about “sex” or “how to have a better life” that you don’t have time to present Christ.
we would rather tell another joke than spend time explaining the gospel.
we don’t want to be criticized for being narrow minded.
we care more about everyone feeling welcome than about their eternity.
we are embarrassed to talk a lot about Jesus.
we don’t really really believe the gospel ourselves, or we've gotten so used to it we are bored by it and have forgotten the joy and wonder of rescue and transformation

presenting jesus to people at church...why?

2008-08-19T15:29:00.000-05:00

10 Reasons to Invite People to Follow Christ Every Week At Church

1. Someone may be at church only once.
2. The Holy Spirit may have been working on them for months or years.
3. Even some churched people don’t understand the gospel.
4. Many trust in the church for salvation instead of trusting Christ.
5. Seeing others saved gives believers another reason to worship and motivation to witness.
6. New Christians can “light a church on fire.”
7. Angels in heaven get to party when one person meets Christ.
8. Hell is a real place.
9. You care deeply about people.
10. Families, workplaces, neighborhoods, cities, and generations could be different when one person meets Christ.

leadership summit this sunday after church 1-3pm

2008-08-15T11:41:00.000-05:00

Mandatory meeting for anyone who has leadership responsibilities and is in
charge of a budget:

This will be the most important leadership summit so far..

Why?

Because we are going to officially end the season of surviving and getting
healthy and start to grow.

Our long term plan is

This year: grow: start to be a good church
Next year: develop: move into being a very good church
The following year: deploy: being a great church

This year as we grow there are 3 things we want to get very good at:

Loving God
Loving each other
Loving the unchurched

1-3 pm in Bixler [on a/u campus] 3rd floor...THIS SUNDAY

1-1:30 Budget stuff with Sue and Sarah
1:30-2 DVD of "they like Jesus but not the church"
2-2:30 vision and worksheets. Calendar for the fall re-start
2:30-3 presentations, dialogue and metrics for 2008-2009

Also: Mario is joining Dan Stephenson's team for men's ministry

And

We are starting to look for a women's ministry coordinator [BUT...they
cannot be point person for anything else] and we will help form a team
around them

reasons people choose a church

2008-08-05T22:06:00.000-05:00

Top 13 Reasons that Unchurched People Choose a Church
(research conducted by Ranier)
90% - Pastor/Preaching
88% - Doctrines
49% - Friendliness of Members
42% - Other Issues
41% - Someone Church Witnessed to Me
38% - Family Member
37% - Sensed God’s Presence/Atmosphere of Church
25% - Relationship Other than Family Member
25% - Sunday School Class
25% - Children’s/Youth Ministry
12% - Other Groups/Ministries
11% - Worship Style/Music
7% - Location
Top 9 Reasons that Church-Attenders Choose a Church(research conducted by the Barna Group in 1999)
58% - Doctrine/Theology
53% - People Caring for Each Other
52% - Preaching
45% - Friendliness
45% - Children’s Programs
43% - Helping the Poor
36% - Denomination
35% - Like the Pastor
26% - Sunday School
Top 6 Things that Keep the Formerly Unchurched Active in the Church(research conducted by Ranier)
62% - Ministry Involvement
55% - Sunday School
54% - Obedience to God
49% - Fellowship of Members
38% - Pastor/Preaching
14% - Worship Services
The statistics speak for themselves. Overall, doctrine, the pastor and his preaching, and the friendliness and fellowship of the congregation are the most influential qualities.

praying for other churches

2008-08-01T07:20:00.002-05:00

a little backstory: 4 years ago i was a finalist to be pastor of a church in michigan. [pipe down with the boo-hiss you ohio freaks!] anyhow, i exited the process when i was a finalist with one other person. But i have prayed for this church for 4 years and finally visited it 2 weeks ago. Anyways, I am friends with a person on staff and we have been e-mailing since my visit. This is from an e-mail to her and from my journal. it is about sitting in the pastors office when i visited there...and...i suppose it is about how weird my prayer life is, and the fact that you pay me to write things like this to encourage other pastors, churches, etc that you have no reference point for. I thought in light of 1-service this last weekend...this might be interesting for you to read. The former pastor's name was Ron.

A journal entry: about being in the room for the pastoral team.

“I was in that room a long time ago, even though I have never been there. Walking in was like walking into a familiar place, but there was a definition to it that I hadn’t experienced before. I saw the shelves that had held Ron’s books, now held other ones, and might have held mine. The desks were messy and the OCD part of my brain cringed a little and wanted to tidy things up. Even the colors were what I expected, right down to the lights. But what was really shocking to me was what was unseen. The ceiling was dripping with ideas and plans for the church and kingdom. Like stalactites they jutted down and some were Ron’s, Dave’s, Randy’s, John’s…even mine. Some had fallen to the floor, some were still dripping and growing, and some were cracked and about to fall. And the carpet was full of salt-stains nobody will ever see. All those prayers, the rushing gushing torrent of dreams, frustrations, pain, abandonment, whiplash, and exhaustion. There was even some knee-grooves in the carpet pattern, like the smooth grooves in the wood of the old prayer shanties of the pietists…worn down by knees dug into ground raising voices to that great throne which thunders over us. And the walls…the walls that have seen things and been imprinted by them in ways nobody will fathom. The day things were first moved in; the day of the resignation letter; the long hollow wait; the new team; the anguish of cancer; wanting to leave…called to stay… But there are windows here too, even if nobody can see them. Windows that gush forth new days…over and over again. Glints of sunlight that stream in from heaven; tides that wash down from the ocean of God; and snow and rain which are Jesus own tears of intercession. And Jesus visits this room a lot. I can smell him there…thick…like gardenia’s from the neighbors garden. His hands touch the books, and his finger linger over the desks…bottles of wine…and more. He comes in like a janitor, late at night. He fixes some things, replaces light bulbs, and carefully pulls each tear from the carpet with an eyedropper and saves them in an urn. He touches the walls and they repeat all the prayers of the day both the ones aloud and the silent deeper..groaning ones. He falls to his own knees and his shadow touches everything in the room, leaving some weird residue…mist…anointing holy mist that will stay stuck to everything…subtly…for another day. And he posts angels around the room…over it, in it, sitting on the cables that run to the computers…strange creatures full of light and mystery that keep those other strange dark brothers from coming in with their temptations and torture devices. Finally Jesus says something and his breath like rolling waters fills the room and drowns it in his will. It dries up quickly, but oddly, is still there. As he leaves the room seems somehow like an aquarium more than an office. A place of cool, deep-dark, mysterious and foreign waters. A world within our world that we don’t understand. But by far the weirdest thing to me is walking around this room and seeing my own graffiti plastered on the walls. 4 years of intercession, like layers of ethereal wallpaper strangely asking things…protecting things…nurturing things…carrying things…long after Jesus made it clear I couldn’t go. In the weirdness of my life I have no category for this. I pray for all sorts of odd things and people…but late at night when I call out to the kingdom, my Google earth voice still often hovers and breaks-and-enters this place to sit in the ruins…and…to see the new Jerusalem Jesus is building. The old temple is gone…the new temple rises up from pieces of it…and who’s to say which one will be filled with the most glory? Ron’s dream is shattered…the new dream of the new team is slowly sputtering forward…and Jesus seems fine with all this. As if he were cleaning up one dream he had, and starting to build the next one…it seemed seasonal more than tragic. Natural more than nightmarish. But this place will remain an odd hermitage of prayer for me it seems…and when John and Dave walk into this room it will always be far more crowded than they suspect. Jesus, angels, my prayers, the prayers of all the people in the church…the aquarium of prayer and spiritual reality is simply teeming with life in this place. It may not be “morph” but it may be…becoming an Atlantis for Christ.

And so Jesus I would ask that they simply know that it is your shadow that fills this place…not Ron’s. That they are far…far…far from being alone in their choking thoughts, swirling thoughts… That healing words are splattered all over this place night by night, and that the Spirit is the very water of saturation that they swim in while in this room. May this room become truly creepy and haunting in that it is unlike other places….sacred space…and stargates into realms that imagination can not define or explain. May the dust of former dreams be blown out the windows unseen and may the seeds and sunshine of the new creation flow and grow in this place. And let a great hush of wonder and majesty fill this place with your two comforting hands of peace and rest. Wipe away tears; slap people awake; give them blueprints to work on…

And I’ll be back, to write my graffiti prayers here from time to time. And if you listen really, really hard you will hear my tears hit the carpet as well as your own…and my laughter echoing in the canyons of candles in the sanctuary.”

I wish I could sneak in and drink the wine!

Stranger than fiction, is the spiritual friction of my existence

another 1 service blog post

2008-07-12T22:12:00.001-05:00

Church and the Community

Communion: a religious sacrament in the Christian tradition; IE taking wine [or grape juice] and bread as a corporate act of worship and remembrance of the death of Jesus the Christ. The wine being a symbol of his blood, and the bread a symbol of his body; both broken and spilled out as a sacrifice for humanities re-inclusion into Gods ways and love.

Chew on that religion jargon tidbit!

Communion, what a funny word. Half of it seems to be headed towards the words community…commune…things like that; and the other half towards union…unity…etc.

And yet many people think it is an individualistic religious thing. As if the only defining meaning for it was “feeling” spiritual and connected to God. And as if the only filter to taking it [or not] was some vague sense of goodness, worthiness, or having not really screwed up morally lately. The fact that we do it as a group seems so lost at times.

But communion is ALL about community. Not just with God, but with each other. It is a reminder that he dies for US. And that his death would initiate a new community…a spiritual family. This idea stretches way…way beyond being a consumer and deciding what church we like…way beyond just attending some spiritual service….way beyond just being a member of some altruistic non-profit organization. It is a call drawing us to Jesus. To the Jesus who made us and died for us. To Jesus who commanded us to love one another just as he loved us. To Jesus who told us to continue his mission of making followers and disciples.

So then we come to communion very differently if we think about these things. We come to be reminded of who Jesus is and what the cross accomplished for us. We come thinking about how we can love one another more like he desires us to. We come ready to share ourselves…our gifts, money, food, lives, and grace with one another. We lay down selfishness and judgment even as our Jesus did. We choose again to deny ourselves, pick up a cross, and follow him.

To make it simple we choose to love. Not love in some vague feeling sort of way. But love that is blood, sweat, and tears. Love that is costly and precious. Love that is sacrificial and takes the form of a servant.
Love that looks like Jesus.

“And by this shall all men know that you are my disciples; that you love one another even as I have loved you”

one service july 27th 11am ashland HS stadium

2008-07-09T06:43:00.001-05:00

http://www.oneservice.tv/

Bono said in the song "one" :

Is it getting better, or do you feel the same?Will it make it easier on you, now you got someone to blame?You say one love, one life, when it's one need in the night.One love, we get to share it Leaves you baby if you don't care for it.Did I disappoint you or leave a bad taste in your mouth?You act like you never had love and you want me to go without.Well, it's too late tonight to drag the past out into the light.We're one, but we're not the same.We get to carry each other, carry each other... oneHave you come here for forgiveness, Have you come to raise the deadHave you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your headDid I ask too much, more than a lotYou gave me nothing, now it's all I got.We're one, but we're not the same.Well, we hurt each other, then we do it again.You say love is a temple, love a higher lawLove is a temple, love the higher law.You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawlAnd I can't be holding on to what you got, when all you got is hurt.One love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should.One life with each other: sisters, brothers.One life, but we're not the same.We get to carry each other, carry each other.One, one.

When I think of church I always see it as an outsider. I wasn’t born or bred into it…I was adopted late, and they always seemed to look at me like a freaky stepchild. Church folk still do.

So I complained and criticized; bitching and moaning about how stupid and insipid the whole institutional religion thing was.

Until I met Jesus words: “Make them one” and “I will build my church.”

And suddenly I realized two things. One was that he was praying for these nutty things, not as organizations but as an organism…a living thing. Something precious to him with all it’s flaws and silly misadventures. Secondly I suddenly realized that he was STILL building it. And If Jesus was cool to me, and becoming my mystical best friend…I ought to be with him helping him do what he loves to do…build [and rebuild over and over] the church.

And one day as I was working with him I suddenly had something happen [in the words of Bruce Almighty] I got to see her “through God’s eyes.” And that was the day I fell in love with this crazy thing called church. All kinds of churches. Like a garden full of different flowers, each unique in its own way.

Somebody reading this might say…ya, I think God is cool and all but the church is just…ugly. And I might agree, and then smile at you and hand you a paintbrush and say “let’s you and me, help Jesus make her beautiful again!” We all want a second chance, let’s give church the same thing on July 27th. After all NONE of us want to be hypocrites; let’s “carry each other” instead.

kingdom

2008-07-09T06:41:00.000-05:00

Whose Kingdom Are You Building?
“All I want is to expand the Kingdom of God.” Really? Not me. I want people to know who I am. I want my peers to acknowledge me. I want to do something big for God and at the same time leave a trail that leads to my web site. I am self-serving. I wish that weren’t the case. Am I normal?
I used to wonder how the Pharisees drifted so far off course. Now, being a Christ follower and a spiritual leader for a number of years, I see how it happens. We begin with pure, godly intentions. God blesses our efforts, and some rewards come with it. (Let’s call them “perks.”) After time, we feel entitled to those “perks.” After more time, we get competitive and begin to compare ourselves with others. When that happens, our efforts are more about being first than making a contribution. Then jealousy and bitterness take over. All of a sudden, we get caught up in building our own kingdom.
Here’s how I wrestle with this tension. First, I admit that it’s real. Stop denying it. We’re human. We’re flawed. We’re prideful. Second, compensate for our selfishness and pride with generosity and sacrifice:
§ Pass along the great idea even when you know it won’t be traced back to you.
§ Give credit to others without mentioning your level of involvement.
§ Stop worrying about your position on the org chart. Instead, focus on adding value.
§ Allow anonymity to be an act of worship.
Have you been down this path? How do you wrestle through it?

getting to know what "missional" means

2008-06-27T21:49:00.000-05:00

A missional church is a collection of missional believers acting in concert together in fulfillment of the missio dei.1
A missional church is one where people are exploring and rediscovering what it means to be Jesus' sent people as their identity and vocation.
A missional church is individuals willing and ready to be Christ's people in their own situation and place.
A missional church knows that they must be a cross-cultural missionary (contextual) people and adopt a missionary stance in relation to their community.
A missional church will be engaged with the culture (in the world) without being absorbed by the culture (not of the world). They will become intentionally indigenous.
A missional church understands that God is already present in the culture where it finds itself. Therefore, a missional church doesn't view its purpose as bringing God into the culture or taking individuals out of the culture to a sacred space.
A missional church is about more than just being contextual, it is also about the nature of the church and how it relates to God.
A missional church is about being -- being conformed to the image of God.
A missional church will seek to plant all types of missional communities.
A missional church is evangelistic and faithfully proclaims the gospel through word and deed. Words alone are not sufficient; how the gospel is embodied in our community and service is as important as what we say.
A missional church understands the power of the gospel and does not lose confidence in it.
A missional church will align all their activities around the missio dei -- the mission of God.
A missional church seeks to put the good of their neighbor over their own.
A missional church will give integrity, morality, good character and conduct, compassion, love and a resurrection life filled with hope preeminence to give credence to their reasoned verbal witness.
A missional church practices hospitality by welcoming the stranger into the midst of the community.
A missional church will see themselves as a community or family on a mission together. There are no "Lone Ranger" Christians in a missional church.
A missional church will see themselves as representatives of Jesus and will do nothing to dishonor his name.
A missional church will be totally reliant on God in all it does. It will move beyond superficial faith to a life of supernatural living.
A missional church will be desperately dependent on prayer.
A missional church gathered will be for the purpose of worship, encouragement, supplemental teaching, training, and to seek God's presence and to be realigned with God's missionary purpose.
A missional church is orthodox in its view of the gospel and scripture, but culturally relevant in its methods and practice so that it can engage the world view of the hearers.
A missional church will feed deeply on the scriptures throughout the week.
A missional church will be a community where all members are involved in learning "the way of Jesus." Spiritual development is an expectation.
A missional church will help people discover and develop their spiritual gifts and will rely on gifted people for ministry instead of talented people.
A missional church is a healing community where people carry each other's burdens and help restore gently.
A missional church will requires that its leaders be missiologists.

engage

2008-06-17T17:07:00.002-05:00

Hi Guys:

The truth is, for twenty/thirty / fortyish somethings, Ashland seems like a ghost town:

Socially, culturally, spiritually.So many of us continue to wonder, "Could there be more?"

Perhaps what we need is a renaissance movement full of visionaries, dreamers, and seekers who believe that Ashland can still be brought back to life!

ENGAGE is a chance for us to begin the vision...to meet others who share it...to make steps toward realizing it.

ENGAGE is a time for us to blend our individual hopes and dreams with many others' and to be encouraged to realize that there are enough of us to really make a difference.

ENGAGE is a shot of adrenaline into a sleeping giant of people tribes who have been waiting for a greater shared purpose.

ENGAGE is no yawner! It's a big deal and it's coming...Please mark your calendar for Sunday, June 29th at 6:00 PM.

park street church

free food to boot