The Rock Star Apostle

How cool would it be to have as your calling to be the one sent by the Holy Spirit of God to hang out with Matt Damon, Fred Durst, Jessica Simpson, Jay-Z, Michael Jordan, and Mary J Blige?

I agree with the article in that if cultural impact is going to be made then we must have ongoing conversations with the leaders in the culture, but I think it will take a very special person to do it with a heart of humility and not out of selfish ambition. It's hard to look at these people with all of their stuff and feel sorry for them, but in actuality that is where Jesus would be...weeping over their lives. However, as the church begins to refocus on caring about the social ills of the world and how we might fix extreme poverty, access to clean water and food, and the basic provision of opportunity to participate in society might we also be looking for some help from the culture?

The possibility excites me...taking Jay-Z to Uganda I think would be life changing not only for him but for every person we came into contact with.

So, Jay-Z if you read this...the invitation is open...

What do ya'll think?

The neighborhood has become the world...

If technology has done anything it has made the world into our backyard. As a Christian this should not only be exciting, but should prove to be anxious because it marks that the return of Christ could be extremely immediate. So the forcefully advancing church needs to be more forceful in it's advancement on evil in the world.

My journey with IJM started about seven years ago when, as a youth minister, I taught a curriculum called, “The Justice Mission” produced by Youth Specialties. It was by far the most powerful series I had ever led. It began series of life changing decisions and prompted me to continually ask the question, “What should I be doing?”

Today I am a supporter financially and prayerfully and participate in the IJM Institute where we try to help the local church spread the word about our responsibility to bring justice to the world, and to fight injustice at all costs. So, obviously Bethany’s piece is one I was invested in even before I read it. Now after reading it I wish every Christian would have the opportunity to be challenged by her words.

As I hear Kunthy and Chanda’s story and hear the countless other stories IJM has the privilege of telling I begin to ask the same questions:

“Why them?

Why not me, or even my children?

Is the major reason that these girls were subjected to this kind of abuse that they weren’t American?

How can I ignore the astonishing amount of grace involved in my being born into the situation I was born into?

Knowing what I know now, what should I do?

How much would providing clean water, adequate medical care, and physical nourishment stem the tide of oppression?

What would I do if it were Shelbi, or Baili, or Mallori in these stories?

As a born again believer and follower of Christ is it excusable to do nothing?”

I am ashamed of the fact that I have not done enough financially, prayerfully, or vocationally to fight injustice in the world. I am haunted by the fact that the majority of secure, wealthy, and church going people are able to ignore the plight of so many. I am encouraged that there are organizations like IJM who are not only rescuing the victims, but rehabilitating them and are not only freeing them from the abuse of the criminals but are helping to prosecute them and are not only investigating the claims of oppression but are educating the Church and the various law enforcement agencies on the impact of sexual trafficking of children and the oppression of widows and orphans.

One of the things we, as a family, are doing to try to help stem the tide of abuse is adopt. A second thing involves being active in going into the third world personally to bring the good news to people, because the more people that are born again the more light there is that will be shed on oppressive situations. Thirdly, we support IJM and Compassion International financially and prayerfully. Lastly, we try to spread the word locally that there is a problem and the Church has a responsibility to bring freedom from the bondage of sin both spiritually and physically.

My hope is that the few of you who will read this article will be moved with me to do similar, if not more significant things for people like Kunthy and Chanda. After all, it’s your responsibility as a born again person.

Conversations

Growing up in a fairly conservative home, and adopting very conservative views, and voting for "conservative" officials has been my MO. And it will most likely continue to be my MO. The issue I continue to face, though, is that having "family values" and believing in "little government" and being a part of the moral majority continues to erode my ability to have spiritual conversations.

I first heard of Ron's 4 part story from Rob Bell last summer when he did a series based upon the four parts and it enabled me to make new connections between the OT and NT that help more clearly define what Jesus did and is doing and wants to do now through His people.

The article has also brought to the surface one of my major concerns with how we "bring people to Christ." Although it wasn’t a focus of the article it still is of great concern to me. In reading two other books recently the view of God as a judge ranks significantly higher in prominence in Christians and non-Christians. The prevailing view of Christians of what it means to be a Christian daily has an unhealthy focus on not sinning. It sounds nothing like the abundant life, a life free from the bondage of sin, and really causes me to ask the questions "Are these people really saved? Has Jesus been submitted to completely and does He live in them? or have we made this coming to Christ thing a little too elementary and have we made a huge mistake in divorcing works from salvation."

I'm not saying that we are saved by works, but what I am saying is that a desire to do work that ushers in the new culture of Christ, this new Kingdom of Heaven on earth, must accompany salvation. If it doesn't then as James says, the faith is dead, and in fact never lived to begin with. Because of that many look at "church people" and see no change, and so there is no obvious advantage to the outsiders of figuring out who Jesus is.

What is frightening is that I perceive that very few “church people” can have the four part discussion, or would even want to.

Where do we see the first person conversations and how do we join it and expand people’s understanding to move toward a conversation that includes second person dimensions?

What do you think?

The Church in 100 Years

I wonder what will be said...

Uganda and Counting: 13 Days

So, it has been a incredibly full summer. With most of my families focus being on getting PCA construction completed for the start of school on Monday I have had little time to even contemplate what is about to happen in 13 days. Last night the end of the rainbow was in sight as the final coats of paint went on walls and floors were cleared for carpet and a fresh coat of wax.


So, in the next 13 days Kristi and I will celebrate 17 years of marriage, PCA will begin classes in a brand new facility, Harmony will place another 50 people in a LifeTeam, we will launch those LifeTeams, I will begin to pack, and eventually Blaine and I will make our way to the airport for a three week excursion into several unknowns.

In the next 30 days I will experience several first in my life, some of which I am not looking forward too. I will visit Europe, albeit only in an airport in Amsterdam, but it's Europe none the less. I will visit Africa, which was only a dream for me not so long ago. I will miss the birthday of a child as my oldest, Shelbi, turns 10 on September 9th. What a gift she has been and will continue to be, and it pains me deeply to not be with her on that special day. I will be away from my family for three weeks, 3x the amount I've ever been away from Kristi since we've been married. I will be out of vacation for the rest of the year, which hasn't happened this early since my first year of employment when I used it all for another mission trip to Costa Rica. I'll not shave my head or face for three weeks! No telling what that could end up looking like. And I'm sure that there are going to be numerous more.

So, with all of that in mind I was presented with this thought as I made my way to work. What kind of legacy am I leaving behind for my kids, friends, wife? Not sure why I wondered that, or why it continues to nag me now almost 3 hours later. Is it because the last six weeks of getting PCA in hasn't left w whole lot of opportunity to just be with my kids? Is it because, for the first time, I'm really trying to prepare for this trip spiritually and emotionally?

I'm not sure why, but I'm sure it is a gift. A gift I hope makes the next 13 days, weeks, and years a little more worth living to their fullest.

What is your legacy?

Am I becoming a liberal?

I must confess that one of my biggest hangups with the whole conservation/Green environmental movement has been that has been championed by liberals, whose amoral or convenient morals drive me insane. I have not ever been a big fan of the so called "science" behind many of the "extreme" views of global warming. For much of my life I have never been real concerned with conservation unless it meant saving me money.
Since then somewhere along the way to now I have been convicted that I have no idea how much longer God's going to let this storyline continue, and if the church didn't at least try to take care of the needy people and at most try to change the social, political, and biological environments in which it lived then what would the world look like in 200 years. Sure Jesus may come back tomorrow, but I don't know that, and my apathetic attitude toward responsible consumption and disposal could do nothing but harm those left to live here 200 years from now.
With that being said I believe our responsibility is not so much in what we do with our waste, although I believe it to be important. I also do not believe that limiting what we consume is most important either. Instead I believe we need to begin asking the question, "Why am I consuming this?" or "Why should I consume this?" or "What might be the negative impact of not consuming this?"
Asking these questions seem to go against my love of capitalism and the ideal that I cling that a free economy is good and Socialism is bad. However, I believe I can still hold that I might think a free economy is good while at the same time demanding that auto manufacturers design more fuel efficient cars, that KY collect a deposit on Aluminum and plastic containers, and that the city of Georgetown ramp up it's recycling program to include home pick up, or at least designate neighborhood depositories.
For the church to have the attitude that , "Everything's gonna burn anyway." gives the impression that we're whimsical about this planet, which happens to be just as unique as I am in comparison with the millions if not billions of other planets out there. I think that because Earth is so unique, holding that Tom Cruise and John Travolta are really crazy, it's no wonder God's first command to Adam and Eve was to care for it.
My impression is that most political liberals are pro-environment because they don't believe there is anything else after this life, and that we're stuck with the Earth as long as we can sustain life. And most political conservatives are anti-environment as a negative response to all things liberal. I think the Church would begin to make huge strides in releasing itself from the bondage it has placed itself in with conservative politics if it began to say to the world, "We care, and so we're going to ask the hard questions before we consume and make waste. Because when Jesus comes back in 500 years we want Him to be able to look at what we've done with His planet and for people and be glad He left it in our hands.

Questions inspired by our conversation so far.

Are we ever excused from being Christ-like because we are human?

Is there support for that in the Bible?

Do you usually excuse your fallen state instead of confess and repent of it?

Is there a happy medium between understanding our fallen state and yet rejecting it by accepting the higher calling of holiness?

Can we accept the call of holiness upon our redeemed lives and still hang out with without looking down upon the unholy people?

What would it look like?

See: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/may/22.39.html before replying to this. Apologies to DH and Emily for not lending them this crutch beforehand.

The Church and The Culture - Article #2

We are the Church, a community where people discover who they are, who God is, and how they can help each other make significant advances against evil by bringing justice and mercy to people, by caring for the poor, widowed, and orphaned, by loving everyone in order to bring God's Kingdom to earth.

The Church is the ONLY environment on earth where people can reach their full potential.
It's where sin is confronted, confessed, forgiven, and redeemed.
It's where sickness is discovered, healed, and made whole.
It's where success is measured by the amount of love that is shared and not the amount of work done, or numbers impacted.
It's where we realize that we are safe and yet on a dangerous mission to eradicate evil.
It's where we realize that living abundantly does not translate into lots of stuff.
It's where we feel the most sorrow.
It's where we feel the most pain.
It's where we feel the most shame.
It's where we feel the most joy.
It's where we feel the most love.
It's where we feel the most hope.
It's where we feel the most peace.
It's where we feel the most ALIVE!

Since this is all true, and we continue to trust that it is then we should be about enabling a transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit that is of the most violent and yet tender kind that rips away the infection of sin and replaces it with the adoration of the Son.
We will create an environment where we will enable every individual: leaders, followers, and seekers, to be CONTINUALLY transformed into the likeness of Christ encouraging everyone to die to their self and rise with Christ.

We will create an environment where we will enable the community to be transformed both within the local congregation and within EVERY community into which our congregation sends ambassadors.

We will not follow culture for the sake of being relevant, but instead we will create a new culture by redeeming the redeemable, and by using the gifts of art in the forms of music, painting, drawing, digital imaging, technology development, sculptures, architecture, dance, and drama to transform culture. We will not withdraw from, but will draw in the outcast. We will not condemn, but will lovingly correct. We will not become entangled in sin, but will help free those oppressed and in bondage.

We will care for the creation that we have the opportunity to care for so that our neighbor might enjoy its fruits. This will involve reducing our waste and will involve making informed and conscious decisions about what we consume, and from whom we consume. It will also involve the giving of time, money, and talent so that no one within the Church is in need, and so that we might those with needs outside of the Church.

Stranger Than Fiction

Now I'm not a great fan of Will Ferrell. He has his moments, but overall I usually don't find him funny. However, fast forward to two nights ago when Kristi and I had the pleasure of seeing him in Stranger Than Fiction. What an awesome film. If you haven't seen it then do, if you have then what does it say about how we live our lives?

The Problem of Good - Initial thoughts

I found myself greatly encouraged by this article. Often times I tried to explain away the "goodness" in people as really not "good" because only God is "good" and so God must live in the person for there to be any good being done. I had decided that everything that was done in the name of "goodness" somehow had selfish roots if it were not connecting to the Jesus within a person. And because of those selfish roots it was therefore not good. The verse of scripture that continues to keep me from fullly agreeing with Kauffmann is Paul's Romans 7 discourse centering on 7:18 " I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out."

I am still not convinced that I was completely wrong, but Kauffmann's article put a different spin on the problem. I guess I could make the logical argument that since Jesus was present at the beginning of creation, and since the Bible says that through Jesus all things were created (John 1, and James 1), then Paul's statement in Romans is universally inclusive and not a specific utterance in the context of being indwelt by Christ at the moment of and after reception of Him.

So, this would mean that Ghandi did good stuff, and in many ways was a better person then me, and I would not really have a problem with that. It would also mean that people can do extraordinarily good things without their bowing to the Lordship of Jesus. However, all good things that could be done, were initially meant to be done by us as was intended by our Creator. Therefore, Jesus is still the reason we do good things whether or not we are willing to recognize Him as the source of our goodness.

The converse of this line of thinking also holds true in that although I, being indwelt with Jesus, continue to do bad things both in thought and deed I am not unsaved. The good or bad that I do is not what determines my fate after death, but it is the heart, or the why I do what I do. Of course, the more my heart is transformed by Jesus the less bad I will do and the good that I do will draw people to Jesus especially if my life points to Him, but it also points to Him because He is the one who authored the good in me from the moment Adam was created. So, then, we should not condemn anyone for doing good regardless of whose name they do it in. Instead we should embrace it as being a good thing, and then reiterate that it was what Jesus intended for them to do from the beginning.

Does it make sense?