I’m following up on my post earlier this week, Seeing Jesus Like a Child. In that post I talked about how moving it was to read the crucifixion account as told in the Jesus Storybook Bible with my 4-year old son, Liam. Some readers wanted me to share how reading the resurrection went as well.
I’d planned on sharing the way in which Liam rolled around around like a spaz with so much excitement when we got to the part where Jesus appeared alive to his friends, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I got too busy with work. It truly was awesome to see the sheer joy and enthusiasm Liam had when we read the resurrection story. And it’s proof that the gospel story is incredibly compelling.
As cool as that was, something even cooler happened when we read the story of Saul’s conversion. On that night, Liam decided to ask Jesus to come into his heart. I can’t even begin to describe how incredible it was to listen to my little boy give his life to Jesus. It wasn’t dramatic. He didn’t recite the Westminster Confession or have tongues of fire descend on him. He simply said, “God please come into my heart and give me a new heart.” And that was that. But he knows the implications and has been talking about them since.
Now, yesterday was an interesting day. I had a lot of work to do, our baby Dylan didn’t sleep will the night before, and I was seriously grumpy. I wanted to let my wife get some much needed sleep, but I also wanted to get to work. So, I turned on the TV, sat Liam in front of it and got to it. Well, Liam wasn’t going to have any of that. He kept talking my ear off, doing things he knew he shouldn’t have to get my attention, and generally making life a little difficult.
I didn’t handle it very well, told him to go somewhere else, and used the age old “respect your parents” angle. I could tell he was frustrated that I didn’t give him my attention, but I have to confess I didn’t care.
A little later, I heard something that melted my heart. My son was in the living room praying this over and over: “God, please come back into my heart again. God, please come back into my heart again.”
I instantly knew that it was my fault he would pray this. I’d made him feel like a bad boy for wanting to be with me.
Talk about a horrible feeling.
I called Liam over to me. He got a big smile and came running onto my lap.
“Hey buddy,” I said, giving him a big hug. “I heard what you were praying.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I want God to come back into my heart.”
“Guess what? You don’t have to keep praying that,” I told him. “God loves you so much that when he gives you a new heart, it’s new forever. You don’t have to ask God back into your heart because He never left.”
Well, that was some pretty good news indeed for my boy. He smiled, relaxed, and said he was so glad.
And here’s the deal. We all believe this way deep down. We may not pray out loud for God to come back into our hearts over and over again, but we think it. We often feel ashamed of our sin, and doubt the salvation that God has offered us freely through Jesus. And what a shame that the devil lies to us this way. We forget what Paul tells is in Philippians 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
My son knows that I love him, even when he does things wrong. He knows that while I may discipline him, I’ll never abandon him or cut him off. And now he’s learning that our heavenly Father, who is a way better daddy than me, feels the same way about us. It’s a simple truth, that once again I was reminded off by God’s grace through a 4-year old boy.
This morning as I read Amos I came across a curious phrase in the ninth chapter:
“And I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good” (Amos 9:4b).
In the first verse of the chapter makes clear that Amos is speaking the words of God as an authoritative Old Testament prophet, “I saw the Lord standing beside the alter, and he said…”
So my question is, What is the meaning of “for evil” in this verse?
As probably most everybody knows at this point, Matt Chandler and his family received some bad news over the holidays.
Like many people, I sometimes find it hard to understand God’s ways when it comes to stuff like this. I don’t know Matt personally, but as part of the Acts 29 Network, he has had a huge influence on me through his teachings at various conferences and through his podcasts. Clearly Matt is being used mightily by God…which is why it’s baffling and quite frankly disheartening to hear that he has a brain tumor.
I know the intellectual arguments that God is sovereign and glorified in all situations, including this one. And I believe them. But still, it is always hard to see them in action.
This morning, as I was studying the Psalms, I came across this passage:
For the righteous will never be moved;
He will be remembered forever.
He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. (Psalm 112:6-8)
This was of great comfort to me, because though I don’t know Matt personally, I know him to be this kind of man.
I want to thank you, Matt, for being an example of how a righteous man responds to bad news. My prayer is that God is most glorified by bringing you back to miraculous health. Grace and peace to you and your family through our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
So, I hate my bike helmet. I really do. Every time I put it on, I feel like a complete goober and imagine that every cool, hipster ASU student in Tempe is secretly mocking me as I pass them on their ridiculously large cruiser bikes. I just feel so uncool.
Why do I wear this stupid thing?
My first thought is that I’m a dad. I make my three-year old, Liam, wear a helmet. It would be hypocritical for me to not do the same. And that’s true. But I’ve often teetered on the edge of not wearing a helmet on my ride, knowing that Liam would be none-the-wiser…which makes me realize how much I suck when I’m contemplating ways to pull a fast one on my own son!
I Had to Grow Up
One of my favorite movies is Garden State. It’s the story of Andrew Largeman, played by Zach Braff, who goes to New Jersey for his mother’s funeral after years of separation in L.A. The movie is a study in change: how people change and yet stay the same.
One particular scene is quite poignant. Out for a late night ride on his old motorcycle, Andrew is pulled over by a cop who approaches Andrew with a hostile attitude, yelling profanities at him.
And then, all of sudden, Andrew realizes this cop is his old friend, Kenny. After talking for a bit, Andrew says, “But Kenny, the last time I saw you, you were doing coke lines off a urinal.”
Kenny responds, “I know, I know, man…but it was time for me to grow up, you know?”
Later, at a drunken, drug-filled party, we learn that Kenny has changed but not really. He became a cop for all the wrong reasons. His exterior persona has changed, but on the inside he’s still that kid who loves to party. He hasn’t grown up, really. He’s just taken on the appearance of responsibility.
I Need to be Transformed
As Christians, we are not called to just grow up. We are called to be transformed. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
Many of us are like, Kenny. We take on the appearance of responsibility and maturity, but secretly we are still the little boy or girl that struggles with the same sins and insecurities from our past.
For me, I struggle with the opinions of man. I hate my bike helmet because I feel uncool. But I wear it because I care more about my safety and making smart decisions so that I can be there for my family.
Everything is Spiritual
This may sound silly, but I think my bike helmet is spiritual. In fact, everything is spiritual. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (I Cor. 10:31). Everyday, I have to die to myself and live in Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).
My decision to wear my bike helmet so that I can have a better chance to live for my family is a decision to die to myself and live in Christ – to put my pride aside so that I can live for others, my family, whom I’m called to lead and serve.
Only by daily dying to our self and living in Christ can we be truly fulfilled, truly transformed, and truly grow up.
What are the areas where you’ve taken on the appearance of maturity but not actually been transformed?
I encourage you to daily examine your heart and ask God to lead you by His Holy Spirit to daily keep you in Christ.
This is the third and final post in my series on ministry and the internet. You can catch up on the other posts here and here.
What is the Church?
Just what is the church? It seems to me that is the central question when we begin to think through the implications of digitalism. As Mark Driscoll stated in his talk at Advance 09, the digital age is forcing us to reexamine and redefine our ecclesiology.
In my study, I’ve come to believe that the church is defined by:
The preaching/teaching/proclamation of the word
The administration of the sacraments (in my view communion and baptism)
And the fellowship of the saints
As seen in Acts 2:42, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
I don’t think there are too many people who would argue with such a definition. The real debate comes when we start asking whether this type of community can be done in the digital world.
Can the sacraments, for instance, be rightly administered online? Some people think so, as evidenced by Flamingo Road’s internet baptism as posted on Church Crunch. How about communion? Can that be administered online and still embody the New Testament concept of “breaking bread together”?
The Purpose of the Church?
I’m not going to debate here the intricacies of the sacraments and their relevancy online (mostly because I haven’t studied much on it). I’ll save that for another time. But what I do know is that the sacraments are a sign of coming into Christ, and traditionally (and scripturally) a first-step in joining the body of Christ that is the Church. They are not the end-all.
In looking at the purpose of the Church, I believe that the it exists primarily to:
Equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16)
To make disciples (Matthew 28:16-20)
These commissions are best accomplished by preaching, teaching, and proclaiming the word and by doing the word. As James says, you cannot do one without the other, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” And while some are called expressly to do the teaching and preaching (Ephesians 4:11-12), we are all called to proclaim the gospel and to do it.
When thinking of the purpose of the church in the context of Internet ministry, it’s easy to see how it is useful for proclamation – the preaching of the gospel. In that sense it is an excellent tool. It becomes harder to think of its usefulness in discipleship and in being a catalyst for bringing people beyond hearing the word to doing the word. This is because the Internet is an uncarnate environment that, as I’ve discussed in previous posts, is inherently geared towards engendering a people who consume rather than pour out. Yet, as a community of believers, we are called to do just the opposite – we are called to incarnate the gospel to the world.
The biggest challenge I see in the future of ministry is the pervasive acceptance of digital interaction as true community, replacing, not supplementing, physical community. Yet, in a Christian context, it is the daily interactions between believers that leads to discipleship. As Tim Chester and Steve Timmis write in their book, Total Church, “In becoming a Christian I am a disciple, but that is an identity, not an event. I never stop being a disciple, and I never reach a point where I no longer require daily discipleship by the gospel word in the gospel community.”
Event Driven Church vs. Rhythm Living
Ministries that are diving full force into the Internet by forming Internet campuses, doing online administrations of the sacraments, and more, are indicative to me of the more American expression of Christianity and church, which is an event driven model. For many people, church is just one of a many obligations or events that must be attended, consumed, and completed – an X on the calendar. It’s easy to say you go to church and believe you are part of a church in an online forum if you believe that church is about the Sunday event where you sing some songs and hear a sermon.
But that is not church. If anything that is evangelism, which to be clear is very important. But it is not true Christian community. It provides no true venue for discipleship, or the rhythms of Christian life that are depicted in the New Testament (eating together, praying together, serving together, etc.).
When you approach church as an event, it is easy to leave that church if the pastor says something that pisses you off. It’s even easier when all it takes is a click of a mouse, where no actual physical connection is severed. A rhythm centered approach to church where people are eating together in homes, giving to and taking care of those with need, discussing the scriptures in late night gatherings over coffee or a pint, serving arm in arm in doing the word and incarnating the gospel, and more creates bonds that are not easily broken – and ensures that if a fellow believer is straying, you have a real, valid, and tangible means to confront him or her in love.
Conclusion
Steve Knight, who was kind enough to reference this series on his blog, has written about the importance of reverse incarnation in the digital age. In that sense, the Internet is useful. But in reality, reverse incarnation is simply a fancy word for what we’ve already discussed is part and parcel with being the church – proclamation. We are to preach the word and proclaim the gospel in the digital world. But the digital world cannot replace the incarnate body of believers gathering together in community. You must have both.
I find it hard to understand how we can theologically justify Internet campuses as autonomous and fully functioning churches. Many will speak to their practicality, but we must be cautious when we move to speaking pragmatically without undergirding our pragmatism with theology.
In the end, the Internet is useful, but it can also lead to a disembodiment of the church that is not biblical. It is my prayer that as we move forward we don’t wholesale dive into new technologies because our culture demands it, but that we carefully, prayerfully, and with measure engage new technology in a way that continues the Church’s long and grand tradition of being in the world but not of it.
I invite your thoughts, beat downs, and undying adulation.
This is the second post in a series on doing ministry in a post-Christian, digital society. In the first post, I explored what I perceive to be a cultural shift from post-modernism to what I defined as digitalism. Here I want to lay the foundation to explore some of the ecclesiological implications of the Internet.
You Have No Idea
Seems you can’t go anywhere today without running into some conversation, blog post, or story about how such and such church is integrating the Internet into their ministry. The rise of social media and the popularity of such platforms like Facebook and Twitter, have heightened the sense within the Church at large that we must figure out what our online strategy is. Some people doing great pioneering work in this realm are John Saddington and his site Church Crunch, Kem Meyers, Tony Steward, the good folks over at Church Marketing Sucks, Drew Goodmanson, Church Communications Pro, Tim Schraeder, and many more.
I say it’s pioneering work because, though it doesn’t seem like it, the Internet as a daily and vital component of our lives is really only about a decade old. And we really have NO IDEA what it’s doing to us, our society, our children, and our ministries. Yet, we’ve (society at large) embraced it wholeheartedly as not only a norm, but also as a great advancement in human society and interaction. Perhaps this is because, as I alluded to in my last post, it appeals to our ego in a way no other medium has.
I can think of no other major shift in human interaction and thought that has been so completely, quickly, and docilely embraced than the rise of the digital age.
I can think of no other major shift in human interaction and thought that has been so completely, quickly, and docilely embraced than the rise of the digital age.
I am Ego
As I sit in my office with my headphones on, having spent the last three hours staring at computer screen, I am completely isolated in my world and thoughts, yet I am also connected to more people than ever in my life through Twitter and Facebook – at the same time. But the important component is that I have the power to engage or not engage. I create the reality of my relationships and the context in which they are acceptable to me. And others do likewise.
Of course I don’t have this luxury when my fellow office mates tap me on the shoulder. In those moments I don’t have complete control – at least not without looking like a total jerk. The rules – the norms – of physical community dictate that I should interact with my community, even when I don’t feel like it. And it has been that way since the dawn of human society.
Not so anymore. As a digitalist, I can be a hermit and connected. Picking and choosing which interactions best suit my ego and my desires. It is pure, white-hot consumerism.
When Fools Rush In
My fear is that as the Church we are being swept up in this NEW cultural shift without engaging it correctly. Too often our online strategy is not a strategy at all but a blatant and often poor imitation of the way the world and businesses use the online medium – as a subjection of authority to the individual. Marketers often talk of this great shift from one-way interactions between businesses and corporations and their customers. A new day has dawned. Your customer is in charge, and you must engage them in conversation. The consumer has always dictated product in a sense, but only in so much as the producers made it available. Now it is the consumer that drives everything.
Our job as a church is to create disciples and equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. How do we do that effectively when we’ve never met our people face to face? Is it possible?
Consumerism is not a new problem for the church, especially in America. But I fear the rise of digitalism will make it much more so – and that we will gladly embrace it in the name of going where the people go, without ever actually going to them.
Here are hard and honest questions we should ask ourselves:
Are we doing online ministry and online campuses because they further the Gospel or because people want them?
Is our online strategy full of practical implications but lacking theological ones?
Have we critically examined what implications for the shift to online community are for Gospel formed community?
My inclination is that you have answers to these questions, and I’m not the first to ask them. I’m interested in the answers you’ve come up with.
My next and last post in this series will deal with my thoughts on how we balance the Biblical conception of Christian community with the prevailing culture of the digitalists. Until then, I’d value your feedback on my thoughts here – and your ideas for a path forward.
This morning I read Part 1 of Pastor Mark Driscoll’s blog post entitled, Leadership is Lonely. Mark is one of my favorite Christians, and a great leader and pastor. But I was troubled by his words, not because he is wrong in claiming that leadership is lonely (we all know it can be), but because I think loneliness in ministry is very destructive. I believe that Mark would agree, but in at least the first part of his series on leadership being lonely, he addressed the sins that the loneliness give birth to rather than exploring the question, Should leadership be lonely in the first place? In fact Mark goes so far as to start out his blog with the statement that “Leadership is lonely. Anyone who disagrees is likely not a leader.” And I think it is this definitive statement that got me thinking the most.
First or Last?
In saying that “leadership is lonely”, Mark indicates that it is the natural state of a leader to be lonely. Something he expounds on in his first paragraph:
“By definition, a leader is out ahead of his or her team, seeing, experiencing, and learning things before everyone else. One on hand, this causes great excitement and enthusiasm because the opportunity to learn and pioneer is incredibly invigorating. On the other hand, however, the distance between a leader and his or her team is incredibly lonely, even to the point of becoming debilitating.”
According to this definition of leadership, Mark is right that leadership is lonely – and always will be. But to me that definition of leadership is more akin with our western capitalistic conceptions of leadership than with a Biblical understanding of leadership. I agree that leaders (even Christian ones) are often ahead of their team, but I’m not convinced that is where they should be at all times. I’m of course thinking of Christ’s conceptions of leadership in the gospels, which so often align with His Sermon on the Mount refrain: “You’ve heard it said, but I say unto you…” Teachings such as: “So the last shall be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16), “It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to serve but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28), and “An argument arouse among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, ‘Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you is the one who is great.’” (Luke 9:48)
According to Christ a true leader is a servant. Mark knows this. We all know this. But let’s reflect on what that means. A servant is not generally out ahead, but more likely behind, making those he serves look good. A servant doesn’t get credit for success – though often times he is the reason for it. As leaders it is our job to cast vision, and in that sense we are ahead. But that gift is meant to be used in coming behind and pushing and empowering those whom God has entrusted to our care to be successful in carrying out that vision.
We of course see this most truly embodied in Jesus, who condescended (in the best sense of the word) to be human and die a bloody death on the cross for us. And while Christ clearly walked in authority, I find it hard pressed to say he was lonely, with the exception of his passion when even the Father forsook him. Was he exasperated at times? Most definitely. Was there times he just wanted to get away from it all? Of course. But generally, we see Jesus in continual fellowship with both his disciples and with others, specifically tax collectors, prostitutes, and other social outcasts – and there is no indication that he didn’t enjoy himself, at least most of the time. And in the end, Christ cast vision (a big one at that), and empowered his people to live it out. That to me is servant leadership. And it is far from lonely.
Everyone is Lonely
Something to consider is that we as leaders don’t have the market cornered on loneliness. Everyone is lonely. That is why they seek out the Church. We are a community that follows Jesus and strikes hard against the prevailing cultures of the world that seek to ostracize and isolate. Our job as leaders is to create a culture whereby people feel the all encompassing love and joyful community that being a follower of Jesus affords – and we as leaders are a part of that community. We too should feel the joy and peace that our community brings to our lives.
We Serve a Triune God
As a community we can be assured that the ultimate reality of the Kingdom of God is one of peace, unity, and community. After all, our God is a God that lives and has lived throughout all eternity in perfect and holy community with Himself. A triune God. And as Lesslie Newbigin writes in his book Foolishness to the Greeks:
“From its first page to its last, the Bible is informed by a vision of human nature for which neither freedom nor equality is fundamental; what is fundamental is relatedness. Man – male and female – is made for God in such a way that being in the image of God involves being bound together in this most profound of all mutual relations. God binds himself in a covenant relationship with men and women to which he remains faithful at whatever cost and however unfaithful his covenant partner is. And people and nations are called to live in binding covenant relationships of brotherhood. Human beings reach their true end in such relatedness, in bonds of mutual love and obedience that the mutual relatedness in love that is the being of the Triune God himself.”
When we examine the Triune God, we do see a clear hierarchy in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet we also see perfect harmony and community – there is no room for loneliness. In fact, I would be so bold to say that in such a communion, loneliness would be sin.
And that’s really the heart of what I’m exploring here. It may be technically right to say that “leadership is lonely,” but I wonder, is it morally right that it is so?
Loneliness Leads to Isolationism
As a parting thought, I want to share a story. The pastor of the church I grew up in began to experience what Mark is writing about. Our church was growing fast, and he was a dynamic and charismatic individual that was definitely a type-A personality. He had grand dreams and big plans. Slowly and imperceivably, my pastor began to distance himself from those whom he had trusted so deeply just years earlier as they worked hand-in-hand in ministry. Soon, he was consolidating power and pushing his life-long friends away. He too claimed that everyone wanted a piece of him, and went so far as to hire a body guard to escort him from pulpit to his office after each service. Eventually, he ran many of the pastors that had served with him for years out of the church and replaced them with his family members.
At its peak, my church was a thriving body of over 2,500 people who were seeking Jesus and living out the gospel. Today, that church no longer exists. The list of lives that were shipwrecked by the seeds one pastor’s loneliness stretches far and wide.
As leaders we should be asking ourselves how and why we perpetuate this pervasive condition of loneliness in ministry leadership. There must be a better way.
I pray that there is. It breaks my heart to hear that Mark and many other pastors feel this way, and to hear the questions that arise out of such feelings. I know all too well where those feelings lead, and the destruction they can bring on a community. I thank God that Mark is sharing his thoughts for all pastors to see (and feel comfortable acknowledging in themselves), but I also hope he goes straight for the jugular of loneliness itself, and shows just how destructive a force it can be.
When I was a kid, I loved this song. At the age of ten, I thought it was a great song. I sang it in the shower. I sang it in the woods. I sang it at the dinner table – where I was informed that singing at the dinner table was rude and unacceptable. Believe it or not, I thought Carmen was a great singer.
The Foolishness of Children
Now at the age of thirty-one, listing to Blind Pilot, drinking an IPA, and missing my days of smoking Nat Sherman cigarettes, I realize what a fool I was to enjoy such pedestrian music, and what a douchebag Carmen really is. I should know. I’m co-founder of the #db4jc hash tag on twitter (if you can’t figure out that 1+1=2, then you’re a #db4jc too).
You see, as a young child I was too innocent. I can’t believe I enjoyed such culturally irrelevant music that condemned the prevailing culture in no uncertain terms – all in a stout Jersey accent to boot. There are two things clearly wrong with Carmen’s music:
It doesn’t utilize pop-culture, pseudo poetic metaphors. It’s all brute force.
He doesn’t have tattoos. (OK that’s not really a problem with his music, but just a personal problem.)
Clearly, Carmen isn’t, and never was, used by God. In fact, he’s doing Christianity a disservice – and he should be mocked for doing so.
Who’s Carmen?
Most likely you’re asking, “Who’s the Carmen fellow?” And if so, I’ll admit you’re lucky. My point is that as emerging, emergents, neo-calivinists, young reformers, or whatever buzzword you can find, we’re quickly becoming the young and the mocking. From where I sit, convicted too often of my own participation, our greatest weakness (and the possible cause of our future fall from grace) is our arrogance. And it’s not even an arrogance that’s rooted in solid theology – I’m well-aware of the oxymoronic subtleties of that statement – but instead on our cultural relevance. And you know what? That’s just silly.
Admit it. You’re Angry.
I think it’s time to come to terms with the fact that we’re pissed about having to watch TBN and giving up our He-Man toys (by the power of Greyskull? I think not! We live by the power of Jesus!) when our mom came home from the pentecostal church “saved” and ready to live her life for Jesus! Oh, wait…was I projecting?
Let’s face it, you probably have some sort of similar horror story about “uncool” evangelical Christianity crimping your style. And that’s cool. The Bible is full of Lamentations. There’s even a book by that name. But they were complaining about losing their homeland and watching their loved ones run through by a sword. But I’m sure your having to give the Chronicles of Narnia (evil Christian apologists!) back to your aunt on Christmas because it had witches is a modern equivalent. Wait…was I projecting again?!
Yeah. I’m a hypocrite.
By now you’re probably forming your argument that goes something like this, “If you’re so against mockery, why is this whole damn blog post full of it?” Good question. I guess the only answer is that it’s mostly self-mockery, and I’m a hypocrite. But does that make it untrue?
And I guess that’s the rub. I probably could have skipped this whole diatribe and simply quoted our good friend, St. Paul:
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:25-32
I’m Not a Hippie
So, where do we go from here? What exactly am I advocating? I’ll admit, this post was inspired by @_stew_’s (whom I actually think is a great man of God and a very interesting follow on twitter) series of salty tweets earlier this week (see examples here, here, and here), but mostly it was inspired by my own spirit of mocking at the Christian sub-culture. I’m truly convicted by my mocking spirit towards my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, people whom I’m called to love and serve with every fiber of my being. People who, if I’m honest with myself (as in the case of Carmen) actually were used by God in my own life and many others – even to this day.
So here’s what I’m saying, and what someone astutely said in response to @_stew_, let’s focus on tearing down the strongholds of sin in our culture, not the “irrelevance” of Christian sub-culture, and we will do just fine. Because at the end of the day, is it our delivery or the power of the Gospel as illuminated by the Holy Spirit that is the power to save?
This weekend we are launching our annual Missional Community Kick-Off at Praxis Church, which will focus on our vision and passion for growing smaller throughout the Phoenix valley through small communities of people who strive to live life together. More than the traditional model of small groups where people gather once or twice a month to do a Bible study or do a prayer group, Missional Communities are dedicated to living out the gospel and furthering the kingdom of God in their local context through what Ryan Eland, who oversees the Missional Community ministry, calls missional rhythms:
Eating
Celebrating
Recreating
worshiping
serving
investing
learning
The goal is not to be an insular group of Christians, but a group of disciples that employ the tools the elders and ministry leaders have equipped them with to do the work of the ministry. There is no prescriptive formula to work this out practically. Each MC leader and community is charged with prayerfully considering how they might reach their community with the gospel, whether that be through BBQ’s or theology pubs.
Below is a video my Communications Team put together to promote the event, and you can also hear some stories of those who have been involved in MC’s here. Big props go out to Silas Kyler, David Hildreth, and Adam Watson for their great work on this.
This morning we had the big ultrasound for the new baby Johnson. Last night we cast lots on whether it was going to be a boy or a girl. Collette felt pretty confident it was a boy. Liam said he wanted a brother and that he would take care of her – we’re working on the gender confusion (pronoun variety only!). I was leaning towards a girl. Of course, we were excited to have either. Well, it’s official.
We’re having another BOY!
And he has a perfect bill of health.
As soon as the doctor told us, my mind began traveling into the future, picturing great times hanging out with my boys! Rough housing, kidding around, shooting hoops together, watching ball games… the whole lot. I’m very thankful to God for blessing us with another son, and for keeping the baby healthy during development. Plus, everyone else at Praxis Church seems to be having girls. So, little Dylan Thomas (as we are currently calling him) will be in good shape come later in life.
Please keep us in your prayers for continued healthy development, and for a perfect birth.
I’m following up on my post earlier this week, Seeing Jesus Like a Child. In that post I talked about how moving it was to read the crucifixion account as told in the Jesus Storybook Bible with my 4-year old son, Liam. Some readers wanted me to share how reading the resurrection went as well.
So, I hate my bike helmet. I really do. Every time I put it on, I feel like a complete goober and imagine that every cool, hipster ASU student in Tempe is secretly mocking me as I pass them on their ridiculously large cruiser bikes. I just feel so uncool.
This is the third and final post in my series on ministry and the internet. You can catch up on the other posts 
This is the second post in a series on doing ministry in a post-Christian, digital society. In the first 
This morning I read Part 1 of Pastor Mark Driscoll’s blog post entitled, 
When I was a kid, I loved this 
This morning we had the big ultrasound for the new baby Johnson. Last night we cast lots on whether it was going to be a boy or a girl. Collette felt pretty confident it was a boy. Liam said he wanted a brother and that he would take care of her – we’re working on the gender confusion (pronoun variety only!). I was leaning towards a girl. Of course, we were excited to have either. Well, it’s official.