McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus

I finished this book up after picking it up for less that 5 bucks at a christian booksstore. It is supposed to have been uncovering the truth that could change everything.

Most of this book I kinda had already thought of/read of before. I understand that for many people this would be introductory and brand new and all, but I'm finding as time progresses I am less interested in reading about radical emerging stuff and more interested in doing it and being it. Maybe that's waht Kainos is doing to me - and I'm glad for it. i don't doubt that this book is great and all, it just wasn't me at this time.

However, as always, McLaren manages to sometimes put words to my thoughts and here's some things that stuck out to me and made me glad to be a follower of Jesus.


p.47, "What happens then to those who say, 'I don't have time for childish stories about seeds and yeast and sheep. I'm an important person. I have advanced degrees! I'm very knowledgeable!' Simply put, the parable excludes them. In fact, the parable exposes them."

p.53 "It was a complex, organic community with both limits and freedom, accountability and responsibility."

Chapter 10: Secret Agents of the Secret Kingdom - my favorite chapter because it speaks of empowering all Christians as change agents of the kingdom.

p.91 "The kingdom of God is at hand. That was Jesus' message. Don't you think we should let Jesus tell us what the gospel is?"

Batterson, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day

At the very least you should notice this book because the title is about as long as your arm. Mark Batterson is a pastor of a multi-site church meeting in movie theaters, an author and a blogger. Everytime you turn around it seems we are seeing him right now and he's not even published by zondervan!! That is until Zondervan buys Multnomah...

Anyways - this book is good. Not my kinda gig, but inspirational in a get off your but kinda way. He wants us to go out there and tackle the lions that are affecting us. Kinda like the time me and my friends attacked a bear with sticks. Or like the time my wife and I loaded up the van and moved to another country. Or the time we moved 3 time zones away to follow God's call...yeah - I could write this book.

There are a couple nagging questions for me in this book though - like how age affects lion chasing and how careers develop, even the main character's in this book, Benaiah. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Facebook

So I have started a facebook. You can check it out. I started it because a lot of my family and friends from growing up in Canada are on there. A lot of them still live in snowy Canada, which makes me question their sanity. I also got on because it's like my myspace without the porn and the girl who wants to be my girlfriend from the 'true' ads. Nick MAC told me that if I change my profile to 'gay' then those will switch to alluring men. But then all sorts of people will think I am gay?

Making us think...

Barth says…


I am not now saying anything new to you in reference to this question. It was indeed one of your most renowned and ablest men, General Superintendent Gunther Jacob in Cottbus, who not long ago announced the “end of the Constantinian era”. Because I have certain wariness about all theoretical formulation of a philosophy of history, I hesitate to make this expression my own. However, it is certain that something resembling this approaching end begins to show itself simply everywhere, but very sharply in your part of the world. It is certain that we all have reason to ask ourselves each of these questions and in every case quickly and clearly to give the answer:

No, the church’s existence does not always have to possess the same form in the future that it possessed in the past as though this were the only possible pattern.

No, the continuance and victory of the cause of God which the Christian Church is to serve with her witness, is not unconditionally linked with the forms of existence which it has had until now.

Yes, the hour may strike, and perhaps has already struck when God, to our discomfiture, but to his glory and for the salvation of mankind, will put an end to this mode of existence because it lacks integrity.

Yes, it could be our duty to free ourselves inwardly from our dependency on that mode of existence even while it still lasts. Indeed, on the assumption that it may one day entirely disappear, we definitely should look about us for new ventures in new directions.

Yes, as the Church of God we may depend on it that if only we are attentive, God will show us such new ways as we can hardly anticipate now. And as the people who are bound to God, we may even now claim unconquerably security for ourselves through him. For his name is above all names…

(Source: Karl Barth, “Letter to a Pastor in the German Democratic Republic” in How to Serve God in a Marxist Land (New York: Association Press, 1959) 45-80)

ht: alan hirsch

three things: Zero and Five and encouragment

This morning I took a challenge from Pastor Hacks dot com and decided my production goal for today would be to get my email inbox down to zero. I am not the most organized person in the world, and so my skills are not exactly compatable with responding to emails in a timely manner. Unfortuanately, if I want to not suck as a leader I need to get back to peeps and deal with details. So I sucked it up and went through an inbox that was up to 192 emails last week.

Also - I did a strength finder 2.0 thing that our whole staff is doing - it's a cool and fastidious way for our staff to interact and be mutually encouraging and complimentary. My five strengths are:

Ideation - People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena. Input - People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.
Learner - People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
Self-Assurance - People who are especially talented in the Self-Assurance theme feel confident in their ability to manage their own lives. They possess an inner compass that gives them confidence that their decisions are right.
Strategic - People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Thidly, I was really encouraged today by a random email from someone in our church today and twice more over the past week. Unsolicited people letting me know that they think I am on the ball and they are praying for me and my family. It was plain stinking awesome. So, go open your email program and send your pastor (not me, 'cuz i just told you to and it wouldn't be as cool) an email listing all the things you appreciate about him/her and that you are praying for him/her. If you do that then you are awesome and you may comment on this post.

Kainos

This past Saturday night our church started Saturday evening services. The group is not intended to be another option if you are busy on Sunday morning, but is a new ministry with a solid core group who are dedicated to exploring what Christianity looks like in a new postmodern world. It is also the baby steps of our church exploring what it would mean to become a multi-site church. We expereimented with it for Easter and had a lot of positive things happen - it seems good to us and to the Spirit...

It was really great to be there. We've been talking for a few years in this direction and we have been gathering and meeting with the core group since January. I am really hoping and praying that we are able to be where God is working and follow His lead in this new congregation.

Anyway - I wanted to post my notes from the teaching here. We don't have a sound person at all yet, so there's no recording. If you want to hear Kainos you'll have to be there, or pray that God leads someone to become a sound person!!

*************************************************************

EPISODE 1

Too much thinking today begins in Genesis 3 – “we are fallen”

Misses the real beginning – WE ARE CREATION

Genesis 1:26 (MESSAGE)

WE are creation and so we are made GOOD – male and female – unique because we are images of God – moral, ethical, capabilities, different

We are the developers of CREATION – ‘rule over’

We are made to BE WITH HIM.

But God gives us a choice – to live as we are created to - or to make our own way

ADAM and EVE choose their own way, sin

This happens all the time

WE CHOOSE, WE HIDE, GOD PURSUES

People choose, yet God pursues

Genesis 3:9 -

1. SELF – first question – Where are you?
2. MOTIVATIONS - who told you that?
3. ACTIOS – what did you do?

We live as God asks these questions and creation groans in anticipation of God’s answer – the questions beg us to turn to God in worship because he is the only one who can respond to our choice to live away from HIM



EPISODE 2 – Old TESTAMENT

Sin decays the culture quickly

And people get the questions backwards –

GENESIS 11:3ff

Let’s do something!!
Let’s figure out who we are!!
Let’s maintain where we are!!

And the OT becomes a place where harmony must be regulated, produced and continually restarted.

They begin to need to produce places and ways to see where God is – yet, they continually have the choice – with God or not

Noah, Babel, the formation of Israel, the exile, the return to Israel – these are all stories of regulations, production, failure and restarting.

In this cycle – LEADERS arose – prophets and judges who called out the questions of God to the people –

We can see this in Daniel – THE MESSAGE

Chapter 1 – Daniel’s story tells : WHERE IS HE?
WHAT IS HIS MOTIVATION?
WHAT WILL HE DO?

And Daniel experiences blessing and a long career as he chooses to live with GOD instead of apart from Him.

And the voice of the prophets call out from a holy God –

WHERE ARE YOU?

WHAT IS YOUR MOTIVATION?

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

GIVE TIME FOR REFLECTION HERE


EPISODE 3

Hebrews 12 calls Jesus the Author and Perfector of the faith

CHRIST IS THE ultimate response to the QUESTIONS…

1. WHERE ARE YOU?
a. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God

JOHN 8 – if you know me you know the Father

JOHN 1:14 – the glory of God exists in his identifying with our limitations. NO OTHER GOD does this.

2. WHAT IS YOUR MOTIVATION?
a. John 10:10 – LIFE TO THE FULLEST

Jesus was driven by the hope that you can have the best possible life – not just someday out there – but now and today

3. WHAT DO WE DO?
a. MATTHEW 5-7: the kingdom manifesto

Peculiar long teaching given by Jesus – no discussion – almost like a rant!

Summarize: (from McLaren, Secret Message of Jesus)

Be poor in spirit, mourn, be meek, hunger and thirst for true righteousness, be merciful, be pure in heart, be a peacemaker, be willing to joyfully suffer persecution and insult for doing what is right.

Be salt and light in the world – by doing good works.

Do not hate or indulge in anger, but instead seek to reconcile.

Do not lust or be sexually unfaithful in your heart.

Do not presume to make vows, but have simple speech, where yes means yeas and no, no.

Do not get revenge, but find creative and nonviolent ways to overcome evil done to you.

Love your enemies, as God does, and be generous to everyone, as God is.

Give to the poor, pray and fast secretly.
Don’t let greed cloud your outlook, but store up treasure in heaven through generosity.

Don’t worry about your own daily needs, but instead trust yourself to God’s care, and seek God’s kingdom first and foremost.

Don’t judge others, but instead first work on your own blindness.

God to God with all your needs, knowing that God is a caring Father.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Don’t be misled by religious talk, what counts is actually living by Jesus’ teaching.

SO WE live in this way of Jesus – sure we fail, but God is chasing us asking us questions, and providing Christ as a response to our choice to sin.

WE must know, though, that if you follow these ways, the only natural place to end up is the cross…

CENTRALITY OF COMMUNION

Center of our space, even as we are sitting open to one another in community, it is the sacrifice of Jesus which is at our center.

Kainos is new – but it is really just a very old way of people following these ways and participating in communion to show our unity with God and with each other.

Our desire to be the kingdom of God – to be Eden again.

INVITE


EPISODE 4

SO WE HAVE the beginning and the very ending of the story and our task is to

LIVE OUT the middle so that it aligns with the rest of the story.

The church is this act – universally and locally, SACC

There have been times when we have strayed from that story – both universally and locally…yet we continue to seek to get our questions in order and return to the gospel and be messengers of it.

Kainos is the new effort of SACC to bring the gospel to an emerging, postmodern culture.

We are asking who we are as Christians living in a new world?
How is the message of Jesus GOOD NEWS in this world?
What will we do to live the kingdom manifesto here?

LOSS OF CHAPLIN ROLE

Characteristics of the new world – authority based on trust, loss of a metanarrative, many truths can be held in opposition, deconstruction of hierarchy, communication revolution, terrorism – new kinds of military action, etc.

BARTH – “The gospel is not a truth among other truths. Rather, it sets a question mark against all truths.”

So it is my hope that Kainos holds a question mark to the emerging culture – not with words, but with LIFE!

So we will eat, play, sing, serve, explore, give and BE together as EPHESIANS 2:22

IN WORSHIP OUR Dominate metaphor will be a living room – as we sit totally comfortable with Christ in our midst.

By doing so, we hope to expand the mission to new places and reach new people with hope and light and love – 2 CORINTHIANS 10:15

But this is not our program or our mission –

Romans 12 (The MESSAGE) – we will all live it – we are all contributors – we are all co-creators as we partner with God


Blessing

Acts 4:33 –

Much Grace be on us all.

Nice Christmas!

I was looking at another blog and have come across and offer of a whole free library that I want to be a part of (because of my love of the books) and want to get you in on if you blog at all.

Kevin Stilley is offering to give away up to $1000 of books! You can be a part of this give away by going to his site and getting in on the whole load of excitement.

I don't know who Kevin is, but he seems to be an avid reader - which makes him someone with something to say, so check it out and get involved!

Amen, Healing the Hardware of the Soul

Dr. Dan Amen heads up a new organizational clinic that scans brain activity and attempts to medicate in order to stimulate and de-stinulate according to activity patterns. It makes a lot of sense to me - and I think I can make a scanner with a microwave, undeveloped photo film and tinfoil.

He gets into some theological questions which is where people in my class got all humanistically antsy. He questions whether people should be held accountable for their actions when their brain is sick and malfunctioning. He even asks if St. Paul had a brain siezure that caused his Damascus road vision instead of the traditional explanation.

These are good questions that should be considered. I like this book, even if a SPECT scan costs thousands upon thousands of dollars in a country with no public health care program for the masses. But, I don't want to rant twice in a row.

Adams, Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the Bible

This book was assigned to me for PESM Counselling class. It is written by Jay E. Adams, a nouthetic counsellor, which basically means he believes the Bible has all we need to help people in counselling situations. I disagree with this.

Nevertheless, I read it and many people liek to declare it, "All they need is the WORD OF GOD!" which sounds very noble, but doesn't always work out. I think God put creating ability within us and we are to develop sciences and theories and learn and grow and help each other as we have learned how.

In any case, Adams gives a pretty thorough examination of the relvant Scripture concerning marriage, divorce and remarriage. It is firey stuff because of the current high divorce rate within the church and the laxity with which we deal with the institution of marriage. It's ironic to see some churches so vehemently confronting gay marriage, all the while watching families fall apart within them. We shouldn't need to argue with policy and politics. Our message should come in our lives - the true description of Christianity.

Weir, When Your Doctor has Bad News

Yet another book that has been assigned to me for my master's program at PESM. This one is for the paper I wrote on life, death, pain and suffering.

Dr. Al Weir writes this book to give steps to strength, healing and hope to people who are suffering and trying to get through a period of time when the doctor has given them a bad news answer to what ails them. I like this book because of it's emphasis on community and the role of one's small group of Christian peers and family when facing difficult times. He also focuses on the ability to choose life and positivity in the face of death and negativiity. His focus is on helping people make healthy, life-giving choices in their attitudes and actions in order to bear suffering and death.

Instead of quotes, here's a Scripture from Habakkuk 3 that will rock you to the core:

I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

Zurheide, When Faith is Tested

Jeffry Zurheide is a pastor in Connecticut and he wrote this really, really awesome book on the interaction of faith, suffering, evil and God's omnipotence. He offers insight from a Barthian perspective, which I have not ever read, but am falling deeply in love with Karl Barth and his viewpoints.

p.36 "Barth places before humanity a God who is by nature removed, but is in practice pursuing, intimate and close."

p.37 "It is rather unthinkable that the eternal God would choose to succomb to the power of brokenness to the point of tasting the same death that we taste."

Lutzer, One Minute After You Die

I was assigned this book to read as a part of creating a theology of life, death, pain and suffering. It was a cool excercise with three books read and compared and contrasted, which I will all blog here.

Lutzer gives a very basic overview of eschatology and throws in some creative writing from his own imagination in order to spice things up a little. Like, he suggests mental powered instant teleportation will be available in heaven. Funny, but not in the Bible.

One of the best things he got me to think about is the concept of satisfaction and life and how life is satisfied, and death is not. Interesting implications, don't you think?

Sproul, The Holiness of God

R.C. Sproul is a flaming Calvinist so I thought I'd read his book on The Holiness of God as a part of my collateral reading required for my holiness class. It didn't disappoint. It seems like Sproul had a great idea for a 100 page book and decided to make it 200. There's a chapter dedicated to the apparent insanity of Martin Luther and a chapter dedicated to ripping on Pelagius. Sproul is probably a great guy and loves his family and all, but I am not going to put anything more here about this book. I had to write a review for my class and I said it was interesting to read about holiness from a different vantage point.

But that's where the neatness ends.

Holiness and Emergence

I don't have a category for holiness on this blog, which is rather surprising to you for two reasons: 1. I talk/write about it a lot and 2. I told you it was surprising for you, and that's how spreaching works.

I really, honestly think that holiness movements and the Emergent movement are so intertwined that there need not be a distinction.

I really, honestly think that holiness denominations have fantastic positioning to reaching into a postmodern age, because of their holistic understanding of faith and life experience.

I really, honestly believe that holiness denominations have crippled themselves by moving their focus from freedom in life through methods to limiting everything out of a fear of losing their holiness.

I'd rather have a dirty holiness any day than a clean legalism.

Here's what Scot McKnight points out in his post on holiness and emergence:

Here are the traits of the emerging movement according to Gibbs and Bolger: it is a list of holiness.

1. Identifying with Jesus.
2. Transforming secular space.
3. Living as community.
4. Welcoming the stranger.
5. Serving with generosity.
6. Participating as producers.
7. Creating as created beings.
8. Leading as a body.
9. Merging ancient and contemporary spiritualities.

Do you think this is a list of holiness attributes?

Rose, Vital Holiness

Delbert Rose gave this book to all the students in my holiness class. I didn't read the whole thing because there is a long section on a particularly important man (who had the misfortune of having a name that matches the name of a founder of something else entirely) and I didn't care for that part. In addition, I didn't have to read any more than I did to meet the extra collateral reading requirement for my class. Iread the parts on the beginnings of the holiness movement (the holiness club, camp meetings, methodism, etc.) and on the theology of man, sin, grace, and a short bit on sanctification.

It's a sweet book by a sweet man. Anyways, here's some fodder:

p.24 "Wesley's sole objective was to save his own soul and the souls of others who might receive help from him."

p.145 "According to His own divine estimate, God's created world, including both nature and man, was good (HOLY) as it came from His creative hand. Its goodness (HOLINESS) was soon marred through the manifestation of evil..." (brackets mine)

Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection

John Weley's Plain Account was assigned for my master's class on Holiness Theology. Because I think that the core of Emergent is similar to the core of holiness theology, I resonate with Wesley's work, methods, and thinking. He is also a great process guy, who changed his mind on several things later in life. Many people call that flip-floping, like when a politician supports something and later doesn't. I think it could be growing in wisdom.

My version was purchased from Relevant books. relevant is trying really hard to be just that for young adult christians - sometimes they are bang on, other times they betray their efforts. They put out several'christian classics' with cooler covers and they are, hopefully, putting good stuff into the hands of those young adult christians.

Wesley, a modern version of Brian Mclaren, mangaged to say a lot without letting people pin him down on things that he didn't want to be pinned down on. He also made much of his theology appear through his journals and his songs (with his brother), never authroing a systematic theology. He wasn't trying to start something, he was just trying to be as faithful as possible to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in his heart.

Deal, The Smart Step-Family

The number of kids in my youth ministry who are in step-family situations is surprisng, and perhaps alarming. I get nervous because many of these second (third, fourth, fith) marriages are wildly unprepared and end up failing, which hurts the children even more.

Ron Deal wrote this book, which was assigned to me for PESM, as an attempt to mobilize the church to be aware and able to minister to people in these situations. Our church has been pro-active in the area of ministry to step-families and I love the way that we are helping to make families and marriages stronger. Of course we are morally against homosexual union, but we are focusing on what we are for: strong, God-honoring marriages and families.

Here's some thoughts:

p.21 "avoiding divorce by tolerating a miserable marriage, I suggested, does no honor God." But neither does divorce, so where are we left?

p.91 "If the biological parent doesn't help the outsider stepparent into a leadership position, the stepparent is likely to try to force his or her way in. This almost always results in resentment and resistance from the insiders. Again, jealousy, rejection, and anger are common resulting emotions."

p.105 "it's worth noting that boys are more affected by divorce, but girls seem to be more affected by remarriage." This is where the rubber hits the road for youth ministry - where are the kids hurting...

Howe, A Pastor in Every Pew

Leroy Howe wrote this book and it was assigned as reading for my master's counselling class. I was not assigned chapter 9, or the last 40 pages of the book, so I read about half of it.

This book is a presentation of the idea that the more people in a church that are equipped for pastoral care or counselling the more health and life that church will expereience. There is also a training program in the last half of the book which would make it useful for pastors who want to equip their people. A short read that could help pastors who want to mobilize their church to effectively care for each other.

Myers and Jeeves, Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith

David G. Myers and Malcom A. Jeeves wrote this book on the interaction of psychology and faith, which I was required to read for my master's counselling class. I didn't read every page, only the assigned 100 pages, so about half this book, but it was really a neat look at this delicate interaction.

Here's some intersting thoughts...

p.65 quoting Simon Weil, "If I light an electric torch at night, I don't judge its power by looking at the bulb, but by seeing how many objects it lights up...The brightness of a source of light is appreciated by the illumination it projects upon non-luminous objects...The value of a religious or, more generally, a spiritual way of life is appreciated by the amount of illumination throuwn upon the things of this world."

p.68, Here there is an interesting consideration of a seemingly transcultural rest and wandering rite of passage and its paralellism to Sabbath

p.85 Chapter 15 talks about Thinking and Language and how the development of modern psychology is impacting (and vice-versa) modern theology. Then chapter 16 becomes very provocative in regards to prayer. This is a chapter that demands some real reflection and working through and gives lots of benefit to the person who is willing to do so.

p.172 quoting Pascal, "The present is never our end. the past and the present are our means - the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live - and as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so." Ahh the perils of positive thinking...

p. 177, on early followers of Jesus, "They willingly experienced humiliation, even death, as the price for not adjusting to their culture. For the heroes of the Bible, good adjustment - thinking well of oneself and feeling positive about the world - was not the aim of life.

Sanders, Spiritual Leadership

I've read and reviewed this book before, but I had to read it again for my PESM program this year. This book is good, but has a lot of old school feel. It's a collection of sermons also, which makes it a little bit of an awkward read sometimes.

Anyways - I read it again and didn't have any great epiphanies excpt wondering how the old guys feel knowing that those crazy young guys are going to outlive them and do whatever seems right to them after the old guys are dead. I think the only way to feel good about this is to develop wise, godly and good-thinking young leaders so that all your work doesn't go to crap. So, perhaps, the most telling indicator of extended-future effectiveness of an organization is the measurement of their developing of great young leaders.

Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership

I have read a ton of books recently for finishing up this year's worth of my master's program at PESM. So I am going to blog a bunch of them to get a record for myself - and to catch up to Nick or at least look respectable next to him...some of these I read in 2006, but haven't blogged yet, so they didn't count for my count in 2006. This is kinda like rolling over my 401k...

So Spiritual Leadership by Henry and Richard Blackaby is a book I tried to read fast but it was so good I was constantly being slowed down. It is a really stellar book on spiritual leadership without the big ugly old school references. It doesn't make allusions to 'pastors used to work harder' that another book I will blog does.

The book does seem to contradict itself sometimes, but I think that catches the tension that spiritual leadership presents in Amercian culture. Pastors need to be really hard workers who are really good at their family and really good at slowing down to rest and pray. Inevitably, the juggler drops a ball every now and then. There's also ample references to President Truman, which makes me want to research that guy and his career path a bit.

I borrowed, my copy and am returning it today, but this is one that needs to go on the wish list (when I finish my book buying fast after I read the 38 books on my 'next to read' shelf).

back

S i 've been a way for quite a while and am now going to try to get back into the saddle of the blog. I've been super busy as I am helping to adjust the hcildren's ministry, develop jr. high leadership, 'plant' a new saturday night congregation (which seems to be going well), and do high school ministry while I finish up my master's program for the year. To make things even better, I just got back from the doctor where he got me eye drops to use every 4 hours for the next 7-10 days to heal my pink-eye disease.

BUT!!

David Crowder Band is working on their new album, Remedy is Coming, and have Ted Nugent doing some guitar work on it. It's amazing and glorious!!

More time wasters

Is wasting time a sin? When does recreation become obsession?

Ponder those questions while you enjoy these links:

Spear Toss
Death Clock
Playing with time
The Door
Spider Man with Legos
Wicked Fly Illusions
Fireworks
Fun for Meetings
Ship of Fools

More to come, class is getting interesting...

Tricks or Treats for College Kids

Here's a group of stuff around the internet for you young folks who are following Jesus:

Boundless Webzine

Leadership U

PassageWay

Churches

I am cleaning out my favorites and here is a list of really cool churches that I have checked out and liked something about them. Maybe their ideas, maybe their outreach, maybe just their website. Whatever, they're just cool.

Warehouse 242

Ecclesia

Kairos

Rock Harbor

Solomons Porch

and another 47 seconds

This will help you waste a day as well. Click on the title link - see how good you are at turbo racer.

White Board

This is fun - click on the title link and waste 47 seconds.

Ed Stetzer and New Churches

Ed Stetzer is popular right now for his work on breaking the missional code. It's a putting together of two of the biggest buzzwords in church leadership today - missional and (davinci) code. It's probably a good book, but you can just listen to his teaching if you get the podcast from Resurgence. He also has a website that is dedicated to people who are starting new churches, particularly in the emergng culture.

12 mistakes and Disney

Breakthrough Media has published 12 Mistakes of Christmas Outreach. I know many pastors have no interest in marketing. I do - I am interested in effective marketing that is true to the gospel. With lists like this one, more pastors can be more effective in marketing. Another great tool may be the book Be Our Guest put together by the Disney Corporation. The church really should be the happiest place on earth, so, in our culture, the church has much to learn from the number one vacation destination for adults!

Busy - Deadly Sin number 8

Very busy lately, but only 1 month till everything for school is due, so there is a light at the end of this tunnel...getting a new laptop, so I am going to go through my favorites and blog a ton of things - for a ton of reasons.

The reorient is going to turn into a circus!

new Driven campaing

The end of the Reformation?

Here's a link to an article about the Anglican chruch considering reuniting under the pope. This, contrary to what many may initially think, is a wonderful progression. The potential in all of this is overwhelming. Click the title link to see -

Len Sweet's Advice

I am regularly listening to Len Sweet's podcast now - and hope to do doctorate work at George Fox before he is too old to be working...

Here's some of what he has recently said, as reported in the Associated Baptist Press...

Deal with it, get over it or get help. That's Leonard Sweet's mantra when it comes to understanding Christianity's fluid role in the postmodern world.

The Christian church is in the midst of a "perfect storm," Sweet told a crowd of 150 at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary Feb. 5. Such stormy weather is manifested in, among other things, postmodernism -- the worldview that questions modern assumptions about certainty and progress. Modernism gave Christians a preferred status as "chaplain" to the culture. But Christians in the West can no longer expect to have that "home-court advantage," he said.

What's more, he said, the church can't change the fact that culture has rejected traditional institutions. So it must change from the inside out.

And, he added, it does no good to complain about it.

"I think God is defragging and rebooting the church," Sweet said, alluding to computer terminology for reconfiguring and restarting a system. "I think what he is doing is he is getting us back to the original operating system of Christianity."

Sweet's address came as part of the Waco, Texas, seminary's fifth annual conference for pastors and laymen. He is a professor of evangelism in the theological school at Drew University in Madison, N.J., and is a visiting professor at George Fox University in Portland, Ore. His latest book, The Gospel According to Starbucks, uses the coffee giant to illustrate postmodern people's shift toward an experiential, image-laden and communal way of viewing the world.

The old model of church is "killing the West," Sweet said at the conference. The out-dated model is "attractional, propositional and colonial." It must become missional, relational and incarnational, he said.

"This culture understands that everybody knows they've been created for a mission," Sweet said. "It's not a mission project. Do you hear the difference? [Throughout] your whole life, you're in it. It's a pilgrimage. It's a journey."

According to Sweet, the Roman governor Pilate was the first postmodernist because he asked Jesus a "fundamental postmodernist" question: "What is truth?"

All of Christianity hinges on the answer, he suggested.

"Truth is Jesus," Sweet said. "This is the uniqueness of Christianity in all of the religions of the world. Every other religion defines truth in propositional terms."

All other prophets and spiritual leaders told adherents to follow their teachings to find the way to enlightenment, Sweet said, but Jesus was the "only one who had the chutzpah to announce to the whole world 'I am the way.' Truth is a relationship."

The ability to help people recognize the difference between propositional teachings and relational truth will come from a different mindset for teaching, preaching and living, Sweet said.

When he attended seminary, he said he learned that "preaching is making the Scriptures come alive." Now, Sweet said, he has come to believe the complete opposite -- Christians must come alive to the Scriptures.

"I'm not 360 degrees from there [his time at seminary], I'm at 180 degrees. The complete opposite," he said. "The problem is not with the Word; the problem is with us."

Oswalt, Called to be Holy

I had to read this book for my holiness class. It is pretty thourough and has a stellar beginning and ending. Sadly, it also has a middle that doesn't move too fast as it repeatedly brings forth the same points using different viewpoints of Scripture. He lives a lot in the Old Testament, that is where his primary studies have been - and it has a lot of material that is of much value because of the historical context he puts it in.

Our denominational superintendent told us that this is his favorite book on holiness so I am going to have to go back to it and read it again someday a little slower - maybe as a devotional kind of thing like Scot McKnight does.

I find myself wondering if the calvinists have books that are this tedious...

Here's some fodder in the early a.m.:

>p.27 "If the giving of the covenant is primarily an expression of the grace of God, its content demonstrates the ethical character of God. That is, he treats persons in ways that are first of all consistent with their needs, and only secondarily with his."



Now, looking over the book , there are chunks that I like, not really quotes; there is no chance that I am going to put whole pages of this book up on this blog. You can visit my office and take it if you are that needy for holiness theology.

books are difficult

I am going to be reading a book every 2.5 days for the next two weeks and writing 22 pages of amazing papers. Thus, you likely won't see the regular posts here. The benedictine one for sure, but the rest, not too likely. I'll post on the books too...when I can. So - as a good-bye for now present, laugh your head off at this:

Riddle's List

Sorry for the lack of posting - it's going to be like this for three weeks because of sickness, other pastors leaving and papers due for my masters.

I do think everyone who has anything to do with youth ministry should read this list from Mark Riddle and spend some time with it. If you think these through without crying, well....

you're not me...

pour vous...

To put it simply, it's no longer acceptable that these things happen in most churches in North America. Things We Have Come to Accept in Youth Ministry:

1. Youth pastor turnover- That a youth pastor will only stay for a short time.

2. That the success or failure of the spiritual nurture of our kids is based primarily on the giftedness or lack thereof, of a person filling the youth position.

3. That the assumption by church leadership is that best youth pastors are young.

4. That a youth pastor can/will/should disciple themselves without the guidance of a senior pastor.

5. That a healthy gauge to tell when youth ministry is going well is when there are no complaints.

6. That Senior Pastors should not be involved in youth ministry.

7. That parents should not be involved in youth ministry.

8. That we give lip service to parents being the primary spiritual nurturers of their children, but do absolutely nothing to actually support parents in our church.

9. That so many youth pastors who feel called to ministry, leave vocational ministry before they turn 30.

10. That youth ministry is church for teens.

11. That youth have different basic needs than adults.

12. That youth have been systematically abandoned by adults within the culture and the church has done the same.

13. That having a youth pastor means the youth ministry is taken care of.

14. That the best youth ministries keep kids busy.

15. That it's a sin to bore a kid.

16. That kids don't think about theology or they aren't ready for it.

17. That we do very little theological reflection when it comes to why we have a youth ministry.

18. The assumption that kids just want fun and games rather than relationships and theological engagement.

19. That Christian Education is an answer to all our problems.

20. That parental involvement in the spiritual development of their children is optional.

21. That the systematic estrangement of adolescents in our church is best for the kids and their “age level appropriate” activities and living out the gospel.

22. That kids only receive the benefits of a youth ministry/youth pastor and do not need to contribute to make this ministry happen.

23. That youth ministry is something only some of us in the church do.

24. That youth ministry is something that happens in a program at the church.

25. That all problems can be fixed with a program.

26. The perception that once I’ve grown my kids into college that I no longer need to work with youth.

27. That the youth pastor is actually just a director of activities.

28. That we no longer remember what a pastor is in many local churches.

29. That youth pastors have forgotten the reason they got into youth ministry in the first place because they are burdened with responsibilities they are miserable at accomplishing.

30. That the Jesus himself could not live up to the wildly inappropriate expectations a church has for a youth pastor.

31. That there is no healthy way to manage the expectations of the church.

Surrat, Ligon, Bird, The Multi-site Church Revolution

I'm not so sure that'd I'd call it a revolution. The idea in this book is to help churches consider, assess and develop a church that can operate as a multi-site operation. this model makes the most out of developed leadership and creates many new avenues for young leadership to develop. Of course, the book is evangelical in its use of statistices (inflated and skewed), but the material is real and raw which makes the experiences of others help to encourage the concept of multi-site.

This book was put in all our staff's hands by our senior - we are starting a new congregation the week after easter and doing a multi-site for oru easter sunday services. Building a new and bigger building doesn't seem to be the way that God is blessing us, so we are trying to see if this is a direction God can lead us.

I'm not going to put a bunch of quotes, instead you can check out the book's blog and get all the info you want!

Holy Rule Chapter 4 - the instruments of good works

The fourth chapter of the holy rule is entirely different from the previous three. This one is a list of 73 instruments that make the monks do good works. They are 73 rules that each monk follows, which produces good works within the "workshop" of the monastary.

A couple surprising rules are:

#47 - to keep death before one's eyes daily - I wonder why they thought of this, and how they would have hoped it would have helped...

#54 - not to speak useless words and such as provoke laughter & #55 - not to love much or boisterous laughter - Doesn't laughter help people? Maybe they just didn't want the monks to be too happy...

#62 - not to desire to be called holy before one is; but to be holy first, that one may be truly so called - this one is really special to me right now because of my studies in holiness theology. Holiness is not the desire - Christ is!

James needs...

Instead of a youtube this week, I am doing a fun thing - you go onto google and search for what you need. It's kinda like prayer, but this one took 0.19 seconds to get 39,200 answers. Here's what google thinks I need:

James Needs...

1. ...your help
2. ...playoff winds to be a star
3. ...to be a counselor
4. ...to explicitly be given DNS servers
5. ...to get out more!
6. ...some love
7. ...a Hat
8. ...posters, filmography, news, and forum
9. ...to learn to follow instructions consistently
10. ...to be introduced to the concept of time

ohhh how true...

The Failure of Youth Ministry part two

alas, all is not lost. As much as people want to talk about the failure of youth ministry as a prolonged experiemnt - there are ample success stories. There are many students who can attribute their current spiritual condition to a quality youth ministry - or even a crappy one.

Marko has put up a top ten list about youth ministries and consumerism that I am going to interact with here - as a means of considering the DrIVEN group only. In no way would I say DrIVEN has been anywhere near a failure; we have had failings...but who wants to be perfect anyways? Here's his stuff with my responses in italics...

Top 10 signs your youth ministry might be built on consumeristic assumptions:

(Warning: some of these are intentionally overstated, and reveal why a friend in Northern Ireland called me “a sarky git”.)

10. You talk about “my group” (that’s ownership language – the language of consumers). Unfortunately I catch myself doing this more than I'd like and every time it makes me correct myself. I don't own the youth ministry - I want God to own it. And that's nto a cop-out either. I sincerely hope that any success that we have is simply seen as God working. I just happen to be blessed enough to serve amazing students who are straight nuts for the gospel. I wonder how I can teach students not to call it 'their' youth group either...

9. Your mission statement: More teenagers, more often. This is simply not true for us. We totally believe that God increases our numbers as a sign of health of the group - but this is not the only sign. Love, prayer, caring, openness are also used as measuring sticks of growth in DrIVEN. At the same time, I'd be lying if I didn't say that the devil constantly (CONSTANTLY) tempts me in this area...I have to consciously not compare us to others - it just makes no sense.

8. You constantly pressure your teenagers to bring friends. Those teenagers whose natural outgoing personality makes this easy are considered the most spiritual. I actually think the opposite has been true in our group. The kids who bring the most friends have been the kids that aren't "good church kids" - this has been really interesting to observe. But in reality - I don't care if they don't bring friends - I hope we are teaching them to GO to their friends - then when their friends see there is a difference - unbelivers will want the peace that our students seem to have. I have posted about a great testimony by a teacher concerning this in the past - you can google my site.

7. Guilt and manipulation are seen as necessary evils, and reframed as “speaking the truth” or as “the gospel”. Sometimes I get cranked up and speak frankly of heaven and hell and speak in absolutes for things that I become passionate about (cranked is DrIVEN for passionate). We don't guilt though - and it's funny because some of the kids actually expect it. I find myself telling them they don't have to apologize for not being at an event - when I contact them it's because I genuinely missed having them around for them - not for the stupid statistical report. (So, if you are a Driven-er, plese feel loved no matter what your attendance looks like - this isn't school).

6. The biggest buzz you ever had in ministry was the time you were able to report ten “decisions for Christ” – whether those teenagers were ever seen again or not. I hate this. I really do. Conversion is so easy compared to holy living - and sometimes we leave them hanging out there - I am guilty of this for sure...but I believe much improvement has been made.

5. You’ve pondered how to make Christianity as simple as possible for teenagers. I find this really interesting... because we make Christianity harder by making it simpler. This means we tell them that a Christian simply loves everyone that God does. That's easy to learn - and soooo hard to practice. So we reduce Christianity (the life) down to being driven by love and by Christ - thereby making everything harder...

4. The result of your youth work is nice teenagers who are willing to attend church. The vast, vast majority of DrIVEN teens do not attend church. Some have never, ever attended the sunday morning worship gathering. I think this means something, but thta's a big, big topic. So, DrIVEN teens are not nice teenagers who are willing to attend church.

3. The ministry “tools” you’re sure will really get things moving: a great sound system, a hip youth room, and truly awe-inspiring PowerPoint slides. We do have a hip-youth room - but if you compared it to yours, you may laugh at it and call it a cave. And we have powerpoint on TV's and a powerful sound system. Dang. Thisi s one area where we may have a problem. It's good to not be perfect. but what are we to do - the reason that we have and do what we do is that we have students who love to do it and are glorifying God through all that....so does that make it ok?

2. You daydream about the things you’ll never have: laser lights and a fog machine. We actually have laser lights - we inherited them all from a DJ in our church. Unfortunately we keep forgetting to put the dang things on during the worship - they end up just sitting there - it's kinda funny I guess. And we can't get a fog machine - we wouldn't be able to breath - any one remember the burning incense incident where no one could breathe in the youth room? lol...

And the #1 sign your youth ministry might be built on consumeristic assumptions…

1. When you talk about “growth”, you’re only referring to numbers. One of the hardest insults I ever got was that all I cared about was the numbers. It sucked. Especially because it wasn't true. May God grow us - however the heck He wants!

your thoughts?

Theology of Failure

I am trying to develop a project for myself for summer. Right now I think it's going to be on developing a theology of failure. I'll right a book about how if you never fail then you are either Jesus or a liar. And since you don't have a blue sash and a glowing halo...!

Topics will have to include the fall, tower of babel, noah's drunkeness, exile, the disciples and the demon who wouldn't leave, the cross, Peter's hypocrasy...

any other ideas?

Taylor, Exploring Christian Holiness: The Theological Formulation

Taylor passed away last year on the 19th of June, and heaven's gain is surely our loss. This book is so outstanding. It carries the wieght of this series and brings much of the doctrine of holiness into a choerent and understandable whole. The major frustration I am currently experiencing is the way that holiness theologians talk a lot and then say that you just can't understand holiness, you have to experience it. As a system of thought, that is parallel to shooting yourself in the head. So, Taylor's book is the better of the two - at least for reading. The other is better at it what it does...

I also think that Taylor's logic falls apart in many places. Whatever though.

Holy Rule Chapter 3 - of calling the brethren for counsel

This week's chapter of rules deals with the making of decisions for the monastary. The concept is that little decisions are to be made with just the counsel of the Seniors and larger decisions should be made with the counsel of all the monks. The reason given for this is "because the Lord often reveals to the younger what is best."

I think this is true - from experience. Most of the best ideas come from those in the trenches. To quote Mike Yaconelli,

"...does it bother anyone else that Christian music has an army full of pubescent, immature, dysfunctional little kids giving concerts and telling this generation of young people what Christianity is about? Isn't it a bit weird to have a fourteen-year-old spiked-hair misfit telling other fourteen-year-olds how to live life when they live it in a tour bus?"

This chapter, more than any other so far, implicates church leadership structures in the church. Are young people being listened to in the biggest decisions? Some churches say this is the case and then run meetings that are only attractive to fossils. How can we reach the coming culture, when we don't listen to those who live in it?

Male Restroom Etiquette

This educational video helped me teach LJ some basic rules of using a public restroom. Not only does youtube entertain me - it helps me raise my children!

The Failure of Youth Ministry

Many youth ministry observers and practicioners have agreed that past models of youth ministry have, by and large, been a failed experiment. Youth ministry as a separate entity of the church is reletively young, in fact the concept of a teenager is reletively young...and western. Recently, Marko has even mea culpa'd for YS on this very subject. The main reason for this admission has been the mass exodus form the church, even Christianity, that comes shortly after graduation. The main goal of youth ministry has, seemingly, been promoting youth ministry instead of...gospel, kingdom, discipleship, sanctification, the church, etc. I really believe in youth ministry - but I don't believe in youth ministry that ends up being a stupid waste of time. Honestly, what kind of a theology helps people be Christians for 6-7 years and then drops them into the abyss (you can be creative with what you think I mean by the abyss...).

While in the car the other day, I wondered if there may be some other very important as well. Here's what I thought of, please add your own thoughts...

1. Perhaps sin is more terrible than many of us think. Maybe is hardens hearts to such a calloused pussbag that it just cannot be broken any longer. If there's one thing I enjoy most about serving teenagers is there incredible capacity to love - whether it's a member of the opposite sex, their family, a sport, or God - they love with total abandon.

2. Perhaps the devil's temptations are harder to resist after high school, when a student losses the support of community. Maybe this is part of the reason that small groups are so important for spiritual development throughout life.

3. Perhaps youth ministry has grown up with sucky theology; we've been so conversion focused that we've forgotten that many teenagers still have a long way to live after salvation. Moreover, perhaps western theology of sucess (as opposed to faithfulness) is absolutely killing our kids. At what point are we going to stop and consider the eternal implications of over-scheduling a generation of teenagers? At what point are we going to start teaching parents of 8 year olds how to raise a teenager that follows Jesus all the way./

4. Perhaps the larger church abandoned teenagers. The best youth ministries I have ever seen have students who know that their church loves them - more than the carpet, more than orderliness, more than sterilized worship, more than themselves.

5. ?what do you think?

Theology and Government

I am not supposed to talk about my political leanings because I am a pastor and our church could lose some advantages that it enjoys right now. I am a spiritual leader...not called to be a political leader. So, please note that this blog is not an endorsement of a political party. It is an endorsement of love.

Today, Chavez has gotten pretty much a dictatorship in Venezula. Amid cries of socialism, he is creating an empire based on hate. Much of the social governments of the past 500 years (especially within the last 100 years) have been based on hate. These include Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. This has created an understanding of socialism that equates it with hate.

Conversely, much of the world that is trying to live by a Christian standard has tried to base a government on what it is for. I admit the American Revolution was against something, but maybe it was more for freedom than it was against anything. Democratic countries are not innocent; they are not the new heaven and new earth, but if you were a visitor from another country - where would you choose to live? In a just society (at least generally) or next door to a guy like Chavez (or Kim-Jong, Castro, Gueverra, Stalin, etc.)?

Democracy is not Jesus' goal in the Scriptures, but love is. Salvation is!

May we be agents of love no matter the socio-political situation we are in.

Purkiser, Exploring Christian Holiness: The Biblical Foundations

I read this book as a part of my masters class on holiness theology. Purkiser died 15 years ago, so I am not able to write him a letter to ask about some of his decisions in this book. Too bad. He was a pastor in the holiness movement and his publsher assures us that he is well liked.

The book works as a text book, as a resource for papers, but don't expect to be inspired. It is a tedious survey of every scripture that even faintly leans into holiness theology. There are lots of block quotes, making a 230 page book out of a 150-er. However, wordiness is next to godliness when you have to write a ten page paper on holiness.

And now, here are some wonderful quotes and insights from the book:

>p.16 on Bonhoeffer, He "spoke out against any form of 'cheap grace' which promises forgiveness without calling for the living of a new life."

> I think there is something about the way that holiness and fire equally induce a reaction of awe. This needs to be investigated...my thoughts

>p.26 "He who sanctifies others must himself be holy"
----what are the implications of this statement on holiness and marriage?

Holy Rule Chapter 2 -what kind of man the abbot ought to be

Chapter two is much longer and much more stern as it deals with leaderhsip principles for the abbot of the monastary. He is compared to Jesus within the community and told that his life, actions and teachings must be holy and in accordance with that representation.

This chapter is so essential for youth ministers for a couple of reasons:
1. Youth ministers are looked up to and watched by students
2. Youth ministers must consider their methods in light of the students they are ministering to. What worked for a particular group/generation may not work for the following group/generation.
3. Youth ministers must be kind to those that are receptive and have the wisdom to recognize rebellion and pride in the students they lead. This is a hard thing for sure, as it is not a fun job to be able to confront anyone about their attitude. Church people tend to talk a lot behind the minister's back and when it gets back to the minister it hurts like a knife in the back. This is why I, personally, try to spend my time with Christians and not with church people. In this chapter the Abbot is actually instructed to use physical harm to chastise the proud and disobedient. Could you imagine a youth pastor doing that today? Or even an Abbot?
4. To whom much has been trusted much will be expected. Today's church is being influenced by youth pastors. This is why I think churches are dumb for hiring untrained, unexperienced, unteachable youth pastors - and being surprised when the church is paying for it 10-20 years later. Perhaps the un-whatever pastors should take care of the oldest, most steady, people and eventually be able to move downwards in age-specific ministry. This is part of the reason I think this chapter on the role of the Abbot is for youth ministers more than any other minister (senior, family, associate, music, etc.)

Above all other things, the Abbot is responsible for the souls of those under his care. May God strengthen those souls and lead the Abbot in the most holy ways as the Lord gives an increase in a worthy fold.

Master

So my reading for my masters is killing me. That, combined with being away for denominational meetings for three days last week killed my 5 posts of the week - so I didn't get to post a youtube...wah!

Anyway - it's a kainos week and we'll see new posts shortly!!

Coupland, JPod

I treated myself to a read of Douglas Coupland's Jpod over the weekend. A really great book. You can find the details of the plot online, but the great thing for me was watching the way he moved the morality of the characters around. It is a view of life without a standard of morality, a metanarrative if you will, a Scripture if you won't. I love Coupland's work - his creativity is inspirational to me. Without the book right in front of me, here's some striking things that will surely come up in conversation.

> The largest prime number under 100,000 is 99,991
> You cannot fake creativity or competency. You can try, but those who are creative and/or competent will see through you.
> Douglas Coupland has become the anti-icon in generation x. This is mainly because he gave the non-x a definition of the generation who strongly desires to be defined by a resistance to definition.

(For the canadian readers, he ends the book with an absolutely hillarious little paragraph - it's plain rad. however, the american readers may think he's swearing. So, canucks, check it out. amercians, read more dan brown and wonder who jesus' girlfriend was.....)

Collins, Christian Counselling

I had to read this book for my masters counselling class. It is 595 pages with 100 pages of notes tacked on the end. It is so thorough! Not an easy read, nor a fun read, but such a good tool to have and there was much learning found within its pages. I don't have quotes or anything, but I would reccommend this book to pastors to be on your shelf for practical help in your counselling situations.

There is a new edition out, which I link to in the title slide. My edition came out in the 80's so the information on AIDS is pretty dated. It was a lot like reading a world war II propaganda pamphlet. Funny, but sad.

Anyways - it's a long book, but it's a good book.

Holy Rule Chapter 1 - of the kinds or the life of monks

The first rule outlines four different types of monks.

1. Cenobites - those who live under a rule and an Abbot.
2. Hermits - those who have developed exceptionally well in the Cenobite stages and are ready for individual life of prayer and battle against the devil.
3. Sarabites - no rule, no Abbot. They live in smaller groups and treat holiness like a cafeteria, choosing what they fancy to be good or evil.
4. Landlopers - sensual monks who travel about and live freely with no inhibitions or contribution.

The rule calls the Cenobites the most valiant way, and tracks that way for the rest of the chapters. The Sarabites seem to have descendents today - and more and more appearing in what they claim to be the emerging church. I wonder at what point these people, who deny historical orthodoxy, cease to be a part of the church. It is not for me to judge, but it is a dangerous path when a small group of people make judgements for themselves in isolation from the current and historical Christian commuinty. The Landlopers are probably akin to the modern day evangelistic movement that puffs up statistics in order to gain monetary support. Those who know these organizations, know what it looks like - and it is U-G-L-Y ugly. You can go to Mike Kings' blog (in the roll-out) for a stellar couple of posts on this stuff.

What kind of a monk am I becoming? That is the question this chapter asks me.

Jack Bauer Office Tips

Only 4 hours in and they blow a nuke in north L.A.!! With apologies to people that I mocked in the past I am now a 24 fan...

Youth Ministry in the Emerging Church

There are some who believe that youth ministry will cease to exist in the emerging church. What that statement reveals is a belief that the current expression of youth ministry is the only possible expression. Youths will continue to be ministered to and they will continue to be agents of God's kingdom - whether or not the traditional structures of youth ministry survive (on these structures: there are some I hope survive and some I hope die).

Youth ministry as a profession may cease. But this is a long way off - there will be many churches that hold on to modernistic structures for a very long time, so if your in college getting a degree in youth ministry - don't worry...but focus your training on leadership (hope), Scripture (faith) and loving people (love)...these three are foundational for any ministry.

I forget because I am a genius!

Participants in a new study, all more than 70 years old, were tested up to four times between 1993 and 2000 on their ability to recall 10 common words read aloud to them. Those with more education were found to have a steeper decline over the years in their ability to remember the list, according to a new study detailed in the current issue of the journal Research on Aging.

Terrorism and Justice

It seems that the Pentagon has set up rules for the trials of suspected terrorists. Only the rules are kinda surprising. You can click on the title link and read it. For a long time I have had a problem with holding suspected terrorists (a la Gauntanamo Bay - which I polly can't spell) without a trial. To me, it seems to undermine foundational principles upon which America was founded. I feel the same way about torture. Yet, I am not naive. I understand what a war is and I understand the toll that these kinds of things take on human beings. It is a sad situation all around.

I am against torture, yet I am against terrorism. I am against extended detention without trial, yet I am against freedom through judicial loop-holes.

In any case, we must continue to pray for our leaders because they have to make decisions, sometimes, where there is no right choice...only a choice of which wrong is worse...

Phenomenological Trinitarian Reality

A historically orthodox Christian belief is that God has always been and always will (Psalm 90:2, John 8:58). There is no beginning or ending to God. Our ontology, however, must be limited to our concious observations of God. A modern phenomological approach to God demands an explanation of the observable existence of a creator before the creation existed. How can it be observed that God had being, before there were observers of God to concoiusly experience that existence (Others may say that God is the God without being, an interesting conclusion, but not the only option.)? Thus the neccesity of Trinity. Extrapolating, God being omnipresent ceases to have observable being outside of created order if the Trinitarian view of God is denied.

The Trinity becomes absolutely essential to Christian doctrine because, in the very least from a phenomenal view, God, in order to always exist, must always be experientiable. So when the one God of the Christians exists in three peersonalities, He is given to Himself to experience. God is given to observe Himself because He is multiple. One would argue that God could observe Himself if He was not multiple. However, because God is omnipresent, there is no possibility of oberving Himself outside of Himself or in comparison of Himself beyond the existence of another (a creation of His). So, God can be observed to exist eternally because He is more than one.

Therefore, a short allowance towards phonomenology rationally gives that God must be multiple (and it can likely be brought forth that God must be more than two, but a single blog post can only do so much...).

There are immediate applications of this philosophy in systematic and rationalistic theologies and apologetics. Systematics, if they are willing to allow a larger base of evidence than just the Sricptures, can give base to the necessary existence of the Trinity. Rationalists can pose that God is eternally observable, and, thus, eternally existant. Apologists gain a foothold in a postmodern philosophy that lends itself into God's trinitarian existence. All three of these are quick showings that postmodernity is not the enemy (it is not even an enemy system of thought). Rather, postmodernity will allow for a different set of allowances for Christianity that will causally affect the evangelistic impulse of the church for several centuries to come.

Chris Seay, Faith of my Fathers

Chris Seay is the pastor of Ecclessia in Houston and is the founding pastor of UBC in Waco. This is the first book I've read of his and I have seen a couple of his nooma-ish videos up on the Work of the People pages. The book is a dialogue of his brothers, father and grandfather who have/are in pastoral ministry. It moves along topically and is mostly engaging - just like any conversation - there are parts where I could check out either because I had worked through what they were working through or just because I read it while I was sick (more than likely the latter). The book does not have the throughly edited feel that gives a bunch of great one-liners; it does have the authenticity that makes a glimpse into the inner workings of pastoral ministry a very beautiful sight.

Donald Miller also makes a couple guest appearances - providing a little fuel to the "burn-dobson-at-the-stake fire. I thought it was rather silly how much time was devoted to slamming Dobson. I aggreed with most of it, even, but am surprised that people are paying for a book to hear things that I'll just tell them for free (taking tongue out of check...).

A couple of quotes that struck me and a couple questions I have...

p.64 "To love hurting people is exhausting, and I could not ignore the way Papa's gaze saddened when we talked about his three years of depression. We are frail human beings. Working for God does not make us invincible - it only makes our failures more painful."

>> How do we, as a denomination, as a church, as individuals, care for pastors who have/are painfully failed?

p. 163 "As a pastor, it would be a great thing to be involved in an interracial marriage because you would make so many more connections."

>> This is true, it has happened for me and Heather, especially living in the South for a few years were racism is a bigger issue. What is the history of racism in the pacific northwest? Last night the sandwhich artist at Subway asked me if we were celebrating MLK jr's birthday or death - she had no idea he was murdered...racism here exists, but it is ignorance against hispanics and asians - not from a history of slavery. (At least here we don't call taking advantage of hispanic workers slavery...) So - when will the American chruch get over racism? My best guess will be when a white-run America ceases to be the dominant world power. When America finally has to ask for help, the pride of racism will need to either stop - or it will destroy this country. I know that sounds alarmist, but you can blame Dobson for that... :)

Benedictine Prologe

I am going through the Holy Rule of St. Benedict on the reOrient. I am fascinated by monasticism and love to think about the integration of sacred and secular clergy, neo-monasticism and the theology of the desert Fathers. So, I am going to be using the 1949 Edition translated by Rev. Boniface Verheyen, OSB of St. Benedict's Abbey in Atchison, Kansas. My hope through this process is to gain insight into the movements of God through monasticism and see how it can reOrient a person in the postmodern shift. There is a prologue and 73 parts. This is going to take a while.

Prologue: Many would assume that the monastic way is less active - more still and "do-nothing"; in the prologue that is argued against. The monks are to pray in earnest and not waste time away sleeping and "do-nothing-ing". Rather, they seek the Lord and earnestly try to tune into His voice. The rule, then, is not to create a false spirituality through aceticism, but is to guide the monk into the rythyms of the voice of the Lord. May we, more and more, move in the rythyms of the Spirit of God.

reOrient Royale

In the year 007 I'm going to make some more structure around the reOrient - there will be 5 posts each week that I am posting (obviously I can't post from Mayfield). They will be

1. On the Holy Rule of St. Benedict - in my efforts to better understand and live in a monastic rythym.

2. On my reading - I managed about 23 books last year. Not horrible, but will be increasing.

3. On theology - specifically on emerging theologies and giving my thoughts and learning here. These will be the posts that get no comments.

4. On youth ministry - ours and in general.

5. On youtube - I will limit my youtubia to one a week, a sort of prize to myself for finishing well.

There may also be other posts as I feel like it since it is my blog and I hate the rules!

Back again

Had a full holiday and had the rents in town - much blessing to see my kids loving and being loved by the grandparents. Gonna get some structure here...and try to rid of the pop-ups.

j<><

Stupid Rosie, Tricks are for Kids

It seems Rosie has decided to become the spokesperson for millions of people who are just like her - wait, put down the bullhorn for a moment - are there really millions of people just like her? Some recent tirades of little Rosie:

• On Trump and Miss America
• On Asians
• On the value of human life
• On Clay Aiken
• On Kelly Ripa (Honestly - this is like attacking a baby kitten...)

It appears that she makes money by alienating people through hate. If I was the marketing director for the view I would fire her and get back star jones. While I am no fan of little Star, my knowledge of the american christian marketing machine tells me that Christian junk sells - lesbian junk does not. So if the view wants to cash in - it promotes just enough christianity to appease the oprahites and get rid of hateful lesbianism.

I will say that I am in no way trying to voice my support of christian television and am not trying to bash homosexuality. I love everybody - even crazy rosie! Wisdom says, however, that if you do things that people don't like, they will change the channel on you!

(editors note: if anyone ever finds my blog by doing a google search for lesbianism I will buy them a venti marble machiato and have quite an interesting conversation with them.)

White

Every now and then people come into our office at the church that need help. Today, I got to put $5 of gas into a couple's vehicle. They seemed on the level and tried to set up a way to pay us back, which we refused, of course.

Then I went out to their vehicle -I accopmanied them accross the street to the local gas station to put the gas into their car. On the back of their car are stickers about a particular viewpoint on the world that I tend to disagree with. You'd think that'd be a whatever for me, but it was one that came a little close to home for me.

Hmmm...XXXchurch taught me that Jesus loves porn stars - but does he people who hate?

I decided Jesus probably does love people who live hate-filled lifestyles and I decided to allow myself to be used in that way. I spoke with them, they asked about our Christmas eve service - I invited them to come with their kids and tried to give them to opportunity to start having a friendship with me...

We can only imagine the peace that Jesus could give these people...May He do what only He can...

Christmas is all aout RECEIVING

I am posting this in its entirety because it is awesome. It runs against the cliche with the sandpaper of truth...you can click the title link to see it in its original blog.

Christmas is all about receiving !

Christmas is all about giving!!
The lord loves a cheerful giver!!
Giving is better then receiving – or so they say
But what about being a good receiver…
It seems to me that receiving is much harder
And when we think about it isn’t receiving what Christmas is actually all about
Giving is relatively easy – it may challenge our selfishness or priorities
But giving doesn’t expose our needs

I don’t like surprises, why? Because I’m not in control..
What if I get something I didn’t like or want – what do I say?
Do I lie and say how much I like it, do I have to be grateful?
Knowing that I will either give it to someone else or give it to a charity shop.
Have you ever received a Christmas gift from someone you hadn’t expected one from?
What do you do? Do you feel guilty and rush out and buy them a token gift?
What happens if that gift is perfect, something you really appreciate and yet you had no idea that you would like it.

Mary was open to receiving an unexpected gift,
She welcomed and wondered at the gift given and created space within her to receive it.
This unexpected gift radically changed her life
She ultimately gave over her whole world to this gift.

Giving can make us feel powerful, competent, self-sufficient and capable sort of people, giving doesn’t expose our needs.
Learning the art of receiving calls us to intimacy, honesty, openness and evaluation.
To receive the love of another, calls me to intimacy, I have to expose something of my inner world, of who I am. To receive another’s love I have to allow my innermost self to be touched.
To receive I have to open my hands, ( I love the Eucharist in this sense, this childlike openness to receive the body and blood).
Inner growth comes from opening ourselves up to receive from others
Christmas is about receiving the love that Jesus offers to us.
To be loved means that I must bring myself with all my insecurities, pain and needs to be embraced by another.

To be on the receiving end of love requires that we see our lives not as our possessions, but as gifts. Emptiness is a gift, to have enough room, to not be too full. To be needy, poor, weak, can be a gift.
Ultimately the gospel is about receiving a precious unbelievable gift, the gift of God being born in us.
When Mary offered space, love and belief in her life, her life changed forever.
Learning the art of receiving is a powerful call to change.
In receiving I need to welcome the other
In receiving I need to make room and space to accept that which I frequently fail to realise I need.
In receiving – I change.

I do believe this will be used on Wednesday's Driven

Top 10 Bible Moments

with props to Json - here's my top ten wish I was there bible moments...

10. The Great Flood - except I want to be in Georgia when this happens. Then I would know if it was really the whole world or just the whole world.

9. In prison with Paul - just to hang out and talk and pray together.

8. David and Goliath - for two parts, really - I want to know what posesses a jr. high age boy to hack off someone's head and then I want to chase down the Philistines and play braveheart with them.

7. In the Garden - with Adam and Eve. What was that like?

6. The Parting of the Red Sea - I wonder if there were like walls of water on either side, or if the water just tidal'd away? If there were walls, then I wonder if any fish were just swimming along and just flew out?

5. Genesis 1:3,4 - What was light and dark like before god separated them?

4. Acts 5 - Annanias and Saphira - are people like giving hand signals and stuff to Saphira? no, no, no...don't say that!!

3. At Jesus' tomb - what did the resurection looks like? Was it bright and stuff?

2. Peter walks on the water...why did no one else get out? Would I get out?

1. At the writing of Hebrews. I want to know who she was...

what's yours?

Dancing

Let's get together and get rid of the metaphor of a Christian walk. Walking is boring.

Let's make it a dance. Instead of asking people how their walk is going, we can ask how they are dancing? Can they feel the beat? Is the music moving them? What music are they listening too.

Why you ask? Two reasons:

1. I hate the way the word walk feels in my mouth (and group, pants, and shoulder too! ); it is just a yucky feeling word.

2. It's biblical. Luke 1, Psalm 150, I Thessalonians 4 - it's my teaching for tonight at Driven. We are going to have a dance. I know - it's crazy...

So - what do you say? Want to join the Dancing Revolution?

Rain

A rain has settled in today. Here in Oregon there's either on and off again rain or there's rain that has settled in. When it settles in it means we are getting 10 plus days straight of rain. Hopefully it won't rain the entire time the rents are here - yep - the rents are coming for Christmas, it's very exciting around our house because Christmas is only 20 chocolates away and Gramma Grandpa Jim are coming even sooner!

I did the Jesus Freakend this past Friday night. Great time. The 9th graders get an assignment to find Jesus in the mall - it's nearly impossible. Cara is on the upper level of the mall and sees me on the lower level and, excited because of her finding of Jesus, leans over the rail and yells, "JAMES! I FOUND JESUS!" She has no idea that all sorts of people are now looking at her and at me as if we are crazy...just one more reason why I love high schoolers - they don't care if you think they are crazy! Great weekend overall - fantastic first urban exposure for new high schoolers...we'll be looking for them to join God's mission very well over the next few years....

NYWC - DAY 3 - SATURDAY

So, recapping these events is taking me forever, but I will continue for posterity sake...when I'm all done, I put links up to conflagarate things.

10am - we rolled out for the 10am general session...missed the early 8 am seminars...too bad...then we noticed the speaker was Matthew Barnett from something called the Dream Center - this was not enough motivation to keep us away from Downtown disney

11am-2pm - Downtown Disney - my kind of dream center.

2-4:30pm - Afternoon Seminars. The first one I attended was MarkO's "Leading Change" It was nice and helpful with some key ideas for me to apply.

• He took some stuff from Collins' Good to Great on Level 5 leadership and reconciled it with a gospel understanding.
• he then talked about how most youth-pastors are classic self-promoters, which keeps them from level 5 leadership. This is mainly because youth pastors are always playing the martyr (see my notes on the late night future of youth ministry forum...)
• had a great quote towards the middle:

Find the best person you can find and hire her/him; unless s/he's a jerk, then hire the second best person. Because life's too short too work with jerks.

About half way through I jetted (there were no more blanks, and the rest was referenced to books that I can pick up) and went over to the Marriot and picked up some starbucks and brought some too Heather. I got frustrated with the stupid Hilton lobby's lack of cell phone service and the absolutely ridiculous elevators. I learned the hotel's stair system.

We all went to disney again for dinner with everyone in our larger group - it didn't work as well in practice as in theory. Good to touch base though. Heather and Lacy bailed early to get to the rock show, and shortly thereafter the boys did too.

7:30-10pm - Front row for Crowder again - is Jeremy losing his sanctification by getting us these seats? One of the opening singers was Shaun Groves who is no longer with a label and so said he would email whoever wanted his album for free. I love that Christian musicians are acting more and more like givers instead of celebrities!! Then there was comedy and then, I think it was tonight, there was an illusionist and Lacy got up on stage as his volunteer. She was shaking, there's video!! I need to post in in you tube - right as soon as I feel like it. the Speaker was Mike Pilvachi - last time I heard him I was 7,000 people back - it's amazing what proximity can do. His talk was personally the best for me - I really heartly appreciated him and his communication with us.

10-11pm - Late Night Theology Forum with Tony Jones - I said hi to Brock Morgan on my way up to this one, hea taught Aaron, Lacy and I at the Core a while back. The talk was nice because it was YP's talking theology with published authors in the room and professors at Princeton and students at Princeton there also. It ended up focused on prayer though, which I thought was an unusal choice...but the important thing is that a theological discussion is going on at a youth ministry convention - moving our vocation in a healthy direction. Also - I noticed there were basically two kinds of theological discussers: those who try to pin you to the wall and those to try to move forward with you...I hope to be the latter, I'll have to watch for that in me.

11:45 - picked up our pizza in the lobby and had a little pizza, pop and heartburn party in our room with the whole sacc gang. Went to bed around 2 am.

Pop-Up

I am still trying to get rid of those heaven forsaking pop-ups. It's like the reorient is working hard to please you. And...they are driving me crazy...

Starbury

When I was in high school I loved Shawn Kemp for his basketball skills and for his commitment to only endorse snakers that were under $100. Then I loved Shaq for his bball skills and for his commitment to offer Starter brand (a subsidery of Nike) kicks for under $30 at Payless. Now, I have fallen in love again. This time it is with Stephon Marbury. While I still struggle to understand his move out of Minnesota where he was teamed with KG21 (other than the snow), Starbury has now put out a line of shoes and clothing that are all priced at a little under $15. Stephon does not have to be doing this - he could have a big old shoe deal (of course, he may need to get out of the Knicks locker room to make that a reality...lol). Here's his quote:

“It costs less than $14.98 to make a $150 shoe. That’s not what people are being told. We are allowing kids to become more edu­cated. Through this world of trying to live an exclusive life, kids are being lost in translation. Kids are not allowing themselves to see the big picture. And the bib picture is not having a $200 pair of sneakers when your mother’s income is $15,000 to $20,000.”

I've looked, but I can't seem to be able to purchase them online. Looks like a trip to a washington mall is in order...

I hope that his shoe line does fabulous and becomes a move that forces the big three (nike, reebok, addidas) to acknowledge the cause and effect relationship that they are a part of that is detremental (sp?) to youth culture.

ps. as a side note, I wonder what a guy like Shane Claiborne does with something like this. Surely these shoes were made with cheap labour, but does making them affordable for the poor carry some weight?

Catch

Catching my son's puke in my hand is one of the specialist moments in my life. My son has taught me more about God and Jesus than most of you who read this ever will - most likely because God chose to reveal Himself to us in a Father/Son/Spirit trichotomy (prolly not even a word). So, being a father teaches me about the Father.

A prayer for today...

God, thanks for catching my puke in your hand.
thanks for wiping my chin and giving me juice.
thanks forlaying next to me while i sleep.
thanks for taking me out and treating me well and carrying me when i am tired of walking.
thanks for loving my son.

you're welcome

I got rid of the pop-ups. I think.