February 27, 2008 • 13:29
I have never been so impacted by a worship gathering as I was this past Sunday at New Hope’s main gathering…This was beyond the psycho-emotional goose-bumpy (not a real word) feeling driven experience that we tend to classify as great. It was a very real encounter with a very real God…and it messed me up. I love God so much, and I love it when the weight of who He is is so great that it leaves me face down, wondering which way is up. This is the power of the God that I follow…live for. I only wish that we didn’t walk away from these types of encounters, high on the Jesus juice for a while, but then falling right back in to the rut of just doing life. I don’t want to just do life, I want to conquer it, master it under the hands of God. I left Sunday morning feeling just that way…can’t turn back now….
Filed under: Spiritual Journey
February 22, 2008 • 15:39
Last night was incredible…probably one of the best gatherings we have had in my 6.5 months here. I am really excited to see God working through a generation of people that statistically are fleeing the church, and have been marked by ineffectiveness and non-commitment. My generation will turn this world on its head…wait and see…
Filed under: Uncategorized
February 20, 2008 • 21:47
If the world were a village of 100 people, 67 of those people would. not know the good news and grace of Jesus Christ. If the world were a village of 100 people, 20 of those people would live on less than a dollar a day. The mission of Jesus is to change all that!
In a previous generation we had the fight over whether the good news of Jesus was to “seek and save the lost” or to “to bring good news to the poor”. The answer is both. Those of us that want to see people become Christ Followers and go to Heaven forever do not have to be afraid of a “social gospel”. And those of us who want to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the least of these do not have to be afraid of only “saving souls.” Jesus had one mission and he came to do both!
The mission of Jesus is to reach the 67 and the 20. Two stats, one mission!
Filed under: Mission
February 19, 2008 • 18:49
At the center of what God is doing to day and how He is exploding in many Church bodies is this phrase…culturally relevant. It seems to be at the heart of the matter, for us as followers of Jesus to be relevant to a cultural perspective…lets say vantage point.I think this is incredible, to not limit God to a liturgy…a box of how “church” should be done…to not allow ourselves to become so inwardly focused that this timeless message is packaged in a way that is archaic and out dated in a post-modern world.
The landscape has changed…the people have changed…the argument is often not whether there is a God anymore, but rather, there are many ways to Him. Again, I say that being relevant…missional…engaging our culture on their level is exciting and effective, but could there be more.
Genesis says that in the beginning God created…over and over again it references His ability o create…to make something appear out of nothing, and do it creatively…snow capped mountains…crystal clear streams…white and black beaches…He created, and as we espouse, He is the author of creation…therefore the author of creativity…
My point, if God is the most creative being to ever exist…and we as leaders are tapped into that creativity…should we spend less time trying to be relevant to culture…and more time inspiring culture to be relevant to us…to the church…to the God of all creativity…
Shouldn’t our message and our methods be so inspiring that for once culture tries to keep pace with what we are doing, and creating instead of it being the other way around?
I believe in being relevant to the dynamic and landscape in which we live…but I also wish to see the church spend less time chasing cultural relevancy and more time creating it…
Filed under: Biblical Insight, Leadership
What exactly does the perfect life look like? How can it be described in tangible words? Does it tickle the senses? Is there taste…smell…touch to it? Or is it simply a whisper on the wind? I hear this life sold to us from all angles…culture says that its found in your bank account, relationships, vehicles, and stock options. And yet there are countless stories of celebrities,from Brittany Spears to David Hasselhoff, who have captured the proverbial “American Dream”. They have the fame, the money, the life…and yet their lives are a webbed mess of unrequited love, unfulfilled dreams, and a total lack of LIFE…
There is a much darker side to this equation, and it comes from many of America’s pulpits, espousing the same message, with a little God sprinkled in for flavor…all you have to do is sew an x amount of dollars seed into their “ministry” and you can have what they have…just ask, because God is your genie in a lamp…rub right…pray right…and He pops out, ready to serve…
The “perfect” life is not wrapped in green backs, short skirts, fast cars, or tall…dark…and handsome…
The perfect life is promised and comes soley from the ONE who can promise it…it gives everything and takes nothing…it is unconditional in a world wrought with conditions…and at the end of it all, it never really ends…He came to give it…cultures definition tries to steal it…and pulpits try to manufacture it…but there is only one place to find it…LIFE, perfected and overwhelming…free and unfettered…Jesus…follow close…
its tangible…
Filed under: Biblical Insight, Discipleship, Spiritual Growth
February 15, 2008 • 13:47
Strangely enough when I went to get my oil changed yesterday, I saw that there was an opportunity to fill my tires up with nitrogen…I had read about it a little, that it could save on gas mileage, and keep tires cooler, and was even safer than compressed air. The long and short is that I am riding on nitro. No deep theological or spiritual twist, I just have nitrogen in my tires, and I thought that is pretty freakin cool.
Filed under: Random
February 11, 2008 • 20:59
New Video excerpt up from the latest teaching series, presented by ZAO community, and myspacechurch, ZAO communities online community/network. You can link to it through my videos which goes to youtube, or through the myspace church page…
Filed under: Teaching
“There’s nothing sexy here. There’s no rock band, no drop-down theater-size video screen, no 100-member gospel choir—just a few chamber musicians and a couple of prayer leaders to help the congregation along in its hymns. The crowd at Redeemer Presbyterian is overwhelmingly young, single, professional and—for lack of a better word—sober.”
Check out the rest of the Newsweek article featuring Redeemer Presbyterian and their pastor, Tim Keller. Redeemer was recently selected #20 on the list of America’s Most Innovative Churches of 2008.
Filed under: Innovation, Leadership
