results vs. fruit

We live in a performance-driven world where the main measure of success is results. In John Hayes' book Sub-merge (see previous post), he has a very good understanding of results. In ministry to the poor, you can't be too focused on performance. He rightly explains,


"God’s economy is indexed to obedience, not performance.” He goes on to clarify later in the book by saying, “performance focuses on results and is distracted into pressing for outcomes. Obedience focuses on God and bears fruit. Faith helps us distinguish the path of obedience from the drivenness of performance” (92, 190).


I find that refreshing when we are so often tempted to measure success by externals. Though results are flashy, God desires fruit.

More Transforming Culture

More on the vision of this Transforming Culture Symposium. I encourage you to check this out. Ie especially like the last paragraph. Below is from the transforming culture website.

“When TIME magazine compiled a list of the one hundred most significant people in twentieth-century art and entertainment there were only five who had shown any public signs of Christian faith.” - Steve Turner, journalist, poet, Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts
This symposium will bring together pastors, church leaders and artists to discuss the Church’s relation to the arts and to artists. We will focus our discussion on three areas:
1) art and the worship of the Church
2) artists and the community of the Church
3) art and the mission of the Church in the renewal culture

If you are interested in exploring the ways in which we can encourage a more theologically informed, biblically grounded, liturgically sensitive, artistically alive and missionally shrewd vision for the Church and the arts, then we welcome you join us April 1-3, 2008 for a lively and enriching conversation.

moved and shaken

Sub-merge: Living Deep in a Shallow World is a great read on ministry among the poor. This book is a practical guide for his ministry called innerCHANGE. They are "committed to expressing the kingdom of God in needy neighborhoods in both word and work, in holistic union.” He says, that his life and ministry focusues less on the movers and the shakers in this world and more on the moved and shaken (283). This book is one of the best that I have read on ministry among the margins. Ironically, in the margins of this book, he tells story after compelling story about ministry among the poor.

In a convicting section of the book, he gives the reader a very balanced approach to our responsiblity to the poor. He says, that everyone knows about poverty, but not that many of us know the poor. He is balanced, biblical, practical and concludes with an understanding that ministry among the poor is both discipline and devotion. I recommend this book to anyone that wants to take their ministry to the poor from mere community service to devotion to the Lord.

Transforming Culture

Our church is hosting this Transforming Culture Symposium in early April. I can't wait. I am thrilled that this subject is being addressed and that Eugene Peterson and others are coming to speak. You can check out more info and buy tickets online at www.transformingculture.org. Also, if you are interested in a good read on the subject, check out The Culturally Savvy Christian by Dick Staub.

Nativity Grace

Today we set up our Christmas decorations, tree and Mandy's little nativity set. I looked at the nativity set with fresh eyes as we are looking at these characters in the Gathering. When we look at a typical Nativity set, the people we see are the least likely people to be involved in a King's birth. Poor, dirty Shepherds; Pagan, Gentile Magi, a poor, young, unmarried pregnant girl from a dumpy small town, etc. And I was reminded of the abundance of Grace seen even in the birth narrative (not to mention Jesus' geneology). This was the birth of the King and the birth of a Kingdom with completely different values, priorities and expectations than the culture. Even in Jesus' birth we see the upside down and countercultural Kingdom that He came to establish. After the message, Jim Echels (our church's worship leader and the Gathering drummer) sent me the lyrics to "So Long, Moses" by Andrew Peterson. I thought they were beautiful.

"Will he be a king on a throne

Full of power with a sword in his fist

Prophet, tell us, will there be another king like this

Full of wisdom, full of strength

The hearts of the people are his

Prophet tell us, will there be another king like this

And Isaiah said:He'll bear no beauty or glory, rejected despised

A man of such sorrow, we'll cover our eyes

He'll take up our sickness, carry our tears

For His people, He will be pierced

He'll be crushed for our evils, our punishment feel

By His wounds, we will be healed, we will be healed"

Ringing in the New Year at 30,000 feet

On Monday we were asked to lead a mission team to East Asia. Within 48 hours Mandy and I are both going and we are very excited about the opportunity. We look forward to teach, counsel, help out the missionaries (our good friends there) and do whatever else the Lord would have us do. We will leave on December 31st and bring in 2008 while on the plane. It is a little bit of a whirlwind as we get prepared, figure out plans with Caroline and raise support. Pray for us and for the trip.

cultural addition

One of my favorite subjects to discuss is how to engage culture with the truth of the gospel. We talk at FEFC about learning what we need to receive from our culture, reject from our culture and also in what ways we can look to redeem our culture. Marvin Olasky has an interesting article with a great quote on this subject. I am not into politics at all and strangely enough this article is about politics. So putting the politics aside, I appreciated this quote that seems to get at how we can engage culture.


"Instead of working fruitlessly to subtract evil from the land, add the good. American conservatism can have a bright future, with God’s grace, if we are strong and courageous in developing positive alternatives to the cultural negativities around us. But if we merely praise our own Christian circles and curse the darkness outside them, we will soon be surrounded by it. This type of guerrilla cultural warfare can be more difficult than an invasion of Canaan—but God calls Christians to help transform the societies surrounding them."

Also, tonight I just read another great post on this subject by my friend Jonathan Dodson. Check it out.

Crowder

This week I spoke at the FEFC youth retreat and the Dutton Band led worship. The Dutton Band used to fill in for David Crowder at UBC when he was touring. So they played a ton of crowder songs this weekend, which I really enjoyed. But I was out blogging and read this article on the character of David Crowder and was even more impressed. It is great to see that he is not just talented and creative, but truly is trying to live what he sings.

Consuming me some church

This week Shaun Groves wrote a post about if he should even keep going to church. I realize that it is tongue and cheek, but I think his premise in the post is the wrong approach. His entire post is talking about things that he should be able to get from church and then how he can get those things better in his cul de sac.

We have a long way to go to change our view of church away from the consumer (meet my needs) to the gathering of missionaries living in community, the body of servants (utilizing spiritual gifts), etc. And also we have some difficult ground to break to teach ourselves that church is not a building, but rather a people who are part of a movement for Jesus. Now to be fair, he does come around with somewhat of a counterpost explaining that he is not going to stop going to church.

Don't stop going to church because we need you, your gifts, your encouragement, your mercy, your teaching, your exhortation, etc. That is why you go to church.

Lars and the Real Girl 2

One of the most telling lines in the movie is when Lars says to Bianca (his doll "girlfriend") that the fake flowers are beautiful. He says they are great because since they are not real, they can never die. For Lars, real life community has been hard because his parents died, his brother moved away and everyone abandoned him. Therefore, Bianca is perfect because she is not real, so she can never abandon him.

Lars is so paralyzed by the fear of being abandoned that he won't engage socially with anyone. Today, the youth pastor at my church was telling me that his High School Kids fear abandonment more than anything else. That fear suppresses authenticity, because if they are real and vulnerable, then they will likely be rejected and abandoned. Just like Lars, when people let us down, we run after things that are not real in order to satisfy us. We justify it by saying, at least they can never let us down. I am so thankful that we don't have to run after futility and instead can run to God who says that "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."

Lars and the Real Girl

On Friday night, I saw Lars and the Real Girl because of Cheryl Fletcher's recommendation. She lives in L.A. now so her movie recommendations are that much cooler. I definitely recommend the movie. At first it looks really weird and it will make you squirm a little bit with some painfully awkward moments. But it truly gets to the need for community and the power of community. The messiness in Lars' life is pretty out there, but it reminds us that living in community involves loving each other despite the messiness. The ultimate message of the movie is pretty redemptive. And it is playing at Alamo Draft House, which is definitely the coolest place to watch a film here in Austin.

a must read

Talk about a resource. Tim Keller's book is coming out early 2008. I can't wait. I think it will be a great read and an especially great read for the skeptics out there. It is called "The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Someone told me that they read that it was designed to be the Mere Christianity for a Postmodern World. Here is the table of contents:

Introduction – All doubts are leaps of faith
PART 1 - The Leap of Doubt
1. There can’t be just one true religion.
2. A good God could not allow suffering.
3. Christianity is a straitjacket.
4. The church is responsible for so much injustice.
5. A loving God would not send people to hell.
6. Science has disproved Christianity.
7. You can’t take the Bible literally.
Intermission
PART 2 - The Grounds for Faith
8. The clues of God
9. The knowledge of God
10. The problem of sin
11. Religion and the gospel
12. The (true) story of the cross
13. The reality of the resurrection
14. The Dance of God
Epilogue – Where do we go from here?

God Grew Tired of Us

I watched the documentary God Grew Tired of Us on Wednesday night and then went to see John Bul Dau at St. Edwards University. He is one of the Lost Boys from the Sudanese Civil War. Our church is doing a lot of work in Southern Sudan with education, health awareness, community development and we are planning to start a biblical institue in April to help train national pastors. In the Didinga Hills there are 100,000 people and there is one church with 100 Christians.

I highly recommend the documentary to learn more about Sudan and the story of the Lost Boys and their transition from a refugee camp in Kenya to the United States. Last night John Bul Dau highlighted the importance of perseverance, community and faith in Jesus Christ in his story. But what struck me was that when he reached a place of influence (America) he did not hesitate to take care of his people still living in the refugee camp in Kenya. He has now started a foundation that is using his influence to seek the welfare of Southern Sudan.

Willow Creek says "We made a mistake"

This is an interesting article written about one of the largest and most influential churches in the last 30 years. I find it really interesting what they found from their research within in their church. It seems so simple, but so profound for the American Christian and the American church. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Their book is called "Reveal" where they highlighted their findings.

urban influence

My friend gave me an article by Marvin Olasky from World Magazine. Olasky is currently living in NYC, but usually lives in Austin from what I understand. It is pretty obvious that he, like others is being influenced by Tim Keller's theology of the city by Olasky's article entitled "urban calling." He said in this article:

"Today, sadly, the pattern is reversed: Christians are mostly in the countryside, and city dwelling pagani (pagans) dominate journalism, education, the arts, and so on."

I lament the fact that for the most part these disciplines such as art, journalism, education are not driven by the gospel. And I think we have missed our calling if we think it is our job as Christians to stay out of those arenas. I think it is the opposite. We need Christians who are artists, song writers, journalists, educators, engineers, doctors, etc.

He quotes one of my favorite verses about the city from Jeremiah 29. We have been talking about this passage in our Exiles series at the Gathering on the book of Esther. Jeremiah denounces the idea that it will all get better and that we shouldn't move into these arenas. Instead he says "build houses and live in them...seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."

I look into our community and I see doctors, engineers, artists, writers, musicians, business people, non-profit starters who motivated by the gospel are ready to play a redemptive role in this city. The post on our Gathering blog asked the real practical question and I ask it here: what is the first step for us to start influencing the city?

exiles

We just started a new series at the Gathering called "Exiles." We are looking at Esther to learn how to influence our culture while living as an exile.

Exiles by definition are people living in a culture with different language, convictions, practices and narratives than their own. We, the church, are living as exiles in a culture that does not reflect the gospel narrative, but has all-together different values. As exiles we can either linger in nostalgia of what used to be or to choose to live like missionaries advancing the Kingdom of God in our culture.

I am excited about us moving from nostalgia and maintenance in the Spiritual Life to a real sense of mission for the city.

Grooving

Sorry. I couldn't resist. Here is Caroline shaking her rump on Mandy's blog. Click here to see it.

man crush

I think it is perfectly ok to have a "man crush." Mine for 2007 and probably of 2008 is Tim Keller. He is the pastor of Redeemer Pres in NYC. If you have not read some of his stuff or heard from him, I highly recommend it. He is doing some of the best thinking on the gospel and our culture.

But I also think that his article on all of life is repentance is one of the best things that I have read on the subject. It is pretty short and an important read. I recommended it to someone a few weeks ago and they said that it has radically transformed their view of repentance and the spiritual life.

Here is one quote from it: "In religion our only hope is to live a good enough life for God to bless us. Therefore every instance of sin and repentance is traumatic, unnatural, and horribly threatening.... But in the gospel the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit we are flawed. Our hope is Christ's righteousness, not our own -so it is not so traumatic to admit our weakneesses and our lapses."

Enjoy.

figured out

A few weeks ago Mandy and I are starting to teach a class at church on marriage. Yikes! I think there is this temptation to think that we have to have it all "figured out" before we can talk about marriage. We obviously don't have all the answers and are still growing and learning everyday about our own marriage. I liked Wendell Berry's thoughts from Life is a Miracle in dealing with the tension of experience and forumulaic ways of "figuring it out."


“To experience it is not to “figure it out” or even understand it, but to suffer it and rejoice in it as it is. In suffering it and rejoicing in it as it is, we know that we do not and cannot understand it completely.”


I like his approach. I would rather experience life, marriage, the spiritual life, parenthood, etc even with the suffering and the rejoicing rather than publishing a book with the title "How to have it all figured out by 30."

the genius of Dave Hampton

Here is my acting debut as "frightened inmate #2." Oh wait, that was Arrested Development. This is actually me playing the mean church boss, but Dave Hampton is hilarious.

Check it out below or on youtube.

http://www.gatheringaustin.com/blog/?p=61

true religion

This is a great story of a couple of folks within our community who have started a ministry to single moms and widows. We have been teaching through the book of Acts and we keep seeing how God gives the apostles impossible tasks and then provides so that His people can be on a mission. Here is their story of being on a mission.

“We began trying to contact our single mom on thursday to no avail. We spoke with her mom in California, and her high school age daughter here, multiple times everyday but she had disappeared. We originally said that we had to be able to come see the apartment by Friday afternoon to be able to help get her out by her eviction date but kept pushing back the deadline hoping she would show. Finally she called me on Saturday evening and said the apartment was too messy and she wanted to get it cleaner before we came. We said we would rent the storage unit on Sunday and come on Monday morning to move whatever she had packed. She called Sunday evening to say that she was overwhelmed and couldn’t even begin and we would just have to come and do it all for her. We showed up Sunday morning at 9:30 expecting a somewhat messy one bedroom apartment and found a two bedroom apartment filled with unpacked boxes and trash. Only a small walkway led to the two equally full bedrooms. She admitted to us that she hadn’t done dishes in over 6 months. One of our team members called a friend who owns a moving company and on Labor Day morning, he personally came and delivered a 24 foot trailer and his personal truck to help us out. We tore into the apartment and it was filthy. God provided though, two ladies that our single mom had not seen in over a year unexpectedly dropped by and offered to pitch in cleaning the kitchen with our one female team member. We worked until 5:40 p.m. packing the trailer completely full and hauling two pickup loads of trash to the dumpster. We went to the storage unit and unloaded everything, finishing at 7:45 p.m. The next day, I went back to take the last truckload, the apartment was then completely empty. During the process we threw away 12 signs that the mom had held on street corners asking for money. She told us of her struggles with depression and how she had been robbed and her best friend had been murdered. We prayed for her and told her this was a new start that God had given her. Our single mom asked her friend who was cleaning the kitchen if she knew Jesus. Her daughter was working at TGI Fridays to try and buy a car for them, she had to miss work to help pack so we reimbursed her for her lost wages. We bought them lunch and hugged her before we left in the evening. This lady’s mom in California was so thankful, her exact words were “I know that we are the body of Christ but I cannot comprehend the kindness that we are finding down there.” She is part of a weekly prayer group and will now be praying for our ministry. We were blessed beyond our wildest dreams. There are a lot of dumb ways to spend Labor Day and I have spent many a Labor Day that way. But when we three guys stood in the rain outside of that storage unit after 10 hours together, we felt a bond that surpasses brotherly love. We stepped out together and God did the impossible right in front of us, to show us His glory. We saw it. He provided an unexpected trailer, two ladies, and somehow, He moved an apartment, that should not have been done in one day. We each know that God moved on Labor Day and we got to see it. We believed we would find purpose in serving single moms and widows together as brothers, and our inaugural mission of PURE legitimized that belief. If that was the last need God used PURE to meet, praise Him for one incredible day.
The PURE TeamPure Undeilfed Religion EnactedA ministry of James 1:27

Death by Ministry

I have really enjoyed Pastor Mark Driscoll's blog series called "death by ministry." His statistics in week 2 are sobering if not scary. It comes out of his experience of the difficulties and depression often associated with ministry. His thesis is that if you don't take a sabbath, God will impose one on you. I find his reminders helpful for all of us in a busy productive culture who don't allow ourselves to rest.

Looking at the last month of my life, I am convicted that I have had little time of Sabbath and even fewer moments of reflection. In Austin, we are entering the most exciting season of the year - Fall: cooler weather, football, ACL, etc. But for most of us the fall is the busiest season of the year and we need to be reminded that the Sabbath is a gift from the Lord for us. You can find Mark's entire series on his blog.

A good read:This week I have really enjoyed: Real Sex: the naked truth about chastity by Lauren Winner. I honestly recommend everyone to read this book whether single or married. It is great on chastity but also great on a gospel understanding of married sex. The whole thing is great, but here is a quote that I think particulary pegs our false thinking.

"We are not sure whether bodies are good or bad: it follows that we are not sure whether sex is good or bad. The Christian view of bodies - that is, God's view of bodies - cannot be abstracted from the biblical account of creation. God created people with bodies, and God declared that they were good.... we've learned to reduce sex and everything else bodily, to something that has only utilitarian function."

choosing both

This last week in the Gathering we had a guest preacher, Matt Blackwell, who continued our series on Acts. I have always loved Acts 3 and the story of the lame beggar at the gate who was healed and went away leaping, jumping and worshiping God. It is such a beautiful picture of our response to salvation. When I think about how God intervened through Jesus when I had no hope - I want to leap, dance and worship too.

On Sunday night, I realized that Acts 3 is also the perfect combination of our call to gospel ministry: the creation mandate from Gen 1:26-28 and the disciple-making call from Matthew 28:19-20. My friend Jonathan Dodson has a great post on this to explain it further. When we truly understand the gospel, we see ourselves as the empty-handed beggar and want to tell other beggars about the love of Jesus -- the evangelism or disciple-making mandate. But also we have to see our ministry like that of the apostles who looked into the beggar's eyes and restored justice to his life -- the creation/restoration mandate. Both kinds of ministries have their foundation in the redemptive message of the gospel. Historically churches have either done really well at evangelism or social justice but rarely both.

It seems like the apostles saw both as part of their redemptive call from Jesus. Jana personalizes that struggle so well in the Gathering Blog and I have felt the same conviction as I walked the streets of Bangladesh or even today when I drive the streets of Austin. I recognize that I need to be intentional to live both mandates in order to have a full picture of the Gospel ministry of reconciliation.

Only 2 more to go...

Do you remember cutting out UPC's from your cereal box to collect prizes when you were a kid? I would get all kinds of things like toys, baseball cards, and posters of athletes. That was the greatest way to collect some junk that you would end up selling in a garage sale.

This morning I looked at my cereal and I literally saw..."Free cholesterol test kit with 3 UPC's." I began to wonder how old am I that I eat cereal where the toy is a cholesterol kit? I don't think of myself as that old, but I do have some old traits not even counting my few gray hairs. Last week I was talked into joining Facebook and I realize that I am too old for it, because I had to ask my younger friends how it works. Then to top it all off, Mandy and I went to dinner on vacation this weekend at 5:30 and were back in our condo by 7 every night. We laughed all weekend about how hold we are. 1997 Jeff would be so disappointed with 2007 Jeff. Oh well. What would 1997 you be ashamed of that you do now?

Oooh Aaaah

Have you ever thought about Jesus' miracles. I have always known that Jesus' miracles were to authenticate his message and to show that He was the Son of God. But have you ever thought about what kind of miracles you would do so that people knew you were the Son of God. I mean obviously healing the sick, feeding the 5000 and giving sight to the blind are pretty awesome miracles, but is that the most spectacular thing that He could have done? We live in a culture where only the most spectacular and outrageous make it on TV. I mean I am sure that David Blaine is dreaming up some other trick to get on Primetime TV.

But what we miss is that Jesus did not do his miracles strictly to be the most spectacular. He didn't suspend the natural order so everyone would ooh and aah. In fact He didn't suspend the natural order of things, but instead Jesus restored the natural order of things through these miracles. You see God didn't make the world to have blindness, poverty and disease - He is restoring what the Old Testament calls Peace or Shalom. Shalom is the harmony and wholeness of the world or in other words - the way things were suppossed to be. So Jesus is not only proving that He is God, but He is showing His redemptive power and His redemptive purpose. You see the ultimate purpose of salvation is restoration of the entire world.

So how do we join in on God's redemptive work in our world? Maybe we need to get busy "seeking the shalom/peace" of our world and being less concerned with the spectacular. In Jeremiah 29 God commands the exiles to go into the cities, keep their identity and spend their lives seeking and praying for the peace of the city. We need to be reminded of this passage so that we can live in Austin, keep our identity as Christians and seek the peace of Austin. Maybe then we would be joining in on the redemptive work of Jesus. Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. This is convicting to me and hopefully to all of us.

You work where?

When you meet someone for the first time; the first question that everyone asks – is what do you do? When I tell them that I work at First Evangelical Free Church, most give me the same perplexed look as they respond to “evangelical” and especially “free.” Some assume that I am one of those “free” types that they see on TV and others think they have me pegged politically. Then I try and explain it and I realize that no one knows what “evangelical” truly means.

“Evangelical” has become in our culture a word which primarily alludes to particular political views. After the 04 election, the Daily Texan (The UT paper) called our church mainly because our church has the word Evangelical in it and they interviewed us about our political views. Of course we told her that our church does not affiliate with any political party or any politician and she was shocked. Unfortunately, others associate this word with Televangelists. Needless to say, this word has negative connotations in our culture these days.

It is unfortunate not only because our church has the word in the title, but because evangelical is such a rich word theologically and historically. The evangelical movement was a response to German Theologians in the late 1800s who wanted to take the authority, truth and inspiration out of the scripture in order to make Christianity more relevant. The evangelicals worked really hard to maintain their commitment to Scripture and more importantly the “evangel” (gospel) of Jesus Christ. The way I understand church history informs me that the evangelical movement had nothing to do with politics. So I am evangelical in my theology. I have a very conservative view of scripture and the gospel of Jesus is the most important thing to me and my faith. I am on one hand very happy to be called “evangelical,” because of the commitment to the gospel. But on the other hand, I don’t like the negative connotations associated with the word. So what is the answer? I wonder if there is a way to reclaim that word so that it could be associated with the love, reconciliation and grace of the gospel of Jesus as it was originally intended.

And then I try to explain “free.” That is another blog for another day.

...right where we left off

A few weekends ago, I hung out with some college buddies of mine from all over the US. I have not laughed that hard in a long time. When you get all of us in the same room we will pretty much be one constant laugh for hours. Also because for some reason when you get together with people like that, it is almost as if nothing has changed. We laughed at stories that were funny 10 years ago and for some reason are still funny now. The great thing about longstanding friendships is that you “pick up right where you left off” as they say (whoever they is).

But though it felt like nothing had changed we recognized pretty quickly that a few things had changed. One of the funnier experiences was 6 of us going to the grocery store to get food for our condo. We walked in talking big about how we were going to get queso, chips, eggs, and other manfood for our weekend. But as we started going down the aisles, it was funny what rose to the top. Coffee was of utmost importance for the mornings. I don’t know that any of us drank coffee in college (except for when we were staying up late to study). On the soft drink aisle one guy grabs a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper. But then basically through the conversation it comes out that only 1 of the guys still drinks fully loaded DP, but that we all like Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper. Then we go to grab some milk for our cereal and we begin to debate over whole milk, 2%, 1% or even skim milk. It turns out that none of us drink good ol’ fashioned college Vitamin D milk anymore. We voted and 1% won. Our college selves were laughing at us and callling us lame.

But it got me thinking about community. We as a ministry talk a lot about community. We talk about being known and knowing and giving to and receiving from the community. That community of 9 guys is one of the easiest communities for me to relate to – we have history, inside jokes, stories, embarrassing moments, nicknames, shared difficulties, etc. Everyone said that you will make your best friends in college and to one degree that is true. But there is this fantasy that we are all going to live in the same city, raise our kids together, and laugh every week about old college stories. That isn't happening.

No one warned me that that my friendships would change so much. I think something that hinders us from jumping into new community is holding dearly to the college buddies or your friends from your last city, or your old neighbors and not letting new community be formed. We forget sometimes that it takes 4+ years to build those relationships. For those of us who have experienced so much change in friendships, we are tempted to be skeptical of ever finding lasting friendships. Recognizing how much community changes could easily lead me to not engage with new friends knowing that they will either be called to the mission field, get transferred, have a baby, decide to go to grad school in the UK, etc.

I am beginning to see the importance of seasons of friendships. That sounds like heresy to a college student. That doesn’t mean that I am still not great friends with those 9 guys. But for this season none of those 9 guys are in my everyday life (only 1 has met my baby). None of those guys live in my city or are my accountability partner, or are grabbing Magnolia pancakes with me on a regular basis. But if my college buddies had hindered me from engaging in new friendships, I wouldn’t have some of my best friends right now. I am very thankful for my friends that I have made in this season of life while in Austin. They have been some of the best encouragers, listeners, partners in ministry, and people to laugh really hard with.

I think we have to be disciplined to dive into community and recognize what a provision these friends are even if it is only for a season. Who knows maybe when I am in my 50s, I will have 4 different reunion weekends that I go to. My college buddies, my Dallas Seminary buddies, my Austin buddies, my... buddies, etc, etc, etc. What a full life of relationships and community that would be!

March Madness and Redefining Normal

Ahh… My favorite time of the year: the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament - March Madness. This Thursday night and Friday night I will likely stay up late watching the cinderella upsets and last minute shots. One of the time-honored traditions during March Madness is filling out the brackets for the tournament before the games start. Now I have been a basketball fan for my whole life, and for some reason have always been really bad at picking these games. In high school a girl picked the teams based on her favorite colors and won our “pool.” Needless to say, we made the rule "no girls" the next year. Last year I came in dead last in our staff's bracket challenge. But for some reason every year I still fill out the bracket and expect to pick all the right 12-5 upsets.

Tonight I filled out a few of my brackets and I realized how much easier it is now than the manual way we used to do it. I remember (in my day) buying a newspaper to cut out the bracket and then making copies of it for my friends. I almost forgot how we did that before the internet. That got me thinking about how technology has changed our view of normal.

How did we get maps to events? How did we find phone numbers? How did we check sports scores? How did we write our musings so everyone could read them? How did we know who was calling us when the phone rang? How did we alert everyone that we were moving to another city or that we had a baby? What did we do before cell phones? Now if I leave the house to run one errand without my cell phone – I think I am really living on the edge. Do you remember calling someone’s house and just letting it ring? If they weren’t there you weren’t frustrated; you just called later. And if you did that now, people would think you were stalking them with 7 missed calls from you and no message. Weird uh? The only reason that you didn’t answer the phone was if you were grounded from it. Now we give the “look off” when we look and decide if we have enough time to answer that call…. I mean some people do that – not me!!!. So I was wondering what else is obsolete now. What else seemed normal before technology and now would be weird? And do you think that technology has made us more connected or less connected? Thoughts?

soup, bathwater and the baby

Last week I was talking with a friend who told me that he was experiencing great Christian community as a group of friends were meeting simply to eat soup together. It is organic, not contrived, and everyone likes each other. Sounds great, right? But he was growing increasingly frustrated with his soup group. He said that he wanted to continue to experience the community, but also wanted to be challenged to follow Christ more deeply. In fact he said that if anyone were to bring up the bible or prayer – that it was simply dismissed as cliché. The soup group was designed to be organic (not programmed) and focus on community (rather than individualism). But what my friend was experiencing was swinging the pendulum to its extreme. In an effort to be authentic and community focused, they threw the baby out with the bathwater. So there is my cliche, which is really weird because right now as I write my baby is in the bath.... oh well.

I have to be honest that I feel this very same tension as a pastor. There have been a handful of times where I have gone to the hospital to visit someone that I don’t know. A generation ago, that was a huge part of the pastor’s job, but not so much now. I remember feeling almost inauthentic to pray or share a scripture with someone I didn't know. And I remember driving away thinking I was the worst pastor ever for hesitating to pray or share scripture. When we are trying to make correctives (and even helpful ones), we often throw the proverbial baby out too. I am all for throwing the inauthentic, individualistic, programmed water out, but I want to make sure that we don't get to the point where prayer, scripture and spiritual formation become cliche. Because I still believe that is what we are about.

Last week I sat in my community group and watched as one friend truly challenged another friend with scripture in order to be more like Christ. There was nothing cliche about it. He had lived in authentic community for 2 years with him and was able to share truth in a way that no one else could have shared.

There are many things that we need to change about the church, etc, but we should all make sure when we are making correctives, that we don't lose the things that make us distinctively Christian.

Experts in...

I have to admit that whenever someone starts talking about building a deck, or doing the electricity in thier house or just simply being handy around the house, I always feel a little inadequate. I sometimes wonder if I missed the handyman class in elementary school. But in reality I am ok with not being a house expert and I have embracied my inner cityboy.

But this week I was at a conference at DTS and I heard from Brad Smith who is the President of the Bakke Graduate University that we are all experts. He talked about how we are all experts and in fact geniuses when it comes to being consumers. I thought it was a terrific point that our culture has make us all proficient at our preferences. When the saints who came to the Swedish Free Church in 1925 entered the door, they were experts in farming, agriculture, etc and that was what was swimming around their heads during the sermon and old Swedish hymns. Today in 2007 at the same church (FEFC), each of us who enter the door of our church is an expert in our own preferences. Therefore in some sense, the "professionals" are expected to excellently provide spiritual goods and services and rememeber that "the customer is always right." Yes, a little bold, but he made some pretty interesting points about how the church operates like the customer service industry.

He sparked my thinking on how detrimental consumerism is to the goal of making disciples. When we watch how Jesus made disciples, it had little or nothing to do with their preferences. There was no sleepnumber bed for Jesus and the disciples; in fact the Son of Man didn't even have a place to lie his head, right? That is not a very good advertisement for becoming a disciple. In the consumer-addicted culture, we would say that Jesus needed to hire a new marketing guy. Jesus' method of making disciples provided opportunities for the lessons to be caught as much as they were taught. The gospel and the ministry of the gospel was continually about suffering, losing popularity, healing the rejects, dying and giving their life for their friends. I don't think we even can understand the depth of how discipleship has been effected by consumerism. I wonder if we can even know what discipleship that isn't tainted with consumerism would look like. Maybe it is worth a try since making disciples is our mandate and not pleasing the customer.

Mandy on KVUE News

Some of you know that I always make fun of Austin local news. Lets be honest I got a little spoiled by the Dallas news most of my life. After spending 3 years of making fun of it, a few Saturday Mornings ago Mandy's flowers were on KVUE's morning news. They were talking about wedding coordinators and they showed a large arrangement of Mandy's. The flowers were pretty awesome, if I can say so while keeping my man card in tact. We met Quita Culpepper (don't act like you don't know who I am talking about - the "does it work wednesday" girl) and George Kanuck (the weather guy). Anyway that was our brush with fame. If only we could have met Tyler Sieswerda and Christine Haas....

Tuna, are you kidding me?

We haven't had much Andy in the Office lately. I guess he took a few days off after his tantrum. Here is a little "best of" Andy for those of us who have missed him. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70HBNN3xEn0

Give it on up for Blogville

I spent a few years being "against" internet communities, chat rooms, blogs, and especially message boards (that's another story for another day) only because I felt like it was a cheap substitute for real community. Maybe I was a community snob. Congratulations blog gods, you win! I still don't feel like the internet is where I will have my accountability, my sharpening relationships, my in-depth community, but I am seeing the value of helpful conversations, different view points and the widening of communication that is possible. All of a sudden in saying all of that, I feel like I am in my parents' generation resisting the change of that loud rap music. Oh well.

One of my frustrations with internet communication in the past was that people tended to say things slightly harsher or more inappropriately because there was no face to face accountability. The comfortable thing with anonymity is that you are never really held responsible for what you say or do. That gets me on a whole other tangent on people who actually choose to go to particular churches so that they can be anonymous which I see none of in the early church - anyway that is another soap box for another blog day.

So, my rule for this blog is to not overstate things, but rather to say things that I could say face to face in front of anyone. So hopefully my criticisms will be humble and tempered as if I was saying it in person. Keep me accountable to that because I know it will be easy to slip back into the comfort of anonymity. I don't think God has called us into anonymity without accountability; that seems like the opposite of community. Instead He has pursued us so that we can have a relationship with Him in the context of relationships with His people. And that I have found, though messy and sometimes difficult, to be much richer and fuller than comfortable anonymity.

Scraping The Surface of History

I am teaching this class on theology in a postmodern culture and in the first week, I raced through history to explain to some degree where we are as a culture. I recognize that this doesn't do justice to all the complexities of history, but it is a survey. It is vastly stereotypical and mostly focuses on Europe and America. Most of these notes are taken directly from three lectures I have heard on the subject and also some books that I have read on the subjec as well. People have asked me for these notes, so I thought I would put up here on the blog:

Premodern: called the Medieval World – 500-1500

Plato, Augustine, Aquinas

There is a comprehensive explanation for all of reality and history. Reality and history are comprehensible to humanity, at least to some degree. There is more to reality than what we can see, hear, smell, taste or touch. Human fulfillment requires a correct adjustment to these unseen realities.

The Priest – is a good representation of this period – The culture is bound together by the Priesthood’s divine authority, revealed beliefs, sanctioned customs, absolute rules and accepted rituals.

Theology of the premodern era – mystical. Read Augustine and they are not wrestling with the same questions that we were or are. There is no question of if there is a God. God was mystically changing their lives. No Quiet Times – you learned when the scripture was read and when the priest spoke. There is very little questioning of Catholicism or Tradition. No Questioning that the sun revolves around the earth.

Modern Era – 1500-2000

Things that bring about great change: Printing Press, Reformation, Descartes, Locke, Newton, Kant, Darwin. Decartes coined the phrase: "I think, therefore I am." In the modern era, there is great confidence in the value of knowledge and the belief in progress. Objectivity is both desirable and possible. All beliefs are justified with reference to a set of self-evident, foundational beliefs. The world’s order is usually believed to be intrinsic and immanent, rather than derived from a transcendent source.

The Enlightenment sought to replace faith in God with human reason. Science was assumed to be capable of revealing the whole truth about the universe. The Modern stressed the value of individual potential, achievement, freedom and fulfillment. Lets not forget this was when America was born! Ultimately the Modern believed that science could lead to morality.

A great representation of the Modern Era: The Scientist – clad in white lab coat represents modern culture, feeling skeptical of and superior to, premodern culture with its rules and superstitions. He stands erect and proud, confident in individualism (I am free to pursue my own happiness), rationalism (research and reason can find the truth), technology (we can control nature for our good), and progress (we are getting better).

Dr. Jeffrey Bingham from Dalla Seminary tells us about the gifts that the Modern Era gave us.

1. Rationalism – not appreciation of reason, it is the elevation of reason. Reason informs revelation, experience, tradition. Don’t stake your life on anything unless it is reasonable. Mathematics – formulas make sense.

2. Individualism – what I do w/ my mind now is the main determination of what is valid. Communities would be helpful to help individuals authority.

Christianity is communal, salvation is shared, we all have the same Holy Spirit. The Bible doesn’t talk nearly as much as we do about a person, private relationship with God. Relationship with God happens in the context of relationships of others.

3. Presentism – present over past – what I inherit from the past is not as valid as what I think now. Best thinking that has ever been done is done right now. Tradition has become a dirty word.

Dr. Bingham would say that nothing that is essential in Christianity – was not around at Pentecost or when Peter said that we have all we need for life and godliness. In many ways Postmodernity is finding more truth in the past rather than the present.

Bingham used to say that “ Tradition/Community is the chaperone when I am on a date with the bible – because I may not be gentlemanly with the bible.” I thought that was pretty funny, but also pretty true.

4. Secularism – existence is verified by our own thought not by anything outside. Natural over supernatural. The German Theologians in this era took everything supernatural out of the bible. In an attempt to make it relevant, they took the power out of the Scriptures.

The Modern church has led to some characteristics that fit with the modern way of thinking. For example: Apologetics – because it has to make sense and the argument has to be won; Systematic Theology – forumulaic, scientific approach to theology; Quiet Times – very individualistic; Commentaries – academic view of Scripture; Abandoning of Liturgy – because we can do it better now than anyone did it in the past; Secularization of the church - to make it more relevant; and finally the very individualistic view of scripture – we take plural “yous” and make them individual.

The Postmodern Era:

Postmoderns all of a sudden say that reason was no longer authoritative because look at where it has taken us. Civil War in the Great Enlightenment Country doesn’t add up, WW1, WW2. Science didn't make us more moral.

There is hardly any hope – still pursuing happiness, but there is no anchor to hold on to – no hope to find authentic happiness for everyone. I make me happy and you do it too. Human existence boils down to taste and tolerance.

In the postmodern era, we are confronted with new changes such as the Internet, wars, technology. In many ways the postmodern era is when rationalism fails, science fails and when we have given up the belief that there is a goal, a flow, or a meaning to history. There is little to no absolutism.

Postmodernity gives up on the idea that there is a truth that is both universal and eternal. Also it stops believing that their culture is the best (ethnocentrism, multiculturalism). A postmodern doesn't trust authority - why would they? All authority has let us down (the pastor, the teacher, the leader, the boy scout leader).

The Postmodern is the rock musician clad in almost anything. He is disappointed with disillusioned with, and suspicious of both priest and scientist.

Postmodern is the cultural outlook that puts faith in nothing that has not been shown by experience to work or be trustworthy. Relativism, syncretism, cultural pessimism.

Leonard Sweet: Author
From rational – experiential
From representative – to participatory
From word based to image driven
From individual to communal

Darrell Bock: DTS Professor
From propositions to stories
From theology aimed at preparing for death to preparing a theology for life
From church as a place where people come or attend to a mission outpost that sends people out.
From salvation as an event to a journey of salvation (process)
From a Western understanding of the gospel to a worldwide view.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Most of this comes from the lectures from Michael Gleghorn from Probe Ministries in Dallas, Brian Wallace to our FEFC elders, Dr. Jeffrey Bingham from DTS as well as Brian McLaren, Reggie McNeal and other authors who have helped me to understand this era better. Let me know what you notice in your world where you live. Also, the goal is to be ambassadors of Christ bringing the ministry of reconciliation to this generation. Lets pray that we can contextualize the gospel in creative, fresh ways that will reach our culture.

Back On

Ok. I know I am finally rolling into 2002 and writing a blog. I actually started this blog a couple of years ago and then sorda forgot about it. Recently I have been thinking about writing again in my free time. So much has changed in our life because Mandy and I had our first child Caroline, who is the most beautiful, brilliant, and fun baby that I have ever known. We have a blast with her every day.

Everyone said that my life would change when I had a kid, but one change that I didn't expect was my vocabulary. All of a sudden there are all kinds of new words coming off my lips as if I have said them my whole life. The most used word that I never used pre-caroline: fussy. I honestly can't even think of a context that I would have used that word before Dec 06. "I had a good day until my boss became fussy..." Probably not. Also, I use words like burpie, blanky, pack n play, diapee, wipee, etc. I should stop. Sorry about that.

What I have learned upon being a father without being too cliche:

Obviously Caroline has reminded me of God's unconditional love for me. Because Caroline doesn't do much for me in return, but I love her with a love that I have never felt. Though she doesn't give me much, her smile back at me is really all I need. I once gave her a bath simply because I knew that would make her smile - it makes my day. But even in my seemingly unconditional love, I recognize that I am limited in my love for her. I can't truly unconditionally love her. I long to love her like that, but they are stained with selfish moments that even push me toward a God who's love is not stained with any selfishness.

Also, the responsibility meter is now off the chart since she was born. Mandy and I were so unencumbered especially with the last 5 years with free flights. We literally walked up the airport to spontaneously go see family and friends all the time. Now, just running to the grocery store takes 30 minutes to get everything ready for her.

Also, I think no matter what stage of life you are in, there is a temptation to assume that you are in control. Now that we have a baby, we would do anything for her and we want to be in control of her safety, future, feedings, etc. But you realize even though you try to be in control, you simply aren't. It is another lesson in the journey of realizing how dependent we are on God. It has been really good for me to recognize my utter dependence on God for her and for everything in life.

Ultimately I am reminded that love is about service. I have multiple opportunities a day to gird myself up and hold, rock, soothe her at all hours of the day. I realize that love is not necessarily feeling great feelings about her when I see her smile, but it is serving her and serving her mom. This is a continual lesson of changing our cultural view of love and moving toward the love that Jesus showed us - putting others interests above your own. It is so countercultural.

Those are some of the things that I am learning during the first 8 weeks. We feel so blessed to have her! Praise God for her.