Monday at North Point Church

Today our team divided up into breakout areas by interest group. I am so grateful that our church has the strength to be able to send several of our leaders in key areas to attend this event. In addition, several spouses made arrangements to attend “on their own dime,” and they were full participants in the entire event. We were better represented than any other church at this event! Our team attended the following breakout groups:

STUDENT MINISTRIES (grades 6-12) - Paul Steurnagel and Meredith Steurnagel
WORSHIP SERVICE - Roxey Collier, Mike Eason, Jay McKeown
CHURCH ADMINISTRATION - Robert Stutes, Donna Reyes, Walt Haralson
SMALL GROUPS - Kathy Eason, Amy Haralson, Philip Shackelford
CHILDREN’S MINISTRIES - Marcy Shackelford, Sandra McKeown, Betsy Stutes (this group further subdivided into elementary, preschool, and Kidstuf, which is a special event that involves both kids and their parents)

We will be discussing ways for us to share some of the principles we have learned with the rest of the church family.

My notes will, at this point, only cover the breakout session that I attended, on church administration - which is really designed to cover the principles that affect North Point Church during “the rest of the week” - Monday through Friday. I will only hit the highlights, because there was a lot!

One of the most powerful statements was this one - “Your organization is perfectly designed to deliver the results you are currently achieving.” Sometimes those inside the system have the hardest time seeing what is distinct about the culture of their church.

At North Point, they try hard to lean more “entrepreneurial” than “bureaucratic.” It is important to remember that having people of character and integrity is more important than having the most finely tuned system.

Here are the key principles they use during the week:

1. THINK WE…NOT ME. It is natural to think in terms of how a church’s actions affect me. To be healthy, we must focus on how it affects the whole organization.

2. POLARITY MANAGEMENT. Some problems are solvable. Others may have no definitive answer, but simply remain polarities to keep in appropriate balance. (Example: Should we add more staff or add new programs/ministries?)

3. CHOOSE TRUST OVER SUSPICION. In our culture, we will err on the side of trust. In working together as a team, we must give each other trust - AND we must also give each other trustworthiness.

4. PICK UP THE PHONE. Sometimes we over-react to an issue by setting up a new policy or sending out a bulletin or memo to a large group of people, when we might could have simply picked up the phone to talk to the people involved.

5. MANAGE SYSTEMS…NOT PEOPLE. We tend to blame people to explain problems. The behaviors may be caused by underlying systems that are largely invisible.

Well we will come back full of ideas and chattering galore….so please bear with us. We will be prayerfully looking at appropriate ways to glean that which God would have us to learn from this experience!

Our team is back in Bellville tonight, with the exception of Betsy and me. We took one additional night - and we will be back late tomorrow night. Thank you for your prayers during this time away. It has been busy - with many early hours and late hours - but it has been very fruitful!

Sunday at North Point Church

We have a group of 14 people participating in SUNDAYS AT NORTH POINT. We began at 9 a.m. - and spend an hour touring several of the environments - middle school, elementary, preschool, nursery. They have three Sunday morning worship times - 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. We will attend the 12:45 service. The church has an amazing commitment to providing environments for all ages that connect with folks who may have no Christian background. One of the most exciting sights was when we were in the large group session of fifth graders during the 11 a.m. hour - there were maybe 150 fifth graders sitting on the floor and listening in rapt attention to the teaching on wisdom! Wow! You can browse some of their links on the site above to get a feel for it.

At the 12:45 service - we enjoyed the worship time and the message presented by the preacher of the day. Andy Stanley is the lead pastor for North Point, and I really enjoy his messages. Today's preacher was Joel Thomas, director of their singles ministries. You can find some North Point messages at this site.

Joel did a very vivid portrayal of the dilemma we face in Christianity. After we carefully explain that Christianity is not about "rules and regulations," we still see some passages that make it sound like just that. (He focused on the list of the "works of the flesh" and the "fruit of the Spirit" in Galatians 5...sounds a lot like do's and don'ts to most of us.)

He said many of us still think of God as a referee - ready to blow the whistle on us at any point. In reality, God is our cheerleader - these lists represent the fact that he believes in us. How awesome it would be if we saw God as our cheerleader - and if, likewise, we would act more like cheerleaders and less like referees in our dealings with others!

Following lunch, BILLY PHENIX - was our presenter for the learning session at 2:30 p.m. He is actually on staff at the Buckhead campus - part of North Point’s multi-campus strategy. He spent time going over in detail the strategies behind the things they do at North Point. His teaching was VERY important, because what North Point wants is NOT that other churches copy their methods - but to look behind them to the principles they use for developing an effective fruitful church. That is also helpful for us, as we realize that a successful, fruitful church in Bellville will look somewhat different from a successful, fruitful church in suburban Atlanta.

Here is a summary of what he covered, along with some notes from my perspective!

MISSION/STRATEGY. “Our mission is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating environments where people are encouraged and equipped to pursue intimacy with God, community with insiders, and influence with outsiders.” He noted that the “hard part” of a mission statement is the “how.” For North Point, it is creating attractive, irresistible environments. (We saw that in the attention to detail in the way rooms are furnished, especially for the children and teens.) “It is God’s responsibility to change lives. We can’t do that. But it is our responsibility to create great environments. That is something we can do!”

The environments at North Point come in three types, analogous to the parts of a home - the foyer, the living room, and the kitchen. The foyer is where you greet your guests. The living room is where you sit down to spend time together. Sitting around in the kitchen is where you spend time with those you are closest to. Each ministry at North Point (including kids and students) can be compared to one of these three environments.

Sunday morning service is a “foyer” environment for North Point. Some Christians criticize their Sunday service for not going deep and deeper. That is intentional. It is targeted toward the first-time guest, to simply make them want to return.

The living room environments are targeted environments, where people begin to connect.

The kitchen environments are “closed,” where life change is the desired outcome.

New programming is not added unless it can contribute at one of these three points. As a result, there are many activities that North Point just does not do. (If we did all these things, we would not be able to do them well. By focusing on a few things, we can do them well.)

As a result, they think in terms of “steps,” not programs. It should be very obvious what my step should be. In many churches, it is not at all clear. “We have narrowed the focus, doing fewer things in order to make a greater impact.”

Too many churches are like Ryan’s or Golden Corral - offering a lot of stuff that doesn’t necessarily make sense as a whole!

We also try to be very focused on our teaching. All Scripture is equally inspired, but not all Scripture is equally important or applicable. We “teach less for more.”

Every leader is challenged to “replace yourself.” As a leader, you are expected to “hand off your responsibilities,” thus insuring constant recruiting.

There was much more, but it gives you a flavor of what we did!

Tomorrow our team divides up into various breakout sessions, so we will learn more about the specific areas.

Workshop - Tim Conder - Emergent Ministry for Existing Churches

WORKSHOP - TIM CONDER - EMERGENT MINISTRY FOR EXISTING CHURCHES

This last workshop on Friday morning - I saw several that looked appealing, and kept changing my minds on which one to attend. Finally as I looked at this topic, I felt like it might have the most applicability to our own context at BUMC.

Tim Conder is founding pastor of Emmaus Way, a small, “emergent,” missional church in Durham, North Carolina. Before that, he worked for years in established, existing churches. He has also been very involved in a group called Emergent Village.

Very helpful book - The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why, by Phyllis Tickle. Every 500 years there is a movement and a counter-movement, that leaves us with two streams that are more effective than the previous stream.

ACT ONE: ASSESSING A CHANGING ECCLESIAL LANDSCAPE
I believe we are in the last gasps of the foundation war (between evangelicals and “liberals.”) I notice “liberals” talk a lot about Jesus and the Kingdom, and that evangelicals talk a lot about justice and creation. The old categories mean less and less to your new audiences. You need to be wary about that. But also be careful not to build upon a foundation that is no longer there. There may be a “third way.” We live in a culture with a lot of crazy juxtapositions - you will have modern and post-modern side by side. You will have “strange bedfellows” side by side. In addition, this emerging ministry has already moved into multiple streams, with some conflict along with that.

ACT TWO: DEFINING YOUR GOALS
What is your goal? Survival? My experience is that “emergence” is not a good tool to help a congregation survive. If a congregation is dealing with survival, it is probably something else. Demographic change? This probably is not going to work either. Appeasement? Trying to deal with a group that is buzzing about the possibilities of change? I don’t know that appeasement is good pasturing.

Missional change? The conversation about being a missional church is happening simultaneously. They too challenged how church has been done, that it had become more of a producer of goods and services. Emerging culture ministry can help you identify your mission, and it can help you to change your mission. Authenticity is also an important piece. Sometimes the idiom in church is so radically different from the world. Our church is not at all what you would describe as “contemporary” - it is much more eclectic, and seeking to be authentic.

Postmodern people tend to think the church is immoral, and the church tends to think that postmodern people are immoral.

Frankly, some churches shouldn’t spend a lot of time and energy on emergent issues.

A good question….Are you doing ministry “for postmoderns,” “with postmoderns,” or “as postmoderns.” Different strategies apply. Be very clear.

ACT THREE: DANCE WITH YOUR DATE
With ministry, you need to dance with the one who brought you to the party - do it within your tradition! Do it in a way that makes sense for you.

ACT FOUR: ETHOS, TONE, ECCLESIOLOGY
If you don’t get these pieces right, your efforts will suffer! When you practice methodologies without a corresponding change of ethos, it looks like a “bad comb over.“
Self-righteous superiority, cultural defensiveness and triumphalism really do not work. Christians in the post-Christian era really get miserable and obnoxious. Some are offended at aspects of post-modern culture. You may need a “tone police!”

What if we could define our ecclesiology around missionality and hospitality? I’m convinced that hospitality is the spiritual discipline that will touch our culture. (Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out). Hospitality as “radical receptivity” (to those who decipher truth differently) and as honesty - meeting them with a real presence. Too many churches do only one or the other. This will shape the whole tone. (Beware of hospitality that becomes pretentious.) Hospitality is divine, relational (kindness), ideological, cultural. In many existing churches, there is no safe space to raise questions, and become a sort of “don’t ask/don’t tell” environment - “I know I’m not supposed to ask this…” If we only voice the things we agree on, you will not be engaged. How many things would change in your community if this were a core value?

Missionality. Begin to deconstruct a “benefit Christianity” (if you follow God, your life will get better). Expanding a “reductionist Christianity.” Transforming a “homogenous Christianity.”

ACT FIVE: INITIATIVES

• Structural/Institutional Changes - changing worship, leadership, meetings - the “hardware” of the church environment.
• Tribal Offerings - changing a subset (church within a church, new worship service, new age-group ministry) - these all tend to have a “shelf life” - either bring it back in or send it out.
• Entrepreneurial Plans - developing businesses/structures that connect your church with the culture around you - like recording studios, day care, intervention, political groups, vegan cafes - whatever fits. In the postmodern world, you are scary to them - this helps break that down. Business places may feel more “safe” than churches.
• Missional and Monastic Approaches - forming partnership with existing missions, or forming communities that change the way your church operates.
• Church Planting as a Strategy for Existing Church Change - a decision to plant a church that is not like you.

Conder also shared a handout listing five streams of “Emergence”:

• Counter-Reformation - keeping existing theological models while being committed to creative methods
• Transitional - no obvious theological mark
• Post-Reformation - sacramental theology and practices, connecting to ancient traditions
• New Monastic - communal living and shared values
• Post-Church - informal communities that free themselves of the restrictions of institutional church

The last thing on our agenda is this morning's closing worship and Communion service. It has been fun to stay in touch with you electronically. I will follow up on Sunday and Monday with further posts from Atlanta.

Session 6 - Christopher Wright

SESSION 6 - CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT

We heard an interview with Andrew Marin, from the Marin Foundation, an organization seeking to build bridges between the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and religious communities. He lives in a Chicago neighborhood of 300,000 people - of that number 89% being GLBT. He says, “I grew up a Bible-banging homophobe.” After three of his best friends “came out,” he decided to try to find out what the Lord was up to in this community. The GLBT would put everything away to allow Christians to prove themselves trustworthy. “We haven’t earned enough credibility in their eyes to earn a level playing field.” You can do this, and it is not as scary as you think.

There are five litmus-test questions the gay community asks of us.

• Do you think it’s a sin?
• Do you think they are born that way?
• Can gay people be Christian?
• Can gay people change?
• Are gay people going to hell?

Notice that 25 times Jesus was asked closed-ended questions. 3 times he answered with a closed-end answer (when he was on trial).

MLK spoke of “constructive, non-violent tension.” That is my hope, to enter into that.

I am committed that with Jesus comes change. I am willing to stick with the community to see where it leads.

What may come of all this? Actually we are entering into new territory. I don’t know what the outcome will be. I don’t think God only works when we know the outcome in advance. We have been running (myself included). We don’t even know what constructive tension looks like here. But I believe that we can have difference in theological belief systems and yet something significant can happen for the Kingdom.

The easiest thing we can do, especially in the pulpit, is to cut out the word “homosexual.” The GLBT community sees this as a derogatory term. We need to humble ourselves enough to go to someone and say, “I can’t understand. Let me in your head and teach me, and let’s move forward from there.”

We heard Christian comedian Taylor Mason. Tommy Walker was again our worship leader.

Our speaker for this session was Christopher Wright, author and international director of the Langham Partnership International. He is a native of northern Ireland. His talk - “The Love of God, the Cross of Christ, and the Mission of God’s People.”

We begin with John 3:16. In John’s gospel, the “world” refers to fallen humanity, but also to the created world. Colossians 1:15-23 reminds us of the importance of “all things.” “All things” are created…hold together in him…are reconciled in him. The cross of Christ is linked to creation, to the church, to salvation, and to mission.

The motive of God’s cosmic salvation is the love of God. The means of God’s cosmic salvation is the cross of Christ.

Where did Paul get this? Surely, the Holy Spirit. But also the Scriptures he had been taught (Old Testament). Who and what does God love in the Old Testament?

• Everything (Psalm 145:9, 13, 17). This is illustrated in his compassion (as in the exodus), his providential care for creation, and his concern for justice.
• His Covenant People (Deuteronomy 7:7-10) - not because of merit, but simply because of God’s choice, simply because he is love. This is the closest we get in the OT to the concept that “GOD IS LOVE.”
• Foreigners (Deuteronomy 10:17-19).

The mission of God’s love for the nations in the OT:

• Registered in God’s city (Psalm 87)
• Blessed with God’s salvation (Isaiah 19:16-25)
• Accepted in God’s house (Isaiah 56:3-8)
• Called by God’s name (Amos 9:11-12)
• Joined with God’s people (Zechariah 2:10-11)

What the NT shows us is that all of this led inexorably to the cross of Christ. His love is fulfilled in the cross - the unavoidable cost of God’s mission and God’s love. We need a mission-centered theology in the cross. Likewise, we need a cross-centered practice of mission.

The cross and God’s mission

• To bear guilt (Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:24)
• To defeat evil (Colossians 2:15)
• To destroy death (Hebrews 2:14)
• To remove enmity (Ephesians 2:14-16)
• To heal creation (Colossians 1:20)

We start with the individual level, and don’t know what to do with all the rest. Paul starts with “the rest.” We need to take the totality of the cross. Preaching Christ crucified is not just individual salvation, but hope for the world.

What about our practice of mission? All Christian mission flows from the cross in its source, power, and scope. All Christian mission must be shaped by the cross, in its character and pattern. All that we do is in his name.

Sometimes we are tempted to think that evangelism is centered on the cross, but other ministries are different. The cross must be central to ALL that we do. All Christian mission confronts the powers of evil. We are called to challenge the darkness of the world. By what possible authority or power? Only in the cross of Christ!

Sin and evil are bad news in the world, and they have touched every area of human life. If the gospel is good news for all that sin has affected, it must be good news for every area of life. By his grace, we have a gospel that is big enough for all of it! When we get to the new, redeemed creation, all will be there because of the cross. Likewise with all that will NOT be there because of having been defeated.

If the cross was the only way for the mission of God and for Christ, then it must be the only way for us. Our mission requires that we take up OUR cross and follow the Son.

Workshop - The Role of the Bible in the Church

WORKSHOP - THE ROLE OF THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH
PANEL DISCUSSION

This workshop was a panel discussion featuring:

RANDY FRAZEE - pastor at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio

WILLIAM WEBB - New Testament professor at Heritage Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario

CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT - international director of the Langham Partnership International

Is our proclamation of the gospel too small or too narrow? Is there a danger in expanding it?

FRAZEE - Yes, it has been too small. Most people believe the whole deal is an individual “say the prayer - now you can die and go to heaven.” Misses the communal sense. Misses the eschatological sense - the coming Kingdom - the new heaven and the new earth. Most people just want to buy fire insurance. That’s not what I see in the Scripture.

WEBB - Yes, it has been too small. Another misunderstanding is that you can just live up to a specific list of commands and then you have it covered. Living out the implications of the gospel should cover everything.

WRIGHT - Because sin and evil have touched everything, God’s answer must be as big as the problem. You can’t have a gospel that is too big! You have to see the whole Bible story as God’s action. Paul says God’s plan is the redemption of all of creation, and his people get to be a part of it.

FRAZEE: Even our church mission statement have focused on helping individuals to “cross the line.”

WRIGHT: The thief on the cross is the exception. The gospel leads to transformation.l

FRAZEE: The church reveals the gospel through Kingdom-like living that includes social justice. We give witness by who we are becoming as a community.

WEBB: The very nature of God as revealed to Moses is part of the essence of the gospel. “Gospel” is humanity coming back into close proximity and presence of the glory of God. The new heavens and the new earth it is the absolute presence of God coming down with humanity.

FRAZEE: The danger is that if we mobilize our congregation for action WITHOUT this understanding of the gospel. Some churches fell into this trap - action without gospel.

WRIGHT: That was the divide of the 20th century - the activists went one direction, and the evangelicals retreated to focus only on the Word. There is a Truth - but it is a living thing - you DO the Truth. It is like asking whether breathing or drinking is more important for the human body.

What does it mean to learn to read the Bible as a story (rather than just snippets of truth)?

FRAZEE: It is important that people learn to access the Word themselves, not only rely on a teacher. Many Christians hide between the fact that they don’t even really know the story. Too many of us are soundbite Christians - we have verses we have memorized in a piecemeal way. We also get fascinated with the “feel good” inspiration. So much of the Bible is not. How do we get people to understand the “meta-narrative?” We are taking the congregation through 31 weeks of “The Story” (Zondervan). It is the burden of the preacher/teacher to always include a connection to the overall story.

WRIGHT: I try to do this as well, not in a heavy-handed way. I ask “What story is governing your life?” (See Scot McKnight’s book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible.)

WEBB: We emphasize this now in seminary - it is a must that you see how the story unfolds and how each piece fits together. One course focuses just on that.

FRAZEE: We need to make sure it is not story OR didactic teaching. We need both. Not long ago, we seemed to focus on gifted leadership, not so much the content. What is your practical plan to expose your congregation to the story in a heartfelt, passionate way. Also - the Bible can be a guide - but don’t go first of all into soundbite guides if they don’t understand the larger story. People do this because we have taught them that way.

It seems like we all pick and choose which verses we think still apply. How do we seek a consistent hermeneutic? (Example - I was asked about the Bible passage on tattoos.)

WRIGHT: To decide which commandments still need to be obeyed is really the wrong question. “All Scripture is useful.” If I affirm this I need to affirm it for all of Scripture. The question - “How is it useful?”

WEBB: It is appropriate to ask about the cultural components in the text. What transcends the cultural elements? All texts have a certain amount of covenantal aspect binding on our lives. I try to do this with all Scriptures, not just a few hot-button ones. What we need are helpful principles for addressing ANY text. It’s like an iceberg - most of it lies beneath the water. Much of the meaning in the text lies beneath the surface. With regard to tattoos, the “why” lies beneath the text - because it connects to the practices of pagan religions.

FRAZEE: This is hard, because we haven’t really grown up with the telling of stories. Often hermeneutics is nothing more than good old common sense about the context.

WRIGHT: It is also “common sense” that is governed by the story. There are aspects of the Old Testament to which we would actually be in disobedience if we were to re-adopt them. For example, the abolition of “clean” and “unclean” foods actually ties in to the way the story has unfolded. It symbolized the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, which has now been abolished.

WEBB: But make sure you still keep teaching those parts of the story (like sacrifices) that help us understand the whole Jesus story!

At one time, people did not have access to the written Bible - it was more communal. To what extent should we be lifting up that communal value today?

FRAZEE: We try to make sure people are opening up their Bible and not just using a book with a few verses in it. We need to get back to reading the Scriptures out loud. As opposed to reading in advance, and just discussing our conclusions. Promote that kind of integration as leaders.

WEBB: Some are working on more visual presentations of the Bible. Culture is dying for something visible.

WRIGHT: There are huge sections of the world that are still predominantly oral. So there is a missiological interest in how to use the Bible in oral cultures. Missionaries are trained as storytellers, memorizing 250 key stories of the Bible. In north India, there are remarkable things happening in very poor communities. Many people are coming out of Hinduism. These are premodern cultures. Fairly new converts are sent out as teachers after having been drilled in the overarching biblical story. Their world view has to be reshaped by the new meta-narrative of the Scripture. They can teach the Bible even without one in their hand! I wish we could be anything close to this in the western church!

What is your idea of preaching Christ from every text?

WRIGHT: No - Jesus is not in every text - but every text contributes to the gospel. Some people quickly skip to Jesus - a sort of short cut - where you can read any text and skip to Jesus. Fundamentally this is damaging to the Scripture. Of course he is the coherent center. But that does not mean that every verse is “about” Jesus. That is foolish. It’s like the scenery on a destination. It all leads toward Jesus.

WEBB: On the one hand, No. But in another sense, a big Yes! The new Jesus is the Spirit, and that is part of the story. I need to embrace that part of the story. Where I live is in the era of the Spirit functioning in the community.

FRAZEE: Someone asked me, “Is the point of the story Jesus?” I answered, “Well, yes and no. The point is that God had an idea in creation that got messed up, and the gospel shows us the extent to which God is going to reclaim that vision. Jesus shows us that.” Some key OT stories do have a clear explicit connection, and are even reference in the NT.

WRIGHT: If we do this, we also tend to limit what we teach about Jesus, focusing only on the cross and missing the rest. The personal atoning work of Jesus is gloriously true, but it’s not all there is.

Who are the leading thinkers and theologians in this area? What resources would you recommend?

FRAZEE: “The Promised Plan of God” - by Walter Kaiser. It has been helpful to see each segment of the story and how it all unfolds.

WEBB: In the academic world, we sometimes write to each other unfortunately. I’m thankful for pastors who can communicate to a different audience. Look for an upcoming publication that tries to marry biblical theological ideas into an application commentary series. For me, that is one of the best ways to start tying it all together. “Biblical Theology for Life.”

WRIGHT: When I wrote “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament,” this was what I tried to do in an accessible way. I find great help from N. T. Wright. He builds with this whole narrative. John Golding ate (sp.) from Fuller. First volume of a trilogy - “Israel’s Gospel.” Even John Stott wrote a book years ago “Understanding the Bible.” I still recommend Fee & Stewart, “How to Read the Bible For All It’s Worth.”

Any last comments?

FRAZEE: We talk about the upper story (What God is up to) and the lower story (what is happening in my life). I tend to want God to align his life to my lower story. There are two “stalls” in spiritual life - and the first is getting angry with God (thinking he is committed to resolving all of my issues). (The second stall is getting angry with the church.) We try to help people adjust THEIR lives to God’s upper story rather than vice versa. This is what Joseph could see in order to forgive his brothers.

WEBB: Whatever the suffering, our lives are tying to the greater story. That’s what gives us meaning. I have the occasion to trust God.

Session 5 - Bill Hybels

(Yes - I missed session 4 - because we went out to have dinner with Betsy’s cousin’s ex-wife, who lives here in San Diego!)

This session began with an interview with Paul Young, the author of the widely read book THE SHACK. He described himself as an “accidental author,” having written this book as a story for his kids. The first run of the book was 15 copies at an Office Depot!

Young: “I don’t feel responsible for the great things that have happened from this book, so neither do I feel upset about the controversies about the book.” The weekend in the shack represents 11 years in my life. The shack is a metaphor for the human soul that is so damaged that we prefer not to live in it, choosing instead a façade.

Next we heard pianist/singer Kendall Payne, and then we were led in worship by Tommy Walker.

The speaker for this session is Bill Hybels, the longtime founding pastor of Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago. I have had the opportunity to attend conferences at Willow before. He is a pioneer in the concept of targeting ministries and worship that reach out to the heart of those who are described as “seekers” - folks who may not yet be believers, but who are seeking out for that which God can provide.

He is an excellent passionate, speaker, so I look forward to what he has to share with us!

Key verse - John 10:27 - My sheep hear my voice and they heed it.

This references the miracle of interactivity between the human and the divine. God speaks to us. This is what differentiates biblical Christianity from every other religion. The average Christian is invited into a real-time conversation with the creator of the universe. A dialogue is possible between the Redeemer and the redeemed.

If I live to be 100, I will never tire of the wonder of this! I’ll never tire of the power of it in my own life.

The miracle of the Christian faith is not just a book, but that the sheep hear his voice.

Hybels shared several stories from his own life of God speaking and a willingness to respond to his faint whisper.

So many of the big steps in ministry were a response to a faint whisper. But not every whisper is a strong, upward move. He also shared about a whisper that came during a very difficult time, that led to four years of personal counseling.

Some of us teach the Word carefully, but we don’t pay enough attention to whispers. People end up in the Kingdom because we listen and act. Be attentive. Process them carefully. With trembling but trusting feet, walk in the direction of obeying these whispers.

Workshop - James Choung - Sharing the Gospel in an Increasingly Unchurched Culture

WORKSHOP - JAMES CHOUNG
THE BIG STORY: SHARING THE GOSPEL IN AN INCREASINGLY UNCHURCHED CULTURE

Okay, I have been waiting for this one. James Choung created the template for sharing the Christian message that I used for the Sunday sermon on February 8. I have read some of his material, and I have seen his video presentation on YouTube, but this is my first time to hear him in person. I’m all ears!

Choung is a director with the San Diego division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

In working with college students, there are many obstacles to trying to share the gospel. Sometimes the gospel does not sound like good news at all? It seems arrogant to say that Jesus is the only way.

The Spiritual Question of the Day. 40 years ago - the question was “What is true?” Our gospel presentation lined up with this question.

About 20 years later - “What is real? What is authentic?”

NOW - it is different again. What is good? What works? Is your faith good for the world today? Is it beautiful? They want to be a part of changing the world! Will your faith bring a blessing or a curse?

Dallas Willard said, “The validity of a religion is based on the amount of blessing it brings to outsiders.”

So is our gospel good news for people today? What we share doesn’t seem to be received in the same way as what Jesus shared.

How do we connect the unchanging truth with changing generations.

What we have done - is very individual - focused on decision - focused on your individual destiny in the afterlife. “If you died tonight, where would you go?” “Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins, so that when we die, we go to heaven.” This message is very difficult for rising generations to hear.

SO WHAT WAS THE GOSPEL THAT JESUS TAUGHT?

Choung: It struck me that when push came to shove, with the way we shared our faith, people could ignore Jesus’ teaching altogether but accept him mentally - then all is okay. You don’t have to love people as long as you accept Christ. This seemed quite irrelevant, and not very beneficial to the world.

I took a class with Dallas Willard. Focused on Mark 1:14-15. “The time has come - the Kingdom ofGod has come near - repent and believe the good news.”

In their culture, to say the Kingdom of God is near - that packed a wallop. We don’t really understand what that means.

“NEAR” - so close to you that you can feel it.

In that time “REPENT” was not really a religious term - it just meant to change your mind. BELIEVE - is a relational word - banking your life on something.

A good definition of the Kingdom of God - “WHERE WHAT GOD WANTS TO HAPPEN, ACTUALLY HAPPENS.”

Characterized by forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation, generosity, righteousness, justice, service, redemption, peace, unity, love. It is now AND forever.

How did heaven get so distorted in our mind? In the gospels - heaven is the Kingdom of God - this perfect state of relationship with God. Jesus thinks this can happen here. If not in its fullness, it begins here.

This gives us a theological construct of the gospel that can capture all of the great things that Jesus taught. This gives a much bigger, powerful, robust gospel.

Willard: “A lot of Christians are vampire Christians. We don’t want Jesus’ teachings and instructions - we just want his blood.”

Our gospel is then not just individual, but also communal.
Not just about decision, but also transformation.
Not just about after-life, but also about mission-life.

It’s not just about what Jesus is going to do for you, but also what he is going to ask you to do. Do people know there is a mission involved when we initially “sign them up?”

Choung pondered how to share the Kingdom in such a way that made sense, and did not seem like the crazy doomsday prophet! I could not figure out a way to share this. I also wanted to make sure this was really biblical and correct.

“The Bridge” diagram was our modern day icon that helped us to share the gospel. As I learned it, we included Romans 6:23 - wages/sin/death on one side - gift/Christ on the other side. I had used this for 12-13 years! I couldn’t get into another way of teaching.

What “The Bridge” teaches us is true, but I wondered if I needed something more to teach the Kingdom of God, capturing the larger picture, nestling it within the biblical narrative (story, not just system). I wanted it to be simple, but not “simpler” - something that could communicate the GOOD news!!

Remember - diagrams aren’t the only way to share the gospel. Diagrams don’t save people. Tailor this presentation to your needs. So we came up with THE BIG STORY - it tries to hit the personal level, the relational level, and the systemic level.

THE BIG STORY. (At this point - Choung shared the story of the four circles. You can see it here.)

Then he added these explanations of the diagram. We have four circles - creation - fall - redemption - mission.

We also added the arrows to help people figure out what Jesus did to get to circle #4. The lines between #2 and #4 actually reflect “The Bridge” diagram.

The starting point - “What do you see on the news?” (Originally we tried to start with creation - but it did not seem to connect.) This is a great conversation starter - and we start with things we agree on.

Then - “How does that make you feel?” Almost no one says “this is great!”

“That gives us a clue to something - the very fact that you ache for a world that is different than ours.”

You can tailor the presentation to your audience - to get in touch with the systemic brokenness that they see - in California, environmental concerns are huge.

How did we get to circle #2? We decided WE could run the ship better than the captain?

In this presentation, I don‘t necessarily use the word “sin” - but the teaching on sin - is clear. When people hear this, I don’t get a fight. It makes sense!

“God loved the world too much to leave it that way.”

This diagram speaks not only to non-believers, but also to Christians who may be stuck in circle #3 but begin to see how they are called to mission (circle #4).

The pushback for nonbelievers would be - why do I need Jesus for this? “The world’s problems are infinite, so we need infinite resources.” Think about all the things that have Christian roots - for example, even fair trade coffee!

When we say “Jesus is the way to get there” - that’s when they may walk away.

A jail chaplain testified that this diagram helped. Old methods helped inmates to feel forgiven, but this method helped them to see a vision of how things could be different when they were released.

If we understand that this is good news not just for me - but for the WORLD - we are more apt to want to share it!

REFERENCES
Divine Conspiracy - Dallas Willard
Challenge of Jesus - N. T. Wright
Colossians Remixed - Walsh & Keesmaat

Workshop - Will Willimon - Keeping Preaching Fresh

NOTE: When I saw the title of this workshop, I had to laugh. As I am notorious for finishing my sermon notes on Sunday morning, I sometimes joke "This sermon may not be good, but you can't accuse it of being stale!"

Bishop Will Willimon, a Methodist bishop from Alabama led this workshop on preaching.

Christians have always been urged to “keep time” like the empire. The great temptation is to be “at home” in the world’s time - Christians must fight against that.

Every time the church gathers, we ask - “What time is it?” Jesus always challenges our sense of being fixed and progressed.

In reading the fast-paced gospel of Mark, you realize - don’t get too settled in your seats. This is a living God!

Preaching is about the Trinity - not about us - not about finding a more meaningful life.

To preach is to be dependent on the God who is free - who is unpredictable - who is free to come and go - who is odd. It takes a lot of patience. Real sense of vulnerability.

Karl Barth said there is only one preacher - Jesus - and you have to wait until HE is ready to preach. It takes patience to keep saying the same gospel over and over again, even when it doesn’t get the response you think it deserves. Barth: “As Christian theologians, we can only repeat ourselves.”

There’s a word for my desire to be innovative and fresh - it’s called “Heresy.” “You’ve got to keep finding a way to fall in the love with the material.” Some of my most questionable theological moves are under the guise of attempting to be interesting to the people.

But there are some problems here. Most preaching literature is along the lines of rhetoric and technique. That’s almost blasphemous. I don’t think the need is for better technique, but for a more interesting God to talk about. (NOTE: Not that our God needs to be more interesting, but that we need to preach about the God of the Bible who is very engaging!)

Another…As preachers we get to thinking that our job is to take this prickly, difficult Jesus gospel and explain it away. “Here’s what Jesus was trying to say, if he had the benefit of a seminary education. He didn’t mean hate your mother. He didn’t mean give everything to the poor!”

Sometimes the space between us and the throne is being lessened, and the faith is reduced to having the “right principles.” Most of our mistakes is because we want to be heard and to receive approval. It’s up to the Holy Spirit to get a hearing.

The Holy Spirit wants more than the transfer of accurate information.

Do I have the courage to keep repeating the story?

Every sermon is kind of an experiment - can the gospel still gather a crowd or not?

The good news is that it is the nature of this God to raise the dead! Keeping preaching fresh is something this God does!

Preaching is always a theological issue before it is anything else. Who is the God we are talking about? Can this God do what this God promises?

Preaching is kept fresh because of Jesus. We work with a living, speaking, revealing Lord. The purpose of preaching is to allow the risen Christ to walk among his people.

Preaching is kept fresh because of Scripture. It is the nature of the Holy Spirit to intrude. It is the nature of the risen Christ to call people. May God give us the grace to keep Jesus as odd as he is supposed to be, and to keep preaching as difficult as it is supposed to be.

After all those years on the campus, I heard this from students - “If it’s not about Jesus, why are we listening to you? Dr. Phil is a better counselor, and Oprah gives better advice!”

He quoted Lyle Schaller - his answer to the question whether sermons are getting longer or shorter. He said “Both. It depends on the age of the listeners. The younger the audience, the longer the sermons. Probably because they know they don’t know, and they are ready for an explanation.” Older folks were more apt to say, "Get me out on time!"

Session 3 - Rob Bell

We began this morning with another Christian comedian - by the name of Nazareth. He actually does hail from the city of that name in the Middle East.

The musicians for this morning come from Australia - called Sons of Korah - and their music comes entirely from the psalms. This are not “happy jolly tunes,” but are songs that are quite soul-searching, expressing their longing for the Lord.

We also heard an interview with two individuals about the situation in the African nation of Rwanda. Emmanuel Katongole is a Ugandan Catholic priest, now teaching at the Divinity School at Duke University. His parents were Rwandans who migrated to Uganda. His parents actually came from the competing Rwandan tribes. The tribal strife in Rwanda is particularly painful because it involved Christians killing Christians.

Catherine Claire Larson is a writer with Prison Fellowship. She has written on some of the amazing stories of forgiveness involving both victims and perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. (Nearly 1 million people were killed with the span of 100 days.)

The sheer number of perpetrators was overwhelming to the justice system. Perpetrators who have confessed and asked forgiveness are now being released. She described this as a “case study in forgiveness.”

Katongole suggested that we not be too quick to “move on.” This genocide reached its peak during Easter Week of 1994. Killings even took place in Christian sanctuaries. We need to learn from this madness. It is tragic when the blood of tribalism goes deeper than the waters of baptism.

Ironically there were no tribal killings among the Muslim communities of Rwanda. How can we reach the point that our identity as Christians is more important than our tribe or race?

Larson suggested that if forgiveness is possible in a situation like Rwanda, then it gives us great hope for the power of forgiveness in the much smaller rifts we face. “To see a glimpse of that reconciliation gives me great hope.”

(Later in the program, there will be a screening of a new film - As We Forgive - highlighting these stories of forgiveness, and highlights actual encounters between perpetrators and their victims.


Our speaker for this session is Rob Bell, a pastor in Michigan, well known for his series of short videos called NOOMA.

He came on stage with a grocery cart. (But I guess we won’t find out why until later.)

He described something he called the “chocolate covered turd” - when someone comes to you with a positive that also contains a negative. When we hear 9 good things and one bad thing, it is the bad thing that continues to replay in our heads. It’s harder to blow these things off than we think, and we become frustrated with ourselves.

NOTE: Rumors even happened to Paul - look up Acts 21:38!

Maybe you have a little church group seeking to enforce doctrinal purity and theological correctness. After awhile, it just hurts. We tell ourselves to be strong, and not to let things get to us. But over time, it gets to us. Finally you think - “everyone has completely lost their minds, and they are taking me with them!”

Over time, if you are in this work long enough, you have “death by paper cuts.”

For me, it’s like a moment in the grocery store, where I am with my family (here‘s the cart, by the way), and I see someone who left the church because of blah blah blah, and then you see someone and you remember what their sister said. So you’re in the grocery store, and all of a sudden you are right back there at that painful little thing that is still swimming around in your heart.

As leaders, we absolutely must learn how to forgive. We must become masters at forgiving people. Because if we don’t get really good at it, we suffer and the whole place begins to suffer. If one thing is wounded and limping, the whole thing is going to suffer.

It is imperative that we learn the fine art of forgiveness. When we don’t, all kind of subtle things begin to happen. A lack of forgiveness manifests itself in a lot of nuanced ways. Sometimes we don’t even have language for it.

A few categories:

When we don’t forgive, we hold back, and we back off from the prophetic. The last time we said something prophetic, you got shot at. So we hold back - “I’m not doing that again.” We may hold back creativity. We may hold back great ideas. It’s the painful reality that sheep have teeth. We may be holding back, and not even realize it.

We may develop artificial lists and/or labels. Make guesses about who is associated with who.

There is also flat-out revenge. Gossip. Sarcasm.

When we don’t do something with this pain, it will come out somewhere.

First - there are a few things that forgiveness is NOT.

It’s not always forgetting.

Read Proverbs 26:11 - Some people are toxic. Forgiving them does not mean you have to hang out at their vomit.

It does not mean the relationship goes back to the way it used to be. Actually, it may mean that now you are free to set up some boundaries. I don’t have to put myself into destructive places again and again.

Read Titus 3:10. Paul seems to accept that some people are divisive, and their hearts are bent. I can forgive without condoning or being best buddies. I can have some boundaries. It is okay to call a halt. ‘We love you. We have heard you. But this has to stop.’

It’s okay to have strong boundaries. You are not a punching bag.

Read Luke 12:13. Jesus himself has very strong boundaries. ‘Not my business!’

Try this response: ‘Is that your understanding of my role?’

There are some very distorted notions of pastors in our culture. Some things are not a good stewardship of you as a resource.

Being a leader in the church of Jesus Christ begins with loving yourself. Some will take a disproportionate amount of your time and head space. Some people are toxic and divisive, and they will drain you. You are needed to have a crystal clear sense of what it means to love yourself, because you are an unbelievably precious resources. Some things you don’t have to take. You can be loving, kind, generous, truthful, but you can also come to the point of saying, “I’m not giving this another hour.”

To forgive does not mean turning a blind eye to the realities of how we spend our time.

This Christ path is the ONLY path to life. When we are wronged, we are handed something. If we hand it back, that’s revenge. If we hold back, we nurse the pain. That is a kind of revenge. We may carry it around. You can also choose to absorb this pain, entering into it, allowing it to infiltrate your being. It will hurt. This death/suffering - if you are willing to undergo it - will lead to a resurrection. This Christ pattern we see in Luke - ‘Father, forgive…’ It hurts to forgive. It hurts not to hand it back. This is a skill, a discipline. Here are some things that help me:

You have to name it. You may have to name the fact that you don’t have all the answers. There may be some good points you need to acknowledge. When you name it, it is no longer free to steer your ship.

You have to accept it. Ten percent may be true!

You have to absorb it. This is unbelievably painful - like a sort of death - but you will not come out the other side the same person.

Tim Keller, in The Reason for God, says forgiveness means ‘refusing to make them pay for what they did. To refrain from lashing out, when you want to with all your being, is agony. It is a form of suffering. You are absorbing the debt, taking the cost of it completely on yourself instead of taking it out on the other person. It hurts terribly. Many people would say it feels like a hind of death. Yes, but it is a death that leads to resurrection instead of the lifelong living death of bitterness and cynicism.’

(Otherwise it may be death by paper cuts.)

Parker Palmer: ‘The cross means that the pain stops here. The way of the cross is a way of absorbing pain, not passing it on, a way that transforms pain from destructive impulse into creative power. When Jesus accepted the cross, his death opened up a channel for the redeeming power of love.’

Is there anyone today you need to forgive? Or is it a general overall forgiveness of a group? Let’s say a communal prayer - put the name in the shopping cart - and love it and forgive them!)

NOTE: At this point, Rob actually went around the room with the shopping cart while people put names in the basket!

It’s both the small things, and the really BIG things. There’s a power in writing in down - leaving it behind. The next time you run into that person, remember that pain you left behind in a shopping cart in San Diego.

This was a very moving address that really touched some of the tough stuff that all pastors are dealing with.

Session 2 - Shane Claiborne

For session two, we heard a Christian comedian called Michael Jr. I was a little late to the session, so only got to hear the end...but I love the fact that there is something funny at each session! You can find some of his comedy on YouTube.


Ashmont Hill again led us in worship. They do many different styles of music.


I heard an interview withA. J. Jacobs. He is the author of a book called The Year of Living Biblically. He was raised with minimal religious background, but decided to pursue an entire year trying to follow all kinds of biblical rules and regulations, including obscure Old Testament ones that we tend to see as obsolete. (He has a Jewish background, but apparently included the New Testament as best as I could tell.) He shared a bit about his experiences - both positive and negative. He works in NYC in the media, and one of his most telling quips was that it was a challenge to avoid gossiping and lying - since that makes up about 70% of what people do in his industry.


The main speaker for the evening was very challenging. I have heard Shane Claiborne before - wearing his white t-shirt, with dreadlocks under a kerchief - he is not your typical religious speaker! (He told about telling a man on the plane that he was a preacher. The man said, “They must not make preachers like they used to!”)

"We need to learn to laugh in the face of things that don’t have real power. (Like Jesus being asked about paying taxes. Go catch a fish!) After we have given what is God’s to God, there is not much left for Caesar.

"During this recession, we will need creativity. Folks are asking big questions about how to live in the world. Does God’s vision look like Wall Street’s? Can the world afford the American dream? (To sustain our way of life worldwide would require four planets.)"

This is what we say: “God, why don’t you do something.” He responds: “I did do something - I made you.”

"Scripture gives us another way of looking at the world, of looking at possessions. Daily manna…daily bread. The story of the rich ruler in Mark. Oftentimes we don’t really read the stories of Scripture that deal with economics. (The late Rich Mullins: 'Maybe that’s why we have highlighters - so we can highlight the verses we like and leave out the rest.')

"The story of the rich ruler ends sadly. 'Jesus looked at him and loved him.' But he let him walk away. We don’t want anyone to walk anyway. We are tempted to cheapen grace, to cheapen the cost of discipleship."

"Mark 10:29 reminds us that those who leave home and family behind will receive a hundred times as much in this present age. Jesus tells us that multiplication happens now - it is about entering a new economy where there is enough for everyone now. (This is not the prosperity of TV evangelists.) This is about the fact that when we give up our stuff of earth, we enter this new economy where we have brothers and sisters everywhere. We have a family that runs deeper than biology. We have homes everywhere we go. Whenever I can, I stay in someone’s home. Jesus sent the disciples out with nothing extra - so that they learned to depend upon the community. If they don’t receive you, move on. This new community is marked by abundance. 'There’s enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.'

"Same principle in the feeding of the 5000. God doesn’t want to change the world without us. Just use what you have.

"It is important to make poverty personal. Notice that the final question before God (Matthew 25) is not a doctrinal question - it is about how we treated our neighbors."

Shane worked with Mother Teresa, and began to rethink his tendency to give the worst of what he had to charity.

“I should be giving my best, because when I give to the poor, I am giving to Jesus. The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away!

"Our self-centered, blessing-obsessed gospel of prosperity is so far from that. If we aren’t careful we lose the secret - that if you want to find life, you have to give it away!

"What we have done is not heroic - if so, then you must not understand the pearl that you have found! Someone told Mother Teresa - 'I wouldn’t do this for a million dollars.' She said - 'Neither would I.'

"I have learned so much from the poor. We had a fire that destroyed a whole block. The Red Cross set up a shelter, but nobody stayed in it - everyone had opened up their homes. It is hard for rich people to 'get it.'

"I invite you to do SOMETHING this year that may seem crazy to the world! John Wesley said: 'If I die with more than 10 pounds in my pocket, may everyone call me a liar and a thief.'"

Shane closed by scattering out the dollar bills representing what he received for giving this talk!! “Go take a dollar and think about how to re-imagine that early community where they ended poverty because they had figured out how to love their neighbor as themselves. What if we had jubilee campaigns as well as building campaigns - matching our gifts dollar for dollar to dig wells for poor folks.

"The real tragedy is we don’t even know poor folks. “I have just begun that journey, and it challenges me every night how to love my neighbor as myself.

"Jesus does not tell the poor to go find a church - he tells us to go into the world. We are called to interrupt the patterns of the world with grace and creativity.”

If you want your faith to be stretched WELL past your comfort zone - go hear Shane Claiborne or read one of his books.

Workshop - Dino Rizzo

DINO RIZZO - “Servolution: Starting a Church Revolution Through Serving.”

Rizzo pastors a church in Baton Rouge called “Healing Place.” (May be the first time I have ever met a pastor named Dino!) It sounds a lot like BARK to the nth power! He gives three definitions of a “servolution”:

• A significant change in the course of history sparked by simple acts of kindness
• God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven
• A church revolution through serving

Rizzo’s ideas take outreach further than simple community service (though they sound like simple projects). His vision is to use these activities as catalysts for changing culture. Some of his ideas are simple things that we have already done. Others go a little further. He shared a list of fifteen ideas to get started on Servolution:

• Give away bottled water
• Adopt an inner-city block
• Start a cooking ministry
• Free auto maintenance (for widows, single moms, military wives) - we do this each year a couple of weeks before Mother’s Day - get help from local auto shops.
• Serve as the cleanup crew after community events
• Serve and care for widows
• Be active on your local college campus
• Serve your local government - (Any time we eat - it’s not just “us” - we figure out who we can share with - first responders in the community, etc.)
• Serve the homeless in your community
• Start a free food pantry - you can’t pay everyone’s utility bill, but no one walks away from our church without food, and we always help with needs for babies - diapers, etc.)
• Hospital outreach
• School supply give-away
• Reach out to single moms in need
• Respond to crisis and tragedy in your community
• Connect with other groups who are already serving your community

He began his session with some practical love - passing out homemade pralines! “I believe in the sweetness of serving!”

Dino himself became a believer because of a beach outreach ministry, so he believes in the importance of continuing that outreach. He shared his story of planting the church in Baton Rouge. It began with 12 people sixteen years ago, and now is a church of 7000 with multiple sites.

The key to Servolution - realize this is not an event - it is a purpose, it is a mandate. When you do that, many doors will open. There will be a thousand ways to integrate this into your church life.

"It is our church’s value that it is OK to spend time and money on outreach efforts that do not necessarily bring people into a church.

“If you were to drop me into a new community, and I had to start over, the first thing I would do is to buy a case of bottled water and start handing it out as a conversation starter!”

He shared a story about a small group that was praying for a single mom who was having to move the next day. It struck him - she not only needs prayer, she needs a truck and four volunteers. Guys especially will respond to these needs! They would rather do that than some other things churches ask for!

How does it work when resources are limited? Partnerships. Look for things that are already drawing people. You may not yet have the resources to draw a large crowd. Find a creative way to spend a small amount of money but still be a major part of this. “Be the flea on the elephant!”

"Now 'Serving People in Creative Ways' is simply a part of our budget. The seven days leading up to Good Friday are really huge for us.

"We make our DNA very clear to guests - we are a generous church - everyone you see around you is a generous person - with their time, their talent, their treasure, their touch.

"The shirts we wear have pockets - so there is a place where the cards are we hand out. The back of the shirt says 'serve team' and our web site address.

"We want them to know who we are - but also have a 'no strings attached' attitude!"

Session 1 - Efrem Smith

The hosts for the conference again are Bob Stromberg and Efrem Smith - they bring a great touch of humor. Efrem is a pastor at a church in Minnesota, and was also the main speaker at Session 1. Bob Stromberg is positively hilarious. I always enjoy him. See if you can find some of his comedy clips online!

“Ashmont Hill” is the music group that led the worship time. They are from Boston, Mass.

We also heard an interview featuring David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, authors of the book Unchristian.

For the opening message, Efrem Smith spoke on “Advancing God’s Kingdom in the Valley,” and he began by sharing the story from Ezekiel 37 - the story of dry bones. These days it feels like a valley - layoffs, struggles, family troubles.

We cannot paint the valley as the enemy. Do not forget that God’s hand is upon you - even if you are in the valley. You can be in the valley but still led by the Spirit. This is a great time to be church, to test if we really believe transformation is possible.

He told of hearing a country preacher preach and basically only said one thing - “Jesus is alive.” The sermon seemed silly to him, but as you stop and think about it, that is the news we need to share, that Jesus is alive!

We also need to be prepared for a shift, a change. The message in the Scripture is that God will bring the separated back together. Could it be that we too need to become “one stick” overcoming the walls of separation, building bridges of reconciliation, becoming ONE church with ONE mission.

It’s not how big our church is. Are we healthy? And are we missional? Healthy - means stories of transformed lives, people who have met Jesus. Being missional - are we about publicly pursuing the Kingdom.

Could it be that you are limiting what God has placed within you?

Consider the African impala. Can jump 13 ft high in a standing jump. If on the move, it can also jump 30 feet outward. But - contained with a 3 foot wall. “We train them when they are young that they can’t jump over the wall - so they don’t realize they could clear the wall. Fortunately they don’t know what they can do naturally.

What is keeping me from going higher and further? What is my three foot wall?
“I dare you to jump!”

Ken Medema shared the closing song. Ken is an astonishing artist. He is blind, a keyboard player and a singer. He also was here last year - I have heard him several times over the years. He sings following a presentation, and ties together themes in his song - originally written “in his head” on the spot. If you ever get a chance to hear him live, DO IT!

Live from San Diego at the National Pastor's Convention

Having a great time so far at the National Pastor's Convention in San Diego. I will be sharing posts about some of the content and presentations. Remember - you can add your comments or questions. (Note that your comments will not appear immediately as they will be pre-screened for suitability. This helps prevent inappropriate comments or sales solicitations that sometimes appear on blogs like this.)

I thank you for your prayers. And I remember that it is your support that makes it possible for me to attend learning events like this.

Pastor Robert

FEB. 8 - A Foundation That Lasts Forever

Today we considered some of the frequent misunderstandings of the Christian message:

1 - That it's all about having the right ideas. Ideas are important. Having our thinking right is important. But Jesus' own words reminded us that the evil spirits recognized him as Lord. Being a disciple certainly includes having our head on straight - but it is much more than that.

2 - That's is all about escaping the punishment of hell. Eternal destinations of union with God or separation from God are real. The Bible makes that clear. But in now way is following Christ primarily a matter of escaping punishment. There is much more than that.

3 - There's really not much hope for this world. Do you run into Christians who believe this? Just think - Jesus taught us to pray "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." We must certainly be realistic about the amount of evil and damage in the world. But Jesus empowers us to be his agents for good in the world around us. There is hope!


YOU CAN WATCH James Choung present his models online by checking out these videos:

THE BIG STORY

THE BIG STORY - PART 2


You can also read more about his work at his own website - click here.

FEB. 1 - Solid Ground: A Word for Couples

For this message we looked at several key Bible passages - you can find them here:

GENESIS 2:18-24 teaches us that God "wired" us for companionship and intimacy.

ECCLESIASTES 4:9-12 speaks of the powerful of the "threefold cord" - an image sometimes used to describe the sacred bond of marriage that includes the power and presence of the Lord.

1 CORINTHIANS 7:8-9 reminds us of the sacred calling of singlehood that in no way makes us less than whole.

EPHESIANS 5:21-33 challenges both husbands and wives to self-giving servanthood and submission to spouse - a real challenge for both men and women in our self-centered culture.

MALACHI 2:14-16 counsels faithfulness in marriage - and reveals God's hatred for divorce and what it does to us. Note that God does not hate divorced persons - and the church is called to repent of being judgmental to those who have experienced the brokenness of divorce.


You can go to this site - "New Marriage and Divorce Statistics" - for more revealing analysis of our culture's trends from researcher George Barna.


As part of the message on Feb. 1, I commended the work of Les & Leslie Parrott. They were also featured on the video in Financial Peace University for session two. Incidentally - I made a spelling error at the 9 a.m. service - their last name is spelled just a bit differently from the bird called "parrot." You can find more about their resources at the REAL RELATIONSHIPS web site.

When I heard the Parrotts speak last year, they shared a simple communication exercise that sounds very valuable - it is called "Sharing Withholds" - referring to information that we tend to keep inside and "withhold" from our spouse. Here Les Parrott comments on this exercise:

This is an exercise we taught literally to thousands of couples around the country and we call it "sharing withhold." It comes from our book Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts. It takes about ten minutes out of a couple's week. They just simply share three things that they haven't talked about that have registered in their mind. We suggest two of them be positive and one of them negative. And the response from your partner is limited to two words, and the two words are just "thank you". In other words, you're not going to ask them questions or grill them on anything or explain anything. You're just going to say "thank you" for sharing that information and leave it in a nutshell.

For the next thirty minutes, we say that the negative information is off limits, we can't talk about that. But every day in every marriage there's information that we bury, that we don't talk about. If it's negative information that we bury, it has a high rate of resurrection. When it pops up to the surface, it's uglier than when we first buried it and we go "where did that come from?" So this exercise is designed to kind of clear the mine fields from your marriage and create a real clean and level playing field.


A final reminder - some of you saw the movie FIREPROOF which was out in theatres recently. The video has been released, and there are also efforts to share the marriage communication strategies highlighted in the movie. You can read more at this site - FIREPROOF MY MARRIAGE.