Striving

Recently I have begun to notice in myself what I will call a "Striving Spirit." Over the past two years I think that I have developed a self-identity that basically consists of:

• young
• inexperienced
• unqualified

This is probably because I've spent most of that time surrounded by people older, more experienced, and more qualified. Unfortunately, that identity created in me an insecurity that I am:

• alone
• not good enough
• not going to make it

Therefore, I have been striving to rectify this identity. Pursuing friends, trying to get better experiences, and greatly desiring more education, to name a few of my strivings. Overall, I'm really just seeking some approval and some applause.

Galatians 1:10: "For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

John 5:44: "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?"

It's all well and good to tell yourself to give up striving, but how?

Luke 10:20: "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."

It's a change of attitude. Paul has some more interesting things to say about striving in Philippians 3:

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith." - verses 7-9

This is a powerful message to give up striving. Not only can you not achieve righteousness (salvation) by your actions, but everything is subordinate to the fact that you have Christ. Nothing else really matters. Not titles, nor degrees, nor accomplishments, nor friends.

Matthew 6:33: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Jesus is speaking there of abstaining from worries, but the same applies to strivings - seek Christ first and foremost! This presents an interesting dichotomy, for Paul is not done in Philippians 3:

"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." - verses 13-14

Paul is now instructing us to return to striving! Now that we have abandoned striving for things in order to pursue Christ foremost, we must return to striving after God, who is calling us upward and forward! How then do we reconcile this?

Philippians 3:15: "Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude..."

Paul uses a powerful Greek word here for attitude (phroneo) which he has made a nice habit of using throughout Philippians. Other uses of phroneo in Philippians?

• 1:7 - love for the Philippians, confidence in their progress
• 2:2 - unity, love, joy
• 2:5 - the extreme humility and meekness of Christ found in the next few verses
• 4:2 - harmony and unity
• 4:10 - loving concern for the right things

Let us then give up strivings for righteousness in favor of focusing on Christ, but let us strive for righteousness with the attitude which Paul promotes throughout Philippians!

Live Simply

In Christian circles, you have probably heard of Shane Claiborne. He's a fascinating man who has undertaken an incredible ministry - he gives up material comforts in order to discover true community in inner-city Philadelphia. You are likely to hear many people call him "cool" or say that it would be awesome to do what he's doing. While I've met him, I don't know him, so I don't know whether or not he is "cool." Maybe he is. What he's doing definitely isn't "cool." There's nothing cool about the way he lives his life, nor would it be particularly awesome to do what he does. For some people, it would be awesome, but the vast majority of us could never live his life. He has an incredible ministry, and has a very special calling and it's great to see him living in that calling. I'm still looking for my special calling. If you see it anywhere, please tell it that I'm looking for it, and let me know which direction it went.

Anyways, he advocates living simply. When I heard him speak at a conference not long ago, I was pleasantly surprised to hear him humble himself a few times, such as when he admitted to having a "major libido" and that he had for a time made singleness his idol. He also said that he was still figuring out exactly what living simply meant, and he said that he now thinks that living simply means all different things to different people. We know what it means to Shane. To somebody, it might mean giving up a few extravagances so that a few kids can go to school in a developing nation. But I'd like to suggest another option.

I think that for me, living simply has less to do with material possessions (I don't have too many anyways) and more to do with attitude. In my life thus far, and I think that I want to make it part of my identity, I have always taken major events, problems, and changes in stride. Leave all my friends and move to college, no problem. Hang out in western Kenya without the benefit of any of my American friends, of course. Graduate with no job lined up and recession looming, whatever. Parents divorce, guess that means move forward. I think that for me, living simply means remembering my place in life. I'm just a guy doing my thing and that's all there is to it. Stuff happens, and of course it affects you, but I don't see the need to get dramatic about it.

I'll get dramatic for other people. My coworkers in Kenya who wouldn't go out with me to eat because they couldn't afford it, and wouldn't even go home to eat, but rather took their lunch hour to go to their second job - I'll get dramatic for them. They deserve it. I've never carried that burden. The young girl who gets tricked away from her family and carried to another country and forced into prostitution - I'll get dramatic for her. She deserves it. I've never carried that burden. The kid who has to kill at a young age because his country is in a civil war - I'll get dramatic for him. He deserves it. I've never carried that burden. I feel humbled when I look around, so I'll live simply.

So when times are tough, and things are crazy, and it seems like the pressure is heavy, I want to strive to live simply. For me, that may just mean cranking up the country music on the way home and singing loudly and happily, despite all the negative potential around me. That, for me, is living simply. Not too concerned by the small things, but easily satisfied by just a little bit. Even keel when the waves hit, but smiling all the way as I enjoy the adventure. And in the meantime, I just might impact somebody else's life for the better as I do my best to love them.

Idealistic

Tried by exposure
Sick with existence
Remnant of my many losses
Will this follow me forever?

Stained by the failure
Spent with my striving
Could my life by cleaned of anguish?
My identity is buried

Burnt by their falsehood
Jaded with people
Cynicism lingers longer
I am not the ideal image

Drawn to the hopeful
Eager for trying
The chance to live and dream again
An optimistic man will soar!

Voicemail Greetings

I think voicemail greetings are weird. Take a typical greeting:

"Hi, you've reached John. I can't come to the phone right now, but if you leave your name and number after the beep I'll call you back."

Now think about the assumptions that this greeting makes:

• Somewhere between dialing and getting the voicemail, you forgot that you were calling John and you needed to be reminded.
• The fact of getting a John's voicemail didn't clue you in to the fact that John couldn't come to the phone.
• You have never left a voicemail for somebody before and you didn't realize that you had to wait until the beep to start talking.
  
• You will only receive a call back if you leave your name and number.
• John won't pull your phone number out of his phone's memory, instead he needs you to leave it on your recording.

Just sayin' it's weird, that's all.

Who Are You?

Some time ago I was working through some young adult curriculum. It claimed that there are 3 big questions facing young adults in America today and proposed to help young adults work through them. The three questions are:

• Where will I work?
• Where will I live?
• Whom will I marry?

At first glance, these questions struck me as surprises, because I had honestly never thought of them before. Of course they had occurred to me, but they had never really been so consuming that they paralyzed me. The closest would be when I graduated early from UT with no job or plan. I applied to a number of jobs, but never really got too concerned. The other two questions have rarely bothered me at all.

As I thought more deeply about them, I realized that the reason that these questions surprised me is that they are not the real questions - they are only surface level. The second question is largely determined by the other two, and thus the question of living situations should be tossed out. The other two are deceivers.

The question of where to work and the question of whom to marry are both largely undiscernable and uncontrollable. You can't really know where to work until you receive that phone call saying that you are hired, and you can't really know the identity of your God-ordained spouse until one of you is on one knee and the other is saying yes. Moreover, the control that you think you have in the situations is deceptive. Where to work is largely determined by other people (namely, the employers), decisions that you have made in the past, and your choices of personal identity. You can only really make broad category choices. Whom to marry is largely determined of course by the person you are trying to date, and is also highly dependent on your other choices, including life direction and identity.

One thing is common between both - your career and your spouse are both significantly affected by personal choices regarding your identity. Therefore, I propose that there is really only one question facing young adults in America today:

• Who will you be?

The scope of this composition is not on how to establish your identity or go about that process....I would try to write it if I knew what it was. However, I do know that you cannot determine who you will be without knowing precisely who you are. Therefore, the real point of this article is to say that self-awareness is near the center of establishing your life as a young adult.

Time To Be A Scrooge

I hate to be "that guy" and I really don't want to come off sounding arrogant or angry or rebellious. I feel that I should preface with a brief statement: I most closely align myself with the Lutheran doctrine of the Christian faith. I have been brought up in a Lutheran church, mentored in both life and ministry and missions by Lutherans, and subsequently discipled and trained by Bible Church-attending Navigators. I am intellectual by nature and voluntarily minored in philosophy because I love dealing in the intellectual and the esoteric. What's more, I am considering entering seminary in the spring, and I am currently studying Lutheran doctrinal materials in order to become a Deacon.

Now, with all that off my chest, I have to become "that guy." I only made it 1 page into the introduction of That I May Be His Own by Charles P. Arand before I was ready to poke my eye out at what I was reading. If I may be so allowed, I humbly submit my commentary on the following quotes from the first couple pages of this book.


"Wherever Lutherans undertook the training of the young in the faith, they used this text [the Small Catechism]. Whenever they shipped the message overseas, they equipped missionaries and catechists with this text. Already by the end of the sixteenth century Lutherans had translated it into nearly every language on the continent."

• JFS: Clearly, the Scriptures alone are not adequate for the instruction of our children or the teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness of overseas mission work. I'm so glad that we carry the banner of "Sola Scriptura" and really act as if we believe it. And I'm also glad that while millions live with no Scriptures in their native language, we are hard at work translating Luther's Small Catechism.

"Over the next 200 years, the Small Catechism provided a common text for linking Lutherans together..."

• JFS: As if the Holy Spirit weren't enough to link Christians together. Around the Catechism, let us unite, and if you don't hold to the Catechism, you have no fellowship with us.

"Throughout these years, the catechism was the one theological text of the church, besides the Bible, that was read, learned, and prayed by rank-and-file church members."

• JFS: Make no mistake: Luther's Catechism, has no place beside the Bible. It is below the Bible. It is simply a theological text based on the Bible. The works of John Calvin, some guy named Ryrie, and Donald Miller all fall below the Bible. And should I ever become a "rank-and-file" church member, please beat some sense into me. Being a Christian has nothing to do with "rank-and-file," it has to do with being in the world yet not of the world. If it had to do with being a Club with "rank-and-file" membership, we would welcome everyone into nice comfortable buildings, wear shiny nametags, use our own special buzzwords, focus on ourselves, everyone would have to pay their dues, and we would make sure that non-club members would feel very uncomfortable. Hey, wait a second....

"I can testify that the little book [the Small Catechism] was a constant companion, its every page subjected to memory..."

• JFS: If only the speaker of these words would have dedicated such time and effort to studying and memorizing the words of God instead of the words of Martin Luther.....

Again, I'm sorry to be such a loser, but I am so disgusted by all of this stuff. I am a thorough believer in asking the hard questions, particularly about yourself. Constant self-examination and knowing yourself is the key to avoiding deep problems. So then I submit the following questions for the analysis:

• Are we more in love with our theology than our relationship with God?
• Do we know about God or do we know God?
• Which do we love more: our liturgy or the lost?
• Are we more committed to maintaining our club status or bringing the Kingdom of God?
• Do we experience God as if the veil separating us was torn when Christ died, or is our experience more like the Old Testament: reaching for Him through a priest, an action, rules, and doctrine?
• Are we living as if Christ is alive and on the throne, or as if He's still dead and powerless?
• Do we truly believe that it was better that Christ leave and send us the Spirit, or are we secretly wishing that Christ were still walking along next to us telling us what to do?
  

Seminary

I am a kinesthetic learning, which means that I learn by doing. Others are visual learners, which I guess I'm capable of too, but my lowest is auditory, which is why I can count on one hand the number of classes in college that I stayed awake all the way through. But anyways, because I am a kinesthetic learner, I need to process onto paper, so I am going to go stream of consciousness here on the issue of enrolling in seminary.

John's Good Reasons for Going to Seminary in the Spring

• I want to learn more about God and Scriptures
• I want to have a better ministry
• I love learning and want to keep doing it
• I eventually would like to have a seminary degree and I'm not getting any younger
• I want to expand my pool of people that I am meeting and building relationships with
• I want to have opportunities for networking with influential people and students who will someday be influential people
• I was prophesied over in 2004 that I would be a pastor
  

John's Bad Reasons for Going to Seminary in the Spring

• I want to gain the approval of those around me who have seminary degrees
• I feel inadequate next people who have Masters degrees
• I want to gain the "stamp of approval" of people who believe that you must go to seminary to do ministry
• I feel many people around me getting a Masters and I feel that the expectation is high
  
• I have often prided myself on intellectual ability and I want to continue that
  

John's Reasons for not Going to Seminary in the Spring

• I am still relatively unclear about my whole life's direction
• I do not know if I will be able to finish Seminary if I start
• I also want to get a secular Masters degree in something practical, especially development related, and I have already started that
• I have a full-time job in the ministry and have just begun a nonprofit that will take some time on the side
• I am just beginning to develop a good set of friends in the Dallas area and I want the time to cultivate that and build discipleship relationships
  

John's Fears about Going to Seminary in the Spring

• I fear that I will hate it
• I fear that it will sap all of my free time to the point that I struggle to maintain a social life
• I fear that it will damage my relationship with Christ (have heard as personal testimony from many people)
• I fear that it will make me too intellectual about my faith over the emotional and spiritual aspects
• I fear that I will disagree with what I am taught and that this will either (a) make me bitter, (b) make me an outcast at the school, or (c) make me question my faith
• I fear that it will keep me from doing ministry in my free time due to not having any free time
  

Do or Die Moment

There are moments in our lives when we must place a stake in the ground, draw a line in the sand, and declare "This far and no further." This is it, the tipping point, the moment in time when you either look the monster in the eyes and come out victorious or lose everything that you've ever gained. You know what you must do - the longer that you fail to accomplish it, the further that everything you've ever dreamed of will drift from your grasp. Either the pain of doing it becomes secondary to the immense need, or the fear of the pain crushes even the knowledge of the need. In these moments, we must declare, "I am not afraid." The pain is worth it. I am not afraid.

I normally try to avoid copying other people's work, but sometimes something so immeasurably great gets done that it's almost a crime not to pass it around as much as possible. In the most crushing moments when I wonder if I can go on, this poem by Eliot Fitzgerald, a musician that I've only ever heard on MySpace, speaks volumes to me.

The wind is fun to watch from the confines of my room
A window forced into a wall like a hole inside a tomb
Watch the leaves go up and up and watch them slowly fall back down
Hear the clouds rush idly by, hear them crash into the ground
No noise could ever save me from the voice inside my head
From the nightmares in my closet and the monsters in my bed
Your name is the sound I sigh when I am forced to see my breath
During winter chills of loneliness and the knowledge that there’s death

You see since every man must live, I guess that every man must die
Young and old and in between every man must laugh and cry
But there is joy, and there is sadness inside of every human heart
And there’s a slave and there’s a free man and a chance to never start
It seems I’m living in an age where the good guys just as bad
Every bastard born in darkness with a thorn upon his head
I’m haunted by the memory of my mother’s maiden name
And the perfection that I promised at a time that never came
I know my parents love me, and I know I love them back
But I know my love ain’t perfect and I see that there’s a lack
Of consequences for my actions, compensation for my days
Been doubting everything around me, God vindicate my ways

One by one, I see them come, the monsters to be named
They stand and fall, they walk and crawl
Here I am ashamed

A cemetery looks the best when formed outside a church
Dirt filled with all the lonely people who had given up the search
Some gave up because they found it, some quit some, some never tried
Everybody pondered looking, some alone, some side by side.
Oh God I wish a could have been there the day that Moses hit the stone
A man blessed by holy heaven, a man courageous and alone
I’d love to watch him drink the water, while the people stood and cheered
Did he know the well his sin would bring to bear all that he feared

Forty years he cried for nothing but my unrequited love
For the land I’ve only heard of from all these thunderclouds above
And oh God, oh yes I love you but right now I’m mad as hell
I am your friend God please remember I’m your voice inside this shell
Of human frailty and misgivings about the promises of truth
I only know God, what you’ve shown me, apart from that, there is no proof

I see the stars in all their glory, I see the waves crash on the shore
I see the order and the chaos, and I wish I could see more
Of your abundance in the desert and of your man on the sand
Instead of seeds you never pardon in this dry and lonely land
I’m gonna trust you Lord, I love you, you’re my savior and my friend
Give me strength to bear this moment of despair that you did send

One by one, I see them come, these monsters to be named
The stand and fall they walk and crawl, here I am afraid

The night crawls through my window as I crawl into my bed
And dream of candles I left burning next to books I never read
Hear the birds no longer singing, I see a black behind the rain
I see the emptiness that’s filled with songs of birds and crushing pain
My name is no more than a sound my presence somehow seems to draw
Symbols scribbled on a paper to fulfill this nation’s law
Here’s my name, if I could give it, myself and etched into my chest
I am a man, I am a poet, I am redeemed and I’m a mess
I have joyful lips and tragic eyes on the same face that hides a soul
That lives to love a God whom death alone allows me to behold

One by one I see them come, these angels to be praised,
They stand and fly they never die
Here I stand amazed
In you I stand amazed
I stand amazed
I stand amazed
Are you amazed?

Christian Community Development

Go to the people, live among them, learn from them, love them, start with what they know, build on what they have, but of the best leaders, when their task is done, the people will remark, "We have done it ourselves!"

- heard a few years ago from Dan Reeve, EFCA

The People You Never Met

Over a few beers at my favorite bar in Dallas, a good friend posed an interesting question that I have never received before. He asked all of us at the table what one book we would write. I thought about it for a while before coming up with my answer.

Whether out of sheer coincidence or through some special deep relationships, I have had the good fortune to get to know various people at a deeper level than most knew them. Some are fabulous friends that I just know that well, and others are just people that I happened to be in the right place at the right time to see an unusual side of them. But regardless, I truly believe that most people are far deeper than what you would find out about them in a few meetings or even in a few years.

I don't want to divulge anyone's identity or anything, but I could tell you stories of hearing the raw realities that come out of people's mouths when you're talking one on one after the other person has had a half dozen beers. The ever-so-slight change in a person's demeanor that happens when a certain song comes on that makes you ask a relatively innocuous question that leads to a heartfelt discussion. The strikingly different personality that you observe when you see a person in a radically different environment. It's a beautiful thing. The people you might think were strong and tough may in reality be surprisingly close to tears when a certain topic of conversation comes up. The people you thought were drunken womanizers might have a remarkable quality of love and deep respect for one single female. The people you thought were simple, surface deep normal people might have a heartwrenching tale of emotional turmoil in their family.

And then you might have me.

Uncertainty

I feel like another period of transition is starting in my life. Not that I've ever really not been in transition, but it seems like new things are starting to happen and different questions are opening up that I haven't felt in a while. Some are simple - moving in just a couple of weeks and not knowing where I'm moving to. Others are slightly bigger - whether or not to apply to Dallas Theological Seminary in the spring. Others are essentially impossible - what direction to take my career. And there are more.

The Lord gave me an illustration some years ago that I've always chosen to apply to my life. I imagine that my life will forever be on this track, but I'm okay with that. My life is like a road up the side of a mountain. If you've driven up a mountain road before, you know the tedious switchbacks that you must take to slowly go higher and higher. You also know that you can never see around the turn of the mountain, but that never stops you from moving forward, because you know that you can already see the point from which you will be able to see around it. And if you want to know the final destination, you need only look upward.

Perhaps one of the most comforting things possible in life is the knowledge that God is in control. And I am continually reminded of this, despite the absurd level of uncertainty that I've grown somewhat used to. Even when I've gone dangerously close to the points beyond which I have no plans (and sometimes even beyond the point), the right path has always opened up, and in hindsight each situation has been the right one. Even though I've never yet balanced a budget in over a year and a half since graduation and have lost thousands of dollars in 2009, I still have money to pay the rent and incredibly fortunate investments have kept me alive.

I can say one thing with absolute certainty: God is in control, and my life is still on the right track.

What if.....

I am often captivated by the thought of how our society would be different under slightly different cultural norms or conditions. For example, in Lord of the Rings there is the Ent society of walking, talking trees - except that Treebeard explains to the hobbits that in Entish the words are very long and take a great deal of time to pronounce, and so therefore the Ents never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say. How would our society be different if it took only, say, twice as long to say everything that we currently say? Would we conserve our words more?

I met a young lady tonight who had spent a summer in the mountains of Peru among a people group largely untouched by Western civilization, and they had retained a long-standing cultural practice of children being raised by their grandparents, really mostly just their grandmothers. Basically, people married fairly young and had children, then almost immediately sent the children off to their grandparents and went about their lives until their own kids were old enough to be married and have kids. Consider the implications. Could people be more productive in the prime of their lives if their children are not in the way? Could children grow up with greater wisdom if they are raised by older and wiser members of society than their young parents? Who knows!

This is not entirely senseless philosophical theorizing. I believe that cultivating a "what if" mindset is part of not only an innovative society, but also a careful and deliberate society. We could, with more "what if" statements, come up with more creative solutions to problems. We could also recognize the longer-term implications of present decisions. For example, consider the case among the Samburu people of Kenya that a friend of mine was telling me about a few weeks ago - at one time the women of the village walked hours each day retrieving the family's water supply. Some missionaries came in and drilled a well, removing the need to walk so far. Wonderful! Except for one thing - without the hours being consumed in walking, the women of the village stayed home and made more babies with their husbands, creating a dangerous population spike.

Maybe we should all take more time out of our busy schedules for thinking....not just reflection, but also theorizing and dreaming.

Ideas from the Ideation

Sadly I have lost my notes from the conference. I have no clue what happened to them. But I do remember everything that we talked about, so here's some of the ideas that I liked the best:

• CityServe - I had the opportunity to work one-on-one with Reggie McNeal, one of the major players in the "missional church" movement. His newest idea, that he and I fleshed out at the conference, was that of city-wide development. What if a city could identify 1-2 issues that would make a substantial improvement in the city if solved? All of the altruism and actors in solving the problems are already in place, but they operate independently. What if there were an independent third-party to call everyone to the table to strategise together? I love this idea because it's great development - all of the assets are already in place, they just need to be empowered. Cooperation is one of my biggest values so I am desperate to see this idea implemented.
• IdeaFest - Don Wilcox, who works for Leadership Network in Colorado, had the idea that churches could host an annual event that would really level the playing field so that ideas for the direction of the church don't just flow top-down. Lots of churches have this as a value, but few really successfully implement it. Anything to reduce heirarchy and top-down control in the church seems like a good idea to me.
• 1% More - Jenni Catron, from CrossPoint Church in Nashville, has the plan that we could make a massive impact in the world if every Christian and every church gave just 1% more to international missions each year. Although throwing money at development and missions is not exactly a good idea, if NGOs and mission organizations can have good strategies and visions that will be successful, this would be a great way for them to find the funding that they all so desperately need.
• Outsourcing - Nicola James, from the European Church Planting Network in England, was proposing the idea of churches outsourcing their back offices - anything from accounting to graphic design. I've heard this idea before and it seems like a good one. Some churches do this to a certain degree, but there are many challenges and it would be great to see this idea fleshed out so that the inefficiencies in outsourcing these functions could be reduced.
• Commentary - Steve Lutz, campus minister from Penn State, has the idea of a wiki-style commentary website where people are adding Biblical analysis to a huge resource. As long as there is a clear system for differentiating different interpretations of the same passage and so that people aren't battling each other, this is a great idea. He also wants to incorporate an online store for Christian resources that functions like Toms Shoes - you buy a Christian resource, an underresourced pastor somewhere in the world receives a resource. BOGO - it's a great plan if it can be comparable in cost to other sources or have great marketing.
• 2x2 Church Planting - Troy McMahon, from Restore Community Church in Kansas City, MO, has a plan for church planting. Churches are created with a missional and reproducing DNA through a direct one-on-one discipleship relationship with funding that is terminated after 2 years. Church plant teams are 40 adults and take place when the church is up to 300-400 people in attendance. Nothing new about this idea, but if somebody could successfully implement it, huge numbers of people would come to Christ.
• Troy McMahon, Jim Sheppard (Generis Partners in Atlanta), and I put our heads together and came up with an idea for staff exchange toward the goal of greater church partnership. Not only are preachers switching occassionally, but pastors sometimes go to different church staff meetings - either exchange, lead, or attend. Goes along with the idea I was initially pitching of church leaders coming together geographially but across cultural and denominational lines for regular prayer meetings.

I hope that some of these great ideas get implemented, and I also hope that church leaders continue to think innovatively!

Ideation

Had a chance to receive some great training at the Leadership Network last week. Leadnet equips leaders, both in the church work and in the business world, to succeed. They hosted a conference here in Dallas called the Ideation Experience where church leaders from all over the world came to process ideas together for the future of the church in America. I was blessed to be able to go and work with some great people.

Our speaker, John Handy (former Design VP for Mattel) gave us tons of information about how to be more innovative. Here's the process:

1. Call to Adventure - some big, scary, wild challenge with a bold deadline
2. Inspiration - to be creative, you must continually have inspirational input. Empty your preconceived notions and take deep looks around you...explore bigger meanings, go inside the creator's mind, recognize the culture, and relate to yourself
3. Success Factors - clearly define what success would look like
4. Ideation - the actual brainstorming work: here you capture ALL ideas, build on other ideas, combine ideas, look for unexpected connections between ideas, ask "Why not" and say "Yes and" instead of "Yes but," and think BIG enough that people will get angry when you say your thoughts
5. Evaluation - do not slip into this before Ideation is done. Now you compare your ideas back to the success factors - don't start working on "How to" yet.
6. Presentation - take the idea away and sleep on it for a while, with everyone planning to reconvene later. By the time you come back together, the ideas should be fully fleshed out with a presentation that answers all the "how" questions
7. Implementation - do not fail this step. As soon as the group decides on an idea, take a couple of big steps immediately in order to commit yourself

Essential in the process of innovation is the Elevator Pitch. The problem with big ideas is that they take lots of people buying into the idea in order to make it work. Therefore you need to be able to sell your idea to other people in the space of time it takes you to ride up an elevator with someone. 60 seconds is the absolute maximum. In this elevator pitch, include:

• A hook to capture attention
• A clearly stated problem or opportunity
• An elegant and refreshingly bold solution - stay at a high level, don't overdo the details, stay simple and clearly understood
• Ask for a specific action, whether contact info exchange or follow-up meeting

Other teachings from the Ideation Experience:

• Live in the world of possibilities
• Can't just means that it hasn't been done yet
• No usually doesn't mean no - it means look for another way
• Know the difference between revolution and evolution - don't get trapped in evolution when a revolution is needed
• Imagine your new idea in the newspaper or on TV

The Secret

Here's the secret to living:

My life and my ministry would be radically better if I spent an hour doing battle on my knees every night before going to bed.

Unite

I am 23 years old, which means that I'm half the age of half the people making decisions for our local churches, but it also means that I'm postmodern, not by choice, but because I've grown up in it.  I work at a North Texas church-planting mission organization and I have seen churches come up with more buzzwords than many businesses: missional, emergent, seeker-sensitive, communal, relevant....and I'm not against any of that; these church models are great and they reach different people.  But that's just it: no church can reach everybody - that goes against everything that business marketing experts have known for years and churches are slow to catch on.  Therefore, my idea is that churches would partner together for the sake of the Kingdom.  They need to do what they do, then come together and be collaborative for the sake of the city.  I believe that church leaders should be regularly gathering with other local church leaders, from other denominations too, to get on their knees with their faces in the rug asking God for wisdom and power to carry out His work.  Out of that gathering will come ideas for new directions to outreach and new plans for being the Church in that city.

Here in Dallas, we have some of the biggest churches around.  It seems that the bigger a church gets, the more self-sufficient it gets, and the less it feels like it needs anybody else.  This is counter to the work of the Kingdom.  I had an interesting thought one night: what if God is waiting to bring revival to our land until our local churches are first willing to do what it takes and second capable of discipling the huge numbers that would be coming: young and old, wealthy and poor, the corporate moguls and the drug dealers.  We have to all do our own different ministries, then we have to collaborate together.  That is my idea.

Favorite Moments from The Rescue

If the Greatest Generation sacrificed for war, what will our generation be known as if we sacrifice for PEACE?

If being a voice for the voiceless only requires a few miles' walk, one sleepless night in a park in Uptown with no comfort, and a few video shoots, why are not more people here?

Injustice in northern Uganda is as vile a blight on humanity as injustice in Dallas.  Lord let us be a generation who feels rage and stands up for what is right....everywhere!

• Silent dance party, complete with silent breakdancing
• Meeting so many awesome people: shout-outs to Kyle, Krysten, Kelli, Carmen, Nicole, Dr. Brown, Chelsea, Sarita, Paul, all the volunteers, and more that I can't remember your names!
• The sprinklers coming on closer and closer toward the sleeping crowd
• Running toward the boom camera and everyone falling over
• People honking at us on Woodall Rogers as we walked overhead
• Dance competition between the two boys from Fort Worth
• Ridiculous conversation behind us while George and I are trying to sleep
• Never-ending drizzle on our faces
• Prince of Peace folk praying on our faces for Uganda

And, my favorite:

• Gathering with Dr. Brown's Mighty Men to pray, and suddenly people gathering until well over a hundred people are linked arms praying at once

Coming Together

As I write this I am watching a live broadcast over the Internet of OneCry.  A guy that I knew at UT, Jeremy Story, had a vision.  He and Justin Christopher, another friend of mine, created a ministry at UT  Austin called Campus Renewal Ministries.  They are not a ministry that does direct ministry, they are a ministry that unites the ministries!  At UT they connected all the different campus ministries together, who had different doctrines, different cultural makeups, different focuses, and different goals, and united them....without changing them!  The body of Christ is all different and God has made them all different in order to reach different people and to represent different aspects of him and his church!  At UT they demographically separated UT into hundreds of separate "communities" and all the campus ministries began going out to plant "authentic faith communities" in each so that everyone at UT would have direct contact with true Christians living out their faith publicly.  Once a year they all united in one week-long event called RezWeek that brought in big speakers, big worship bands, and served coffee and had an art gallery and a "free speech wall" right in the middle of campus.  It was a beautiful thing.

Well tonight Jeremy is up in New York City, putting on OneCry.  A bunch of people are gathered in Times Square Church praying and worshipping, but the amazing thing is that it is broadcast live over the internet and people on tons of college campuses all over the nation are gathering together in rooms and apartments to watch.  People are being united for the purpose of repentance, prayer, and worship.  The goal is reconnection with God and revival in our land.  It's very cool.

I live in Dallas.  Dallas is a city of megachurches.  Dallas churches are independent.  Whether large or small, churches in Dallas have an attitude of being self-sufficient and not needing a thing.  They operate on their own, almost in competition with other churches even right across the street.  It's a disgusting attitude that limits the Kingdom of God in this city.  If Dallas churches could come together and worship together, pray together, and be unified in vision and purpose, this city could be changed.

Jesus Pops Up Everywhere

Why does Jesus seem to pop up everywhere?  Why have we associated him with so many things?  We have asked the question: "Jesus, is it at this time that you are going to restore the kingdom to Americans?"

Jesus says, "No.  My kingdom is not of this world.  If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm."

The first was teaching evolution in schools.  We attached Jesus to this social issue and hoped that we could legislate Christianity into America.  I am not talking about legislating morality, nobody is questioning that.  What do you think laws prohibiting murder and theft are?  I am talking about legislating Jesus.  It's not that Jesus isn't concerned about teaching evolution or creationism in schools, it's that he isn't fighting the battle.  We are fighting the battle and I think that Jesus wishes we wouldn't involve him in it.  You see, the problem is that the battle of evolution in schools was lost, and Jesus doesn't like to lose.  In fact, he has never lost, and never will.  He always wins, and when we attach him to issues like evolution in school, it looks to the world like he loses.

When Christians lost the battle for evolution, they retreated and bifurcated society.  Visualize an elementary school playground and the battle over the basketball game when one kid gets pushed down.  "Fine!  If you won't play by my rules, I'm taking my ball and going home!"  That mindset is what created things like Christian coffee shops, Christian music, Christian bookstores, Christian TV channels, Christian schools, Christian neckties, and even Christian diet plans.  Unfortunately, the Christian subculture can't decide if they want to separate from the secular world or imitate it.

It's happened over and over again since then.  Abortion, prayer in schools, gay marriage, and so on.  It wouldn't be so bad if Christians won a battle from time to time, but Jesus never promised that - in fact he seemed to say that things were going to get worse.  So what's so bad about fighting for these causes?

Nothing - in fact please do fight for them.  Just don't attach Jesus' reputation to them.  The Bible has a heavy theme of God doing things "for his name's sake."  Check it out - the phrase is all over the Bible, and if you ever highlighted it, it's probably only because your hand kept going past what you were aiming for.  What is God's name?  It's his reputation.  God is extremely concerned about his reputation in the world, because that's how people come to know him - check out Joshua 2:10-11 for an example.  Rahab's response is flipped upside down when Jesus keeps "losing" battles....it's more like "We have heard about how your God can't stop abortion and homosexuality and pornography and evolution.  When we heard about it, our hearts were overjoyed because your God is dead."

Christians don't have to lay over and die.  If the Church were really salt and light in the world, bringing the gospel to many people and teaching them to be disciples rather than simply "in the club," the social issues would naturally follow.  Instead, Christianity has only managed to make itself more irrelevant to the world.

For our battle is not against flesh and blood......

Sources: John 18 and Ephesians 2

Storms

Storms conjure up a certain set of emotions in me.  I count myself fortunate to have had a wide range of experiences, but from time to time I can't shake the dramatic flashing of images in my mind when emotions and memories collide with my present circumstances.

There is a huge storm rolling through north Dallas right now.  The awesome display of water, electricity, and wind is impressive and my eyes struggle to take it all in, trying to frantically dash after elusive lightning strikes, usually over before I can look their way.  God's mighty power is evident.....

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail?  Who has cleft a channel for the flood, or a way for the thunderbolt?  Has the rain a father?  Can you lift up your voice to the clouds so that an abundance of water will cover you?

Like an uninvited phone call during dinner, my mind suddenly turns to Biloxi, Mississippi.  To anyone who has ever participated in hurricane relief work, a set of images is now forming in your mind.  In an instant, my mind is on Obunga.  To anyone who has ever tried to walk the paths of an African slum during the rainy season, you are now remembering a near-impossible task.  I am thinking of Sam.  To anyone who has been privileged to meet and hold a conversation with a homeless person recently, you are now considering the plight of those with no roof during a cold rainstorm.  And of course, Balcones de Palin leaps into my thoughts like a cold dagger.  To anyone who has nearly perished in a flash flood in a foreign country or known the death that a storm brings to people in a community with no flood control, you are now sitting soberly valuing your life.

What is man, that you remember him?  Or the son of man that you are concerned about him?  You have appointed him over the works of your hands, you have put all things in subjection under his feet.  But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.

We have not yet inherited the earth.  We do not yet control the elements or have authority over the things of this world.  But Jesus Christ went first, suffering death in order to taste death for everyone.  He is our brother in this world, having experienced what we experience, in order that he might help us in our time of need.  And he has gone before us as the pioneer, declaring that he now has all authority on heaven and on earth.  He will free those who are in slavery to the fear of death and someday welcome us into the same authority over heaven and earth.

Though now we see suffering and death, though now we languish in hopelessness at the oppressive and destructive systems of this world, though we feel lonely and abandoned, one day we will take all authority on heaven and on earth as the rightful heirs of the creation.  It is the free gift of God because he loves us.

Sources: Job 38 and Hebrews 2

Omar Al-Bashir

As important as the economic crisis is around the world, another crisis situation took place recently.  It made front page news, but has since disappeared and I fear that we will not hear another word.  Omar Al-Bashir, the President of the Sudan regime that has been committing genocide and war crimes for years in Darfur, finally has a warrant for his arrest from the International Criminal Court.  The warrant stopped short of mentioning war crimes, but it is a start toward bringing this heinous man to justice.

Unfortunately, if this is the first step, it is more analogous to the first step of a baby.  It is likely to take a few more, then falter.  The ICC has no legitimate power to serve a warrant - it must rely on individuals to either turn themselves in or be found and taken into custody by somebody else's army.  And sadly, while the world is discussing what to do about this warrant, Omar Al-Bashir made the decision to freeze several of the largest humanitarian aid groups in his country.  Oxfam, for one, serves 600,000 people.

From here, there are two options.  One, internationally condemn the arrest warrant and plead with Sudan to re-instate the NGOs.  Two, internationally condemn Al-Bashir and bring him to justice.  Before his election, President Barack Obama had an exemplary track record on genocide.  Now we will see how he does.

More Quotes

My own design: optimized for an 8.5x14 print, cheap at Kinko's.

Neil Cole, author of The Organic Church:

"As leaders and organizations, we have bought into a theology of SAFE:

(S)elf-preservation = mission

(A)voidance of the world/risk = wisdom

(F)inancial security = responsible faith

(E)ducation = maturity

Instead of seeking to be 'safe,' Christians need a theology of DEATH:

(D)ie daily to who you are

(E)mpowerment of others is our life

(A)cceptance of risk is normative

(T)heology is not just knowledge, it is practice

(H)old on to Christ, open your hands for all else."

Frederick Buechner:

"The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

Aristotle:

"Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy."

A new Hillsong United background

On rough days I get creative.  Here's a background from a picture that I took in North Carolina over Thanksgiving break - that's the Biltmore estate rising in the background.  Picture significantly recolored and touched up.

Every New Day

Man versus machine, man versus himself, man vesus the world, mankind versus me. The struggles go on, the wisdom I lack, the burdens keep piling up on my back. So hard to breathe, to take the next step: the mountain is high, I wait in the depths, yearning for grace and hoping for peace, dear God, increase! Healing hands of God have mercy on our unclean souls once again. Jesus Christ, Light of the World, burning bright within our hearts forever. Freedom means love without condition, without beginning or an end. Here's my heart, let it be forever Yours, only You can make every new day seem so new! - Five Iron Frenzy