Vintage Jesus

I just finished reading "Vintage Jesus" by Mark Driscoll. To be honest, I'm not the hugest Mark Driscoll fan - I think he's probably a really good guy, but I just don't jive with his communication style. But several of our young adults are Driscoll lovers, so I wanted to stay up with what he was writing so I could stay conversant with what they're reading.

I really liked this book. It has a couple of rough spots - mostly places where there's some gratuitous off-the-wall humor that I think distracts from the point. But it's refreshing to read a guy who is thinking theologically, and communicating contemporarily (yes, I know "contemporarily" is not a word).

Vintage Jesus is a basic handbook on Christology (the study of Christ). It covers apologetics, church history, and a biblical look at who Jesus is, what He came to do, where He is now, and what confidence we have that the whole story of Jesus is truly True.

I come at the end times stuff a little differently than Driscoll. He seems to be an amillinealist (doesn't believe in a rapture, doesn't seem to believe in a literal 1000 year kingdom, etc...) but that stuff doesn't show up until the last chapter.

The best part of this book is that it deals with theological issues in contemporary language. The contemporary language may be a bit over the top for some people, and the fact that Driscoll illustrates a Christological point using "South Park" will likely get some fundamentalist shorts in a wad. But even they will find little to gripe about when it comes to the theological foundation of the book. It's pretty good stuff.

It's not cool to think theologically. It isn't inherently relational, or technological, and it certainly doesn't have the characteristics of postmodern thought. But, I think it's vital that the world of younger pastors begins to write and teach theologically so the baton continues to be handed down.

Sadly, a lot of us have sacrificed theological thinking at the altar of pragmatism, not realizing that they don't need to be mutually exclusive. In fact, theology and pragmatism are necessarily mutually inclusive. One informs the other. If pragmatism is our starting point, it will have a direct affect on our theology, and vice versa. If we don't teach our people (and our future pastors) to begin with the foundation of who God is and what God has done rather than who we are and how we should do what we want to do, what we end up doing will ultimately be foolish. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom... we have to begin there.

Welcome Strategy

We're always struggling with new ways to connect people who are guests in our ministry. We've found - big surprise - that people who make a personal connection are most likely to connect with our ministry. Our church could have the best teaching, best music, best programming, best nursery, and best youth program in the world, but people will not stick if they don't make a personal connection. So, we've test-driven several different ways to help people feel welcome, and to connect them to other people.

The most effective is one I didn't come up with, so I can brag about it. I think my predecessor came up with this idea, and I love it.

When a guest visits a young married class, they receive a handwritten note from one of the class members telling them thanks for being our guest. Then, we include a $5 gift card to Starbucks with an invitation in the hand-written note: "We'll be at Starbucks on Bryant Irvin next Saturday at 3:00pm. If you're interested in getting together or if we can answer any questions about our class, we'd love to see you there. Otherwise, enjoy a cup of coffee on the class."

Somewhere around 90 percent of the people who show up at Starbucks stick with the class. Why? Because they made a personal connection. Someone knows their name the second time they come. The class went the extra mile.

Obviously, this whole plan is contingent on having the right people in place to lead it. But it has been unbelievably effective in helping our young married class connect with each other. And all it costs us is $5.41 per couple. We think it's a good investment.

I Cannot Come Down

Andy Stanley is one of my favorite contemporary preachers. He has a little different philosophy on preaching than I, but I love to listen to his sermons. He has an ability to communicate a point about as well as anyone else I know. And I am able to remember points from his sermons for years after I hear him preach. There aren't many pastors I can say that about.

This past week, he preached on personal vision, and talked about Nehemiah 6, where Sanballat is wearing Nehemiah out trying to get him to leave construction on the wall and go to the plain of Ono so Sanballat can kill Nehemiah. But Nehemiah stuck to what God had called him to do.

You get the picture of Nehemiah standing at the top of a ladder working on the wall, when one of his messengers comes to say "Hey - Sanballat wants some time with you." But Nehemiah's reply is pretty neat: "I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down." Sanballat asked Nehemiah to reconsider several times, and Nehemiah responded the same every time.

Andy's challenge was to discern what God has called you to do, and then reply to everything else, "I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down."

So much of my day is spent doing urgent things that really aren't important. And even more of my time is wasted doing things that aren't urgent or important. And sometimes, when great opportunities come along for me to speak somewhere, or be somewhere that would take me away from what I believe God has called me to do, I need to do a better job of remembering that I am doing a great work and cannot come down.

Didn't Learn This in Seminary...

I'm going to do a series of posts here in the near term about things they never taught me in seminary. But it's on my mind today because I've got a counseling situation this afternoon that I'm really not looking forward to.

Counseling is the bane of my existence, mostly because I'm not a very good counselor. I heard Andy Stanley say one time that he's not a counselor - he's a consultant, and hearing him say that made me want to jump out of my chair and give him a hug because someone finally understood me.

I didn't hug him, but I wanted to.

A consultant goes into a situation, diagnoses the problem, tells people what they need to do to remedy the problem, and leaves them to implement his suggestions. A counselor gets down and dirty to try to work with a person (or couple) as they implement suggestions bit by bit. That frustrates the fool out of me. I'm way too ADD to deal with the same problem over and over when the solution is so clear.

But with that said, some counseling is a necessity in pastoral ministry, so I grit my teeth and try to bear it.

One of the things that makes counseling situations so difficult is the phone call that precedes them.

"Chris, I need to talk to someone about something. Are you free on Thursday?"

"Sure, I'd love to get together. How about Thursday afternoon?"

"Okay. Three o'clock okay?"

"That sounds great."

"Okay. See you then."

Not even a hint of what we're getting ready to talk about. Sometimes I can guess, but sometimes I miss like crazy. There are times when I've prepared myself to deal with relationship issues, only to find out the person wants to talk about how they can get plugged-in to ministry. Other times, I've prepared for a discussion about a ministry leadership challenge to have someone come out of the proverbial "closet."

They don't teach you how to do that in seminary. I guess it's part of what makes ministry exciting. It's definitely what causes James 1:5 to be near and dear to my heart.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."

Power of Influence

This weekend I'm preaching in the "Big House." On the spectrum of sermon philosophies, McKinney is toward the expository end rather than the topical end, which I love personally. But we rarely preach all the way through a book at a time - we take sections of each book and teach them in chunks over a few years. It allows us to keep each series fresh, and keeps us from becoming lopsided in our teaching - I'll likely post more on that someday.

But this Sunday, I drew Acts 18:18-28 as my section. At first, I was pretty bummed because it's largely a transitional passage used to describe the conclusion of Paul's 2nd missionary journey and the beginning of his 3rd, and to bring Apollos on the scene. So, it seemed like it was going to be an extraordinarily difficult passage to teach.

But, as it turns out, the transition in Acts (a transitional book) is vital to understanding the point of the book as a whole. And this passage is going to be pretty fun.

The big idea is this: never underestimate the power of your investment in someone else's life. Some of the people who have had the greatest impact on me have been people who took a relatively small amount of time, experience, and information - but poured everything the could into me. Even when it was a small investment to them, it made a profound difference in my life.

Never underestimate the power of the investment you can make on the life of another person. And you can begin that investment today - show up Sunday (or listen online) to find out how.

Serenity Now!

Don't know if you're a Seinfeld fan or not, but there's an episode where George's father takes anger management to the extreme. Someone tells him every time he gets angry that he needs to say "serenity now" to himself to calm himself down. By the end of the episode, he's screaming "SERENITY NOW" at the top of his lungs.

I don't have an anger problem, but I certainly have a serenity problem on some days. The way our offices are set up, the pastor's offices are around the outside wall of the office building, and the admins and support ministry staff office in cubicles in the middle. That means there is always a lot of activity going on right outside my door.

Our staff - particularly our admins - have a pretty good time most days, which is a good thing; laughter breeds a great work environment.

But fun times and laughter aren't great when you're coming down the stretch on preparing your sermon or studying a difficult passage.

I've tried listening to music, but music with words distracts me too. And I tried classical music on Accuradio which worked fine and dandy until Haydn's Surprise symphony came on and nearly made me jump through the roof.

But I've found a fix for those of you who are like me; and it will save you hours in your day. This year for Christmas my inlaws bought me a pair of noise cancellation headphones. Then, a couple of weeks ago I stumbled on a site called Iserenity that plays different types of white noise, and started playing them on my noise cancellation headphones at a pretty low level.

Now, the admins outside could have a luau complete with hula dancing and conga lines and I wouldn't know. It's glorious.

Check it out. My favorite two are "Airplane Aria" and "Library Lullaby."

Logos Training

We had a great end of last week at the software training in Oklahoma City.

Tony always live blogs from conferences, but I figured it probably wasn't as cool to liveblog from a software training as it is to track Ed Young's wardrobe changes. So, I held myself back.

The software we were learning is Logos (which is a part of the Libronix system). Logos is a pretty serious Bible study software that comes at different levels for different levels of study. (And with different price tags for different levels of committment).

We took the training from Morris Proctor Seminars on the recommendation of my cousin-in-law Rob who helped organize the thing (and then bailed on it so he could watch Ed Young's wardrobe changes).

To be honest, I was dreading the training, but was looking forward to the opportunity to get away from the office and connect with one of the young leaders in our singles ministry. But the seminar turned out to be excellent. I told the guy who went with me that if I had known what I know now about Logos, I could have graduated from seminary a semester earlier. And, I'd have a lot more hair.

This seminar put so much power at my fingertips, and completely opened up the usability of this software for me. I know shortcuts and study-helps today that will save me hours.

It was a good weekend.

Plus, we got to eat at Ted's Cafe Escondido on Thursday night. Hear me now and believe me later: no greater mexican food exists on the planet.

Reading List

At the end of December, I posted a list of my Top Ten books for 2007. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Seminary recently posted his Top Ten for preachers in 2008. Here's his list (ht: Preach The Word):

1. Preach the Word: Essays on Expository Preaching: In Honor of R. Kent Hughes, edited by Leland Ryken and Todd Wilson

2. Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation, by Graeme Goldsworthy

3. Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception, by John MacArthur

4. A City Upon a Hill: How Sermons Changed the Course of American History, by Larry Witham

5. Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution, by Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach

6. Renewing Minds: Serving Church and Society Through Christian Higher Education, by David S. Dockery

7. After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion, by Robert Wuthnow

8. God’s Ambassadors: A History of the Christian Clergy in America, by E. Brooks Holifield

9. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, edited by D. A. Carson and G. K. Beale

10. Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters, edited by Donald K. McKim



I've read a few of these, and ordered a couple of the others. Two questions for comment: (1)What books should I be reading in 2008? And, (2) What do you think of the books on Dr. Mohler's list?

Never going it alone

I'm headed out this evening to Oklahoma City for a Logos/Libronix training seminar with Morris Proctor. I'm not very excited about the training, although I truly love the software and hear these seminars are incredible. (How excited can you get about sitting in a room with a bunch of other geeks talking about software?) I'm excited because one of our young singles leaders is going with me, and I can't wait to spend some time with him. (Kari's going with us to spend some time with her sister - an added bonus, I won't have to sleep by myself).

One of the helpful things my first pastor boss taught me was to never do anything alone. He took it to the extreme, which was cool. He never goes to the bank, coffee shop, or even the bathroom without taking one of his guys with him.

Okay, maybe not the last one.

He called it "rambling," and I learned some of my best pastoral/theological lessons on rambling trips to the bank with JB. Not only is the idea good to protect a pastor in moral areas, it's a great opportunity to develop leaders and sharpen yourself.

I've tried to continue what JB started in my life. I rarely do anything in ministry by myself (with the exception of playing golf). Why miss the opportunity to spend time with guys you are trying to build into, or the blessing of processing things with guys you respect? Honestly I plan to learn more from Erick on this trip than he'll learn from me, and I'm sure looking forward to it.

You just can't ever go wrong spending time investing in relationships.

Surviving Success

God has been good to Kari and I in our ministry. Although we've had some extremely difficult times - in one place inparticular - God has blessed us by allowing to see some significant fruit in a few different situations. But, we haven't had to fail a whole lot in ministry yet. And when we have, we've been surrounded by people who love us and have been able to help us rebound fairly quickly. God has been good to us.

As a result, I've never really worried about failure in ministry. Part of it is probably youthful naivete, and part of it is a belief in a big God. Maybe it's because I've never really sought out ministry opportunities; nearly every ministry opportunity I've had has been the result of something "falling in my lap." So, I've got a pretty real sense that God is involved in ministry with me, and can help me rebound from failure. I don't worry a whole lot about surviving failure.

I do worry a whole lot about surviving success. And I worry the same things for several of my friends in ministry.

In my limited experience, it's a lot easier to survive failure than to survive success. When you're failing, you have to trust in God. You don't have anything else. Nobody is asking you write books, or speak at their conferences. Nobody wants your advice or your help. In fact, people try pretty hard to distance themselves from you because nobody wants to be around a failure.

But when you're seeing success, the temptation is always there to trust yourself - your talent, your resources, your skill, your intellect, and your abilities. When we're successful it's easy to forget that the only reason we're successful to begin with is the grace of God. So, we get proud, possessive, and protective of "our" ministry - afraid deep down that someone is going to recognize that we don't have a clue what the heck we're doing sometimes. And we end up sabatoging the work God is doing because we take it over for ourselves.

Yeah, it's a lot easier to survive failure than success.

Finishing Well...

I'm a young (really young) guy, so I don't usually spend much time thinking about "Finishing Well." I read the book "Finishing Well" by Bob Buford, and really enjoyed it. But, I read it thinking I would just file it away for 40 or 50 years until I'm ready to start finishing - I've just finished starting starting!

But last week, I was doing some preliminary study in 2 Peter for a sermon series we're doing this Summer, and realized that 2 Peter is all about finishing well - even if we're young.

I love how the basis for Peter's encouragement throughout the book is the imminent second coming of Jesus. And as Peter is winding down his life, he reminds his readers - whatever their age - to constantly have the mindset of finishing well, because none of us knows how much time we have.

We don't need to wait until we're in our sixties to start thinking about moving from "success to significance." We need to do significant things today. There's a sense of urgency throughout Peter's letter (and throughout the New Testament, for that matter) that I think the Church has lost these days to a certain degree. There's certainly a place for strategic initiatives and long-term planning, but what are you doing today to be finishing well?

Whether we're 27 or 67, we need to be in the business today of finishing well, even if we're just starting.

Avoiding Burnout

I've mentioned my Friday morning Bible study before. That time (on my day off) at 6:30am is the highlight of my week every week. There is almost nothing better than hanging out with guys who are interested in growing, sharpening each other, and sharing lives together. Fridays are one of those things that give me life, and help me avoid burnout.

A few people have tried to talk to me about moving that Bible study off my day off, or moving my day off so I'm not "working" on my day off. But honestly, the fact that my Friday morning group is on my day off is part of what I enjoy most about it. See, I would meet with those guys even if it wasn't a part of my job. So, I don't see it as a part of my job - I see it as a part of my ministry.

I'm pretty firmly convinced that every pastor needs to have one or two "ministry" things they do on a regular basis that they would still do if they didn't get paid by a church. We all need some guys that we meet with, or some projects that we're working on, or some things that we're studying that are completely independent of our paycheck. We have to have those things so we don't dry up.

For me, hanging out with that group of guys on my day of continually reinforces the fact in my mind, and in the minds of anyone who is observant, that my ministry is not always a function of my job - it's a function of my heart.

Touchable

You hear it said from time to time that leadership is a lonely spot. That's true - especially as a pastor. Right or wrong, people view pastors differently from everyone else. They think we're closer to God than them, struggle with less sin than them, and are only interested in "churchy" things.

I truly think loneliness is one of the major reasons so many people drop out (or sin out) of ministry. Deep down inside all of us, we have a desire to know and be known. And we see ministry as an inhibitor of that, so we feel forced to make a choice: would I rather be employed by a church, or be loved by others?

Obviously, it's a false dilemma, but it's one a lot of my pastor friends face. They're constantly living in fear of being "found out." And it's not that they're living in high-handed rebellion against God. Those people generally want to be found out.

My friends are the ones who are afraid they'll lose their jobs if people find out they don't always love waking up at 6 in the morning for Bible study, or that their face doesn't always glow after their morning quiet times. They're the people who are afraid that people will lose respect for them if they realize their pastor's wife doesn't always like him, or that his kids don't always look like they just rolled out of a J. Crew catalog. My friends worry that they're not a good pastor if they don't put on the mask that says everything is okay.

I realized some time ago that I'm not a better Pastor when I wear my "everything's okay" mask; I'm a better Pharisee. And the challenge with the Pharisees, according to Matthew 23:13 is that they were actually keeping people away from Jesus by pretending to have it all together. If we pretend like we've got it all together when we don't, people think a relationship with God is only for perfect people.

I'm not saying the pastor has a license to commit sin, but that he does have a license to be human. I work really hard to stay touchable with the people I get to serve - not to show off my sin, but to show off my Savior. I think it's important for them to know that I'm not perfect, but that I'm trying as hard as I can through the power God gives me to be Christlike. It's not any easier for me than it is for them just because I get paid to do what I do. And although I try to make sure as a leader in the church my life is above reproach, I realize when it isn't, the worst possible thing I can do is hide it.

Because she said I wouldn't...

Kara and her husband Cory have been good friends since my single college days. They were always such great encouragers, and a fine example to a young single guy of a godly married couple - even though they're not much older than me. Well, it seems Kara fell prey to one of those blogspam deals that comes around every once in a while - you know, the ones where you're supposed to bare your soul and then tag ten other people to do the same.

I hate those things, but I love Kara and Cory, so I'll oblige her just this once. (And only because she challenged me by saying I'd never do it). So enjoy it...


Here's what you have to do...1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages.)2. Open the book to page 123.3. Find the fifth sentence.4. Post the next three sentences.5. Link back to the person who tagged you.6. Tag five people.

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages.)
I'm just finishing a book called "I became a Christian and all I Got was this Lousy T-Shirt." To be honest, it's not very good. The guy has some really good ideas - even some genuinely great ideas... but spends so much of his time trying to be funny that you lose all the good ideas. (The joke about "taking on... handicapped kids" was so far over the top I can't believe the book ever made it through an editor... it's on page 91, I'm not making this up). But, it's the closest and those are the rules of Kara's little Spam game, so I'll play along.

2. Open the book to page 123.
Mkay...

3. Find the fifth sentence.
"Will we speed through life at 150 miles per hour with a disintegrating soul?"

4. Post the next three sentences.
Or we will [sic] walk with Jesus at 3 miles an hour with a soul that is continually restored? If we want to keep pace with God, we must change our speed. Koyaanisqatsi or vyinafeshing?

5. Link back to the person who tagged you.

6. Tag five people.
Hmm. I hate to do this to you guys, but Kara made me.
Let's hear from Drew, Lisa, Heath, Corey, and Graham.

Creativity Thieves

One of the people I'm privileged to worship with every Sunday is Tom Wilson. Tom is the president and CEO of Leadership Network, a ministry that is doing some really neat things with issue-specific church collaboration. If you haven't ever heard of them, listen more closely - they've got their fingers in a ton of things throughout the country.

Tom says smart things all the time, but I heard a quote from him about creativity this morning that is especially brilliant. He said "The definition of creativity is: forgetting where you stole something."

For a lot of years, I worried about the fact that all "my" creative ideas were stolen from other people. Sermon series, theological ideas, philosophies, and even practical thoughts about administration and execution of ministry initiatives are almost never mine. And almost every time I do have an original thought, someone approaches me after the service and recommends a book I've read in which someone else says that same exact thing.

I don't feel bad about stealing ideas anymore. Now, I only feel bad when I steal ideas and don't do the work to make them even better.

The idea of fellowship from Acts 2:44 can apply to church ministry too - "All the believers were together and had everything in common." I get queezy every time I notice that a church has trademarked an idea. Chances are, they stole it from someone else.

Tom's quote is good. The only question is, who did he steal it from?

Elements

Elements is a study we designed when I was at Chase Oaks Church to help give brand new believers a birds-eye view of the Bible. I brought it with me to McKinney, and started a new group last night.

Elements isn't ever a study that is a huge draw - there's some humility in signing up for a class designed to give you a 30,000 foot view of Christianity, so we're usually only good for about 10 people each time. But when you get the right 10 people, things get fun in a hurry.

Last night, we started a new Elements group at McKinney, and I think we've got 9 of "the right" people... to the point I couldn't sleep last night.

I honestly think I could be satisfied if the only thing I ever did was cycle people through this study. There's nothing like seeing people's eyes light up when they "get it" and understand how the Bible fits together for the first time.

Some of you yay-hoos have been on me to write a book. I've always said I don't have enough to say to write a book, but if I ever do - Elements might be the one. I really haven't found anything out there that I think does a great job of helping people understand the story of the Bible without getting them lost in the weeds. Then again... if I put Elements in book form, I wouldn't get to see the look in people's eyes, and I'd miss that.

Vote 2008

I'm glad nothing was decided yesterday on "super fat Tuesday" as far as the elections are concerned, because I've been mulling something over in my mind and am interested in some feedback.

First of all, this is probably one of only two posts you'll find in all my archives that have anything to do with politics. Although I'm very politically involved, the purpose of this blog isn't to discuss politics. And, since I mention my church and position here a lot, I want to be careful to never give the idea that being a Christian/pastor or even a member at McKinney implies any kind of political leaning at all. We've got people on staff who run the political gamut, and I'm sure that's representative of our local church as a whole. We're okay with that.

With that said, according to surveys, the vast majority of evangelicals - especially in the South - lean towards the right. The "religious right," as it is called, is given credit for being a kingmaker for Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II. There is a large group of voting conservative Christians who vote Republican... few people would deny that.

So here's what will be interesting to me: The decision in 2008 could very well come down to a decision where that conservative evangelical right has to choose between a person with whom they vehemently disagree politically, and a person with whom they vehemently disagree spiritually.

If Mitt Romney wins the race and ends up the President of the United States, Mormon missionaries stateside and all over the world will have instant credibility. That will provide an instant obstacle for evangelical Christian missionaries stateside and overseas.

If Hillary or Obama wins the race and ends up the President of the United States, they will likely have the opportunity to nominate judges to the Supreme Court that have values many evangelical Christians do not support, as well as to represent a political agenda with which many Christians do not agree.

It seems like an interesting worldview test for conservative evangelical Christians. Are temporal ideologies and political issues more important in this time and place than theological differences? Or, is the collective "religious right" willing to fall on their ideological swords in order to prevent electing a president who will add instant credibility to a counterfeit Christian faith?

It will be interesting - if the opportunity presents itself - to see how those people react in the voting booth. What do you think?

Passing the baton

One of the most meaningful gifts I've ever recieved, I received from two of my former bosses. I showed up to Fellowship Bible Church North (ahem... Chase Oaks Church) as a burned out, disillusioned pastor who had been beaten up and spit out by a former boss. I took a "residency" position there, where I was rejuvenated and equipped, and where I rethought and sharpened my ministry philosophy.
At the end of my time at Chase Oaks, my two bosses Drew and Glen took Kari and I to dinner where they presented us with a baton... you know, the type runners use in a relay race.

The imagery comes from a book some of the pastors at Chase Oaks authored several years ago called "The Leadership Baton." The idea is pretty simple - as leaders we need to constantly be in the process of passing the baton to people who will come after us.
Today I've got a runners baton sitting on my desk, but it's not the one Drew and Glen gave me. When they gave me mine, they told me it wasn't for me - it was for the person who would come after me. So, when I showed up at McKinney, I started looking for someone who could take it, and passed it off as soon as I was able. And, I gave all of our ministry team leaders batons to start looking to pass off to someone else.

This weekend as we announced plans to plant a new Young Married group, each of those batons completed their first leg. The leaders of that class each signed their batons and dated them, put a note of encouragement inside them, and then passed them off to a new leadership team. This week, I'm giving the established leadership team brand new batons. They're not done running, just looking for new people to pour in to.

Building a healthy culture where leaders develop leaders is imperative to our ministry. If you play by the numbers, our ministry has twice as many developed, empowered, and commissioned leaders today. And if each of those leaders are looking for people to build into, the ministry will be in a much better place.

Really Great Day

Yesterday was a great day.

We announced plans for one of our young adult groups to plant a new group. God has raised up a group of rock solid leadership for the new class, and the class that is planting the new group is excited to see how God is expanding their influence. When you use the language of a "plant" rather than language of "division" or "splitting," I think it helps communicate the idea of expansion rather than subtraction.

We're going to take a core couple or two from the original young married class, as well as a mentor couple, and then use our six-week 2to1 premarital preparation class to feed into the new young married class. Yesterday, I got word that our 2to1 premarital group is going to be busting out of the room we had planned to use. Nothing like having to search for a bigger space!

In the young singles ministry yesterday, we got a glimpse of how God is still working today. One of the guys in our ministry taught Acts 4-8 in our Summit project. This is a guy who, just a couple of years ago, wasn't able to get out of his car to come inside because of such severe social anxiety. Yesterday he did a rock solid job teaching the class. There is nothing more fun than getting to watch God change lives over time.

Then, last night we spent the evening with the Union (young married ministry) watching the Giants beat the giants. Somehow I don't think the Patriots had seen several of the Giants' plays on surveilance video before this game!

iPretentious

I love my iPhone, and my iPod, and would have a MacBook if the IT guy in our offices would configure the network to where I could access email with it, by my cousin's recent post about a visit to the Apple Store is spot on.

Help Me or Help You? Staff Development

Not much time to blog today - I'm at one of the church members' ranch houses in central Texas with our Sr. Pastor and the teaching team from another church in the area. We're studying through the book of Malachi for a Summer series that both churches will be doing.

Most of the time out here I've been terrified the theme song from Sesame Street's "Which one of these is not like the other one" is about to start playing. These guys are a fountain of knowledge and wisdom, and I feel like I'm drinking from a fire hose.

But the fact that I'm even here is a direct result of the fact that our senior pastor buys in to the philosophy I've been talking about all week. He's constantly allowing me to be exposed to significant conversations he's a part of in view of helping me be best equipped to have significant ministry.

Help you or help me? Open-handed

Monday I talked about our commitment as a staff to help others have significant ministry, rather than seeing them helping to make our ministries significant. The first way that fleshes out is that we resist the urge to be staff heavy. Yesterday, I talked about how that mentality forces us to be simple - not program driven.

A third way our ministry philosophy impacts ministry here is that it allows us the freedom to be open-handed with our people.

I'm amazed at how many of my pastor friends see the church down the street as the competition. We don't see the church down the street as our competition - we see them as partners who are uniquely-equipped places for some people to have great ministry. And our belief that we exist to help others have great ministry allows us at times to free people to serve elsewhere if that's where they're a better fit.

We've got several key leaders who are extremely gifted in leading small groups, but who lead small groups as a part of Bible Study Fellowship. Sometimes, it's extremely tempting to ask those people out of BSF to lead our small groups. But we have to resist that urge. Our ministry isn't about building our ministry - it's about equipping and empowering people to serve in the work God is doing in the world... and we have to be comfortable with the fact that God is working in places outside our church's four walls.

About six months ago there was a girl involved in our singles ministry who was a teacher and cheerleading coach in a suburb of Fort Worth nearly an hour away from our church building. She had a tremendous ministry with a bunch of cheerleaders there, but traveled two or three times a week here to be involved in our stuff during the week. She was a high caliber leader, who could have been in leadership with any number of our stuff, but we ended up encouraging her to get plugged into a great church where all her cheerleaders attended. Today, her ministry is even stronger.

How can we let good people go to other churches when we need leaders here? Because we firmly believe God will always send us more leaders if we're faithful with the ones He sends us. Again... it isn't about forcing people to be a part of our thing. We don't have a corner on the "God market" in Fort Worth. And we're comfortable holding the people God gives us with an open hand.

Help you or help me? Simplicity

Yesterday I talked about our commitment as a staff to help others have significant ministry, rather than seeing them helping to make our ministries significant. The first way that fleshes out is that we resist the urge to be staff heavy.

Another byproduct of this philosophy is that the church program structure is necessarily simple. Scott Hodge had a good blog on simplicity not long ago. People are often surprised when they come to McKinney and realize what we don't have. They're shocked when we don't offer classes or groups every night of the week. After all, we're a big church.

But our desire to help others have significant ministry necessarily means we can't ask people to show up to the church every night of the week. We don't have Sunday night church. We do have mid-week Bible Studies, but only one night a week. We don't exist to get everyone out there in here... we exist to get everyone in here out there.

We can't be program driven because of the staffing situation we've chosen - we don't have the man power to run something at the church every night of the week. And that's by design. We've made a conscious decision to shut off the lights at the church building most nights of the week, and send them into the world instead. (Okay... that was cheezy... sorry).

This committment forces us to evaluate what is working and what is not, and spend our time there. We can't do everything, so we have to figure out what is most important. And we always try to err on the side of "programs" that are transferrable to someone's neighborhood. If I can take a Bible study, teach it to ten or twenty of our people, with the idea that they are able to turn aroudn and teach it to five or ten of their coworkers, or neighbors, or family members, I'm going to do it every time. And I'm going to favor that kind of "program" above a flashy mid-week thing that gets everyone here. Those things are great, but their influence is limited in the big picture.

We exist to help others have significant ministry. That means our ministry structure here needs to be simple, so we don't complicate and compromise our peoples' ministry there.

Help you or help me? Staffing Decisions

I briefly mentioned something in my post last Thursday that I wanted to expand on because in my mind it's a pretty big philosophy decision McKinney Church has made in the past. We work really hard here to make sure that the church reflects our commitment as a staff to help others have significant ministry, rather than seeing them helping to make our ministries significant.

It may seem like a semantic difference, but it's not semantic at all. The philosophy's roots extend to every area of what we do. This week, I want to highlight some of the decisions this philosophy has led us to make:

The first is that we resist the urge to be "staff heavy." Most churches of 3-4000 people like McKinney have full-time staffs of 40 or 50 people. McKinney has 11 full-time ministry directors, 3 full-time communications specialists, a business manager, accountant, and 4 full-time admins. We have a few part-time staffers, mainly in the children's ministry, but that's it. The more people we have on staff, the more our congregation expects the staff to do the ministry, and we're not about that. We're here to equip others to do the ministry, not to do the ministry. Our staffing decisions reflect that.

Don't we end up with burned out leaders? Honestly? Only the ones who aren't committed to the philosophy. The philosophy of equipping others to have great ministry rather than the staff equipping others to help us have great ministry gives us the freedom to not burn out if we're truly doing my job. Guys who don't get it, and end up trying to build programs and execute ministry initiatives by themselves inevitably burn out - but not because of the philosophy... in spite of it. I've got a team of 4000 gifted people who can help lead/lead any ministry initiative I believe God has laid on my heart - it's my responsibility to train, empower, and commission them to do it.

Instead of 40 or 50 guys/girls doing the ministry for a church of 4000 people, we've got about 20 or 25 people equipping 4000 people to do ministry. If we're successful in equipping those people, I like those odds when it comes to maximum impact.

Snow Day!

I live in Fort Worth, TX.

Two days ago the weatherman mentioned the dreaded "I" word: ice. I think he probably said it in jest, maybe even just to throw a little variety into his weathercast (60 degrees and sunny probably got a little monotonous for him).

He mentions that under the right circumstances there could be a slight possibility of a scenario in which a drop or two of precipitation might freeze, and the city shuts down. It's raining here today, but when I got up to go to Bible study this morning at 5:30, the temperature was a cool 35 degrees. It's somewhere around 45 right now.

It's a tough life living in Fort Worth... I'd blog more, but I'm afraid they're going to start rationing electricity or bandwidth - you never know.

Partnering with Parachurch

One of the things McKinney Church does really well is its partnerships with parachurch organizations in the community. We support several ministries in the community who are serving people we aren't equipped to serve as well - the homeless, battered women, women in crisis pregnancies, and others. Our only stipulations when we partner with them is they (1) do what they tell us they're going to do, and (2) are committed to sharing the Gospel with those they serve.

We don't require them to send people to our church, attend our church, serve in our church, or lead in our church. We want them to have great ministry where they're at, even if they go to the church down the street.

The philosophy stems from a bigger view of ministry than the local church. Our local church isn't the hope of the world - Jesus is. And if I can be partnered with someone who is sharing the hope of the world with the world, I want to do that - whether or not it adds numbers to my local church.

It's a weird philosophy for a lot of my friends in ministry, but I think it's one of the most important things we do at McKinney. We exist to help people have great ministry... people don't exist to help our ministry be great. There's a big difference.

Tension

Friday mornings are the highlight of my week. Each Friday I meet before the rooster crows with about 6 key men in the Young Adults ministry at McKinney. We read something throughout the week that pertains to life, ministry, or leadership, and then come together to discuss it.

Right now, we're slogging through a book that highlights prominent discussions in evangelical theology from both sides (everything from Calvinism/Arminianism, to the role of women in ministry). We've had some great conversations, and I think it has been a real boost in helping all of us think and lead more theologically.

One of the things I've noticed though, through this study and others I've done in the past, is that we have an innate desire... almost need to resolve all the tension in Scripture. We are drawn towards elaborate formulas, systems, and positions that purport to logically explain the way God works, and often find ourselves in a ditch.

We need to pursue all the knowledge we can about how God works, when God works, and for whom God works, but need to release ourselves of the need to relieve tension that God seems to have intended.

God could have solved the Sovreignty/human freedom debate with one or two verses. He could have solved the age of the earth debate with a quick paragraph about those pesky dinosaurs. But He chose not to. And I think we're probably headed for error if we ever get to a point in any of those areas where we think we've resolved all the tension on a particular issue.

Just a thought, but if godly, well-educated men have dedicated their life to understanding a particular issue and haven't reached an agreement, the issue might not be with their godliness... the issue might be instead with the fact that we're serving a God who transcends more systems than we think.

Creative. Not.

Funny moment on my way into work this morning.

If you read a lot, you'll remember a post when I started at McKinney Church about the vast differences between Fort Worth and Dallas, even though they're only about 20 miles apart. To narrow it down, Fort Worth is full of engineers, so everything works by a process. People here are less concerned about creativity than they are being right. To pursue excellence in a Fort Worthian's mind is to pursue correctness.

Dallas, specifically North Dallas where I moved here from is all about creativity. You walk into Starbucks and see guys running their multi-million dollar dot com business everywhere you go. There, the end is in creativity - if you want to pursue excellence, your instincts are going to be bent towards developing something "neat" that nobody has ever done before.

This morning, as I was driving in I heard a traffic report from Dallas. They were talking about the accidents on the tollway - a road that runs parallel to two major roadways, but costs several dollars each way. I swear it has more accidents and traffic backups than the reagular interstates, but those North Dallas people continue to drive on it. Those super-creative people, who find a new way around anything, regularly pay lots of money to sit in traffic.

There's a point to my story - when it comes to strategy, there are multiple points on the spectrum between Fort Worth and Dallas. But it's likely that no matter where you fall on that spectrum, you've got a blind spot. You can't categorize people too closely, because you never know when they'll surprise you, either positively or negatively.

Eyes for the Person Standing Alone

One of the things we've really been working on as a young adult ministry is "developing eyes for the person standing alone." We have a big enough ministry that it's difficult to tell who is a guest and who is not. As a result, for a long time we've had several people slip through the cracks because nobody feels comfortable introducing themselves but me. It can feel as though the ministry is unfriendly, cold, and unwelcoming, when in reality that's not the case. People are just worried about introducing themselves to someone who has been a part of the ministry for years.

I've been trying to cast vision pretty hard for people to develop eyes for the person standing alone when we're together, and to engage those people in conversation.

This past Thursday, I think we had a breakthrough. We launched our quarterly four-week worship opportunity for Singles and had an above-average turnout. Throughout the entire night, I looked hard for people standing alone - and couldn't find them. But, we had almost twenty guests/infrequent attenders. Our leaders spotted those people, engaged them in conversation, and began developing relationships with them.

As a result, I got three emails this week from those guests about what a friendly, unthreatening, welcoming group we have.

Cardiomalopthaly

I mentioned earlier that we're trying something new with our young adults this year. We're reading and teaching through the entire New Testament during 2008. I hope it will help us accomplish something significant as far as each young adult's personal growth is concerned, but am also trying to use it as a tool to help in leadership development.

Every other Sunday, a group of us meets immediately following the church service to discuss the fruits of our study. We stay two weeks ahead of the other young adults, and discuss how we can teach each passage well. We talk about whether or not a theme emerges in the section of Scripture we're studying, and how we can best teach that theme. Through those discussions, we're building Bible Study tools and teaching tools, while helping each teacher study for his lesson. It's unbelievably exciting to see these guys' work, and to process lessons as a team.

Last week, as a result of that meeting, we talked about the dangers of "Cardiomalopthaly" from Mark 5-9. We made up the word from medical lingo, which literally means "a heart causing blindness."

As we looked through the passage, we saw that cardiomalopthaly was something the disciples struggled with a lot. Read the 4 chapters and count how many times they're worried about bread. In chapter 6 Jesus feeds 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread. In chapter 7, Jesus heals a woman who talks a lot about people missing Jesus, but uses "bread" as a picture. By chapter 8 the disciples are worried about where they'll be able to find bread again. In 8:6-10, Jesus feeds 4000 people. But by verse 14, the disciples are worried about where they're going to find bread again.

Finally, in verses 17-18, Jesus calls them on the lunacy of the whole deal, and asks them: "Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see?" They had cardiomalopthaly - a hard heart that caused their eyes to miss what God was doing in front of them. And we struggle with it too.

Good stuff out of our teaching team. I think this is going to be a great year.

Pop Goes the Church

I don't have any idea why Tim Stevens asked me to read the first manuscript of his new book "Pop Goes the Church." My hunch is that it has something to do with the fact that we share the same uber-cool haircut.

But I just finished my first read of the manuscript, and I think the book is going to be worth reading. It's part "Dear Church," part "Simply Strategic Stuff," part "Made to Stick," and almost completely thought provoking.

I'd love to give you a couple of my favorite quotes, but I can't. I'd love to tell you exactly what the book is about, but I'm not supposed to. I'd even like to tell you whether or not I love it or hate it, but I've been sufficiently threatened to not let the cat out of the bag. So, I won't.

So, consider this my "nah nah nah nah naaah" post. I've read the book, and you haven't. But you will when it comes out. And you should. Like it or not.

Funerals are Mandatory...

I spent yesterday traveling to and from a funeral on the other side of the metroplex. The funeral was for the step-mother of a member of our team who finished well, but lost a battle with cancer last week.

I'm not the most insightful leader, or the person who finds myself with the need (or ability) to regularly bestow leadership lessons to people who read my blog (I leave that to other, better leaders). But one of the leadership lessons I've learned in my career that I think is often neglected is this: when it comes to the people you serve alongside, funerals are mandatory.

Funerals aren't fun. They're not easy. Nobody enjoys them (except perhaps the funeral director who is cashing the check). They often come at the wrong time, in the wrong place. We're launching a major initiative for singles on Thursday, and there are a lot of loose ends that still need to be tied up for that. I needed to be in the office yesterday. But I learned a long time ago, if you have a chance to serve someone by attending a loved one's funeral, you need to do everything within your ability to be there.

You show your team that you're behind them, even in their darkest moments, and they'll follow you into battle.

Is Worship an Experience?

I'm reading a book right now by two guys I really respect in ministry (Simply Strategic Growth, by Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens). The book is incredibly helpful in thinking strategicaly through different aspects of church ministry and church administration. It has 99 short chapters on how to think through everything from communicating vision to dealing with the out-of-tune soloist. I've really enjoyed reading it - if you're at all involved with administration or leadership within a church, you should buy it. But they keep using a certain phrase that I'm not altogether comfortable with even though I've caught myself using it before.

The book talks several times about inviting people into a "worship experience."

To me, that language speaks of worship as something that happens to you, rather than something in which you are an active participant. I'm not denying that worship involves experience, but I'm not sure the thing we want to be inviting people in to is primarily about our experience. We should be inviting others to participate in such a way that God experiences our worship, and that outsiders observe that.

I'm familiar with the church these two guys served at the time they wrote the book, and don't think their church reflects their wording. Although there are churches out there where worship is a spectator sport, I don't think their church is one of them. But I think the language is important enough to point out. What we're inviting people to on Sunday, I hope, is not a worship experience as much as a worship opportunity.

Resolution - Summit

Hope you have a great New Year. I don't know if you're a resolution person, but New Years Resolutions are some of my favorite things. I'm a goal setter by nature, so I love the opportunity to see a clean slate and to set some goals for a brand new year.

This year, I'm really excited about one of the "resolutions" we're making with the Young Adults here at McKinney. I'm sure the plan will morph a bit over the year because it's a brand new idea, so I'll blog about it now while we're only 1 day into it so I can follow-up later.

We've invited every one of our Young Adults (married and single) to read through the New Testament in 2008. Coincidentally, if you read one chapter a day, for five days a week, you read through the entire New Testament in almost exactly one year. I got the Bible reading idea from Watermark Church who do a Bible Reading Plan called "Join the Journey," in which they include devotionals written by members of their church on each passage of Scripture. When I was at Fellowship (ahem... Chase Oaks Church), we adopted portions of the Journey, and created Summit. Summit turned out to be one of the most rewarding projects I've ever been a part of in ministry, so when I made the move to McKinney I decided to take parts of it with me.

This year at McKinney, instead of the devotionals (which were extremely difficult to manage, edit, and publish), all of the teaching in our Young Adult groups on Sunday will coincide with the passages the group read the previous week. So, we'll be reading and teaching through the entire New Testament in 2008.

In order to accomplish that, I found 10-12 guys who I'm really wanting to develop in the area of teaching, and invited them to be a part of a "teaching team" that will stay 3 weeks ahead of everyone else in the reading, and then spend 2 hours every other week thinking through how to best teach each portion of the reading each week.

For example, our first meeting was a couple of weeks ago, and we studied through Mark 1-4 and Mark 5-9 together. We talked about how each passage breaks down (outlines), discussed the "big idea" of each passage, talked about the "tension" between what the passage calls us to do and our normal tendency, and talked about the application of the passage. Then we spent some time about how to pull off a lesson from each passage (do we want to do a survey of all 5 chapters, or is there a specific episode or verse that gets at the main idea?).

After this Sunday's lesson, I'll share with you what the teaching team came up with and how it was executed.

Each of those 10-12 guys on the teaching team will have several opportunities to teach throughout the year, so in essence, our time together is helping each of these men prepare their lessons. I also hope it will sharpen each of us as teachers and students of the Scripture. A byproduct should be teachers in our classes who are more prepared and more biblical in their teaching (if we're studying 3 weeks in advance, they're not scrambling to put together a lesson the Saturday night before they teach).

I know several churches have a team approach to studying for sermons, but haven't heard of any that do this kind of thing on a smaller level. So, it's sort of an experiment for us. But, my hope is that the end result will be a ministry of men and women who are familiar with the New Testament, and some quality leaders/teachers who can handle the Scriptures well. I'll keep you posted.

"Marketing" the Church

The other night, Kari and I were talking about Braums, the ice cream and dairy store we both grew up on in Oklahoma. (They have them in Texas too). Braums was one of the two places we had to stop when we pulled into Oklahoma from Missouri. Their milk, ice cream, and other dairy products are the best, plain and simple. Even today when Kari needs milk, she drives several miles out of her way to get Braums milk, because it's the best. We don't drink anything else.

The problem with Braums is that nobody knows how good they are. Their advertisements are lousy, the color scheme inside their stores is left over from a scheme that wasn't even cool in the 80s, and the help is rarely friendly or well-trained. Every time we drive by a Braums store, Kari mentions that they ought to hire her to do their marketing and branding. She doesn't have any training, but she's convinced that if the rest of the world wasn't scared off by the rough exterior, everyone would want Braums milk. (So, if you're a Braums exec, please get in touch with my wife).

Yet, as Kari and I talked about Braums, we noticed a different extreme too. On one hand, Braums' marketing stands in the way of a great product, so nobody goes there. On the other hand, there is another fast food restaurant in the area that has tremendous marketing (Let's call them "Smack-in-the-Fox" to protect the guilty). Their ads are funny, creative, engaging, and eye catching. The only problem is, the food is absolutely, positively, awful.

I see a lot of churches like each of these stores. We have the Message that changes lives. Yet, we often go to either extreme as we are salt and light for the rest of the world. Some of our church-people are like Braums. If you can suffer through the rough exterior, you'll find something extraordinarily impressive. But you would never be attracted to that person, or seek that person out. The only way you would know about it is if an insider you respect pointed you to them.

On the other hand, it seems to be trendy for a lot of churches to be just like "Smack-in-the-Fox" these days. They want to be masters of marketing. They buy radio spots, and billboard space, and canvass neighborhoods with well-done flyers and invitations. And yet you show up and find that what they're serving doesn't even resemble meat. Nothing truly life-changing is ever communicated. The Gospel? Forget it.

See, the tension of the Christian life is a whole lot like the difference between Braums and "Smack-in-the-Fox." The Message is what's really important. We need to live it well, being dilligent to communicate it well to others. But we need to make sure that "it" is the thing we're inviting people to see.

My Top Ten Books of 2007

I'm taking a cue from Ben Arment, who writes one of my newer favorite blogs. He just listed his top ten reads of 2007. Unlike Ben, it was a fairly good reading year for me. I read some duds, but also read some books that were exceedingly helpful. Here are some of the ones I found most helpful, in no particular order.

Disclaimer: The fact that a book is on my "favorites" list doesn't necessarily mean I agree with everything in the book. I read with the following two presuppositions: (1) if you can't find something in a book you disagree with, you're probably not reading carefully enough. (2) if you can't find something in a book that challenges your thinking in a positive way, you've probably got an issue with pride that you might want to get checked out.

1. The Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God: Spirituality for the Rest of Us, by Larry Osborne
2. Pornified, by Pamela Paul
3. Total Truth, by Nancy Pearcey
4. Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath
5. Going all the Way, by Craig Groeschel
6. Across The Spectrum, by Gregory Boyd and Paul Eddy
7. The Words and Works of Jesus Christ, by J. Dwight Pentecost
8. No Perfect People Allowed, John Burke
9. Dear Church, Sarah Cunningham
10. Ordering your Private World, Gordon MacDonald

Cheating

Today's the day George Mitchell gets to play the role of Captain Obvious, and tell us all something we've known for a while now: Most of our baseball heroes are cheaters.

I don't think I'm going to be named in his report, but I've long suspected that my buddy Drew is a steroid user - he's pretty ripped. Beyond Drew, I suspect that a large majority of people I've cheered for for a long time now are going to be unmasked as frauds, cheats, and liars.

Here's what's really interesting to me: So far as I know, Mitchell is simply going to produce a list of 60-80 names of guys who he believes cheated. For most of them, we're probably not going to know how much they cheated, for how long, or for what reason. Some of them cheated because they wanted to be better. Some of them cheated because they were injured and needed to heal. Some of them cheated because they needed a tiny boost to get over the edge during a hitting slump. Some of them cheated once. Some cheated for years. And as far as I know, we're not going to know which ones are which.

There's a powerful message in this whole deal - even if you're not a baseball fan. When you're a cheater, most people aren't going to care how much you cheated, why you cheated, or for how long you cheated. They're just going to care that you cheated. And your legacy is going to go down with the guys who cheated worse than you, for longer than you, and for worse reasons than you.

When you're a cheater, you're a cheater, no matter how much or how little.

Some of these guys are going to be forever "asterisked" because they had a momentary lapse in judgment during a weak moment in their career. The same can happen to us.

Character matters in big things and in small things. Because when people find out you're a dishonest lying cheater, they don't ask anyone to quantify.

Instincts

Here's something I've learned over the past few years from observing a couple of great churches and one extremely dysfunctional church from the inside: When hiring staff, or inviting volunteers to be a part of the ministry, instincts always overwhelm intentions.

I've worked with a lot of people with great intentions to do great things. They intend to be committed, intend to be relational, intend to be people of good character, and intend to be hard workers. But if their instincts point towards being people who are not committed, relational, character-type hard working people, their instincts will always overwhelm intentions.

When you look to hire people, or invite volunteers to be a part of your team, look for instincts before you look for intentions. You'll be happy you did.

Tebow!

I had the privilege of graduating from Dallas Seminary with the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner's sister and brother-in-law. Obviously, I don't know Tim Tebow, but I'm really proud of his accomplishment. His humility, testimony, and class make him the kind of person you can't help but cheer for.

I didn't know Tim's sister and brother-in-law extremely well, but well enough to respect the heck out of them. I sat behind his brother-in-law Joey during Hebrew class, and he was sharp as a tack. I did learn extremely quickly to sit behind him rather than in front of him because, as brilliant a Hebrew student as he was, he was an even better cartoonist and doodler. And, the people who sat in front of him were perfect targets for caricatures.

If you're looking for an excellent Christmas present for someone young in your life, you might check out the fruit of some of those doodles. Joey has authored and illustrated a series of childrens books called "Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers." Last I heard, he and his wife and daughter are planning to do work overseas and are using the proceeds to support that mission. The books in the series I've read are extremely cute, and tackle some really big thoughts.

Here's to heroes on the field and off...

Faithful

Well, I read a book this week and am ready to review it. But, it stunk, and for no good reason. I actually liked what the book had to say, but had a really hard time following the author's points. It wasn't well written. So I don't want to recommend it, but I don't want to recommend you don't buy it. So I'm going to punt on the book review for one more week. I know most of you don't care about the book reviews anyway, so I don't figure that will matter.

In fact, I'm thinking about re-rethinking my blog philosophy in the near future based on some recent feedback. I'll still do some book reviews, especially when some of you are sending me free books, but plan to only review the ones that I have a strong opinion about. We'll see how that goes.

Last week I took one of the leaders in the singles ministry to Starbucks to meet with a girl who expressed interest in spiritual things. In fact, this girl sent me an email saying "I've been searching for something, I don't know what it is, but I think I need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and don't know how."

I called the leader in our ministry who had never led anyone to Christ, and asked her to come with me. I thought it was going to be a really simple opportunity to share our faith with this girl, introduce her to the gift of eternal life, and see her put her faith in Christ. I figured it would take about 15 minutes. (!)

The person I took with me explained the gospel beautifully, and asked the girl "is there anything keeping you from accepting God's gift tonight."

"Yeah," the girl said, and she launched into a huge story about how some things in her past were keeping her from believing the Gospel. We spent two hours talking through the baggage and barriers that were keeping this girl from trusting Christ, before finally leaving Starbucks without seeing this girl come to Christ last night.

What is really funny, is that in all likelihood one of these days - maybe next week, next month, or next decade, someone is going to mention something in passing to this girl about believing in Jesus, it's going to click, and she's going to trust Christ on the spot. And that's okay.

I was disappointed that the girl in our ministry didn't get to lead another person to Christ that night. I was really looking forward to that for her. But she did get to be a very important piece of the puzzle God's weaving in this other girl's life. And that's all God calls us to do. We don't have to convert people, but we're called to share the Story. We don't have to win people over, we just have to be faithful, and pray that other people are being faithful too.

Hopefully, one of these days, one of you will get a chance to share your faith with a girl who had a first touch at Starbucks in Fort Worth. If you talk to her, please be faithful to share with her. Don't skip the opportunity. And then, let us know how it goes. There's a leader in our ministry who would really love to hear about it.

Give or Take

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. We spent ours with our parents and my mom's parents, and had a great visit with all of them. I preached this past Sunday, so I was busy doing last minute sermon prep and didn't get around to finishing a book for the week. So, rather than review something that isn't fresh, I figured I'd write about something else that's on my mind this morning. I think I should be able to get back to a book next week.

I had two conversations this past week with friends of mine who are serving in two different churches in two different parts of the country. Each of the churches are struggling in different ways, but I think they all go back to the same source. In each case, the lead pastor was wounded by circumstances at some point in his ministry, in which he believed he had lost a large degree of credibility with his congregation.

One of the pastors received a "no confidence" vote several months ago by the church's governing body with regard to an issue of policy within the church. The other pastor saw several of his key leaders leave the church several years ago, and level accurate (but wrongly spoken) accusations against him and his leadership. In both cases, the pastors are deeply loved and respected individuals, but were wounded by someone or some circumstance in ministry.

Each of these pastors felt, as a result of the two different circumstances, their credibility with the congregation (or at least with the leadership in the church) was at stake. And in each case, the pastor has responded to a perceived lack of credibility by attempting to grab leadership back.

It looks different in each situation, but in both cases the pastors have reacted to an attack by going passive aggressive and attempting to grab credibility and leadership back. The result is resent from other leaders in the church, and mistrust by those within the church - even when they don't realize exactly what is happening. The end result, in both these cases if nothing changes, will be that the pastor grabs for credibility so hard that it becomes obvious he doesn't deserve it.

You see, leadership and credibility are given - never taken. People who grab and take followers are called dictators, not leaders. And although I don't think either of these pastors is intentionally manipulating his church, that's exactly what is happening. His knee jerk reaction is to grab for control when he feels as though he's losing it, rather than continuing to earn it despite the wounds.

In reality, neither of these pastors needs to be grabbing for control. They're both loved and respected, and had gobs of credibility before they started trying to take it. Their response to their woundedness could have allowed them to become heroes. Instead, they come across as bitter, power-hungry control freaks, and are inflicting others with wounds that are much more severe.

Searching for God Knows What

I guess you could say I have a love/hate relationship with Donald Miller. I read Blue Like Jazz when everyone else was reading it, and both loved and hated it at the same time. I told one of my best friends (who will remain nameless), who loves Donald Miller, and he recommended "Searching for God Knows What." Honestly, I loved it and hated it for the same reasons.

Donald Miller has an incredibly relaxed writing style that reflects his teaching style. I've heard it described as "stream of consciousness," but it really isn't that. Stream of consciousness rarely has the destination in mind when the train leaves the station - Miller knows where he's headed, he just tends to take the scenic route.

With scenic routes on road trips, sometimes you visit new and interesting places you would never have seen before. Sometimes you get lost out in the middle of nowhere, and wonder how the heck you're going to get back home. Miller's book contains both of these things for me.

The majority of the book centers on Miller's musings on the Lifeboat theory. He talks about the moral dilemma question where a male lawyer, a female doctor, a crippled child, a stay-at-home mom, and a garbageman are floating in a lifeboat lost at sea. In order for them to survive, one of the members of the lifeboat has to be thrown overboard. The exercise is to debate which person should be thrown overboard.

Miller's thesis is that humanity functions as though the lifeboat story is reality, except we find ourselves on the lifeboat - constantly trying to prove to people that we deserve to exist. A great deal of what we do as humans - especially in the Western World - is compare ourselves to one another. In reality, as Miller rightly points out, the Gospel eliminates the need to prove we deserve to exist. Rather than cast someone over the side of the lifeboat, God sent His Son to die.
That's the destination. But remember, Miller takes the scenic route. And, as promised, he presents some interesting things you might not have seen before in an interesting way: Miller does a good job of showing how the desire for comparison has woven its way throughout our culture. Furthermore, that Jesus possessed virtually none of the characteristics that we exalt in our own lifeboat theories (looks, wealth, popularity). Instead of reverting to lifeboat theories with God's name attached (religion), Miller demonstrates that humanity was created to gain its significance, acceptance, and recognition through a relationship with God - not through comparison with others. And he rightly points out that much of Christianity has reduced the Gospel to a mere formula of a few spiritual laws, or the Roman Road, or some other tool, while forgetting altogether that a relationship with God is not a formula... no relationship is.

Yet, sometimes Miller's greatest writing strength is his greatest writing weakness. The scenic route involves quite a few rhetorical questions that Miller never gets around to answering. Often, that leads the reader to do a little more thinking on an issue. Sometimes it confuses the wrong issue. He raises some questions about end-time events as an illustration (pg 144), that ends up confusing both the discussion of end-time events and the point he was trying to illustrate. Similarly, earlier in the same chapter (pg 121), Miller uses some "scenic" language to describe both Christ and Heaven that at best confuses what he's trying to say in my mind.

The most frustrating thing for me about reading Donald Miller is also the thing that I like most about him. He has a way of weaving an obscure thought throughout a book, only to tie the loose ends up towards the end in an interesting and profound way. Who else could take a book about a lifeboat, Romeo and Juliet, and an alien, and make it all make sense in the end. On the other hand, I sometimes feel like I'm wading through an awful lot of deep kimchi before I get to something I can use. I'd rather someone put together a list a-la Tony Morgan of "Smart Things Donald Miller Said" and let me read those instead.

But then again, I never was much for the scenic route anyway.

Going All The Way

Craig Groeschel, pastor of LifeChurch.tv sent his newest book "Going All the Way" to me for free, in return for me blogging about it. That's a pretty good trade for me, seeing as how the weekly book review thing can be hard on the budget. If any of the rest of you have books hot off the press and wants to scratch my back, I'll scratch yours!

I don't know Craig personally at all, though my father-in-law is one of the pastors at the church next door to Craig's. He has nothing but great things to say about the entire LifeChurch.tv staff, and how helpful they have been in the few conversations those two churches have had together. And personally, though I've posted before some concerns I have about the multi-site movement, I have nothing but respect for Craig Groeschel and his leadership.

"Going All the Way" is subtitled, "preparing for a marriage that goes the distance." I anticipated it being a book geared towards couples who were engaged or newly married. It is probably a better book for singles or those in the initial stages of a relationship.

As a pastor leading a ministry of young singles who was once single myself, I've read stacks of books on dating, relationships, marriage, and other such topics. This one ranks up there with the best. Groeschel writes like he teaches - in a laid back, conversational way, but also in a way that is unabashedly biblical and practical. Most books on dating or marriage seem to be written at either a sixteen-year-old level or a sixty-five year level (Anyone else have to read advice on sex from Tim and Beverly Lahaye when you did premarital counseling? Gross....)

Groeschel begins by pointing out the futility of pursuing "the one." In reality, singles should be pursuing "The One" (Christ) long before deciding to pursue "the two." This is a concept that I've been teaching for years, but I have never put it as concisely and practically as Groeschel does in this book. Those couple of chapters alone are worth recommending the book to a single friend.

"Going all the way" also has a couple of helpful chapters to those who are considering living together. And because his authenticity and vulnerability shine through the whole book, he earns the right early to say some difficult things in these chapters. His advice to couples considering this move is straightforward, logical, and biblical... the triple threat.

Groeschel includes a chapter on priorities called "Leaving Room for the Big Rocks," that was the only chapter I wish wasn't in the book. It talks about priorities, and advises young couples to put things in the right order first: God, then spouse, etc... He says "What matters most has to come first." I struggle a little with the priority lists in a marriage (or in any other walk), because to me it can send a message that you are not able to serve priority #1 (God) while you're serving priority #2 (your spouse). Or, that you can't serve your spouse by serving God.

To me, priority list living in a marriage leads to a kind of separation between our spiritual life and our married life that is ultimately unhealthy. In reality, my wife selflessly loves me while she is selflessly loving the Lord (Ephesians 5:22). Similarly, the very best way I can love my life well is to serve God well. I realize that's nit picky, but I really do think it's important for young singles and young couples to realize that there isn't a hard distinction between priorities in life. Instead, all of life is a stewardship for which we're responsible.

Off my soapbox and back to the book. If you are a young single contemplating marriage at some point in your life, read this book. If you have a young single friend who is contemplating marriage at some point in their life, buy them this book. If you are a person who is doing ministry with singles, this is a great book to read and recommend. It is a quick, easy, informative, practical read that will be a great resource for any young singles you know.

Please Stop Ruining My Testimony

Had a conversation last night with a guy who set foot in a church activity this month for the first time in about 15 years. He came to faith in Christ out of a Catholic background, and showed up in an ultra-Fundamentalist Baptist church because it was down the street from his house. He walked out of the church a couple of weeks later after the pastor said during his sermon "If Jesus doesn't return first and it's time for me to go, I want him to die in a car wreck that takes out a whole van full of gays."

I told the guy, "I want to be as careful as I can when I say this, lest I commit the same error from the other side, but I'm fairly certain those kinds of guys are going to be the end of my ministry someday. Because one of these days I'm going to meet one of them, and they're going to say something like that to me. Then, you'll see my picture in the newspaper the next morning with both my hands still clinched around their throat."

I hope I could control myself better than that, but frankly, it would be the challenge of a lifetime.
This guy's story, coupled with the GodHatesFags.com goofballs being fined for obstructing funerals makes me need to let off some steam. Then I'll go back to reading and reviewing books.

What ever made the Church think it was okay to get the Gospel so bass ackwards? What ever made us think that God hates people who don't love Him, when He loved us when we didn't love Him? What ever gave us the right to legislate morality for people who don't know the Chief Legislator? Who do we think we are?

I see that Pat Robertson just endorsed Rudy Giulianni for president today. Well thanks for that Pat, because the rest of us Christians were sitting around scratching our head wondering what the heck we were going to do with the upcoming election, and needed a really spiritual person to tell us who to vote for. Meanwhile, all my buddies who don't know Christ are mixed up; are we promoting Jesus or are we promoting the Republicans? Because sometimes it's just so gosh darn hard to tell.

I know you're not supposed to blog when you're frustrated, but this thing wears me out.

I'm doing my best to share Christ with people I meet. Not Jesus the conservative politician, not Jesus the gay hater, not Jesus the policeman... Jesus the Christ. And I already have one strike against me because most people who don't know pastors aren't real likely to open up to me about their belief systems. And then doofuses like these guys come along and ruin any shot I've got at sharing my story with the people I see every day because they're too busy preaching an agenda to preach the Gospel.

Please stop. Please stop adding stuff to the front of the Gospel that doesn't belong there. Please stop telling people that the God of the Universe will only love you if you change your behavior. That's not the Gospel. The God of the Universe loves us despite our behavior, to the point that He sent His Son to die in our place, and offers us eternal life as a gift. Whether you're living a homosexual lifestyle or vote Republican is not the issue. Please stop pretending it is.

/rant

UnChristian

Well, it's birthday week in the Freeland household. The dog celebrates her 3rd birthday today which, if you know my wife, is a big deal. They're at PetSmart picking out a birthday present right now. I'm sure it will have a squeaker. Lucky me.

Kari's birthday is tomorrow, which is just great. Actually, she's pretty easy to shop for, and I've got this new idea for dinner. One of the guys in the singles ministry just reminded me that as long as you sit down, Taco Bueno qualifies as a "sit down" restaurant. Then again, maybe that's why he's still single!

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I just finished a book by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons called "UnChristian." Kinnaman is the president of the Barna Group, and must be older than he looks in his picture on the inside flap of the book. Gabe Lyons works for a new venture called Fermi Project after several years as the Vice President of INJOY with John Maxwell. I've listened to Gabe's "Catalyst Podcast" for the past couple of years, and was excited to read their new book.

"UnChristian," in typical Barna fashion, is loaded to the hilt with statistics and survey results with regard to the current perceptions and thoughts of twenty-somethings when it comes to the Church. The results indicate that the vast majority of twenty-somethings, when asked whether or not the Church today reflects the Person of Jesus Christ, answer "no." The surveys span a time frame of around three years of research.

UnChristian attempts to answer why the average twentysomething believes the Church is "UnChristian." Survey says: the Church today is "hypocritical, agenda-oriented, intolerant, sheltered, out-of-touch, and judgmental."

Surprise!

Kinnaman recommends that the Church work to change the perception by responding in a Christlike fashion to criticism rather than dismissing it as heresy, developing honest connections with twenty-something people, employing creativity, serving people, and living a lifestyle of compassion. It's hard to argue with that.

Despite the provocative title, this book is all about statistics and survey results. There is very little in this book that you're going to find controversial, or even ground breaking. Basically, you'll simply find statistics that back up what you've been hearing and reading elsewhere. Nothing wrong with that.

At the end of each chapter, several Christian leaders have written brief snippets of insight on each particular issue. These short vignettes are written by everyone from Margaret Feinberg to Chuck Colson, with a slant more towards younger leaders. These are often interesting, but kill a little of the momentum in the book, and compounded with the sheer volume of statistics make this book extremely difficult to read.

Even so, if you are a person who likes to see hard evidence for opinions, it's a good book to pick up to use as a resource. But I'm not completely convinced that it moves us very much farther down the road of actually making a difference. UnChristian is a good book, with some good statistics. It just feels pretty weak on real-life solutions to me.

It is obvious that we twenty-somethings have a skewed view of the Church. Kinnaman's research shows it, and many other authors have pointed to it. The challenge is, some of the problem is with the Church; some of the problem is with we twenty-somethings.

A good deal of twenty-somethings' dissatisfaction with the church can be blamed on those in the church who are agenda-driven - who use Christianity to make political statements. Need I mention Reverend Al Sharpton, or the "Christian Right" all the politicians are sucking up to today? Some of our dissatisfaction with the church can be blamed on people who are hate-mongers and homophobes in the truest sense of the word. Those wackos in Topeka deserve every single penny of the $10.9M fine for showing up at the funerals of our servicemen and servicewomen with their "God Hates Fags" signs.

But a good deal of twenty-somethings' dissatisfaction with the church can be blamed on the fact that we as twenty-somethings tend to be a selfish, inward-focused, ungrateful bunch. And with that in mind, the real challenge isn't figuring out how to revolutionize our churches so the selfish people can have it their way - that's a pipe dream because we'll just create a new group of dissatisfied people.

Why in the world are we preaching so hard at the majority to squeeze into the mold of a selfish, misguided minority? Aren't we going about this the wrong way? We don't need to revolutionize the Church so much as we need to help twenty-somethings today begin to gain a bigger perspective about what the Church is really about. We need to be platforming the churches who are doctrinally sound, people-loving, externally-focused, multi-generational representatives of God's intention for His Body on earth, rather than continuing to allow the poor representatives to speak more clearly. We need to be inviting twenty-somethings into relationships that already exist, and helping them move beyond selfish idealism to reality and maturity.

In fairness, I think that's the purpose of Fermi Project. I think they're working to head in the right direction. But I'm craving a book that presents a balanced perspective of the issues from both ends of the spectrum rather than either (1) a book bashing the twenty-somethings as young, stupid, and uninformed, or (2) a book bashing the older generations as old, out of touch, and uninformed. There's a middle somewhere in there, and I'd love it if someone would help me figure out how to live there.