Really?

This is the video for www.restorestephenbaldwin.org Apparently, there are a group of ministry people who believe that Baldwin is a modern day Job...because he had to file for bankruptcy. Now these people are trying to raise enough money that Baldwin can be rich again...and keep the good name of the gospel.

I have one question - when did we all lose our minds?

(I saw this originally on one of my favorite blogs - MPT

The missional church

Come Home

Powerful video from Newspring Church. They created and used this at their Christmas eve service.

Christmas Opener: Just Come Home from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

SJ leadership team christmas party

Tonight we're gathering our team of leaders for a bit of Christmas cheer and celebration. Here are a couple of observations that I have:

* Our leadership team at SJ is amazing. I'm blown away that they sacrifice and lead so consistently. They are very cool, and I secretly fear they will kick me out of the group at some point.

* If you're a young pastor / leader, you are probably convinced that you can do most of the essential stuff yourself. You are an idiot (spoken with Christian love). I made this mistake early on, and it cost me. You need to wake up immediately and realize that the people around you (paid or volunteer) are the most important thing. You will not get anywhere without great people...and the more time you spend believing that you're the most important person in your organization/church, the longer it will take for you to be successful.

Some thoughts about tweets and blogs

I spent a little bit of time over the weekend following the story of a church and one of their critics who were engaged in an online battle. I don't know the people involved, but the story got me thinking about some stuff:

1. The bottom line: I'm not sure it is possible for us to tweet/blog/comment on blogs at our current pace and still be discerning. Maybe we need to adopt this adaptation of scripture: My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to tweet, and slow to comment on blogs.

2. When you type something on the internet, it is a matter of public record. The tweet you thought was so funny (you know...the kind of thing you'd say to your friend off hand) is no longer funny in the hands of your critics. I'm not saying you shouldn't post something because your conservative friends might get their feelings hurt - I'm saying that you should ask a question. "If my name was publicly attached to this...could it hurt my reputation, my family, friends, or my future?"

3. When you comment on someone's blog, you should also ask a question: "Do I know this person?" This is not the deciding factor...but it should influence how you comment. I have a friend who comments on this blog periodically with whom I disagree - but I know him. He and I have had numerous conversations in which we have expressed our gratitude for each other. This relationship gives him a platform. The idea that we must, "earnestly contend" outside of the context of relationships is completely ineffective on every level. No one's mind is changed by blog comments, and I'm not sure it is the most Biblical approach. So if I'm commenting on the blog of someone I don't know (something that I want to do every day), I try to discern if (outside of relationship) my comment can be understood as it was intended.

I'm a big fan of twitter/facebook/blogs...but I'm concerned that they may have quietly robbed us of the responsibility to guard our speech. Scripture tells us that, "Careless words stab like a sword, but the words of the wise bring healing."

Matt Chandler before his surgery

Matt Chandler (pastor of the Village church, Dallas Texas) was diagnosed with a frontal lobe brain tumor that was removed via surgery this past Friday. All reports is that he is recovering/resting well. Check out the video that was recorded right before he went into surgery...pretty powerful.

Hell House

If you weren't here for Halloween...then I think you missed a great opportunity. After all - nothing says, "redemptive love of Jesus" like this does.

Crazy people burning Bibles

Saw this video on Tim Steven's blog

Louie Giglio on the 700 club

I love Louie Giglio for a lot of reasons. This interview reminds me of most of them. Enjoy!

See you at the pole...and then hopefully afterwards

Today is, "See you at the pole" across the country. It is the day where middle school and high school kids spend time praying for their schools in the morning before the day starts.

I have mixed feelings.

On the one hand - I'm proud of the students I know who stand for their schools. I think identifying the need is a step in the right direction. I won't ever fault someone for crossing church/denominational lines and praying for their school.

On the other hand - I'm concerned with the trend that I see. Too often, the church response to everything is this:

Identify evil
join together in a close yet separate location
Get our efforts notices
pray for God to send someone/something to make a difference

Surprisingly enough - I'm not against any of these things. My problem is when they are the whole process, and not just one part. The step that is getting left out is incarnation.

It's the part where we are with the people for whom we are praying. It's the part where we are investing fully in the lives of the people around us. It's the part where we are seen at the pole, but then also in our classrooms, on our sports teams, and in our friend's lives.

So kudos to all the people at the poll today. I'm proud of you for standing for something. Let's just make sure that this is the beginning of the discussion.

Let's be seen other places as well.

Matt Chandler

I saw this on the fb of a guy that I know from H.S. This excerpt from Matt Chandler shows why he is so respected as a communicator and leader. After watching it, my initial response was, "Dang!"

Dave Horine

Dave is one of my best friends. He's a great musician, a true follower of Jesus, and a good man. One day, he and I will take over the world as ministry co-conspirators...but until then, we cheer each other on from a distance.

As much as it pains me to think of sharing Dave - he's looking for work as a worship leader...and you should talk to him.

Here's a video of Dave performing "Turn on the Lights" (Sanctus Real) at Oakbrook Church.

A great response to abortion

In light of our recent discussion on abortion - here's a church with a great idea!

Greg Boyd's response to the Minneapolis tornadoes

I'm a big fan of Greg Boyd, and I watched his response to the Minneapolis tornadoes with interest. I don't often re-post here...but this response is very important. You can read more of Greg's writings here.

On Wednesday, August 19, five small tornados formed in and around the Twin Cities. Included among the property damage was a broken church steeple. It just so happens that Central Lutheran Church was hosting the National Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and that one of the issues they were discussing was their stance on homosexuality. According to John Piper, this is no coincidence.

In a blog that unfortunately managed to make it on the local evening news John offered “an interpretation of this Providence.” He claimed “[t]he tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin.” You can read his blog here.

Now, I appreciate John as a brother in Christ and respect him as a pastor working for the Kingdom. And I have no quarrel with his view that homosexuality should not be affirmed as God’s ideal. But when he publicly claims to discern a divine warning behind the behavior of a particular tornado, I feel I need to offer a public response, if only to remind non-Christians that not all Christians think like this.

Here are six questions and objections I believe John would need to address if his speculation about why a particular tornado struck a church was to be considered remotely plausible.

1. Why does John discern a divine motive behind a damaged church steeple but not behind any other damage this tornado caused? For example, the roof of the Minneapolis Convention Center was damaged by this same tornado. Was God sending a warning by having his judging tornado damage this building? Or what about the damage cause by the other four tornadoes that struck the Twin Cities area around the same time? A middle school in North Branch was badly damaged, for example. Was this school more affirming toward gays than other schools in the area?

2. According to the National Weather Service, the United States is hit by about 1300 tornados each year, on average. Does John discern a pattern that these tornados tend to strike places that are more pro-gay, or even just generally more sinful, than others? I did a little research, and it turns out that the place where tornados tend to strike the most frequently and do the most damage is in the Bible Belt, with Oklahoma topping the list. And, interestingly enough, it turns out that those states that have the most progressive stances toward gays (e.g. Massachusetts, Vermont, New York) are among the states that typically experience the least tornado damage. Doesn’t this fact by itself completely undermine John’s speculation as to why a Minneapolis church steeple was damaged?

I have an alternative interpretation of tornado behavior to offer. They have nothing to do with how pro-gay or how sinful people are and everything to do with where people happen to live. Tornadoes strike Oklahoma frequently because it’s located in a place where hot and cold air currents tend to collide frequently at certain times of the year. Much less frequently, the same thing happens in the Twin Cities. Why can’t we just leave it at that?

3. One has to wonder why God would single out the ELCA’s discussion of homosexuality as worthy of a tornado hit while by-passing so many other serious issues. To give one example, there are over 400 distinct passages encompassing over 3,000 verses in the Bible that address issues related to poverty. Compare this with homosexuality, a topic that is explicitly mentioned a total of two times in the Old Testament and three times in the New. On top of this, the most frequently mentioned reason God judged cities and nations in the Old Testament was because they failed to care for the needy. And, finally, if there’s any sin American churches fail to seriously confront, it’s this one.

In light of this, wouldn’t you assume that if God was going to send warnings and/or inflict punishment with tornados he’d strike some of the many American churches and denominations that condone, if not Christianize, greed and apathy toward the poor? Yet John would have us believe that God had his tornado skip past these churches (and a million other punishment-worthy locations, like child sex-slave houses) in order to damage the steeple of a church because the people inside were wrestling with issues related to homosexuality. If John is right, God’s priorities must have radically changed since biblical times.

4. If John is right and God seriously wants to “send messages” through things like destructive tornados, why doesn’t he speak a little more clearly? Why not take all the guess work out of it? Honestly, if there was a divine point to be found in the destructive behavior of tornados, why does he make it look like tornados form and move in complete accord with the laws of physics, striking whatever buildings and people who happen to be in their way? And why would God leverage whatever point he’s trying to make on the implausible speculations of certain individuals who dare to offer public guesses as to what he’s up to?

5. John justifies his interpretation by claiming “Jesus Christ controls the wind, including all tornados.” He supports this claim by quoting Mark 4:41 in which Jesus’ disciples ask; “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” What’s interesting to me is that the disciples make this remark in response to Jesus having just rebuked a threatening storm. If Jesus was already controlling all storms, as John claims, why on earth would he need to rebuke this one?

Even more interesting, Jesus “rebukes” the storm by commanding it to be “quiet.” The Greek term used here literally means “to muzzle” or “strangle,” and its the same word he sometimes used when confronting demons. The implication is that, far from suggesting that Jesus controls all storms, the passage actually suggests that at least some life-threatening storms have a demonic power behind them that resists God’s good purposes (for a fuller discussion on this, see Boyd, God at War [IVP, 1997]).

6. Finally, and most remarkably, John attempts to further justify his speculation about the damaged church steeple by alluding to Luke 13:4-5, which he summarizes by saying:

“When asked about a seemingly random calamity near Jerusalem where 18 people were killed, Jesus answered in general terms—an answer that would cover calamities in Minneapolis, Taiwan, or Baghdad. God’s message is repent, because none of us will otherwise escape God’s judgment.”

What’s amazing is that in this very passage Jesus specifically addresses the temptation of people to think God punishes people by sending disasters! In response to a tower in Siloam that fell on 18 people Jesus says, “do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no!”

Far from supporting John’s speculation about why a tornado broke a church steeple, it seems to me this passage directly assails it! It makes me want to ask John, “do you think that the folks at Central Lutheran church are more guilty than you or any others living in the Twin Cities?” And the only answer this passage allows us to give is an unequivocal “no!” In the fallen world in which we live, towers sometimes randomly fall; bridges sometimes randomly collapse; and tornadoes sometimes randomly do property damage – even to churches. That’s all there is to be said about it.

Rather than speculating about how God is judging others through natural calamities, Jesus tells his audience they should be concerned with their own relationship with God. “Unless you repent,” Jesus said, ” you too will perish.” Jesus boldly confronts our tendency to find a speck in another’s eye and our temptation to assume God is involved in their misfortune as we overlook the two-by-four sticking out of our own eye (Mt. 7:1-3). Instead, we should follow Paul’s example and consider ourselves worse sinners than others (1 Tim. 1:15-16) and concern ourselves with the judgment we ourselves will receive if we don’t repent and throw ourselves on God’s mercy.

It’s a warning I think we all do well to adhere to.

Interesting Theological Discussion

I'm involved in a pretty cool discussion with an old friend at this website.

My friend and I disagree on the issues we're discussing, but we are having the discussion in a very Christlike way. The discussion is centering around the emergent church and the changing of the gospel.

The discussion is very healthy, but it is not for everyone! Wade in only if you're wearing your theological geek hat.

Also, If you do choose to look in, please keep your comments gracious. Tony and I are friends, and I don't want anyone being unkind to him. Now if you disagree with me, bring it on!

Abortion Signs

There is an interesting conversation about our methodology for expressing our beliefs (in areas like abortion). Should we protest? Should we stay silent? Is there a way to be involved that addresses the root of the issue? You can check the conversation out here.

The conversation started when a pro-life group from Milwaukee descended on Jackson yesterday with signs featuring bloodied dismembered fetuses. The signs were complete with slogans and were terribly disturbing. I chose not to place images here because of their graphic nature.

Here are a few of my comments from the facebook thread. These were in response to the argument that holding signs and protesting is an effective way to address abortion. Let me know your thoughts!

We should agree first of all that we disagree in method but not message. Abortion is bad...everyone commenting here believes that. Our issue is in how it should be addressed. You are very right when you say that maybe the sign-holders are addressing the issue relationally elsewhere...we shouldn't assume that this is all they do.

My main issue with the sign holders is that (as Christians) we often seem to respond this way. We stay at a distance, and we don't get to the root of the issue. Personally, I don't believe that the way to fight abortion is to draw attention...after all...do you think there is one person left on this planet who doesn't know what we as Christians think? They all know, yet the abortion rate is going up...my question is why?

My answer (and again I'm one guy with one perspective) is that our attempts to draw awareness haven't slowed down abortion one bit. What they have done, unfortunately, is further distance the rest of the watching world from the hope that is found in Jesus. This is my problem with the argument that "if one person doesn't have an abortion because of the signs, they have served their purpose." What if 100 people that saw the signs drive away thinking that Christianity is something very different from what it is? At the least, we need to acknowledge this question.

In my mind Christians should be the ones making the world better from the inside out, not the other way around. That means that sometimes we have to be less concerned with being heard and more concerned with being effective.

If we really want to be effective in reducing abortions, then we have to address the sub-issues. Poverty, single-parent homes, fatherless homes, better sex-education to name a few. You asked at the beginning if we were doing anything to fight abortion (other than 'sitting in the comfort of our facebook chat rooms:))? The people who are making a difference seem to be the ones addressing these root issues.

I believe the reason we don't address these issues is because they are difficult to address. It is hard to fight these underlying issues. I just wish the church would fight the hard fight instead of simply choosing to hold signs.

Video from Sunday

Some people have been asking about the video we used on Sunday. It was created by the good people at Granger Community Church. They are so cool to put out great stuff that can be shared! Here's a look at it one more time.

Christians invade the E3 Gaming Expo

My friend Nate rocked the tweet on this earlier...but here you go from LA Weekly:

Today a group of religious protesters gathered outside the E3 Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center to rally against the EA-helmed game Dante's Inferno. The protesters' message was simple: Play Dante's Inferno and go to Hell. Check out the photograph below of our favorite sign bearing the slogan: "My High Score is in Heaven."

I know for most of us, this stuff doesn't ring true with how we understand the message of Jesus. Unfortunately, a large population of Christianity still finds this method effective and somehow right.

Now I want to be careful not to attack the people holding the signs. Truthfully, most of them haven't though through what they are doing. Someone was holding a rally, and they had the free time. In addition, I don't want to use their own protest method to point out their error.

Paul said this in his letter to the Thessalonians: We loved you so much that we didn't share only the gospel with you, but our very lives as well because you have become so dear to us.

Paul seemed to make the point that using the gospel as a nunchuk to brutalize people around you might not be the best idea.

And this is where it gets interesting. Paul was never advocating an abandonment of the gospel message...in fact his whole life was dedicated to the message of Jesus. In the case of our misguided protesters, some of them have messages that are true.

Yup...some of the things Christians protest aren't in line with Jesus. The problem is that the method of addressing issues isn't the Jesus way either.

right message + wrong method = crappy signs and loss of cultural voice.

Paul says that his love for people was so great that he would never share only the gospel with someone outside of the context of relationships. Paul understood that relationships were the frame for the gospel.

So our sign holding friends who put the gospel in front of the relationship have put themselves in an impossible situation. It's like showing up at the neighborhood bbq with a giant sign that uses magic marker to point out your beliefs.

You might be allowed to stay...but no one is inviting you over next time.

And this is the real point. The gospel framed in relationships isn't about being right, scoring on the first possession, or even making sure our voice is heard.

It is about love.

And lest one think that I'm only bashing the conservatives...one could make the same argument for anti-war protests.

I just think we should put a pause on all signs, t-shirts, and other methods of protest that minimize relationships. Maybe we should take the time to learn someone's name...someone's kids names...someone's story. Maybe if we made them human we'd actually start to love them with the gospel rather than injure them with it.

"In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh and held a sign with clever sharpie graphics on it. Turn or Burn it said."

I'm glad it's not this way.


SPECIAL UPDATE: Ok - according to my friends Tim and Nate, this whole thing is fake. The protesters are hired to create buzz about the game. That's really funny, but since it really happens all the time I stand by my statements!

If you're looking for a Pastor...

...then you might want to consider Brent and Kelly Wood. Brent has been on the staff at Grace Church in Granger, IN for more than 15 years. I've known Brent since I was in elementary school.

Brent is a creative leader, and a good teacher. He has worn many hats in the church, and the result is a good fit in many areas. Brent was one of the key players in the transition of Grace Church into the ministry it is today.

If you're interested in more info, let me know or contact Brent directly.

Brent & Kelly Wood, 574-276-0508, brentcwood@aol.com

Wired Magazine on Storytelling

Interesting article by Scott Brown in Wired dealing with the need for new models for storytelling. Check it out here.