Month: March 2011

  • Steps of Justice

    If you haven’t yet checked out the Steps of Justice 30-Day Prayer guide you are really missing out.

    What I like about the guide is that it isn’t just something to read and put down. It’s an action guide. It raises your awareness, leads you to prayer, then gets you doing something about it.

    It’s dangerous.

    So that’s my challenge. Do something dangerous by picking up Steps of Justice and giving it a try. Better yet, get 10 of them and use them in your small group. Or buy 100 and get your church involved. Or 1,000 and ask your neighbors to pray. You get the idea.

  • Incredulous grace

    Have you ever smelled grace?

    The kind of grace that you feel and sense immediately, snaps you to attention warning-less, and fills the room with warm memories of when you first encountered the risen Jesus?

    The smell is so strong it simultaneously sparks remembrance and whets your appetite for more.

    Some believers permeate this kind grace toward others from their very pores. The grace, mercy, and love these people exude is almost unbelievable yet entirely undeniable.

    I call this incredulous grace.

    Incredulous grace tenderizes the meat of the Gospel, making it palatable to even the most highly-refined and cynical person. It is so unbelievable that it is undeniable. It raises a frenzied appetite as its goodness fills the air of the grace-givers-space. It’s simple complexities are hard to fathom but easy to experience. When you taste its richness for yourself you are torn. “Do I tell every soul who will listen or do I keep this secret all for myself?”

    And yet.

    Most of us don’t want to learn how to prepare and serve incredulous grace. It costs too much and takes too much time. We prefer the fast-food versions.

    The sad reality is that there are no short cuts to incredulous grace. It’s prepared only one way, you have to fight to tenderize love, mercy, and grace into the toughness of your body, born as slaves to sin. We have neither the patience to wait nor the innate desire to mature to the point of preparing only the best.

    We rationalize, why get the best when a fast-food fix comes so cheap?

    Instead, we settle for a grace-like substance. We get fat on imitation grace which bears only a chemical likeness to the real thing. It’s unsatisfying. But we convince ourselves that it was meant to be that way. We chose ineffective efficiency over inefficient effectiveness.

    Why?!? Why do we reject incredulous grace for cheap grace?

    Because we are damaged people. To forgive others means we need to forgive ourselves– many of us are too wounded and paralyzed to know how to do that. The fast-pace of modern church life leaves no room for marinating all-night to loosen sins lock on our flavor. We need instant results so we settle for a quick-fix even if it leaves us still hungry.

    And yet some of us awaken to this full palete and decide to fight. First, we resist the addictive urge for fast-food mercy, grace, and love. Then, we learn to loathe the hypocrisy of a grace, love, and mercy industry. Finally, we rise above the pettiness of it all and simply rest in recognition that we are called both the giver and receiver of grace… merely called to prepare the way for the true Grace-giver.

    In the end, to our delightful shock, the aura of grace smelled enwrapping our flesh isn’t our grace at all.

    It is Christ’s smell resonating through us.

    When people look down on us for these acts of incredulous grace we sadly know that they aren’t looking down on us. Our sorrow is in the revealed depravity of religious people who are looking down on the very hands, feet, and actions of Jesus. His grace simply isn’t good enough for them. They turn their noses at the bouquet of a perfectly prepared prime rib for the cheap potpourri of Coke & a McRib. Sadly, true grace has never touched their lips. They know of forgiveness but have not tasted its delights. And they don’t have a clue what they are missing.

    On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

    In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

    “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

    The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37)

    Amen.

  • Right turns only

    According to this video, UPS truck drivers avoid turning left to save money.

    Turns out that it’s true. How do I know that? Because Mythbusters tested it.

    What does this have to do with anything?

    • It always pays to measure things and test theories, no matter how crazy they seem.
    • The shortest route isn’t always the fastest nor the most effective.

    HT to Derek Johnson

  • Self-talk

    • Do you believe in yourself?
    • Are you proud of yourself?
    • In quiet moments do you have positive or negative thoughts about yourself?
    • When you are at work, how do you feel about your work environment? Does being there energize you or steal your joy?
    • When you are at home, how do you feel about your home environment? Does being there energize you or steal your joy?

    For some people, their whole identity is wrapped up in playing Eeyore in the real life drama they star in. Each day is a disappointment and they exude a “why bother?” attitude.

    Others play the role of Charlie Brown. Life could smack them in the face daily, their best friend could humiliate them, and their dreams could shatter– but they wake up with a generally positive life outlook on the next day.

    Three things I’ve learned about this stuff that is worth noting:

    1. Anyone can choose to be an Eeyore or Charlie Brown. We all have equal potential to be either character.
    2. How people feel when they are at your home or office dramatically impacts the bottom line. However you measure success at your home or at your office will be greatly impacted by the positive or negative feelings people who are there feel about being there.
    3. A single person flavors the pot one way or the other. I’ve been in negative work environments where one person comes in and is the catalyst for the whole group to feel more positive about themselves. And we’ve experienced the opposite at home when one person has a negative outlook and it ruins it for everyone.

    Sadly, many Christians perpetrate the lie that in order to really “get it” as a believer that you need to put on your Eeyore costume. I’ve visited churches where the whole staff has a loser complex. (Their success or failure comes from the same place of dissatisfaction and self-loathing.) And I’ve visited homes so positive they don’t even notice (or care) that they have roaches.

    This makes no sense. Jesus didn’t die for us so that we’d wallow in our sin. Quite the opposite. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

    What’s the point?

    You might not have the ability/power/opportunity to change anything about where you live or work today. But you always have the power to change the flavor of the pot with your attitude.

  • Over-communicate with your leaders

    Over-communicate with your leaders

    Want to avoid confusion with your team? Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.

    I define a leader as someone who takes people somewhere they would otherwise not go on their own.

    All-too-often, as I look back on my life in leadership, my tendency is always to get a mile ahead of my team because I have under-communicated the basics with them.

    Why are we doing this? What’s our intent? What do we want to get out of this experience? Who are we targeting with our ministry? Why are you serving? How can we accomplish our goals? When is the best time to do this? On and on.

    Every once in a while I’d get this feedback: “I know you have a reason for everything we do, and you’ve given us all the information about what we are doing, but I am not understanding why/how this is going to happen.” When I was young in leadership I somehow too this as a compliment. But now I see it for what it is… a weakness I need to address.

    When my team lacks focus and drive to execute the vision– That’s my fault not theirs. I tend to communicate the vision too little and the share details too much. In the moment, the logistical details seem more important than the over-arching vision. But in the end, you need both.

    You will have leaders who are OK knowing stuff as they go. But to really take a ministry somewhere you need to execute along the way to accomplish the vision.

    3 Ways I combat my tendency to under-communicate

    1. Give people the big picture often. Before each ministry cycles starts, (school year, calendar year, however your church does it) schedule a meeting with key leaders to go over the plan. When I do this I present a white paper for the year as well as the teaching calendar, event calendar, and a description of a discipled person. In other words, I start with the end in mind and show my team how we’re going to get there together. In youth ministry, at about the same time, I host a parents meeting and go over the same information… plus some other stuff like cost of events, permission slips, etc.
    2. Put your pedagogical statement out there. It feels cheesy to think about, and I totally stole it from Doug Field’s youth ministry classic, “Purpose-driven Youth Ministry,” but I think it’s useful to put the purpose for a ministry, in writing, on everything you do. Even better, when I am teaching a lesson and there is a handout for leaders, I also like to give them a quick sentence about what we are teaching. “The main idea of tonight’s lesson is that students will learn ______.” This puts your leaders on the inside, thinking of your teaching strategy right alongside of you, and values their intelligence/abilities.
    3. Get stuff to people early. This is the one I wrestle with the most because you’ll always have some people who feel like they need every detail when you can only provide the big picture. Such as, I have volunteers who want small group questions 1-2 weeks in advance so they can think about it in advance. The problem is that I can’t give that because I rarely actually work on the talk until 24-48 hours before I teach it. But I can tell them the passage and the main idea of the lesson. And usually, that’s enough. The same is true for events and trips. I need to give them the information early enough where they can rearrange their schedule and jump on board to help. If I forget, or am lacking, in that then I should expect them to bail on me.

  • Book Cover: How to Share Your Faith on a Plane

    [download id=”15″]

    I have a knack for getting an empty seat next to me when I fly Southwest.

    On more than 60% of my 2010 flights I sat in the window seat and had an empty middle seat. In January 2011, I flew with Southwest 11 times and had an empty middle seat 7 times. (The other 4 were completely full flights with no empty seats.)

    As I bragged about this to my friends, they began to wonder: How in the world is Adam doing that?

    I’m not going to share all of my tricks. (Here’s a blog with some decent tips) But one thing that definitely helps looks like this:

    • Make sure you are in the A boarding group
    • Sit in a window seat, then place a book or your iPod/headphones in the middle seat.

    It’s the book detail that my friends bring up and eventually resulted in the graphic you see above. More often than not I am reading a non-fiction Christian book like Kenda-Creasy Deans Almost Christian or John Ortberg’s Faith and Doubt. For some reason those types of titles tend to cause on-coming passengers to continue moving towards the back of the plane more than the latest issue of Sports Illustrated or Wired.

    That’s the genesis of this fake book cover. My friends and I hypothesized, “If people won’t sit next to me because I’m reading a book with a Christian title, what would happen if I made a fake book cover with an overtly Christian title AND made the book about evangelism?”

    That’s how this was born.

    How to Share Your Faith on a Plane: 25 Scenarios for Converting This Flight from Transportation to Transformation

    Instructions:

    • Download the pdf.
    • Print/cut it to the size you need. (The original size is the size of a standard hard cover book with a jacket)
    • Replace the jacket your book came with and follow the tips on the back cover.

  • That’s Local Funny

    This is one of those things that is funny and not funny at the same time, isn’t it? I’ll admit I find it hilarious for all of the wrong reasons. Look at your neighbor and say, “F you.”

    What’s the lesson here?

    • Some things are funny on paper, will work live, but probably aren’t appropriate.
    • You really need someone to look over your notes before you preach/teach/speak in public. A true friend would have gently said, “You know what? This is really funny. And it makes a great point. But no. Don’t do that.“
    • Sometimes your creativity has unintended consequences. Like you congregation walking around at work the next day going, “F all of you!“

    HT to Britt

  • The Four Greatest Basketball Movies of All Time

    Everything I’m doing from Thursday to Sunday is measured by the following questions: “What  time does ___ start and who is playing now?” I love March Madness!

    And all of those basketball dreams lead me to this list:

    The Four Greatest Basketball Movies of All Time

    1. Hoosiers – Clearly, the best basketball movie ever made. I’m only slightly biased because I grew up in Indiana and my high school team won the 1994 State Championships.
    2. Hoop Dreams – (1994) The documentary which simultaneously helps you fall in love with high school basketball and the craft of documentary film making at the same time.
    3. White Men Can’t Jump – (1992) Wesley Snipes & Woody Harrelson in a basketball movie? Yes, please! I quote this movie all the time. Any time I receive unexpected money I proudly declare, “We goin’ Sizzler!“
    4. Coach Carter (2005) If this inspirational story doesn’t make you cry than you probably don’t like sports. I’m pretty sure Bobby Knight called Coach Carter to tell him to tone it down a little.

    Honorable mention: Basketball Diaries, The Super, Space Jam.

    Agree? Disagree? What is your favorite basketball movie of all time?

  • Worth fighting for

    The last few days I’ve been following the story of Shaun King, an Atlanta church planter and friend of YS, who recently discovered his former boss & pastor has admittedly molested and raped some children.* After doing some further research Shaun learned that other church leaders were aware of the situation but remained silent.

    Not Shaun. He took to Twitter to expose the problem. Here’s how he kicked things off:

    Bishop Johnathan Alvarado of Total Grace Christian Center is a child molester. In the name of Jesus I declare this must end RIGHT NOW. @shaunking – March 13th, 2011

    Here is the crux of his demand:

    I have heard the worst, learned of his admission of guilt, yet he continues to serve and preach. Kids get the raw end of this deal. No more. @shaunking – March 13th, 2011

    And he didn’t back down from there. He has continued to press on. Laying out his case and defending it with more evidence. Even if you don’t like Twitter, please take a few minutes to read through Shaun’s tweets from the past few days.

    You will see righteous anger in action. As he says, “I will STAND FOR KIDS 100 out of 100 times.”

    It is the embodiment of Ephesians 5:11-13:

    Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

    I know many are offended by Shaun, his tactics, and think that he is somehow giving the church a bad name. Are you kidding me? If these allegations are true, (and it seems the pastor admitted to them) young men were raped, families paid off, and the pastor went right on preaching? That’s a disgrace and we need to applaud Shaun for speaking out! To be silent, to deal with that in private, is disturbing. If you’ll protect a rapist… who wouldn’t you protect?

    This morning I’m asking for 3 things:

    1. Pray for Shaun, Rai, and his kids. Pray for the victims and their families. Many in church circles are denouncing Shaun for speaking out. And sadly other people have sent him death threats. Pray that God protects Shaun as he stands in the gap for children in his community. Pray that justice prevails, not in the court of public opinion, but in a court of law.
    2. Reflect on the types of things worth fighting for in your life. What are things that you, as a child of God, would cause you to stand up and fight for, putting your reputation on the line for, even to the point of receiving death threats as you expose light to darkness?
    3. Act, act, act. I believe there are countless stories like this hidden in the confines of the church today. Expose them. Today. There is a devil-inspired lie that “true believers” settle things without the courts involvement. I’ve even heard people say that it’s a sin to sue a church. That is a lie. Examine 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 yourself. Rape is not trivial. Breaking the law is not trivial. Extortion is not trivial. On and on. Examine the context and reason Paul wrote those words. But yet this untruth has lead to countless victims and the continued victimization by people originally called to represent Jesus. Expose them. Do not take refuge in the reality that God will judge them. It is your responsibility as a believer to bring light to dark places. Search your heart, discover what is worth fighting for, and act. Today.

    *I’ll admit in sharing this story that I’m confused on some of the details. I don’t know how a person can rape children and settle that in court without criminal charges against the accused. I firmly believe that a person is innocent until proven guilty. If someone could help me understand Shaun’s statements that the person has admitted guilt and not received a criminal complaint, please enlighten me. Is this a statute of limitations thing?

  • 3 Big Questions

    I can’t decide if its the lack of sleep (ht to Jackson) that caused me to wake up asking myself these questions, if my “fasting from sleep” provided clarity on some things which brought these questions to the surface of my awareness, or if these are just really good questions that popped into my mind this morning after reading through some of the Gospel narrative on the way to the cross. You decide.
    1. What is the difference between what I will do today and what I am about today? I have a lot of stuff to do. Work stuff. Personal stuff. Stuff I want to do. And stuff I need to do. But which of that stuff am I about?
    2. With information, tragedy, and calls to action coming from everywhere in the world at once, am I called to take action globally or take action locally? (The sister question to this is: What can I actually do today to make the most impact for Jesus?) Because the idea that I’m supposed to respond to both is driving me crazy. How is that even possible?
    3. Why is it the relationship between learning facts and changing my behavior? I know all of the facts about big things that need to change in my life but I haven’t taken a single step. Conversely, I tend to change the most on things I’ve just learned about. Why is that? If facts don’t change my behavior, what does?

    This I do know and find soul rest in today:

    When I live with my struggles I deal with them. I grow through pain. When I pour myself out to God, declaring my weaknesses, it reveals His strength.