Month: April 2008

  • Beware of Cabs

    Some news stories need no explanation. This is one of them.

    Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo’s sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

    Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure…

    “But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it’s become tiny or that they’ve become impotent, (said Kinshasa’s police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko.) To that I tell them, ‘How do you know if you haven’t gone home and tried it’,” he said. link

    And people always want to know why I’m not a touchy kind of person? Now you know, you just never know when or where you’ll bump into a sorcerer. You never know.

    Be careful out there.

  • “My Dad is Pretty Beast-Like”

    allen kietaWhen Allen Kieta’s dog wouldn’t stop barking he knew something was wrong. So Allen, armed with a phone, went to check out his house he knew something was seriously wrong. This is scary for anyone. But put yourself in Allen’s shoes… he’s blind!

    The intruder knew Allen was blind but the intruder didn’t know that he was an accomplished high school wrestler.

    “I opened the bathroom door and just ran into him. I had him pinned in the laundry room and just kept pummeling,” said Kieta, a former wrestler in high school.

    He said he grabbed the intruder by the belt and dragged him into the kitchen, where he put a knife at the man’s throat and tried to dial 911. link

    In an interview with the today show Matt Lauer asked Allen’s daughter, “Are you surprised by what your dad did?” She thought about it and said… “No, my dad is pretty beast-like.”

    I wonder if my kids think I’m pretty beast-like?

  • MegaThoughts

    The first part of my week I am spending at Harvest Bible Chapel. It’s a little odd every time I hang out with folks who work with big churches because their mindset is completely different from my mindset. In the end, we do very similar things. We both invest in, disciple, and dream about world changing stuff. We just happen to do it at two completely different scales. I work with 15-20 students and they have several hundred. Major scale difference! Likewise, the problems that we encounter are completely different. So it’s cool. I have great respect for the people whom I have interacted with here. They love the Lord, are great at what they do, and I’m happy to receive their wisdom.

    Speaking of big churches, yesterday we visited a church that makes “Megachurch” seem like the wrong word. It wasn’t a big enough word. My friend Jason Raitz was kind enough to show us around his church, Willow Creek Community Church. Size-wise it’s hard to describe how big Willow is. Some numbers that stick out as we walked for two hours, dragging our jaws through half of it after seeing their amazing new worship center. 24,000 people attend a service on the weekend. 1900 of them make it to a middle school small group. The new worship center seats 7800. I think Jason told me he oversees 250 volunteers. There are about 500 employees at Willow. (4-5 times our churches size!) Those are things I remember. It was so nice of Jason to give up all that time to show us around. It was awesome.

    Both Harvest and Willow are great churches. And I don’t mean they are great because they are large. They are great because they do big, bold, and great things in the name of Jesus.  It’s all about God, His Word, and proclaiming Jesus for these churches.

    It’s funny because there are people in our church who will read this and think, “Great. The pastors want Romeo to be a megachurch.” Nah. We’re so far from “mega” that we’re only thinking “We want to be a great church.” Size doesn’t make something great.

  • Harvest U- StuMin #1

    Craig Steiner (sheesh… how many people here do I know?)

    Acts… what’s it all about?

    • Adoration- engaging students w/God
    • Community-
    • Truth-
    • Service-

    Acts 2:42- you can say a lot today… but you get in trouble when you proclaim things in the name of Jesus.

    One of the best ways to care for the flock is for you to not care for them but to enlist other people to care for students needs. [adam’s note: Craig’s perspective it probably right, but I wonder about the small church. What if you literally have to chose?]

    As we’re faithful to the word, the ministry will be be fruitful. The opposite is a joke and won’t ever work long-term.

    1 Corinthians 2:1-5

  • Harvest U – Session 1

    The opening session at Harvest. Awesome worship to begin. There is something special about a room full of local church leaders singing praises to God. As a sidenote, fellow Moody grad Matt Stowell led worship. It’s been several years since I’ve seen Matt. Awesome to see him doing his thing.

    James MacDonald: Seeking the way of the Lord

    Jeremiah 6:16 This is what the LORD says:
    “Stand at the crossroads and look;
    ask for the ancient paths,
    ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
    and you will find rest for your souls.
    But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

    Can you do both? Reach people and remain rue to God’s Word? [insert baptism videos from Harvest. Awesome, BTW]

    I think James thinks the answer to that is… YES!!!

    Acts 19

    How to reach the culture (some ideas)

    Example 1 “To win people you have to become like them”
    Example 2 “Comfort them before you reach them”

    Example 3 “You have to be cool”

    James reminds us that you don’t have to do any of those things, and in Acts 19 we see they didn’t do any of that.

    It’s about God and His kingdom.

    1a: Jesus over sincere Religiosity (acts 18:24-19:6)

    24Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. — Apollos was elequent…

    25He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. — Apollos was FIRED up. — We’d put this dude up front… — But he WASN’T SAVED. — so this was a problem… and look how Priscilla and Aquilla handled the situation. “More heat than light.” They took him to a private place and explained to him he was sincerely wrong… — They introduced him to Jesus and conversion.

    Acts 19:1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
    They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” — How saved are these people? Uh… not at all? — He tells them “close… but not good enough.” The power of the Gospel in the first century DEMANDED a conversion experience. If they didn’t have one, they weren’t converted. — You didn’t even get John’s message right since he was there to prepare the way for Jesus.

    5On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. — Notice that they responded because leaders did not “let it be.” — We don’t believe in the sovereighty of relationship… but the sovereignty of God. That position of letting it go leads to us lying. It’s not our job to make people feel comfortable. Being comfortable comes from being bold and knowing if someone is saved or unsaved.

    2a. Jesus over stubborn unbelief (Acts 19:7-10)

    6When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

    8Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. — Paul was unabashedly bold, persuasive, and argumentative. (i.e. Acts 17:6, 18:4… this was Paul’s methodology) — if you are wanting to build a church, you will be called arrogant. That’s because it is. Paul called it foolishness… but that’s what you’re called to do.

    9But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. — Obstinate is a medical term, suggest denial of diagnosis. — they attacked the message.

    10This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. — that’s a lot of persistence. He wasn’t jamming things down their throat… — God is honored in people hearing (all residents) the message… it’s God’s responsibility to handle the results.

    [Shel’s baptism video]

    3a. Hesus over Satanic strongholds (Acts 19: 11-20)

    11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, — not just a redundancy. This were like “big time miracles.”

    13Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” — Pagans were wanting to replicate believers faith.

    15(One day) the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” — Funny, but sad. — cage match ensued.

    16Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. — they got traumatized.

    17When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. — who was winning? Satan or God?

    Four responses to living boldly in truth:

    1. fear fell on them.
    2. the name of the Lord was extolled (YEAH!)
    3. believers divulged their secret sin
    4. the word of the Lord continued to increase and spread mightily.

    4a. Jesus over shallow secularism (Acts 19:21-41)

    More good stuff… But my battery is dead. Oops.

  • Live Stream of Light Force Concert

    Tonight if the night. We’ve got the Jimmy Savage Band and Nowhere Found. The show starts at 7:00 PM EST. Live broadcast will kick off about 6:45 PM.

    UPDATE: Here’s the video from the event.

  • I got lost at the mall

    Want to know something weird about me? I can remember phone numbers. I can remember the names of my 1st grade classmates and some of their phone numbers. I can remember 10,000 details about New Testament history so I can spew them off to an unsuspecting conversant. I can remember a few hundred YMX screen names, where they live, and their real first name.

    But I can’t remember where I have parked, ever.

    I got turned around tonight at Lakeside Mall.  I was even careful to note where I had parked, what store I was in front of and once I got in that store which direction I needed to head to find my car. It turns out none of that helps. I walked out the door, headed towards where I parked the car. And it wasn’t there. And since no one is out looking to steal a 1998 Camry… I knew it wasn’t stolen. I walked around. Looked around. Walked down more aisles.

    It turns out that Lakeside Mall has two Macy’s. Who has ever heard of a mall with two Macy’s? [Shout out to AB! I pulled an Autumn.]

    The good news was that I got what I needed from Steve and Barry’s. Fortunately for me, it was my first trip to the mall since Christmas 2006.

  • Teaching Acts

    book of actsRight now I am teaching the book of Acts for a class at Romeo Bible Institute. It is both fun and challenging. It’s fun because Acts is one of the most action packed, exciting narratives in the world as a band of eleven takes hold of a challenge from the Risen Jesus and (under the power of the Holy Spirit) takes the Great Commission literally. Within one lifetime Christianity went from 11 to over 100,000.

    It’s challenging because I am trying to cram 28 chapters into 6 weeks. Pray for my students.

  • Youth Ministry & Risk

    I’ve been thinking about successful youth groups vs. unsuccessful youth groups. And truth be told the exact same thought holds true for churches.

    • Successful youth groups takes measured, bold risks.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups take few risks.
    • Successful youth groups generate excitement both internally and externally.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups are boring.
    • Successful youth groups have a two-fold reaching/teaching mode.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups have a one-fold teaching model.
    • Successful youth groups have the support of the church leadership.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups aren’t sure they have the support of church leadership.
    • Successful youth groups have intentional event planning.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups have events that are based on what kids want.

    Of course, all of this comes down to “How do you measure success in youth ministry?” How do you answer that question?

  • Pre-concert thoughts

    Light Force ConcertWith just a few days left before the Light Force concert (Sunday @ 7) I’ve got a lot of dreams for the thing. This is the first time we’ve tried this… and I’ve got a lot of thoughts floating around my head.

    Most importantly, I hope the event is well-attended and fun for everyone who comes.

    Second, I hope its a great stepping stone for some students who may want to learn more about Light Force. I had the guys over from Nowhere Found today… they were super excited to play our show. In fact, they were more excited than I was about the show! One of the band members even asked if he could help us move chairs. Awesome.

    Third, I’m really excited about the team of adults who is coming to help. It’s awesome to know that I probably have too many adults. How cool is that? It shows that the adults in our church are just as passionate about the mission as I am.

    Fourth, I am hopeful that our youth group embraces the event. This thing is WAY outside of their comfort zones. And it’s going to rock their world in an awesome way.

    Fifth, I hope it is crazy fun.