• I Am Second

    Talk about a site you need to check out. I am second may be the prettiest, most powerful site on the internet.

    What is it? It’s an online ministry designed around a powerful thought: If Jesus is number one in my life that means I am second.

    How does it work? There’s not a lot to the site. Very simple navigation takes you to amazing stories from some famous people and some not-so-famous people. I’m telling you, the stories are amazing.

    Who is behind it? It’s so incredibly done I have a hard time thinking it’s independently financed. So I haven’t figured out if there is a bigger organization behind it. But, thanks to twitter, I was able to find a couple of people who worked on the project.

    Trey Hill Photography

    Ditore Mayo Entertainment

    Apparently there are some TV spots and billboards that are drawing attention to this project. Very cool stuff. I love seeing sites that represent the Gospel message so well. Fantastic combination of message, beauty, and wonderful site navigation.

    Update: I got an email from someone involved with the project who provided me a link to the new I Am Second blog. Also, he shared an interesting LA Times story about American Idol Jason Castro’s faith. Jason’s story is also featured at I Am Second.

  • Krispy Cream Eggs and Cheeseburger?

    I felt a little dirty watching this. This wasn’t the least bit appealing to me. In fact, I am now convinced that these women had just finished smoking a bowl before saying “action.”

  • Alpha Male Pastors

    I long to see this as a caveat for ministry job openings: Dominant alpha males need not apply. Dear Lord, let it come soon!

    I had three different conversations with or about lead pastors Thursday. Two were horrible and one was exhilarating. All three encounters lead me to express my frustration with alpha male senior pastors. How do these people stay in ministry? Oh yeah, they are allowed to fire people…

    “Define term alpha male pastor please.” I’d love to. Obviously, they are male. And they are the big dogs at a church. They lord their power over everyone. (Mostly behind closed doors.) One word description, dominant. They lay in bed and dream of themselves as Mufasa over their church kingdoms. They would like to think that everyone shudders at their brilliance when they hear their name. Every single one of them thinks they are brilliant and that they will one day write a book that sells more copies than Purpose Driven Life.

    Situation #1 I exchanged emails yesterday with a church staff member sharing his frustration with his AMP. Well, he wasn’t really sharing frustration with me, because that sort of disloyalty isn’t allowed in Mufasa’s pride. He contacted me about a very practical problem but within a couple of short exchanges the truth came out that his AMP wouldn’t let him lead the youth group. So let me get this right, a church hires a man… calls him a pastor, grades him on his ability to lead the youth group… then is hamstrung by an insecure AMP from doing his job they called and paid him to do? Brilliant. I’m sure that the AMP will feel completely justified when that guy quits, his life devastated. I wish it weren’t true… but I think I have this same conversation with one church staff member per week.

    Situation #2 I had a conversation with a church staff member sharing a complete lack of human decency by his AMP. Of course, this staff member couldn’t tell his AMP that he was being a jerk because that was ultimately questioning the virility of the AMP. Questioning an AMP about any of his habits, practices, and especially blatant sins is a challenge that is always met with snarled teeth and threats of being expelled from the pride. At the end of our conversation I was left with the impression that this staff member’s boss thinks he is a more important person than the rest of his staff. It’s as if Jesus’ words didn’t apply to him. Matthew 23 says, “Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Nope, that only applies to lowly associate level pastors and other non-AMPs who make the day-to-day stuff happen when the AMP isn’t bestowing his 30 minute message from the mountaintop. When heaven opened and Mr. AMP appeared on the scene… Jesus didn’t call that guy to servant-leadership. He’s better, bigger, more powerful than his staff members. You know, because he’s the preacher.

    Situation #3 (For those skimming –> This is the good one) I had lunch with my new friend and pastor. As a parenthesis to this– I was so relieved that the lunch meeting came with no agenda. We had lunch and shared life, a novel concept that more church leaders should consider. Stephen has all the skills and background to be an AMP. And what I love about him is that he intentionally chooses not to for the sake of the Kingdom. Something that blew me away about our conversation was this, he’s perfectly fine not getting his way in a theological discussion. (Something an AMP would see as a weakness is really a strength!) The mere fact of the various staff backgrounds proves that out. They are a hodgepodge group of denominations completely sold out to the concept that personal preferences don’t really matter. I’d say he and I see eye to eye on “high 90s” of things. But those few percentage points of difference don’t matter at all.

    What should AMPs do instead of dominating local churches? Fix the auto industry! Go get a job at a car dealership and bully people into a gas guzzler.

    Want to know the secret to defeating an AMP? Hint, you don’t have to commit a felony even though you want to.

  • New Bible Smell

    After more than 10 years of teaching, studying, crying, losing, writing in, and generally loving my last Bible. I finally had to admit it was lost for good and buy a new one. I wasn’t sure if it ended up in a box somewhere when I was cleaning out my office in Romeo or if I had left it somewhere… whatever the case it is now gone.

    So last week I headed over to the Zondervan website and bought this shiny new one. Observers will note a tiny detail, I switched versions. After using the NIV for my entire adult life I have upgraded to the TNIV. I’m sure scholarly types know all the thousands of nuanced differences between the two, I can’t tell the difference.

  • Songs of Solomon Pick-up Lines

    Gosh, I love my job!

  • Open Ended Discipleship

    I’d love your feedback on this video post, please leave a comment below or post a video response on YouTube to the video.

  • All Californians are Liberals

    This is one of those urban legends I’ve heard a lot of since moving to California. And I have to admit, this is one of those things that people in the Midwest say about California that drives me a little batty.

    California is a blue state. That is true. I am not a political historian but I would guess that the last time California voted for a republican for president was Ronald Reagan. What’s interesting about politics in California is that it’s identical to a lot of states with major metropolitans. The major metros trend heavily towards being democrats while the suburban and rural areas trend towards republicans. Outside of the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas most of California leans republican… including Orange County in the LA area and San Diego County with it’s massive military community.

    The land of fruits and nuts. As if Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana (states where I’ve lived most of my life) didn’t have people who were a little abnormal. It is completely true that you will see and hear some crazy stuff in public. Hang out near the beaches and you’ll hear the craziest things on the planet. But also bear in mind that twice in the last decade voters have passed a proposal to ban gay marriage. Sounds pretty conservative to me. Michigan only passed one! Those Michigan people are such liberals!

    California is full of strange characters. This one cracks me up. Take me to any breakfast joint in the Midwest and I’ll show you the same cooky characters. California doesn’t have the corner on the market of weird people. In fact, while we did have people in our church in Northern California who were convinced that the government was coming to get them and the postal carriers were secret government agents… those same characters are played by different actors at coffee shops in downtown Romeo. I remember a certain guy who carried around a photo album of road kill, deer he’d shot, and stories he told about people killing deer with a hammer. Who is weird now?

    California is full of hippies, gays, druggies, and women with fake boobs. OK, that’s true. Those are actually the four categories you have to fit into before you’re allowed to register to vote. An additional qualification is that you have to watch all the Cheech and Chong movies before you can get a driver’s license. When we signed the kids up for school they implanted a chip behind their ear so that government agents could  decide which category they’d fall into as adults.

    Remember, labels are just devices people use so they know how to best ignore you.

  • Don’t Fire Charlie Weis

    I just read Pat Forde’s latest attack on Notre Dame. All season long, he’s called the players names, the coach names, even the fans names. Now he thinks that his pens will fell Charlie Weis. I hope that doesn’t happen.

    Here are some reasons why:

    1. The team is young. I have watched most of the games this year and I think it’s a joke that when they win the commentators talk about how young the team is, when they lose they talk about how horrible a coach Charlie Weis is. Most of the offensive starters are freshmen and sophomores. That means that next year they will be a year stronger, smarter, and more hungry to beat teams who humiliated them.

    2. It won’t stop the cycle of change. The first two years under Weis he was dealt a perfect hand by his predessesor. Let’s say they fire Weis and hire somebody else… of course that guy will look great for the next two year as Weis’ young players will mature and begin to win. But that just means in 4 years we will be right back in this same spot, firing a coach.

    3. 12 non-conference games makes it impossible to win a national championship. It’s now been 20 years since Lou Holtz, Tim Brown, Tony Rice and Rhagib Ismael brought a championship to South Bend. 1993 proved why the Irish need to be in a conference. (Beating #1 Florida State, then losing to unranked Boston College.) Join the Big 10 and give them 2 divisions with a championship game like the SEC or join the Big East and beat up on South Florida every year. Heck, start your own conference!

    4. Ditch the NBC deal. Pundits like Forde think buying out Weis’ $30 million contract is doable. Why not go all the way and dump NBC? Since the deal in 1990 they haven’t won a national championship. In fact, only 1993 and 2005 have they been in remote contention.Think about it, for most of the teams on their schedule this is their biggest game of the year. If you are a player at BYU or North Carolina you are only likely to get on National TV in front of every NFL scout is when you play Notre Dame. Unlike every other major football powerhouse, every Notre Dame game is a big deal. For teams like San Diego State it is their Super Bowl. No wonder the Irish struggle.

    5. Academically, the Irish are strong. For 5 years we had to listen to Bob Davie whine about the academic requirements of Notre Dame. With more than 90% of football players earning college degrees, Weis has proven that he can maintain a program of academic excellence while still recruiting solid players.

    I hate to sound like a Cubs fan, but I think the next 2 years are going to prove the Weis is building a program that Irish fans will be proud of for years to come.

    Let’s just hope that the President of Notre Dame and the new athletic director don’t listen to ESPN.

  • Gift Cards at Planned Parenthood?

    I’m no prude, but this is just plain odd. You can now buy gift certificates for Planned Parenthood. The intention is to use them for birth control, STD screenings, and other typical health care provided by Planned Parenthood. While not the intention you can indeed use them for abortions. Talk about a weird gift in the stocking the Christmas, “Look honey, I prepayed for you just in case you need one while away at college!“

  • Longsuffering in the church

    A key component to the personal preference sin so prevalent in the United States evangelical church is a lack of respect for the word, longsuffering.

    Now, there are plenty of proponents of the idea of short-suffering. In other words, if a church or ministry or job or anything in your life doesn’t meet your exacting specifications you need to bail on it immediately. Their argument is that life is too short to longsuffer and the church shouldn’t be patient enough to pay you while you longsuffer. They somehow tie personal preferences into integrity… so if you stick it out at a job or a church because you believe you need to stay, you are somehow violating your integrity because you are not working or attending that church with a 100% joyful heart. They deny that there is anything spiritual in enduring something unpleasant if there is a pleasant alternative.

    An Example for Relationships

    Friends, this lack of longsuffering as a spiritual discipline is also a major lie that has led to the elongation of adolescence in America. If you’ve done student ministry in the last decade you’ve seen it first hand. God gives Christians a single requirement for getting married, that person must be a believer in Jesus.

    Yet, over and over, I see perfectly eligible men and women elongate singleness (and in many cases adolescent dependency on parents) because they don’t trust God beyond their personal preferences. They need someone a certain height, weight, and cultural background. They need someone driven towards certain goals or career aspirations, who want a certain number of children, and want to live in a certain location.

    In fact, we’ve all seen our friends bend God’s single requirement for us in order to get what we want! So they will find “Mr. Right” and completely decimate their walk with Christ in the process only to later discover that he was “Mr. Wrong.” Or, they let their personal preferences get in the way of finding the man or woman God has made for them or allowing that relationship to get to the altar. It’s sad to see personal preferences get in the way of fulfillment in finding a spouse. Kristen and I have joked about this for a long time, but I think it is true. If we just randomly assigned people to one another based solely on “Do you love Jesus more than anything else” we think we could pair up about anyone. We are all imperfect. We are all unloveable. None of us are ideal. When we chose to love someone because they love Jesus… then you will experience what true love and romance really are. Surfacey stuff is ultimately just crap that won’t lead to happiness, anyway. Learning to love someone despite your own personal preferences is what leads to true love!

    Those of us who have been married a few years know that long suffering and marriage go hand in hand. (Heard an Amen! coming from Kristen‘s direction when I wrote that.) In other words, if what you like about your spouse is that they meet your personal preferences, your marriage is doomed! Here’s a hint, the more you trust God that He provided a spouse who completes your weaknesses the happier you’ll be in marriage. (It’s about trusting God more than you trust yourself.) When I see couples whose sole connection is wrapped around a personal preference... I can only hope that their marriage will last beyond that. One of the most powerful and loving things a spouse can ever do for the other is to love you despite your inability to meet their personal preferences.

    If we think of ourselves as the Bride of Christ, we immediately see the stupidity of personal preferences in the church dividing us. We, singular and corporately, are the Bride. In our towns there is a sole bride, not brides. And yet Jesus has to love us all how we want to be loved? Who is long suffering now? Who is having 2,000 communions on Sunday morning instead of one? Whose name is lifted up in a thousand styles instead of one?

    I look at belonging to a church a lot like a marriage.

    1. Let’s say, right now, you go to a church which is fine doctrinally but you hate the music. If this were a marriage would you leave? You would feel pretty childish telling a divorce attorney that you can’t stay married to your husband because he likes rap music. Now, country music, I’ll give you that… But no one would leave a spouse because of a musical preference. But people do it in church every day.

    2. Let’s say you go to a church who killed a program you loved. If this were a marriage and your spouse changed date night from Wednesday to Sunday, would you leave him? I doubt it. But people leave churches for stupid stuff like that every day.

    3. Let’s say you go to a church who mismanaged some money. If every marriage in America were in divorce court because of this, we’d be a in a heap of mess.

    4. Let’s say you go to a church where you didn’t like the liturgy. Would you divorce a person because they didn’t read the same Bible translation as you?

    5. One commenter said she couldn’t go to a church because she disagreed with how the church practiced communion. If that were a marriage and your spouse wanted “communion” in a way you didn’t like… you’d probably head to counseling before divorce court.

    Think of all the personal preference reasons people leave a church! There are hundreds of them. Church leaders are going bald trying to figure out how to keep everyone happy instead of trying to lead people in worship! I’ve been in dozens of staff meetings where the leaders were more worried about keeping congregants pleased than taking the worship service a direction we felt God was calling it to. In other words, we repeatedly compromised our convictions for the High Holy Calling of the personal preference god so many worship on Sunday mornings.

    What am I asking “the evangelical church” to do?

    Time to cut to the chase. I’m not naive. I know that there are divisions in place today and it is silly to say we should all come together as a single body. I know it is insane to dream of a united church community who worships together on Sunday mornings, in Spirit and Truth, despite the fact that some like rock music and some like choir. I know it is impossible to dream of a church who worshiped together despite the fact that some are white or black or Hispanic. I know it is ludicrous to think that churches could bundle their buildings together for Kingdom work beyond the realm of what they want their buildings to be used for. I know it is preposterous to think that churches could start talking about reaching communities instead of birthing more baptists or presenting more Presbyterians. I know it is arrogant to think that one church leader should willfully submit his congregation to another. I know it is crazy to dream of one church in one city reaching the 95% of lost souls despite tiny doctrinal differences.

    But my hope is that it can happen.

    And I dream and think these things because followers of Jesus are overpowered with a silly, insane, impossible, ludicrous, preposterous, arrogant, and crazy love that comes from a Risen Savior. He came to unite. He came to break down barriers. And he wants us to long suffer with one another as an act of worship of Him.

    That’s my hope. That’s my dream. And that’s what I think the evangelical church should be about in America.

    I’m nailing this thesis to my wall. Thoughts?