Aimless Ramblings

Just When You Thought It Would Never Come - Recap

2006-11-08T22:02:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay, I had every intention of getting this out much sooner but have just been busy.

Last Sunday was a historic moment in many respects as three different communities came together for one day to worship God together. It was an amazing experience really.

Doing church this way means someone has to set things up so a number of folks from the various communities arrived early to set up tables and chairs and get everything ready for the day. At 10 AM we had a time of fellowship and tons of food.

At 10:30 we began our more formal time. A brother from the Church at Opelika lead the singing and was assisted by one of the young ladies from that church as well. It was a mix of some older hymns and some of the newer praise songs. In between the songs representatives of each community told a brief history of their community. It was very evident that we all share a similar philosophy though many different backgrounds were represented.

At around 11:00 we transitioned to communion. This was a bit different than the normal and frequently rushed version of communion in most churches. We had extended teaching sections before the bread and the cup. Jon Commander of CJ did the first teaching segment and used numerous Old Testament verses. Jon has studied communion a good bit and did a fine job. Tom Tippett of the Church at Opelika did the second teaching section and camped out in II Corinthians. He did a fine job as well.

Following communion, we did a couple more songs which were led by a brother from Mosaic. At around noon we wrapped things up. The CJ folks all went out to each together at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Most likely we will begin doing these joint gathers on some basis going forward - probably quarterly if I had to guess. We will likely include a full meal together the next time and incorporate communion into this - like it used to be done by the early church from what it appears. Overall a very good day.

Peace.

This Sunday

2006-11-03T06:37:00.000-08:00

We'd love to have anyone in the area join us on Sunday for our joint assembly with Mosaic Family Church and the Church at Opelika.

A time of fellowship begins at 10 AM. At 10:30 our service will begin with a time of singing. The day will center around communion.

This gathering will be held at Auburn Christian Fellowship, 315 South Gay Street in Auburn. For a map to our meeting location, see Mosaic's web site.

Updates and Catching up

2006-10-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

TODAY AT CJ
We had a very encouraging gathering today. The Farmers lead today's gathering and it focused on several texts dealing with encouragement. It was one of our best days of discussion in some time in my view. It also drifted back toward the reason for our existence as a community which in some way can be summed up with: to encourage people in their spiritual walk where ever we encounter them. We think we are somewhat unique in that we would love others to join our community, however, we will help you even if you never come to our gatherings. We aren't after your money, we aren't after big numbers, we are just a community open to whatever doors God places before us. We have no staff to support, no building to keep up, no programs to staff, no machine to keep primed, none of that, just a simple community of people doing the best they can. There is something nice about simplicity. That's not to say things won't change as far as where we meet or things like that, but if we add those things we all agree we must be cautious to ensure loving people comes ahead of any institutional trappings.

NEXT TIME AT CJ
We will have our joint communion gathering with Mosaic and the Church at Opelika. We will again meet at 10 AM at Auburn Christian Fellowship on Gay Street in Auburn. We'd love for you to join us as we know it will be a great day together.

THE NEWBYS
The kids and I went to Birmingham yesterday to witness the wedding of Adam and Kara. It was a wonderful event and a beautiful fall afternoon for this outdoor wedding. The reception was held at Disciples Fellowship. It was good too see many friends at DF. They are a wonderful group of people. I got to talk with my buddy Ken Haynes - who did a wonderful job at the wedding with the music.

AROUND THE BLOG WORLD
Some very interesting reads I've came across lately. From Precipice Magazine an interview with Brian McLaren.

Darren King: Some have suggested that if the Church goes smaller (in numbers per grouping) and more organic in structure and expression that this might threaten the existence of the paid pastor in future decades. As a pastor yourself, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on this?

Brian McLaren: This is a huge question that I plan to address a bit in the emergent/c piece I mentioned earlier. Let me say that I'm for vibrant faith communities in all forms - from micro churches and house churches and quantum and liquid churches, or whatever you want to call them - to the new monasticism work - to renewal and reinvention in the historic denominations, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, and so on. I'm for cafe churches and megachurches and everything in between, including virtual churches. I think the worst thing we can do is get into an either-or argument. We need both-and.

So I think people who are pronouncing the death of the local congregation with a paid staff are overreacting. God knows, being a pastor is hard - it's the hardest job I've ever done by far - and it deserves a person's best effort, and responsible preparation, and it deserves a congregation's faithful financial support. But ... here's where the both/and comes in - I also believe that we need spontaneous neighborhood faith communities that will not be able to afford a paid pastor, nor will they need one. The problem will be to find ways to do this that don't destroy the unpaid pastor or her family. I was a bi-vocational church planter/pastor for many years, and I know that the cost on marriages and family life is often very high.

This is where the both/and comes in. What if well-funded megachurches decided to see some home-based faith communities as partners in ministry, so they could overlap and share resources and not see one another as enemies or even alternatives, but as two expressions of the same thing? That takes us in the direction I think we need to go, and will be good for the whole range of faith communities.

In my view McLaren's point on both/and is exactly right. Because we are in the midst of a cultural shift many different ways of "church" are needed - the organic kind and the traditional kind - and variations on themes among those groups even. Wouldn't it be great if these places would work together? From our view we would welcome it; however, I don't know how welcome it would be the other direction. Oh sometimes we have people referred to us from the traditional churches, but its always under the table. You know, "don't tell anyone I told them about yall, but they won't fit into our culture." It would be funny if it weren't sad.

To read all of McLaren's interview click here: Precipice Magazine

Dan Kimball has a very thought provoking blog entry titled: "Pews, Pulpits, Pastors, Preaching and other things that can get in the way of the church "being" the church"

Kimball is the author of "Emerging Church" and several other books.

On Pews -We moved from the intimacy of a home, to standing and still seeing each other and relating to one another and able to bow down and pray or even lay flat and pray prostrate, to sitting in seats all looking at the front. Most of our church architecture today was either adapted from the Roman Basilica (the law court) which is the way most long rectangular church buildings with pews and raised stage and pulpit are - or the 17th Century Theater as churches adopted seating and layout like contemporary theaters.

On Pulpits -There were no such things as "pulpits" in the early church or first in the 300 years of the church. They were primarily adapted from Greek and Roman forms of communicating and at first people sat to speak and standing to "preach" developed later. Pulpits became a focal point and raised high primarily after the Reformation. They create a definite distinction between the people in the seats and the person who gets behind the pulpit.

On Pastors (or preachers) - In the early church it was all small house churches and there were the "shepherds" (pastors) who were leading and caring for the people. So there is leadership needed, but not as a formal title given only to paid professionals, which was a spiritual gift. When someone in any church over 75 or so people call the person who gets up front "pastor", it becomes different than the "shepherds" who knew all their "sheep" by name etc., which was possible to do in smaller house church settings. But as we use the now use the title "pastor" for the person who gets up and teaches - it is not the way it was in the New Testament. Again, I am a "pastor", but I am wondering if how we title ourselves like this can be detrimental to people not understanding there are also many of them who are "pastors" , who have that gift. We seem to only use it for the paid professionals (we only do that in our church currently, because of the current cultural defining of the word).

To read all of Kimball's blog click here: Vintage Faith

Good thoughts.

Peace.

CJ and Other Catch Ups

2006-10-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

TODAY AT CJ
We had a very good day at CJ. Some very interesting discussions were held and much reading of scripture from all over but especially out of the Gospel of John. We had a nice group today, including a second visit by a family new to the area who had been part of a house church in the Memphis area. It still is fascinating to me how much of a network has developed among these new and different kinds of churches.

NOVEMBER 5
It is official, on November 5th there will be a joint gathering of CJ, Mosaic Family Church and the Church at Opelika. A time of fellowship begins at 10 AM. We will meet at Auburn Christian Fellowship on Gay Street in Auburn - its just a bit south of Taco Bell - Mosaic will have a sign out. This facility is home to the independent Christian Church's student ministry and is used each Sunday by Mosaic. At 10:30 we will have a time of singing and the overall gathering will focus on Christ's sacrifice and our remembrance of that through communion. We'd love to have you join us and are very excited about these communities coming together and focusing on unity through Christ.

FACING THE GIANTS
Tonight most of CJ went to see the new movie of the above title. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and there were some really funny parts. Good family flick. I guess my only concern about the film would be the danger that it sends the message that everything works out great for believers right now. In the movie the main character gets everything he wants and life is good. Life here just doesn't always work that way - it didn't for the first century martyrs - and it doesn't for the 21st Century kind either. Still nothing wrong with a feel good fun film and it was entertaining and a feel good kind of flick.

SPEAKING
As I've mentioned here before, I enjoy speaking. I got a call last week from a state audit group out of Texas inviting me to come speak to them next spring at their annual meeting. I'm excited about visiting with these folks. The president of this group heard me earlier this year in Kentucky and wants me to come talk on leadership. I love the topic and look forward to this event. I hope to have even more of these in the future - its something I have a blast doing.

WEDDINGS
Bloggers Kara and Adam are getting married this Saturday in the Magic City. I hope to make it up there to witness the big event. They are neat people who I really like even though they are not blogging much anymore.

I COULD HAVE BEEN A PLAYAH (and still could be)
As I write this blog the second game of the World Series is ending - the winning pitcher for Detroit is 41 year old Kenny Rogers (no, not the singer). The winning pitcher in the World Series is older than me! I could be playing in the World Series were it not for my lack of talent. That is comforting to know - that I'm not too old - not that I don't have baseball talent. I turn 41 on Friday. What could have been. :)

Peace

This Weekend at CJ

2006-10-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

SATURDAY -
Most of our community gathered for a tailgate party prior to the Auburn - Florida game. It was a beautiful day and we had a nice time in the early fall outdoors. We had a tv set up to watch the early games including Georgia - Vandy and Alabama - Ole Miss. Tons of great food and a good time was had by all.

The game went pretty good too. :) I can say, I'm not sure I've heard Jordan Hare louder than last night. At home my ears were ringing long after the game. I've sat in the same section for many years so I know many of my neighbors sitting around us and have to say it was just a fun time. We had a blast up there with lots of laughs and lots of high fives.

SUNDAY -
Our gathering focused on the vision and values of CJ. We've had a lot of folks new to our community and its important for them to know the story and for everyone else to be reminded of the vision. Singing was tough as many of us could hardly talk today. Here is the handout for today along with a few notes I added. I lead the discussion today primarily so I thought I'd just put the handout on here for you to see what all we do.

ChristJourney
Remembering our Vision and Values
October 15th, 2006

I. Welcome and worship in song

II. Vision – how would you define this term?

a. Historical example (excerpt played of Martin Luther King's Dream Speech)
b. Biblical thoughts on vision Prov 29:18
c. What Biblical characters exhibited vision?
d. The Jesus Vision Matt 16:13-19; John 13:34
e. The CJ Story

III. Our ChristJourney Values
God Loves All People
John 3:16
I John 3:16
The Steadfast Love (12)

We Love All People
Matthew 22:39
Romans 12:10-13
A Common Love (40)

We Love The Bible
Colossians 3:16
Psalms 119:9-11
Firm Foundation (35)

We Love The Church
Ephesians 4:15-16
Romans 12:4-6
We Shall Assemble (36)

We Love God
Matthew 22:37-38
Exodus 15:2
Hear O Israel (73)

IV. Communion Thoughts – a vision for common unity

That gives you a rough idea of our day, we did spend time on all the texts listed above. During the communion thoughts I referenced the Cane Ridge Revival of the Second Great Awakening as an example of a brief moment of unity and how a vision sprang from that - it unfortunately died out into sectarianism, but was a noble goal none-the-less. Also talked about the body passages that Paul wrote.

Peace

Upcoming Stuff and the Matrix of Modern Church

2006-10-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

This Week at CJ
Saturday 1 PM - tailgating at the arboretum. BBQ is on the menu. This all starts at 1pm. Feel free to drop by and see us whether you are going to the game or not. Each time someone has a birthday they get to pick the social event that goes along with it and I have a birthday coming up and selected tailgating.

Sunday 10:30 AM - gathering at the Farmers with the Robinsons planning the time together. We will be looking back at the CJ vision and core values. We will talk a lot about vision in general and what it looks like to be a Christ centered community in a post modern world. We wont have a meal this week is a go out to each week.

Joint Gathering November 5th
As previously mentioned, we have a joint gathering upcoming the first Sunday in November with our old friends from Mosaic Family Church and some friends from the The Church at Opelika.

You've head about Mosaic before here, but the Church at Opelika is a new mention. They've been around since 1994 and while they grew out of a different heritage than CJ or Mosaic, their DNA is very similar. Take a look at their site and their history and you can see this. We had heard of this group for some time and got to know Tom Tippett the past year through homeschooling.

Details are still being worked on but it looks like we will meet at Auburn Christian Fellowship for this gathering at either 10 or 10:30. Its exciting to come together like this and we hope this might even be something that becomes a regular thing a few times per year.

The Matrix
One of best movies of the past few years is "The Matrix." We at CJ watched this recently as part of a birthday celebration one evening. Its a neat movie with lots of spiritual applications and metaphors. I was recently on a web site of a house church network and noticed a discussion that was very interesting. This couple had been part of the house church network, then moved to another city where they are searching for their place spiritually and visited an institutional/modern type church service. The wife's comments below are very interesting and I love the Matrix analogy by her husband. Those who know the movie and have been unplugged will get it, if you are still in the Matrix we'll there is still time - which pill will you choose? :)

We are now faced with the question, how do you do what American society calls church after being a part of a Body that "does things a little different?" Dan compared this to the Matrix. Once you have been taken out of what you thought was reality, you see that so called reality in a whole new light.

You don't quite fit there any more. In our case, we were so blessed to be a part of a Body where there was an understanding of family and relationships, where the word hospitality was lived out in many lives above and beyond what I would have ever thought to do for another person, and where no one had a Sunday's best because they were the same everyday of the week, which is a good thing. I know that we all choose the attitude that we have in any given situation, but that can be a real struggle sometimes to choose the right one.

I don't know what the answer is as far as a Sunday service, but I do know that we need to connect with others in the family of Christ, and that seemed like the easiest way to do that. I guess I was looking for the easy answer and finding that maybe this is where we apply what we learned about doing things a little different and need to focus on someplace a little different than the obvious.

An interesting side note here is that this family was part of this community linked here Christ's Community in Price Hill before they moved. This is a house church network in Cincinnati. I have followed this site a while and really like what it looks like they are doing. If you read my Barna review of Revolution - this is it in action and I think a major way church will look like in the future. Who knows if this will be what CJ looks like eventually, but it wouldn't bother me if it did.

Peace.

Systems and Communication Thoughts

2006-10-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

At the conference where I recently spoke, there were two really good general session speakers. Here are some notes from their talks. I thought they had some good comments. The speaker's comments are in italics and my comments are in regular type.

John Alston's topic was "Moving From Ordinary to Extraordinary"
Here are some of his gems:

You are born and you die - everything in between is negotiable.

People will remember how you make them feel.

If you don't control your mind somebody else will.

Every outcome is the result of a perfectly designed system to generate that outcome. If you don't like the outcome, change your system.

This comment above was one of my favorites and is really profound when you think about it. Organizations that are ineffective are just getting the results they are set up to get. If your organization is dysfunctional, then its set up to be dysfunctional in many respects (or at least on some level). I've been around some really dysfunctional groups and looking back they just get the results they are organized to get.

Take for an example an organization whose leaders are visionless - is it any wonder people in the organization get frustrated over the lack of vision and direction? Its set up for this. Its a perfect system for dysfunction so don't complain, you can change the system or change your environment. Do something about it or simply learn to live with it but don't waste your time complaining.

Simply working harder at it wont work in a bad system either. Take for example if you are wanting to drive to California, but say you are headed toward Florida. Simply driving faster won't work. You have to change the system. The applications for this seem endless. Oh I'm sure there are probably some kind of exceptions some how to this but generally speaking I think this is profound.

We are all teachers - if others don't get it, then you must change the way you teach.

Telling is not the same as teaching.

This is profound especially today, the way people learn is vastly different than it was 15-20 years ago. Technology has had a major impact here, more than we most likely realize today. Just as the printing press brought a new era in how people learned, so has technology and the speed information travels. Today you can at any time hear and see the best speakers in the world on spiritual or any topic really all from your computer or television. That has a profound affect on spiritual communities, but I think also raises the bar on the need for community. You can get great teaching all alone like this, but you cant get community that way. It involves face time in my view, though I do admit many on line communities fill at least part of the relational role, I don't think it can fill it completely however.

Three Elements of Knowledge
1. Facts - you must get them but you can't change them (gravity for example)
2. Skills and Techniques - you must practice these
3. Thinking - the way you do it takes you to the toilet or it elevates you, your choice.

Great Leaders Have
1. Vision
2. Passion
3. Purpose

What we need to think and know
1. If you showed up today - you are in the game, life said yes to you today.
2. You cannot change the past.
3. Work toward creating great experiences.

Final Points
1. Life is a gift, don't trash it.
2. Of all your gifts, you mind is the greatest, so develop it.
3. The goal is to fully develop all your talents and skills, then give them away.
4. Work toward being the most decent human being you can be.
5. There are no guarantees on time.

A guy named Mark Towers spoke on "Communication is Everything and Everything We Do Communicates."

Towers was an excellent speaker, though he wasn't charismatic, well dressed, or anything other than a normal regular guy. Yet he grasped how to communicate as well as anyone I've seen in a while. He really grasped the power of story and knew how to involve an audience even if it was a crowd of more than 400 people.

Here are a few of his gems:

3 Hardest Things in Life
1. Return Love for Hate
2. Include the Excluded
3. Admit it When Wrong

Your life will be defined by the risks you take.

Towers told a great (true) story about a homeless blind man in San Francisco. This man asked for donations from passers by each day and had a sign that read, "I am blind and I need help." One day a man saw him and made him a new sign that read, "Its spring and I cannot see." The money he received from passers by quadrupled immediately. Communication does matter.

Peace

Weekend Recap

2006-10-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

YESTERDAY AT CJ
We had a nice day at CJ and most of our regulars were back. We also had a nice visit from our friends the Freemans. It was great to see them again. They are good friends and great people. Adrian showed us a short video of their Malawi mission trip, very impressive. He may give Tim Broadwell a run for the money if he keeps that up. :)

The vast majority of our time was spent camped out in Genesis 4 and the story of Cain and Able. (This will come as a great relief to some of our readers.) :) We looked at the account of Cain and Able and also quickly some other conflicts noted in scripture. Conflict runs throughout this book. Jesus clearly had lots of conflict - especially with the Pharisees - those who thought they had it all figured out in their day but also even from within the twelve. He didn't do things like they thought he should either. We spent some practical time discussing conflict resolution. Good community discussion.

As always communion is a central focus of our gatherings. This is important - not from a check the box standpoint at all - but rather a reminder and proclamation of what Jesus has done and that this is the basis for our community. It also serves as a teaching moment in many respects as it proclaims the gospel. I was always amazed at places where people would run in take communion, then they felt it was ok to leave. Seemed to me that might well be simply an adventure in missing the point, but that's just me.

CJ IS OFFICIAL
We finally got our administrative stuff taken care of so we are an official church as I understand it, whatever that means. I expect we still won't be official to some without a building or paid preacher, but that's ok. From what I can tell they did ok early on without those innovations. :)

CJ TAILGATE
This Saturday we will tailgate in the arboretum beginning I think at 1pm. Please drop by and join us if you are in town. The Tigers take on the Gators and ESPN will be here for game day and the 6:45 kick. Too bad the luster was taken off from the AU perspective, but this is where history says we thrive - when expectations are low we play our best for some reason. Not a great way to win national titles though as at some point you have to become comfortable being the front runner and getting everyone's best shot week in and week out.

Peace.

Playing Catch Up

2006-10-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

Travel and lots of work have kept me away from blogging so here are a few updates since my last report.

LAST WEEK AT CJ
We had a nice day, though several were away either out of town or working. We used the video called "More." It was interesting, you may have heard the story or fable of the bridge operator who had to make a decision on whether to sacrifice his child or the people on the train/boat depending on the version. This was an adaptation of that parable.

THIS WEEK AT CJ
This Sunday we will again meet at the Farmers at 10:30 AM. The Commanders will be planning our gathering. Mexican theme is the lunch. Please join us as I know it will be a great day at CJ.

JOINT ASSEMBLY IN NOVEMBER
Its looking like in early November we will have a joint assembly with our friends from Mosaic Family Church and the Church at Opelika. Stay tuned for more information. This day will likely center around communion, which to me is exciting and brings back thoughts of Cane Ridge and the Second Great Awakening on the early American frontier which lead to the Restoration groups of our heritage. It will be great I'm sure and we'd welcome any of our friends in the area.

ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS
Earlier this week I spent the week consulting at another institution. As part of this work I spent time talking with the institution's president and all their vice presidents and a few other folks. It was really eye opening the diverse opinions between the department we were evaluating and the administration. Largely, their problems were a result of poor communication and poor leadership. Neither the administration nor the unit seemed to really talk and had vastly different ideas and expectations. Yet their views were the reality they were living in. I wonder how many problems in organizations come from this, simply because people don't really talk and explain their perspectives. The leadership problem was that the department's leadership didn't seem to really want to lead. Another problem that is probably all too common. Hopefully our recommendations will help bring some good changes to this organization.

SYSTEM THEORY
A couple weeks ago I heard this speaker, John Alston, who did a great talk on "Going From Ordinary to Extraordinary." In his talk John made the comment and this is a paraphrase, "the result you are getting today is the exact result that your system is designed to produce." His point was that life is a set of various systems and in any of these things, if you don't like the results, then change the system. Simply working harder at a bad system wont really do any good. John had some excellent quotes I will share later here and the implications of his thoughts on systems are wide ranging for organizations and people really. I'm not sure where he got the ideas or whether they were self developed but I found them profound. I had a chance to visit with John a while after his talk, very interesting guy.

RUNNING
Last Saturday, I ran a ten mile race called the Tough Ten here in town. It raises money for breast cancer research. There is also a two mile option and the AU Men's Basketball team and Coach Lebo run that one. I hope they play better than they run this year. They didn't look in great shape to me. As for my race I came in at 1 hour 19 minutes and 18 seconds, which is a sub 8 minute mile pace. Pretty good run for an old fat boy I might say. 30th overall out of I'd guess a hundred plus.

DIERKS BENTLEY
Last night rising country star Dierks Bentley kicked off his new tour here in town with Miranda Lambert and the Randy Rogers Band. I took my oldest daughter, Lauren, who is about to turn 12 and two of her close friends. Lauren was giddy as this was a surprise event that we sprung on her at about 5 pm yesterday. To make it even a more special night for her, I happened to run into a friend who was able to get Lauren backstage to meet Dierks, get a picture and an autograph. Today, she is a huge Dierks Bentley fan as you might guess. She liked him before, now he is like number one. He was really nice to her and spent time chatting with her. On his autograph he wished her a happy birthday. Fun time for her and her other tweenage friends. I had fun too, I like Dierks.

Peace

This Week at CJ and Stuff

2006-09-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow at 10:30 AM we meet at the Farmers with the Gottesmans in charge of planning the day together. We will be using the short film, "Most" for part of the gathering. I've heard many good things about this short film. Here is a link if you'd like to see the trailer. Most the Movie Most means bridge in the Czech language and is where this film derives its title.

I got to see my old friend Tim Broadwell this week. We had dinner Wednesday night and then saw each other last night as well up at Lake Martin with an Emmaus event. Tim is planting a church in Cobb County, Georgia. Things are going well there it appears. Here is their web site if you'd like to follow their progress:Northern Hills Church

Quick Recap

2006-09-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

We had a good day at CJ. The Nooma videos always seem to draw out some excellent conversation. However, today I suspect it was one of those days that would have had some intense emotion regardless. On those days I think the key is to get out of the way and let God do whatever it is He is doing.

Jennifer and the kids have been in Nashville the past 4 days so I've had a batchelor weekend. The positive is I did get some additional work done but this week has a major amount I need to complete before heading out of town next week.

Peace

Updates and Stuff

2006-09-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

THIS WEEK AT CJ:
We will meet at the Commanders at 10:30. This week we will use Rob Bell's Nooma Series. "Rhythm" is the video we will use. Here is a description:

What does it mean to have a relationship with God? What does it look like? For a lot of us it’s a hard thing to fully understand. If God is an infinite spirit with no shape or form, how can we possibly relate to that? And what about Jesus? He said he came to give everyone life in its fullest. He came to show us how to live. Maybe it’s through trusting Jesus and living the kind of life he taught us to live – a life of truth, love, justice, compassion, forgiveness, and sacrifice – that we have a relationship with God. Maybe the way we live every day, every single choice we make, determines how in tune with God we are.

JOINT MEETING IN THE WORKS
A few of the new church plants in town are hopefully going to get together one Sunday soon to have a joint service that will be focused on communion and unity. I'll let you know if that does work out and the details. We'd love to have others join us.

INTERESTING
Got an e-mail from someone I went to church with like 20 years ago. He was inviting me to visit their new church plant. I told him a bit about our deal and we are going to have lunch next week to compare notes on things. I told him about the communion gathering but was frank with him that we are probably a little too far out there for most of the folks in his church. He said many there were questioning a lot of the old sacred cows. Should be an interesting lunch.

Weekend Review

2006-09-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

GAME THOUGHTS
I did say epic battle and there we have it, yet another unusual AU-LSU game. I ran into one of the LSU coaches wives before the game - she and her husband are AU grads who I knew when they were here - and as we talked we both said 2-3 plays would decide it and it would come down to the end. I even added that it could come down to what an official decided to call or not call. The media is way overhyping the waved off pass interference. It was a bang bang play and in real time looked correct in the stadium. The way I see it, even if you say it was a bad call LSU had 59:50 in addition to this one play to score if they wanted. Not to mention there is no guarantee they score if the call stands. They would have been around the 20 yard line and the field getting short makes scoring harder. AU can find calls we didn't like either - just like every game. The reason some of these talking heads are upset is the simple fact - they didn't like the outcome - especially since the BCS National Title Game has already been set in their world. Is is just me or is Lou Holtz becoming completely senile ("the University of USC" among his better moments this weekend)?

THIS WEEK AT CJ
The Farmers lead our time today and did a great job, in spite of a rowdy crowd still sky high from last night's victory. :) The Farmers began meeting with our community a few weeks ago. They've been long time friends of ours all the way back to our college days. Frank lead a discussion of spiritual gifts and many good thoughts were shared. We are blessed to have them in our community. The kids discussed the same topic and presented a skit to all of us at the end. It was great. I think its good for them to be considering this topic at a young age.

NASHVILLE
Jen and the kids head to Nashville to help Karyn on Wednesday and will return on Sunday. Things are still going pretty well as far as I know. Hopefully, I can use this time to get some major work done as I am way swamped with reports to issue, an audit schedule to develop, an annual report to write, not to mention ten billion files to review because I'm still short staffed. Luckily, I will also be out of town in a couple weeks doing some work for USA - that will help my swampedness - NOT.

SHOUT OUT TO NEWBY
Kudos to Adam Newby for posting to his blog. As you know he was on blog probation and about to be banished from my links yet he has had two posts lately. Thanks Adam. I'm not yet taking you off probation though.

SPEAKING OF BLOGS
I have added Fred Peatross back to my links as he is posting again. Check out his entry on August 24 here is an excerpt:

Questions Rarely Asked
1) Why does the body of Christ follow rather than lead in social reform and then dishonestly claim leadership in reforms after the fact?

3) Why do we continue to ignore, make ineffective, and even usurp, the scriptural teaching of the priesthood of all believers when we know better?

Also a great entry on August 27th dealing with the "Modern Day Preacher." Right on point in my view.

I also came across another blog I want to read and may add it. I stumbled on it off of Dying Church which is now back in swing. It is called "Stupid Church People" ok hear it out before you get too offended. I think its about laughing at ourselves and our quirks

Here is what they are about:

The goal of Stupid Church People is to be honest about how "foolish" church people can be. This is true for those of us that attend church (yours truly) and those that lead churches as paid staff (formerly yours truly).

I have been in the position of the "FOOLER". I have designed programs and events that were done under the auspices of "bringing people to Christ" but were actually intended to increase the attendance numbers to make me look good to those around me. That is just one example. As the FOOLER my ego played a huge role in ministry.

I have been on the side of the "FOOLEE". I have experienced that moment when the curtain is pulled back to reveal that the Wizard is nothing more than a sniveling, weak person who only has the power that I allow them to have. This can be very, very painful. When you see those that you trust lead you astray it is always painful.

The good news is that I am not alone. There are many, many people on both sides of the aisle in this discussion. Those that "FOOL" others and those that get "FOOLED". The pain will be obvious for both groups as we share our stories together.

Do I hate the church? No. Do I still attend the church? Yes. Do I support the church? By all means. I just wanted to design a place where we can sometimes laugh at ourselves, where the truth is spoken, where light is shed on the darkness and where hurting people can share their pain.

Welcome to Stupid Church People.

I haven't read a lot there yet but one cartoon I saw cracked me up that has this picture that looks like a flannel gram picture of yesteryear and it says, "Jesus is cool, but some of his followers give me the creeps." I know many of my readers will not like that but I'm sorry, I think it is hysterical. Its ok to laugh at ourselves. In fact, I'd suggest that is where the best material typically is for laughing.

Peace

The Week In Review

2006-09-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Loveliest Village on the Plains, where a hint of fall is in the air and many have already gathered and are tailgating as I write this. All are in anticipation of an epic battle of Top 10 Tigers tomorrow. LSU versus Auburn - it doesn't get much better than that. Tonight we have had friends over and I've spent much of the evening on the deck playing guitar in the cool early fall evening and now a little blogging. Wireless is a wonderful thing.

Travel and Talking
I just returned yesterday from a week in Kentucky at a board meeting and conference. I'm now officially Vice President of the audit association. I will serve for a year then become President next fall. I also spoke twice at the conference and those talks went well. I was on a panel with a couple of my peers - both from very prestigious private institutions - I told someone I must be there representing the bubba constituency. I did get the most laughs. :) It was funny though even after that talk I had lots of folks other places and conference events and stuff asking my opinion on various things. I guess that means I did fool them. :) LOL

I then did another talk with a former employee of mine. It went pretty well. I had a good reaction to the things I discussed which was essentially leadership and leadership development. Most likely that talk is going to get me a gig later in Texas with a similar group's annual meeting. Another institution is also considering bringing me in to do Kouses and Posner's Leadership Challenge with their audit shop. Interestingly, I had one person ask me to help them and mentor them in some ways with reading recommendations and such. That's pretty cool I must say and something I enjoy doing but no one normally asks that kind of stuff.

Thinking back on all these presentations - I have a couple more next week to student leaders - I have realized something about myself. I really have a need for talking in front of groups - maybe its just sheer vanity - but I like it. For several years in the institutional church I taught frequently and even on days not teaching usually kicked off the class with brief announcements. I had really missed the speaking part and had no real outlet for it under our house church model. Yes we all talk but its different there and it should be too. These conference talks have really been enjoyable for me. There is something about really connecting with a group that gets me - almost like an adrenaline rush. Not every talk is a homerun but on those days where you are in a zone it is really fun.

We had a couple general session speakers that were excellent. I will share some of their thoughts later.

THIS WEEK AT CJ
Last week David Emerson visited CJ, I was away but heard good comments. This week I have no idea who is organizing the day but know its not me. :) This is a go out to lunch week too. 10:30 at the Commanders if you are interested.

Saturday Night
We will have UT-UF on the deck, drop by if you want. Its fun to set up a tv out there and have food and a nice fall evening of football. Hopefully we will all be happy after an Auburn victory. I might even play a little guitar for a sing along if the game isn't too close. :)

Peace.

Finally an Update

2006-09-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

What is wrong with me other than being behind on everything. At least I'm not as bad as Adam Newby who I will soon banish from my links. I hope you read that Adam. :)

LAST SUNDAY AT CJ - The Gottesman's lead things and it was in many ways a continuation of the last time they lead. A very practical lesson on loving the unlovable. I was thinking, many people I know would probably say it wasn't a "doctrinal" lesson - but if you get that wrong you are simply wasting your time. An article titled, "Sandpaper People: Loving the People Who Rub You Wrong" was the basis of a lot of our time. I love that title. One thing to remember is that we are all sandpaper people to somebody, somewhere.

FOOTBALL - Good opening weekend. The Tigers looked as good in an opening game as any time I can recall in recent years. I got to see an old friend Luke and his daughter Emma up from Pensacola. Even better I got to see Ken and Deborah Haynes of the DF community. Hopefully they will be back later this fall and visit CJ. They are good folks.

KARYN - Jen and the girls got back Tuesday from taking care of Karyn and her family. Karyn is doing pretty good but you simply aren't gonna do great with a tree almost crushing you. They will return in a few weeks to help out again.

SPEAKING - I spoke in Montgomery to a group of academics on risk management. They weren't really a laughing group, but I changed course during my talk as they resonated with stories of real life stuff. One thing I've learned in speaking a lot is the need to change mid stream based on what is resonating with your audience. I'll be leaving town tomorrow for a board meeting then conference where I speak twice. You probably didn't know it but I'm a national expert now on one topic. :) Not really but its funny how many people want to talk to me on the subject of anonymous ethics reporting systems. I even talked to a Canadian institution today about this topic. Its rare I don't talk to a couple organizations each month about how to implement such a system. My other session is with a former employee who is now a CFO, I'm basically the comedic part of the talk and she is the serious one. I sent her my part of the presentation today and her department loved it, especially the mug shots of her I had done for the introduction to our session.

CJ THIS WEEK - David Emerson will be at CJ for a lesson out of Galatians. The meeting will be at the Commanders. Join them if you wish, I'll be out of town but they will be glad to have you.

Peace

Weekend Preview

2006-09-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry for no posts the past few days, its been very busy here.

Jennifer and the girls are in Nashville still and will return on Tuesday of next week. I then head out for a week that includes a board meeting and annual conference where I'm teaching a couple sessions. I enjoy that but for some reason I have everything all hitting at once as I will present to a group in Montgomery on Tuesday and threw that together quickly Friday afternoon. Its fun though, especially when you get a group that will laugh and learn at the same time. I suspect the Tuesday group will be a tough crowd as all are academics with PHDs. I'll let you know. :)

Karyn is doing very well and continues to make progress. The road ahead will just be long with much recovery to go and two small kids. Still things are going well overall.

CHRISTJOURNEY TOMORROW - We meet at the Commanders 10:30 AM please join us if you want. I'll be preparing barbeque so I can guarantee the food will be pretty good. :) In fact I've got to leave this soon and go start that you cant rush barbeque.

FOOTBALL TONIGHTAU opens our season tonight on ESPN 2. I ran on campus this morning and its buzzing already with the great smells of tailgating already in the air almost 12 hours before kickoff when I passed by.

Last night Davis and I went to the AHS game. We lost 31-21, but our defense gave up only 22 yards of offense. The other team scored on 91 & 93 yard kick off returns, a 95 yard fumble return, a 30 yard interception return, and a fieldgoal off a lateral they recovered when the qb tried to throw it away - it was in FG range they didn't move the ball at all. A bizarre game as the other team's offense was horrible but AHS simply made some bad plays on special teams and offense. You feel bad for the defense having played so well.

2006-08-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

TODAY AT ChristJourney
Today we spent our entire time essentially watching a movie called "Time Changer." It was pretty good. The guy who was the Captain from the Love Boat was in it. So were a few other well known actors. Overall not one of our better days as a community I'd have to say, too long a film for a Sunday gathering in my view and maybe not the most in synch day for some reason. Though live and learn, we will try again next week. By the way for September we are at the Commanders so feel free to visit us any week at 10:30 for our gatherings.

I did intro a new song I've been working on, "Amazing Grace (Peaceful Easy Feeling)". Its like is says the old hymn to the Eagles tune. Between Amazing Grace verses it has this chorus:

"I've got a peaceful, easy feeling,
and I know He won't let me down,
cause I'm already standing on solid ground."

Great metaphor in this song's chorus, plus a lot of fun to play. For me, it breathes new life into an old song. I like it anyway.

Are You Ready For Some Football?"
This is an exciting week as the #4 AU Tigers get going this Saturday night against Washington State. I am even excited about watching the first college game this Thursday night with South Carolina and Miss State. Its a fun time of year to live in a college town, especially where football is big and expectations are high.

Speaking of that we learned today that our brother-in-law Pete wrote a song that is going to be used by ESPN throughout this fall. Pretty cool.

Update on Karyn
Jennifer and the girls will leave on Tuesday to head toward Nashville and a week of helping take care of Karyn. Jennifer's mother sent out the following which is a very detailed update of where things stand and items for prayer attention. Thanks again to those of you who have prayed and asked how things are going.

I have just returned from 8 days in Nashville, caring for Karyn, first in ICU of the Trauma section, and then finally at home. She is making progress every day but it will be a very long road. She ended up with 6 broken bones, a spleenectomy (a 12 inch incision closed with staples) contusion on the head causing some bleeding in the brain, a partially collapsed lung, damaged nerve in her left arm making her fingers unresponsive. Numerous cuts, mostly minor and mostly on her left arm.

But when I show you the actual photos of the car, you will know she and the children are alive only by the protective hand of God. All the windows of the car broke and glass shattered everywhere, throughout the car, along the road, etc. But not one little piece touched either of those precious children, God's hand protecting them just like He protected Job, although he went through terrible suffering, Satan could not touch his life. When Pete went back to get a few things from the car, he picked up glass in his hands with everything he touched. The roof of the car crashed in like it was made of aluminum foil. Branches from the trees created weapons of their own.

And the fact that the pregnancy is still intact despite the shock, surgery, and all. Here are the prayer requests: You all have been so faithful and it is only through the prayers of the saints that Karyn came home after only 5 days.
1. Healing of the broken bones: upper arm, shoulder blade, 2 upper ribs on the left side, tips off 2 vertebrae.
2. Healing of the incision with no infection. And securely, as it will take well-mended muscles in just a few months as her pregnancy progresses.
3. No damage to the baby from the anesthesia used during surgery.
4. Healing of the damaged nerve in the left arm so she will regain use of the left hand (SHE IS LEFT HANDED). Repair of the nerves usually takes months.
5. Proper inflation of the partially collapsed lung

You all are great! The teamwork of family and prayer partners, church home, & neighbors is working. We love you and thank you for all you have done.

Peace

Weekend and Updates

2006-08-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

Karyn Report
Karyn was discharged yesterday and is at home now.

Thanks to all who have called, emailed, and asked about Karyn and more importantly those who prayed. Please keep that up.

Jennifer and the girls will return next week to help out in Nashville.

This Week at ChristJourney
We had a very good leadership team meeting tonight and I believe reached a general consensus as to direction on some things. It looks like we have a solution for a short term meeting place if we want that. It also looks as if everyone agrees with the networked house church concept though we may have to transition and grow into that.

This Sunday we will view the film "Time Changer" and then discuss. Prayer time is at 9:45, followed by the community gathering at 10:30. This week we are at my home once again. Please feel free to join us. We will have a meal to cap off our time together.

Some Updates

2006-08-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

I know many have been reading here lately and I'm figuring at least a good number of those are wondering about Karyn. Things continue to improve. Jennifer had a message from her today and couldn't believe how great she sounded. They did some work on her arm as far as putting on a cast and getting her situated to what we think may be a discharge TOMORROW - if her breathing and oxygen levels are good.

Simply amazing how far she has come from last Friday afternoon where you could hardly recognize her. We give God the praise and credit for the good recovery. We are thankful for that and for all of your prayers. From what I've gathered their church in Nashville, Fellowship Bible has been excellent through this. Don't let this positive report fool you though, there are many difficult days ahead as she heals and rehabs. Your prayers are still desired for her recovery and healing.

Jennifer will return next week to help out it appears. I will be here if you want to have me over for dinner or something. Just kidding. :)

ChristJourney Happenings
This Wednesday most of CJ will hit the dance floor again. Tom Padgett will be teaching us some ballroom dancing and swing dancing as well. We've had a few weeks with Tom, who incidentally is an elder at our former congregation and the most shepherding guy I know. I had a great lunch with Tom earlier this week and its good to discuss ideas with each other for both our situations. He is seeking to do much good for the Kingdom. We have tons of fun in these lessons and to us it even counts as our midweek services (ok I made that up, but think it is funny). :)

This Thursday the CJ leadership will meet to discuss our future and do some planning. We must think now how we will proceed, be it networked house churches and regular larger gatherings or something else. We will also need to consider our fall teaching and hosting schedule.

This Sunday we are again at my house, come join us at 9:45 for prayer or 10:30 for our gathering. This week we will have a film that I understand is very powerful. I can't recall the name right now, but its one that is supposedly very moving. We will view the film and discuss what is presented. As is our custom we will participate in communion and have a great meal together.

Unbelievable Weekend Part Two

2006-08-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

Well our weekend continues on...and today was a great day. ChristJourney spent the day at Lake Martin. One reason we were at the lake was to celebrate the baptism of my son Davis. Davis had told us recently that he wanted to be baptized. We spent some time reading the Bible on the topic and talking about the why's and such. Davis is ten years old and I am not a proponent of young children being baptized. I guess I should say, I am sometimes concerned that the younger kids don't get the implications and later question what they did. In Davis's case we had him write out the reasons he wanted to be baptized and honestly his understanding in our talks is much greater than many older people. He simply got it. He has always been somewhat mature spiritually, even his prayers from a young age were beyond his years.

So today Davis planned the gathering time. The songs we praised God with, he selected. His grandparents and aunt were here to witness the big event. Davis asked that his grandfather lead a prayer so we began with that, then sang several songs, his mother then shared some things about Davis, I then shared some thoughts about baptism. We then moved into the water. Lots of the community gathered with us in the water, others on the pier. We played the Kenny Chesney song, "Baptism" before he was baptized. That song is one of his favorites. I then had the honor to baptize my son. Next we gathered around Davis as a community and prayed. Communion followed then a couple more songs. The community also gave Davis a few gifts as we ended that time.

Lots of fun was had swimming, boating, eating and just enjoying God's creation. It was a great day at ChristJourney.

UPDATE ON KARYN
Karyn is still stable, still in much pain, and they've removed many tubes but she seems to be having some breathing difficulties so some additional tests are needed. They may have to reinsert a chest tube. The great news is that they did an ultrasound and the baby's heart is still beating. She has decided against two optional surgeries on her arm and shoulder. These decisions were made with baby's best interest in mind, though it may make recovery more difficult for Karyn. Please continue to pray for the family. Jennifer has returned to Auburn and is exhausted. She will return to Nashville most likely in a week or so to help out. Thanks to many for your prayers.

To have a full name for your prayers it's Karyn Kipley and she is at Vanderbilt Hospital. Her husband is Peter, daughter Katherine (almost 3) and son Miles (1).

Unbelievable Weekend Part One

2006-08-19T21:20:00.000-07:00

Many of you already know this but for those that don't this is a special prayer request for my sister in law. Yesterday, she and her two kids were simply driving down a neighborhood street in Nashville when a tree fell on their car. No wind, no storm, just a normal summer day. Unbelievable that they would be there at that instant. Her name is Karyn. Luckily, the kids Katherine and Miles were largely unharmed. Katherine who is two was very traumatized and a little scratched up. Miles who is one is unphased and running full steam I hear. Karyn is in much pain and very battered with a broken arm, ribs, crushed shoulder, and in stable but rough shape. Decisions lay ahead as to additional surgery. If you want to see what this looks like, here is a link. Unbelievable Photo

Also pray for Pete, Karyn's husband, as the road to recovery will be long and difficult for all of them. You may not know Pete, but you are probably familiar with his work as he has produced all but the most recent Mercy Me records. He also has worked with many of the big names in Contemporary Christian Music. He cowrote Mercy Me's big hit "Word of God Speak." Phil Wickham who is a new hot artist is produced by Pete as are the Afters who have had some big hits lately.

This weekend my son Davis and I went away for a guys weekend that included the initial birds and bees talk on a very basic level using some Christian books written for this purpose. We also went to the Kenny Chesney concert in Birmingham. As we parked and were walking to the BJCC, my phone rang and it was Pete asking me to call family for him. Pretty stunning and shocking turn of events to our night. I called Jennifer and managed to somehow convey what was going on, but it wasn't easy. She decided that since Davis and I had the weekend planned and were in the midst of it, that we should continue on while she and the girls headed for Nashville.

We got updates between acts and have spent the day in Birmingham. Kenny Chesney puts on a great show by the way. Randy Owen of Alabama came out as a surprise and sang "My Home's In Alabama" with Kenny. The crowded went wild with that one. Uncle Kracker was there too and did his thing with Chesney. It was a good show. Dierks Bentley was there and he was excellent as well. We didn't care much for Jake Owens the first guy though.

Today Davis and I spent more time on the growing up topic and also time fishing at Oak Mountain Lake. The other topic we dealt with some more is that of baptism as Davis has asked to be baptized and tomorrow, Christ Journey will meet at Lake Martin and our gathering will revolve around that event - probably. A final decision on whether Jen and the girls will head back tomorrow is looming later tonight. I'll talk more about Davis later.

Aimless Ramblings and Updates

2006-08-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

Brink Goes Yard
A friend of mine from our former church suggested I listen to Jim Brinkerhoff's sermon of last Sunday. He preached from Mark and the text dealt with the disciples telling those who weren't in their group to quit doing Jesus stuff. It was terrific. It was a homerun sermon and I mean a homerun like Barry Bonds on steroids kind of mammoth shot. It was also the kind of sermon that will no doubt tick a bunch of people off. Jim goes into some great restoration history in this and points out how the view has changed for many people today. Give it a listen and pray for Jim as I'm sure the critics will be in full force. He is a godly man who has done much for the kingdom. Here is a link to the sermon if you want to listen:
"Friendly Fire" - August 13

This Week at ChristJourney
We will meet and carpool/caravan to Lake Martin where we will have a special day and a special young man will be baptized into Christ. I'll have much more on this event later in the week including details if you want to join us. The day will also include lunch, swimming, skiing and other lake things.

Reflections on Stephen's Visit
About 3 weeks ago my wife suggested we host a visiting Korean graduate student we had learned about from a friend. This young Christian man was in Auburn for 2 weeks prior to heading to UConn and PHD work in engineering. She thought it would be good for our kids to learn about different cultures and stuff. I was a little reluctant but agreed. I must say, it was an overwhelmingly positive experience. Within about 24 hours of arriving in America, Stephen was living with a family of 5 he had never met, in a country he had never visited. That's pretty courageous if you ask me. I'd be way too chicken to do something like that.

We had such fun with Stephen being here. He is really a kind, gentle and patient young man of God. There were many funny times like one night I told Stephen, "I'm gonna hit the hay." As soon as I said it I knew he didn't have a clue what I was talking about so I explained it was a phrase for going to bed. The next night he said in broken English, "I go hit hay." Hilarious - but maybe you had to be there. Stephen has family in Auburn that we got to know also. They even visited Christ Journey last Sunday.

We had dinner last night with Stephen and his family in town. Today he left for UConn, may God bless our friend Stephen Ahn.

Peace

Today at ChristJourney

2006-08-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

I've talked about this before, how some days it just happens. You can't really plan it but the Spirit just moves in unique and unexpected ways. Today was such a day at CJ.

We had another full house. We are going to have to seriously consider the options ahead for us and logistically what we should do. Our full house even involved some of our regulars being out of town so we are about as big as one house can be now.

Prayer Time - each week we begin with a time of prayer. Primarily this is our core team that participates but we do have several others who come from time to time. Anyone can pray or you can attend and not pray. There is no pressure either way. Today's session was much like any other until our new friend Stephen Ahn - our house guest the past two weeks prayed. Stephen asked if it was ok if he prayed in Korean. Of course we were fine with it. It was really amazing to hear this godly young man pray. I don't know what it was but some of our folks were moved to the point of tears.

Gathering - Other folks join us at 10:30. As you saw in the last post, today was the debut of RobinsAhn. I thought that was funny anyway. Stephen is about to begin his PHD in some sort of engineering at UConn. He leaves Auburn on Tuesday but will stay with some relatives until he leaves. I'll write more about Stephen this week but to say this was a blessing to our family is to shortchange things. It was a wonderful experience. Stephen is a terrific guitar player and he and I did most of the songs today. We play together very well in my opinion and our styles really blend and compliment well. It was a blast doing this today. We will greatly miss him as he moves to Connecticut.

We had one powerful moment where Stephen continued to play solo and I made some comments about the song we had done followed by a prayer. It was one of those times then that the Spirit took over and several others prayed with great emotion. Its one of those things that when you experience it is quite powerful but the written word doesn't seem to give it justice.

The Gottesman's lead our discussion which centered on loving others as ourselves. Some great comments were made. Stephen's aunt and uncle visited with us today also. It was great to get their perspective on our little house church. They were very positive in their comments.

We then had our typical great meal; however after the meal it was more music from RobinsAhn. Lots of laughing and fun filled the room. We have a custom in our community, when someone leaves us we pray over them and several lay their hands on them as we pray. We had a powerful time of prayer over Stephen today. We asked God's blessing on him as he moves on in his journey.

I will have a big announcement coming up this week sometime. Our next meeting of Christ Journey will be at Lake Martin. Here is a hint: here is water.

Peace.

Quick Update

2006-08-12T18:49:00.000-07:00

Christ Journey - Sunday morning - 9:45 prayer meeting and 10:30 community gathering at the Robinson house with a meal to follow. Please join us as we'd love to have you.

BREAKING NEWS - Sunday will be the debut of international duo RobinsAhn. RobinsonAhn combines the unique sound of mediocre Southern guitar playing with a talented Korean style marked especially by unique picking. A hint of country here and there with some influences by the Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as Jimmy Buffett. Its currently the only date scheduled for this tour. Lead vocalist - which is me - thinks it will be fun and hopes Tina doesnt make us stop without playing our whole set. (Gottesmans are in charge tomorrow.) :) Seriously, Stephen (whose last name is Ahn if you haven't guessed) and I had a blast playing tonight getting ready for this and it is cool how his style and mine really blend for a unique sound. It will be worth the price of admission I guarantee.

Past Week - sorry for no recent updates, I am so busy these days it seems. I spent most of last week in what is called The Leadership Challenge which is a program based on the work of Kouzes and Posner. I spent time going through the training sessions, then another session to train me to facilitate their materials.

The Leadership Challenge is excellent stuff and actually many of the other folks who have influenced me like Maxwell, Lencioni and others have been influenced significantly by Kouzes and Posner. There is great flexibility in this material as there is so much material and it can me modified for various groups. I think it will be fun leading others in this from time to time. Definitely a servant leadership orientation to their material. Several folks in the session were from a servant leadership institute that works with pastors - they were a neat group of folks. Others were from higher ed all over the country.

Weekend Recap

2006-08-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday - we had a really great and very hot time at Town Creek Park for our Back to School picnic. We had great food and a wonderful time of fellowship together which ended with a prayer session for the teachers, children and upcoming school year that begins this week.

Sunday - we had a packed house and I mean packed house on Sunday to hear Jen Commander relay her Malawi story. It may have been our biggest crowd ever or at least one of the top. It was very good to hear Jen's story and the things God taught her in Malawi. She is an impressive young woman and as the father of a couple younger girls, what a great role model her story and life are to them. After our gathering most of us went to Tenda Chick for lunch together.

Today's packed house is a good reminder that we can't forget the future as we go along. Growth is good but for a community its also both scary and exciting. Scary we will lose community and become just another program based bureaucratic organization that is religious based. Exciting that others are joining us on the journey and what God might do. One thing we learned from our DF friends is that you can have a facility and not be a cold, institutional, and sterile place. That was encouraging for us, but we are still unsure as to what that means to our future.

Updates, Happenings, and Thoughts

2006-08-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday - Christ Journey Picnic
This Saturday at 5pm at Town Creek Park in Auburn Christ Journey will have a back to school picnic. Feel free to swing by and join us if you are in town. I'm sure the kids will be playing and having fun and there will probably be a frisbee or ball tossed around some in addition to conversation and who knows what else? Maybe a little guitar playing might happen and I know some really good food will be on the menu.

Sunday - Gathering at Christ Journey
This Sunday we are meeting at my house at 10:30 AM. We actually have a prayer session each week at 9:45 if your interested in that please come to it also.

We have a special day in store as Jennifer C. will share with us her experiences in Malawi, Africa as part of a mission team that was there the past two weeks. We will also spend some time singing, praying, and participating in communion together. We will also be taking a week off from cooking so everyone (or those that wish) will go out to eat lunch after our gathering.

We have a few new folks who are participating in our community. We are thankful for them all. We have one new family who has decided to make Christ Journey their home for a while anyway. They really just couldn't find their place in the local institutional church and are looking for something different. Hopefully, we can help them on their journey. If you are in the area and just want to visit a Sunday for something a bit different by all means join us. We are a unique place in that we want to help you on the journey - even if its a one day visit - we aren't worried about membership rolls, visitor cards, getting your money, or junk like that. We are just a little community trying to serve God in a simple way.

Reflections on Conversations

I had a very long reply and analysis of my last blog entry but I decided to delete it. It was probably too strong. I did keep my bottom line and here is what I learned from these interactions.

It's really easy to lose sight of the big picture. To become focused on minor issues, even making them THE issue. I don't know but it seems the modern American version of Christianity faces this in an increasing degree. While people argue over music styles, purpose driven churches, purpose driven lives, television commercials, and other things, there are a heck of a lot of people out there just trying to figure out if there is even a God. Its easy to forget that. Way too much time within modern Christianity is spent on complete and utter bull that really isn't important to the kingdom of God. (Edited)

Peace.

Conversations

2006-07-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

"You can hear a lot just by listening." Yogi Berra

ACT I - Conversations at the Supercenter

Location: Wal Mart - the toothpaste lane
Time: Saturday afternoon
The Players: me as a shopper and then two men having a conversation on the mouthwash side

The words quickly caught my ear and were spoken in a somewhat angry tone, "they say we have to change or we are gonna lose our young people. But we are not going to use that rock and roll music. That's the devils music. Why would we use the devil's music to try to reach people? We may lose people, but we will get some more people."

At this point I decided I needed to shop on this isle a little longer simply for the conversation. Part of me wanted to jump into the conversation, but since I was eavesdropping I thought that might not be a good idea. Anyway, it became clear the man doing the talking, who I'd estimate to be in his 60's, was a preacher of some sort. I do not know his tribe but it could have been one of several I'm sure.

He added, "Everybody wants to just get rid of doctrine. How can you get rid of doctrine?"

Interesting side note here, the gentleman mentioned two specific doctrines: 1. that Jesus died and arose the third day and 2. that Jesus was born of a virgin. This did allow me to eliminate my heritage as being the same as this man's. The doctrine battles of my heritage are nothing like those. They are important things like - communion cups, music, clapping, building use and stuff like that. Really important things.

"Everybody's reading that Rick Warren and the Purpose Driven Life. Everybody just wants to be popular and be liked. Jesus didn't worry about being liked. Paul, can you imagine Paul worrying about being liked? Paul spent most of his life in jail."

Once again I had to fight the urge to tell him I really didn't think he had any danger of many people liking him. Yet I held firm to my quietness - a veritable oak was I.

He went on to criticize a popular Methodist preacher out of Montgomery and some TV commercial he saw the guy do. He did say, "they pay me NOT to do commercials." I couldn't help but think that was probably a good thing his group does. I wanted to thank him for not getting on TV on behalf of the larger Christian community - though I'm not sure I would make the cut as approved on his roster. I am not concerned though as he doesn't keep the real roster.

I really wanted to stay and listen but I had to get ready for the evening. I will say this gentleman I'm sure meant well, but his tone and attitude were to me very repulsive

ACT II - Conversations Around the Table

Location: the dinner table at my house
Time: Saturday night
The Players: my family, another of our house church families, a Korean family and a Korean grad student who will live with us for the next 2 weeks to learn more about English and American culture.

Stephen had been in America for about one full day when he made it over to us. His first visit to our country. He is a believer and was raised in a Christian home. His aunt, uncle and cousins live here in Auburn and joined us for dinner. We had a wonderful visit with them.

During the course of the evening the conversation turned to religion. The aunt told some of her story and background. The cousin said she considers herself Christian but that other Christians probably would not - since she is "liberal." I don't think she was referring to clapping or music either.

Anyway, the cousin told of her interactions with an atheist friend and the anger he expresses toward religion. She told of her interactions with a dear friend in the Bahi faith and how this young lady is the most loving person she has known.

Conversations eventually moved to how frequently in this American culture what is billed as Christian doesn't necessarily look that much like the kind Jesus seemed to live. It was also interesting to me that much of the teaching we've had from Rob Bell really helped us in the conversations this night.

The aunt and uncle told of their difficulties in finding a place they fit in here in American Christianity.

CONCLUSION
Two scenes - to very different worlds. What do you think? See any difference in focus? See any implications for faith communities today?

I will analyze this later but would love to hear any thoughts.

Dying Church

2006-07-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I was reading Wade Hodges blog and noticed a couple interesting posts. One deals with a conversation he overheard where two Christians were trying to convert a non believer at a Panera Bread. I encourage you to read his post titled "Know What I Mean?" and also "Where Do You Start?" Anyway, after reading this I stumbled from one blog to another and came across one you now see linked to the left here called "Dying Church." Its actually on summer hiatus, but the archives are rich in quotes from other places. Cool picture which represents much of the modern church with respect to evangelism is there on the home page too.

Here is what this blog says about itself:

The Dying Church" is not about churches with low attendance. It's about becoming the type of church that dies to itself, that isn't as interested in its own survival as it is in following Jesus.

Jesus said:

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. (Luke 9:23-24)

Church growth and health isn't the point. Following Jesus is the point. Jesus may want to lead churches to places that will hurt their growth and health. He may want to lead us to places in which our churches won't even survive. The issue isn't church growth or health. The real issue is whether or not a church is willing to follow Jesus.

What about this - a church that is willing to die to its own interests and welfare, to pick up its cross, and follow Jesus? What about a church that, if faced with a choice between following Jesus into unknown and dangerous territory, and taking a safe route that would lead to growth and health - what about a church that would willingly take the dangerous route in order to follow Jesus?

Here are a few samplings from this blog - which actually quotes from many different places:

The church gets in trouble whenever it thinks its in the church business rather than the Kingdom business. In the church business people are concerned with church activities, religious behavior and spiritual things. In the Kingdom business people are concerned with Kingdom activities, all human behavior and everything God has made, visible and invisible. Kingdom people see human affairs as saturated with spiritual meaning and Kingdom significance.

Dave Kahle addresses the devastating impact of our current model upon believers, when he says, "The institutional church, with its reliance on paid pastors, church buildings, teaching and worship services, has created a passive, spectator form of Christianity that bleeds the power out of its adherents and siphons resources away from the building of God's kingdom."

I worry about the future of the church. I sometimes wonder why so many of the best people can no longer function within it's confines. I oft-times conjecture that denominations are fast approaching obscurity. But I no longer spend significant portions of my life introspectively wondering about what to do about it on a programmatic or theological level. Things seem much simpler now. I don't have to pretend. Much has been said about the state of the church and it's leaders. I'm bored with all that on a philosophical level. I'll let the eggheads contextualize the movements and it's idiosyncrasies. I have to go to work.

Many a church continues long after the soul of the church has departed because the building itself keeps them going. A building can become an artificial life support system that keeps a church alive even though it died long ago.

Very rich stuff - take a look sometime.

CHRIST JOURNEY
In the Auburn area, join us at 10:30 this Sunday. We are at the Gottesmans again this week.

Centennial Post: 100 Posts of Aimlessness

2006-07-26T00:35:00.000-07:00

Unbelievably, 100 times an entry has been made into this blog called Aimless Ramblings. Today we will kick off the next century of postings with an interview with the author, President and CEO of Aimless Ramblings.

Where did Aimless Ramblings come from?
Aimless Ramblings the blog grew out of an e-mail newsletter that I used to do for the Homebuilders class when we were at ACofC. AR was the part of the newsletter that included my thoughts, comments, observations, and whatever I thought might be half way interesting. I really enjoyed writing and so I started a blog to continue doing that. Initially, this blog was completely secret. I used it as a place to think, to vent, to just get my thoughts into words that I could go back and look at as I processed stuff. I then shared the address with a few close friends and finally, that grew into more and more knowing.

How long does an entry take?
It varies but usually I can knock one out in 10-20 minutes. For some reason writing comes fairly easy to me. I will also on occasion post something then go back later and edit parts I think aren't that well written or come across wrong. A lot of people say they don't have time to blog but for me its not a major consumer of time. If I have something to say, I can do it fairly quickly. Sometimes I sit down and write and am surprised at how long an entry is when I haven't been at the computer very long.

What has been most surprising in this process of blogging?
One, that people actually come here and read. Its not a huge readership but I can tell (through stat counter) I have some loyal readers who visit daily. I guess I'm surprised people would come back. Some of these folks I'm assuming found my blog via other blogs that I may have commented on, then they linked back here and enjoyed something about the content. There are a few people who read this site that probably don't know, I know they are visiting. I do, I just don't know how they found it to begin with.

The second thing is the reaction some people have to my writings. Most of my readers like what I write or simply come to see what's happening with the church plant stuff. A few though have been unhappy at times over things. You do have to understand that this is a place to vent sometimes, so yes it has been and can be at times extreme. One person thought that I was writing about them personally. That was shocking to me that they made that assumption as it wasn't even remotely true. This person even compared my writing to the far right journals that write people up (i.e. you don't send out a journal, you just use a blog to write up people). I don't think its a valid comparison as I write in general terms of the institutional church which I think has largely lost its way and is in need of reform. I don't write about specific people or places generally and if I do I remove the names.

So what about those who disagree with your viewpoint?
I acknowledge they need to do what they think is right, but I also acknowledge I can have an opinion. Diversity of practice and thought is not bad, in fact, I'd argue its possibly very good as different kinds of churches will reach different kinds of people. The idea that there was one specific way everything had to be done is a modern invention - there were major differences even early on between those Jewish believers and those Gentiles. That was ok and so is some diversity today. Obviously some things can't be diverse - like Jesus - but the further we get beyond him the more careful we ought to be over drawing lines I think.

What do you hope people get from Aimless Ramblings?
At first nothing, it was simply my place to vent and write my thinking out. Looking back you can in many ways see my own personal journey from the early writings. As it became more public I tried to use it to make people think and hopefully it does that. Secondly, it keeps a few people updated on the church plant who are interested in that. Lastly, on occasion its hopefully a bit funny. I like humor and sometimes I drop in some sarcasm or satire - I wonder if everyone gets that. I'm not probably as serious most times as some readers might think.

What's in store for AR's future?
Probably more emphasis on what's happening at Christ Journey. I'll still write about what I read, though I'm kind of burned out on the latest trends in Christianity books. Not to mention the fact that the institutional package just doesn't fit us and the vast majority are written in that mindset. I'm reading one book now on Emerging Churches that is interesting in many respects. It might prompt some thoughts. I'm reading more fiction than anything lately. I may write more generally on leadership. In my other job we are doing what I think are some neat things on leadership development and I may write about that and even do training outside my own department for some other departments and organizations. I've reached the conclusion that I'm paid to develop people - help them be the best they can be kind of thing and our plan here should really benefit my team. I think in many ways it relates to the same mission at Christ Journey - where our goal is to help people on their personal spiritual journey.

What would you say to your readers?
First thanks for reading. Secondly, please comment. I'm sometimes amazed at the number of visitors I have pass through, but so few will say anything. Comments are good and exciting for bloggers to get.

Weekend Recap

2006-07-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

Thursday
Was a big day for our community (as you know) as we reached a decision on our name: Christ Journey. We will quickly finalize bylaws and those administrative things that have been hanging out there. We've even got a preliminary logo that is really pretty cool. The big danger we face is in doing these things is to do them and not lose what we have - a noninstitutional model. I think the key is to keep a Kingdom focus and always put serving people in front of bureaucracy. Also, just remembering that there is danger of institutionalizing is a good check too.

Saturday
Our community spent the day at Lake Martin and had a great time. Many got to ski, knee board, and tube. We had some folks visiting our community for this event and they indicated they'd be coming some Sunday to see what happens there also.

Sunday
Our focus today was on worship with a lot of community readings from the Psalms, much singing, and a great community discussion. We had a very moving account from the mother of the young lady who was baptized last week. Essentially recounting the story of how they got to that point which was very powerful and emotional.

Tonight some of the community will head to the movies to see the "Lady in the Water" then out for Chinese food. Should be fun and its in these interactions that we run into people and talk about our journey and community and even invite them along. The director of this film M. Night Shyamalan is a favorite of many of our folks - he is a creative guy.

Aimless Ramblings
We've had a good bit of interest from some folks who are looking for something different in their spiritual journey. If they in fact transition into our community they would be welcome with open arms. However, we do have to think about the future and the implications of a larger sized group. Its a good problem to have, but one we can't afford to start thinking about after we are too large to fit into one house (which is pretty close right now). Many groups don't think or plan for such things then have to react to crisis moments. We don't have that luxury as we must protect the values and nature of what we have and how to grow this new idea of community without becoming something sterile, lifeless, and bureaucratic.

100th Anniversary - my next post with be the 100th as AR. I think it needs to be a good one. Maybe I will interview the AR author and talk about favorite posts or something. Hopefully this week that will be up some time.

Back on the Blog

2006-07-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

Hey,
I know many of you have been checking in routinely here and finding nothing new. Sorry about that, I've just had nothing to say. I've also been exceptionally busy. You might know there has been some interesting things in my paying job lately. Stress does tend to rise at times like these. However, all this shall pass. I also spent several days in Las Vegas. I can't tell you about that though because what goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas. Sorry. I do wonder if I can use the stuff from the conference outside of Vegas or if I'm supposed to forget all that education stuff.

House Church Update
This past Sunday one of our young ladies decided that she wanted to be baptized into Christ. That was exciting to see this young lady on her faith journey. Our community showered her with a few gifts to help her on her journey.

Christ Journey
We have not had a name for all these 7 months of gatherings. Journey was a name that many felt drawn to from early on in this process. Coming up with what to call our little group was somewhat difficult and personally I kind of got used to not having a name and just saying house church. However, from an incorporation standpoint to pool funds for ministry stuff you kind of need to call yourself something. So our little community is calling itself Christ Journey.

Christ Journey may at some point be a network of house churches which meet in total on Sundays or who knows. Strangely, we have become quiet comfortable of just seeing what direction God takes this thing and are open to whatever that is. Journey is important to us because we believe everyone is on a journey, some in vastly different places, but on a journey none-the-less. Our community wants to help people on their journey, if they are with us one week, one month or many years - our goal is to serve them in the name of Jesus. We aren't worried about membership roles or getting them in the church directory. If they never give a dime to our work, that's ok, so long as they know we are here to serve them in the name of Jesus. To make Him known to those we encounter on the journey.

This week we are at the Gottesmans at 10:30. Feel free to visit us at Christ Journey. The Robinsons are leading, though they aren't sure what to do just yet, could be a Nooma day. :)

Peace.

Weekend Recap - Mosaic Visits

2006-07-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

We had a terrific day with our friends from Mosaic yesterday. The house was packed and we got reacquainted with many old friends and many more new friends. Turns out both our groups had fewer than expected out of town so we were at capacity just about.

This was the largest group I think I've ever led worship with and that was kind of freaky. The Commander kids helped out with a couple songs as well and did a great job as usual. After about a half hour or so of songs we watched the latest Nooma video by Rob Bell. Its titled "Rich" and he talks about how blessed we are as Americans and how with those blessings come responsibilities. Its was a very appropriate topic for this holiday weekend. Great discussion by the community afterwards.

I realize there are those critical of Nooma and Rob Bell; however, you can't get more biblical in my view than his teaching on this topic. I think most all of the criticism of Bell is way off base and way out of context, then again that happens when you do things different than the institution says your supposed to do it. As far as this new video and the topic, its not a popular one nor one that is especially comfortable.

We had a great lunch and it was interesting to see lots of interaction between communities. Many of the Mosaic folks have roots in the Restoration Heritage so we had many things to talk about. I met one guy who even grew up in a house church and we had some great conversation. It was a great day and I hope we will do this again from time to time.

THE 8th OF NOVEMBER
If you haven't yet seen the video of the latest song by "Big and Rich" you must. In fact tonight at 8 PM central on GAC, there is a documentary on this song which recounts the story of a Vietnam battle. Its a powerful and moving song. I've never been a huge "Big and Rich" fan; but these guys hit a major homerun on this song. If you can watch the video of this song without emotion then you might want to check your pulse.

Peace.

This Weekend - Joint Meeting With Mosaic

2006-06-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

One of the things you quickly learn about house churches is that summers and holidays can really change the dynamics with many people traveling. This can be true to new churches too. Early on in our journey of house church we spent one Sunday with our friends at Mosaic Family Church which is lead by Jeremy Walden - a long time friend and former youth minister at ACofC. Well this weekend with so much travel, we are joining forces again with Mosaic for a Sunday. Mosaic's "in town" folks will gather with us for house church. It should be exciting day and we will have a packed house with these two communities coming together - in spite of some being on the road for the long Independence Day weekend.

We will use Nooma's latest video, titled "Rich" that I've heard many good things about. I will lead the music which will revolve around the theme: "Songs Kevin Can Actually Half Way Lead and or Play." If you are in the Auburn area please feel free to join us at the Gottesman's at 10:30 AM. We will cap off our gathering with a great BBQ dinner.

By the way, to learn more about our friends at Mosaic, here is their web site: Mosaic Family Church

Have a wonderful holiday weekend. Peace.

All the Lonely People, Where Do They All Come From?

2006-06-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

Apparently all over according to this recent Washington Post story, here is an excerpt:

Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says
The Number of People Who Say They Have No One to Confide In Has Risen

Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide, according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social ties in the United States.

A quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two.

The comprehensive new study paints a sobering picture of an increasingly fragmented America, where intimate social ties -- once seen as an integral part of daily life and associated with a host of psychological and civic benefits -- are shrinking or nonexistent. In bad times, far more people appear to suffer alone.

I would suggest the above information in some way might just correlate to the importance of this house church movement that you read about in the prior entry. True community is tough to create in the institutional structure. Let's face it you just aren't part of community by showing up 1-3 times a week and looking at the back of someone's head while others conduct things. A few people have the personality to make community happen in the pre and post interactions but many, if not most, don't.

This whole topic reminds me of an incident several years ago. Remember this song: "Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name, and there always glad you came." If you said theme song to "Cheers" you'd be correct. It was the ending episode of the series and after a mid week meeting this show was being discussed and a person made this comment: "I wish I had a place to go like that (the Cheers bar)." See the irony there? Somehow community was missed in this congregation and this was not a fringe person but someone highly involved. That was one of the most bizarre things I've witnessed, yet it opened my eyes to how hard community is to create in institional structures. (Its hard in all structures really with the fast pace of life today.)

So what do we do?

I think the above article represents an opportunity for both institutional and house churches. My guess is that house churches will have an easier time addressing the problem outlined in the article. However, even institutional churches can help alleviate this problem with intentional action; however, you have to overcome the resistance of those who don't want such community or have it and fear any change will hurt their deal.

Must Read on House Churches & Another New Church

2006-06-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

The current issue of the "Christian Chronicle" has an excellent article on the house church movement. For those that don't know, this is a publication from Oklahoma Christian University for members of Churches of Christ - the heritage from which our house church sprang or is that sprung. :) I urge you to read this as it explains "us" as well as anything I've read lately. Also, for those of the CofC heritage it will help you understand our motivation. When we began we didn't know what this thing would be, but felt called to do something. Its nothing like what I would have guessed at the start. In any case here are some excerpts from the article and then a link to the web site.

Some call it simple church. Others refer to it as organic church, house church or micro church.

Whatever the term, the idea is much the same: Reach new believers and people disillusioned by institutional religion by creating faith communities small enough to meet in a living room, coffee shop or break room.

And another

In the view of Marvin Crowson, domestic missionary in residence at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., these simple fellowships of believers mirror the churches in the Book of Acts.

"This is the way church was for at least the first 150 years of its existence," Crowson said, "and some are today looking for its sincerity, simplicity, priesthood of believers and focus on people and being the church of Christ 24/7."

In the Bronx, Looney and his counterparts settled on the simple church method only after an attempt at a larger church setting failed. In summer 2003, when the number of people meeting at an apartment reached 44, the congregation rented a public school as a meeting place.

"We absolutely lost momentum," said Looney, 33, who studied domestic missions at ACU. "There was something about meeting in a living room that was more than just strategic. It was family."

Last year, Looney, Cheek and other New York area church planters formed a network of house churches whose members occasionally meet as a large group.

"It is similar to a small-group ministry of a large church except that our small groups gather together in a large group less often and are understood as the basic expression of church," Looney said.

Cheek, 28, who earned his Bible degree from Ohio Valley University in Vienna, W.Va., said he and Looney are anything but "anti-church," even if their ministry targets outsiders who are.

"We do not see ourselves in competition with other forms of church, but rather as specialists, reaching people and social layers that other forms cannot," Cheek said.

Looney and Cheek said they intend to grow the church in the
New York area by converting the unchurched and training new Christians to lead simple churches.

It's a concept they suggest could work anywhere "even in the Bible Belt. You could do this in Nashville, Dallas and still reach people who would never come to a building," Looney said.

I still say if there were some way that we could partner with the institutional churches, much good would occur. I don't even know what that means really other than working together to reach people. Maybe it could mean that if we have these networks of house churches - that the institutional churches could allow us to use their facilities for these "big" network gatherings as described above. It would take great courage to do that as it would only work it you let this network worship in their culture and style which would no doubt be different.

The potential for this is enormous I think. We are not in competition with the institutional church (though I admit being disillusioned by the beauracracy) but everyone should remember we are on the same side here in the kingdom.

Here is a link Churches in living rooms, coffee shops a growing trend

International Church of Christ Comes to Auburn
For those interested in one offshoot from the mainstream CofC, the International Church of Christ is about to plant a church in Auburn. Ironically, they meet tomorrow in the arboretum which is just north of the Auburn Church of Christ. This will be interesting to watch. I've not followed this movement closely the past few years but I do think they have attempted to reform from some past problems.

Here is what I recieved this week from a friend:

The North River Church of the Atlanta church is currently in the process of pulling together a mission team of Brothers and Sisters to send to Auburn, Alabama. In a time when many of our churches are diligently working to pull our congregations together and move forward in the work that God has called us to, it is so refreshing and encouraging to see the mission of seeking and saving the lost still on the hearts of many. The Brothers and sisters of The Birmingham Church want to extend our love and appreciation to the Disciples of The North River Church and surrounding churches for their dream and the sacrifice that will accompany that dream. We want them to know that The Birmingham Church will always be here for them and will be praying for them that God will move powerfully as they get things started in "Tiger" Country. With Love and appreciation, The Birmingham Church

ICofC Plants in Auburn

Peace.

Aimless Ramblings from Good Writers

2006-06-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

House Church
This week we are at the Commanders. We begin with prayer time at 9:45 and then our gathering begins at 10:30. You are welcome to come to all of that if you're in the Auburn area. We will as always conclude with a meal together and its usually pretty good eatin'.

Other Blogs and Writers
Some terrific stuff I've seen lately on other blogs. Take a look at Wade Hodges blog and his entry on June 20, titled "Retelling an Old Story." Very powerful here is a teaser:

Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was an American Christian and the other a Pharisee. The American Christian stood tall, and with outstretched arms, prayed, “Lord God, thank you for allowing me to be born in this great country and for making me who I am. I could have been born in Africa or be a homosexual or a Democrat or even a legalistic Pharisee.

Very interesting to read the comments of his readers on this entry. Some diverse views. I really thought it was a powerful entry.

Jeff Garrett has a great post title "Dear Anonymous (regarding legalism)" on June 9th. Here is a teaser from Jeff:

I sympathize with your struggle. I also carried the heavy baggage of legalism for a long time but I dropped it because it wore me out. You also need to drop it and trust Christ alone. Today I try to focus on Jesus Christ and not the Church of Christ. The Church of Christ is no longer my Savior. It used to be. But no longer. I used to convert people to the COC (rather than to Jesus Christ). I used believe that I had to be saved by a moral code that I couldn't keep.

Both blogs are listed on the left side here at AR.

Great Quote
from Edward Fudge's latest graceEmail. He does a great job and is actually someone I've consulted with on occasion for an opinion - even at the start of our church plant he was someone who I sought advice from. I recommend his gracEmail column. To to subscribe visit his web site here: Edward Fudge Here is the quote from Peterson:

SECTARIANISM -- "The usual way in which we avoid the appearance of crass individualism is through sectarianism. A sect is a front for narcissism. We gather with other people in the name of Jesus, but we predefine them according to our own tastes and predispositions. This is just a cover for our individualism; we reduce the community to conditions congenial to the imperial self. The sectarian impulse is strong in all branches of the church because it provides such a convenient appearance of community without the difficulties of loving people we don't approve of, or letting Jesus pray us into relationship with the very men and women we've invested a good bit of time avoiding. A sect is accomplished by community reduction, getting rid of what does not please us, getting rid of what offends us, whether of ideas or people. We construct religious clubs instead of entering resurrection communities. Sects are termites in the Father's house." -- Eugene H. Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005), p. 244.

Hope your weekend is great. Peace.

Back to Blogging Again

2006-06-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

Oh I've been back since last Wednesday, I've just not blogged. Not that I had nothing to say, I just got tired of people misunderstanding what I write. Even had some thoughts of deleting the whole thing (or at minimum making it private where only some could read it), but I decided not to do that. You should have read the entry I had but didn't post as I thought about these things (maybe there is hope for a kinder and gentler AR). :)

Then I thought, how many people have I made read my blog? Lets see......that would be None! Zero! Zilch! Notta! If you read this blog its because you choose to and in a few cases even like to! So, feel free to chime in even if you disagree. I'm sure I often don't use the best words or write clearly, so feel free to ask for clarification. Discussion is not a bad thing.

House Church Update
Yesterday we had a neat experience as 3 of our teens who had spent a week in New Orleans planned and lead our gathering. It was good to hear their stories and to have them participate by leading our time together. Ensuring participation (not spectating) by all our people is a huge advantage we have as a house church. You simply couldn't do that very well logistically in a larger environment. You could do some things but you'd have to work at it very hard.

Speaking of house churches, the Barna Groups latest update is titled "House Church Involvement is Growing." Its a good overview of what is taking place in the growth of these organic Christian communities. Here are some stats: in a random survey of 5,000 they found that 9% attend house churches. Projecting this out that would mean 70 million have had some house church involvement and about 20 million attend a house church each week. Barna believes we are early on in this movement and that it will only grow and become a permanent fixture in the spiritual landscape here. To read the article click here Barna on House Churches It was encouraging to read this study. By the way Barna does differentiate between church sponsored small groups and house churches.

I was thinking, it would be really great of house church networks and institutional churches actually worked together. By this I mean we may encounter people who need the structure of an institutional church and they may encounter people who just don't fit their model. Wouldn't it be good if each model would commit to sending people they encounter that either don't quiet fit or have different needs to the other as needed? Oh, we are seeing some of that but I have no doubt that its only the tip of the iceberg as far as what could be. Kind of weird but that would almost be like working together for the kingdom maybe even in a way Jesus meant.

Quick Update

2006-06-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

I'll be unable to blog until perhaps Wednesday or Thursday of this week so don't look for anything new before then.

Updates:
We saw the movie "Cars" yesterday. Good movie and a good message in this new Pixar film. I give it a thumbs up.

Today house church is at the Commanders and the majority of our community is in town.

Upcoming:
The Likeability Factor - a book by Tim Sanders I just read. Some interesting things in that book.

Angels and Demons - on this trip I'm about to start on the prequel to the Da Vinci Code by the afore mentioned title. I've heard its a good read.

Thoughts on That Churchy Culture Thing

2006-06-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

I came across this comment on a message board recently and it really resonated with me:

The inability to accept the sinfulness of others while at the same time accepting one's own sinfulness is what hypocrisy is all about.

That quote really hit home with some things I've been pondering. For whatever reason Jesus attracted the untouchables of his day. They wanted to be with him. Yet these Jesus communities in our time frequently repulse the same category of people. Why is that? Here is my shot at it though I do know its probably because of lots of different reasons but this is the one on my mind: churchy culture.

I've really been thinking about what I guess you call "modern American church culture". You know what I mean - the secret code words, dress code, and air of arrogance that churchy people sometimes exude. A lot of people probably don't even realize it, though some do and even confuse this churchy culture thing with Christianity itself. Frankly, I find this churchy culture club thing sickening and repulsive. Part of my reaction is no doubt to my own past - for many years I played a big part in perpetuating it and looking down my nose at those who didn't toe the party line.

Yet, I read the story of Jesus and the people who didn't fit his day's religious culture club were the very people who were drawn to him. Isn't something wrong when today's version of the untouchables are repulsed by this churchy culture thing? Shouldn't we destroy all these things that don't draw these people to Him? I think so.

Perhaps, just perhaps losing some of the churchy culture and arrogance it exudes would be a great start. My hope for our community is that we are a place where sinners are drawn to - no not to stay where they are - but to be changed by God. Not so they can arrive and join the club and then look down on others. No, not that at all, but a place where everyone recognizes their sinfulness and that but for grace we'd be in the words of Bocephus, "whiskey bent and hell bound."

UPCOMING: The Likeability Factor

The Weekend In Review

2006-06-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY - Jen and I took Rachel to Mikata Japanese Steakhouse for dinner. Mikata means "fun" according to the commercial; however, I think it should mean "large bill for customer." Good thing the other kids were with friends.

SATURDAY - Up early ran 9 miles, then Davis and I went to our old church for a men's breakfast to hear Chette Williams. Chette is the team chaplin for AU football and state FCA director. I've known Chette for a while through the Emmaus community and even coached one of his kids in basketball recently. Chette did a wonderful job and is a terrific man. He basically told his story and then told about the FCA program at Auburn. What some of you may not know is that what is happening here is essentially being copied and taken to most major institutions across the country. You can see the influence this program has had on many young men and team chemistry, from their singing the old spiritual "Hard Fightin' Soldier" after a game to the entire team down on their knees praying for an injured opponent.

Tommy Tuberville the AU football coach began a full time chaplin program while at Ole Miss then did the same thing after coming to AU (where he hired Chette). At that time only Ole Miss and AU had full time chaplins; however, today all 12 teams in the SEC (along with many other major conferences) have full time "spiritual coordinators" and many of these come to AU to learn how its done. They've even just begun an internship program where folks interested in in becoming team chaplins will come to AU to train for this career. Its affected the lives of many young men. I was glad they invited Chette in for this talk, it was a courageous decision since Chette is of a different Christian heritage and that's typically not something that happens in this heritage.

SUNDAY - Good day for house church and finally most of our people were back in town all at the same time. We also had a visit from new friends the Williamsons. They brought some great words of encouragement to our group. They have a great story to share and we were blessed by their presence with us.

FUNNY I THOUGHT - Wade Hodges has an interesting blog entry recently and one many of my readers can relate to. I love the title of his "proposed" book. Here is an excerpt:

I've decided to write a book. Maybe.

My working title: Emerging Frustration (or How Brian McLaren Ruined My Life.)

Basic idea: I keep having painful conversations with people like myself who have drunk deeply from the emerging church discussion and who find themselves working in very unemerging church contexts. The tension for some of us seems at time unbearable. We've been captured by this vision or possibility or potential of a new way of being Christian (whatever that means) and yet the institutional churches in which we work and do ministry almost seem designed to frustrate such a way of life.

Very interesting to read the comments following Wade's entry. Take a look, the blog is linked on the left side here. If you've read Aimless Ramblings you know which choice we've made.

Speaking of being influenced by authors, I had someone say to me once that "you read too many books." Yep, wez got be b kareful we dont git two much of that learnin'. :) Might even question things and we know what happens if you question things (see "Back Where I Come From" in a previous entry). Personally I think Mark Twain was right when he said, "The man who does not read has little advantage over the man who cannot read."

The Da Vinci Code

2006-06-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

During my vacation I read the Da Vinci Code. First off, its a good book if kept in perspective - that is that its a fictional murder mystery. Its quite good in fact. I really enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed how Dan Brown kept the chapters short. There are like more than a 100 chapters in the book, some of them only a page long, but what a feeling of accomplishment - read three pages and you can say, "I just knocked out a couple chapters here in 5 minutes." Personally, I liked that arrangement and I'm kidding but not really. I hate books where the chapters go on too long. Brown is a good writer and its funny to think of Tom Hankes as the lead character. As I read my mind had Harrison Ford as the professor - it would have just been better that way.

With respect to the controversy about the book, I can see it better now. Yes its fiction but if you don't remember that you'll easily confuse real history and the crazy conspiracy theories in the book - that are easily debunked actually. Will some people take this made up stuff and try to make it reality? Yes, probably so there were always be nuts and people who buy into any kind of conspiracy theory they can find. Let's face it conspiracy theories can be fun and mysterious - not like reality which is sometimes very real and boring.

All that said I am convinced without question that the spiritual communities who are using this for dialogue are taking the best approach. I'm not talking about those who have signs saying "DANGERS OF DA VINCI CODE THIS SUNDAY AT 11 AM" or "BOYCOTT DA VINCI" They just look like dorks, I'm talking about using this for real conversation. History and the truth of Jesus are on our side so we need not fear conversation but rather engage it.

At least that's how I feel today. So there. I might change my mind later.

TRAFFIC
I'm amazed at how much traffic has been here even while I was away. As always your free to chime in with an opinion. Its actually almost time for a gratuitous Ken Haynes or Adam Newby post. :) Which I appreciate greatly by the way.

BLOGGERS GET ENGAGED
Sounds like a headline from this week's National Enquirer but its real. Two of the bloggers linked here at Aimless Ramblings are getting married. The blogger of "Reserved for Purpose" proposed to the blogger of "Sophia" and she said yes. Allegedly, it was some sort of early morning big romantic deal with him on his knees begging and pleading for her to marry him. Thats the word out of the Magic City anyway.

I'm Back Again

2006-05-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

Did you miss me? Wait don't answer that, but I am glad you asked where I've been so here is a recap:

Strategic Planning
Early last week I spent a couple days in Hartford, Connecticut as part of a strategic planning session for an audit association on which I serve on the board of directors. It was a good couple days there. We use a consultant who specializes in associations to lead us in our planning (we did one plan a couple years ago and this was to update it) and its a terrific learning experience. There are lots of similarities between associations and spiritual communities so its especially good for me.

My investment in this association is also very deep as this fall I become Vice President and then the following year will become President. Try leading a bunch of auditors and you'll learn a thing or two about leadership. :) Seriously, its professionally a pinnacle type honor and one that is very exciting and kind of scary at the same time. I'm much younger than the typical past leader of this organization so that's a bit different too. As far as I can tell, I will be the second youngest president in this organizations 50+ year history. Its been a great thing to work with these folks and I've made some wonderful friends from a Jewish buddy in Boston who talks funny to a guitar playing grandfather from California (who is incidentally the Michael Jordan of our industry and even testifies before Congress and stuff like that). Pretty cool to get to know such a diverse group.

Dysfunction Palooza 2006
Also known as the annual family vacation. :) That is what I jokingly call it but its great fun. Anyway for the past 6 years the extended family on my side has gathered in the mountains of east Tennessee for a week long vacation. It is really a lot of fun and we mix the touristy things like Dollywood with time in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We kept our streak alive of seeing at least one bear each year. Cades Cove is where that normally happens and it did again this year. Dollywood has a great wooden rollercoast that the kids and I love to ride.

Back Where I Come From
While in the mountains we attended a congregation of my heritage. It was honestly like stepping into a time warp and traveling back to 1960. Its kind of weird to go back to where you once were. There was that air of arrogance that has all too often permeated many congregations of my heritage. The "we have the truth" mantra was sounded throughout. Implicit in this is the idea that if you have a different conclusion then you don't have the truth. There was the gratuitious instrumental music mention along with another favorite of this heritage: marriage/divorce and then the complimentary homosexuality commentary. I don't think they have to worry about any of those sinners coming into their midst though.

I would guess about 70% of this specific congregation was 55 or older. Kind of sad really, though I'm sure they are doing what they believe is right - I just wonder. Several comments were made of the slippery slope idea where "people/kids start questioning things" and error creeps in. If they don't question things perhaps they won't have faith, they may be robots but the faith won't belong to them. If you really have the truth shouldn't you be unafraid of questions?

Karaokee
For the past couple years my parents and some of their friends have been majorly into the karaokee thing. They've even videoed their performances and forced us to watch them during holidays. In the words of Simon Cowell, "it was absolutely dreadful." It did bring a lot of material to make fun of them. We'll it seems near where our vacation was is kind of a karaokee mecca. And yes you guessed it, we all went and I even participated. Worse still it was actually fun. :)

Davis and I sang the Gary Allen song, "Best I Ever Had" which is actually a Vertical Horizon song but one he made popular on the country charts. We actually did pretty well on this. Later I sang a Jimmy Buffett song, "Come Monday." I picked it because its probably my best song on the guitar now so I sing it alot. My most critical child said I did well and even sounded like Jimmy Buffett in parts. I'm thinking too bad about that AI age limit now. :)

Speaking of Gary Allen I'm really liking his music. His current song "Life Ain't Always Beautiful" is a great one. You can sense the pain in his songs on his latest CD. His wife committed suicide after several years of battling depression. You can really sense the emotion in his recordings. Here are the words to his latest:

Life ain't always beautiful.
Sometimes it's just plain hard.
Life can knock you down,
It can break your heart.

Life ain't always beautiful:
You think you're on your way.
And it's just a dead end road,
At the end of the day.

But the struggles make you stronger,
And the changes make you wise.
And happiness has it's own way,
Of takin' it's sweet time.

No, life aint always beautiful.
Tears will fall sometimes.
Life aint always beautiful,
But it's a beautiful ride.

Life aint always beautiful:
Some days, I miss your smile.
I get tired of walkin' all,
These lonely miles.

And I wish for just one minute,
I could see your pretty face.
Guess I can dream,
But life dont work that way.

But the struggles make me stronger,
And the changes make me wise.
And happiness has it's own way,
Of takin' it's sweet time.

No, life aint always beautiful.
But I know I'll be fine.
Hey, life ain't always beautiful,
But it's a beautiful ride.
What a beautiful ride.

That's why I love music so much, the way emotion can be conveyed through it. I tend to think in song terms even or when I hear a song it takes me to a past event or current situation. Thats when you know its a good song I think.

Other Stuff
I did read the Da Vinci Code while away. I'll have my blog on that in a couple days. Stay tuned for that plus a house church update as well.

Nooma

2006-05-21T17:29:00.000-07:00

Our little community has frequently used the Nooma video series. Nooma videos are simply among the best resources on the market today for relevant, contemporary teaching in a style that connects with the emerging culture. Rob Bell has been the teacher on these videos and he simply has a way of taking the routine things of life and bringing spiritual application to them. Several things are going on with Nooma, there are currently a dozen Nooma videos out, but they hope to make videos more routinely and even have other teachers besides Rob Bell doing them.

Today we watched a video documentary about Nooma they recently sent to us that included testimonials of those who have been affected by the Nooma movement. One of the guys who told his story was with the band Sugar Ray. Pretty interesting to hear him tell of his background of not being in church and even having a somewhat negative view about church, yet connecting to this media. Stories were told from all around the world about how these teachings are being used.

Nooma is a nonprofit ministry and one I plan to support. They are teaching the gospel in a very relevant format for emerging culture. The neat thing about the videos are the conversations that spring out from watching them with a group of folks. God is doing some great stuff here. You can watch one video on line now called "Rain" its a good one too. Eventually they hope to have more online for anyone to watch. Here is a link Nooma.

The next Nooma video is titled "Rich" and it will be out this June. Oh and Nooma will give away all the proceeds from the sale of that video. Cool.

Da Vinci Code and Rumblings of Various Sorts

2006-05-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Seems like everyone is talking about the release of the movie version of the Da Vinci Code. Lots of people are hot and bothered about it's release and the faith impact. Considering I haven't read the book (nor will likely see the movie until DVD), I guess I shouldn't have an opinion.......but I want to have an opinion, so I plan to read the Da Vinci Code as I travel next week.

My initial reaction to what I've heard and read from others is, "Why are so many people bugged by a fictional book?" However, the book supposedly mixes fact and fiction and so people might get confused. My guess is people are going to get confused regardless so who knows. One local preacher who is doing a series on this said the Da Vinci Code was "dangerous." I know another new church in town saying, "hey go see it and let's talk about it." Personally, I like that second approach better - I think. It would seem if we talked rather than boycotted we might be used by God for good - I think. I'll let you know my thoughts on the book in a couple weeks - I think.

Rumblings
Recently we've had a few questions about our movement from some folks who have apparently had lots of conversations about us. We weren't included in these conversations nor aware of them going on strangely enough. Its good we were finally asked for clarification by at least by a few of these folks. We would be glad to answer any questions from anyone so please ask us rather than speculate. (Kind of like reading the Da Vinci Code before forming an opinion.)

More Plant Rumblings
More rumblings are coming down about another possible church plant in town. Certainly there is some irony in this one. I like irony. I find it ironic. :) You see irony here time to time (along with their cousins paradox and sarcasm). There is something comic about irony. Thats why I like it because I like to laugh - and to think. Who knows what will become of this rumbling? Perhaps God will use it for good. That would be good wouldn't it and I don't even have to think about that. So go to hear Tim B talk about this stuff on Tuesday night - I'll be away so I can't go and besides I've heard most of it before anyway, but you go. Really.

Soul Patrol
Yeah for Taylor Hicks making the finals of AI. Good luck to him. Of all those competing, he's always came across to me as the person you'd most like to hang out with. Seems like a nice fellow who you could sit around and laugh with. He did great this week on his songs.

Aimless Ramblings

2006-05-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

iPod Facts
I run with an iPod Nano (4G). I'm pretty sure if I had had an iPod years ago I'd be much smarter and probably in better shape. I listen to lots of great teaching from John Maxwell, Brad Small (Amarillo South), Wade Hodges (Garnett Road), Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill), and the Emergent Podcast.

Top Five Most Played Songs
1. Undignified by David Crowder
2. Trading My Sorrows by Darrell Evans
3. Rich Young Ruler by Derrick Webb
4. Heaven by Los Lonely Boys
5. You Do All Things Well by Chris Tomlin

Last Five Songs Purchased From iTunes
1. Superman by Five for Fighting
2. Life Ain't Always Beautiful by Gary Allan
3. Best I Ever Had by Gary Allan
4. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2
5. Bad Day by Daniel Powter

My Running Playlist Includes the Following Artists:
Aerosmith, Jimmy Buffett, Van Morrison, Caedmon's Call, Kansas, Derrick Webb, the Cars, Gary Allan, David Crowder, Daniel Powter, Five for Fighting, Lynard Skynard, Live, the Eagles, FFH, Hootie and the Blowfish, Los Lonely Boys, the Steve Miller Band. Its a very diverse playlist for running. Yesterday I ran 10 miles and didn't get halfway through this playlist.

House Church
We had a small crowd on Sunday due to much travel. Still a good gathering. We are entering the time of the year where it will be rare our whole group will all be here the same Sundays. We will probably do a bit more together as a community during the week. One thing we are doing as couples is several weeks of dance lessons. Tom P is going to teach us ballroom dancing and hopefully some swing steps. That should be interesting. Maybe we will be the dancing church....Footloose Church (with a tag line- "kick off your Sunday shoes"). I like that and it gives us an automatic theme song. :) I digress, but anyway we are again at my house this Sunday 10:30 AM. I think we have some visitors coming this week also which is always great. If you ever just want to spend a Sunday with us feel free.

A Quote I Liked
When I refer to myself as Southern, I am talking about the part of myself that is most deeply human and deeply feeling. It is the part of me that connects most intimately and cordially with the family of man. There are qualities of grace and friendship and courtesy that will always seem essentially Southern to me no matter where I encounter them on the road. Pat Conroy

Fringes, Untouchables, American Idol and Stuff

2006-05-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

Fred Peatross (whom I've quoted here on occasion and whose e-mail newsletter Abductive Columns I greatly urge you to read) has been hitting some homeruns lately in his columns. I'll springboard off a couple of Fred's recent musings.

Fringe Thoughts
Here is an excerpt from a recent column by Fred:

Most great ideas, inventions, scientific breakthroughs, and innovations come from the fringes, not the mainstream. Einstein, Mozart, DaVinci we're not considered normal or mainstream. They all questioned convention, the status quo, and asked why a hundred times.

Seek feedback from the fringes. Great insights come from the fringe, not the center. The center is too stable, too surrounded by the pedestrian, and too expected. The fringe is ecotonic, ragged, open to the environment around it, and easily adaptable.

Creating this environment means we become hotbeds of innovative activity - we must become context innovators rather than content inventors.

Great thoughts and one that is clearly difficult to implement in most institutional organizations. Typically, the institutional organization drives away those at the fringes because they make the middle uncomfortable. Yet it kills off the very thing that may well bring life and new growth. Quite an irony indeed.

The challenge for our new community is to be a place where change and innovation is valued not scorned. That can be tough for a community to build into its DNA, but critical in my view in avoiding the arrival syndrome. You know that one - the thought that at some point we have arrived, gotten it right, and fosselization begins.

Biblical Holiness
In a later column Fred writes:

I think it's time we redefine holiness in biblical categories not evangelical modernist ones. This is a realness issue.

You remember how Jesus was so worried about his reputation in the religious community and avoided the harlots, drunks, tax collectors, and sinners in general. He was so worried that it would hurt his influence that he steered clear of these folks until they straightened things out and then they could belong to his community. Oh wait, I put the modern version of Christianity in there not the Jesus version. I hate when that happens (sarcasm is just one more service we offer here at Aimless Ramblings). And yes, not all of modern Christianity does this, but too often its the image that is most visible to people missing God.

Specifically in the column referenced above, Fred discusses alcohol, homosexuality, and leadership and how we address these issues in missional faith communities. These kinds of issues have been at the heart of much of my thinking lately. Inclusion is easy in theory; however, making it the praxis of a community is much more challenging.

You remember how the Pharisees built a hedge around the law. For example, if X is prohibited, then we better not even do Y since its close to X and we could make a mistake somehow. Yet today, modern Christianity has a similar thought process frequently I think. For example, take one of the issues Fred addresses: alcohol. Jesus most certainly did partake of alcohol (though he certainly didn't sin by doing so and did not get drunk). Yet the modern church often does lots of mental gymnastics to say any drink of alcohol is sin. "What about your influence?" You've heard that one haven't you? Yet in the modern context its come to primarily mean what about your influence to those who are already believers and what will they think? Who knows - I'm just thinking - but we may have greater influence by having a glass of wine with someone and demonstrating control not debauchery and allowing them to share life with us. I'm just thinking and am not suggesting "keg parties for Jesus" or anything remotely like that. Nor am I making recommendations for anyone to do anything that would violate their conscience (key word "their" - the modern approach often wants to bind "their" ideas/thoughts on everyone else not as a weaker brother but as a long term believer who has earned the right to control).

House Church This Sunday
This week we will have several traveling; but those in town will met at my house 10:30 AM. We will use another Rob Bell video. This week is "Bullhorn." Here is a description:

God loves everyone, so a Christian should, too. In fact, Jesus said that the most important thing in life is to love God with everything we've got and love others the same way. But it's not always easy to love everyone around us, is it? Sometimes we strongly disagree with other people's political views, religious beliefs, behaviors, or something else, and it makes it hard to love them when we feel like we're right and they're very wrong. But Jesus doesn't separate loving God and loving others. So maybe the best way for us to show our love for God is actually by loving other people no matter how hard it sometimes is. Maybe it's the only way.

I really like this video. I love the ending where Rob talks about the Bullhorn guy and says, "man, your making it hard on the rest of us (Christians)." Come join us if you are in the Auburn area this weekend.

Soul Patrol
Yes my family has become American Idol junkies. We all liked Mandisa when she was there. My oldest was a Kelly Pickler fan while she lasted (I thought she was putting on the dumb blond act personally). My son has been a big Chris Daughtery fan throughout. What a shock he was eliminated this week - he is good. For me, I'm definately pulling for Taylor Hicks, the gray haired guy and former AU student from Birmingham. Katherine is also good. Elliott - he is not my favorite and I feel like the judges go overboard praising him. Robinson out. :)

Our Trip to DF

2006-05-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful day visiting with old and new friends at Disciples Fellowship in Birmingham. We are certainly kindred spirits and it was a great encouragement to visit with DF today. The core group that began DF comes from the same heritage as most of our core team; therefore, we share similar struggles with respect to family and friends who don't quite "understand" us. Its an encouragement to hear and share these struggles as well.

DF is simply an amazing place where God is doing some amazing things. The spirit of inclusion and lack of "institutional" trappings is so refreshing. Interestingly, they have a rented facility and even pay a couple folks who work in their ministry; however, they have somehow risen above what so often happens. They aren't worried about protecting some budget or institution, they are simply interested in doing Kingdom business. They even let another church use their rented facility on Sunday evenings.

We began our day at DF at their worship time. This was my second visit with them and they are unique and diverse in their approach to worship (it's not the same exact thing time after time). They include a lot of different folks also. Even a couple of our team (Robert and Tina) were involved today doing some readings during the gathering. Their music is very blended with both acapella and instrumental used. We even sang a great U2 song, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Very powerful thoughts in that song. Today's gathering focused especially on their graduating seniors. The message on change/transition in life that Greg Newton presented was very applicable to our team as well.

Following their worship service we met many new friends at DF. Interestingly, we even ran into Gordon, an old friend who used to preach in Montgomery. Gordon was the preacher who married Jennifer and I almost 14 years ago. (By the way, Jennifer and I went to Birmingham early to celebrate our anniversary which is coming up soon.) It was good go see him again and as he said to us, he's had a few bumps in the road the past years (he is a part of the DF community). Following the class time, DF has a fellowship meal. This is a weekly thing with their community and one on which they place great importance. We were able to meet even more folks who have helped shape this community.

Following the meal we spent almost three hours in discussion with many of the DF community. They learned more about our journey and we learned more about theirs. Much wisdom was shared by the DF brothers and sisters. Interestingly also, is that at least three of the folks who met with us are former elders from our heritage. Their experience and understanding of the dynamics of things we have faced was very good and encouraging. We laughed a lot today. Its good when God's people can laugh together. We concluded things with a circle of prayer - clearly an appropriate ending to a great time together.

Special thanks to Ken Haynes for arranging things for today's visit. This visit brought great encouragement to us all. It helped us refocus on God's will for our community and we greatly appreciate that. We look forward to even more discussions and perhaps the day you all come down to spend a weekend with us.

Some Good Stuff

2006-05-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Friday is the annual "Maximum Impact Leadership Conference." This year's theme is the 360 degree leader, which is Maxwell's latest book and a great concept. Maximum Impact is one of the favorite things I do each year. The speakers are wonderful and you get some great advice on leadership. This year's agenda includes: John Maxwell, Dave Ramsey, JC Watts, Peyton Manning, Tim Sanders, Pat Lencioni, and many others. Lencioni is one of my favorites - he wrote the "Five Dysfunctions of a Team" which is a terrific book. He has a great sense of humor during his presentations.

This weekend our core plant team will be at
Disciples Fellowship. They are a neat group of folks and we hope to learn from their experiences. We will get to see some folks like Adam Newby, Kara Lipsmeyer, Ken Haynes and others who we really enjoy being around.

Welcome to the Boomtown

2006-05-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

AUBURN -- The May issue of Inc. Magazine ranks the Auburn-Opelika metropolitan area as the hottest "boomtown" in the state of Alabama and No. 45 in the nation.

The east Alabama metro area ranked in the top 12 percent of the 393 metro areas surveyed nationwide by the magazine, which is aimed at entrepreneurs.

The rankings are based on a measure of job growth in each region, said Jene Berenton, editor of Inc. "Strong job growth suggests an expanding economy, which means new demands and new opportunities for entrepreneurs," said Berentson.

So Why Would This Matter?
Glad you asked, some time ago I recounted the story of someone from an institutional church in the area who said, "Auburn has plenty of churches." This person of course doesn't like the fact that this new community of faith is forming. I said then that the numbers simply didn't add up. There is not "enough" and there are "too many" missing. A lot of these missing people won't be found through the modern institutional model - it actually at times gets in the way of them seeing Jesus. Anyway, someone I know ran the numbers and here is what he found. (I can't vouch for the numbers but this was calculated by someone that knows their stuff, does some market and demographic research so I think he's in the ballpark.)

If all churches of all religious groups (in the Auburn Opelika area) filled their "pews" to maximum capacity, then went to three services, it would only accommodate 10% of the population.

Don't forget the numbers above don't factor in the anticipated growth here. Articles like the one quoted above impact growth in the area. Kia, which is building a huge complex about 30 minutes away will impact our area. Auburn High School was just rated #77 in the nation - out of the thousands of schools in the country - that impacts growth. I could go on and on from things like our little area being named the top golf community in the country to other even more obscure positive ratings things. The bottom line is there is much kingdom work to be done, people are here who don't know God and people are coming. You can't just sit around and meet about it, sometimes you have to actually try to make an impact.

BONUS - Can you name the song that the title of this entry comes from? I bet Ken Haynes can as a musical guy with 80's music knowledge.

Weekend Recap

2006-04-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

We had another good gathering today. It was very interesting in many ways. You could again see growth in the lives of many who are new to our community. The Rob Bell video prompted some interesting comments. I'll share a couple:

One person - who you'd term definitely a seeker or at least early on their journey - showed an excellent understanding of just what "church" is. He was relaying a story where a relative had said going to a house church wasn't really church. It was ironic to hear this person defending non-institutional Christianity and appealing for this critic to go to the Bible and see how the early church operated. It is not a mortgage and paid staff that a church doth make. He gets it and that is good.

Another new member of our community talked of concerns initially (before joining with us) over not having a "pastor." Ironically again, she talked to her former pastor (another city) and this person said "don't worry about having a pastor as long as you have shepherds." (Yes, I realize the semantic irony of that statement, though culturally pastor has come to mean something different for most people.) She went on the explain that she had many shepherds in our community who are helping her on her journey. Two things came to mind: one what incredible spiritual maturity from her former pastor not to mention kingdom view; second, what she described is the way things ought to be.

Yes, it all looks different than what maybe we thought but sometimes different is good. The journey is certainly interesting.

Weekend Preview

2006-04-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

Its been an amazing week in many ways as God continues to direct people into our path. Our core team worked on some longer range planning and administrative stuff this week. We didn't make as much headway as we had hoped but inspite of that, people keep coming into our path as the journey continues. Perhaps we should carefully guard against the big risk that we become distracted over the organization of our unorganized thing and miss some of these folks. We expect additional visitors this week to check out what this community is about.

We will again use a Rob Bell video as part of our gathering time. "Sunday" is the title of this week's video and it may well be my favorite one in the series. Here is the description of this video: Why do we do the things we do? Why do we go to church or give money away? Because we’re supposed to or because we think God needs it? Do we honestly put on our best clothes for an hour once a week, stand and sit at all the right times, and sing all the appropriate songs for God’s sake, or because it’ll make us look better to the world around us? We’re tired of all the empty rituals and routines. And so is God. God hates it when we call ourselves Christians but ignore all the things he really cares about. He hates it when we go through hollow religious routines out of some feeling of duty or obligation. God doesn’t want the meaningless rituals. God wants our hearts. Perhaps the reason this video resonates so much with me is that most of my life was spent in that world. You know that world: the world where so many meaningless things became points of argument, points to get mad about, points to worry about. Yet I don't think that's why Jesus died nor what his gathered communities should focus on. Freedom is a great place to live friends.

We meet at 10:30 AM at the Gottesmans. If your around, please feel free to join us. We think you'd be blessed.

Next week many of our core team will head to Birmingham for a visit with our friends at Disciples Fellowship. We look forward to this visit. Their core came largely from the Homewood CofC so we have some common roots and vision. They have become a wonderful community in the Birmingham area and we can't wait to visit with them and learn from their journey.

Emerging Churches

2006-04-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

When we began this journey in some way most of us probably thought we'd be led toward something similar to our past but with a different environment and feel. We are open to that if God takes that turn; however, we've gone a fairly different direction. This missional thing has taken hold of us which deconstructs much of what we formerly thought of as church. I'm in the midst of "Emerging Churches" by Gibbs and Bolger. A fascinating book which allows emerging church leaders to speak and describe their communities. I'll probably share more from that sometime.

Anyway one of the leaders of the emergent church movement is Doug Pagitt who leads a community called Solomon's Porch. I came across his description of emerging churches and found it fairly descriptive of our new community.

11 characteristics of the emerging church movement and a post-modern spirituality:
1. A Kingdom of God focus - join the Kingdom of God wherever it finds it.
2. Pursue faithfulness to God through new practices, structures and understandings.
3. Tend to have a hopeful and positive view of God's engagement in the world - we should find the activity of God in the world and join it.
4. Committed to loving God and loving neighbor and loving enemy in real ways in this world.
5. Deeply connected to the story of God and the Bible.
6. Living with the guidance of the Holy Spirit - not culture or understandings
7. Theologically active - thinking deeply about these practices
8. Openness to the "other" - outsider, foreigner, doesn't get freaked out
9. Want the good news of God to change the world and be the good news for all creation.
10. We understand community to be an essential part of the Christian life.
11. We are interested in the future more than fighting the battles of the past - we are people who are trying to live the story of Jesus in our world in ways consistent to where we have come from.

Hopefully that list gives you a better feel for our DNA so to speak. There are at least a couple other emergent/missional type communities in the area: Mosaic Family Church lead by our good friend Jeremy Walden; and another new place soon to get going called Journey Church led by my buddy Eric Taylor. Both those guys have kingdom vision and I would anticipate we'd probably do some things together and support each other as we move along this path. We aren't in competition we are all in the trenches together, fighting for the heart of our King.

Sometimes You Can See It

2006-04-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was perhaps one of our better days as a gathered community. You know those days, days where you can really sense God moving.

You could see it when our community gathered around Jessica to pray for her surgery. A few of the younger children who had not typically prayed in front of others, prayed for her. There is something so sweet and innocent in hearing the prayers of a child.

You could see it in the tears of a seeker - who is rethinking her approach to God after many years - as we watched Rob Bell proclaim a powerful spiritual truth regarding God being with us in the storms.

You could hear it in the comments of a sister whose world has completely fallen a part and is new to our spiritual community and city. Comments of commitment to what we are doing. Interestingly, at one point she mentioned the fear of losing what we have if "this" ever had a building.

You could hear it in the comments of some plant team members, sharing their storm experiences.

You could see it in the tears on songs like "When the Rain Comes" or "Praise You in the Storm."

Sometimes you can just see it and it is good.

Direction
Its so different, this place we are now in. Being out doing kingdom stuff instead of doing church. I read a blog a few days ago from a well known minister talking about transforming his congregation into a missional community rather than a vendor of religious goods and services. This guy is an innovator and its a great church he works with; however, interestingly many of his readers simply didn't grasp what he was talking about. His readers are largely well read and with it people I'd say. It was shocking to see how few could grasp what a missional community was and the changes such transformation requires. It was shocking to see such concern over who might leave if things changed. I guess it just reinforces that this language we speak in our community is foreign to most in the institutional church. No wonder its hard to communicate at times.

Some big decisions are ahead of us this week. Please pray for our little community this week if you care about what we are doing in Auburn.

Weekend Preview

2006-04-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we will be using a Rob Bell, Nooma Video as the jumping off point for our community time. If you are in the area join us at 10:30 AM at the Gottesman home (lunch is out at Ruby Tuesday this week). This specific video is actually the first in the series and its titled: "Rain." As I've said before Bell is one of my favorite teachers. I saw a Brian McLaren quote about him recently which said, "Rob Bell put the hip in discipleship." That cracked me up for some reason and I know exactly what he means.

Anyway, Bell has an amazing way of taking normal life things and turning them into wonderful teaching moments for spiritual truths. That's really what all great teachers do. Jesus did the same thing using many real life kinds of examples and parables people could relate to. One of the primary points in this video for our community is that it addresses, "the twisted idea that you've got to have it all together before you can have a relationship with God." For whatever reason, modern Christianity has projected this image yet it seems so anti-Jesus when I read the New Testament. I don't see some better than you club with an arrogant righteousness, secret code language, and dress code. I hope our community is a place the problem/hurting/outcast feel welcome. I still think that's who Jesus would hang with today.

God has sent some folks our way who are searching and some are really hurting. May He give us wisdom to minister but more importantly may he give us the ability to love and show grace and mercy.

Easter Thoughts

2006-04-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we met at a new park in Auburn (Town Creek Park) for a picnic and time of worship, then just hanging out mostly (though I could make a compelling argument that the whole thing was worship). It was a beautiful day and in fact a bit hot. We had 23 at the gathering. We had several folks on the road and in thinking about holidays in Auburn they probably aren't great outreach opportunities as so many people leave our village and go to where ever "home" is.

I am happy to announce we are now an official church. We had fried chicken. I'm fairly certain that makes us legit. I believe its in Corinthians or Opinions or something.

We ate first then went out to a gazebo overlooking a small lake where we read the resurrection story and participated in communion together. We sang a few songs and it was a neat location for worship together.

Overall, when I think of Acts and how the church functioned, I really believe it was kind of like our yesterday. Even after leaving the park many of our folks hung out the rest of the day, doing life together. Doing life together is where spiritual formation occurs - not by listening to one person talk at some appointed hour.

The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren (Part 3)

2006-04-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

Section three of the SMJ is titled - "Imagination: Exploring How Jesus' Secret Message Could Change Everything." This section contains the following chapters:

14. Kingdom Manifesto
15. Kingdom Ethics
16. The Language of the Kingdom
17. The Peacable Kingdom
18. The Borders of the Kingdom
19. The Future of the Kingdom
20. The Harvest of the Kingdom
21. Seeing the Kingdom

Early in Part 3, McLaren again focuses his attention on the fact that this kingdom message isn't a wait for heaven focus, but rather affects both relationship and our spiritual practices now. I especially like Chapter 16, "The Language of the Kingdom." In this chapter McLaren notes how in our world kingdoms are largely things of the past and discusses metaphors that might equate this kingdom message to us more clearly: the dream of God, the revolution of God, the mission of God, the party of God (with a great story about Tony Campolo), the network of God, etc. Some great thoughts in this chapter.

The Peacable Kingdom includes a substantial discussion of the Christian's view/responsibilities toward war. Not my favorite chapter but some interesting thoughts when set in the Kingdom context.

Often I've read criticisms of McLaren that almost paint him as a Unitarian in some respects. Yet he makes this comment in Part 3, "It's clear: the judgementalism and exclusion often associated with religions are a terrible problem in our world. But it's also true that saying, "Everybody's in, everybody's fine, everybody's an insider doesn't solve all the problems either, it creates new ones."

QUOTE FROM PART III: The call to faith is the call to trust God and God's dreams enough to realign our dreams with God's, to dream our little dreams within God's big dream. The call to receptivity is the call to continually receive God's dreams - a process that, in my experience at least, seems to be a lifelong one. The call to baptism is the call to publicly identify with God's dream and to disassociate with all competing -isms or ideologies that claim to provide the ultimate dream (including nationalism, consumerism, hedonism, conservatism, liberalism, and so on). And the call to practice is the call to learn to live the way God dreams for us to live.

SUMMARY THOUGHT ON SMJ: Overall this is not my favorite McLaren book; however, its still worth reading and the thoughts presented will stimulate your thinking with respect to the kingdom. At the end of the day, that's probably what McLaren was aiming for anyway. My recommendation is buy the book.

Where Have I Been?

2006-04-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Good question. For the past week I've been in San Antonio, Texas - one of my favorite cities in the world - on business. I took my laptop with every intention of blogging some but simply didn't have the time. Here are a few quick updates.

Easter Gathering
Our house church is having a picnic and worship time at Town Creek Park tomorrow at 11 AM. We will also spend the afternoon just hanging out there for a while playing and having fun. We hope to connect to some folks in this community who are seeking some spiritual friends.

SMJ Part III
Will be up soon, I just got swamped but its coming. Go ahead and buy the book its worth your time.

Emerging Church Networks
Its been amazing as we began this journey how broad regional communication occurs in the emerging churches - through blogs, emails, and phone calls to connect people seeking something deeper than they get in their institutional model of church. "So-and-So" hears that something is going on in Auburn and they know "So-and-So" who is looking and they connect with us through a network of relationships. Its kind of like kudzu maybe or maybe an underground railroad. Its also cool if you ask me as it puts a relational aspect on things that you don't get from the yellow pages "come to us at this time" model of church. Its also very kingdom oriented as people are referred to us and others without respect to denominational orientation - we don't have that - we all realize we are on the front and in the trenches which forces you to broaden your kingdom view.

Emmaus Walk
Most of our plant team have had the experience of the Emmaus Walk. Its a life changing event. Today ends a men's walk that included 4 guys from our old church including an elder and the preacher. Hopefully God will use their experience for good at their congregation.

The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren (Part 2)

2006-04-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

Section two of the SMJ is titled - "Engagement: Grappling with the Meaning of Jesus' Message." This section contains the following chapters:

6. The Medium of the Message
7. The Demonstration of the Message
8. The Scandal of the Message
9. You Can't Keep a Secret
10. Secret Agents of the Secret Kingdom
11. The Open Secret
12. Hiding the Message in New Places
13. Getting It, Getting In

McLaren begins this section where one would expect when examining the message of Jesus: an evaluation of parables. Growing up in a Christian environment, parables have always been a part of my biblical experience. Yet, I can recall at times wondering why Jesus used them? Yes, I know there are passages discussing this but they didn't answer my questions really. Why make it so seemingly unclear? McLaren addresses this and really brings some good light to this topic of parables. It makes sense in the context that Jesus just didn't give the "X Steps to a Great New Life in the Kingdom" seminar. McLaren also addresses signs and wonders in this section and really does a good job helping the reader get into the first century Jewish mindset regarding these events.

One chapter in Part 2 discusses the interactions with demonic forces that Jesus had on occasion. Some interesting thoughts in this section. One point made in Part 2 that I had never really thought much about was how the Jewish religion had not been a particularly evangelistic religion. Yet here comes Jesus on the scene talking to outsiders, sinners, and the like and speaking of this new kingdom. Its probably hard for us to comprehend just what a change in mindset this was for the Jewish followers.

Perhaps my favorite part of Part 2 is the chapter titled, "Secret Agents of the Kingdom." I found this chapter to be a great reminder of the kingdom opportunities before us daily. Something we easily forget in the business of life.

McLaren closes out Part 2 with a good evaluation of Paul's message and how it reconciles with Jesus' secret message. While Paul used a different approach, the messages certainly jives well. The final chapter gives a great overview of the faith process in relation to this secret message. Its a good reminder I believe of the process involved in coming to faith and one of particular importance in the post modern era.

Favorite Quote From Part 2
Sadly, for centuries at a time in too many places to count, the Christian religion has downplayed, misconstrued, or forgotten the secret message of Jesus entirely. Instead of being about the kingdom of God coming to earth, the Christian religion has too often become preoccupied with abandoning or escaping the earth and going to heaven. Too often its members have forgotten the teachings of Jesus about making peace and turning the other cheek and crossing boundaries to serve people formerly considered outsiders.

Aimless Ramblings and Updates (UPDATED)

2006-04-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

Its been a busy few days so here are some quick things.

The Secret Message of Jesus
More of my review of the SMJ hopefully tonight or by the morning. Also, I should have prefaced the review by pointing out that I received an advanced copy from the publisher; however, they simply gave a time frame they asked for the review. They make no demands on what reviewers say. To the publishers, feel free to send me any more books to review. :)

House Church
We had the spring break effect on Sunday so a good number of our folks were on the road. Still a very good session with James 4 on the table for discussion. We should have most people back this week, but I'll be on the road. James 5 will be the topic and we meet at 10:30 AM at the Gottesmans.

On Easter Sunday the following week, we will have a community picnic, worship time and then just hang out at the new Town Creek Park. Details to follow, but hopefully God will use that time to connect us to some folks searching for a spiritual community. Pray for great weather on Easter Sunday.

Fred Peatross
Whose blog is linked here (currently on blog sabbatical) had some interesting comments in a recent email. These thoughts resonated with me greatly.

I don't travel all across America but I am a node among a large network of electronically-passionate Christ followers who are increasingly giving less time to church. Interestingly, most of these Christians are former 'church' leaders whose spiritual DNA demanded an exchanged of their institutional leadership for the architecting and mapping of a new path for the church of the future.

Mapping new terrain presents topographers with many challenges. Critical is the schema and incorporation of Kingdom training.

* In the future what path will Kingdom training take in the formation of Christ-followers?
* Can Kingdom training craft a new evangelism where there is a natural and comfortable engagement with the people Jesus misses the most?
* Can we remain uncompromising where we need, yet effectively relevant to the people who need Jesus?
* One thing is certain -- current evangelistic paradigms are confrontational, gracelessly observed, and critically irrelevant.

More from Fred:
Transformational architects (preachers) need to be as good with cultural exegesis as they are with biblical exegesis. When the people we are leading, or attempting to reach, are not hearing what we think we are saying, we're at fault, not them. We would never go to a foreign culture without knowing something of the culture and language of the country. And who among us would ask the host country to learn some English so they can understand what we're saying?

Barna Research was recently commissioned to research the unchurched 18-35 year old population. Their study revealed two striking perspectives this age group has of Christians.

1. they're anti-gay and
2. hypocritical

It appears the message they're hearing from the Church is Christians are 'against gays' and 'can't live up to their own standards'.

What George Barna has shown is that the Gospel message is not being clearly communicated. Part of the reason may be that the Church's primary message is the fall and redemption —“You’re screwed up, Jesus came to fix you, accept Jesus and you’re in.”

I fully believe in the redemption story of Jesus. But we've been telling salvation's story in midstream. Just as you wouldn't start reading a novel in the middle, before character development, neither should we start the Gospel conversation with Genesis 3 (the fall) when God started the story by creating humanity in His own image (Genesis 1).

When creation is the beginning of the story, not fall and redemption, it changes the conversation. The story's core isn't about 'you're broken and you need to get fixed.' Conversely, the story is more about the garden experience we were made for, and the impossibility of living it out when broken in so many ways.

In Atonement for a 'Sinless Society' Allen Mann argues that the argument for penal substitution works only in a society where guilt is a motivator. But we need to be cognizant of a society that considers itself guiltless. And if our primary message is about guilt, and the fix for inherent guilt -- we're giving them a story they have no connection to.

I highly recommend you subscribe to Fred's Abductive Column. Fred is in my view among the leaders in this emerging church thing among those of the Restoration Movement heritage.

Disciples Fellowship
You've heard me reference DF on occasion here, they are a relatively new faith community in Birmingham. Many of their leaders came from a heritage similar to mine. Kara and Adam whose blogs are linked here are part of the DF community. Ken Haynes who you see comment here on occasion is a leader in that community. I suspect we will be having many conversations with these good folks as we continue on the journey here. Take a look at their web site to learn more: Disciples Fellowship.

Statistical Illusion
This month's Christianity Today has an interesting article on church attendance. (I'm ignoring my personal pet peeve about "attending" verses "being" the called out people of God.) For many years Gallup has surveyed Americans and the standard answer has always been 40% of Americans attend church. We'll it seems additional research has been done that indicates that number may be overinflated. These researchers think the real attendance number is closer to 20% of Americans. Being in the deep south I am certain our community would be on the higher end of the attendance spectrum. However, it did get me thinking about our population and how many are attenders of this thing called church. Adding up the major churches that I know generally the size of here, there are lots of folks missing.

One person made the comment shortly after we went public with our plant plans saying, "Auburn has plenty of churches." I disagree, the numbers simply don't add up. Even if all the area buildings are at capacity a lot of people made in the image of God will be missing. When you also factor in the number who won't be reached through the modern institutional mode, there is great opportunity for alternative faith communities. And like it or not institutional church folks, they are just as legitimate expressions of the Kingdom as you are (and in some ways are more first century than the Americanized Protestant version). God can work both places and we should be thankful for this diversity.

The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren (Part 1)

2006-04-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

As an avid reader, I've noticed something in the past few years and that is a growing emphasis from many writers on the Kingdom of God (a renewal you might say). I've felt for some time that modern Christianity has emphasized "church" (typically the Americanized cultural Christian version) and missed the bigger point of the Kingdom of God. McLaren's new book "The Secret Message of Jesus" (SMJ) fits into this premise very well. If I had to summarize McLaren's motivation for writing this book, its his growing feeling that current Christianity may not look a whole lot like the message that Jesus proclaimed. I agree.

One point about this book, I found this to be a writing that should be read and pondered, not simply churned through quickly. Even better would be to read this with others and discuss the concepts/premises. Its always a good thing to evaluate whether our message/lifestyle/way of life as Jesus followers correlates to what Jesus actually said.

McLaren Organizes the SMJ into three parts:
1. Excavation: Digging Beneath the Surface to Uncover Jesus' Message
2. Engagement: Grappling With the Meaning of Jesus' Message
3. Imagination: Exploring How Jesus' Secret Message Could Change Everything

McLaren comes from a background similar in some ways to my own as we are both from "restorationist" type groups. It was interesting for me to note that he talks in the introduction how often religious people think we've got it all figured out and even attempt to put it into a formula: "this little five-part formula - no more sophisticated than an elementary equation, really." I can easily relate to this approach to Christianity, yet Jesus didn't really speak in these terms nor did he reveal some magic (or mathematic/scientific) equation.

Part 1: Excavation - consists of these chapters
1. Troubling Questions About Jesus
2. The Political Message of Jesus
3. The Jewish Message of Jesus
4. The Revolutionary Message of Jesus
5. The Hidden Message of Jesus

In part one McLaren sets the stage, so to speak, giving us a good overview and background of the climate into which Jesus began proclaiming His message. To accomplish this McLaren gives a good overview of the Jewish sects at the time and while it is fairly basic, its a good primer and reminder of the "players" on the scene during the events recorded in the gospel accounts.

In Chapter 3, we are given a good overview of the Jewish mindset at the time of Christ. Without factoring in the Jewish nature of Jesus, we can easily miss some very important points (especially when we project modern Christianity into the text). A very good overview and discussion of the role of prophets is included in this chapter. McLaren goes on in Chapter 4 to present an interesting overview of the theme or story of humanity. From creation to crisis to calling to conflict to Jesus who seeks to restore things to God's intent. Its very important to have this big picture view if we hope to connect to Jesus' central theme.

McLaren ends part one with a very important concept and one that we current believers need to consider. All to often we view Christianity as our golden ticket to heaven. Heaven is great and will be wonderful; however, that wasn't necessarily Jesus' primary point. There is something also wonderful about having a full life in relationship with God now that seemed to get greater emphasis in his teaching. When we view coming to faith in Christ as then time to wait -- time to sit in the life boat until our rescuer Jesus comes to take us to heaven --- we are missing something very important in this Kingdom life.

Favorite Quotes Part 1:
..."through these years, I have frequently had an uncomfortable feeling: that the portrait of Jesus I found in the New Testament didn't fit with the image of Christianity projected by religious institutions, charismatic televangelist, religious spokespeople in the media - and sometimes, my own preaching."

"If you are part of this kingdom.....You won't nestle snugly into the status quo, but you'll seek to undermine the way things are to welcome in the way things could and should be."

Next Up: SMJ Part 2

Leadership 8

2006-03-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

So What Now? Concluding Thoughts
A model is defined as something serving as an example to be imitated. Based on my review of the leadership passages in the New Testament, we find little of what you might call a full scale structural model of leadership. We find leadership functioning, but very little of how they were structured per se, beyond that they seemed to be in plural and they seemed to somehow engage the entire body. It appears to me that this is likely intentional, God allows some flexibility to structure leadership into the specific forms required for our time and culture.

The imperative principle is that leadership is functioning (i.e. shepherds/elders/pastors are guarding and guiding the flock) in generally whatever structure is necessary for the people. Of utmost importance is godly leadership completely committed to prayer and following His will, not their own (nor expectations of other locations). When you have godly leadership, following the Jesus model of life and of leading, a healthy vibrant community of faith will most certainly exist. Perhaps Brian McLaren said it best when he stated, "The perfect structure is one flexible enough to be a better structure tomorrow." I am also reminded of a recent statement by John Maxwell where he said he is very concerned when he hears a leader talking about having to "control things". In his view that means they probably don't understand leadership (influence) and may not even be a leader.

So where do we go from here? One, you can't throw out leadership - its clearly important and God given. Two, leadership seems to become self evident (ie leaders are leading because of their gifts). I've observed places where non spiritual men were given the "elder" title because either they A) weren't too controversial (typically that meant they'd stayed quiet so you couldn't prove them liberal) B) they had moderate to good success in their professional career and/or C) they've attended for years and contributed their money. Yet, the individuals were in no way viewed as shepherds or spiritual leaders by the congregation at large (not that they were bad men, they simply weren't spiritual leaders by any stretch).

One thing that also jumped clearly from the pages of scripture was the way major decisions were made in the early church. Generally speaking they were made with much prayer and fasting. Perhaps that is the greatest lesson we can learn from all of these words.

5 Things That Popped Into My Head at the End
1. The Jesus lens is of utmost importance with respect to leadership.

2. Spiritual gifts must be considered or else you will frustrate the body at large not to mention the individual operating outside their gift zone.

3. There is some flexibility in how we structure things (not some clear cut pattern as some allege). This in no way violates the general principles of male spiritual leadership or the shepherding role, in fact it opens things up to where they can effectively function.

4. Terms like pastor and elder may have become so skewed in our culture that they bring with them so much baggage we might be better off using alternative terms. Many think pastor = "guy in charge or CEO" and many think elder = "board of directors". So even if you don't want to be that, others may well put you in that place.

5. This is a hard topic to avoid retreating into what we know (ie American Corporate). It's easier to simply do that, yet if we hope to avoid the institutional trappings of modern Christianity it will be worth the effort.

Bonus - The spiritual leaders who are the pastors/shepherds/elders primary role is to pray for the body and teach (or ensure teaching is biblically sound). When this role spends time on facilities and such (or feels the need to control/prevent others from leading in their gift zone) and not the spiritual matters they are charged, the body suffers.

Next Up: Its Book Review Time for Brian McLaren's "The Secret Message of Jesus"

Leadership 7

2006-03-29T07:37:00.000-08:00

Thoughts from Others - Frost and Hirsch

In 2003, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch wrote a book titled, "The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church". This book has become fairly influential and significant with the movement toward "Missional Christianity." Frost and Hirsch bring a unique perspective as they are both native Australians and evaluated missional faith communities world wide in writing their book. One section of this book deals with leadership in these missional communities. Here is an excerpt.

"If anything, a new type of leadership must precede any meaningful transition to missional church........A renewed focus on leadership is absolutely essential to the renewal and growth of the church. But that begs the question, "What kind of leadership?" The church has got plenty of "leaders" now, but they are not effectively impacting our culture. So it follows that we must be speaking about a very different type of leadership. This issue of the development of a new kind of leadership is possibly the single most important question of strategy in this decade, and whether the church responds correctly or not will determine to some extent its survival as a viable expression of the gospel in the years to come." Frost and Hirsch focus on the text of Ephesians 4:1-16.

Ephesians Chapter 4
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

From verse eleven of this chapter they develop the APEPT model of leadership and their belief that these functions must be present if a church hopes to be missional in nature. The following chart helps describe these functions in a current context.

ROLE--- Apostle
DEFINITION--- One who is sent.
Takes the role of entrepreneur who sets the strategies.
FOCUS--- The urgency of tomorrow.
IMPACT--- Extension

ROLE--- Prophet
DEFINITION--- One who knows. Takes the role of the questioner and disturbs the status quo, seeks new directions.
FOCUS--- Demands of today in light of tomorrow.
IMPACT--- Integration

ROLE--- Evangelist
DEFINITION--- One who recruits. Takes the message outside the organization.
FOCUS--- Urgency of today.
IMPACT--- Expansion

ROLE--- Pastor
DEFINITION--- One who cares. Takes the role of humanizing things by caring for people.
FOCUS--- Demands of today.
IMPACT--- Nurture

ROLE--- Teacher
DEFINITION--- One who explains. Takes the role of articulating things to various parts.
FOCUS--- Integration.
IMPACT--- Understanding

You should know that Frost and Hirsch do not see the above model as replacing biblical elders, rather they see elders including those who possess the above traits. The most important point is to ensure these roles are present and being allowed to function within the body regardless of title. One final quote from Frost and Hirsh that I believe is important to keep in mind as we seek to become a new missional faith community.

"It is worth noting here that part of the revolution of missional church, like all revolutions, will have to bring down the dominant ideological system that imposes the old system. We simply have to break the power of clericalism if we are going to see new movements start and flourish. Why? Because clericalism (the dominance of the ordained clergy class) serves to enshrine the old system and has too much to lose in the new, it will resist change that disturbs the system that legitimizes it. Again we refer the reader to a study of movements in general. The dominant official leadership has always persecuted new movements." (See Jesus, Paul, Luther, Wesley, Booth, King, etc.)

I would also add, part of the structure that must be brought down is the dominant "American Cultural Christian" view that one comes to "church" to listen to someone perform/teach, because that's what I'm putting money in the offering to do. In other words, I come sit, get, and then go and by doing this I'm a good Christian. Jesus didn't die for such a pathetic spiritual existence. He calls us to radical lives and its time some pew warmers got up and did some Kingdom work touching the untouchables. Its time some sectarians laid down their power structures and worries of what others will think and put the Kingdom that Jesus laid down his life for as #1, even if it means the modern day Pharisees won't like you. (Gee, I'm not sure where that came from.)

Next Time: Leadership 8 - So What Now? 8 will be the final installment in this series. On Friday we will have the first of probably 3 installments on McLaren's new book which debuts next week.

Leadership 6

2006-03-28T07:30:00.000-08:00

Other Thoughts - Stetzer
One of the better books on church planting I've read, "Planting Churches in a Postmodern Age" is by Ed Stetzer. Stetzer has planted a few churches which appear to be nondenominational in origin, though Stetzer himself is of Baptist heritage. In his book, Stetzer lists what he believes are five potential models of leadership. Here are Stetzer’s thoughts. (Note, the follow is directly quoted from the book.)

“Scholars and practitioners have identified several options for church governance in the Scriptures and in tradition.”

• Elders – The pure elder paradigm provides a true plurality of governance with no chief elder. It is practiced among Brethren denominations and in some Bible churches. Some biblical evidence supports this view.
• Pastors and Elders – This approach commends a plurality of leaders among which the pastor serves as an elder and is the first among equals. Other elders may be laypersons or paid vocational staff.
• Pastor and Board – In this form of government, the pastor is seen as the leader, but looks to the church board to share in the tasks of leadership and major decision making. The board may be comprised of either deacons or elders. This pattern describes the most commonly practiced form of church governance, although little biblical support for this approach may be found.
• Board and Pastor – This form of church government acknowledges the pastor as an employee of the board. The pastor performs ministry at their direction. Although this model appears in many church settings, one finds no biblical evidence to commend its use.
• Pastor – Churches that follow this ecclesiological system clearly follow only the pastor. This style frequently appears among independent Baptists and in charismatic and Pentecostal congregations. The pastor is the decision maker for the church, sharing authority with on one - except, perhaps, the entire church under a congregational form of government. Some proof text may be interpreted to support this approach.

Next Time: Leadership 7 - Other Thoughts by Frost and Hirsch.

Leadership 5

2006-03-27T12:05:00.000-08:00

Other Thoughts - Piper
In reviewing literature on church leadership, I attempted to review a few lines of thinking outside my own heritage. Today we take a look at John Piper, a name many will recognize. Piper is a highly regarding preacher/theologian who is of Baptist heritage and had some interesting points regarding elders in an article he wrote when his congregation installed elders. From my experiences it is quite unusual for a Baptist congregation to have elders. I found his points interesting.

Here are his points for consideration:
1. Jesus Christ is the head of His Church (Eph 5:23)
2. All members of Christ’s body are priests and ministers (I Peter 2:9) Piper adds that the New Testament knows nothing of a priesthood of the clergy.
3. Under Christ the local congregation is the final authority in the church (I Cor 5:4-5)
4. God calls some members of each congregation to lead the church as servants of Christ and his people.
5. These leaders in the congregation of the early church were elders. (Acts 14:23; Acts 15:22, Acts 20:17; Titus 1:5; James 5:14; I Peter 5:1) Piper adds that this was not one alternative among many, this was universally practiced.
6. Function of the elders was to lead and feed giving guidance and direction. (I Tim 5:17 – shows diversity in what they did.)

Next: Leadership 6 - Stetzer's structural options.

I'm Baaaaack

2006-03-26T21:30:00.000-08:00

a bit later than anticipated but back none-the-less.

Where Was I?
I was in one of my favorite places in the world in the beautiful Rocky Mountains in Winter Park, Colorado. It was our annual family ski trip - it includes extended family on my wife's side so its a quasi family reunion too. It was the best year ever with fresh powder every day and the first year all our kids had gone (with Rachel getting her first ski experience). She did well too and was skiing "blues" by the end of the trip. (For non skiers: "greens" are the easiest, "blues" are intermediate, "blue/blacks" are more difficult, and "blacks" are certain death for people from Alabama).

I can comfortably ski blues and did a couple blue/blacks for the first time. I went to the very top of Mary Jane, one of the mountains we ski has a lift called "Timberline" because you go above where trees will grow. When I first saw this run years ago I said I would never even want to do it, people look like ants coming down. Yet I survived a blue/black mogul run even getting down. It was one of the most amazing things I may write more about that. I've never been in colder conditions than at the top of that run. It was unbelievable.

If you ski we stay each year at the same lodge and highly recommend it. Here is the web site: Woodspur Lodge Its very laid back and family oriented.

House Church Report
We had a terrific day with James Chapter 3. It is really amazing how much more you can get from a text when many people talk about things and you aren't tied to what one guy has prepared. Some profound comments were made I thought. You have to wonder why so many churches keep using what research shows is one of the least effective means of learning as their primary source of teaching. Then again you really don't do you?

We included one new element today. A Taize' worship time was included. Some of our folks experienced Taize' worship at the Zoe Worship Conference last fall in Nashville. It was kind of neat and a new experience. We didn't cook today but most went to Taco Bell afterwards and we hung there quite a while. The manager said he enjoyed having us so I guess that's good. Maybe we could be the Taco Bell Church. Then anytime a Taco Bell commercial aired it would be like advertising for us. We could even get "Run for the Boarder T-Shirts."

Upcoming Blogs
I've got 3-4 more leadership blog entries coming soon; however, I may deviate as I am on a deadline for the McLaren review. I have the first installment ready to go. McLaren's book comes out next week. If time permits I will have lots of entries this week.

I had hoped to have that done just after Colorado but came down with something and wasn't feeling well. I'm on the upswing again.

Walk to Emmaus
The past two weekends our local Emmaus Community has had Walks. I had a pilgrim on the men's walk and it was a life changing experience for him. On the ladies walk this past weekend, Jennifer and I chaired one work area and it was a blessing to do that. There were four ladies from our former church on this walk and they all had a great time. Several guys from this same congregation will be on the next men's walk in April. God is really using the DeColores movement to do powerful things. I highly recommend you go on an Emmaus Walk. Of our 8 core adults in the plant team- 7 have had the Emmaus experience - but don't let that scare you. :)
(ET, JW, and TZ you guys need to go. You can get in for the May walk if you let me know soon.)

Aimless Ramblings

2006-03-17T17:18:00.000-08:00

8 Assorted and Various Thoughts From Me
1. I will be taking a few days blog sabbatical. I plan to return to the blogosphere by mid week next week with more on leadership and the McLaren review.

2. The first four days of the NCAA tournament are perhaps the greatest 4 sports days of the year. The sheer emotion of the Davids (see NW St #14) over the Goliaths (see Iowa #3) are unsurpassed in sports.

3. Val Kilmer's portrayal of Doc Holiday in the movie "Tombstone" is perhaps the most underappreciated theatric performance of the last 100 years. "I'm your huckleberry."

4. Me and my gang won't be at the house church gathering this week so I'll not have a report. If your in the area do join the gathering at 10:30 AM on Sunday at the Commanders. James Chapter 2 is the topic. We do know of a couple new families who will be there and that is exciting, one visiting from out of town and one on the journey with us in some way.

5. George Strait's song "Amarillo by Morning" is the best country song never to reach #1 on the charts. It peaked at #2.

6. All members of the Church of Christ (or any Restoration Heritage) should watch or listen to Rick Atchley's sermon on "Learning Division." Its a great historical overview and clearly illustrates how this unity movement lost it's way. Click on the March 1 Sermon

7. The 4th Avenue Church of Christ in Franklin, Tennessee just issued a very interesting statement.

Joining The Journey

The Fourth Avenue Church of Christ is a family of Christians committed to growing in our relationship with God and in our love for each other. We are a group of believers that is dedicated to promoting the unity of Jesus Christ in our community.

We accept all believers in Christ no matter what their religious heritage and welcome those seeking to know Christ for the first time. Our role as God's people is not to judge others and be divisive but to serve as a community of healing and unity. We have chosen to emphasize what we have in common with other Christian groups rather than debate about our differences. We try to be "Christians only" and believe that no particular group is designated by God as "the only Christians."

We welcome and encourage all believers to join us on our journey with God.

Faith in Christ

We recognize that through our rebellion against God, we have separated ourselves from our Creator. We are powerless before God to reconcile ourselves to Him, yet God has offered us grace. All that He asks of us is to accept His grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We have faith that through Jesus' death on the cross our sins are forgiven. We have faith that through Jesus we have been reunited with the Father. We have faith that Jesus is coming again to call us home. Christ has done the work on our behalf. When we respond in faith, God justifies us and we are righteous in His eyes.

Baptism

We regard baptism as an outward profession of our faith and our commitment to Jesus. We recognize that baptism is not the basis for salvation, and that God's grace is the power by which we are saved. We urge all believers to be baptized (immersed) as a public demonstration of their desire to put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord.

1. Believers who have been baptized by immersion elsewhere. Believers immersed because of their faith in Jesus Christ in other traditions are welcome to join the journey as a part of this family.
2. Believers who have been baptized, but not by immersion. For those who were baptized by sprinkling, usually as infants, we are committed to teaching immersion of believers. We believe that this was the consistent practice of the earliest Christians and follows the teachings of Scripture. We encourage you to study with us the practice of baptism as found in the New Testament. However, if you choose not to be immersed, we welcome you to join the journey as a part of this family. We ask only that you respect our teaching position and not be divisive on this issue.
3. Believers who have never been baptized. If you have never been baptized in any form, we welcome the opportunity to study with you about the beauty and significance of baptism. We welcome and encourage all believers in Jesus Christ to join us on our journey with God.

Commitment to the Work at Fourth Avenue

Faith in Christ involves both the acceptance of grace and the response of gratitude. As a local body of Christians we are devoted to continuing the ministry of Jesus Christ in our community. We believe it is important as a family to all pull in the same direction. If you wish to join us on our journey with God you must be willing to submit yourself to the direction set forth by our shepherds. By working together as a united body of Christians, God will be glorified and we become an effective tool in His hand.

8. Items #6 & 7 above reflect the coming division yet again within Restoration Churches. I predict some Restoration Churches will move back toward the original restoration vision (ie Richland Hills and 4th Ave) while others will move and react with anger and become even more sectarian. Some churches due to weak/poor leadership will operate under the illusion that none of this is happening and will likely fall apart before their very eyes.

Leadership 4

2006-03-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

Leadership 4 - Words

Certain words are commonly linked with leadership in the New Testament. I have presented below the typical words considered with respect to leadership; however, we make a serious mistake if we think these are the only "leaders" so to speak. Perhaps we even make a mistake when we exclusively link these words with merely an office. Its worth considering the fact that these are in some ways functional things that should be happening in the body. These common words are presented along with their English use, the basic meaning, and the relevant passages that have their use. I highly suggest that each usage be observed in its context.

Greek Word
EPISKOPOS (n)
EPISKEPTOMAI(v)
English Term:
Bishop or Overseer
Basic Meaning:
to look at or pay attention to
New Testament Uses:
Jesus: I Peter 2:25
Church Leaders: Acts 20:28; Phil 1:1; I Tim 3:1; Titus 1:7
All Christians: James 1:27; Heb 12:15; Matt 25:36

Greek Word:
PRESBUTEROS (n)
English Term:
Elder or Presbyter
Basic Meaning:
Older. Men of wisdom and judgment.
New Testament Uses:
Church Leaders: I Tim 5:17; Titus 1:5; Acts 14:23; 15:2,4,6,22,20:17

Greek Word
POIMEN (n)
POIMAINO (v)
English Term:
Shepherd or Pastor
Basic Meaning:
one who tends flock with emphasis on personal involvement and patient care.
New Testament Uses:
Of Jesus: John 10:1; I Peter 2:24
Of Church Leaders: Eph 4:11; specifically Elders Acts 20:28; I Peter 5:2-4
All Christians: Matt 18:10-14; Luke 11:23

Greek Word
DIAKONOS (n)
DIAKONEO (v)
English Term:
Deacon
Basic Meaning:
Servant
New Testament Uses:
Of Jesus: Rom 15:8; Luke 22:27
Of all Christians: Rom 12:7; I Cor 12:5; I Peter 4:10
Of Special Servants: Phil 1:1; I Tim 3:8; Rom 16:1; Acts 6:2-4

From my review of many scholars, the most prevalent interpretation for church leadership is that the terms: elders, pastor, and overseer are generally interchangeable terms for this leadership team in the early church. Also worth noting is that in all the cases this team is mentioned in the plural sense. Therefore, the common modern practice of one man serving as above the collective group has little to no biblical support.

Also worthy of note is that the power words for leadership in the Greek are not used with respect to these leaders, but are used with respect to God. The common words associated with these leaders with respect to how they function were words and phrases such as: aid, assist, help, watch over, guard, care for, take care of, edify, steward, manage, equip, counsel and similar phrases. Also worthy of mention is that virtually all of these functional phrases have application to all believers from other texts. When viewed through the Jesus lens of Mark 10, that makes perfect sense.

Passages like Acts 6:1-6 also take on new meaning under this leadership approach:
1 During this time, as the disciples were increasing in numbers by leaps and bounds, hard feelings developed among the Greek-speaking believers--"Hellenists"-toward the Hebrew-speaking believers because their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food lines. 2 So the Twelve called a meeting of the disciples. They said, "It wouldn't be right for us to abandon our responsibilities for preaching and teaching the Word of God to help with the care of the poor. 3 So, friends, choose seven men from among you whom everyone trusts, men full of the Holy Spirit and good sense, and we'll assign them this task. 4 Meanwhile, we'll stick to our assigned tasks of prayer and speaking God's Word." 5 The congregation thought this was a great idea. They went ahead and chose--Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicolas, a convert from Antioch. 6 Then they presented them to the apostles. Praying, the apostles laid on hands and commissioned them for their task.

Notice in this text the early faith community faced a problem, yet somehow involved the entire congregation in the solution. The Apostles, who clearly had some authority, didn’t simply tell them what to do but allowed the congregation’s involvement in finding the solution for the time. In the early church in several instances it appeared "the whole congregation's" opinion mattered, not simply a select group of board members. Perhaps in the modern context this would be a bit harder to do, but in any case its worth attempting to emulate in some way.

Next: Some Thoughts From Others

Leadership 3

2006-03-15T12:16:00.000-08:00

The Gift Factor

I am coming to believe that perhaps the most overlooked aspect in local churches are the spiritual gifts possessed by their members. If it is given any attention at all its often in the form of a brief questionnaire and a check the box for which "thing" you want to do to serve "us" already in the church. God promised that the body would have whatever gifts are necessary, yet all too often believers go through their Christian experience without ever fully considering what their God given gifts really are (much less using them within the bureaucracy).

Ephesians Chapter 4
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

I Corinthians Chapter 12
1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.

These different spiritual gifts are given by God for the good of the body. The body is made up of many different parts, yet all are important to the Head and to each other. I think its no mistake that I Corinthians Chapter 13 deals with the topic of love since these gifts must be used in love or they are being misused. The parts of the body must work together in love for the common good or else they can become essentially cancerous to the body itself and bring trouble to the whole.

The gift factor is greatly important for the body as a whole, and perhaps even more important for the spiritual leaders. I believe it is imperative that everyone know their spiritual gifts and in some way lead in that area. Those who God has set apart for general or directional leadership of the body will become evident through the gifts they possess. Conferring titles do not confer gifts in any area, much less leadership. Perhaps that is why some leaders in spiritual settings are ineffective and miserable, they are attempting to do things they simply aren't equipped to do. We can't forget the gift factor in this new community of faith.

Larry Bridgesmith, an elder at the Woodmont Hills Family of God in Nashville, made these comments during a talk on missional leadership given fall 2005, When we become a community who functions through our giftedness and not by virtue of title, we won't be worried about control.

The Jesus lens and spiritual gifts form the foundation for this thing called biblical leadership.

Next Up: Words

Leadership 2

2006-03-14T12:14:00.000-08:00

The Lens Through Which We Must Look

Mark Chapter 10
42 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

With these simple words from Mark Chapter 10, Jesus Christ the Son of God forever changed what leadership would look like within communities of faith serving him as their master. You remember the context, the quest for power among a couple of his disciples. Whatever is said post-resurrection with respect to leadership in the church must without any question be viewed through a lens of Mark Chapter 10. The bottom line is that it won’t look like the world model; it will look like the Jesus model.

John Chapter 13
3. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him......15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Again we see the very son of God turning conventional wisdom on its head. Notice the first verse above, “All things had been put under Jesus’ power,” yet he did not use this power to his advantage. And by the way, nowhere in the Bible can you find that same “power” word being given to any man, board, or governing structure in the church.

I believe it is absolutely critical that we wear these Jesus glasses and look through these lenses when we look at church leadership issues. Without them we will quickly default into what we know: the corporate board and CEO.

Leadership 1

2006-03-13T00:30:00.000-08:00

“....Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.”
Ecclesiastes 12:12

Most likely the wise man that penned the above words didn’t have the topic of leadership in mind when he wrote the above words. However, a simple “Google” search for the term “Leadership” nets 910,000,000 results. Add the qualifier “Church Leadership” to your search and you’ll cut it to a mere 55,000,000 results. The volume of materials available on this topic can easily overwhelm anyone who explores this topic.

There is a reason this topic is popular and I believe it is due to the truth often spoken by John Maxwell, the popular leadership guru. “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” This is true in the corporate world and it’s also true in communities of faith. God has always worked through leaders. We read about these godly and not so godly leaders throughout scripture from reluctant leaders like Moses leading the Israelites out of bondage to early church leaders like Peter taking this “Jesus message” to the outsiders – the Gentiles.

We live in a society of corporate boards and bureaucracy and all too often the biblical principles of leadership are forgotten in the church setting in favor of the latest corporate fad. I believe that’s one of the primary reasons many people in this emerging community of faith cringe when they hear the word “leadership”. Past scars from the corporate church battles have left many a bit antsy on the topic. However, as we look at the Word of God, we will see that biblical leadership is simply a topic we cannot avoid or eliminate. God included it in this plan for His people. Yet as we look at this topic we may find that true biblical leadership looks quite different than what most of us have experienced in the modern institutional church. In the next few days I hope to go back and look at the principles of biblical leadership and evaluate some ways we can possibly incorporate them into this new missional community of faith.

Next: Leadership 2 - The Lens of Leadership

The Weekend Recap

2006-03-12T19:20:00.000-08:00

House Church
We had a good meeting again this week with some regulars returning and a new visitor as well. We began a study of the Book of James and focused on Chapter 1 today. The majority of the conversation focused on the testing and trials aspect of this chapter. It was interesting to me that perhaps a majority of the community discussion was from those not in our core planting team. I say that as a good thing. It was interesting to kind of sit back and listen to these folks on their journey as they processed things. These folks are all at different places in their journey so it will be interesting to watch God move in their lives.

Kid Thoughts
"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." From Deut. Chapt. 6

In our culture the majority of parents have outsourced training their kids in biblical truths to Sunday School and/or youth ministers. Nothing is wrong with Sunday Schools or youth ministers but something is wrong with abdicating the bulk of teaching God's principles to someone else. This move to a house church has really caused us to take the above verses a bit more seriously. I confess I had abdicated instruction to the "Bible class" for the most part myself, its just so much easier.

Last night as we were talking about James Chapter 1 after dinner, the discussion turned to the double minded man. My 9 year old son explained it this way, "You can go to the candy store, but that doesn't mean you like candy." He went on to say, "a lot of people go to church but that doesn't mean they are following God." I'd have to say I think he got it. Very interesting and often some very funny moments in these talking times.

Assorted Stuff

2006-03-11T08:11:00.000-08:00

I've had a very busy week at work so I haven't had a chance to blog much this week. It appears next week may even be busier but I do want to get some stuff out that I've been developing on leadership. Also, I've got to get the McLaren book review up soon too.

We are entering what might be my favorite time of the year in Auburn. Spring is beautiful here with the azaleas, dogwoods and other plants springing to life. I was running the other morning and amazed at the beauty of the creation I saw. Just seeing the changing of the seasons and listening to some great music was really a worship experience for me as I ran. I would have thought that strange to say a few years ago when I thought worship was in a box at a certain time and it ended with a closing prayer. Yet that is not what Jesus talked about to the woman at the well. It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend may we worship God throughout the entire weekend.

HOUSE CHURCH
10:30 again this Sunday morning at the Commanders. Feel free to join us even just to see what's going on. We'd love to have you visit. We start a new series on the Book of James this week and will do chapter 1 this week.

BOOKS
As noted above I'm working on a review of "The Secret Message of Jesus" by Brian McLaren. As you probably know if you know me, I generally have 3-5 books going at once. I came across a book the other day that I am really loving. "The Present Future: 6 Tough Questions for the Church" by Reggie McNeal. Somehow McNeal stole most of my thoughts. Seriously, if I were to write a book today, this is pretty much it. Its easy to read and in straightforward language. So if you are a church leader wanting to know what's going on in culture and church, I recommend this as a good starting place. You don't have to know the terms often thrown around in emergent church books to get the point in this book. I'll write more later on this great book.

House Church Report and More Barna

2006-03-06T17:15:00.000-08:00

Sunday Recap
This week we finished our study of Colossians with Chapter 4 as our focus. I was charged with planning this week so I shuffled things a bit, but most weeks the elements below are in our assembly somewhere.

So, to give you an idea of what we "do," here is what happened yesterday:

I. Some introductory thoughts on prayer and community and the need to be changed by God. We sang the chorus "Change My Heart Oh God" several times through before prayer. That's really why we gather to be encouraged and changed by God through His Spirit and the community.

II. Reading of the Word - we tend to read the Word more than some places and use the kids to do it. My daughter Rachel read a passage from Jeremiah that was moving to me. There is something sweet and innocent about a child's voice reading God's word.

III. Video - This week I used a Rob Bell video titled "Kickball". This video deals with prayer and is an excellent reminder that God gives us what we need not necessarily what we think we need. Bell is a wonderful teacher using real life illustrations to bring alive biblical truths. The kids all benefited greatly and really engaged in the post video discussion.

IV. Discussion of Colossians Chapter 4 (adults), while the kids worked on a project we called the A-B-C's of Prayer. Colossians 4 is a rich text that gives us a glimpse of Kingdom life. You'll even notice the house church example there. Most groups have to use some questionable inferences for their meeting place. :)(smiling as I type that)

V. Kids Presentation - of their prayer project.

VI. Time of praising God in Song

VII. Communion around the Table

That gives you an idea of what happened but in outline form it looks sterile. Prayers are included all through out. The neat thing about our structure is the ability to adjust on the fly. We may sometimes have an outline but never are slaves to it and are always open to the Spirit's leading.

If your in the area, come join us some Sunday. We'd love to encourage you and be encouraged by your presence.

Barna and the Revolution
Many of you may recall I did a chapter by chapter review of Barna's new book "Revolution." This book has generated much controversy as you might suspect if you've read it. Anything that threatens or disrupts the status quo does that I guess. The following was part of Barna's latest e-mail update and are some thoughts I can very much related to in our current movement.

Pressed on the issue of the departure of many revolutionaries from congregational churches, Barna acknowledged that this is one of the hot buttons of the critics. It's important to remember that the Bible does not command us to go to church. It commands us to live in a certain manner, to be connected to other believers in a life-shaping community and to engage in worship together. But keep in mind,he continued, that the dominant form of the Church in the New Testament era was the house church and that the family was clearly a center of one's faith experiences during the early church times. It is mind-boggling that so many of today's church and seminary leaders have launched incredibly uncharitable attacks on devout followers of Christ simply because they are meeting in different places and pursuing God through divergent yet biblical approaches. That same spirit of divisiveness and contentiousness has led millions of revolutionaries to flee organized churches for alternative faith communities where their energy can be poured into honoring God and loving people, rather than fighting about man-made preferences, routines and systems.

Recently someone involved in this current movement said that they were told, "yall think yall are better than us," by someone in a local church. Neither I nor anyone involved in this movement to my knowledge has said or thought that. We simply are following God's call the best we can. Right now it's a house church most likely moving to a network of house churches - that in some form assemble in total periodically for celebration. This is the current wineskin we are called to participate in.

That doesn't mean that God won't call us to another direction some day. We are not under the illusion we have things all figured out and other people don't. We are simply following God's leading as best we can. We hope that we can have a "Both/And" approach with our friends in regular churches (to borrow from Wade Hodges terminology). We hope we can work and help them and do this house church thing too. We don't view these brothers and sisters as our enemies but rather fellow soldiers perhaps fighting on different fronts. I really wish we could get that message across much better.

Emergent Cohort
All around the country there are discussion groups called "emergent cohorts" which meet to discuss engaging the emerging culture with the Jesus life. My friend Ken Haynes with Disciples Fellowship is involved in one in Birmingham. (They meet weekly at a Panera Bread.) I'm not aware of any such group here in Auburn so I hope we can begin this type community. I know Jeremy Walden, Eric Taylor and a few others who will probably be interested in participating. So guys, if your on the Plains lets do this. I've started the blog www.auburnemergent.blogspot.com for us to communicate. If you want to be a participant let me know. I think gathering to discuss the Kingdom is a good thing and the more diverse group the more we will learn.

Our Church Makes Time Magazine and Weekend Note

2006-03-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

We'll not specifically ours, but our kindred spirits. The title is, "There's No Pulpit Like Home." Good thoughts in the article I thought. There's No Pulpit Like Home

I came across these thoughts on movements recently and thought they were pretty interesting. The book was called "Signs of the Spirit."

-A thirst for renewal: A holy discontent with what exists precipitates a recovery of vitality and patterns of the early church.
-A new stress on the work of the Spirit: The work of the Spirit is seen not only as important in the past but also as an experience in the present.
-An institutional-charismatic tension: In almost every case of renewal tensions within existing structures will rise.
-A concern for being a counter-cultural community: -Movements call the church to a more radical commitment and a more active tension in the world.
-Nontraditional or non-ordained leadership: Renewal movements are often led by people with no recognized formal leadership status in the church.
-Ministry to the poor: Movements almost always involve people at the grassroots level.
-Energy and dynamism: New movements have the ability to excite and enlist others as leaders and participants.

I think all those apply to this current movement or at least that is the desire.

HOUSE CHURCH
We will assemble again this Sunday at 10:30 AM where we will focus on Colossians Chapter 4. If your in the area, we'd love to have you. We aren't cooking this week but plan to go to some place to all eat together. Can't get in a food rut either you know. :)

When God Gives the Dream and Other Stuff

2006-03-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

When God Gives the Dream.....
-It will stir your passion.
-It will be humanly impossible to accomplish.
-It will make an impression on you for a lifetime.
-It will cause you to exercise strong faith.
-It will be attacked by the enemy of our souls.
(from Injoy - 40 Days of Fasting and Prayer)

Twists and Turns
The journey continues on here though some unexpected twists have happened. Nothing with respect to our House Church but rather from some of the other streams of the movement. The twist was beyond anyone's control within the midweek group, so we trust that God is behind this and His timing is perfect. In many ways this pushes this "thing" even more toward what we first thought God was doing: a network of house churches with periodic big celebration times.

I have complete peace as we are seeking to follow God, bathing decisions in prayer, and asking Him to use us to His glory. I don't really care what it ultimately looks like, just that its a God created community.

Lunches
I frequently use lunches to talk and learn from others. This week I had a great lunch with Rusty who leads a 6 year old church that has grown significantly in the area (from a core team to 600+). He thinks this house church network thing is unique and a good way to reach people who won't be reached with the institutional or even his model of ministry. Its nice to be around someone who views things from a Kingdom orientation and not turf protection.

Today I had a great lunch with Roy. Roy was pastor for an Independent Christian Church for 20+ years. Roy drew on a napkin what he believes is the future of "church" and it was this network of house churches. Roy is a very wise man and I enjoyed getting to know him more today.

Coincidence that both spoke of the potential of this organic structure of church or did God speak through these men?

Prayers
Some readers here know we've used Mission Alive for some guidance in this journey. We received word that Gailyn and Becky Van Rheenen's oldest son was killed in a tragic auto accident just days ago. He leaves behind a wife and two small children. Pray for Gailyn and Becky and this whole family. They are such godly people seeking to do Kingdom things. Gailyn and Becky penned an email called "Unspeakable Pain" that you can read on Mike Cope's blog on my links. I cannot imagine the pain they must all feel.

Weekend Recap

2006-02-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

UPWARD BASKETBALL
I have to brag on my 1st-3rd grade girls basketball team. They played their best game of the year I believe, good offense, swarming defense, and excellent overall effort. They don't keep score in our league, but if they did we would have won 43-28. :) My daughter Rachel scored 12, a career high. To put that in perspective, I honestly didn't know if she would score at all this year when we started but by our last game she ran the offense a good bit and took it to the goal. Its been fun to watch her go from very timid to at least a tad bit aggressive. Every single girl got better as the year went along. It was a terrific group of young ladies to work with. I can say it was the most fun I've had coaching youth sports.

MOVIE REVIEW
"The Pink Panther"-the kids liked it, I thought it was pretty mediocre if not even dull for long stretches.

HOUSE CHURCH
About 20 folks were present for our gathering this week. We focused on Colossians Chapter 3. Much of this chapter ties directly to the core values identified by the house church in part of our previous planning. These could change in phrasing and all as we continue on this journey, but I thought you might be interested in the current draft.

Our core values can be summed up in one word: Love

God loves all people: He loved us enough to send His own son Jesus to die for us and reconcile us to Himself. God makes no distinction between any denominational, geographical, ethnic, racial or gender barriers. We are all sinners in need of a Savior. (Matthew 28:19, John 3:16, I John 3:16)

We love all people: If God loves all people, so should we, the body of Christ. We should love them enough to be willing to be open, honest and vulnerable to share our faith with them. We want everyone to know the love of God through a fulfilling love relationship with Him. We desire to build nurturing relationships with those in this community as we share our lives and worship the Lord together. (Matthew 22:37-39, Matthew 18:14, Acts 2:44-47; Romans 12:10-13)

We love the Bible: We place strong emphasis on the Bible because it reveals the nature of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We study the Bible to both learn how to grow in love (to God and man) and as a guide for everyday living. (Colossians 3:16, Psalm 119:9-11)

We love the church: We believe the church should operate as a unified community of men and women serving one another and developing their spiritual gifts. We believe that each member of the church is on a journey. The word journey implies movement, progress and growth. While we are sometimes called to be still before God, we are never meant to be stagnant. We want to encourage you as you grow in all your relationships- with God, with your family, and with other believers. We believe that each member has been gifted to serve and exercise their God given gifts. We invite you to participate with us as we seek to journey together! (I Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4:1-16)

We love God: Our love for God is reflected in many different ways. Some, such as a worship celebration or participating in communion, are best shared with the entire community of believers. Others, such as developing a personal prayer life or private everyday worship, are very personal. Regardless of how privately or publicly we show our love for Him, each act of love flows from a heart filled with gratitude for who He is! As we grow in our love and knowledge of Him, we are transformed from a seeker to a believer to a disciple.

LEADERSHIP
I'm in process of writing what will probably be a very long document on church leadership. I'll probably start putting parts of this document on my blog in the coming week. It will have to be a multi-part entry due to this length. Also, in the coming week I'll be having lunch with some local church leaders for their thoughts on the topic. Both are from different heritages and will give a bit different take I'm sure and that's a good thing. We learn little building fortresses for ourselves and walling ourselves off from others. Both are godly men.

Book Review and Upcoming Weekend

2006-02-24T17:45:00.000-08:00

"The Secret Message of Jesus" by Brian McLaren
Yesterday when I got home I was thrilled to find an advanced copy of McLaren's new book in the mail along with instructions from Thomas Nelson Publishing on writing a blog review. The book will be released on March 7. It's really cool to get to do this. They were looking for bloggers who would do a review of this new book and I offered, but didn't know they were sending me a copy. I did notice people from the publishing company had visited my blog, but I just assumed they were wanting me to write a book. :)

I've already started the book and it looks interesting and relevant. A definite Kingdom orientation to this book. Stay tuned for the review around March 7.

McLaren is one of the leading thinkers of changes going on in postmodern Christianity. He has led a church called Cedar Ridge Community Church, near Washington, DC, for the past 20 or so years and just stepped down as their primary speaker. I listened to McLaren tell the story of Cedar Ridge a couple weeks ago and its very interesting. This church began as a small Bible study in his apartment. This study grew to the point that he went to his church at the time asking for permission to plant a new church. If I recall correctly, the people coming wouldn't really connect to where he was attending at the time. They refused and the rest is history. He was an English Professor at the time this began and not seminary trained, yet did pretty well I'd have to say.

House Church
As always if your in the Auburn area we'd love to have you be with us at our House Church. We meet at 10:30 AM on Sunday. Try to let me know if you are coming as we have a meal together each Sunday and would want you to join us for that also. Its a critical part of our fellowship together. This week we will be on Colossians Chapter 3.

Other Weekend Events
Tonight - the kids and I plan to go see the "Pink Panther" with Steve Martin. Jen is up at Lake Martin for an Emmaus event.

Tomorrow - many of the ladies involved in this current movement will meet for a time of focused prayer. Praise God for the prayers of these women.

Its also our last week of Upward Basketball this weekend. Its been the most enjoyable coaching experience I've had with youth sports. I highly recommend anyone get involved with this great program. We will have an awards ceremony Sunday night at Parkway.

Leadership: Some Introductory Thoughts

2006-02-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

Leadership -(noun)
1. The position or office of a leader: ascended to the leadership of the party.
2. Capacity or ability to lead: showed strong leadership during her first term in office.
3. A group of leaders: met with the leadership of the nation's top unions.
4. Guidance; direction: The business prospered under the leadership of the new president

The mere mention of the "L" word terrifies many people in a church setting. This most often comes from prior interactions and experiences with poor leadership. However, you can't escape this idea of leadership - it is in the Bible. John Maxwell, the leadership guru and someone who has influenced me greatly says, "Everything rises and falls on leadership." There is a fundamental principle of any organization - its success will depend primarily upon its leaders. Yet even that last statement has to be clarified a bit as we are dealing with God here, so in a community of God followers success is contingent on leaders following His will despite the temptation to follow their own. You can see this in action especially in the Old Testament where you have leaders who followed God and good stuff happens, then those who turn after their own will brought hard times on the people they were leading.

Within my heritage, leadership has typically been a closed system without much understanding by the membership of what actually goes on or perhaps worse without any idea of where the leaders were taking the church (i.e. visionless leadership). I've attended leadership meetings over the years that sometimes they were frankly quite bizarre. They were almost like poker games where no one involved in the leadership wanted to show their cards, it sent the message that no trust existed within the leadership group much less with the lowly sheep. Sometimes the silence would be deafening. Pat Lencioni has a great book called, "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team." The first level of dysfunction is lack of trust. Lencioni makes the point that if any team doesn't trust each other - it will never rise above dysfunction. Within any group or team, if you can't lay your cards on the table and honestly discuss reality you will never have much success. How much more does this truth apply to God's own people? How weird is it that sometimes in these spiritual settings trust is woefully lacking? So, somehow in this current movement trust is going to be a key component for leadership.

Maxwell defines leadership as merely meaning "influence." I think that's the best definition as from a biblical perspective we can't escape the comments of Jesus where he said, "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant." (from Mark 10) So somehow leadership in this Jesus context won't look like leadership from the world model, yet today, that's the primary model most appear to follow with the CEO and Board of Directors.

That said, the Bible doesn't reference leaderless Christianity either: Pastor, Shepherd, Bishop, Elder, Overseer, Evangelist, Minister, Deacon, Teacher and others. Who are these people? Are they the same person? What are they supposed to do? Is there some model in there that is mandated for all times and all people? How do spiritual gifts play into this? (Note: that last question is huge and a failure of most churches today in considering the gift aspect - giving a title doesn't the gift give.)

I suppose I'll give a shot at answering some of those questions next, but know I know enough about this topic to know I don't know enough about this topic. So take everything I write about this as my best conclusions today. May God grant me better and more clear conclusions tomorrow and the days ahead.

LESSONS FROM GIBSON GUITARS
I came across an article in USA Today recently that involved an interview with Henry Juszkiewicz. Juszkiewicz bought Gibson Guitars a few years back and turned it around from the brink of collapse to a successful business. Here is an excerpt from this interview where he is talking about how things changed at Gibson:

Q: Were there key decisions that really made things jump?
A: I fired all of management. That made things jump! But they were so bad, I didn't want them near the place. What happens is it has nothing to do with the people involved. It has to do with a sick culture. Once a sick culture takes place, a certain belief system, it's virtually impossible to fix.

Q: Did you do anything in particular with the products themselves?
A: Our employees wouldn't buy our products. They thought they were bad. One practice common in all companies was that if a product didn't make a certain quality level, you would sell it as a second. The problem was that dealers were not necessarily telling their consumers that seconds were seconds. So I got into the factory and I picked up a guitar. Got the employees around. "See this guitar," I said. "This guitar says Gibson on it, and it's not Gibson quality. So, here's what we do." I took the guitar, and I smashed it on the factory floor. I said any guitar that doesn't make the grade is going to be put in a pile, and we are going to take a chain saw to it every week. We are doing that to this day. We have Japanese dealers who just cry when they see the pile. It's a very small pile, though, now.

In the first question above notice the culture comments. There is virtual unanimity in research which shows non-evangelistic churches tend to stay non-evangelistic. I think its the culture factor that plays into this, you can rarely change it. Church planters use the term DNA to somewhat reference this and most all church planters try to build evangelism into their DNA. Perhaps this is why generally speaking new church plants are more evangelistic than maintenance-mode established churches. Also know good people can (and do) get trapped in these sick cultures and despite their good intentions, they won't be able to overcome their church's prevailing culture. There are huge implications for church planting in this I think.

In the second, I think there are also some implications. The people in the organization have to buy into what is happening. Leaders must cast the vision of what is going on and why. When the people buy into what God's vision is (assuming the leaders are following God's plan), great things will occur. When people are not that excited about what is happening or don't know what is happening - expect little excitement from members - which ties back into the culture that develops.

House Church Report and Stuff

2006-02-21T07:30:00.000-08:00

Friday:
On Friday evening, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and Louie Giglio were in town with the "Indescribable Tour." Several of us went and it was a great evening. Tomlin is like a modern day David with the lyrics of his songs. Redman has a great way of leading things spiritually - most of you know the song "Heart of Worship." Redman wrote that and it speaks of his approach to worship very well. Giglio had a great talk reminding us of how great, powerful and big God really is. Kara Lipsmeyer whose blog is linked here joined us for the evening. It was good to have her join us.

Sunday:
18 were present this week as we looked at Colossians Chapter 2 and the tapestry of God. It was another good week together. We had some out sick and some out-of-town (my wife and kids) so we missed them. One thing about house church, everyone knows your name and when your missing. Its impossible to hide here. :)

More from Velvet Elvis:
I finished this book this weekend. Its a very thought provoking book and a good read. I recommend it. I've heard some say this book really altered their thinking. For me it didn't do that but merely tied into a lot of what I've already been thinking and have already read from people like McLaren and McManus. Still its worth your time. Here are a few more quotes I really liked.

And so these first Christians passed on the faith to the next generation who passed it on to the next generation who passed it on to the next generation until it got to ....us. Here. Today. Those who follow Jesus and belong to his church. And now it is our turn. It is our turn to step up and take responsibility for who the church is going to be for a new generation. It is our turn to redefine and reshape and dream it all up again. It is our turn to rediscover the beautiful, dangerous, compelling idea that a group of people, surrendered to God and each other, really can change the world. -Rob Bell

A very restorationist mindset I'd say.

So what is this group of people living this way called? That's the church. The church doesn't exist for itself; it exists to serve the world. It is not ultimately about the church; it's about all the people God wants to bless through the church. When the church loses sight of this, it loses its heart. This is especially true today in the world we live in where so many people are hostile to the church for many good reasons. We reclaim the church as a blessing machine not only because that is what Jesus intended from the beginning but also because serving people is the only way their perception of church are ever going to change. -Rob Bell

Powerful thoughts and yet many churches are about "the church." Its all about turf protection and keeping themselves (or the biggest donors or longest term members) happy.

One thing to keep in mind is that we never arrive. Ever. One of the illusions of faith is that at some point we get it all mapped out and things get smooth and predictable. It is not true. The way of Jesus is a journey, not a destination. On a journey, the scenery changes. A lot. We can prepare for some things but not all. We make mistakes, figure it out as we go along , and try new things. Failures are really just an opportunity to learn. If you are part of a church, is the dominant understanding of faith in your church that of a journey or destination. -Rob Bell

I especially like that last quote as it ties into so much going on in my thinking today. As I referenced in the Restoration Series here, many in that movement came to the conclusion they had arrived. That is simply a deadly mindset I believe. "Journey" is a great concept for us to remember. Journey sounds like a good idea for the name of a new community of faith trying to tear down institutional structures don't you think?

Blogging
Its funny to talk to people about blogging, many simply don't understand it. I blog mostly for myself as a way to think and organize my thoughts. I enjoy writing my thoughts out as my old HB update readers certainly know. Another reason I blog is I know I have regular readers who interested in this journey we are on here in Auburn and it helps them follow the process from afar so to speak. Its been interesting to watch the stats on traffic here: Mondays are the biggest days for visits. My guess is that some look on Monday to see what the nuts/lunatic fringe did on Sunday! Saturdays and Sundays are the slowest days for visits. Traffic picks up each day around the lunch hour, which makes sense.

Leadership Philosophy- a draft is in the works and should be up by mid week or so if you are on the edge of your seat for that entry - hang on. :)

Wrestling With Tigers

2006-02-18T06:48:00.000-08:00

This current movement is undergoing an important and necessary wrestling match. Oh not literally, but figuratively wrestling with the concepts of spiritual leadership and what it will look like in this new community. Its a real tiger - powerful and dangerous. This match is also one that everyone comes into with scars regardless of their heritage. There may be terminology differences here and there but ultimately its there - scars from past matches. Wounds from spiritual leaders who somehow missed the part where Jesus said, "it won't be so among you" on their way to corporate board status and institutional control.

There is significant irony here as the wound givers typically aren't bad people, they are simply trapped in a sick system that has lost its way. A dysfunctional system where open and honest communication cannot happen. A dysfuctional system where control, power, budgets, committees, staff, clergy, buildings, and church politics hide the very kingdom they are charged with proclaiming. A dysfunctional system that has forgotten the vastly important role of spiritual gifts in leadership. Many of these leaders are drowning in the sea of this system yet see no way out.

So how do we avoid marching headlong into this same sea of dysfunction?

I and a friend from another heritage have been charged with putting down on paper what you might call a "philosophy of leadership" as we go forward. The community will then review this philosophy and have input. I suppose that's an honor, but its also a dangerous task as the tiger can be ferocious. Yet, I've studied and observed the tiger for years and find it an amazing and wonderful thing when harnessed and trained well. I plan to share my philosophies of leadership here in the next few days. (Feel free to chime in, I know you're there, even from coast to coast - lets hear some thoughts on the tiger. ET this means you!)

More from Velvet Elvis
"A church is a community of people who are learning how to be certain kids of people wherever they find themselves, so they can do whatever it is they do "in the name of the Lord Jesus." The goal isn't to bring everyone's work into the church; the goal is for the church to be these unique kinds of people who are transforming the places they work and live and play because they understand the whole earth is filled with the kavod of God. You see God where others don't. And then point him out. " - Rob Bell

The above quote captures some of this idea of missional christianity I believe. I saw another slogan from an emerging church which read, "The Church Has Left The Building." I love that.

Velvet Elvis

2006-02-13T21:45:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I'm an avid reader. I typically have several books going at once. On occasion I read a book that really makes some profound points or stimulates deeper thinking.

I've just begun a book by Rob Bell called "Velvet Elvis" that fits this category. Rob leads Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan and is a really unique Bible teacher. I'm still early on in this book but its one that will make you think. The title is bizarre for a spiritual/Christian/religion book I think anyone would say, but the first chapter explains his premise. Here is a quote that I think is worth remembering, especially those of us who came from a restoration mindset:

"Here's often what happens: Somebody comes along who has a fresh perspective on the Christian faith. People are inspired. A movement starts. Faith that was stale and dying is now alive. But then the pioneer of the movement - the painter - dies and the followers stop exploring. They mistakenly assume their leader's words were the last ones on the subject, and they freeze their leader's words. They forget that as that innovator was doing his or her part to move things along, that person was merely taking part in the discussion that will go on forever. And so in their commitment to what so-in-so said and did, they end up freezing the faith......I am learning that what seems brand new is often the discovery of something that's been there all along - it just got lost somewhere and it needs to be picked up, dusted off, and reclaimed."

As I think about this current movement I have to acknowledge that we won't get it all right. None of us are naive enough to think (or arrogant enough to believe) that we will finally arrive and get it all right. It's not like we are going to simply develop some "model" that can be put on the assembly line and mass produced. We will make mistakes in our effort to reform and make this Jesus community relevant to our world. Yet it is in the journey that we are blessed. Its not when you think you've arrived and there is nothing left to consider. That is where calcification and fosselization occurs and that's a dangerous thing to living faith.

Here is another quote that resonated with me:

"The idea that everyone else approaches the Bible with baggage and agendas and lenses and I don't is the ultimate in arrogance. To think that I can just read the Bible without reading any of my own culture or background or issues into it and come out with a "pure " or "exact" meaning is not only untrue, but it leads to a very destructive reading of the Bible that robs it of its life and energy."

This is something that we've had to deal with in this current movement. Honestly, its been somewhat refreshing to simply acknowledge this and drop the game we've played. You know the game: we are honest, sincere, and true in our conclusions on scripture and anyone with a different conclusion must be hard hearted, unobjective, self deceived, or ignorant. Game over. Praise God.

Weekend Reflections

2006-02-13T07:30:00.000-08:00

We have had a busy yet very exciting weekend. Here are some of the highlights.

FRIDAY NIGHT- My daughters and I went to the annual Daddy Daughter Dance put on by the city of Auburn Rec Department. It was lots of fun as usual. Virtually every dad and daughter in town is at this event which sells out weeks in advance. It was my 7th consecutive year for this fun event. It does get a bit difficult to dance with two girls at the same time and I regret to inform my readers we did not win the dance contest (also for the 7th consecutive year). Maybe next year Tom Padgett can work with us before the dance.

SATURDAY NIGHT - A gathering was held for those interested in the current church planting movement in Auburn. About 50 folks were present (including kids) for this event and they represented a diverse range of backgrounds. Some feel called to be involved in this movement, others were there simply to learn more about what is happening. God has really woven together an amazing story in this process. There is a great desire - a Holy discontent as one person put it - sweeping the area. This discontent is a desire to uncomplicate Christianity, to remove the barriers, to focus on the Kingdom mission, all to reach the lost of the area.

Plans are moving ahead. Most likely this will emerge as a network of house churches who meet on Sundays for a big celebration gathering, probably monthly to begin with as one big group. On the weeks without a big corporate gathering smaller house meetings will be held. As we move along the big Sunday gatherings will likely increase in frequency. Most of us believe one of the primary reasons to meet is for the encouragement gained in this gathering so this will be a time of joy and uplifting worship. Much of our indepth study will be done in the smaller house church setting which allows for more interaction and digging. The first corporate gathering of this new thing will be held on Easter Sunday, April 16th. It looks like we have a great place for these large gatherings that will hold about 400, so it may satisfy our needs for some time.

One person told an terrific story about a friend who recently visited the Holy Land. During this visit they went to the reputed location of where Jesus was crucified. When they got there, they found that a structure had been built over the location. The man thought, "this is not what it is supposed to look like." Inside the structure where locations for various groups: Jews, Roman Catholic, Muslims, and maybe one other. They went inside to the place where the cross was supposedly put in the ground and it was set apart, even covered in plexiglass. This man asked the guide if he could go up and touch the ground there. The guide said yes, but you have to walk around this ledge and then kneel down and reach under the glass, in other words its not easy to get to the cross site. This man then followed the guides instruction and as he touched the earth where history says the cross of Christ went in the ground he had an amazing revelation. "This is just like the modern church" - where we have obstacles that while not in themselves bad or wrong - often get in the way of people coming to the foot of the cross. Profound I thought. May God grant us wisdom to peel away the layers and barriers keeping people from Jesus.

SUNDAY - About twenty of us that normally gather in house church met instead with Mosaic Family Church. It was an enjoyable day with Jeremy Walden and folks there. We met several folks and enjoyed the morning worshipping with them. The thoughts presented before communion were among the most moving I have heard in some time, they were very profound. I had a chance to talk to this gentleman after the services ended and he is a very interesting man and served as a Pastor in the Independent Christian Church for many years. We also have some connections through a mutual friend that I will soon sponsor on the Emmaus Walk.

Heritage Revisited

2006-02-09T17:24:00.000-08:00

This morning on my run I listened to Wade Hodges. He was talking about stages of faith development and it was very interesting and worth discussing here at some point. During his talk he briefly mentioned his prior week's sermon and the feedback that resulted - mostly positive, but some negative. He referenced direction discussions his congregation was having. This peaked my interest so I downloaded this talk. Essentially, this was a talk on heritage with many parallels to the series I wrote a few weeks ago. He based the sermon on Acts 15 and the fact that there was a Jewish way of doing Christianity and a Gentile way of doing Christianity, yet one church. It was a "both and", not an "either or" existence.

Wade transitioned from Acts 15 to thoughts on the Restoration Movement. He even referenced some of the slogans that I discussed in my Restoration Series here. He (like me) believes this movement left these slogans somewhere on the way as sectarianism crept in during the 1940's-1960's. Some great thoughts in this talk. I was particularly interested in his interest of planting churches and allowing them to be different (in style, name, etc.) from the "mother church." Its a great concept that I suspect few churches have the guts to do, no matter what stripe they are.

Wade made this comment, "I am a recovering Church of Christer." And noted that "Garnett Church is a recovering Church of Christ." He adds, "What we are trying to recover from is a mean spirited, divisive, judgmental, narrow, arrogant, harmful, despicable version of the Christian faith that has done terrible damage to the cause of Christ in this world." Wade isn't saying all churches from the Restoration Movement are this way, but the fact is the far right within Churches of Christ have been this way. Pretty strong statements from Wade. I'm not sure I would have even phrased it that way but I do agree with his premise. Most surprising, he is still employed there! (Which is good, he is a very bright guy.) Give it a listen if you have a chance. I'd love to hear some thoughts. The title is "Both And" from January 22, 2006. http://www.garnettchurch.org/default.asp?id=131

DETOX PROGRAM

I came across an interesting article the other day regarding "detoxing" from the institutional church. Very interesting thoughts again - not that I completely agree with the author, but interesting and on target in many things from my view. A fellow church planter told me early in this process that you need a time to detox. I thought that was a bit crazy, but now I understand. Our addiction to the institution and its comfort can be strong.

Here is the article:
Detoxing From Church http://www.theofframp.org/Detox.html

FROM THE MOUTH OF BABES - Since we still don't know what this new faith community will be called when it goes public, my family is often looking at church names on signs as we drive around. Yesterday an interesting conversation took place with my wife and two of my kids. I thought it was pretty funny. There was a church sign that was rather long and somewhat confusing to set the stage:

Mother - "See how that name looks."
Davis - "I like something simple, like Church of God or Church of Christ. Just something plain."
Lauren - "Davis, Church of God and Church of Christ are denominations, we are going to be nondenominational."

I found this dialogue very interesting (especially since years ago I would have argued we are not one - you know the "D" word) and a teachable moment. Yes this faith community will be part of the Body of Christ, Church of Christ, Church of God, the Disciples, the Way....yet it will not follow the man made denominations of any of those names.......And the whole congregation said AMEN.

This Movement Updated and Stuff

2006-02-08T18:36:00.000-08:00

The current movement continues to roll on here on the "Plains of Dixie". A historic event will occur Saturday evening with a gathering of a fairly large number of people who either have this vision or have expressed interest. That will be exciting. In early March, several representatives of the various streams of this movement will go away to pray and plan. We even have a tentative date and location for the first large corporate gathering; however, you'll have to stay tuned for that info and its too subject to change to make public yet.

Each week representatives (I guess you'd say) of this movement have been meeting to plan, talk, and pray. One of our group met with the local ministers group in our area and informed them of this movement. They were supportive and prayerful. That was a refreshing reaction as many institutional church leaders react with territorial protectiveness and cannot see the Kingdom view of this movement. This movement is not seeking sheep in any of the local pastures, but rather the lost sheep. Sure some sheep who are already believers may come, but they will quickly learn this is not the place for "sit, get and go" Christianity. We will help them find a place with good teaching in the area if that is their interest. We are a group on a mission not protecting a fortress.

One of the local ministers did question how in the world we could bring together a group of such diversity. The answer is we cannot, but God can. The only way this movement will succeed is God's intervention and keeping a Kingdom view. I think one of the great tragedies of modern Christianity is the loss of the Kingdom view. Perhaps some future writings will explore this concept.

Report on Feb 5 Gathering & Upcoming

2006-02-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

We had a packed house this week with 29 on hand for our humble gathering. This included a mix of local visitors and some out-of-towners. Among our local visitors was on old "adopted student" from our prior church. This student never actually came to the old church after getting adopted but we've stayed in touch the past 3+ years. We were really happy she came to our gathering today and even indicated that she would be back. I hope so, she's a good kid and needs a spiritual community, yet never felt comfortable in any of the local institutional models. We also had some other local folks just checking us out. It was a good day as we started our study of the Book of Colossians. As usual we followed this with a meal: chicken spaghetti, salad, green beans, & bread.

NEXT SUNDAY: We will not meet separately but plan to join with the Mosaic Family Church, which is led by Jeremy Walden a long time friend of many of us. Mosaic meets at the local Christian Church student center on Gay Street near Taco Bell. I believe they begin at 10 AM.

THIS WEEK: A somewhat historic meeting will occur this coming Saturday evening as people from several local plant teams will all meet together to discuss what God has placed on their hearts as a visions for a new missional church in Auburn. I've been meeting for some time with representatives from these movements and this will potentially lead to a merging of all these into something rather different than expected yet very exciting. It certainly ties into my restoration thinking of dropping the things that divide us and uniting in Jesus. My own heritage began this way, then turned into something very different. Its great to in some ways go back to this beautiful picture of unity.

RUNNING UPDATE: The past 2 Sunday mornings I've ran 9 miles each time. Two weeks ago about the first third was in the rain and 50 something degree temps. I've always liked running in the rain for some reason. This past Sunday it was in the low 30's when I ran. Perhaps it was the temps but it was an easy 9 mile run. Its much easier to breath in cooler low humidity weather. My running buddy and I have had schedule conflicts so the last two weeks I've ran alone (but not really since I run with my IPod). I listen to some great teaching from I Corinthians by Mark Driscol. The series he calls "Christians Gone Wild" which I think is a great series title for this book. Other favorites to listen to on runs include: Brad Small, Rob Bell, Wade Hodges and John Maxwell. If anyone knows of some good podcast teachings out there let me know. This coming Sunday it will be time for an increase of up to 10 miles at least. The half marathon I'm training for is in early March. Oh one other thing, I've changed my diet from strict low carb Atkins to the Abs Diet. There are some similarities but you can eat more good carbs like whole grain breads and pastas and fruits on the Abs diet. It fits better with my running long distances thing I do.

House Church Report & Misc Stuff

2006-01-31T17:30:00.000-08:00

The Gathering of 1/29/06
We had another great Sunday together with 19 present for our gathering. For some reason it was a day with lots of laughter, everyone was a bit giddy for some reason and that's not a bad thing. Adam Newby was back in town and visited with us. It was good to see him again as he prepares to head to Malawi, Africa soon for mission work there.

We sang, we studied, we communed and we ate. Several of us even shot hoops that afternoon. Its been neat to watch the kids all bond together even though they represent a wide range of ages from teens to elementary school.

Our community study time focused on I Cor. 12 and the concepts about different gifts yet one body. This is true individually of course and what makes the body or faith community effective. Too often the little toes are ignored in the institutional church as if their voices don't matter, yet the whole point of the text is that all parts matter. Another important concept sometimes missed I think, is the kingdom view here. I think it shows that it's ok for faith communities (or churches) to be different because they are blessed with different gifts and should use them to God's glory. Due to the vast diversity of individuals, no one church is going to reach all kinds of people - so be thankful there are different styles and approaches it is the Spirit working in these places that created many of these differences. From a Kingdom view - they all fit if they proclaim the gospel.

Last Sunday evening we again met with our friends at Vida Neuva. My friend and fellow church planter Eric Taylor spoke on "Being Salt and Light". (He was for it if you wondered.) He did a good job and we had a good evening with our Hispanic brothers and sisters.

QUOTABLE:
"God has not promised us safety, but participation in an adventure called the Kingdom. That seems to me to be great news in a world that is literally dying of boredom." - Stanley Hauerwas

I love that quote. May we recapture the exciting Kingdom vision. May we never again be civilized, institutionalized, or simply bore people with the marvelous gospel of Jesus Christ.

UPCOMING:
This Sunday we begin a study of the Book of Colossians. Each week we will look at a chapter and discuss within the community. During the week we will study this book with our kids in anticipation of the coming gathering. We welcome anyone to join us at 10:30 AM on Sunday, do let us know your coming as we cap off our time with a great meal together.

Also upcoming this Sunday evening is our Superbowl Party. Feel free to join us for that too if you want. It's at the Gottesmans at 4:30 with kickoff sometime around 5 I think.

On February 12 we will meet with our old friend Jeremy Walden and his still new faith community in town called Mosaic Family Church. We look forward to visiting with Jeremy and family and getting to know some folks there. They have some folks coming down from Birmingham to lead the worship and we are excited to praise God with them.

This Current Movement

2006-01-25T17:30:00.000-08:00

As most readers here know, my family along with three others have been working for months on a church plant in Auburn. This has been an exciting journey so far that, at this point, involves us meeting in a house church on Sundays. This house church has been a great time of renewal and refreshing for all of us.

During this journey we have encountered fellow disciples from 3 other backgrounds who have a vision for a new kind of faith community in Auburn. A faith community that focuses on seeking and saving the lost, not appeasing the saved or attempting to draw believers from local churches with new, exciting, and better. A missional faith community focused on kingdom business rather than corporate bureaucracy. The number of events and circumstances that brought these 4 groups together are quiet amazing and we believe God directed.

For a couple months, I along with representatives from these other traditions have been meeting weekly for discussion and prayer, asking God if this is to be 1-2-3 or 4 things here in Auburn. It appears we are being lead to "one thing" that will be quite different than anything else in this area. It has been a great experience as we all bring strengths and we all bring blind spots, yet amazingly, its like it all fits together as a perfect puzzle.

Today we started getting into specifics. What are the essentials? What are the hills you'd die on? What baggage needs to be buried? We all have some baggage we need to bury. In fact, I have proposed the idea that we do this symbolically at some point in the near future.

How would some of you readers answer these questions? (You can answer this anonymously as I know some of my readers are not in a position to publicly comment. Just be nice in your comments even if disagreeing with something and I will allow it for this one.)

Last Weekend

2006-01-24T06:15:00.000-08:00

We had a great yet very busy weekend, here are the highlights:

Truett Cathy - I've been to many Business by the Book luncheons but Mr. Cathy drew the largest I've seen, a standing room only crowd. He was very good and very funny. He had many stories from his childhood and business life that brought laughs. One of his main points was that there is no conflict in being successful in business and following the "Book." Interestingly, he said the best business decision he ever made was early on making a commitment to close on Sundays. He said he believes this has lead Chick-Fil-A to be able to hire people who are of higher quality than they would have otherwise employed. Not all use this day for "church" but many do and those that don't still value it for family and friends. He also said last year he was called to testify before Congress, they apparently were curious to learn how you could be successful in business and still be honest. :)

Upward - My girls were awesome on Saturday. While we don't keep score I bet we outscored our opponent by close to 20. They really worked together as a team and passed the ball well. Their rebounding, which we worked on at the practice before the game, was excellent. My Rachel scored her first goal too. Another girl scored for the first time this season, hitting 3 buckets. It was great to see their faces so excited. Every girl on the team had a chance to be the point guard that brings the ball down. In his game, Davis had 10 points though his team lost.

House Church - This week we again had 18 present. Our family was in charge of leading the day. We had a number of responsive readings where each child had a line followed by a community response. The readings revolved around the triune nature of God, with several songs focusing on each aspect after the readings. Our overall focus was on transformation and change. We then celebrated communion and used an ancient liturgy that involved responsive readings as well. This week we used the intinction method -also an ancient practice- where people came to the "table" and then dipped the bread into the wine. Symbolically its a very good reminder of the cleansing power of Christ's blood in our lives. And finally we ate: ham, asparagus casserole, sweet potato casserole, broccoli salad, homemade bread, and brownies with ice cream. One thing on our meals is that each week everyone makes extra and we take a meal to some family in need that we are aware of, this has been a neat thing. This week we did something new for us. One family who has been visiting with us is beginning a new business and on Sunday afternoon we went and prayed over this new business. The husband is very much a seeker and I think this was a good thing.

Lauren - Went back to the doc yesterday and it turns out there is a fracture in the elbow. Good news though, no surgery and 2 more weeks in the cast is all they think will be necessary. Pray for her good healing.

Run - I ran for most of 1 hours and 40 minutes on Sunday morning and it was brutal. My legs still are tired. I'm going to start adding carbs as distance running and low carb are hard to combine.

Good Stuff Coming Up

2006-01-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

Thursday - Business By the Book at 12 noon. Truett Cathy, founder and chairman of Chik-Fil-A, will speak. I am really looking forward to hearing Mr. Cathy. He has strived to run his business by the Book. I'll give a report on his comments.

Saturday - Will be busy. Upward Basketball, my girls team plays at 11 AM , Davis at 12 PM, Auburn verses Arkansas at 1 PM. Then to cap off the evening the Community Night of Praise at 6:30 PM. Lots of fun.

Sunday - House Church 10:30, if your in the area please join us. This week we will be focusing on change or transformation and its relation to the Kingdom of God. If you want to visit us just email me so we can ensure food prep folks know. Sunday afternoon the NFC and AFC championship games will be played. I'm not a big NFL fan but its down to the wire now and worth watching. The Superbowl is in 2 weeks and we will probably hold a big church plant outreach party.

Other things - I'm down 10 pounds since I started cutting out the sugar, bread, and fries. 5-10 pounds more and I will be happy. Last Sunday morning I ran about 8 miles in prep for the half marathon. It's painful to run long distances on low carb. I'll begin adding some more carbs back after this weekend as I bump my running up. The big question is can I run an hour and a half on this few carbs Sunday morning? It will be a great test of endurance. :)

Heritage Part 3: The Not So Good Side of This Heritage

2006-01-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

Author's Note: I would suggest you read these Heritage Thoughts in order, rather than beginning here. Also know that this is MY experience and thinking based on 40 years of interaction with the Restoration Movement. Because of the diversity within this Movement, your experience may be vastly different. Not all churches will reflect the items I list. Few churches will reflect all these items but rather fall into a scale of influence more toward some than others. I also believe God can even work in individuals who are involved in congregations with some of these influences that follow.

1. Lack of Emphasis on the Holy Spirit - In some of these RM churches it was taught that the Holy Spirit worked only through the Word of God. I have come to believe this is a major heresy that this movement allowed to exist (and even thrive) in some places. This theology lead to an almost quasi-diest Christianity where God could (or would) do very little. This easily dovetails into the thinking that its all then up to us.

2. Lack of Emphasis on Personal Piety - This was even something that early leader Barton W. Stone expressed concern about. Becoming holy in our lives should be a major point of emphasis yet in many places it has not been (getting "church form" right was the emphasis). Something is fundamentally wrong when we are willing to go to war over immersion (which I believe clearly should be practiced) but are ok with a baptized person who has no "fruit" in his life and shows no evidence that there was any real conversion that took place.

3. Deification of a System of Church - The thinking that we have finally figured out the way the early church did "church" after all these years lead to some serious consequences. In fact, I believe that there are many within RM churches who were converted to a system of church and not to Jesus Christ. I would never presume to be able to name anyone individually, that is God's domain. However, the thinking that "we've gotten just about as close to 1st century Christianity as one can get" is absurd. If we could go back in time and visit a 1st century church, I believe we'd be quiet surprised at how this thing we call church was done back then. You can easily see how legalism both develops and thrives under such a mindset (your very salvation depends on you being "right" on church structure).

4. The Formula Approach to a Relationship With God - An early preacher, named Walter Scott, developed a system to help both children and illiterates understand the Gospel. This eventually lead to a formula theology that as long as you got the 5 steps, your ok. It didn't really matter whether your life changed a whole bunch. Yet God is calling us to a relationship with him, not a formula that can be mindlessly plugged into.

5. A Culture of Fear - When you think you've recaptured the pure 1st century model of church and your salvation hinges on being right on everything, well you can easily see how a culture of fear can exist. A second item adding to the fear factor, are the publications willing and able to write up anyone who strays from their interpretation.

6. Lack of Understanding of Grace - lack of grace (or understanding of grace) and legalism which has thrived in many RM churches. This item really permeates the five previous items.

Though let me say on a more positive note, many RM churches and people are experiencing a new grace awakening. In many respects a new splintering has occurred between these churches and the legalistic churches. I suspect there are many factors which lead to this grace awakening though I am certain it is God moving to do this. I believe people like Max Lucado, the great writer and RM background preacher, has had a major positive influence. I believe the internet and the ability to communicate through it has opened new ways to think and study and been used by God. (God may even use bloggers on occasion.)

Glory Road

2006-01-17T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my family (along with most of the Gottesmans) went to see the new movie, "Glory Road." It is based on the true story of Texas Western University and their 1966 national championship season which for the first time in NCAA history featured an all black starting line-up. Texas Western later became known as the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). UTEP still has a pretty decent basketball program.

A man named Don Haskins was hired to coach at Texas Western in 1965 and he went out (in the midst of much conflict and personal harassment) and brought in the best players he could find to a school with little basketball history or interest. It is a great movie with some great teaching moments for kids. There is a curse word or two, but largely its family friendly.

That season really changed the face of college basketball more than legislation or anything else. They defeated the University of Kentucky in the championship game. Great lessons as you see many attitudes changed and prejudices confronted. It's done in a good way and there's lots of humor throughout the movie.

And yes Heritage Part III is still coming.

Weekend Recap

2006-01-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

UPWARD BASKETBALL
On Saturday my girls did great. It was unbelievable how much they improved in a week. At their age level they don't keep score but if we did, I'm pretty sure we won handily. It was exciting to watch them work as a team. Amazing to see our guards pass into the post and us score again and again.

Davis and his team lost - sort of - 30-29 - but outscored the other team 29-26. Upward has some unusual rules. We jumped out to a huge lead like 14-0 and they gave the other team 2 points so they wouldn't be zero I guess. Then we went cold. The other team came back and with the score 28-29 (us ahead) we "fouled" (weak call though) with less than a minute to go. In Upward they don't shoot fouls in this situation its an automatic 2 points, so that gave the other team a 2 point lead. We missed two shots at the end to win so I guess we still had our chances. The good thing about Upward is no parents screamed or got upset, everyone tries to encourage both teams. Had this been a city league game the refs would probably have needed police escorts and the whole focus been on complaining.

HOUSE CHURCH
We had another great Sunday of house church with again 18 present. We will now begin opening this up and inviting others now that we've gotten things going. Each week will still be different but we do have some idea of generally what tell people that we do. Yesterday we spent time focusing on the servant aspect of Jesus. Most of our songs related to that theme. Our singing was very, I guess you'd say blended, but mostly acapella. Jennifer Commander played along on the piano for a couple songs. I played guitar on a couple and at the end Jennifer and Jared played a song that Jon, their father had written based on a passage from Isaiah. It was a neat song and one we will learn.

All the kids had scriptures to read based on our theme. We all watched a Rob Bell teaching video that was really good. Rob Bell is quickly becoming one of my favorite Bible teachers. He is at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The adults then spent time discussing the teaching from the video while the kids, under Jennifer Commander's direction, spent time working on posters describing ways we could serve this week. The kids then came back and described their posters. As we always do we also had communion as a community followed by the fellowship meal. This week: BBQ, baked beans, corn casserole, green beans, salad, and cake/ice cream.

Next week the Robinson family will lead the meeting. If you are in the area come join us at 10:30 AM. Let us know you'll be coming though so we can make sure we have enough food.

VIDA NUEVA
Last night I preached for the local Hispanic Church, Vida Neuva - which means New Life in English. It was a unique and stretching experience. I'm very comfortable speaking but this was the most difficult assignment to date. I didn't have powerpoint which I normally rely on heavily and I didn't know how my humor would translate into Spanish. It was also the first time I had spoken with a translator. It went well as far as I could tell. I knew the guy translating and we quickly got into a good rhythm. However, it does change things greatly as a speaker. You may want to make an emphatic point but you have to wait for the translator to catch up. I had many good comments from both the Americans there and the Hispanic members. Worship is very different at Vida Nueva than my past experiences, but in a good way. Its very up tempo and the Hispanic people are very emotional and expressive. Its kind of neat to see so much joy. It also gives you a good perspective to hear some of their stories and realize they have come to our country for a better life yet don't know the language or culture. You realize how difficult that can be and it gives you an appreciation for their dreams and their circumstances.

Heritage Part 2: Good Things From This Heritage

2006-01-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

Lest anyone be confused or jump to conclusions that are not true, I am not upset, angry, or mad about this heritage. There are many good things that come from this heritage.

3 Good Things From the Early Stages of This Movement
1. Desire for unity. ("In brief, its great purpose is to establish Christian Union upon the basis of a simple evangelical Christianity." Robert Richardson on this movement circa 1852)
2. Emphasis on the Bible.
3. Nondenomination Chrisianity

4 Great Slogans of the Restoration Movement
1. "We speak where the Bible speaks, we are silent where the Bible is silent."
2. "In Essentials: Unity. In Non-Essentials: Liberty. In All Things: Charity." (borrowed from Saint Augustine ironically)
3. "No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible."
4. "Christians only, but not the only Christians."

4 Good Things From My Experiences in This Heritage
1. Faith - it is here that I came to faith and relationship with Jesus. This movement has been used by God to reach many people.
2. Bible Knowledge - I am very fortunate to have heard a great emphasis biblical teaching and a little of it "stuck" here and there.
3. Baptism and Communion - its interesting to read how many groups today are "recapturing" the emphasis on these two items that were common to the early church. In this movement they have long been emphasized (though certainly in some places perhaps even skewed or mistaught) but as a general rule this emphasis is a good thing.
4. Community - there has always been something unique when you meet someone from another place who is a part of this movement. It seems you eventually find some common acquaintances. Recently someone from another tradition commented to me, "CofCs have really done a good job of building community and a really bad job of evangelizing." Interesting view from someone outside the movement.

Unfortunately this movement didn't always live up to these common slogans and early themes. Many people did speak where the Bible was silent and this lead to a fracturing of the movement time and again. Sectarianism crept in to where many came to the conclusion that they were in fact the only game in town so to speak.

Next Time: Some Bad Things From This Heritage

Heritage Part I: Leaving My Heritage?

2006-01-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

her·i·tage (noun).
1. Property that is or can be inherited; an inheritance.
2. Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.
3. The status acquired by a person through birth; a birthright: a heritage of affluence and social position.
Synonyms: heritage, inheritance, legacy, tradition. These nouns denote something immaterial, such as a custom, that is passed from one generation to another: a heritage of moral uprightness; a rich inheritance of storytelling; a legacy of philosophical thought; the tradition of noblesse oblige.

Recently someone made the comment that I was "leaving my heritage" with respect to the church plant that I and others are currently working on in Auburn. As a student of history that statement really jumped out to me. I am a child of the American Restoration Movement (RM) and specifically the Churches of Christ. Though technically speaking its leaders called it a reformation movement. One early leader, Robert Richardson, even wrote a series titled "Principles of the Reformation." He was Alexander Campbell's close friend and knew Campbell as well as anyone, even writing his biography.

Without getting into specifics I believe this change in viewpoint from reformation to restoration had some dire consequences for this Movement. Eventually this unity seeking effort ("common Christianity") morphed into 3 major wings: CofC, DoC, and ICC. My tribe further splintered into at least 23 other sects (depending on how you catergorize). Most of these sects have their own publications and approved speakers. So much for the unity movement and "sinking into the larger body of Christ" that was at the forefront of this effort. Anybody seen my heritage?

With respect to leaving my heritage I submit that I am not leaving my heritage. In fact, in some ways I may even be embracing my heritage for the first time. I've often said and firmly believe that every generation has an obligation to go to the Bible and interpret it to the best of their ability to their time and circumstances. This concept is certainly RM thinking so to speak. It certainly agrees with the philosophies espoused by Robert Richardson in the publication noted above. Something very bad happens when any movement (or group of people) thinks it has "arrived" or "finally got it right." Unfortunately, that occurred in a large part of the RM.

Next Up: Good Things From This Heritage.

Blogs to Blogs to Blogs

2006-01-10T06:27:00.000-08:00

An interesting thing about blogging is how one blog leads to another. Take my blog, the links you see on the left are of some people I know and some people I've never met but enjoy reading their thoughts. I typically do a quick scan of those listed blogs just about every day to see if something new and interesting is available. In looking at Fred's blog, he referenced a blog by Larry Chouinard on what a missional church looks like. Larry has a couple of definitions then a listing of characteristics of a missional church. If you've heard the term and wondered what it means, here is a good primer.

http://lchouinard.blogspot.com/2006/01/missional-church.html

In scanning Larry's blog I also found an entry on the Kingdom of God that I thought was excellent. Here is an excerpt.

Participation in the advance of the Kingdom should not be equated with the busyness of church membership. The fact is, Kingdom thinking and the agenda of church institutions often run counter to one another. The Kingdom of God is a movement that has no institutional walls. In fact, the spiritual rhythm of the Kingdom is best experienced in the grit of life, not in the artificial atmosphere of most of our church assemblies. We do not fight a cultural war with our environment, rather we seek to discover where God is active in the midst of culture. A church that truly desires to participate in God's Kingdom movement will not be barracaded behind stained glass. It is naive to assume that we are light and salt in a community merely because we have purchased real estate in a neighborhood. Too often the church has been consumed with the next strategic program designed to keep our high maintenance consumers busy and loyal to the institution. The Kingdom is bigger than the institution and growth is the work of God, not a strategic new program designed to make the institution appear more attractive.

Rich stuff if you ask me. Here is a link to the entire entry from which the excerpt above came:

http://lchouinard.blogspot.com/2006/01/kingdom-vision.html

The Arm Update

2006-01-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

Lauren saw the orthapedic doc today. He can't see a fracture but still thinks there might be a hairline fracture. He did see a bend to her arm (which is kind of weird if you ask me) and thinks a cast is a good idea for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks they take it off and look again. If it still shows the bend then another cast. Apparently in kids this happens and it corrects itself with a cast. All in all a good report I'd say as it appears we will avoid anything like surgery, which had it been more on the elbow that would have been likely.

Another Step in the Journey

2006-01-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

Since I know a number of folks have interest in our journey and read this blog (but only a very few post comments) I thought I'd give a quick summary of our first meeting as a house church today. I do encourage you silent visitors to chime in with thoughts and opinions. It makes blogging even more fun when there is dialogue.

Anyway, on to today: We had 18 folks gather for house church this morning (sometimes called simple church or organic church). We began with a time of prayer then moved on to a time of praising God in song. All of the kids were given scriptures to read, they would read their passage, then read the title and number of a song we would sing that corresponded to the reading. It was neat to involve the kids and we hope to incorporate them in even more ways as we go along.

After our singing a Mercy Me song was played as we prepared for communion. It was kind of cool as it was a song written by our brother-in-law Pete Kipley who produced Mercy Me for several years. Anyway, we then had some comments and all shared in communion.

Our scripture focus of the day was the parable of the Prodigal Son. We played a DVD version of a reading of Luke 15 then discussed the passage. One other unique thing we are doing is that the parents and kids are all studying and discussing the selected text prior to the Sunday meeting. That way the kids and adults all have a head start on what we will look at as a community. We think getting us and our kids together on this is a good idea.

Following this, we had an open floor time to share prayer requests. We then shared a great meal of grilled chicken, salad, bread, veggies, and strawberry cake. It was good to gather around the table to cap off our time together.

Surprising Thoughts: it was a unique experience in getting read to go to house church. Typically getting ready for church is one of the most stressful times for parents and kids for some reason that I don't fully understand. Today was completely relaxed. I just wore wind suit pants and a running shirt and didn't even worry about shaving. My youngest Rachel said, "Can I wear my pajamas?" I couldn't think of a good reason not and since Jen was at work I said, "Sure." She did and no one cared. There was no stress in getting ready or getting there. If anything that is some small success.

Lauren Update: we go to the doc for further evaluation this week, please pray that we get a good report.

How Saturday Went

2006-01-08T07:29:00.000-08:00

First the good:
My girls did a great job. We don't keep score officially though I know we were up 14-4 early then they came back and tied it and then I lost count. It was close. The teams are well matched it appears. To have practiced all together so little they did especially well. Best of all though they had fun.

Davis had a really good game, his team won 28-16. Davis scored 14 points. He made some nice plays.

Then the bad:
About an hour before we were to head out to the party for Adam, Lauren was running around the front of our house and up the rock steps. She tripped and fell and hurt her elbow/arm. We decided she needed an x-ray, so I took the younger 2 kids to the party and Jen and Lauren went to the ER. The doc says something is broken but with swelling its hard to tell just what. So its on the orthopedic doc early this week.

Oh.......Did I mention that Jen rear ended someone on the way to the ER? Luckily only minor damage to the other car and nothing to our suburban and most importantly no one injured. Still it required a police report. Lauren completely melted down during this part of their trip - feeling it was her fault.

Business by the Book and More Stuff

2006-01-07T07:01:00.000-08:00

Another upcoming event you should know about and attend is Business by the Book. This is a quarterly luncheon for Christian business people to come together for a time of fellowship, food, music, and an inspiring message. The next one should be particularly good as Truett Cathy, founder and Chairman of Chick-Fil-A will be the speaker. Everyone knows at least a little about this company and the fact that they do things a bit different. Here are the facts:

Date: Thursday, January 19th
Time: 12 Noon (usually lasts an hour)
Place: Epworth Center at AUMC
Speaker: Truett Cathy, Chairman of Chick-Fil-A
Cost: Free and lunch is provided

You do need to make reservations though, email me and I will let the organizers know you are coming. I've been to several of these in the past and they have been really good. Please try to make it to this if you can.

TODAY: Opening day for my 1-3 grade girls team in Upward Basketball. It should be interesting. The good news in looking back over my roster is at least every girl was at one practice. Our last practice we made good progress and the girls who missed it have played before so they probably get the basics. We will see. Davis has his opening game too, right after Rachel and I finish our game.

TONIGHT: We have an official send off tonight for our good friend Adam Newby. Adam finished his master's degree in Horticulture and will be in Tennessee (The 'borough') for a while before he heads to Africa for a mission trip. Adam is a reader and frequent commenter here (his blog is linked as well). I really will miss Adam and hope he comes back one day to make Auburn his home. I watched Adam grow a lot spiritually during his time here. I have no doubt he will do great things for the Kingdom. For me Adam will always be Father Newby from his great acting debut. For my kids he will always be associated with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." He plays a mean version on his six string and anytime they hear the song now they talk about "Mr. Adam."

TOMORROW: House Church 10:30 - its exciting. Also, its my final day of eating like a maniac. On Monday its low carb to drop 15 pounds at least.

I also have decided to run a half-marathon (13.1 miles) in March. My long runs have maxed at about 7 miles so I will need to double that as I train in the coming weeks.

Coming Jan 21 "A Community Wide Night of Praise"

2006-01-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

For the locals (or even the non locals who want to come to Auburn for a great evening):

On January 21 at 6 PM there will be a Community Wide Night of Praise at the Youth For Christ building on North Dean Road (in the old Auburn Athletic Club Building).

My good friend Chris Hines is coordinating the music which will include some excellent folks helping him out. Oh and there will be supervised childcare for ages 4 and up.

This event isn't sponsored by any particular church in town, just a bunch of folks who wanted to get together for an up tempo time of praising God.

CHURCH PLANT UPDATE
This week we have our first official house church meeting. We will meet at 10:30 AM at the Commander home this Sunday. We have decided at least for now to meet each Sunday at 10:30 AM and we will conclude our time with a meal. There is simply something about sharing a meal that really seems to enhance community. We think this is crucial for the community aspect of this journey.

The next few weeks will include lots of discussions about the DNA of this new community - mission, vision, values, practices, and the like. Discussions are continuing with some other folks who have similar visions for a church in this community that tears down the barriers for the unchurched yet holds true to the Word of God. We had a great meeting earlier this week and next week will turn to specifics not only of mission and vision but of doctrine. The really cool thing is that we all bring strengths that appear to make this a natural fit. These next few weeks will be critical in bringing these movements together. It certainly appears this will happen at this point.

Rarely does a week go by now that someone either doesn't approach me or send word via someone else of their interest in this movement. That's great and exciting and a little scary. Too much growth too soon can bring its own dangers. Though its a better problem to have than stagnation.