I’ve always thought that Rick Warren has been misunderstood and misinterpreted.  It is awesome seeing two men that have had an influence in my life together in the same room.  It’s awesome seeing Rick Warren’s heart and deep doctrinal basis for what he does.  I would highly recommend carving out 98 minutes and see watch two men who love Jesus and have been used greatly by Jesus.

This perspective of a missional church starkly contrasts the typical church today that sees itself as a church that has missions.  In these churches, missions are always done by a specially called person who is a missionary.  Missions is always done in a foreign country.  Missions is a program or ministry that is run by a committee in the church.  The church goes on mission trips, has a missions fund, and has a missions bulletin board in the foyer with a map of the world with colored pushpins in it.  Missions is completely separate from the church and exist out of the church.  The church has missions.

Whereas a missional church understands the opposite—the mission of God has a church.  This perspective changes everything.  This means that the mission field is where the church is.  We are all missionaries.  There is no missions program.  Instead, every program and ministry is a missional program.  The church doesn’t run missions—the mission runs the church.  The church doesn’t have a mission.  The mission has a church.  This is what it means to be a missional church.  Being missional isn’t the next catchy fad, but instead it is being caught up in the mission of God.

The word missional also gets its meaning and understanding from John 20:21 when Jesus tells his disciples, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” We must understand that the Father sent Jesus.  God is a missionary God.  God is on a mission to reconcile the entire world to Himself.  Therefore, the Father sent Jesus into the world to usher in the Kingdom of God in order to begin this reconciliation.  This is what theologians call the Missio Dei (Latin for Mission of God).

Jesus then tells his disciples that he is sending them on the same mission.  Jesus calls his church to go into the world and to share that the King has come and that we can be reconciled to the Father.  Being a missional church means that you understand that the church is sent on mission as an instrument and as a sign of the Missio Dei.  Although the word missional has only been used for a few years, the concept has been around since the 1950s.  Darrell L. Guder and Lois Barrett tell us the following:

By mid-century, the emphasis in mission thought shifted toward a theocentric approach that, in contrast, stressed the mission of God (Missio Dei) as the foundation for the mission of the church.  The church became redefined as the community spawned by the mission of God and gathered up into that mission.  The church was coming to understand that in any place it is a community sent by God.  “Mission” is not something the church does, a part of its total program.  No, the church’s essence is missional, for the calling and sending action of God forms its identity.  Mission is founded on the mission of God in the world, rather than the church’s effort to extend itself.[1]

A missional church exists because of and for the mission of God.

The word missional’s meaning is rooted deeply within the understanding of the church’s purpose. This purpose displays itself in three different ways. The church is a missionary sent on mission as a sign and instrument of the Missio Dei. The first area in which we are called to be missional is as a missionary in our own culture. The general idea of a missionary is a person in a foreign country in a completely non-Christian culture. But in reality, today all Christians live in non-Christian cultures. Tim Keller gives insight into this reality by focusing on the missionary Lesslie Newbigin:

The British missionary Lesslie Newbigin went to India around 1950. There he was involved with a church living ‘in mission’ in a very non-Christian culture. When he returned to England some 30 years later, he discovered that now the Western church too existed in a non-Christian society, but it had not adapted to its new situation. Though public institutions and popular culture of Europe and North America no longer ‘Christianized’ people, the church still ran its ministries assuming that a stream of ‘Christianized,’ traditional/moral people would simply show up in services. Some churches certainly did ‘evangelism’ as one ministry among many. But the church in the West had not become completely ‘missional’—adapting and reformulating absolutely everything it did in worship, discipleship, community, and service—so as to be engaged with the non-Christian society around it. It had not developed a ‘missiology of western culture’ the way it had done so for other nonbelieving cultures.

Even if you are in a “Christianized” culture, the reality is that we still need to view ourselves as missionaries. Every culture needs some amount of contextualization of the gospel. This means that you have to be missionary to do the contextualization needed to present the gospel.

What is the difference between a church that has missions and a missional church? This seems to be the question that everyone is asking lately, and it has been one that I’ve been developing a personal answer to for a while.

There always seems to be a new buzzword in Christian circles every few years. The words enter our vocabulary quickly and leave just as fast. People reword mission and purpose statements around them, and some even restructure their entire church around them. “Seeker-sensitive,” “purpose-driven,” “organic,” and “emerging” are just a few, but the newest to be added to the list is the word “missional.” It is the new buzzword of our day. There are missional churches, missional small groups, missional preaching, missional books, missional degrees, and even missional missiology.

But what does “missional” mean exactly? Most people use it without even stopping to determine what it means. Worst yet, some simply make it mean what they want it to mean to give themselves license to do idiotic and irrelevant acts. This is a sad thing, because the word missional has a deep and beautiful meaning for our churches today.

For one of my classes last semester, I had to define what the local church is.  Fo the fun of it, I thought I would share with you what my definition came out to be.

This definition is heavily based on Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009), 38. I took a considerable amount of time studying the different elements of their definition and added where I personally thought it might be lacking.  Since I am a member of Mars Hill Church, I wanted to stay as close to Mars Hill Church’s definition of a church and only tweak it a little bit.

The local church is a community of confessing and covenantal believers of Jesus Christ who are organized under Biblically qualified leadership. They regularly gather physically for preaching and worship, and scatter in the unity and power of the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission of God by evangelizing and caring for people everywhere. They observe the Biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, and are disciplined to maintain the purity of the church in order to live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission to the glory of God.

What do you think?  Would you change anything?  Do you have a working definition of the church?

Click Here if you can’t see the video.

My week at Re:Train for the Spiritual Formations class truly helped me to solidify what my concept of a disciple is.  Before then, I had only given minimal thought and study towards the question, “What is a disciple of Jesus?”  Let me clarify my definition of a disciple before I move forward with the implications this has on my ministry.

Before we can understand what a disciple is, we first have to take a look at what a disciple isn’t.  While each of the following is an aspect of a disciple, none of them by themselves give us a full picture of what a disciple is.

First, a disciple isn’t a mystic.  A mystic’s whole life’s goal is to seek to be in the presence of Jesus.  While this is a noble task and one that we should all seek to some degree, it is not a disciple.

Some would say that a disciple is a student.  A student’s goal is to gain knowledge from a teacher.  While we need to grow in our understanding of Jesus and the gospel everyday, a student and a disciple are two different things.

Third, some think of a disciple as a practitioner, focused on actions.  They want to do what Jesus did.  They love seeking out the methods of Jesus and seek to do the same thing as He did.  While we need to learn to do what Jesus did, this isn’t a disciple.

Lastly, some people think of a disciple as a professional.  In his or her mind, a disciple is someone who has finally arrived.  They have read several books, taken classes, and probably hold some kind of title in the church.

So if a disciple isn’t a mystic, student, practitioner, or professional, what is a disciple?  To begin, we need to take a look at what it would have culturally meant to be a disciple during the time Jesus was on earth.  Ray Vander Laan talks about the education system and the relationship between a rabbi and disciples.

A few (very few) of the most outstanding Beth Midrash students sought permission to study with a famous rabbi often leaving home to travel with him for a lengthy period of time. These students were called talmidim (talmid, s.) in Hebrew, which is translated disciple. There is much more to a talmid than what we call student. A student wants to know what the teacher knows for the grade, to complete the class or the degree or even out of respect for the teacher. A talmid wants to be like the teacher, that is to become what the teacher is. That meant that students were passionately devoted to their rabbi and noted everything he did or said. This meant the rabbi/talmid relationship was a very intense and personal system of education. As the rabbi lived and taught his understanding of the Scripture his students (talmidim) listened and watched and imitated so as to become like him.[i]

A disciple doesn’t want to know what the rabbi knows or do what the rabbi does or simply be in the presence of the rabbi; he wants to do all these things to become who the rabbi is.  The disciple’s sole focus is to become who the rabbi is.  So this shapes my definition of a disciple:

A disciple is someone who is on the path to becoming like Jesus by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.  As the disciple becomes more like Jesus, they find their identity in Jesus and image Him by worshiping God with all their lives, living in gospel community with other disciples, and going on mission to make more disciples of Jesus.

Tomorrow we’ll break down this definition a little more…

For those of you that don’t know, I started working on my masters degree a few months ago through the Resurgence Training Center (Re:Train).  Due to the heavy work load, I haven’t had much of a chance to update you on my progress (except through Twitter).  I thought I would give you a short update, and then start sharing with you more about what I’ve been learning through some blog posts (I’m writing a lot for school, so it doesn’t hurt to share it with you here).  I hope that it will be helpful to you as much as it has been to me.

The easiest way I’ve been able to explain my experience at Re:Train is like going from Pre-Algebra to Algebra II.  While the basic concepts are the same (Jesus is God, Jesus is human, humans suck, worship God only, etc.), I have to think about them in ways that I didn’t even know existed before this class.  I feel like I have grown more in the last two months in my knowledge of Jesus and how I interact with Him than I have in the past three years.  It has been amazing.

The classes have been (and are going to be) taught by the best of the best in their fields.  You know you’re dealing with someone really smart when the text book for the class is written by them and they have more degrees than a small Mormon family has children.  I have consistently been in awe these men…but more importantly I have been in awe of Jesus’ work in their lives.  I’m truly blest to sit under their teaching.

Like I said, I hope to share with you what I have learned over the next few weeks what I have been learning in my classes.  My first class I took was Spiritual Formations by Bill Clem.  As part of the homework we had to write a discipleship curriculum for a new believer.  I’ll share this with you through several posts over the next few weeks.  I hope you enjoy them.

Lastly, I want to thank you for your prayers as I’ve been going through Re:Train.  I have had many late nights, drank several gallons of coffee, and typed and read more words than I would like to admit.  It is through your prayers that I have been sustained by the Holy Spirt, and I thank you.

Brook Sarver

Like some others, Brook and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog (I starting see a trend with church planters and beer).  Although I’ve never met Brook in person, I consider him a good friend.  Brook loves Jesus, has an amazing wife, and has some mad photography skillz.

Brook also has a huge heart for the people of Thailand.  After going on a several month mission trip a few years ago, they have had a passion to go back.  So they’re doing just that.  A few weeks from now,  Brook and Sara are moving across the world to spend 10 years preaching the gospel of Jesus.

To learn more about Brook and his journey, you can follow him on twitter or read his blog.

Brad Ruggles

Brad Ruggles and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog.  Although I’ve never met Brad in person, I consider him a good friend.  He is one of the top three creative people I know (yeah I number them…I have a points system and everything), has a wonderful wife, and some adorable daughters.

Brad left his job, started doing freelance design, moved 120 miles (through a 2300 mile journey) from Fort Wayne to Carmel, IN, set roots, and is in the beginning stages of planting a church.  He has an amazingly compassionate heart.  I can’t wait to see how God uses him in Carmel.

If you would like to learn more about Brad and his church plant you can:

• Follow his Blog
• Friend him on Facebook
• Follow him on Twitter
• Add him to your LinkedIn network
• Subscribe to his channel on YouTube
• Follow him on YouVersion
• Add him as a contact on Vimeo
• Check him out on Flickr
• Join his ROOV Community
• Find him on Smaller Indiana

Carlos Griego

I met Los a couple of years ago when we were going through Ed Stetzer’s book “Planting Missional Churches” at City on a Hill.  He is the director of the college ministry, The Well, for Desert Springs Church here in Albuquerque and is the chaplain for the Lobo basketball team.  He is an amazing husband, fantastic father, big reader, and a true UFC fan.

For as long as I’ve known him, Los has had a huge heart for the UNM campus area and Downtown Albuquerque.  His heart is to one day plant a church that will reach the lost of Downtown Albuquerque for the glory of God.

If you are interested in learning more about Los and his ministry, you can meet him at the Well every Tuesday night at 8:07 pm at Desert Springs Church.  You can also read his blog or follow him on twitter.

Clayton Bell

Clayton Bell and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog.  Although I’ve never met Clayton in person, I consider him a good friend.  Through reading his blog and a few online chats, I know that he is a wonder husband and loving father.

About four years ago, Clayton felt the call to plant a church.  Like me, about a year ago he felt that God was calling him off the bench to start his church plant.  This last Sunday, He left his job at Every Nation, Tallahassee, where he served as Family Pastor for the past year and is moving to the Tampa/Trinity area of Florida to start Trinity New Life Church.

If you live in in the Florida area and want to join Clayton on God’s mission to reach the lost of Tampa, you can email him at info@trinitynewlife.com for more information.

Please be in prayer for Clayton, his wife, and daughter as they follow God on this wonderful journey.

I’m going to come out and say this…I have a man crush on Moses.  Of all the men in the Bible, I have always found myself drawn to Moses.  I truly think this is a God thing.  Because of all the men in the Bible, I relate to Moses the most.

We’re both miracle babies (my mom wasn’t suppose to physically be able to have children).  We’re both overly ambitious (although I haven’t killed anybody…yet).  We’re not the “bestest” of speakers.  God has used trials, tribulations, and time to prepare us for our callings.  Most importantly, I feel like God has given me the same clarification on my calling that He gave Moses.

In Exodus 3, God tells Moses that He is going to use him to deliver His people out of Egypt.  Moses’ response is the same as any person who has a great calling put before them,  “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”   Moses is scared, perplexed, shaken and lacking confidence.  How could a screwed up man like him complete such a large task after he had failed so many years before?  He has been hiding in the desert for 40 years, and he is looking to God for a sign to give him confidence in his calling.

God’s response is classic.  He doesn’t give him some pep talk about how awesome Moses is and how God has been preparing him 40 years for this very moment.  Instead God tells him, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

This one verse has been the summation of my entire calling.  October 27 of this last year marked the 10 year anniversary of God calling me to vocational ministry.  I have known since then that God is calling me to serve Him as my full-time job.  And as I have sought Him for clarification of the years, His sign has always been the same.  It’s not a pillar of smoke or fire, or a damp towel on my front porch, or a star in the east.  Instead God has quietly told me He will be with me, and I’ll know I’ve fulfilled my calling when I look back and see that I’ve fulfilled my calling.

For this reason, I have never really looked forward to try and figure out what God wants me to do.  Instead I’ve looked backwards to see what Jesus has done in my life to determine where He wants me to go next.

By looking at the last 10 years of my life, I can see that Jesus has been moving me towards pinnacle moment in my life.  In college, I went on a mission trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for two-and-a-half months.  My main point of contact there was the head of the Purpose Driven Church Planting movement in Rio.  Him and others spoke into my life saying they saw in me great potential to plant churches in my future.  I filed the information deep in the recesses of my brain and went on with my life.

I came back to Eastern New Mexico University, started a interdenominational Bible study with my best friend, married the most beautiful woman in the world, graduated, and got a job as a youth minister in a small town in the panhandle of Texas.  It was during my time as a youth minister that God stirred the memories of Brazil in my head and moved in my heart.

I don’t remember the day or the time, but I remember the intense emotions and distinct clarity.  I knew that God wanted me to plant a church.  So I did what any young ambitious newly married kid does only a year-and-a-half out of college, I turned in my two week notice and made plans to move to Portland, OR (motivated by the book Blue Like Jazz).

When reality snapped to, we figured out that we had no jobs, no place to live, and no friends in Portland.  Therefore we did what every young ambitious church planter does, we packed up all our stuff and temporarily moved into my mother-in-law’s house in Albuquerque, NM.  It was going to be our half-way point on the way to Portland

We tried our best to find a way to get to Portland, but God kept shutting the doors.  And the longer that we stayed in Albuquerque, the more Jesus opened my eyes to the beauty of this city and broke my heart with the sin of its people.  In the quiet of our hearts, God showed us that He had other men for Portland, but He wanted us to stay here in Albuquerque.

As Shannon and I began to settle into Albuquerque, getting jobs and a home of our own, we started looking for a church that we call home while we prepared to plant.  We scoured hundreds of church websites and visited numerous in person.  We began to get so discouraged by what we found.  And as time went on, we began to see why God wanted us to plant a church in Albuquerque.

But like a diamond in the rough, we came across a small church that was meeting in a run down theater on Central Ave, City on a Hill (now Mars Hill Church Albuquerque). The church was a place of love, grace, and mercy as you would see the rich rub elbows with homeless and the messed up mingle with the self-righteous.  The pastor, Dave Bruskas, had planted the church only a few years earlier and had a heart to help young men plant churches in Albuquerque.  He had a deep love for the city and an even deeper love for Jesus.  His passion was infectious (and still is to this day).

It was during this time that a few things happened.  First, I felt like God told me to wait.  I had some growing up to do, and like the disciples, I needed to go up to my room and wait for the Holy Spirit to come.  Second, I learned about Acts 29, Mars Hill, and Mark Driscoll.  Through them I learned what it means to be a church planter and more importantly a husband and father.  Third, I got a job with UPS doing sales.  By working for UPS, I have traveled all over Albuquerque (and half the state of NM).  I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of this city.

But one area has always stood out to me as I make my daily visits to customers.  Uptown has to be one of the more unique areas of Albuquerque.  If Nob Hill is the cultural hub of  Albuquerque, I would say that Uptown is the socio-economic center. You have the wealthy and affluent who come to work in the high rises and play at Q Mall, but there are also the gang-bangers who come from the War Zone to roam the Coronado Mall.  You won’t find another place in Albquerque where more diverse group of people live, work, and play.  It has captured my heart (but more on this later).

The last thing that happened was I listened to a podcast that would change my thoughts on church planting for the rest of my life.  Up until this point I had planned on flying solo.  I was going to gather a small group of people and start our own church named after a weird latin term or vague Harry Potter incantation.  But God had other plans. As I listened to Doug Swagerty from Harbor Church in San Diego talk about why and how they do multi-site churches, God made it clear to me that this was His plan for me.

The organization, efficiency, and team-work that went into planting a campus as opposed to a new church spoke to the core of who God made me as a person.  It was then that I had determined that God didn’t want me to plant a church, but to plant another campus for City on a Hill in the Uptown area.  He wanted me to carry the vision and mission to another part of our beautiful city.

This brings us to this moment in time.  For the past three years, I feel like have been metaphorically sitting on the bench waiting for God to call me into the game.  Like Moses wandered in the dessert shepherding sheep for 40 years, God has been having me wander in the dessert waiting for His timing.  But as City on a Hill has made the transition to becoming Mars Hill Church Albuquerque, I feel like God has been calling my number.  The Holy Spirit has began to move fresh my heart, and I hear God saying, “Qualls…get in the game.”  I feel like God is calling me to be on mission with Jesus in Albuquerque as He reaches our city to impact a region to influence the world.

Working along side Dave Bruskas, we are looking to start a Mars Hill Church campus in the Albuquerque Uptown area.  Through Mars Hill’s campus model we hope to reach hundreds of thousands of people through preaching the gospel, planting Acts 29 Churches, and hosting Resurgence and Acts 29 events.

In preparation for this, I will be going to Re:Train starting on August 16th of this year.  Re:Train is a one year training center that trains “missional leaders to live for Jesus and lead their churches to effectively reach their cultures with the gospel by staying culturally accessible and biblically faithful.”  I see God using this training as a final step to prepare me for the mission put before me.

Looking back on the past ten years of my life, I can see how Jesus has been leading to this moment.  Each trial and tribulation has been there to bring me to this point in time.  He has led me here, and now He is telling me once again, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”  I don’t know exactly what the next few years entail.   But I know this, years from know there will be a Mars Hill Church in Uptown Albuquerque, and we will worship and serve our Lord Jesus on that mountain.

Here’s the deal though, I know I can’t do this alone.  And I know that I’m not the only person that God has called to do this.  I need all the help I can get.  More importantly, I need your help.  I completely believe in the sovereignty of God.  So if you have gotten through the 1841 words of this post to this point, I believe that God has a part for you in this.  I ultimately don’t know what that is for you (that’s between you and God), but I have a few suggestions.

1. Pray

I have seen God move in amazing ways through prayer.  I know that God chooses to work through the prayers of His people.  Therefore, I desperately ask for your prayers as I move forward with this endeavor.  Pray for me as I go through Re:Train.  Pray for God to bring laborers.  Pray for my family.  Pray for provision (finances, locations, volunteers, ect.).  Pray for a pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Albuquerque.

2. Join

Join in on the mission in Albuquerque.  As we get closer towards starting this, I will be getting out more information. For now this would simply mean joining the Mars Hill Church campus in Albuquerque.  Join a community group and start serving.  If you are interested in joining, email me, and we can start a conversation.

3. Give

Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. – Ecclesiastes 10:19

Unfortunately, it is going to take money to do this.  Fortunately, I know that God will provide.  He will use His people (you) to provide for the tasks that are ahead.  The biggest financial burden at the moment is Re:Train.  I need to raise $2,000 in the next five weeks.  This will pay for my first month of training, travel, lodging, and a basic laptop.  Please pray if God would have you support this task financially.  If you feel moved by God, you can use the ChipIn Widget below or email me and I will send you my mailing address.

I am excited to see what God is going to do in the next few years.  I look forward to sharing with you what God is doing as we go through this journey together.

This is just a short rant I had to get out of my system.  I don’t know if this happens to you, but it seems to happen pretty frequently to me.  The people change, but the conversation seems to stay about the same.

Them: Hey can I talk to you.

Me: Sure.

Them: God has really been convicting me lately of _________ sin in my life.

Me: Ok.

Them:  I’m telling you this because I’ve seen you do the same thing to me.

Me: um…..

I’m just a little confused, when did the fact that God is convicting you of your deep sinful character flaw, give you the right to nit pick my flaws.  I kind of remember Jesus talking about taking the log out of your own eye….not leave the log in your eye, pick up a sniper rifle, and start shooting everyone with specks in their eyes.   It just doesn’t make sense.

So here’s my recomendation.  The next time God convicts you of something, stop! Don’t start looking around to see if anyone else has the same sin. Don’t start thinking about how you’ve been hurt by others in the same way.  Don’t start calling every Tom, Dick and Sally.  Instead, put the gun down and go to Jesus.  Let him take the log out of your eye and give it some time to heal (logs in your eyes tend to cause a lot of damage). Otherwise you might end up shooting some close friends….

I did however want to take a quick break and share with you a new site that twitter friend of mine came out with called WetheChuch.org. This is a really cool idea that you should go check out. It is basically a prayer wall where you can share your prayer requests/praises and pray for others that need prayer. I really love the idea and it can become addictive watching prayers go up and praying for them.

So take a few minutes out of your day and go check out WetheChurch.org.

I love what this ministry is doing. They are shining the light of Jesus in the darkest of places. These women (yeah I would say this is a calling for women only…unless the guys want to go to the gay strip-club) are going into strip-clubs and giving the strippers gift baskets to show them the love of Jesus. How awesome it that?!

I say we start to change this world with the love of Jesus one strip-club at a time.

Props to Los on this one.

For those of you that know me, I’m a pretty cynical guy. I try my best to not be that way on this blog, but I decided that I had speak out about this one.

For awhile now I’ve noticed the concept of being “organic” has been creeping into the church. It’s become a buzz word. Whole ministries and churches are changing everything they do to be more “organic.” I even have a book on my shelf called Organic Church. But I’m coming out and saying publicly that I think being organic is stupid. I know I’m probably going to get some flack for this, but I don’t care. It’s just stupid. Let me tell you why.

Yesterday I was at a church meeting for the leaders of the small groups in our church (we call them Neighborhoods…it sound edgy and vague ). For some reason, the word organic kept coming up.

We wanted our groups to form “organically.” We wanted to be “organic” yet intentional. It was like everyone was getting payed $5 every time they used the word organic. I was expecting someone to start marketing an Organic Pyramid Scheme at any moment.

Now I like the concept that they were trying to get across. That we shouldn’t be forcing relationship to happen in our church, but we also shouldn’t be sitting on our butts just hoping that relationships will happen.

My problem is with the fact that we were attributing so much power to “organic.” Who the hell is organic and when did he/she/it start leading the church?! The last time I check that was Jesus’ job.

We aren’t lead by some impersonal force:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11

Life, relationships, and groups don’t come about by some impersonal force:

In him we live and move and have our being – Acts 17:28

So I’ll say it again, attributing anything to this impersonal force called “organic” is just stupid. So if you are a church leader, please stop referring to organic as the leader of anything. Give glory where glory is due and trust in the true leader of the church. His name is Jesus and He’s a much better leader than organic.

Kinetic Church in Charlotte, NC had a trailer stolen that had 75% of everything the church owned in it.  Ok it’s not awesome that they got 75% of their stuff stolen, but it is awesome in how they responded.  They posted this video on youtube and also put up some billboards around town to try to get in contact with the thief.   They know the ultimate reason why they had the stuff in the first place.  I have to give the guys at Kinetic Church some mad props.  For what they did, I don’t know if I could have done the same thing.

Check out some other stories on the same event:

Here and Here

Ok so Los posted this video of the American Idol contestants singing “Shout to the Lord!” Now there is something seriously wrong with this. I’m not against them singing a worship song. I’m glad that they changed the lyrics back to say Jesus. They did a really good job singing it. The song even has a special place in my heart, but that that is where they went wrong.

This song is special to me because my youth group sang it at camp when I was a sophomore in high school. So that means that this song is on the cutting edge of 90′s Christian music (which we all know was like the cutting edge of 60′s secular music). So now the one of the world’s top rated shows just showed how Christianity is so in touch with today’s culture (sarcasm).  I just think American Idol could have picked something a little better…but oh well. That’s just my opinion. What’s yours?

They even do the Choir Side Step Dance!!!!

I just watched this video thanks to mxbx.wordpress.com and dustindkk.com. I must say the John Piper is right on the money. The prosperity gospel is not the gospel. Any gospel that makes us focus on anything more than Jesus is nothing short of heresy. What hit home the most with me is how much I live the prosperity gospel. I could easily point fingers at others, but I realize that I’m the worst of all sinners in this area. How often is my life filled with the pursuit of stuff.

Forgive me God and give me the strength to make you my highest pursuit.

I couldn’t help but to laugh out loud when I saw this.  I’m thinking about making my own Facebook page now so I can be a fan of myself.  I don’t know what are your thoughts?

• Matt Chandler is awesome…he is a new favorite teacher.
• John Piper seems like he is on the edge of crazy and that is awesome!
• Seattle has some good beer.
• I like Jamison (I don’t know how to spell) whiskey
• If you want to watch the lessons live from home (for free) you can go to theresurgence.com/live  (hurry the conference ends tomorrow)
• I miss Shannon
• Mark Driscoll’s love for his kids makes me look forward to being a daddy
• Mark Driscoll’s love for his wife make me proud to have a wife like Shannon
• Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, John Piper, CJ Mahaney’s love for Christ gives me a passion to grow closer to Jesus and to spread the gospel
• I know that I’m called…I think God will clarify to me later
• The guys that I’m out here with are great men of God and I love them

That’s all for now…I’m on Alf’s laptop and the battery is about to go.  Until next time.

Just a quick video update from Seattle for the Text and Context Conference.

After shoving my bag into the overhead storage I took my seat by the window.  My seat mate commented about how he ripped his bags on his way to Africa a few months ago and had to duct tape them back together for the rest of the trip.  Now you chatty types would see this as an opportunity to hop into a wonderful conversation about Africa and his trip.  I don’t do that…I smile, nod, and say, “That had to suck.”  I figure this is sympathetic, but keeps me from having to talk anymore.

But God has other plans.  A few minutes later, my seat mate asks if I’m originally from Seattle.  I told no that I live in Albuquerque and that I’m going to a conference in Seattle.  He asked what conference.  Now honestly I was thinking about lying and saying I was going to some UPS conference or something…but I decided to say that I was going to the Resurgence conference.  At this point he told me he was going to the same one.

After talking about the conference a little, he started telling me about his ministry.  He is part of a record label called Reach Records and a ministry called ReachLife.  And for the next hour he showed me videos and had me listen to audio that his ministry has produced.  I must say they are really using their culture to present the gospel in a way that people understand.  You need to check them out at http://www.reachlife.org/.  Pretty awesome stuff.

photo by: meyshanworld

The following post is from my friend Sandra Bauman. Sandra and I met at City on a Hill a while back. Sandra is the type of person that you can become instant friends with, but one of the things I like to talk to her about the most is how her Jewish heritage her current relationship with Jesus. The following is an email that she recently sent out to all her friends. I hope you enjoy.

[Ash Wednesday] got me thinking — and got the Holy Spirit reminding me — about something that struck me this fall, which I fully intended to implement….but didn’t….

Every so often I miss a bit of the liturgy, the Hebrew prayers, and the traditions of my Jewish upbringing. So, this past Yom Kippur – (the Jewish “Day of Atonement” – the one day of the year a Jew has the potential to be forgiven everything one did last year and hopefully be written in God’s “book” to live another year) – I went to Adat Yeshua.

At one point in the Yom Kippur service the congregation confesses together out loud a litany of sins. The list was intriguing because I could identify something I had done in practically every line. My natural tendency, at the end of a day (or week, or month…or never), is to look back and not be able to specifically identify anything I would call “sin.” This list of sins totally blows that out of the water.

My intention after that YK service was to type the list up handily and go over it every evening before going to sleep. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. But now that I’ve confessed that please feel free to hold me accountable – ask me about it!

I also offer it to you (at the bottom) as a potential tool to use (and share) as we, individually and as a family, enter into this Lent season with the charge Dave and Donovan offered: to truly agree with God about our sin and need for Him, and allow Him to work an amazing transformation within us.

I love you and look forward to the adventures this challenge will bring!

Sandra

Confession*

The sin we committed in your sight forcibly or willingly
And the sin we committed against you by acting callously

The sin we committed in your sight unintentionally
And the sin we committed against you by idle talk

The sin we committed in your sight by lustful behavior
And the sin we committed against you publicly or privately

The sin we committed in your sight knowlingly and deceptively
And the sin we committed against you by offensive speech

The sin we committed in your sight by lewd association
And the sin we committed against you by insincere confession

The sin we committed by contempt for parents or teachers
And the sin we committed against you willfully or by mistake

The sin we committed in your sight by violence
And the sin we committed against you by defaming your name

The sin we committed in your sight by unclean lips
And for the sin we committed against you by foolish talk

The sin we committed in your sight by evil impulse
And the sin we committed against you wittingly or unwittingly

The sin we committed in your sight by fraud and falsehood
And the sin we committed against you by bribery

The sin we committed in your sight by scoffing
And the sin we committed against you by slander

The sin we committed in your sight in dealings with men
And the sin we committed against you in eating and drinking

The sin we committed in your sight by usury and interest
And the sin we committed against you by a lofty bearing

The sin we committed in your sight by our manner of speech
And the sin we committed against you by wanton glances

The sin we committed in your sight by haughty airs
And the sin we committed against you by scornful defiance

The sin we committed in your sight by casting off responsibility
And the sin we committed against you in passing judgment

The sin we committed in your sight by plotting against men
And the sin we committed against you by sordid selfishness

The sin we committed in your sight by levity of mind
And the sin we committed against you by being obstinate

The sin we committed in your sight by running to do evil
And the sin we committed against you by talebearing

The sin we committed in your sight by swearing falsely
And the sin we committed against you by groundless hatred

The sin we committed in your sight by breach of trust
And the sin we committed against you by a confused heart

*(Paraphrased from the High Holiday Prayer Book, Copyright 1951 by Hebrew Publishing Company, New York, and 1979 by Philip Birnbaum)

photo by: moriza

We are almost two weeks into the Lent season now. I’m sorry for the delay on this last post in my Lent series. Things haven’t allowed me to sit down and write it. But for those who have been waiting patiently (and I guess the impatient ones too), here is the final post.
Once again, I’m not the most generous person you’ll ever meet (that’s probably why this list is shorter than the other ones). I don’t even like to share candy. But I’ve realized my short comings and here are some things that I’ve learned that help me to be a little more generous with my time and money.

1. Make it a priority
   You’re not going to do it until you make it a priority. As I said in another post, I learned this from a wise friend when I was in college.

   I had a moment of enlightenment when I was in college. I was a poor college student (which for some is a load of crap statement…but that is another blog), and I went out to eat with a group guys. At the end of the meal, an older gentleman in the group paid for the meal. I remember telling him how I wish I could do the same. And he responded in the kindest of words, “If you aren’t generous when you have nothing, then you won’t be generous when you have everything.”

   You have to make being generous a priority in your life. There are too many other shinny things that will take center stage if you don’t (this comes from the guy with the iPhone…I know about shinny things taking center stage…and I’m still learning). Make it a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly task to look for ways to be more generous in your life.

2. Have a budget
   You won’t know what to give until you know what you have. This works for both your money and your time. For your money, you should have a budget for every month. This takes away the excuse of saying, “I just don’t have any money to give.” You don’t have money to be generous with because you don’t plan.
   When Shannon and I first started budgeting, it was like I got a raise. Before we budgeted, we just tried to keep an eye on our checking account and when it got to low we stopped spending (don’t judge you know you do the same thing). When we started budgeting, we were finally able to plan. We were able to make our money work for us instead of the opposite (check out DaveRamsey.com for more information on budgets).
   You also need to budget your time. Some of us don’t have time to serve our fellow man because we never have any extra time. I’ll give you a tip…there is no such thing as “extra” time. There are 24 hours in a day and that is all you have. Just like you’re pay check only has a set amount of money, your life only has a set amount of time. You have to budget your time wisely so you serve those around you (check out ZenHabits.net for more information on budgeting your time).
3. Give first
   This is has two implications. You can take the idea of biblical “first fruits.” This was the commandment given by God that everything that you received (animals, harvest, children, ect.), the first of it was to be given to God. The top line of your budget should have a line for a certain percentage of your money that you want to give away. When you get paid you should automatically take that percentage of money out of your check to give away. No questions. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just do it. Then budget the rest to live off. If you don’t do this…you’ll just make excuses and never be generous with the money you have. This will teach you to be generous.
   The other implication is if you have the option to serve someone or to do something else with the “free” time in your life, serve. Give of yourself first. Generosity now has the priority. So skip the basketball game and go do a generous act.
4. Have a separate checking account
   This is a little trick that Shannon and learned when we weren’t part of a local church for awhile. We didn’t have a place that we could write a check to for a weekly tithe. So we opened up another checking account and we transferred a percentage of our pay checks into the account every time we got paid. Then we knew we could use this account to be generous whenever the opportunity presented itself without having to worry about whether we were using money that was needed to pay the bills.
   When we started going to City on a Hill we started giving our tithe to them. We still transfer the money into the account so we don’t get it mixed up with the rest of the money we have, but we enjoyed having the freedom of the extra checking account so much that we transfer an additional amount of money into it every month so we can be generous when the opportunities present themselves.
5. Give first ask questions later
   Now this might sound like I’m say to give money to anyone on the street who asks you for it (in fact I would say not to do that…give them food, clothing, bottled water, a cup of coffee…but don’t give them money. Read “Under the Overpass” to see why). What I’m saying is that my tendency and I know some of your’s tendency is to ask the question “Why?”. Why should I be generous with my time and money. The reality of it is that I can’t answer that question truly. I could give you scripture. I could give you stories in my own life. I could paint a picture of a vision of bringing heaven to earth. But you won’t get it.
   You won’t get it until you take a homeless guy across the street to Arby’s for lunch. You won’t get it until you mow your elderly neighbor’s yard for them without them asking or paying you. You won’t get it until you help your wife’s single-mother-coworker pay her rent. You won’t get it until you pay for lunch for you and your friends knowing that you might not be able to eat dinner.
   If you decide that you aren’t going to be generous until you understand why, you’ll never be generous. The reality is you need to give first and then ask questions, because by giving you’ll find the answers.