Why we grieve when an icon dies

The media storm over the King of Pop's death is still raging.

Who was responsible?

Was there foul play?

Where is his body?

Just watch the news. A news cycle doesn't pass without him making the news (and boosting record sales).

Some people have taken it hard. They had a personal attachment to Michael and feel a genuine sense of loss. I didn't have that connection--though I'll admit to trying to moonwalk more than once, no dice--but I've known the feeling. I felt palpable grief when Mother Theresa and Princess Diana died in the same short time frame. My connection: Mother Theresa--one my heroes, Princess Di--long before 24 hour TV, I stayed up until 3am as a 7 or 8 year old and watched her wedding.

So why do we feel this way? We don't know these people. We have no one-on-one connection with them, and still we mourn.

Here's my stab at it
When an icon dies, we mourn because that person's art/life created something in us. Their art created beauty for us, and beauty indelibly becomes part of our soul. This is, I think, how God intended it. We live and die by beauty. So when the person who brought us beauty dies, we go through a small identity crisis. Who am I without this person who gave me so much? I'm pretty sure there's a thick layer of sentiment tied to that, but generally speaking, that rings true.

So where is Michael now?

Aside from my own conspiracy theory that this is a ploy to get Michael out of the limelight and boost record sales to generate income, the question remains for many Christians: is Michael Jackson in heaven? To many, Michael is suffering the due recompense for his (according to them) wanton and flagrantly immoral life. He is burning in H-E-double hockey stick.

He was certainly insecure (why else the numerous face changes?).
He was immature--but I also don't know what forces shape the soul when you have a driven father pushing you onto an international stage from your earliest memory.

Michael is responsible for the person he became, to be sure. But God alone knows what a person must overcome to be who they were meant to be. And what's more, the Gospel means that we are all finally judged in light of Jesus, not our accomplishments and/or dysfunction.

As Dallas Willard says it (and I paraphrase):

God will let everyone into his heaven everyone who, in his considered opinion, can stand it.

What do you think?

God is Good

Ended our series "God is...____________" this last week with a kick-it message from Steven Furtick. The little prayer I was taught growing up: "God is great, God is good" contained some profound truths for my life. God is not only powerful, but has good intentions. If only one of those were true (and many people think only one of those is true and so serve a lopsided god), why bother?

It's been life-giving for us to be a part of this year's installment of the One Prayer movement. Craig Groeschel gets serious props for his vision to bring together over 1,000,000 believers in 1,900 churches. Together we are answering Jesus' prayer in John 17 for unity. Looking forward to it next year and will plan to use it a bit more strategically in the flow of the reality that is summer church life. (To wit, we've had a couple Sundays where there is a 100 person difference in weekend service attendance. Just crazy. I'm glad the church isn't who shows up on a given Sunday. By the way, in case you wonder, the church is God's people in relationship on God's mission for the world. They cannot be contained to an hour one time a week.)

After the message, we asked people to come forward and write the ways they have experienced God's goodness. It was moving. Then through the celebration of Eucharist/Communion/The Lord's Supper (pick your name based on how you grew up) we rehearsed God's goodness by remembering Jesus' death for us. God's presence was a tangible atmosphere in the room. I love those moments.

Here's a sampling of what people wrote (in the interest of authenticity, I kept the case and grammar the way they wrote it). Type a list like this when you know some of the stories, and I promise you won't be able to keep back the tears.

"Moved me home."
"Redeemed my life, rebuilt my relationship."
"He showed me love at this church."
"brought me here to the best people i've ever known and to him."
"He let me live when I should have died."
"invented ice cream"
"HE gave me PURPOSE!"
"He gave me a new life
with my new partner."
"No matter what He's never let go of my hand."
"He brought me out of sin and gave my kids back to me."
"He gave me an awesome family and strength to leave a bad
relationship."
"Eric's home!"
"Life"

Everyone Runs

I learn best by teaching and doing. If I teach it or do it, I learn about it.

Our SportsCamp is a wrap. Great week of fun, frivolity and friends with over 120 kids from our community. Each night we talked about running the race of life using the advice the Apostle Paul gave to a group of Christians in the ancient city of Corinth. Corinth was home to the Isthmian Games, an Olympic styled athletic event held there every few years. They were a city of over-achievers and partiers, so they knew a bit about running.

Here's what I learned by teaching it to a bunch of kids.

Everyone runs. Everyone is in the race of life. If you don't want to run, too bad, the race has already started. The choice isn't about whether you'll run, it's about how you'll run.

One wins. Run to win. God doesn't see things the way we see things. He doesn't compare your race to someone else's race. He has given you your own race and wants you to win it. Fall down? Get back up. Distracted? Refocus. Ready to give up? Don't quit. God has given you occasions to fight that you might win. His resurrection power is in you. Don't give up any ground that's been given to you.

All good athletes train hard. If you are going to win the race God has given you, it will require your very best effort, your highest potential and your deepest devotion. You won't win it by being half-hearted, half-in, or half-way committed. Be all in.

They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. The race often has spectators who offer distractions, cheap knock-off prizes that look real, and detours to alternate destinations. Don't be fooled. Don't be tricked. Don't be deceived. Don't confuse good things for ultimate things. Have good things, but don't let them have you.

You're after one that's gold eternally. What God offers is ultimate and unending. It never spoils, rots or fades. It won't rip, tear or fall apart. It won't take up space on a shelf somewhere, mean nothing and be forgotten by everyone but you. And he gives it to you now. It's salvation; being caught up fully in the life of God.

The highlight video from Camp.

A Muslim's Advice to Christian Leaders

Great article about what a Muslim teaching an interfaith course at a Christian Seminary had to say to future Christian leaders. In short, be more Christian, not less.

Here's a quote from him from the article:

Remember, the three most powerful narratives on the planet are narratives of religion, narratives of nation, and narratives of ethnicity/race. You cannot afford to forfeit that territory by talking about economics or the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Don't be afraid to be Christian ministers. If you don't use the Christian narrative to define reality for your people, then someone else will define reality for them with a different narrative.

Read the whole article here.

Up, In, Out

There are three doorways to the vital relationships of life:

A doorway up to God. You enter it to be in God's presence. When you walk through it, you experience his love and grace.

A doorway in to your spiritual family. You enter it to belong. When you walk through it, you give and receive love.

A doorway out to the world. You enter it to serve and join God in his work of redeeming the broken people and places in the world. When you walk through it, you experience that it really is better to give than to receive.

If you had to say right now--going with your first gut reaction--which doorway do you most need to walk through, which would it be?

What can you do today to walk through it?

What barriers keep you from doing it?

Who can help you walk through it?

Walk through the open door. It's an invitation from God to deeper relationship.

See I have set before you an open door that no one can shut. Revelation 3:8

Why Pyromaniacs Are Right At Home in the Church

People in our culture generally like Jesus, but they generally don't like the church, so why bother? In other words, why does the Church exist?

Elton Trueblood's answer: "The Church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning." I recently had lunch with a church consultant I met through an odd series of events who echoed Elton's thoughts.

Every church exists by vision, he says, whether it's something that's articulated or not. If it's not, it's what he calls a "default vision." That default vision usually means something like, 'run our programs, keep everyone basically happy, keep the structure running that's gotten us here.' Without leadership, I suppose any group defaults to that sort of maintenance.

If the church is to burn, he says there are three crucial elements.

Vision.

Strategy (to move toward that vision).

Structure (to support that strategy).

If the default vision isn't challenged, then real vision ends up coming hat-in-hand to structure, asking if it can play a bit. A very backward arrangement. Nothing burns.

David Bosch in Transforming Mission nails it:

Mission [is] understood primarily as being derived from the very nature of God. It [is] thus put in the context of the doctrine of the trinity…The classical doctrine of the missio Dei as God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit [expands] to include yet another ‘movement’: Father, Son and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world…mission is not primarily an activity of the church, it is an attribute of God.

God is a missionary God.

Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God into the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is a church because there is a mission, not visa versa.

Then the question--and challenge--becomes what is that mission and how do we live it? Jesus was pretty clear. I'm not so sure we are. This is the best description I know of what Jesus means by that. And here's the result when we do that:

• People confront their demons and find them already overcome by the Risen Jesus.
• People change.
• The past is healed.
• Love grows.
• Hope flourishes.
• Communities are transformed.
• Kids have better parents.
• Employees have better bosses, and bosses have better employees.
• Beauty flourishes through the arts.
• Single moms find help.
• Marriages blossom.
• 13 year old girls trapped as prostitutes in the dark corners of the world are rescued.
• Mosquito nets keep babies safe from malaria in Africa.
• Clean water wells are dug in remote villages so kids don't die from some simple like diarrhea.
• The Kingdom of God comes on earth, as it is in heaven.
• Jesus is Lord.

Is anyone in their right mind not for all that? But in order for it to happen, we must be set ablaze. So then let's get on with it and burn.

A Prayer for My Life

Dallas Willard, one my mentors from a distance, and who wrote the three finest books I know on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, wrote this prayer for me (okay, it was on his website for everyone who visits it).

The wording isn't necessarily flowery, but like the man, is full of substance and depth. I will be listening to his prayer and praying it for myself and the people around me.

My prayer for each of you.
That you would have a rich life of Joy and Power, abundant in Supernatural results, with a constant, clear vision of never-ending life in God's World before you, and of the everlasting significance of your work day by day. A radiant life and death.

You can join the Facebook group in his honor ('Dallas Willard is my homeboy') here.

Planting Churches

Bob Roberts jump starts me. Like any great thinker/leader, his perspective is always about 6 degrees from what you'd expect--jarring enough to make you think twice, not so jarring that you dismiss what he has to say.

Church Planting is part of what it means to be missional. Here's Bob's take on why we do it. It needs to be as normal a part of the life of a congregation as having a worship service (maybe not that regular...yet). Generous churches give money, time, and people. That's just what it means to be generous.
Bob's full post is here.

For the past 25 years, over and over again, the reason given for starting churches is because it is the best known method of evangelism. Sooooo . . . we start churches to do evangelism. Acts didn’t do that. Jerusalem saw a church emerge out of evangelism, and it wasn’t just “pray the prayer”. Antioch was the same. It was disciples living in the society first and then a church emerged. I write about this in my book The Multiplying Church.

Let me give you some other reasons, that I think are huge. First, it has to be the context of the Kingdom. If we focus on the Gospel of salvation, we get converts and a Sunday event. If we focus on the Gospel of the Kingdom, we still get people who follow Jesus, BUT we also focus on the “reconciliation of all things” in the world and in the community. This means that “church” becomes a force for good and transformation, not just a Sunday event. I could talk and write on this all day. We have so narrowed the Great Commission to baptisms that we have unintentionally marginalized the church in society.

Repent (ye vile and filthy sinners!)

It's a warm fuzzy word, isn't it? It just makes you want to pour a hot cup of coffee and pull up to a roaring fire.....or not. It's now freighted meaning usually conjurs up such crowd-pleasing images as judgement, condemnation, eternal hellfire and an occasional dash of brimstone just for effect.

And if it is one of Jesus' basic messages: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near." then, uh-oh for Jesus, right?

Well, we need to rescue the word in word, practice and deed because it's absolutely crucial to human flourishing. The word in the original Greek is metanoia, which literally means "with mind" or "with new mind."

In today's language we might say it this way, "he had a paradigm shift." When we say that, we mean he was inside a way of seeing things that caused him to act, feel and live a certain way. Then a window opened and he shifted his position to an entirely new way of seeing things. Everything became clear and subsequently made sense in a whole new way. It was like he was seeing things again for the first time, with an entirely new set of eyes.

So if two people are comitting adultery (I've walked several people through this as a pastor), they are inside a system that has them seeing, feeling and acting as though this foreign object to their marriage will somehow make them happy/give them the thing they think they've always wanted/make them feel a certain way about themselves. If they do not repent, that is, have a paradigm shift, everything they know will be destroyed and the resulting relational shrapnel will literally scatter for years. They will not flourish.

This is just one example, use your imagination and extrapolate it out to any situation. It always holds true. Repentance, properly understood and done, is a fundamental key to human flourishing.

That's why preaching, when it's done well, always invites people to repent--to shift their paradigm. Mark Beeson, leader of a great church, took some notes on preaching for repentance here.

Too often that call for repentance is done in shrill religious-ese. We fail to show people the new paradigm (Jesus' new paradigm was always the Kingdom of God) and so they never give up on their old paradigm. They hear it as "you should stop being like you and be more like me, because I've got it all figured out." That almost never works. I'm not suggesting we can make people repent (we can't), just saying it needs to be given serious and careful consideration (note made to self) every time someone stands up to preach.

One of the best ways I know to do that is through story. A story easily gets past my defenses and gives me a picture of either what I am, or what I can be. I'll post a repentance story tomorrow.

Color Blind

Scott is my college roomate. He and his wife Gail (along with there three girls Allison, Emma and Olivia) are doctors in Papua New Guinea, all the way on the other side of the planet. He's an incredibly thoughtful, diligent, dedicated and honest follower of Jesus. I've probably learned as much from him as anyone about what it means to know and love Jesus and the things and people Jesus loves.

He sent out this email about his youngest daughter and I thought it was just great. With the impending race card that's going to get thrown around a lot in the next few months now that Barack Obama has sealed the deal for the Democratic party, I thought this was fitting.

Tonight Gail was asking about someone that came over and was trying to figure out who Olivia was talking about. Gail asked if the person had black skin or white skin. Olivia said, “black skin” but Gail didn’t know if Olivia really knew. So then Gail asked, “Olivia, do you have black skin or white skin?” Olivia looked down and said, “white” but then Gail said, “where is it white?” She pointed to her pajamas (which were yellow).

Wouldn’t it be nice to have to really think about what color your skin was or what other peoples skin was without really caring either way?

A Good Life Motto

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
As long as you ever can.

John Wesley, 1703 - 1791 and one of my heroes

Going Green

Yep, we're going green. Ukrops, the world's greatest grocery store (seriously, moving here from KC I thought it was Hen House, but I now stand corrected), supplied the recycled poly-bags and we're using them in an effort to take care of the planet; less junk in the landfill and less bags for me to have to wrestle with every time I open the pantry door.

There are plenty of people out there in church-world who think this is just nuts and has absolutely nothing to do with the message of and about Jesus.

For instance, Perry Noble, speaking at the recent Whiteboard Conference (couldn't go, but read the notes) said he wouldn't be caught dead talking about the environment. He'll stick to the Gospel of Jesus, thank you very much. And he's a phenomenal leader and even better communicator.

Nonetheless, that's the common sentiment from people who think we've somehow abandoned the Gospel (apparently, using the phrase "the gospel" makes your point more valid when doing this) by also caring for the environment. But, frankly--and no disrespect to Perry meant--that's an ignorant and post-world-war-II-church-culture-bound reading of Scripture.

Here's a brief biblical rationale for caring for the planet.

1. God created the world--the physical world we walk on every day--and said it was good.


2. God gave us the earth and told us to fill the earth and care for it. Some translations say, "subdue it", which has lent itself to all kinds of "let's do whatever we want with the earth" kinds of readings and actions. But the original word means something like "to tend and care for in order to make it even more productive." It's basic stewardship.


3. In the biblical story, this was all before sin enters the world. Again, this isn't a minor point. No sin=a good material creation + caring for the earth God made for us to care for.


4. In the end, God doesn't junk this "test model" for a "better" disembodied existence somewhere else. He recreates it: A new heaven and a new earth. How you think everything will end up someday determines how you act today.

And here's the irony. Part of Perry's point is that he want to keep the main thing, the main thing. And I agree. The environment is not our God. It's not the whole gospel. But it certainly is an implication of living out the Gospel.

Because if we are really "preaching Jesus" won't that result in people who take the Bible seriously; who then care for the poor, visit the sick, speak up for the oppressed, and take care of the environment? And isn't that a really attractive way to live in the first place, thus making Jesus more appealing and "preaching" Jesus without having to drag people into a church service to hear about God? Aren't we living the Kingdom of God?

Plus anyway you look at it, I'm saving $.05 with every bag of groceries I take home in my new (and much roomier than a paper bag) recycled bag. And that means that in about a year, I'll have saved enough to stop at Starbucks for a skim venti, light caramel, Caramel Macchiato. :-)

Rethinking Evangelism

Evangelism sends shivers down the spines of most Christians (and non-Christians). Usually because they see it as a bad and scary thing.

And that's usually because the average person thinks of the "requirement" to evangelize as something like an Amway sales pitch for Jesus. It's a bad formula that just doesn't work. It goes something like this:
Perfect life + Perfect Jesus-pick-up-line + Perfect sales pitch + Perfect smile = A conversion every time.

Evangelism literally means "good message," and what person in their right mind doesn't want a bit of good news sent their way? So the question is, why is the way it's usually seen come across as such bad news?? And if it's good news, why don't more people respond to it?

As has been famously said: The medium is the message. In other words, people don't hear good news when it's delivered in a bad way. And it seems very much that in trying to deliver good news as a sales pitch, we've become bad news.

These guys are working against that. Trying to re-vision it as something that flows out of life instead of something forced onto people.

From a great article on their website, "The Lost Art of Being Normal":

In the movie, The Big Kahuna, Danny DeVito’s character gives great advice on what I’ve been calling “The Lost Art of Being Normal”:

If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are - just to find out, for no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it’s not a conversation anymore; it’s a pitch. And you’re not a human being; you’re a marketing rep."

Six Negative Influences Shaping Contemporary Evangelical Spirituality

This post is straight from New Testament Scholar Scot McKnight's excellent blog. His blog is substantive and worth reading.

Robert Webber, in The Divine Embrace, points six negative influences shaping contemporary evangelical spirituality. Here they are and what are your thoughts?

1. The dangers of legalism have been eliminated and now we are into anti-nomianism (no rules, no law, I can do what I want, I’m free). Freedom from legalism means freedom for Christ.
2. Intellectual spirituality has been exchanged for an anti-intellectual spirituality that does not approximate classic pietism. The way to know as a Christian is to reflect on Scripture in community.
3. Experiential Christianity is shifting into narcissism.
4. Worship has become far too narcissistic — “did I like the worship or preaching?” is the question. No, he says, this is not the question. The question is about theological fidelity and learning to live out the story.
5. We have now an emphasis on a romantic relationship with God instead of a focus on God and our union with him by his grace.
6. We have a consumeristic emphasis, a McSpirituality.

He points out that good writers today are Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, and Eugene Peterson.

Richmond's Sordid Past

At the height of slavery in colonial America, Richmond, VA was THE crossroads for slave trading. The warehouses sitting next to the James River where they were unloaded as "cargo" are today renovated high-dollar lofts. And in 1860, Virginia had more slaves than any other state in the Union. For Virginia's culpability in perpetuating this evil, the VA State Assembly recently issued a formal apology stating their "profound regret."

As a physical step of amends, three identical Reconciliation Statues were commissioned and erected; One here in downtown Richmond, one in Liverpool, England (where many of the slaving ships originated) and one in Benin, West Africa (where many Africans were wrongfully enslaved). The other day I met a friend for lunch just a few blocks from the statue and took some photos of it. It is a sign of the Kingdom!