I'm not a car guy, but...

...when I was walking into the local Wally World, I saw the new Dodge Charger. I, and about every other guy walking in, stopped and drooled. It's like the General Lee and a Ferrari got married and had this as their baby. Wow.
And they say Detroit is going under.

Are We Doing This?

I drove past this the other day. I don't know about you, but I'm not really in the market to have my headlight lenses polished. Ever. And to my recollection I never have been, or ever will be.

In short, they are providing something they can do that no one really needs.

Is the church doing this?

A Classic that Doesn't Dissappoint

A good rule of thumb: If you are trying to grow as a follower Jesus, go for what's old and time-tested, not what someone just thought up and a publisher marketed to you to get you to buy.

One such resource: The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. A friend described him as a "klutz who broke everything." In an effort to make something of himself, he left the services of a French Lord and entered the monastery and there became the washer of pots and pans. His simple meditations from the 17th Century on what it means to pray have endured and spoken to many.

Here's what Henri Nouwen wrote in the foreword to a recent edition:

"Although we are busy we experience ourselves as the passive victims of great powers that control us and seem very hard to resist. Life seems like a long series of randomly scattered incidents and accidents over which we have no control."

I'm not sure I've heard a more concise summary of 21st Century life in America. And it's too this sense of fragementation that Brother Lawrence speaks.

I'll post reflections as I read my way through.

Where to order:
Online edition (free)
Amazon.com.

The Meaning of Christmas

It's easy to lose Christmas in Christmas.
This short video produced by a church in London is a thoughtful and well-produced reflection on the true meaning of Christmas. I hope you'll see Jesus in the middle of Christmas this year.

As a bonus, everyone in it has a British accent.
Smashing.
(ht: adrian warnock)


That's Christmas! from andy pearce on Vimeo.

How the Economy Reveals Our Souls

My good college friend, Lt. Commander Brian Weigelt, is currently serving as a Navy Chaplain, working as an agent of the Kingdom of God at sea. He's a great man (plus, he gets the great nickname "Chaps").

While he's at sea (in an undisclosed location) he sends out a daily email to the crew of the ships he serves. They are easily some of the best words I read each week. And yesterday's was particularly poignant, given the state of economy.

TODAY'S WAYPOINT--A Daily Reflection from Chaplain Weigelt
December 12, 2008

"Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.” – Warren Buffett

Psalm 62:10 (New International Version): Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
Each day there seems to be yet another headline describing the desperate state of our economy. Economists in their ivory towers will note that this is simply a typical correction to the economy, readjusting expectations that weren’t based in reality. That explanation doesn’t necessarily make things easier for those who are suffering severely from the loss of jobs and reduced real estate value. Part of the problem many of us face is the fact that we have tied our identity too closely to our economic status, or to our material possessions. While this financial downturn may be a correction to our economy, maybe we should also consider a correction to our self-understanding. Our true identity, our true value does not have anything to do with the amount of money in our accounts. In fact, our account balances can insulate us from reality. Perhaps each time we read a headline about the economy, we should remind ourselves that the economy doesn’t define us.

Have I had too high of expectations for money?

Chocolate Destruction

Corban, my youngest, can do some damage to chocolate cake.

Cereal Night

A few weeks ago, the guys in my small group were waxing nostalgic for the cereals of our youth; those sugary creations of careless Cereal Executives that fueled our childhoods.

So, we decided to have cereal night at Small Group. Everyone brought their favorite. I loaded up on on Fruit Loops...then proceeded to lapse into a sugar-induced coma. Good for making memories, not so good for discussion.

These are good men that I love and admire.

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.

Why There is No Future in the Past

What do you do when things seem to be unraveling? When suddenly or overnight or out of nowhere or without explanation something in your circle of influence runs you over? A child, a marriage, a relationship, an opportunity, a job goes south?

Like it or not, this 'out of the blue' feeling is the reality that when the present isn't effectively managed, it has a way of becoming a past that builds and builds into 'the wave' that now seems ready to sweep away both your present and your future. It's like you're standing on the beach called 'the present' and you get washed away by an unexpected tsunmani called 'the past.'

Can you relate?

The hard to swallow truth is that there usually is no "suddenly." The past is, more often than not, something of our own creation. There are exceptions to that, for sure.

Regardless of who or how the past happened, it often ends up determining your future. "There and then" keeps you from living "here and now." It's not that the future is determined in the sense that we can't escape it no matter what, it's just that our past has become the most influential voice in our present. And so we futilely search for a future in the past.

As a result, we feel helpless against 'the wave.'

Enter the Gospel--the good news--of Jesus. It is the announcement that Jesus has taken the past and overwhelmed and overcome it, calming it's angry waters.

Paul, writer of much of the New Testament says it this way: "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them." Jesus silences the voice of the past and invites us to live here and now in light of God's future; A future full of hope and possibility.

Can you see it?

Interview with Tim Keller

Few people think more carefully and clearly than Tim Keller about the church, the Gospel and the mission of God. I learn something every time I interact with his work.

Tim is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. He is author of the New York Times bestseller The Reason for God and a newly released book, The Prodigal God. He is also cofounder of The Gospel Coalition.

Here is a link to a two part interview with him on "Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture"

part 1

part 2

From the interview:

"The new heavens and new Earth are coming in which 'everything sad is going to come untrue.' Don't get too bent out of shape because your church didn't grow this year."