Archive for June, 2007

Mac or PC rap

They asked me to be in this video, but I just didn’t have the time… or the rhythm.

It was one of those sublime moments of life. I was at Mazzio’s eating dinner with the Wegley’s (Mark & Angela) as a sendoff party for their kids, when Sam came in and said Caro wanted to show me something she’d just bought from a garage sale. I groaned. I envisioned a couch made from chamille or some old wooden thing. I just didn’t know.

When I got outside to the car, I was handed an AT&T bag. Caro began circling like a hawk, with a camera. I knew something was up, and my little brain raced. Surely not.

Surely so.

Inside the bag was an Apple iPhone. I pretty much freaked out.

In my euphoria, I ripped off my clothes and began to dance naked across the Mazzio’s parking lot. Or not.

Caro informed me over my excitement that my dad had purchased the iPhone for me. Wow. It was better than Christmas. (Actually, after visiting with him on the phone – the first call I made – I found it was Christmas, and birthdays for several years…) Also, in my initial enthusiasm and overflowing gratitude, I made a rash commitment that I’ll have to live up to… not to put Dad in the nursing home.

It’s amazing what one will do in a moment of emotional mushiness. ;)

By the way… all the hype over the iPhone… it’s all true. It works EXACTLY like you see on Apple’s site and in the commercials. The form factor is extremely small and comfortable. It’s much easier to work than my Treo 650 was. It’s just… well, Apple.

I stand by my earlier post that predicted the iPhone will revolutionize the cell world like the iPod did the music world.

Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, Elevation Church is led by Steven Furtick. This new church may have one of the sharpest and most comprehensive web ministries overall of any church in this series yet. It’s easy to navigate, but in preparing to write this article, I quickly experienced the “jawdrop” factor, wondering how a new church was able to afford/create sites of such depth and appeal. They have clearly given quite a lot of attention to detail.

Observations:

• They had 121 people at their first service, which is nothing to sneeze at. They are also forming an intentional network of other like-minded church plants which they call the Ground Level Network. Looks interesting, but there doesn’t seem to be any information about how to “join” or network with them.
• I liked the “flashiness” of the site, and was initially concerned that tech may have replaced substance, but was relieved to find that upon following their “Basic” link, a broad strategy of communication and short, mind-appealing theology-bites (akin to soundbytes) presented the innards of Elevation in an easy-to-understand way. From there, you can see their Core Values, Beliefs, distinctives, and history.
• Clicking on “the plan” link also revealed a strategy of crowd, community groups, and children’s ministry that seemed very similar to Journey’s.
• The “connect” tab was also helpful and informative, but clicking on the links there was where the “cool factor” of the site ended, and you were presented with good information, albeit in a rather drab (as compared to the rest of the site) way.
• You can watch or listen to past sermon series, give online, and go deeper. There is, however, little to no site interactivity. I really think that’s what makes some church websites more dynamic than others these days. People want the ability to feel part of your church community, even on an online level.
• There was also very few pictures of people. You had to go to the church’s blog (which is very well done) to begin seeing them. I kept wondering who was behind all this besides Furtick. Of course, their June 10, 2007 entry was humbling and exciting:

71 people gave their lives to Christ this Sunday.

• There is also an “access: elevation” blog which seems to address societal concerns and other hot topics? I wasn’t real sure about what its purpose is. The latest post when I visited was about a minister’s housing allowance. Not exactly inspirational for the masses, but I confess, I read it.

As always, please respond to your own impressions of this church’s site.

• What is attractive about the site?
• What can you tell about the substance of the church from the site?
• If you lived in the area and were not a church member, would this church’s site be something that might lead you to investigate further? Why or why not?
• What do you not like about the site?

I’m at Dad’s Place working with Dean Cirelli, the world-famous author of Riding with the King. He had a fantastic post the other day that you’ve got to check out. If any of you are interested in receiving your own personal Wordpress tutorial, for the cost of a cup of Joe at DP, I’ll be more than happy to walk you through some initial steps.

Update: The $5 sale has been extended through noon, June 29!
Every book in the Desiring God store will be $5 THROUGH JUNE 29. Since John Piper is probably one of my all-time favorite Christian writers and theologians, you know I’m robbing the change jar. Make sure you check it out. I’d recommend Desiring God, A Thirst for God, Don’t Waste Your Life, and … well, heck… just go getcha something.

The Fearsome Pirate has a  great post about why your community may not be involved in your church… It’s just, well, boring. And trite. And everything you touch is mediocre. If you say you believe in a glorious God, then why is everything produced by your church so humdrum?

…a hugely important thing is that it has to be good. Lutherans are addicted to mediocrity. If you’re going to try to reach out to the community, you have to divest yourself of the notion that the rest of the world is desperate for the kind of mediocrity and triviality that Lutherans offer. The fact is, they get more than enough of that from TV and the American education system. Our entertainment culture completely lacks seriousness already; they’re not impressed by Lutherans exhibiting a much more toned-down frivolity. Heck, even our frivolity is mediocre! The mediocrity culture of Lutheranism prevents depth, and this lack of depth makes conversation impossible. In today’s world, an unbeliever does not come to anything involving Christians because he wants something trite, shallow, and unchallenging!

The Power of Team Leadership: Achieving Success Through Shared Responsibility (Barna Reports)

by George Barna

All I can really say is… “Yawn.”

Barna simply writes too many books. This is probably way too unfair, but anyone who writes as many books as he does simply can’t hit homeruns all the time. This book is simply repetitive and adds nothing to the plethora of resources already available on team leadership. It almost comes to the curb too late. You get the sense that you’ve read it before, and you probably have.

Another distressing Barna characteristic is his omission of source material. I’m sorry, but in this book, there’s not much original.

Read Good to Great and save yourself some time. Then read anything by Aubrey Malphurs.

On the other hand, if you’ve never read anything on team leadership, I’d highly recommend this book. You’ll feel like Barna’s a genius.

See more about The Power of Team Leadership: Achieving Success Through Shared Responsibility (Barna Reports)

Derek over at Waiting in Athens has a powerfully short blog entry related to what excuses we offer to God for not following him. Here they are:

• God hasn’t spoken to me directly. This dangerous excuse has many forms, including: “I’m listening for His voice”, “I’m waiting on Him”, or the ever popular “I’m praying about it”. While the revealing of God’s will is paramount, we so often use this as an “out” to the dream He has for us. If He told us everything about His day-to-day will through Scripture and prayer, what room would there be for faith? Paul, in Acts 16:6-8 tries to go into three different areas to spread the Gospel. He knows that there is a plan for his ministry, but he doesn’t wait around: he acts. The Spirit guides him, and then the dream is made clear to Paul in what we know as the Macedonian call. The point here? Paul realized that inaction is dangerous to the Gospel. Dreams, as long as they fit within scripture as is, do not need to be detailed by God Himself from the very beginning: they are often revealed as you’re walking in the wrong direction.

• I don’t have _____. This is another very dangerous excuse. Fill in the blank with whatever you like: time, resources, people, etc. There are countless examples, both Scriptural and modern, of times when God’s providence has triumphed over the lack of something. It’s often said, and is so very true, that God will provide a way for His will.
• I have _____. This is the flip side of the above. It can be anything from an existing job to a family to feed to some other perceived obligation. Again, God will provide a way for His will.

Which of these do you find yourself trying to use most frequently? How will you resolve to release this as both a lie and an excuse? Why are you afraid of surrendering your life completely to Christ?

Stardust

by Neil Gaiman

I had high hopes for Stardust after Mark Wegley recommended it to me. I don’t know if it was my mood or just my expectations that caused this book to simply fall flat.

I’ll give it credit. I kept turning the pages. I was truly interested in how the story would develop. But it is no epic, and has has left no lasting impression, unfortunately. Alas.

For those interested in a short, easy-to-read fantasy-magic tale, it’s cute.

I think I’ve just gotten spoiled on the broader, character-driven epic series created by Lewis, Tolkien, Martin, Paolini and yes, Rowling.

See more about Stardust

A new site seeks to become the Digg of the Christian blogosphere. Blogs4God.com is an interesting concept, but who has the time?

With that said, I do encourage you to check it out. It may be your cup of tea. The idea is that as you’re surfing and reading Christian blogs, you click on a “bookmarklet” that you save to your bookmarks bar, and that blog entry that encouraged you so much is immediately submitted to blogs4god.com and shows up on their RSS feed. That way, others will see it, and hopefully over time, the entry you submitted will be highly trafficked and encourage the original writer.

There’s a good entry here about how to use blogs4god for your benefit and others.

Justin Taylor said this at the recent Na Conference in response to why it’s important to read and study perspectives from before our own time:

I think if we try to—to use Na’s term—“reinvent the wheel”, if we try to come up with a new doctrine, if we’re not learning from those before us, it’s the ultimate act of arrogance. Because it tends to be our default position to assume that the Holy Spirit is starting his work with us and we forget that he’s been working for 2,000 years and beyond. He’s been instructing his people. And it’s just utterly foolish and arrogant to think that we can start from scratch or that we’re not building upon previous generations.

You can read the script from his conference here.

I’d be interested in knowing my my regular readers and lurkers…. and be honest, folks. Who was the last “dead guy” Christian you read? (besides the Bible).

If you’re intrigued, a great (and free) place to start is at Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

We got back this afternoon around 4:00 from our weekend at Beech Springs Baptist Camp near El Dorado. It was a fantastically relaxing weekend spent with some of our dearest friends – our Journey Church family. This was our second year at Family Camp, and it was full of laughter, games, kids, more laughter, about 37 bike wrecks, crying, more laughter, kids, and late-night coffee with Spades, Speed Scrabble and Settlers.

I wanted to lob this entry out to let you know that more is coming. But in the meantime, we’re baaaack. You can also check my Flickr account for pix of FC07.

Ouch, ouch, and ha! That was my reaction to reading a recent diatribe about church growth from one website. His initial thought was:

If church sucks, people don’t invite others. They don’t think “Man, my friends have got to be here for this!” They think “Well, I might as well keep going here.”

Included in his list are things like:

• Stop preaching crappy sermons.
• Quit acting like such a fruit up there.
• They’re supposed to be announcements, not Chinese water torture.

I think the list could also be titled “Church Growth Thoughts from the Pews.” I know of several folks in our group who would be that honest. Thanks to Todd for first mentioning it.

I love being forced to think outside the box by others. There are some conferences and gatherings where you just know that’s going to happen. As one attempts to be used by God to shepherd His people, I think it’s first vitally important to be a personal, passionate seeker of God on your own. After that, it’s vitally important to submit your ideas, dreams and thinking to others in contexts of discussion, humility and grace.

Q seems to be just that kind of opportunity. And I missed it. Groan. I didn’t even know about it, until I read some notes from a speaker over at churchrelevance.com. Detailing just four points, it was enough to send me out onto the porch with my Bible, Moleskine, pen and eager heart to think, pray, read, and write.

Here’s the four elements of “missional imagination” taken from churchrelevance.com:

1. Strong Leadership
   You need strong leaders, who can allow people to create while still leaving space for God to knock on the door. Leaders need humility and should not try to be a celebrity.
2. Transformed Disciples
   It is not about church but movement. We can grow big churches full of undiscipled disciples, but they will not transform culture. Create a movement of transformed disciples. Truly transformed disciples don’t need permission or a program to reach people. They are a movement of God to release on the city.
3. Imagine What God Can Do in Your Context
   Imagine what the Kingdom of God would look like expressed through the gifts, talents, and passions of these transformed disciples. Don’t leverage people’s skills for your goals. It is not in our hands to control but to cultivate.
4. Conspire with Other Leaders
   For example, Imago Dei Community (expect a blog entry on this church in my web ministry series soon) collaborated with other churches to create the Advent Conspiracy and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid the global water crisis.

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert has an entry about his normal day’s routine. I’m inspired and hope to create something similar soon. Check it out.

His conclusion? To be a cartoonist, you need:

1. Banana
2. Diet Coke
3. Cat
4. Computer with Wacom 21UX monitor