Archive for May, 2009

A great little tool provided by TweetStats.com and Wordle.

It’s a little awkward to write a blog entry like this lest it be taken as a cry for affirmation from my own church members. That is not the intention. However, I will not refuse any encouragement directed my way. ;)

Tuesday morning, our church hosted a regular event that we call NCourage. It’s specifically designed to encourage, uplift and affirm ministers, pastors and staff in our area. Being one of those myself, I know well the burden and difficulty of leading a group of people to voluntarily pursue a passionate love relationship with Christ. In order to do that, you must consistently model it. That means that we cannot lead in a direction where we ourselves are not going. It also means that spiritual leadership for some can become a barren, thankless task.

At NCourage, we give out free resources for those who come, and we invite a guest speaker to come and share in a way that will allow ministers to leave refreshed and renewed.

On Tuesday, we partnered with Rose Hill Freewill Baptist Church. They had invited pastor and author Rob Morgan to speak in revival services at their church, and their pastor, David Ponder, graciously agreed to share Rob with us. Our two churches split the cost of a case of Rob’s book Red Sea Rules, and Journey folks provided breakfast food for the morning meeting.

It was truly encouraging. Rob did a wonderful job of sharing about the importance of infecting your people with confident joy. He spoke from 2 Samuel 18, where David actually infected his army with despair because of his inappropriate mourning for his son Absalom. Absalom had actually tried to usurp his kingdom!

Rob said, “The attitude of the leader affects everyone underneath him.” He went on to urge the small gathering to find our satisfaction and joy in ministry from our walk with the Lord rather than our work for Him.

The Joy of Smallness

Speaking of small gatherings, the attendance issue is one that often plagues ministers. Unfortunately, we judge too quickly the impact or success of an event by numerical feedback. I don’t know of anyone pastor who hates it when a room is packed. On the contrary, I admit the personal frustration of planning well for a ministry event only to succumb to disappoint at a poor showing.

Numbers are very poor way to judge influence and impact.

Kent Hughes has a book called Liberating Your Ministry from the Success Syndrome which should be a must-read for every minister. After reading it years ago, I resolved to never preach to a few people. I always prepare and preach as if there will be thousands present. Every gathering deserves your very best.

I heard the following illustration while I was on a mission trip to Canada with college students back in 2000. It reminds me of the importance of never letting the size of your ministry or event reflect on your influence.

In a far country lived a band of minstrels who traveled from town to town presenting music to make a living.  Unfortunately, they had not been doing well.  Times were hard; there was little money for common folk to come to hear the minstrels, even though their fee was small.

Attendance had been falling off, so early one morning the group met to discuss their plight.

‘I see no reason for opening tonight,’ one said.  ‘To make things even worse then they may have been, it is starting to snow.  Who will venture out on a night like this?’

‘I agree,’ another disheartened singer said. ‘Last night we performed for just a handful.  Few will come tonight, why not give back their meager fees and cancel the concert?  No one can expect us to go on when just a few are in the audience.’

A third minstrel joined in saying, ‘How can anyone do his best for so few?’  Then he turned to another sitting beside him and asked, ‘What do you think?’

The man appealed to was older than the others.  He looked straight at his troupe.  ‘I know you are discouraged.  I am too.  But we have a responsibility to those who might come.  We will go on.  And we will do the best job of which we are capable. It is not the fault of those who come that others do not.  They should not be punished with less than the best we can give.’

Heartened by his words, the minstrels went ahead with their show.  They never preformed better. When the show was over and the small audience gone, the old man called his troupe to him.  In his hand was a note, handed to him by one in the audience just before the doors closed behind him.

‘Listen to this, my friends!’ Something electrifying in his tone of voice made them turn to him in anticipation.

Slowly the old man read: ‘Thank you for a beautiful performance.’  It was signed very simply — your King.

Most of you know I’m an early adopter. Heck, I’m not just early, but I’m there in the delivery room, cheering on the birth of new techs, eager to cut the umbilical cord. (This is figurative because after my last literal experience doing that, I don’t think “eager” would describe my attitude…) However, I love to follow new technologies, particularly in the social media venue.

That’s why I accidentally sent out a massive bulk email last week from Friendfeed. I thought I was searching for my friends that already use the service (turns out, all 5 of them). What I actually did, however, was send an email to my entire Google contacts database – more than 1000 – urging folks to use Friendfeed. Don’t. It’s just not ready yet for consumer use. I don’t have time hear to gripe about FF’s imperfections (and they are many).

However, I saw a quick review of a service I’d not heard of called Streamy.com on TechCrunch.com, and of course, I clicked over to the service with mounting excitement. I had soothing baby music ready to play as I coddled this new addition to the world of lifestreaming. What I found, however, was a pretentious preteen. It was a full-featured, fast and consumer friendly service!

I had some problem figuring out how to create my account rather than just linking one with Facebook (in itself a nice feature). After solving that, I was off and running. The screenshot below shows you how I’ve configured (so far) my custom Streamy window.

Within a few moments, however, I was disappointed that I was apparently going to have to enter manually each blog I follow. I couldn’t figure out how to import my feeds from Bloglines or Google Reader. I clicked over to support (they use Get Satisfaction), found others with a similar question and clicked “I have the same question.”

Imagine my surprise when within a few hours later, I was notifed by email via the Get Satisfaction site that Streamy.com had created the option to import feeds from Bloglines, Google Reader and exported opml files! Talk about service (and satisfaction!).

I’ve now made Streamy.com my homepage in Safari and Firefox, and find that I am enjoying it more than drifting back and forth between Twitter and Facebook. I like it better than Tweetdeck because I can also keep up with my blog subscriptions. Yes, you can post to Facebook, Twitter and other services from it as well.

Swing by and check out Streamy. It may have, in one fell swoop, put Friendfeed and other services in the grave trying to keep up. (Of course, most parents of preteens feel that way at one point.)

I was looking through my writing folder on my computer where I keep ideas for blog entries or articles and came across one titled “Goals after death.” “What in the world possessed me to write such a thing?” I wondered. The entry was dated February 9, 2004, and for whatever reason, I must have heard a sermon or read something that challenged me to create the following:

• 10 friends at funeral who won’t look at watch (I know this isn’t original because I’ve heard it elsewhere.)
• People to tell my children that their father loved God not flesh.
• Look wife in face and say I’ve been faithful.
• Be thoroughly used by God.

I’m supremely honored and humbled that the Lord broke through my stubborn and self-determined plans when I was 21 to call me to serve His people. As I often tell our church, at that time I put my “yes” on the table for Christ, and it has remained there to this day. He has the perfect right, and it’s my ultimate joy to follow as He directs.

There was a young preacher in the New Testament named Timothy who must have experienced some of that joy as he received a charge from his mentor, Paul. Timothy was urged to do precisely what cost the Paul and the other apostles their lives: “Preach the Word!” (2 Timothy 4.2)

I can’t help but read the New Testament and marvel at and drink enviously of the first century Christ-followers’ passion for the Gospel. Their goal seemed to be: Full-out, finish strong, fight to the end.

In one of my favorite movies of all time, William Wallace in Braveheart utters, “Give me the strength to die well.”

While William Wallace lived and fought for the freedom of Scotland, the epic struggle raging for spiritual freedom has been fought throughout time by ordinary men and women. They have never had movies made of them. Hebrews 11.35-40 records about these unnamed, persevering saints:

Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

To further contrast with our own attitudes, the apostle Paul also saw his death as an act of worship. He said, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.” (2 Timothy 4.6). He understood that the highest level of worship to offer to God is dying for one’s faith.

Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) said, “If you want to know if what we believe is true, then watch the way we die.”

Paul had lived his life as an act of worship (“fought the good fight”). Herein we must ask, “Is my life a life of worship? Would my death be a sacrifice of worship?” God doesn’t call you to fight without calling you to finish. One of our greatest concerns for the church today should be that we burn up before we burn out.

Yet there are too many of us who are barely flickering. As I shared in my sermon this past week, the name “Jesus” must cross our lips in conversation with our community. We cannot play charades any longer and hope they guess that we’re acting like “Christians.” It’s not enough to sing Christian songs, go the right churches, wear the right clothes, listen to the right podcasts or read the “in” books. Too much input has led us to spiritual constipation. Most of us desperately need a gospel laxative.

Voddie Baucham said, “For 17 months after I became a Christian, I didn’t know that Christians weren’t supposed to witness.” He sadi this in reference to the sad truth that the church he attended and the Christians he associated with during that first year and a half of following Christ were tragically silent about their Savior.

Have we “gotten over it?” In a desperate yet majestic prayer of repentance, David sorrowfully begged the Lord, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51.12) Perhaps we too need to humbly cry out to the Lord at the realization that our joy, our enthusiasm, our hope has been all but snuffed out in this culture of materialistic self-dependency.

Reflecting over those goals after death makes me hope that I will pray that God will help me long for heaven – not just for myself but for all with whom God might kindly give me influence. And may the name of Jesus cross my lips… and my keyboard.. often.

Since I was 7 years old, Jesus Christ has been my light and my hope. He has done great things for me, my family and all those who put their trust in Him. He is the hope of the world. May you find hope in Him as well. The church that Jesus established was to be the light of the world. The image was of a lamp – with its wick lit and trimmed, it was set on a lamp stand to light the way for others. Let us burn up before we burn out.

Here’s the year-end video/Powerpoint from the 2000-2001 school year.

UAM BCM Year End Video 2001 from Jeff Noble on Vimeo.

Kris Allen was named the 2009 American Idol winner tonight on Fox. Every female at our watch party went into immediate hysterics. The men’s responses (mine, Jeff Longing, Karl, and Taylor) were, of course, manly and subdued. Yet, we were all amazed that the Conway Kid had slipped underneath Simon’s radar to snatch the title and well-deserved honors.

Amid the lights, celebrities and general craziness, Kris looked, well, surprised. His first words? “Adam deserves this…”

What?!

Perhaps it’s time to agree with Simon (which I often do) and say that Kris’ humility at this point is not really humility. Rather, it was just, well, weird. I was honestly disappointed with a rather large missed opportunity.

American Idol this year contained no overt Christian messages. There were no outbreaks of worship as in prior years. Yet, in the top three, there were two evangelical worship leaders. Danny Gokey and Kris Allen.

At the apex of Kris’ career, when more people will be watching him than at any time, and when he certainly had the freedom and privilege of saying whatever he wanted to… Adam.

My main question is: Why not bring glory to the One who brought you and your family this far?

Was it stage fright? I mean, you’re one of two. Even if you didn’t think you had a chance, surely you would have considered preparing a statement more meaningful and authentic than “Adam deserves this.” I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and simply say it was a less than inspiring moment. But that’s just my personal opinion.

I like Kris Allen, from what I’ve seen of him. He has a wonderfully bright future, and I’m glad he’s an Arkie. I’m excited for his church and friends back home. And I’m hopeful that he will reach far more people with the message of His Savior with his music in the future than he was able to do on AI. However, for now, I just must say, “Congratulations, Kris.” Sincerely.

Other Items of Interest:

• Fox News 16 in Little Rock reported minutes after the show that AT&T had recorded 38 million votes coming out of Arkansas! With almost 100 million votes cast total, that means that Arkansas carried almost 40% of the vote! We assume that most of those were for Kris.
• My wifey won the t-shirt design for Kris Allen’s fan club!

My Tweets during AI:

• Is AI trying to revive careers of senior adult rockers? Booooooring.
  8:41pm via Twitter
• Adam looks like a leather butterfly. KISS may need wheelchairs.
  8:18pm via Twitter
• Can’t believe I’m watching AI.
  7:36pm via Twitter

Disappearance of Testimonies

It’s hard to do collegiate ministry these days when the college students we’re attempting to minister with and to have never heard from anyone what it means to follow Jesus personally. Oh sure, they’ve heard tons of sermons, VBS lessons, youth devotionals, and Sunday School lessons. But the American church today is silent when it comes to personal stories of faith.

When was the last time you heard someone besides your pastor or a church leader share about the difference following Christ has meant in their personal life? Where do young adults hear the real stories of faith today in our curriculum-intensive, content-focused churches? Faith stories are infrequent, and for the most part, they are considered “special” parts of most services.

For collegians, it has a powerfully negative impact on their own faith development to never hear how others have encountered God personally. This lack of understanding what it means to have a personal, intimate relationship with God brings collegians to the university campus with a Velcro Christianity that is easily replaced.

Youth need to hear personal faith stories from each other and from adults in their churches early and often. They need to see how God works in the lives of others, and how a personal love for God is fleshed out in someone’s life. If all they observe about Christianity is a series of church services, events, and programs, they will quickly toss that aside in exchange for what will bring them more personal fulfillment. Unfortunately, there are a lot of negative options on the college campus.

It’s this disappearance of reality-show faith stories that makes it difficult for young adults to relate to most churches today. They don’t want to be a part of a crowd. They want to be involved in a movement. If those in attendance are simply logging in religious hours, college students quickly discern their lack of transparency and opt for places where they can be “real.”

Another sad tendency of many churches is to only put refined Christians on display. If we do hear from members in the pew, it always seem to be those who have had their situations tidily resolved. That’s not true to life. Most of us are aware of friends and family members engaged in intense faith struggles or other challenges. It’s precisely during the hard times that we need to hear from them how they are finding faith and Christ to be sufficient. Young adults don’t want a polished, shiny plastic faith story that would be just at home in the display window in the mall. They learn more from those in the trenches, those who are gritting it out with God. When you see a person slugging it out with Satan, defiantly proclaiming, “Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ,” – that’s the right time for a person to share their story.

Faith stories and their proclamation help growing believers see and relate earthly life with the spiritual realm. Descriptions of struggles and successes help us put feet and faces to our faith. Even in the New Testament, we see a retelling of some of the great faith stories of old in Hebrews 11. Reminding one another what God has done in each of our lives is a powerful tool for shaping and discipling college students.

Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity

The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment

Uncompromised Faith:
Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity

I didn’t know the Sonic guys could speak French…

French Sonic Commercial from Jeff Noble on Vimeo.

You Get What You Expect
Maybe the main reason we don’t see many churches producing dynamic young disciples for the Lord Jesus is because we just don’t expect much from our young people. I have found that people will generally rise or fall to our level of expectation from them. Let’s paint with big strokes for them for God’s glory!

Unfortunately, another reason we don’t see many dynamic young disciples in our churches – and I can speak only of my own denomination here – is because there is a famine of older dynamic disciples in our churches. Across the board, we just don’t expect much from church these days. Stand in the back of most traditional churches today and listen to the amazing depth of the 21st century American church:

Nice sermon, preacher.
Boy, the choir was great today!
Went a little long today, didn’t we, pastor? (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
Good crowd today, huh?
Man, the capuccino shop in the church foyer was a great move!

We might as well be attending Rotary. Where is the attitude of expectancy for our God to show Himself? Where is the reverence? Where is the holy thought of being used by God to build His kingdom in our communities? Put simply, it’s gone.

We have not because we expect not. No one expects anything, and no one’s talking about it. The deafening silence of God-experiences is the last hurdle to jump in order for effective collegiate ministry to begin in the church.

What in the world would persuade a teen in church today to passionately embrace a love relationship with the living God when he is surrounded by so many that lack it? Have teens today been conditioned to accept a pragmatic “what Jesus can do for you” Christianity than the forgiveness of Christ Jesus through repentance? Our kids through many of our children’s ministry programs are steadily weened off of God.

Entering the greatest arena of spiritual warfare and philosophical disputation in our society today – the university – is like marching our churched students off a cliff. We have not expected much from ourselves, from our churches, or from them… except maybe that they meet a nice girl or guy and make a good living…

To be continued…

A piece of paper… and perhaps a damp Q-Tip. It works.

Every now and then we all get “hung up” in our prayer life. We are deeply thirsty for intimate communion with our Father, but our words seem like a helpless rehash of yesterday’s grocery list. We find ourselves repeating phrases that we have always voiced. We regretfully admit that our prayers are more pitiful than passionate.

One wonderful approach that I’ve found to renew and assist my prayer life is simply to pray some of the prayers of scripture. Besides the Psalms, there are literally 100s of deeply moving prayers – many of which we know God answered. Perhaps as we attune our hearts to the heart cries of others from scripture, we will find that our prayer lives are changed and our spiritual pump becomes primed once again.

Here are some helpful beginning points from the New Testament:

Ephesians 1.16-18: I have not stopped giving thanks for them, remembering them in my prayers. I keep asking that you, oh God of our Lord Jesus Christ, our glorious Father, may give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that they may know You better.  I pray also that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened in order that they may know the hope to which You have called them, the riches of Your glorious inheritance in the saints,

Philippians 1.9-11: And this is my prayer: that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,  so that they may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,  filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — for Your glory and praise.

Colossians 1.9-14: Oh God, help me to consistently pray for them without ceasing and to keep asking You to fill them with the knowledge of Your will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And I pray this in order that they may live a life worthy of You and may please You in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in their knowledge of You,  being strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might so that they may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to You, for qualifying them to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  For You have rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of Your Son that You love,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

John 17.9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

John 17.20-23: My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in You through their message, May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

2 Corinthians 13.7-9: Now I pray that they will not do anything wrong. Not that people will see that we have stood the test but that we will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed …our prayer is for their perfection.

Ephesians 3.16-19: I pray that out of Your glorious riches that You may strengthen them with power through Your Spirit in their inner beings,  so that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. And I pray that they will be rooted and established in love, and will have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that they may be filled to the measure of all of Your fullness.

Colossians 4.3-4: And I pray for me, too, that You would open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.  I pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.

2 Thessalonians 1.11-12: With this in mind, I constantly pray for them, that You, our God, may count them worthy of Your calling, and that by Your power, that You would fulfill every good purpose that they have and every act prompted by their faith.  I pray this so that the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified in them, and them in You, according to Your grace oh God, and that of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 3.1-2: Finally, I pray that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored.  And I pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.

Philemon 1.6 I pray that they would be active in sharing their faith, so that they will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.

Jude 1.20 And I pray that they would build themselves up in their most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.

Try praying one or more of these earnestly for yourself, your church, and the people of God around the world. You may be surprised how praying God’s Word will reform your prayer life and refine your spiritual focus.

I rarely buy an iPhone app. However, qTweeter – available only to those of you with a jailbroken iPhone – is worth its salt. It enables a quick update to Twitter and Facebook from wherever you are in your iPhone. You don’t have to leave the app you’re currently using!

In that sense, it’s much like QuickSMS (which I consider another must-have app (also requires a jailbreak).

Here’s a video of the app at work: