Review: The Red Sea Rules (rated 4 stars)

The Red Sea Rules The Same God Who Led You In Will Lead You Out

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Baptism & Celebration

Last week was astonishingly full. It culminated in a Baptism and Celebration Service on the football field behind Blacksburg Middle School. It also included a trip to Orlando with some of our church staff and volunteers for the Exponential Conference. Throw in a massive laughfest called our Volunteer Appreciation Dinner on Saturday night at NLCF‘s facility for good measure. As I hit the sack last night, I was moved by gratitude, joy and relief.

I wanted to point you to some pictures that might help you appreciate the joys of the past weekend and week, as well let you see a video that Dave Farris shot from his iPhone. I hope you’ll thank the Lord with me for a week of fullness and grace.

Pictures:

• Volunteer Appreciation Dinner
• Baptism Service

Dave’s Video:

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Exponential 2010: The Acts 2 Church

Louie Giglio is now a church planter. He is the lead pastor at Passion City Church, but you may know him best from his leadership of Choice Ministries in Waco, Texas many years ago or of the Passion Network these past 13 years. He’s been a huge influence in my own discovery of the joy of following Jesus and of intimate, biblical worship.

I heard him in Atlanta last fall at Catalyst, but when he spoke Tuesday at Exponential, I was struck by his renewed passion and intensity. He has always urged college students to drive deep into their love relationship with Jesus Christ. At Exponential, Louie urged church planters to do the same thing.

He began by reading all of Isaiah 55, focusing on Isaiah 55.10-11. As he talked about his growing conviction that led him to help start PCC, he answered the oft-asked question that many of us church planters receive: What kind of church is it?

Louie’s responses about PCC was simple: “I don’t know.”

I thought his response was brilliant. Most folks are wanting to pigeon-hole your church, and in doing so, they attempt to rob it of influence. “Oh, it’s a Baptist church…” Or, “Oh, so you guys light candles?” The list goes on. I wrote an entry a while back about the danger of marginalization. In a nutshell, when people can classify you, they feel comfortable with you.

So Louie’s response to that question may force initial discomfort.

As he unpacked his biblical rationale, he also wisely challenged some assumptions of the contemporary church world that needed to be challenged.

Most will say that you need a clear vision in mind when you’re starting a new church, that you need a mission statement, that you need a 3-year strategy, a launch date, and an iPhone. Louie said that with PCC, they didn’t start with a photograph in mind of what they should become. Rather, they began with operational principles.

While many in the past 20 years of the church planting/growth movement have identified the church in Acts 2 as being their role model, Louie asked a great question: What kind of church did the Acts 2 church think they were becoming? In other words, the Acts 2 Church didn’t know they were an “Acts 2 Church.”

Louie said they had three operational principles:

• They had the teachings of Jesus.
• They were eyewitnesses of the Resurrection.
• They were filled with power by the Holy Spirit.

He urged us to rest secure in the reality that Christian today have what they had. “We have what they had!” he exclaimed. “Plus, we get the maps!” he said with a cheeky grin.

When we depend on the teachings of Jesus, believe and act in dependence on Christ’s resurrection, and surrender and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, we too can demonstrate the radical nature of the New Testament church. He then asked with conviction, “How could we ever become arrogant?!”

“It is arrogance that leads to divisiveness and competition.” He also urged leaders to quit getting our vocabulary and ideas from the latest book that is released in the contemporary/missional/postmodern/transformational church world.

Be confident in the Word of God.

Quoting from the Isaiah passage above, Louie passionately urged leaders to believe deeply that God’s Words will accomplish their purpose. Every time. They never fail in their assignment. We must seek repentance for failing to walk by faith in His Word.

Louie said he occasionally hears someone say something to the effect, “You really hit it out of the park this week.” He wished that expression and all like it would be banned from our responses. It’s not whether we “hit it out of the park,” but did we place the Word of God before the people? If so, “it ain’t coming back.”

What Others Said About It

• Jason Curlee
• Matthew Erickson
• Jenny Clayville

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Exponential 2010: A Talking Donkey

Mark Batterson is the pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC and also the author of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. As a church planter and pastor, he shared with us the unique story of the talking doney in Numbers 22.

It’s an unusual passage, and as Mark shared his own journey with us of a failed church plant attempt in Chicago (a project for which he got an A on his plans for it in seminary), he pointed out that many times, we head out in a direction with our plans rather than God’s plans. We may be going in the right direction but have the wrong intent.

In Numbers 22:30, the donkey is the rational one in the passage, having endured three beatings. Up to this point in the passage, the donkey is the only one to have seen the angel in the way.

Mark pointed out that we like “open doors” more than closed doors, but the closed doors are more significant. It was the angel of the Lord that kept closing the path forward… but strange… God told Balaam to go in the first place.

Sometimes, God gets in our way to show us His way.

God wants you to get where He wants you to go more than you want to get where He wants you to go. Batterson urged us to consider how our plans may be interrupted by God’s better plans. Don’t get discouraged when what you have in mind doesn’t fall into place. Trust that the Lord is up to something that you may not be able to perceive.

In the end, God wanted Balaam to bless, and not curse His people.

Perhaps a better moral would be: Don’t be so quick to mistreat the smart asses in your life. They may be seeing more than you are.

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Exponential, Round 2

Members of our staff and leadership team arrived in Orlando late on Monday night after a day of planes and automobiles. It’s been two years since my first Exponential Conference experience, and already, the difference is significant.

At my first experience, I was by myself, and I’d come off a particularly trying year as a pastor and church planter in Arkansas. This year, I’m with new leaders at a new church, and we’re here after a particularly blessed several months of God’s gracious favor in the life of our church and families.

It’s much better to learn in community, and I’m grateful for Cody, Dave, and Jim being here with me. It’s going to be fun to unpack what we’ve learned each evening and on the way home.

I’ll try to post daily about some reflections from the conference, as I did back in 2008, but I assure you that I’ll be kinder to Ed Stetzer. I’ll never forget the call I got from Carolyn after my first conference entry back then. I had attended the first plenary session that day, and Ed was the keynote speaker. I was there as a wounded church planter that had financed his trip on fumes. I just needed a life preserver.

Ed instead threw stats. They were great ones, and they were convicting to us all about the state of the church and our need to adopt a missional strategy and lifestyle, but his talk just left me discouraged. Actually, it was a great talk, but in my frame of mind, it just didn’t connect.

Carolyn called and said, “One of your ‘friends’ is messing with you. They left a comment on your entry claiming to be Ed Stetzer.” I laughed and went to my blog to check the commenter’s email. It was Ed’s.

Bummer. In my blunt hurtness, I had unintentionally wounded someone else. Or so I thought. In the comment exchange (and later email) that followed, I realized it would take much more than that to hurt Ed’s feelings, thank goodness.

Strange thing, Ed and I wound up going to Poland together later that year as part of a church planters’ discovery trip with the IMB. You can see those entries here.

One important lesson I learned out of that experience? Never blog when you’re frustrated.

If you’re at Exponential this year, I’d love to hear from you!

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Review: In Plain Sight

I was contacted by the publisher of In Plain Sight and asked whether I’d be willing to review the book if they supplied a copy. A free book? Of course.

I was not familiar with the book or author though, so I waited with some trepidation wondering what I’d gotten myself into. When it arrived, I was immediately struck by the cover photo, shown at left.

The photo on the left on the cover is of a brain cell; the one on the right is of an oak tree. The similarities in design are amazing. And so is this book written by scientist and neurosurgeon Dr. Charley Gordon.

It’s a glossy book packed with stunning color photographs that each portray remarkable design similarities between the micro and the macro.

The book is set up to be read as a 40-day devotional, with each day ending in reflective scripture based off the relationship of the photographs and accompanying thoughts.

It’s one thing to have a nice, coffee-table book with stunning photographs. It’s another to have one that is an engaging and fascinating read as well. In Plain Sight fits both categories. After reading a few days of devotional thoughts, I contacted the publisher and related that I would be delaying my review simply because I wanted to enjoy the pace of the book and take it as it’s set up – as 40 days of devotional thoughts.

I wholeheartedly recommend the book to you, and I hope you consider giving it as a gift to friends, family and acquaintances that may be needing some hope, purpose and deep reflection in their life. It is not a book that’s easy to shrug off for a skeptic. Neither is it a book that seeks to convince. Rather, it’s a gracious portrayal of our fascinating world from a thoroughly biblical viewpoint that coaxes the reader to consider our Creator’s infinite and tender purposes behind design and beauty.

You can read more about the book at the website for it here.

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Neighborhood drama

Tonight, our neighbor across the street informed Carolyn that she thinks her boys have forgiven Adelyn. When Carolyn asked why, here’s the story that unraveled.

This morning, Adelyn and the other kids in the neighborhood were waiting on the school bus (very Rockwellian). That’s when Billy and DJ began to brag that they had gotten out of the house without having to wear their school picture clothes. Apparently their mom had set them out the night before, but the two siblings had managed to get out in what Adelyn has since described as “just Michael Jordan shorts.”

Adelyn and her friend Michelle were horrified that these two boys were not excited about school pictures and that they had done this to their mom.

They promptly marched to the front door of the boys’ house. The boys anxiously dashed in ahead of them, trying to prevent their mom from coming to the door. It was too late. Adelyn proudly ratted out her neighborhood buddies. The result?

The boys missed the bus while they were forced to change, and their mom brought them to school a while later. The two stool pigeonettes rode smugly to school on the bus, confident that they’d done a good deed.

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About WBC: Don’t Feed the Animals

“Westboro Baptist Church” comes to Blacksburg tomorrow to spew hate in the form of picketing and insults. They have toured the U.S., making many enemies but showing no love. I put the name of their organization in quotes simply because they may be Westboro, but they are not Baptist, and they are not a Christian church. They are a cult.

On their website, you will unfortunately find a lot of scripture from the Old and New Testaments, with much of it twisted and taken out of context to serve their own use.

As a local pastor, I’m grateful that it appears that most people in our community understand this group is not representative of Christianity at all. However, I suspect that there will be some that allow WBC to nurse their antagonism toward the institutional church. I don’t blame them. I can only hope that they’ll look past flawed messengers (including me) and look to a perfect God who has revealed Himself in love through Jesus Christ.

Our community has offered many options for response to WBC. Mayor Ron Rordam offered:

I encourage citizens to simply stay away from this demonstration of hate. Make contributions to Tech’s Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention or, if you need to be part of a group, go by Tech’s Graduate Life Center plaza off Otey Street starting at noon.

Blacksburg is a community. We are bigger than this. We are a peaceful community and we can show that on Friday when we make a statement by leading our lives as we always do, filled with the spirit of Blacksburg, a spirit that embraces all people.

Others are planning on picketing them. Through Facebook, there are those calling for several thousand students to show up in silent protest. All are urging civil, controlled responses.

I happen to completely agree with Mayor Rordam about staying away. Everywhere this group has been, the media aids their hate rhetoric by covering them, and they are further enabled to continue their spree of travel and taunting by pressing lawsuits against those that lose their temper and act against them. The best way, in my opinion, to respond is to simply ignore them. Don’t feed the animals.

When you see a sign like that on a zoo cage or in a park, you understand it’s for your protection. You may think it’s cute and fun to feed a furry critter, but what that critter may be eating next is you.

WBC is only composed of about 15 folks. How can such a small group continue to draw such attention? Because we keep feeding them. In our disdain for them, we enable them. We can’t help but do something, we think. But perhaps the best way to respond is to treat them as we would other insignificant and ignorant movements. Don’t feed them.

They plan on picketing downtown at two locations and then at the Blacksburg Middle School (where the high school is also meeting, thanks to the collapse of the gym because of snow – I guess that fuels WBC’s claims that God hates us). I do wish that our local authorities had prohibited them from picketing near the school (if they could). I think it’s a grave mistake to allow any external group to picket or demonstrate at our educational facilities with our children and students in attendance.

For Christ-confessing ministries and churches in our area, it’s very tempting to try to offer an alternative. I am not in a position to offer a definitive solution. However, I would encourage you to be the church on every day of the year and not just seek to make an appearance tomorrow. Let us daily offer our community the love and truth of the Gospel and speak openly about sin as people who are only saints because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. It is a great treasure to know the love of Jesus Christ,

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4.7)

One wonderful gift that WBC does give to our community is its heightened appetite for spiritual or religious conversation right now. It is a door through which thoughtful Christians can walk with humility and grace as we share the loving truth of Jesus’ words and life.

It is loving humility and self-sacrifice that makes a people remarkable to a world in doubt of God. In fact, Jesus said that we ought to be known by our love… not by our signs. (John 13.35)

Other Perspectives

• Collegiate Times article
• Roanoke Times article

One interesting tidbit from the Roanoke Times article that supports the thesis of non-mobilization is the cost to taxpayers. In our depressed economy, it’s deeply frustrating to consider that such a small group can cause the rest of us to pay dearly:

In 1991, about 30 members of the Ku Klux Klan staged a rally and march in Blacksburg that drew about 500 counterprotesters. Some 250 police officers from several jurisdictions provided security. That event cost taxpayers about $23,000, according to the Roanoke Times archive.

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Bryant Turbeville

Today I learned that my best friend from high school died Sunday. Classmates Facebooked me literally moments before my mom called.

Bryant Turbeville was a year older than I, and although we were separated by a grade, we were inseparable buddies. We weathered the stormy years of high school together, laughing all the way. In truth, I can’t recall too many moments being with Bryant that we weren’t irreverent or insane.

Though we’ve not kept up since college except for occasional phone calls, Carolyn ran into Bryant at the airport in Little Rock last fall after our move to Virginia. Their chance meeting provoked a long, enjoyable phone call in which we shared life and reflected on how God had led each of us.

I am still a little stunned by his death. He was visiting a friend, stood up and complained of a pain in his leg. It was an aneurysm which went straight to his heart and killed him instantly.

Such is the brevity of life.

Bryant blessed mine with such deep benefit in our friendship. Here are just some random memories:

• Singing all of Chicago 17′s songs from his tape deck in his white 300z at the top of our lungs on Friday nights while cruising Little Rock. I don’t recall our crooning ever successfully resulting in meeting chicks.
• A student council convention in which he, Tanya Siebert, Angie Harrison and myself represented Pulaski Academy in our bid for a state office. I dressed up as Superman and bounded out into the gathered assembly with the other three singing a song to the Superman theme tune:

Pulaski Academy…
Making a difference you can see
A great state council we want to be
When you vote… Pulaski Academy!

• Dozens of movies. In fact, since my folks were sticklers about rated R movies prior to my 17th birthday, I’m pretty sure it was Bryant that I saw Beverly Hills Cop with. It was my first theater R movie experience.
• Physics. We took it together, as I recall, and Dr. King was our teacher. He was a rather interesting character, and one day we were shooting rockets off from the high school football field. It was Bryant who had the idea of dropping grass blades down Dr. King’s exposed butt crack as he knelt sweatily over each rocket to light it. I always wondered if he ever worriedly informed a doctor that he had grass in his stool.
• In college, I found my freshman year that a friend who shall go unnamed (but rhymes with Hitch Lettuce) had a favorite pair of underwear. They were semi-bikinish and grossed out his roommate. I stole them over spring break, and Bryant and I drove all over Little Rock taking pictures of that pair of underwear lying on landmarks from the WWII memorial at the State Capitol to the Old Mill. We sent pictures (copies of which I still have; so Hitch, don’t consider revenge) as a ransom note.
• High school football and basketball games rooting on the Bruins.
• And so many more…

I also remember Bryant’s deep and abiding faith in Christ. He and his family attended First Baptist in Little Rock, while mine went to Immanuel Baptist. It was always a deep encouragement to know my friend shared my faith and love for Christ. Last fall as we visited on the phone, we both marveled at my role as a pastor. Bryant had such affirming and encouraging words for me.

Bryant wanted to be a doctor when we were in high school and pursued his dream with earnest. I too entered college with the idea of being a doctor but changed to communications after my freshman year. He was practicing with OrthoArkansas upon his death. (I’ve used their stock photo for the picture above because mine are all in storage.)

It’s a little surreal to lose a friend that you’ve not been good at keeping up with. However, his grace, joy and love will always be remembered. He was the kind of friend that lasts a lifetime – in spite of distance. I rejoice that I will see him again one day. I can’t help wondering if he’s tried to serenade the Lord with Chicago’s hit song, You’re the Inspiration.

Thank you, Bryant Turbeville. You are missed.

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Unmoved by disobedience

“Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.” (Psalm 119.136)

As I reflected on this Psalm a few days ago, it struck me. I’ve grown callous to sin in me and around me. I am unmoved regarding disobedience. This is in spite of the reality that each Sunday, I urge others to simply obey. It’s way too easy in this flash flood carnality that we live in to become immune to the rampant disregard of truth.

While political parties debate about the rights of health care, and others bemoan the evaporation of civility, the psalmist weeps because God is ignored. As in his day, it is in ours – it’s repugnantly easy to disregard God.

In the depths of my soul and the extent of my experience, I’ve never found obedience to God to be ultimately harmful to me. Rather, submission to His Word revealed in the Bible is a relief. It removes me from the driver’s seat on a trip that has stretched far too long and exceeded every energy drink I have in stock. Submission to God’s Word and will at that point is a lifesaver. For I simply cannot go the distance. The desire to stay in control is there, but my heart and soul have been designed to lovingly ruled by their Creator.

It is when we obey that blessing blooms.

Wonder with me today. What is it that you will not obey?

What odious word, what hateful directive

Do you refuse to to be your life objective?

Is God so wrong and you so right

That you resist Him day and night

Is He intent on your destruction

So much so that you’re bent on construction

Of a life deluded in your independence

Of one denuded of your obedience?

Your lids are heavy and the road’s great length

Exceeds your energy, your drive, your strength.

Best pull over; let Another drive.

He will not forever with you strive.

“Your statutes are the joy of my heart. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.” (Psalm 119.112)

Let yourself be moved today.

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