Bumper Sticker Wisdom

Bumper Sticker read as follows;

"God, deliver me from your followers."

Ever feel like that? :-)

Does It Look Like We Have Truth?

"May they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that you sent me and have love them even as you have loved me.


Jesus asks the father to bring us together so that those in need of good news might believe it can be found among Christians."

( Earl creeps. Off-road disciplines. Jossy Bass publishing. 2006. Page 115)

Lay aside Non Essentials

"The more of our non-essentials we offer as a living sacrifice, the more our essentials occupy an appropriate position." (Off-Road Disciplines. Earl Kreps. 2006, Jossey Bass pub, page 121

Ah, You're Paid To Pretend You Love Us!

When I was in ministry, I got that vibe too. Your here because you have to be, it's your job. And really were they wrong? Ministers "Have to be" with some people, maybe not you, but somebody or they loose their job, right? But the truth is you were chosen to be with, and that says a little. Are we willing to enter peoples culture to bring kingdom light? Or are we only willing to enter the not so dark places, the places with people like us, who already have some light?
Some interesting comments made in this quote. It sounds like what we have been taight, live and practice in africa. However, these men are speaking to Westerners who need to realize they are missionaries to their own culture now, for the church as we know it now is very foreign to the community.

"Urban Neighbours of Hope (UNOH) in Melbourne and the InnerChange workers in San Francisco, identification with the poor is an absolutely fundamental principle to their mission among the poor. All the missionaries and workers in these two missionary orders voluntarily live under the poverty line and refuse to be paid by their organizations for their work among the poor lest the people say, “you are paid to be kind to us.” They choose to live like the people with all the struggles and problems that poverty creates for people without power and resources. This incarnational act not only creates credibility for the missionaries, but it thus creates the relational- social context within which they can meaningfully and humanly share their faith. Because it means that for all intents and purposes, they have actually become part of the people group that they are trying to reach and have thereby overcome a very significant cultural barrier to the communication of the gospel. To identify incarnationally with a people will mean that we must try to enter into something of the cultural life of a “people’; to seek to understand their perspectives, their grievances and causes, in other words their real existence, in such a way as to genuinely reflect the act of identification that God made with us in Jesus.........................


"......incarnational mission implies a real and abiding incarnational presence among a group of people. Quite simply, it means that if you want to reach the local gangstas, you are going to have to live where they live and hang out where they hang out. Or it might mean that if you want to plant a church in a given suburb, you should really think about living there. Why? Because you cannot become part of the organic life of a given community if you are not present to it and do not experience its cultural rhythms, its life, and its geography. ................This is true whether they are the local ravers or members of bohemian art cooperatives, sports dubs, common interest groups, or parent groups—we need to identify a whole lot more before we can expect to really share Jesus in a meaningful way with them."

(The Shape Of Things To Come: Innovation and Mission For The 21st- Century Church. Michael Frost & Aln Hirsch, Hendrickson, 2003. pp 38,39)

"In the process of individual or mutual apology, personal power is diminished. I put myself essentially at the mercy of the other, making her or him my judge with the right either to acquit or to convict me. In a sense, the wounded party becomes Gods partner in the exchange, representing what we deserve ... I humble myself, relinquishing my illusionary hold on personal power to receive something much better in exchange: the fruit of the spear. " Earl Creps. Off-Road disciplines, Josie Bass, page 80

Love hurts- but is worth it!

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrong and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one...." C. S. Lewis

Pretending We know So Much!

"There is so much less to remember when I don't know much, and so much less pressure if I don't feel the need to know more than every other person in the room..... Perhaps our problems revolve not so much around knowing too little as around the perception that we know so much... People with a high sense of felt power tend not to hide it in conversation, a trait painfully obvious to others but apparently unknown to them." Earl Creps "Off Road Disciplines" pg 75 Jossey Bass, 2006

Interesting

"If you are going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Just Do It?

When we are measuring success by who shows up and how often, transformation measuring takes the back burner.
I would have to say that this statement is true. After 22 yrs of monistry I've never had a brother or sister ask me how I was doing Spiritually.

"The performers perform, and the congregation watches, regardless of eithers spiritual condition."

(Finding Organic Church. Frank Viola. David C. Cook, 2010. Page 271)

Annihilate Other Nations and Praise God We Don't Have To Go!

"Then I told them about ministry opportunities God had recently given me around the world. I told them about people's receptivity to the gospel in places that are traditionally hostile to Christianity. I told them that, whether in the inner city or overseas, God was drawing people to himself in some of the toughest areas of the world.
Expecting them to share in my excitement, I paused to listen for their response. After an awkward silence, one of the deacons leaned forward in his chair, looked at me, and said, "David, I think it's great you are going to those places. But if you ask me, I would just as soon God annihilate all those people and send them to hell." That's exactly what he said. I was shocked and speechless. I had no idea what to say in response. ! wish ! had said something, but I'm still not sure what ! would have said. Annihilate them? Send them to hell? After a moment of silence, the rest of the room resumed conversation as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.
It got worse.
The next morning we arrived at the church building, and the worship service began. The pastor rose to welcome everyone, and during his introductory remarks he began talking about how thankful he was to be living in the United States. I am not sure what sparked the rousing patriotic address that followed, but for the next few minutes he told the church that there was no chance he would ever live anywhere else in the world. Amens were firing left and right from the crowd. Engulfed in nationalistic zeal, I was just waiting for Lee Greenwood to burst into song in the background.
Minutes later I got up to preach on going to all nations with the gospel.
When I finished, I walked down to the front while the pastor got up to close the service. These were his words: "Brother David, we are so excited about all that God is doing in New Orleans and in all nations, and we are excited that you are serving there." He continued, "And, brother, we promise that we will continue to send you a check so we don't have to go there ourselves."
He wasn't finished.
"I remember a time at my last congregation when a missionary from Japan came to speak," he said. "1 told that church that if they didn't give financial support to this missionary, I was going to pray that God would send their kids to Japan to serve with that missionary."
Wow.
Did the pastor just threaten his congregation with the punishment of going to the world?
He continued, "And my church gave that man a laptop and a whole lot of money."
Apparently the threat worked.
The service was dismissed, and my wife and I climbed into the car to drive home. I could hardly believe the things I had heard. A range of emotions consumed me--anger, sadness, disappointment, confusion.
But as I began to process what had happened over the last twenty-four hours, I was struck by a frightening realization.
Could it be that this deacon and this pastor expressed what most professing Christians in America today believe but are not bold enough to say? This may sound a bit harsh, but consider the reality."

(Radical, David Platt. Kindle line 877)

Sacred Places!

I found this an interesting statement. Biblically true. But today we talk of church buildings as "God's House", the "sanctuary" as a place where we "come into the presence of God."
Nothing inherently sinful or wrongwith a building, nor is meeting in a home a solution. The problem is this belief itself, no matter what form we practice our faith in.

Yes, we have, in some ways thrown away the freedom, to become a religion.

"When Christianity was born, it was the only religion on the planet that had no sacred objects, no sacred persons, and no sacred places."
(Pagan Christianity. Frank Viola, George Barna. Tyndale Publishing. Page 14, 2005)

"In the process of replacing the old religions, Christianity became a religion."
(Alexander Schmemann. 20 century Easter eastern orthodox priest, teacher, and writer.)

One Hole Shower!

Neil Cole posted this on FaceBook

"A church meeting where only 1 person shares the Word is like a shower nozzle with only 1 hole. @CSteveSimms #organicchurch

It's Not Just You!

The frustration is real and shared by many. Not defeated or 'negative' people as often labeled. People are not showing up any more and most have no idea why. It's going to require more than modify programs.

"For far too many of us, when we hear the word church , our eyes teat up, turn bloodshot, or glaze over, with emotions that represent the irrelevance of our communal expressions, or because we don't know what to think anymore. Our faith and loyalty used to keep us on board, bit now reality is beginning to curl over both like a 20-foot wave. ...
If you're like the authors of this book, you've gone down with a ship or two trying to make the Kingdom story tangible. You may have tried a few different churches, methods, programs, leaders, teachers, styles and sizes only to find yourself stuck on a ship that seems to be attracting no one and can barely hold your interest.... We want let you know that the unsettling feelings you are experiencing are ones that hundreds of thousands of people are also working throughout."

(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg xviii-xix, 2008, Jossey-Bass.)

Up Hill Struggle For Change!

"The real trouble is not in fact that the church is too rich, but that it has become heavily institutionalized, with a crushing investment in maintenance...... It is saddled with a plan and programme beyond its means, so that it is absorbed in problems of supply and preoccupied with survival. The inertia of the machine is such that the financial allocations, the legalities, the channels of organization, the attitudes of mind, are all set in the direction of continuing and enhancing the status quo. If one wants to pursue a course which cuts across these channels, Then most of one's energies are exhausted before one ever reaches the enemy lines."
John A.T. Robinson

(Finding Organic Church. Frank Viola, David C Cook, 2010, page 171)

Tuning!

"Every tuning fork needs to be struck to be heard."
Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola, Jesus Manifesto, Thomas Nelson, 2010, pg 15)

Pope Training!

"I majored in Bible in college. I went to the seminary and I majored in the only thing they teach there: the professional ministry. When I graduated, I realized that I could speak Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and the only thing on earth I was qualified for was to be Pope. But someone else had the job."

Anonymous pastor quoted in ("Pagan Christianity". Frank Viola, George Barna. Tyndale publishing. 2005, page 105)

Is My Life Worth a Story Or Two?

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing." Albert Schweitzer

"If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing." Benjamin Franklin

Leadership is more than a mind game!

"To lead people, walk beside them...
As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.
The next best, the people honor and praise.
The next, the people fear;
and the next, the people hate...
When the best leaders work is done the people say, we did it ourselves"
Lao-tzu

The West is Best? Hardly!

"I once heard some young Christians from the United States talking about some outreach they were doing in Calcutta. They had genuine tears of brokenness in their eyes as they talked about the people worshiping dead idols in temples, yet these young people did not recognize the idols of sports, music, and television being worshiped in their own country. They had broken hearts over the abject poverty in Calcutta, but they did not see the spiritual and emotional poverty of the countless millions suffering from loneliness and meaninglessness in the United States. While they could not believe that people sacrifice flowers and even animals to their gods, they overlooked the fact that many of us sacrifice children and whole families on the altar of success every day. They marveled at the smoke and incense offerings made to pagan gods but failed to see the smog caused by cars, industry; and cigarette smokers in their own country; They said, “These children here are so dirty!” yet they did not realize that most children in their own country regularly use unbelievably dirty language.

In short, they saw and judged the outside but could not see inside. They were shocked by the culture, but not by the spirit behind it, and they failed to see that it is no better at home than in Asia. Humankind’s fallen and sinful nature only takes on a different outward appearance in different cultures and places; its quality is essentially the same everywhere.

(The House Church Book. Wolfgang Simson. Barna, 2009, pg 134-135)