Times Change.

" When I was born teenagers went into a drug store, asked for some cigarettes, and then, in a whisper, asked for some condoms. Today teenagers go into the drug store, ask for some condoms, and then, in a whisper, ask for cigarettes." (Viral. pg 51, Sweet)

Adults As Immigrants To New Culture.

"When I was born, children accessed information through authority figures. We are now raising the first generation of children that do not need authority figures to access information. It is the total reversal of historical learning modes. Looked at objectively, children need adults to help them assess, understand, and process information. The reversal here is that, now, adults need their children to help them access information. In immigrant societies, the children teach their parents the new culture,  the language, and the ideas. Today, adults need to listen to their children, because they are the natives and adults are the cultural immigrants." (Viral, pg 52, Sweet)

Not One of "Your Own"

"Character is how you threat those who can do nothing for you."

YWAM Values Are Good Values!

I'm sitting here in Truro Nova Scotia getting ready to "lead" a YWAM DTS...... but after returing from Mali West Africa, my head is not on straight. I usually need 4 weeks to get back to my normal self.  Its been a week and a half, and I am here.

Honestly, I don' think I have never felt more unprepared for anything in my life. Oh I prepared, but still so un prepared as my head is so full I can't seem to organize anything to get it out. So I have to rely on him. But I determined I was not coming to "Do it for them- Do it To them". We will have a conversation about these things, and we will share.

With that vision in mind I came feeling woefully in adequate to speak.... and instead, God spoke..... to me.

It's a two way street here. I will share, and I will have things shared with me I need to hear. The first morning I am sitting here as the students worship, and yes, as I type this blog. I had too. The first thing I encountered today was YWAM's (Youth With a Mission's) core values. 
I like them, and I needed to be remined of them.

1. Know God
2. Make God Known
3. Hear God's voice
4. Practice worship and intercessory prayer.
5. Be Visionary
6. Champion Young People.
7. Be Broad-Structured and Decentralized.
8. Be International and interdenominational.
9. Have a Biblical Worldview.
10. Function in teams
11. Exhibit servant leadership.
12. Do First, Then Teach.
13. Be Relationship Oriented.
14. Value the Individual.
15. Valule Families.
16. Rely on relationship based support.
17. Practice Hospitality.
18. Communicate With Integrity.

And right now, I have nothing more to say about that.

Complex Structures Hide Our Flaws

"My family home is furnished with heavily carved, high-Victorian couches and chairs that showcase the woodcarver skill. I'll never forget the day I stood in an antique store, staring at a Shaker chair. I admired its simplicity and then looked at the price. I almost passed out. Six figures.When the store's owner came over, I asked why the chair was so expensive. It was so plain it almost made you want to apologize. The antique dealer said, 'In fancy, florid, Gothic furniture like yours, the flaws of the material and the flaws of the artist don't show. The defects and mistakes are covered up by the ornamentation. But when you look at the simple lines of this Shaker chair, you can see very quickly whether there are any mistakes or defects. There is no margin of error. Only a master artist can make a Shaker chair.' It's that simple. We need to strip away the fancies and embleshments. We need to call upon the skill it takes to carve the simple. Discipleship is the process through which we strip away all that impedes the love and mercy and grace of Christ through us to the world." (Leonard Sweet. Viral, pg38, 2012)

I don't Like to hear it.

How I have lived and served in the church for over 20 years, though ment to enage people, has really served to cut me off from life with people in the community. I had to spend so much time in an office studying, managing, running, organizing all the "Stuff" in the name of reaching people. That became a lonely life.
I have come to see that it was really a dysfunctional one too. A life that never enabled us to build the relationships we need to be healthy, nor to to accomplish what we said we wanted..... opportunities to introduce the the person of Jesus to others. We have this contrived "goldfish bowl" approach to our faith. Members, and ministers alike,  see their job as herding the fish into the goldfish bowl (Church building) and let the preacher do the fishing from a raised platform. The fact that the method does not work any more in the west, for the majority of churches, is rarely questioned....you are just accused of not working it well enough (You are always the problem - not hip enough). God bless that road too. However, there is a more enjoyable relational way these days. Public teaching has it's place, but it should never be seen at "The Thing" as it is often seen to be these days.
Here is a good quote from "Viral". This has been an insightful book that is challenging my view of culture and "the times". Frankly what most are writing about this culture, at this time, has proven, for me, to be a waste of time. Because we Gutenbergers are reading other Gutenbergers books -who often see a black hole on the horizon, or a new hip restructuring of what we have as the answer. I love the new connected and relational dynamic that is emerging in the western googler. It has great possibilities, and a more joy filled life of interaction, rather than isolation as one rally's the wagons in a circle. I'm tired of all that sentiment.....I'll stand for the same truth, but not this disjoined apporach to life, ministry and the world, that we are calling church today.

"I believe it is more natural incarnate the gospel in TGIF Culture (Texting, Googling, Iphone, FaceBook) than in the world of the Gutenbergers. In other words, Googlers (be they disciples or not) are better positioned to encounter and engage with the Jesus of scripture than the Gutenbergers have been, since Gutenburgers were inclined to refashion the Jesus of Palestine into a Western-size-fits-all Savior. The church may wake up to find that Jesus's time has come for the TGIF Culture becuse it is more organic than linear, more kinesis than stasis, more circle than square. For this reason, Googlers may be the best hope for the future of the church in the west.
Gutenbergers suited their times well. But in the Googler world - the age of experience, participation, image, and connection - Gutenbergers have proven to be unwilling to let go of their fixed position. Meanwhile Googlers, for a variety of reasons, are more adaptive to the future while being anchored in the past. To add to the sadness, many Gutenbergers are putting more and more distance between themselves and what God is doing in the world.
While the Googelers expend enormous amounts of energy seeking to satisfy their urge to connect, Gutenberger Christians continue to per sue their fascination with terminologies, definitions, formulas, and what Sigmund Freud called 'the narcissism of small differences'. While Googlers are getting by with acronyms and finding friends everywhere, Gutenbergers are delving into words about words that have been written about God's words. It's an overstatement, but in place of vulnerable, transparent, biblical relationships, Gutenburgers often choose a spiritual path that leads away from the practical outworking of life and faith and people."
(Leonard Sweet, Viral: Social Networking.....pg 18)

My Office Time Never Really Produced Much!

Have to say that after spending 18 yrs as a Gutenberger, all the office study time did me wonders in my mind, but made me and my church dysfunctional in being a relational people. We are at the place where we have to "encourage", "coax", and "intentionally plan" for people to be together in small groups in the church. While in our Google culture, this is not forced, or pushed...... It is happening naturally at every moment of the day for them. They are connected and with people in many more ways and times than any of us churchy Gurenbergers are.

We as a church are out to lunch these days. If we have to "encourage" people to join a small group, there is something contrived about the way we do small groups. Anyway, Leonard Sweets Book Viral is pushing us to realize we don't have to fabricate in the church, what this generation does naturally. All we have to do is get out of their way..... it's us older guys who have to "learn" how to connect to our community again.....Read the book VIRAL. This quote is a corker...

"If we had any doubts that God wants a relationship with us, Jesus's life on earth supplies the final proof. God didn't send us a treatise; God sent a Person. And in our culture, either Googler or Gutenberger, it's often hard to find Jesus amid the clutter of words. While it might seem that Googlers (the thumb-texting acronym crowd) treat words too lightly, they are driven to find and maintain connection with one another.
In their dogged tweeting, blogging, Facebooking, and IMing, Googlers have stumbled onto the heart of Christian faith and meaning. Oddly, they have arrived at a place that echos the earliest Christians and their faith communities. I'm not saying that TGIF Culture is more consciously in tne with God than are the Gutenbergers. But I am saying that Googlers (Of any age) recognize a need in their lives and they act on it. Repeatedly. Some would even say constantly...... Gutenbergers might be more apt at describing in words what a relationship is and why it is needed. But Googlers are light-years ahead when it comes to the practicum."
(Leonard Sweet: Viral: Social Networking.)

Time With Others......

"While Gutenberger Christians keep busy parsing a Greek root to uncover the exact meaning of `submit' in Ephesians 5, the Googlers of the world are friending another two hundred people, reading the twenty text messages that came in during the last ten minutes, and meeting someone for coffee. The Gurenberger church might think of Googlers as superficial and bent on wasting time, but what is superficial about devotion to relationships."
(Viral: How Social Networking is poised to Ignite Rivival, Leonard Sweet pg 15)

Fear is reactive!

"Fear does its dishonorable work, creating maladaptive responses instead of  metabolic ones. Never underestimate the power of fear geared up and egged on by ego to keep us from moving forward......Fear causes us to hide in the face of change, and it leads to living a reactive rather than constructive life.  The choice is to be an active part of positive change, which already is upon us, or to passively and grudgingly tolerate inevitable change."
(Leonard Sweet, Viral, 2012, pg 10)

Gutenburg Generation is Confused by The Google Generation!

"Gutenburgers criticize Googlers for being shallow, obsessed with games, narcissistic, and irresponsible. They like to characterize Digital Age natives as perpetual adolescents who confuse status updates with authentic, legitimate human relationships.

But is that an accurate assessment? As I look at the waning of Gutenberg Culture and the arrival of Goggle Culture, I have to wonder if Jesus wouldn't be more at home with the Googlers. In fact, as the Western church built by Gutenbergers continues to lose ground in a world of Googlers, I am convinced that Christians need to start taking cues from the Googlers. Even more, I sense a Googler inside many Gutenbergers, crying to get out and pursue relationship with others. But the inner Googler in too many cases is held back by fear and uncertainty."    (Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival. Leonard Sweet, Waterbrook Press, 2012, pg6,7)

Get Outside For Church Tomorrow

"Technology - the knack of so arranging the world that you don't have to experience it." (Swiss playwright and novelist Max French)

Friendship

"What is almost unbelievably remarkable is that God chooses friendship, available to everyone,  a the means of changing the world, it's people, and societies." (The Midwives Story, Michael E. Williams)

Be Kind!

"Be kind, because every one you meet is fighting a great battle."

Philo of Alexanderia


AJR lost in a West African Journey.