Blogroll hall of fame?

During my daily blog reading, I discovered something fantastic and mind boggling - I was on the Swerve blogroll! I jokingly call Swerve (Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald at LifeChurh) the Starbucks of the ministry blog world. Those guys influence and encourage THOUSANDS of leaders and Christians with their blog. So I went on there today and I was on the rotating blogroll.

Disclaimer: They did a post about a week ago to see who was linking to their blog and if you responded they said they'd put you in their blogroll.

I'm just surprised they actually did it. The small things amuse me, what can I say? But the fact that these guys would use their blog (did I mention they have a HUGE church in Oklahoma AND in online world Second Life?) to point people to other people's blogs FOR FREE! Great guys over there, they just made me "passionate users" of their blog.

So if you are here from Swerve - welcome! If you haven't checked them out yet, go check out my "Folks I Dig" section and click on Craig's link. Their blog and Mike Servello's blog are two of my favs.

Popping the Christian Bubble

When I lived in Tulsa, OK I experienced a sort of faux-Christian-eutopia that I did not experience while growing up in Detroit. Christian music playing in WalMart AND the grocery stores, bars not allowed to sell liquor 400 feet away from a church (long story on how I know this), mega churches every 10 miles, Christian concerts all the time. Tulsa is so Christian, its jokingly called Tulsarusalem by some. Others called it "the bubble." You could almost live a life full of Christian fellowship and NEVER have to engage people who were not of the faith.

Even more so, I encountered people who didn't really grow up in Tulsa, but they grew up in their own bubble. They had never been around people who smoked, drank or cussed. They had never had a conversation about sex or drugs and had no idea how to handle themselves without being COMPLETELY judgemental of people who have lived a lifestyle opposite of their own. Funny, fast foward a few years and those same people were some of the wildest people I met. I've either seen them or heard the stories from credible people about how wild they were. And these are people that if I named their parents, 90% of the church world and 75% of the non-church world would know their names. They never lived outside of the bubble, then they lost themselves when the bubble builders were no longer around.

Why do we choose to live in our Christian bubbles? Why do build our bubbles? Something that was wild to me was the parallel I noticed in our Christian bubbles and the Tower of Babel. Now on the surface, the Tower of Babel didn't seem so bad. They wanted to build something that could reach heaven and touch God. Not so bad, right? Well, The Tower of Babel was being built for 2 reasons: 1. As a testament to the people's greatness and 2. So that they wouldn't have to spread all over the world - Gen 11:4. The problems with attempting to accomplish this: 1. God wants stuff for HIS glory, not our own and 2. God said to fill the whole earth (Gen. 1:28).

Our Christian bubbles honestly look to do the same thing. We want to have the pride of having created something that doesn't seem that bad but doesn't really fulfill God's will. Our job is worded slightly different that what God originally planned but the premise is the same - go engage the whole earth. We can't do that in our bubbles because I bubbles let's no one AND definately lets noone who isn't just like us in.

There are things we can do to help burst our little bubbles and engage the world:
1. Don't just use the perspective of church in our communication
Too often we communicate from the perspective of our church to do what God has said. Want to make disciples? Be a small group leader. Want to serve God? Volunteer in the ushers team. Want to evangelize? Pass out church flyers (and that has to do with evangelism I will NEVER know. Sounds like marketing to me). Want to be generous? Give to the building fund. Are all of these SOME ways to live the biblical mandates? Sure. Are they the only ways? Heavens no! So let's start communicating in a way that allows us to execute the message not only inside, but also outside the church walls. This way, we see the connection between life and God and how it exists outside of Sunday morning and Wednesday night.

2. Engage people who are not like you
It might be a stretch, but make a friend out of someone who is not a believer. Notice I didn't say make them your evangelistic mission, I said make a friend. Not best friends (there are some scriptural and personal downsides to making a nonbeliever your closest friend), but make them a friend. Besides, our goal shouldn't be leading someone in "the sinner's prayer", but leading someone to being a disciple.

Let's break the bubble and engage the world, they're waiting...

Preachers confuse me sometimes

I must admit, preachers confuse me with some of their inconsistencies. And its not the Bible's fault, just their use of it. Allow me to explain.

Church. Is it the building or the believers? The "house of God." Is the building our our body? I'm confused. Not because of what the Bible says, but because of how preachers use it. When preachers get mad at a groups religiousity, we say "the church is not the building, its the people that are the church. We don't go to church, we are the church." Then when we talk about honoring God with our bodies (sexual purity, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, etc.) preachers use 1st Corinthians 6 and say "your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit." Which is all true, can't read New Testament scripture and disagree with that one bit. But when people aren't showing up to church and attendance is decreasing, the first thing preachers say is "You need to be in the house of the Lord." They pull out Psalms and quote "I was glad when they said let us go in to the house of the Lord." When volunteerism is low and we need new ushers, preachers pull out the words of David and say "if I could just be a door keeper in the house of God." And when there is a building fund, many pastors start talking about donating "to build God's house." They pull out scriptures about Solomon and other Old Testament people to drive the point home. Isn't that contradictory? Isn't that manipulative?

Are the latter comments taken staight from scripture? Sure. But let's contextualize them a bit. In the OT, God's presence and place of dwelling among men was in the temple. In the NT, His presence and place of dwelling among men is IN men (for those who accept Christ). So if God no longer dwells in buildings of bricks made by the hands of men, but now lives in "living stones", why do we continue to reference a time when God lived in the temple? Sure David was glad when they said let's go into the house of the Lord, but that was before God's house was on every corner. Is the local church important? ABSOLUTELY - WITHOUT QUESTION! Is it necessary? ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT QUESTION! Is the local church God's house? ABSOLUTELY NOT! If so, the people who live in places that the church is persecuted in NEVER experience God's house because it can't legally exist. I guess you'd have to be American or European to experience God's presence, huh?

Then I have to ask, is this an error based on neglegence, ignorance or manipulation? I believe it depends on the pastor. Some pastors have NO Bible literacy and could use a basic course on hermaneutics. Others don't think out what they want to say, they just say it. While others knowingly manipulate people to get what they want. Unfortunately, all 3 are dangerous for the people who are listening.

So preachers, please be consistent in your use of the Bible. Stop sending mixed messages to the flock and genuinely consider your words before you say them. You're job is make matters of spiritualiity clearer not more confusing.

unChristian

WOW! I finished reading this book over 2 weeks ago, I'm still in awe. The subtitle to unChristian says exactly what the book is about "what a new generation thinks about Christianity...and why it matters."

The book is written by John Maxwell's former top executive Gabe Lyons and the leading Christian stats guru David Kinneman of The Barna Group. They embark on a mission to discover what people in America between ages 16-29 (the church forgotten group) thinks about Christianity and why. The findings were not necessarily new to me, but they were definately eye opening.

Theire 3 year researched discovered that people outside of the church, and even some people inside the church believe the Christian church in America is:

Anti-homosexual
Judgemental
Sheltered
Too Political
Hypocritical
"Get Saved" focused (without actually caring about people)
Closed minded to new ideas

There were some great commentaries in the book from some of my personal ministry favorites: Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Rick Warren, Mark Batterson, Jeff Johnson and Mike Foster as well some great commentaries from people I am not familiar with. Great stuff though.

There were two things that got me going about this book. The first: I agreed with some of the "outsiders." Some of the perceptions of Christianity in America today that are held by people who are not Christians - I agree with. The second: In some cases, I learned that I was part of the problem. People don't embrace Christianity not because of a lack of belief, they reject them because of those who believe giving God a bad rep. In some of those instances, I was part of the problem. In some ways, I was unChristian.

Its not one of those "how to do church for this age group" type of book. Its not necessarily a church book. Its a book not to only influence the thought and behavior patterns of preachers, its a book to influence the way CHRISTIANS encounter people. Its not a church growth book. But, if Christians stop being unChristian (which means being nothing like the way Jesus said we should be) the book could have have a huge impact in Kingdom growth - and that's what's important.

If you work with and/or care about people between ages 16-29, go read this book NOW! Its a life changer.

If you work with youth...

...you MUST read the articles on this page. They are about the things that make youth happy. Good stuff.

And unChristian review coming later today

Retro Night (and other things)

- These are pics from The Mix's (the youth minitry) retro night. Went fairly well. Had ALOT of 1st timers who came because of our flyer blitz. The message seemed to hit home with some people. My wife's friend came to check it out (even though she's too old, but that's okay) and she came up to me in tears after the message. Even with the crazy hat and old school leather jacket, it didn't distract people from the heart of what I believe God had to share with us. AWESOME!

- GroundZero (Youth ministry of New Life Worship Center in Smithfield, RI) came and did the worship - IT WAS AWESOME! Loud, but awesome. We even did a little weaving between their praise songs, my rap songs and their worship songs. Great flow and some heartfelt worship. These guys are good musicians and they have a heart for God. 5 Stars from me. AND they are a bunch of teenagers! Well, except Drew - he's 21. Awesome group, if you need a youth band for your event hit them up at www.atgroundzero.net

- Kicking off our series about Generousity - its called "GeneroCity." Using a city metaphor to talk about how generousity should be at the core of every Christians life. Should be interesting teaching a bunch of jr. and sr. high school kids about being putting the needs of others first. Looking forward to this one.

- Pat's are still undefeated! Colts fans and/or Pat's haters take note. The Pats are for real! Even with 100 yards of BOGUS penalties, we still won. Gotta love it. Hey Peyton, put that in one of your one trillion and one commercials. Is there a more over-exposed sports figure right now? He's like the 50 Cent of football. Ugh!

- Looking forward to the show I'm rhyming at this Friday. I've never done a solo set for 30 minutes before. It was tough as a group, but now SOLO!? Pray my strength.

Check back tomorrow for my post on the blog ubiquitous book, "unChristian."

New Segment - Christians Say the Darndest Things

Well, I figured after I heard this one - along with the SCORES of other crazy things I've heard Christians say - I figured I'd add a new segment to the blog. Its a segment called "Christians Say The Darnedest Things." Its a segment where I highlight some of the foolery some preacher has said about culture from the Bible.

For the innitiation of this segment, I'd like to highlight something I heard this weekend from a preacher on Christian talk radio (a well spring of inspiration for this segment can come from there). Since we were approaching the "pagan" celebration of Halloween (check out Mike Servello's post on that, FANTASTIC!), the preacher took some liberties and began to preach about it in a way that would make American Christians want to reject the celebration of Halloween and not participate. So how does he do that? With the Bible? NO! He does it by equating Halloween with something NO good Christian, and probably registered Republican, would want to EVER be associated with - Muslim Jihad!

WHAT?!?!?! That's right folks, according to this guy on the radio, Halloween is the equivalent to Jihad! "How" you ask? Because Halloween and Jihad have a fixation with death, so the two are equals. And if anyone participates in the celebration of Halloween, then they ALSO participate in Jihad. And we all know Jesus doesn't like Jihad. So not only is Halloween anti-Christian, its also anti-American because no self respecting American should want to be apart of Jihad.

So folks, if your kid dressed up as Buzz Lightyear and went door to door to get candy and other childlike pleasantries, you are particpating in Jihad, the destruction of the West, the destruction of Israel and converted to Islam.

I won't even justify this by getting all scriptural. This doesn't even require turning to the pages of the sacred texts to know that somebody has been sipping from the chalace of stupidity! Halloween and Jihad? Give me a massive break! The practice of Halloween wasn't even started by anyone who believes in Allah! Cue the music - "duumb da-dumb-dumb, duumb da-dumb-dumb-duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuumb!"

Halloween is like Jihad, Christians say the darndest things...