Day 149 and its the first time since Christmas that on Sunday night I can look forward to a slow Monday morning. Memorial Weekend - sweet.
We finished our Consumed: What's Sucking The Life Out Of You series. 6 weeks of looking at the other 'American Idols'. Been a great series. Many people thanked us for it, but in the same breath also thanked us that it was over! Been a stabbing, punching kind of series. The kind of series that took a mirror to our souls and we didn't like what we saw.
How many days have we woken up with Leah wishing it was Rachel?
How many days - even as followers of Christ - have we wished for more and we never turned to Jesus to find the more?
The honest truth - most Christians in the US are disappointed with their lives and Jesus isn't enough.
Ouch!
But true.
Join in the journey of falling in love with Jesus all over again.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Day 146 - those dang vuvuzelas!
Day 146 sees me guiding you to the leadership blog I wrote this today:
Week 22 and as we get ready for the greatest show on earth (come on you yanks, the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa!!) - one British TV reporter went to see what all the fuss was over the vuvuzelas!
Ever heard of them?
They are like plastic trumpets that loads of fans play during the game.
Watch Gabby's report and listen to the noise: http://bit.ly/bn11uU
It's Africa, and with the World Cup being held in Africa for the first time - let it be an African World Cup.
I say that (with truth and desire), but i know if i was attending the world cup (sadly I tried unsuccessfully to arrange a vital missions trip to South Africa in June!!!) after 20 minutes of enjoying the vuvuzelas noise and the African feel ...I'd want them to shut up!!
This is our tension, and its a tension we don't always do well at living within - to the decrement of the Gospel.
It's hard to live out true diversity, we tend more towards uniformity at worst or similarity at best.
For decades the missiological push has been for homogeneous mission. Think of a book like Unchurched Harry & Sally; or the definition of Saddleback Sam. The phrase 'people like us' was a missiological phrase to help churches achieve maximum growth.
We avoided the tension by pulling towards similarity, homogeneity.
But today's church in today's America can no longer bypass the tension.
Homogeneity is not the way of the 21st century, nor the call of the postmodern, emerging society, of even greater significance - nor is it the Gospel.
Leaders must learn to live with the noise of the vuvuzelas. In truth, leaders must learn to enjoy the noise of the vuvuzelas.
Watch this blog as over the next few months we engage further on this topic. For more reading try this very helpful webblog: http://djchuang.com/multi/
Week 22 and as we get ready for the greatest show on earth (come on you yanks, the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa!!) - one British TV reporter went to see what all the fuss was over the vuvuzelas!
Ever heard of them?
They are like plastic trumpets that loads of fans play during the game.
Watch Gabby's report and listen to the noise: http://bit.ly/bn11uU
It's Africa, and with the World Cup being held in Africa for the first time - let it be an African World Cup.
I say that (with truth and desire), but i know if i was attending the world cup (sadly I tried unsuccessfully to arrange a vital missions trip to South Africa in June!!!) after 20 minutes of enjoying the vuvuzelas noise and the African feel ...I'd want them to shut up!!
This is our tension, and its a tension we don't always do well at living within - to the decrement of the Gospel.
It's hard to live out true diversity, we tend more towards uniformity at worst or similarity at best.
For decades the missiological push has been for homogeneous mission. Think of a book like Unchurched Harry & Sally; or the definition of Saddleback Sam. The phrase 'people like us' was a missiological phrase to help churches achieve maximum growth.
We avoided the tension by pulling towards similarity, homogeneity.
But today's church in today's America can no longer bypass the tension.
Homogeneity is not the way of the 21st century, nor the call of the postmodern, emerging society, of even greater significance - nor is it the Gospel.
Leaders must learn to live with the noise of the vuvuzelas. In truth, leaders must learn to enjoy the noise of the vuvuzelas.
Watch this blog as over the next few months we engage further on this topic. For more reading try this very helpful webblog: http://djchuang.com/multi/
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Day 145 ...keep reading to the advert link!
Day 145 - that's what happens when staff take a trip away with you ..... you forget to blog.
The last few days have been very good days.
We've talked, talked, laughed, laughed, eaten, eaten and still we returned to sunny old Reedley.
Something is stirring in Reedley that is keeping us all here; something bigger than each of us and all of us; something that has us both excited and petrified.
Intentionally following Jesus is about figuring out where He wants you and making sure you are there.
Intentionally following Jesus is about taking the next step no matter how big that step it.
Intentionally following Jesus is about figuring it out before you blurb out a vision that has no substance nor strategy.
So .....forgive the abstract, suggestive blog .....trust me something is brewing.
Day 145 - so if 6 days got lost on a staff trip to San Francisco ....imagine how many days might get lost when the greatest show on earth begin in 17 days.
Know what it is?
Watch this brilliant advert and guess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE
The last few days have been very good days.
We've talked, talked, laughed, laughed, eaten, eaten and still we returned to sunny old Reedley.
Something is stirring in Reedley that is keeping us all here; something bigger than each of us and all of us; something that has us both excited and petrified.
Intentionally following Jesus is about figuring out where He wants you and making sure you are there.
Intentionally following Jesus is about taking the next step no matter how big that step it.
Intentionally following Jesus is about figuring it out before you blurb out a vision that has no substance nor strategy.
So .....forgive the abstract, suggestive blog .....trust me something is brewing.
Day 145 - so if 6 days got lost on a staff trip to San Francisco ....imagine how many days might get lost when the greatest show on earth begin in 17 days.
Know what it is?
Watch this brilliant advert and guess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Day 139 Finding the guts to preach.
Day 139 and I've been working on my preach.
We've been teaching a series called Consumed: What's Sucking The Life Out Of You? Every week we unpack an idol that we bow down to that wrecks our life - bowing down to the idol of busyness; bowing down to the idols of comparison and pretense; bowing down to idol of family.
This week we unpack perhaps the most dangerous idol to bow down to.
The trouble with this idol is its inside our churches!
Ouch!
No doubt we're heading to another stirring Sunday.
My intentional follow today ......have the guts to write this preach!
We've been teaching a series called Consumed: What's Sucking The Life Out Of You? Every week we unpack an idol that we bow down to that wrecks our life - bowing down to the idol of busyness; bowing down to the idols of comparison and pretense; bowing down to idol of family.
This week we unpack perhaps the most dangerous idol to bow down to.
The trouble with this idol is its inside our churches!
Ouch!
No doubt we're heading to another stirring Sunday.
My intentional follow today ......have the guts to write this preach!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Day 137 Too busy to stay awake - duh!
Day 137 and for the first time in two days I'm catching my breath with my Netbook open. What a last two days.
Yesterday was a great trip to Tacoma, WA and good time with my friend John Sims. We are waiting for things to explode (there's been enough imploding over the past few years) in the church he pastors. Great trip - but it is an 18 hour day.
Today .....boom urologist visit. New guy, younger guy - hopefully got some newer, fresher thinking on whatever has been going on in that area for 2 years! Nothing sinister, but really annoying. Then back to back to back to back meetings .....and then .......2 hours of High School Scholarship awards (aaargh!!!!!).
So now, 9.30pm, open the blog and try to write.
Flying gives you time to think, to read, to focus (especially with Horizon Air and their complimentary microbrews! ). Read Gregory Boyd's new book Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now. Very simple book and there was nothing particularly theologically stirring unlike Boyd's others books.
Taking the teaching of two ancients (well older than most of us) and one modern contemplater, Boyd urges us to see that right now, this very second God is present. But ....we so often miss him.
Why???
DUH!!!
Gave the book away today to a guy who so needs to find the Divine Presence at a very difficult time in his life.
Boyd's simplicity was somewhat refreshing. God is right now with us. But are we AWAKE to His presence.
So maybe for the past two days I've run at 100mph and not had time to blog ....but even at my fast pace God can keep up and He remains totally present.
My intentional follow is to stay AWAKE to His presence ...nothing less, but maybe nothing more.
Yesterday was a great trip to Tacoma, WA and good time with my friend John Sims. We are waiting for things to explode (there's been enough imploding over the past few years) in the church he pastors. Great trip - but it is an 18 hour day.
Today .....boom urologist visit. New guy, younger guy - hopefully got some newer, fresher thinking on whatever has been going on in that area for 2 years! Nothing sinister, but really annoying. Then back to back to back to back meetings .....and then .......2 hours of High School Scholarship awards (aaargh!!!!!).
So now, 9.30pm, open the blog and try to write.
Flying gives you time to think, to read, to focus (especially with Horizon Air and their complimentary microbrews! ). Read Gregory Boyd's new book Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now. Very simple book and there was nothing particularly theologically stirring unlike Boyd's others books.
Taking the teaching of two ancients (well older than most of us) and one modern contemplater, Boyd urges us to see that right now, this very second God is present. But ....we so often miss him.
Why???
DUH!!!
Gave the book away today to a guy who so needs to find the Divine Presence at a very difficult time in his life.
Boyd's simplicity was somewhat refreshing. God is right now with us. But are we AWAKE to His presence.
So maybe for the past two days I've run at 100mph and not had time to blog ....but even at my fast pace God can keep up and He remains totally present.
My intentional follow is to stay AWAKE to His presence ...nothing less, but maybe nothing more.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Day 135 - a little more on entropy.
Day 135 and I'm coming back to last nights blog and "Scott's" comments.
Last night we commented that Redeemer's Church sitting around 800 people has to watch out because often churches of this size plateau and then decline.
Not always, but often - sadly too often.
Church guru's and consultants and have written on this stuff significantly over the last decade. from examining hundreds of churches of this size (perhaps not having reached this size in the short time Redeemer's have), and repeatedly something happens that stops the growth.
Why?
I'm not big into always looking to general management literature to examine the church. Although Augustine reportedly said "all truth is God's truth", and if there's something in that, listen to the 'truth' written by two management guru's :
"The entropic process is a universal law of nature in which all forms of organization move toward disorganization or death." [written by R.L. Kahn & D. Katz]
A leaders role is to lead a church/an organization away from this lurking entropy.
Now probably this topic is better explored under the other weekly leadership blog I write [www.clanofissachar.blogspot.com] but for me, as a leader, this is about my daily intentional following of Christ.
I grew up with a theology that preached 'small things', especially small things in these the last of the last days. It was a branch of pretty firm dispensationalism. I found that this 'small things' philosophy sometimes excused poor leadership and/or discipleship. Old fashioned and ineffective methodology was covered over by a theology that said 'we're not called to be fruitful but faithful and in the end days most will turn from God and only a remnant, a few will hold on.'
Subtly underneath this theology lay an excuse for no church growth, in fact, underneath it lay an excuse for entropy and decline.
The local church I grew up in reached a peak of 200 back when I was a teenager, and today that local church sits around about 40 people, and the group of churches they belonged to which at their peak had 25,000 participants today has around 10,000 participants.
Was their theology correct, and yet/or, was it cover for poor leadership.
God does call us to be faithful, but God also calls us to be fruitful.
So where am I going?
A leaders job is to define reality. As I read, reflect, watch other local churches and follow the journey of Western Christianity from the 19th, 20th into 21st century - decline is the constant.
Rather than turn to a theology that could be seen to justify such, I turn to philosophy if not anthropology to explain what's happening.
Entropy is universal.
We naturally move towards decline.
Death behooves us.
But God specialises in taking death and through death bringing life.
While entropy may be natural, resurrection is biblical.
while entropy sits within the laws of a fallen world, dying to self to bring forth new life sits within the law of the Spirit.
therefore, if a church, a christian, a Christian leader walks the way of the Spirit - that church, that Christian that leadership can lead something away from entropy towards life - renewed life, but still life.
My intentional following as a local church pastor is to be aware of the natural law of entropy and lead away from it through resurrection and renewal.
This implies if not signifies change ...change of vision, change of method.
Does this help?
Last night we commented that Redeemer's Church sitting around 800 people has to watch out because often churches of this size plateau and then decline.
Not always, but often - sadly too often.
Church guru's and consultants and have written on this stuff significantly over the last decade. from examining hundreds of churches of this size (perhaps not having reached this size in the short time Redeemer's have), and repeatedly something happens that stops the growth.
Why?
I'm not big into always looking to general management literature to examine the church. Although Augustine reportedly said "all truth is God's truth", and if there's something in that, listen to the 'truth' written by two management guru's :
"The entropic process is a universal law of nature in which all forms of organization move toward disorganization or death." [written by R.L. Kahn & D. Katz]
A leaders role is to lead a church/an organization away from this lurking entropy.
Now probably this topic is better explored under the other weekly leadership blog I write [www.clanofissachar.blogspot.com] but for me, as a leader, this is about my daily intentional following of Christ.
I grew up with a theology that preached 'small things', especially small things in these the last of the last days. It was a branch of pretty firm dispensationalism. I found that this 'small things' philosophy sometimes excused poor leadership and/or discipleship. Old fashioned and ineffective methodology was covered over by a theology that said 'we're not called to be fruitful but faithful and in the end days most will turn from God and only a remnant, a few will hold on.'
Subtly underneath this theology lay an excuse for no church growth, in fact, underneath it lay an excuse for entropy and decline.
The local church I grew up in reached a peak of 200 back when I was a teenager, and today that local church sits around about 40 people, and the group of churches they belonged to which at their peak had 25,000 participants today has around 10,000 participants.
Was their theology correct, and yet/or, was it cover for poor leadership.
God does call us to be faithful, but God also calls us to be fruitful.
So where am I going?
A leaders job is to define reality. As I read, reflect, watch other local churches and follow the journey of Western Christianity from the 19th, 20th into 21st century - decline is the constant.
Rather than turn to a theology that could be seen to justify such, I turn to philosophy if not anthropology to explain what's happening.
Entropy is universal.
We naturally move towards decline.
Death behooves us.
But God specialises in taking death and through death bringing life.
While entropy may be natural, resurrection is biblical.
while entropy sits within the laws of a fallen world, dying to self to bring forth new life sits within the law of the Spirit.
therefore, if a church, a christian, a Christian leader walks the way of the Spirit - that church, that Christian that leadership can lead something away from entropy towards life - renewed life, but still life.
My intentional following as a local church pastor is to be aware of the natural law of entropy and lead away from it through resurrection and renewal.
This implies if not signifies change ...change of vision, change of method.
Does this help?
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Day 134 - 998 pages later.
Day 134 and sorry its been a few days been plowing my way through Organization Change: A Comprehensive Reader.....and believe me its comprehensive - all 998 pages.
Real interesting story:
The artillery division of the British Army in the First World War determined that an artillery unit was to consist of loaders, an aimer, discarders and three persons to hold the horses because of noise.
At the start of the Second World War the guns were now all mechanized - but you guessed it - the three horse holders were still part of the artillery unit!
Change.
Been thinking a lot about change and change leadership as Redeemer's Church and I have been together for 7 years.
Seen great changes in the past 7 years.
But ......more's coming.
It's the 7 year cycle.
Good things happening, much growth, new ideas, new things, new people.
But now's the time we need to take bigger steps of bigger change.
Normally churches plateau at the 800 number.
Things are good, people around, a buzz.
But entropy lurks and subtly you wake up 3 years later and its too late.
So ...998 pages of reading, much prayer and rethinking all adds up to a fun Saturday and an intentional follow of Jesus Christ for an assistant kingdom builder based in Reedley, CA!
Real interesting story:
The artillery division of the British Army in the First World War determined that an artillery unit was to consist of loaders, an aimer, discarders and three persons to hold the horses because of noise.
At the start of the Second World War the guns were now all mechanized - but you guessed it - the three horse holders were still part of the artillery unit!
Change.
Been thinking a lot about change and change leadership as Redeemer's Church and I have been together for 7 years.
Seen great changes in the past 7 years.
But ......more's coming.
It's the 7 year cycle.
Good things happening, much growth, new ideas, new things, new people.
But now's the time we need to take bigger steps of bigger change.
Normally churches plateau at the 800 number.
Things are good, people around, a buzz.
But entropy lurks and subtly you wake up 3 years later and its too late.
So ...998 pages of reading, much prayer and rethinking all adds up to a fun Saturday and an intentional follow of Jesus Christ for an assistant kingdom builder based in Reedley, CA!
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