The Present Future, Chapter One (Part One)

Wow.

After re-reading this chapter, that word kept on coming into my mouth. Wow. Simply, wow.

McNeal pulls no punches right from the get-go. As he said in his introduction to this book, his goal is to provoke and to frame conversations that lead to action, to risk, to rediscovery of mission. If his goal was to provoke, he hit his mark!

Each chapter of The Present Future is titled by what McNeal calls "new realities". So, chapter one begins with New Reality Number One: The Collapse of the Church Culture. If one reading the book wondered what McNeal meant by that, they only needed to look at the first paragraph in order to understand. The first paragraph starts out in this way:

The current church culture in North America is on life support. It is living off the work, money and energy of previous generations from a previous world order.

Provoking. McNeal then goes on to describe how much the world has really changed in the past thirty years or more, and how the church has refused to change with the world. McNeal is worried about the future of the church - he is not proclaiming the death of the church, but the "collapse of the unique culture in North America that has come to be called 'church'"

He goes on to say this:

In reality, the church culture in North America is a vestige of the original movement, an institutional expression of religion that is in part a civil religion and in part a club where religious people can hang out with other people whose politics, worldview and lifestyle match theirs.

and

As he hung on the cross, Jesus probably never thought that the impact of his sacrifice would be reduced to an invitation for people to join and to support an institution.

The collapse of the church culture can be demonstrated simply through demographic research. If you read those Barna books or even Gallup polls, you may be encouraged to find out that over fifty percent of the American population goes to church on a weekly basis.

They are wrong.

New research (church attendance numbers in different cities vs. population of those cities) suggest that Americans might be lying about their churchgoing habits. After several months of research, the actual number of weekly churchgoing American folks hovers around 26 percent. And the further you go down the generational food chain, the lower the percentage each succeeding generation goes to church (in other words, the senior citizens' attendance numbers are much higher than those of my generation, known as generation X).

McNeal adds some humor to this chapter by saying: "Armed with this information, of course, churches are launching an all-out effort to reach Generation X-ers. I wish! Most churches have written them off, waiting for them to grow up and learn to like what the church has to offer."

Humorous, but absolutely true. He also talks about a growing number of people who are leaving the institutional church, but not leaving Jesus. "(They) are leaving the church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith."

In each chapter, McNeal gives the wrong question that churches are asking, and then what the right question is that they should be asking. This chapter's wrong question is this: How do we do church better? He then talks about all the different methods that churches have used recently in order to make their church better. First it was the church and lay renewal movement. Then the emphasis switched to church growth. Then it changed to church health. He says this: "An entire industry has been spawned to help churches do whatever it is they decide to do..the suggestions are plentiful: offer small groups, contemporize your worship, market your service, focus on customer service, create a spiritual experience, become seeker-friendly, create a high-expectation member culture, purify the church from bad doctrine, return the church to the basics..."

Listen to what he says next, and tell me this doesn't cut to the heart: "All this actually anesthetizes the pain of loss. It offers a way to stay busy and preoccupied with methodological pursuits while not facing the hard truth: none of this seems to be making much of a difference."

Both ministry staff members and church members have suffered from this pursuit of "improving the church". For the "clergy", they are now expected to be managers, strategic planners, fundraisers, expert communicators, chief vision developers, ministry entrepreneurs, spiritual gurus, architectural consultants and more. I don't remember any Bible college class that prepared me for those different tasks, let me tell you. For the church member, "they feel like they have been sold a bill of goods. They were promised that if they would be a good church member, if they would discover their gifts, or join a small group, sign up for a church ministry...they would experience a full and meaningful life...the faithful, maybe silently or not so silently, wonder when their ticket is going to be punched, when they are going to experience the changed life they've been promised and expected to experience at church. In North America, these people have been led to believe that their Christian life is all about the church, so this failure of the church not only creates doubt about the church, it also leads them to all kinds of doubt about God and their relationship with Him."

The effort to fix the church misses the point. As he says in this chapter: You can build the perfect church - and they still won't come. Who are they? Unchurched people. "They do not wake up every day wondering what church they can make successful."

McNeil ends this section by saying: Church leaders seem unable to grasp this simple implication of the new world - people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them...the pursuit of the wrong question will continue to turn the wheel of the church industry, but it will do little to expand the kingdom of God. The need of the North American church is not a methodological fix. It is much more profound. The church needs a mission fix.

Next post: What is the tough/right question?

I Know A Guy...

The events that have recently taken place in Florida, where a 32 year old man plowed his truck into a car that then ran into a school bus and exploded, killing all seven children - yes, I said children - inside (the driver of the car was 15 years old), have really put me into a funk. Then I find out the grandfather of these kids died from a heart attack upon hearing the news. I don't know if I even have words to describe the thoughts and feelings going on inside me, so instead, I will post something that I got from some website who got it from some blog, who got it from...well, you know how it goes.

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I Know A Guy . . .
I've been pondering dogmatism lately; dogmatism defined as arrogant assertion of opinions as truths by The Random House Dictionary.

I blogged recently about the church needing to get out of the judgment business, but I find myself failing to heed my own advice. I recently opined to my friend Dennis that Pat Robertson was only concerned about money, power, position, and prestige. He wisely responded that he wasn't sure about that. Not only did I feel convicted for "judging the judger" (I constantly battle this), but it caused me to reflect on how healthy it might be to be "unsure."

Yes, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that the only way to have a relationship with Father God is through faith in His son. I believe God loves me. I believe that when I die I will go to heaven. I believe scripture is God's holy truth.

But . . .

I know a guy . . . let's call him Tom. Tom is a lower income beautician raising a son by an earlier marriage (his first wife turned lesbian) and a son adopted by himself and his current wife. I'm not sure whether Tom is a Christ follower or not. He doesn't seem to "follow," but he claims to "believe." Tom is addicted to pornography. Tom was accused, but acquitted of child molestation. Tom used to cut my hair.

In two days, Tom will travel to a hospital and have his penis cut off in the hopes of keeping his particularly aggressive form of cancer from spreading. The doctor will leave just a little skin on the off chance a day comes when Tom is able to raise the money to have reconstructive surgery and the hopes of a little normality. Tom has no insurance. Tom will now have to pee sitting down. Obviously, there are other activities Tom will no longer be able to perform. Tom is 38 years old. I like Tom. Please pray for him.

Is God judging Tom? Is this an example of sowing and reaping? Is it just life and would have happened no matter what? Is this God's love displayed in a way that is far beyond my understanding? If he is a believer, will this work out for his good? If he is not, will this propel him towards a relationship with God?
I don't know. I'm not sure.

I know a guy . . . let's call him Fred. Fred has a college degree and a successful career and works in an office right next to mine. Fred is the proud father of three kids, all in college. Actually, now only two are in college. His youngest daughter recently came down with an undiagnosed disease that has caused deterioration of her mental capacities and brought her to the brink of death three separate times so far. Sometimes she seems to be recovering, other times regressing. She has been taken to several doctors, including a few at the Mayo clinic. She is currently at home. She is nineteen years old and she wears diapers. Fred doesn't know how to help her.

Fred worries about his daughter. Fred worries about his job. His daughter's medical bills have contributed to the company's rising health care costs and that's not good. His latest performance review was poor and he's afraid he's being set up to be fired. Fred can't afford to lose his job as he just bought a new home, has kids in college, and supports his mother-in-law. Fred sometimes goes to church. Fred sometimes cries in the privacy of my office. Most times I don't know what to say. Please pray for Fred.

I know God loves Fred. I know God loves his daughter. But could this happen to me? Would I keep my faith? What would I do?

I mentioned earlier that being unsure could be healthy. When I'm unsure I have to lean more heavily on God. When I'm unsure I have to hold tightly to my faith to get through. Yes, I prefer wrapping myself in the security of being right, yet I'm realizing that that security is really the dirty rags of my own self-righteousness. I've noticed that when I'm unsure I'm neither critical nor judgmental.
Maybe being unsure isn't so bad sometimes.

I know a guy . . . his name is Jesus.
"That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." 2 Timothy 1:12 (NIV)

The Disciple's Journal Character Trait #3: Courage

Courage:

- the state of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger or fear with confidence and resolution.


Courage is one of those qualities that shines bright - whether it be in the spotlight (we always read and hear about courageous acts by people; my grandmother yearly subscribes me to Reader's Digest, and every month there are stories about acts of courage) or in secret.

One of the greatest examples of courage died this past month. Rosa Parks' act of defiance - refusing to give her seat up to someone else simply because she was black and they were white - helped blast a hole in the segregation laws of the South. What an inspiration. I wonder how many of those powerful moments simply happened because a regular person found within them a little courage to do what is right.

Another example I just recently read about over at the Real Live Preacher Blog is a man by the name of Foy Valentine. He says this about Foy:

- "He was a Christian ethicist who worked for the Southern Baptist Convention years ago. Foy's job was to speak the truth to those in power. And that he did. He received a lot of hate mail over the years from Baptists whose world was not large enough to hold truth. And he was labeled many things: A liberal, a radical, a nigger lover, a troublemaker.

But in my research I found the voice of one crying in the wilderness of the sins of my own people. It was a notation in the official record of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting of 1968. The record indicates that a man named Foy Valentine stood up on the convention floor and pleaded for his brothers and sisters in Christ to confess the sin of our racism and embrace people of all colors. He was the same age then that I am now. He was in his 40s and employed by those very Baptists to whom he spoke on that day. He had a wife and children and a lot to lose.

Apparently, truth meant more to Foy than comfort and security.

His remarks were not well received, to say the least. It would be another twenty years before the Southern Baptist Convention would confess that particular sin."

I think of the times where I displayed courage, and the times I did not. One time where I failed still haunts me to this day. In fourth grade, there was a mentally challenged girl in my class named Mandy. She was deathly afraid of boys, and anytime she was approached by a boy, she would just start screaming. In fourth grade, at least back then, most of the boys still hung out together regardless of how cool or nerdy you were; it wasn't until fifth grade that the classification started taking place. But everyone still wanted to fit in. I was one of those who wanted to fit in, especially because I was the most popular boy in my class - I was voted "class leader" and was chosen to make a speech on George Washington in front of the whole school and everything (in my case, until tenth grade, this was the last grade for me to be known as popular or cool - in fifth grade, I was classified as a nerd and a loser. But that story is for another time). Well, we were out on the playground, and someone saw Mandy and thought it would be funny if we all went up to her and told her that one of us wanted to "go out" with her. I didn't like the idea, because I knew she would freak out. But I went along anyway, and she screamed bloody murder, and we all laughed, and I'm still ashamed of it today. In the great scheme of things, it wasn't a big deal - but if I'm still ashamed of it, doesn't it make it a big deal? I wish I had the courage to stand up for Mandy.

I saw Mandy a few years ago when I was a youth minister at my home church. She loaded my groceries into the bags. I wanted to say something to her, but I was sure that she didn't remember the incident, so why bring it back up? And if she did remember it, she wouldn't recognize me anyway, at least I don't think she would. I said thanks to her, picked up my bags and left.

When I think of a biblical example of courage, immediately Paul comes to my mind. Just the definition of courage applies to who Paul was: he had the state of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger or fear with confidence and resolution. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is about Paul and how he was at Lystra with Barnabas. The crowd was confused and thought that Barnabas and Paul were the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes. Paul tried to clear up the confusion, but it wasn't working. To make matters worse, some Jews came over from another city and won the crowd over, so Paul was stoned. Not in the marijuana way, but in the "we're going to throw a bunch of pointy rocks at you and then when you fall down, we will take a large rock and break your back with it and continue throwing stones at you until your dead" kind of way. They drag him out the city and leave him for dead.

All that is interesting, but the most interesting part is what happened next: "But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe."

Did you catch that? If I was Paul, I think I would have taken a couple of days off. "Hey Barnabas, let's find a Club Med around here and let me heal up for a week or so. A little R&R would do us some good, and we'll be ready for the next city." Paul went the next day to another city, where he could possibly face the same thing as he faced in Lystra. That is courage. May God grant us all just a little bit of the courage that Paul had!

Here are some questions from The Disciple's Journal to think about:

- Does my courage depend only on my past success?

- Do I often have to stand alone for what I believe?

- Do I look for opportunities to show courage?

- Do I choose to be "one of the gang" when I should stand alone?

- Do others look to me for strength when danger threatens?

- Am I confident that fears I now have will eventually be dealt with, or do I expect them to plague me the rest of my life?

- Do I believe God has specific answers for the struggles I face?

Well, I guess it's official...

Emergent/Postmodern 93% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71% Neo orthodox 68% Charismatic/Pentecostal 54% Fundamentalist 43% Classical Liberal 25% Reformed Evangelical 25% Roman Catholic 25% Modern Liberal 21% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

The Present Future by Reggie McNeal - Introduction

I am in the process of reading two books right now - well, actually three - but two of the three books pretty much deal with the same issue: that the church of today is, as the saying goes, barking up the wrong tree. The two books are The Shaping Of Things To Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, and The Present Future by Reggie McNeal. Both books are, in my opinion, revolutionary. I was telling Rochelle one Sunday about these books and how I almost hold them as I would hold a rattlesnake - ready to throw away from me at any moment because of the danger involved. The danger in these books is that if you actually take to heart the deconstruction of the church these authors offer in these books, you cannot stay the same. You cannot think of church the same, and you cannot think of the role of leadership in the church the same.

I chose to "deconstruct" McNeal's book first, because although I started reading the other one first, I really got into The Present Future because it was straight, to the point, and hit me like a brick. So, without further adieu, let's talk about the introduction.

I am always intrigued when authors admit that they really didn't want to write the content of their book. To me, it's much more disarming than to have someone write "I have all the answers and I know what I'm talking about." From the first couple of paragraphs, you find out that McNeal really didn't want to write this book. He was scared to, because he knew the consequences it could have, the impact, and yet also the pushback from comfortable Christianity.

After the first two paragraphs, the third paragraph starts out in a rather chilling way:

- "I'm talking about the church world in North America. A world that has largely forsaken its missional covenant with God to be a part of kingdom expansion. It has, instead, substituted its own charter of church as a clubhouse where religious people hang out with other people who think, dress, behave, vote and believe like them."

Ouch.

Later on, he talks about the different assumptions about the church and mission that he challenges in the book:

- If you build the perfect church (the way we think about church), they will come.

- Growing your church will automatically make a difference in the community.

- Developing better church members will result in greater evangelism.

- The church needs more workers (for church work).

- Church involvement results in discipleship.

- Better planning will get you where you want to go (in terms of missional effectiveness.)

He writes a little later on that "many church leaders are preoccupied with the wrong questions." After reading this book, I agree wholeheartedly. Well, next post will be on Chapter 1 - the first tough question.

Village Idiots Aren't Supposed To Be Working At The Village Library...

Martin Luther King = dark-skinned preacher who was the leader of the reformation of civil rights here in America in the 1960's.

Martin Luther = light-skinned priest who was the leader of the reformation of Christianity in the late 15th/early 16th centuries.


It's not that hard. Really.

To Be Alone With You

You gave your body to the lonely.
They took your clothes.
You gave up a wife and a family.
You gave your ghost.

To be alone with me.
To be alone with me.
To be alone with me,
you went up on a tree.

To be alone with me,
you went up on a tree.

I've never known a man who loved me


To Be Alone With You - Sufjan Stevens

Create Your Own Caption #5

The Disciple's Journal Character Trait #2: Patience

Patience:

to endure hardship without complaint; calmness, self-control and the willingness to tolerate delay.


As I look at my life, especially during this time of the year - the new year - when we evaluate what has happened this past year and what we look forward to in the next year - I'm encouraged by some of the baby steps I've taken in several areas of my life. I have seen some good progress in some of the things I want to accomplish and in who I want to be. What is discouraging, however, is when you see an area that at one point in your life was a strength deteriorate into something that is a weakness. For me, that character trait I've seen decline over the years is patience. I can honestly say that if you asked my family and close friends five years ago to give you a characteristic about me that is a good one, patience would have been at the top of the list. Back then, I was patient in both senses of the definition above: through the hardships I've had in my life, I've taken them in stride for the most part (although I have done some complaining over the years). And I've exhibited calmness, self-control and the willingness to tolerate delay. The only area back then where I struggled patience-wise was in the car. I have never been a very patient driver.

But now, I look at who I am, and I have become very impatient in my life. It has extended beyond drive time and it has permeated most of my life. I have become more defensive, and I think part of it has to do with impatience with situations and people.

When I think of the word patience, the Bible character who immediately comes to mind is Joseph. Here was a guy who was mistreated by his brothers and sold into slavery, and then later on put into prison for something he did not do. If I was in Joseph's situation, I would have immediately become defensive and tried to prove to people that I was in the right. But Joseph endured through it all and patiently waited in prison until God intervened. What a great example of patience!

To me, patience and perspective go hand in hand. If you have the right perspective on life, and in situations, you can be patient because you know that "in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose." This doesn't mean that everything will turn out right in our lives, and that life will be smooth sailing. What it does mean is that we need to be patient and see how God is working through our situations to produce good. For example - when I was in my early twenties, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor (benign) and had to have a couple of surgeries to get rid of it. For the longest time, I questioned God as to why I had to go through all of that. A few years later, one of my youth coaches invited me to come to the school library where she worked and read to an elementary school class. I was excited about it, because not only was it at the same school where I started elementary, but it was even for the same teacher that I had in third grade, who was retiring that year. I chose to read The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (shortened version with pictures). After I had read to them, everyone got a chance to go into the computer lab and write a summary of what I read. I noticed that one of the kids kind of was by himself, not talking to anyone. I asked my youth coach why, and she told me that he never talked to anyone. You see, he had a brain tumor and felt like no one understood what he was going through. At that moment, it was almost like God came down and spoke to me. I realized that this was a reason why I went through what I went through. I went up and started talking to the boy, and told him that I could relate. I told him about my brain tumor and how I had to go to the hospital all the time too. We talked for two hours that day. I never got a chance to go back (I moved to Texas that same year), but for a couple of years after that, I would receive a note in the mail from my youth coach with some pictures that the little boy drew.

Perspective is key to patience. Perspective reminds us that when we are driving, and there is a slow person in front of us, it really isn't that big of a deal in the scheme of things. Perspective reminds us that when we go through trials here on earth, that this earth and this life isn't the only thing we look forward to. Perspective reminds us that when we are punished for simply doing what is right, that our heavenly Father sees what we do, and that makes it okay. Not fun, but okay.

The verse I chose to memorize this week is Romans 12:12: Be joyful in love, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Please pray for me as I try to develop patience in my life again and try to gain the proper perspective in each situation.

Some Self-Evaluation Questions about Patience:

- Am I able to accept unfavorable circumstances calmly?

- Do I complain when plans do not go my way?

- Is my life being lived out at a pace I can relax with, or do I always seem to be in a hurry and just a little behind?

- Can I handle red lights, long lines, short delays, or do I quickly get angry or irritated?

- Do I wait until I have enough money to buy something or am I constantly borrowing?

- Am I more concerned about God's will to be done than my own desire to be fulfilled?

- Am I willing to go through trying times in order to develop patience?

- Do I recognize obstacles as opportunities for God to build His character into me?

You're Guaranteed A Good Laugh On This One

I definitely needed a good laugh this morning when I woke up at 6 a.m. to try and get everything done for this weekend and beyond.

My friend John posted a link to what could be called The Greatest Blonde Joke ever. Enjoy!

Pet Peeve #1

Brangelina.

Bennifer.

K-Fed.

Will the media please just use the actual real names of celebrities and stop either combining names or shortening them? You're beginning to sound like a thirteen year old posting on a message board: "hey u im a noob this site roxor!?!"

Liar, Liar, Oprah's Book Club Is On Fire

Well, it looks like we may have found another liar.

There is a book that has been very popular, especially ever since Oprah featured it on one of her shows. It's a book called "A Million Little Pieces" written by James Frey. It's a memoir of the years that Frey spent as a drug-addicted "Criminal" (he always capitalizes the C in criminal in his book, reportedly) and has drawn rave reviews. I have not read the book, but my sister-in-law just finished it and she couldn't stop raving about how great it was and how moving and everything.

The Smoking Gun, a very interesting website, has been researching Frey's life for the past several months and has found several inconsistencies and downright lies about it. A lot of things just don't match up in the book. Frey has refused to talk to them any longer, and has hired a lawyer to protect himself and to threaten legal action against The Smoking Gun, which hasn't deterred them at all. (You can read the full article here.)

It reminds me of someone in the Christian world who was caught in a lie after selling boatloads of his memoir. You may remember him, his name is Mike Warnke. The name of the book was The Satan Seller, and I remember growing up in my home church and talking about the book and satanism in my high school Sunday School class. Cornerstone magazine did an expose on Warnke's life and found out that he basically made up everything about being in a satanic cult, being a drug-abuser, and other strange stories in his life.

I can't imagine what it would be like to make a ton of money off of a memoir of made-up events and situations that never took place, and then try to backpedal your way out of the lies and deceit. I haven't heard about Warnke, who was a very successful Christian comedian, for years - what will happen to James Frey?

These stories remind me of two passages in the Bible. The first one is Proverbs 10:9, which says "A man of integrity walks securely; but he who takes crooked paths will be found out." True. I can think of times in my life when I took a crooked path - whether it had to do with lying or some other type of situation - and I remember how worried I was that someone was going to figure it out and "call me on the carpet". Life is much easier and less stressful when you are attempting to live a life of integrity.

The other passage is also found in Proverbs, chapter 6 to be exact. In Proverbs 6, there is a list of seven things that the Lord hates. I've always found it interesting that two of the seven things have to do with lying. All the other ones are different, yet lying makes its mark twice. Now I don't know if it means that God hates lying twice as much as the other things, but I think it's a good warning to consider. In the words of SNL, double true.

A Reminder

More than 840 million people in the world are malnourished — 799 million of them live in the developing world.

More than 153 million of the world's malnourished people are children under the age of 5.

Six million children under the age of 5 die every year as a result of hunger.

Malnutrition can severely affect a child's intellectual development. Malnourished children often have stunted growth and score significantly lower on math and language achievement tests than do well-nourished children.

Lack of dietary diversity and essential minerals and vitamins also contributes to increased child and adult mortality. Vitamin A deficiency impairs the immune system, increasing the annual death toll from measles and other diseases by an estimated 1.3 million-2.5 million children.

While every country in the world has the potential of growing enough food to feed itself, 54 nations currently do not produce enough food to feed their populations, nor can they afford to import the necessary commodities to make up the gap. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Most of the widespread hunger in a world of plenty results from grinding, deeply rooted poverty. In any given year, however, between 5 and 10 percent of the total can be traced to specific events: droughts or floods, armed conflict, political, social and economic disruptions.

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The photographer who took the above picture of a starving Sudanese girl struggling to make it to a food distribution center while a vulture waits for her to die won the Pulitzer Prize for this picture. He also committed suicide two months after he won the prize. I wonder if he took this picture without helping the little girl and felt guilty about not doing so - we don't know if he helped her or not, so it's just speculation.

I thought that a blog entry by someone I know summed up my thoughts exactly as I took a look at this picture for the first time:

I sometimes feel like that is what I do in my faith. I am the cameraman speaking to and documenting the injustice in this world and yet doing little to actually change anything myself. Hiding behind the camera, I so often sit and watch as the physically and spiritually weak and wounded struggle to find the feeding center and all I do is shake my head and cry while trying to remember the details of the story for a good sermon illustration later. If I speak with conviction, or simply loud enough, someone will hear the plea and act. I standby haplessly, hopelessly wanting someone, anyone to do something to change the circumstances. Crying out to God I ask, "Why, why can't things be different?" not recognizing that the answer lies with my own two hands. Oh, I preach about injustice, blog about the wrongs, and try to expose the truth that our world is desperately in need of something more, but too often allow that to be the end instead of the means by which the world is changed. Sadly, I don't think I'm alone.

It is so much easier to notice, and even hurt, for those who are physically and spiritually weak and injured. Our hearts and minds may be moved, but our hands and feet stay still. Why is it so easy to forget that "faith without works is dead?" Yes, love the Lord with all your heart, yes, love the Lord with all your mind, yes, love the Lord with all our soul, but the hardest yet may be loving the Lord with all your strength. Don't get me wrong. There needs to be people who speak, share, expose truth, and preach. Kevin did an amazing thing with this picture by sharing the plight of the Sudanese people with the world. There is not doubt in that. But if it that picture is the end of what happens then we have failed.

The Disciple's Journal Character Trait #1: Perseverance

As I posted right below this one, I am attempting to go through The Disciple's Journal this year, which features 52 different character traits/commands or promises of Jesus. So far, I have "persevered", but I know this will be difficult as the year goes by.

The first character trait is perseverance, which is a good one for me to start off with because I think perseverance is a trait that builds consistency in one's life - something I definitely need. I'm one of those kind of people who are good at dreaming dreams and visions and knowing what I need to do to improve my life and direction in life - but then I forget about those things or hardships come up and I drop those dreams and goals immediately. This one was also good for me to start off with, because it just happened that this past week I had a major project I had to finish with a firm deadline, and I needed to persevere through all of the challenges (waiting on other people to give me things I needed for the project, one of my family members being sick, still having to do all the normal weekly stuff, etc.). Thankfully with God's help, I was able to persevere and finish the project.

When I think of perseverance, two immediate images come to mind. The first is a picture I once saw. I tried to find it, but to no avail. It's a picture of a little tree that is growing on a mountainous rock that has nothing else on it. It doesn't look like there is any soil or nutrients for this tree to survive on, and there is no shelter from the elements either. Yet the tree continues to grow even though everything is against it. The other image that comes to mind is of the British sprinter Derek Redmond from the Olympics a few years ago. As the race started, Derek immediately tore a muscle in on of his legs and collapsed to the track. Obviously he wasn't going to win the race. But he wanted to finish the race, so he got up and started hobbling towards the finish line. His dad saw him start to do this, ran out onto the track, and helped his son cross the finish line.

In life's challenges, it's hard to continue on the journey that God has called us to walk. But when we look at some of the examples in the Bible of people who persevered through incredible hardships - Noah; Joseph; the list of the cloud of witnesses found in Hebrews 11 - we are spurred on and encouraged to not give up. To continue fighting.

I have committed to memorize a verse each week that has to do with whatever I'm studying, and this week, I chose 1 Corinthians 15:58: "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

This is a great verse for me personally, because when there are extreme challenges in my life, I can be reminded that what I'm doing for God is not in vain and that he is with me every step of the way. If I trust in him, he will see me through whatever I face.

Let me close this post with some of the great evaluation questions that are given in The Disciple's Journal every week (different ones based on the theme of each week):

- Do I finish books I begin reading?
- Can others depend on me to carry out an assignment to its completion?
- Have I established clear goals for my spiritual life?
- Am I able to set aside distractions in order to reach those goals?
- Do my goals affect my daily life in a perceptible way?
- Would people close to me consider me a persevering person?
- Do pressures challenge me to motivation or do I feel like quitting when things get difficult?
- Am I cooperating with the One who endured the cross to give me the spirit of endurance?

And my favorite one, and one I've really been thinking about: Do I have a goal in life I am willing to die for?

The Disciple's Journal

One of my personal goals for 2006 is to spend daily time with God in prayer, Bible study and journaling. You would think that as a minister, that this would be something that is just ingrained into my life, as well as into the lives of other ministers. You would probably be surprised then that it is not. I'm afraid that ministers get busy too and bow down to the altar of the tyranny of the urgent - there's always something to do, always a phone call/email to reply to, always a song/message to prepare.

Anyway, I've been trying to locate some items in the past that have been helpful to me in my daily walk. One such item is called The Disciple's Journal. I believe that I picked this up at the Christ in Youth Conference one year, when I was a youth minister in Colorado. I also believe that I have another 5 or 6 copies somewhere, so I'll try to dig them up if anyone wants one. It's a great discipleship journal, because each week you go through a character study or the commands/promises of Jesus. There's also a daily journal entry section (which I use as a place to put what I'm praying about, because I already have another journal I write in).

My goal is to also blog about each character study every week so that I can pass on what I have learned, as well as it will help me process the character study.

Sometime this week, I will post on the first character study - perseverance.

By the way, if you want to check out the company who puts out The Disciple's Journal, you can find them here.

I Received A Belated Christmas Present

today...to myself...okay, that sounds kind of dumb. Anyway, the Amazon fairy came to my house and dropped off four books, all of which I am excited to read. I am almost done with the book I've been reading, called No Perfect People Allowed. It's been a great read, I'll post my thoughts on it later on this week.

The four books I received are:

- The Externally Focused Church by Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson. Rick Rusaw is a senior minister at a church in Colorado that I'm very familiar with. John Chandler grew up in that church, back when it was called First Christian (now it's called LifeBridge Christian Church). Anyway, I've heard good things about this book, including from John.

- The Present Future: Six Tough Questions For The Church by Reggie McNeal. I've also heard good things about this book, but don't know much about it, except that I got a good deal on it because I ordered it with The Externally Focused Church.

-Everything Belongs: The Gift Of Contemplative Prayer by Richard Rohr. I think I will start with this one, because it goes along with one of my personal goals for 2006 - to pray more.

- The Shaping Of Things To Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. Another book I don't know much about, but was highly recommended by several people.

So, lots of reading to do! I'll let you know my thoughts on them. For a good primer on Everything Belongs, go to the link above that has John Chandler in it. He has posted several quotes from the book.

Create Your Own Caption #4