how true. watch until the very end.
happy thanksgiving.
[ht: message in hand]
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**if you haven’t yet, donate $5 to buy 2 pairs of shoes for the needy and be entered to win a chance for two round trip southwest airlines tickets! just visit 50000shoes.com
next week, i am heading down to visit some of my friends at healing place church in baton rouge.? on my itinerary is “midnight outreach” – a late night trip to some of louisiana’s finest strip clubs.
i have to admit, i’m a little nervous about it.? growing up the daughter of a small town, southern baptist preacherman, i never envisioned one day i’d be hanging out in strip clubs for jesus.
but for every ounce of nervousness, there’s about a gallon of excitement.? i can’t wait to meet these girls and let them know how beautiful they are and how loved they are.? chances are, they haven’t ever really heard that in a meaningful way before.? and yet they are so beautiful.? they are so loved.
why is it we think that jesus always spoke in metaphors?? sure, he used parables and stories to communicate frequently, but recently i’ve been telling myself, “maybe he really meant that.”
i’m at a point in my personal faith where i have more questions than answers.? where i know the scriptures are divinely composed, yet i question the way i’ve been taught to interpret them over the last twenty years.? in sunday school, they seldom teach you about historical cultural context or literary patterns of the hebrew language.? scripture is timeless, but for the most part, we have taken the words and filtered them through a 21st century, westernized lens.
lots. of. questions.
atop of my questions are positioned relationships i have with those who don’t believe in god the way most of us do, if they believe at all.? most of these insights have challenged me to think about the words of jesus…his obvious call…and what should be our obvious answer.
my friend kary oberbrunner has a book coming out in the next couple weeks or so called the fine line.? since he is also a zondervan author, i begged and pleaded to get a copy early.? they gave in.? and it rocks.
here’s a nifty video about the book, and a sample chapter from the book.
one of my favorite parts of the book (granted, he uses proper capitalization) says,
“i’m not afraid to admit it: the sermon on the mount contains some startling commands.? like matthew 5:40: ‘if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.’ or matthew 5:42: ‘give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.’ or matthew 5:48: ‘be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.’
no wonder we look for ways to get ourselves off the hook of following these difficult sayings.? we toss out rationalizations.? ‘maybe they’re metaphors.’ ‘maybe they’re about some future time.’ ‘maybe they’re just suggestions.’
i think it’s christians who live like they’re ‘off the hook’ who cause people like mahatma gandhi to become critical of our religion.? he saw a disconnection between the way jesus lived and the way christians live.? because of this gandhi said, ‘if it weren’t for christians, i’d be a christian.’ gandhi didn’t disagree with jesus’ teachings.? he went on record to say, ‘i like your christ, but i don’t like your christians.’ and those of us who know gandhi’s story understand the sobering reality that he embodied the ethics described by jesus on the mount better than most christians.”
it is here where i wrestle.? why do people who understand, yet officially don’t associate with christianity live more transformed lives than we do?? why do those of us who say we believe fail to live like we are transformed by what we believe?
from my friends at the international justice mission:
?Please pray for our team in South Asia as they execute an operation on a large brothel today. Pray for continued good cooperation with the police and safety for our staff as they enter an especially dangerous situation. Pray that the girls would be rescued quickly as they are currently suffering very violent treatment.?
read more. think twice today.
sponsor a child
donate some shoes
and pray.
today, the world has been heavy on my heart. as i pick up my soon-to-be spoiled bananas, throw away my grocery receipts, hang up my dry cleaning, and get ready to eat overpriced airport food…i am constantly reminded the world is broken, yet in its disparity, has potential for so much hope…
tuesdays are crazy days. meetings from an early morning coffee to service programming to staff meeting and lunch. so normally on tuesdays, my life exists from my phone and not my computer.
just in case you were wondering. i’m sure you were.
so here are a couple of random facts for you on this fine autumn tuesday:
-nine years ago i read my last fiction book until friday, when i finally read the shack (and since some of you may ask, i loved it. especially after spending some time with the author at catalyst.)
most recently, i’ve been reading nashville author chris coppernoll’s a beautiful fall, which honestly, i wasn’t sure what to expect since i haven’t really read any fiction lately. i have to admit…the book is amazing, and i think fiction is growing on me as a new escape.
-what do donald miller, brian mclaren, jon acuff, shaun groves and i have in common? read here. it may or may not involve jock straps.
-so far we have almost raised enough money for close to 3000 pairs of shoes through the 50000shoes.com campaign. that is HUGE! financially, that’s almost $7,500, which, in less than 48 hours is ah-maz-ing.
can i be honest? it’s also super scary. that is FORTY SEVEN THOUSAND shoes away from the goal. and yes, i realize we have 47 days left but i’m already getting a little nervous. interestingly enough, there have only been a few hundred transactions…so most people are giving more than $5…meaning there are a lot of people who haven’t donated yet…which is confusing yet shows there’s a ton of potential!
this is where i want to eat your brains.
how do you think we can build some sustainability into this campaign? turn one-time $5 donors into multiple donations? increase influence and awareness?
i’d love to hear your thoughts.
“the reason a lot of people choose to work on a church staff is because they’re too lazy or too afraid to get a job in the real world.”
wow. that was pretty harsh. i didn’t mean for it to come out so bluntly.
so at the lunch table with some friends, i backpedaled just a little bit and added,
“of course, that’s a very broad statement…not everyone who works in a church is afraid or lazy…i’m just saying there are a lot of people who take jobs in churches because a church can be a really easy place to work.”
emphasis on can be.there are a lot of people floating along in life by working at a church.
sure you may get paid a little less or not get as many benefits, but it’s so easy…why would you stop?
you want to know why some people get burned out in ministry? it’s not because they’re working too hard. it’s because they’ve set their level of expectations (both spiritual and pragmatic) so low that when something actually happens that causes them to rely on god’s strength rather than their own strength, it freaks them out. and then there’s no accountability in place, so even more chaos ensues.
let’s face it: there are so many things you can get away with working on a church staff that would never happen in the real world, and many of us take advantage of it. i know i have before. and if we ever expect anyone outside of this little bubble we’ve created to take us seriously, we’ve got to stop.
like it or not, pretty much everyone else can see straight through it. how do i know? because i have had more than one person outside the bubble tell me this in recent days. and our behavior is setting a terrible example of so many things: stewardship of time, money, relationships, to name a few.
the fact that there is even a bubble to speak of says there’s something seriously wrong.
when i interviewed bill hybels for his contribution in mad church disease, i asked:
what are some of the diseases you see plaguing the church today?
he said,
I see twin towers of concern. One is burnout; the other is complacency. There are a lot of Christ-followers who haven?t taken the time to figure out what their holy discontent is, and so they?re doing a gradual slide into apathy and complacency?and that is unconscionable in a broken and lost world. I?m as concerned about Christ-followers? apathy as I am about other believers who are borderline exhausted. I would hope we could find the kind of energy that comes only from the Holy Spirit so that we can sustain productive, Christ-honoring ministry over the long haul.
bill’s a smart guy.
so, if you’re currently on a church staff i want you to take a good hard look inside and ask yourself why you’re there. is it because you’ve been called and are fulfilling god’s dream for you? because you see the brokenness in the world and you absolutely MUST do something about it, and the local church is the place you’re supposed to be?
or is it because you know you can’t get away with half the stuff you do if you were to get a “non church” job? because you don’t know how to relate to people outside the bubble? because you’re afraid that you might actually have to be stretched and grow outside of a safe, christian comfort zone?
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note: i really battled posting this for fear that it was too negative. ministry is hard work and there are a lot of great people out there kicking tail. at the end of the day (and after reassurance from a couple of people who got a sneak peek) i decided to go ahead and let it roll. so know that i’m working on how to communicate the things in my head a little more redemptively. in the mean time, thanks for hanging in there with me as i learn.
it was in the wall street journal a couple weeks ago* and it was covered by the tennessean this weekend.
churches using mystery shoppers. or is it mystery worshippers?
eh, call it what you will.
from the tenneesean:
The person sitting next to you in church today may look like an average visitor, but be careful, he might be taking notes.
A growing number of churches are using mystery worshippers, consultants giving congregations the same kind of unbiased, unfiltered feedback that secret shoppers give retail stores or restaurants. The mystery worshippers give churches the kind of honest responses that newcomers almost never do. From angry parking lot attendants to boring sermons, they let the churches know what they are doing right and wrong.
honestly, i have mixed thoughts on this. fresh eyes are a necessity. what does your sunday gathering communicate? is it consistent with what god has called your unique church to be? or are you missing the mark, but too close to see it?
on the other hand, is it necessary? if you’re fully relying on what you sense the holy spirit is leading you to do, and trusting he will bring the right people, the right connections all together at the right time, do you need a stranger coming in with critical eyes to tell you the letters on your signage aren’t big enough? i think back to churches in the united states, in europe, and in africa that i have visited – some with all the right signage and people in place but had no sense of community or spirit…and some with what we would call terrible “first impressions” but god was clearly moving with no regard to the out of tune guitar or the uncomfortable seats or stuffy worship center.
i’m not saying it’s right or wrong – i think this is a potentially subjective matter. but i do think it may be one that could be wrapped up a teensy bit too tightly in a layer of modern consumer mentality if we listen to everything we’re told or feel pressured that we should do.
jesus was confident in the way he went about his work, and as long as we have the same confidence, no mystery church shopper (or long time member, for that matter) should be needed or able to influence us away from that.
your thoughts?
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*please note that my boss man was misquoted in the WSJ article — cross point church has never used a mystery shopper.
a few months ago i had a post titled “keeping your mouth shut” and asked people to contribute things they would never feel comfortable saying in church. we had over 200 comments…some were funny things like pastors and their flies being down and then we had serious stuff where people were afraid to say they were lonely or addicted.
since we have quite a few more readers several months later, i thought i’d reintroduce the post, keeping all the original comments in tact.
so what’s something you feel like you can’t say in church?