Category: Current Events

A couple of weeks ago, Atlanta was hit by serious flooding. As in, houses were submerged…completely devastated. In an area called Austell, thousands of families are displaced because of the damage.

People. Have. Lost. Their. Lives.

Last week, I met Pastor Shaun King for the first time, face to face. He shared with me a movement his church has started to help flood victims called Hope ATL.

Hope ATL is pulling together resources, financial and practical and human, to help these victims. Victims who have lost, literally, everything.

The thing that amazed me during my conversation with Shaun was that their church doesn’t have a lot of money. Or people. A couple hundred, at most. Instead of having meetings about how to help, or who to point people to in case they needed help, they simply stopped what they were doing…and helped.

Now, the thing that disturbed me during my conversation with Shaun was that he had made many calls to many churches in the area, and so many churches said…

No.

They couldn’t help.

I was shocked. Where is the Church when a city needs it the most?

That didn’t stop Shaun. He kept rallying the people he could and went into the most dangerous and most flooded places and they went to work. They even decided to NOT meet in their building on Sunday or in their offices during the week and instead they met at the largest Red Cross Shelter for flood victims in Marietta (near Austell), where the flooding was worst, so they could provide care and hope and a place for people to see Jesus. They didn’t take up an offering that Sunday either, as most of the people who came had nothing. 50% of Austell is now homeless. So they gave back to them instead.

And they’re still working.

In order to get the help they need, Shaun had to reach outside of Atlanta. Out of the state, actually, to find the Church. Healing Place Church out of Baton Rouge and NewSpring Church from Anderson, South Carolina, offered to send teams to help.

There is the Church. Thank God. Literally.

Shaun didn’t complain. He didn’t stop to say that he was disappointed or tired or confused or frustrated that there are probably over 1000 churches in Atlanta and so few are stepping up to aid their own city. He humbly asked on our live video that if anyone who was listening could help, to please help.

I asked Shaun if I could extend his request to you…the ever generous and ever faithful readers here at FlowerDust.net. Because you’ve joined together so many times before to help others. When push comes to shove you are the ones who stand in the gap for the church that hides behind religiosity.

If you can send teams, send them.

If your family can go help for a day or two, go.

If you can donate money, or food, or clothes, donate.

We are always asking for opportunities to be the church instead of just do churchy things.

Well…here you go.

The HopeATL website has all the information you need.

(On Wednesday, I’ll be posting part two of “Where is the Church?…Hope you’ll join me.)

I’m happily in isolation on an island that can only be reached by seaplane or ferry. During this week away, I’ve asked several friends to fill in for me this week. Hopefully you’ll meet some new voices of people I admire.

Today?s post comes from Crystal Renaud. She was but a mere high school senior when I met her, seven or so years ago. Now she is growing into a passionate and brave young woman with a heart for helping women discover and embrace their God given gifts.

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Shortage of Power

Growing up, I was certainly a tomboy and even through high school I battled with the role of being a woman. But the older I get, the more I embrace my womanhood. What makes me special is that I am a woman. The world wasn?t finished before Eve and I think we as women we need to feel empowered to on our God-given role.

On more than one occasion I have read and heard about how much the enemy hates women. More so than he hates men. But why?

Because he is jealous of her. Before the creation of Eve, Lucifer was the most beautiful thing God ever created and he knew that Eve was more beautiful than he. He didn?t go to her because she was weaker than Adam. He went to her because he wanted to destroy her.

But it sort of backfired on him.

Yes, she was deceived, but in Genesis 3 God says to the serpent, ?Because you have done this (serpent deceiving Eve), cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity (hatred) between you and the woman.?

Perhaps the serpent thought God would destroy her for him. Or that God would change his mind about having created her. I don?t know. But instead, God further condemned him and further raised Eve up to do battle.

So, not only do women have the word of God in them, we also have the calling and anointing to do battle. And even now the enemy knows we were created for battle against him. Which is why we are the ones he comes after.

Yet, society is robbing us of that power.

For too long (especially in my generation) women have been given mixed signals about who we are and what our role is. Some are told we?re in competition with men?in business, ministry and even in relationships. And some of us have been told we?re merely for show and pleasing men sexually.

Whichever voice we?ve heard most, these extremes are creating a generation of women who are sexually confused, angry at men and our relationships with God are strained or non-existent.

Jeremiah 31:21-23 says, ?How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encircles a man.?

This doesn?t mean a woman is to rule over a man? or to be ruled over? no. It means she will stand beside him, stand with him, surround him, and even protect him in spiritual warfare. And that?s a powerful statement.

Joel 2 speaks of ?the fig tree,? ?the grapevine? and ?the olive oil.? I believe this is what God?s women are made of. The oil representing the anointing, the fig tree representing the sweetness, and the wine (or grapevine) representing the new thing.

When God-fearing women begin manifesting these things in their families, their churches and the world, the enemy will be filled with terror. He knows that women will impact their world for God, just as the early church did in Acts 2.

And that?s a whole lot better than the old ?sugar and spice and everything nice.?

There?s a quote that says, ?Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders and says, ?Oh no, she?s awake.??

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Has our culture of gender confusion and role reversal robbed us of our true call to do battle? What can be done to regain what’s been stolen?

Last week, like many others, I received a mysterious box in the mail from my friend Ben Arment, Purveyor of Extraordinary Experiences and genius behind the Story Conference.

The box did not let down.

You may have seen some other bloggers document their box opening experiences.

And it’s not like I’m really competitive or anything, but even though their boxes contained some amazing things, my box had author Donald Miller and Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt in it.

And a couple video cameras.

And a tripod.

Yeah, that’s right.

Booyah.

How all that fit in the box, I’m not really sure. I know Don and Mike are both pretty athletic, so maybe that helped them contort and mold into it. After picking all the white styrofoam peanuts off their clothes and stretching out a bit, they sat down and I had the opportunity to ask them a few questions about Don’s new book, about the development of story, and what they would be talking about at Story.

Here’s what they had to say. (And maybe I was exaggerating just a little bit on them fitting in the box. Maybe Don was just in Nashville where Mike already is and the stars aligned and we were able to shoot this video and there was no contorting involved).

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Two story experts in one video. Pretty amazing, huh?

What I love about story is it doesn’t force. It simply guides you down a path and ebbs and flows. You can learn so much from a story but you’re never spoon fed easy answers.

Who’s your favorite story teller? It doesn’t have to be an author…it can be a photographer, a musician, a poet, a speaker, or a mom.

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My friend Ben Arment is a genius. Not just a genius, but the kind who’s fearless, too. That makes him one of the biggest threats to the bad guys in this world.? You see, Ben had an amazing job with an amazing organization. But beyond that, he had a dream that would not leave him alone.

So, what’s a guy like Ben to do? He leaves his job, moves thousands of miles away, and starts putting together one of the most creative experiences I’ve seen in a long time called Story.

Both Michael Hyatt (CEO of Thomas Nelson) and Don Miller (author, speaker, and champion of cutest dog pictures on Twitter) are both speaking at Story. Last week, Don was in Nashville (where Michael and I live). Somehow the stars aligned and I was able to sit down with the two of them and have them share about what story means to them, a little about their own stories, and what they’ll be discussing at Story Chicago. (That video is coming in a few days!)

Before Michael arrived to the video shoot, I pulled out my trusty Flip video camera and asked Don if he’d mind talking to you guys about his latest adventure, The Mentoring Project. He graciously agreed, and so, without further adieu, I’d like to present you Mr. Miller himself.

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I haven’t talked about an organization like The Mentoring Project on my blog before, simply because I’m not familiar with many like it. The statistics Don shares in the video should be a wake up call to us all. As the church, we pray and pray and pray for opportunities to make a difference and we often have them right in front of us.

What can you do? Easy. You can cover the cost of supporting a child mentoring relationship. I have been supporting in this way for a few months now. If you’re part of a church, find out how your church can partner with TMP to help in your own back yard. And if you want to be a mentor, you can read more about that too.

Because TMP has literally just taken off, they’re currently working within the Portland area, where they’re based. However, I think it’d be handy for them to take a pulse on interest levels around the country, so when it’s time to expand even more, it makes it that much easier to already have some people lined up, excited, and ready to dive in.

What’s an organization you’ve discovered and fallen in love with lately?

(BTW, you can download a free sample Chapter from Don’s new book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by clicking here.

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