Monthly Archives: June 2010

50 lbs of sugar

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This past Saturday I had the opportunity to preach at Crossville Mission Bible Training Center (MBTC) which is one of 14 centers under the umbrella of Mission Teens.

Mission Teens exists to provide hope for the hopeless – namely drug addicts. I became directly involved in Mission Teens from 2001-2003 at the centers in Alabama and California as a resident and later served on staff. The mission is credited with pointing me to Jesus.

I also met my wife, Amanda while we were both residents in California. But that is a story for another time.

50 lbs of sugar.

That is one of the food items we took with us. All the centers rely completely on faith and the generosity of individuals and churches to supply everything they need from food to toiletries.

Unknown to us, the kitchen staff had been praying furiously all day for sugar.

And when we unloaded the sugar one of the newer residents broke down in tears and ran back to the dorm so that he could tell his fellow travelers.

We became the answer to a prayer – the means that God used to provide this simple need.

The residents got to see through us that God does care for his children enough to be concerned about inconsequential, mundane things like sugar.

My question today is, Who’s prayer are you going to be the answer to?

If you would like to contact one of the centers close to you and see how you may be able to help out or know of someone who needs to find freedom from addiction, click here

The coming legalization of marijuana

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Pew Research shows Broad Public Support For Legalizing Marijuana.

In terms of the public’s views about the general legalization of marijuana, 41% think the use of marijuana should be made legal while 52% don’t think it should be legal. These findings are similar to a Gallup Survey conducted in October 2009 that found 44% saying the use of marijuana should be made legal and 54% saying it should not be legal. Support for legalizing marijuana is the highest it has been in 40 years of polling on this issue.

In Northern California, the marijuana trade accounts for 2/3 of the total economy.

The legalization fight has acquired a new urgency in recent years.

But compared to issues like unjust foreign wars, protesting for the right to get high always seemed, frivolous; even to a liberal pot smoker, listening to some dude from NORML go on about how the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag and the Gutenberg Bible and Abe Lincoln’s stovepipe hat were all made of hemp can be, well, annoying.

However, people who favor the legalization of marijuana have begun to highlight the fact that shifting marijuana from black market to organic farmers’ market could be a boom to ravaged state economies. Even some politicians are beginning to get in on this debate. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that “it’s time for a debate” about legalizing pot, because it was estimated that decriminalization could net California $1.4 billion in annual revenue.

Furthermore, Fourteen states have enacted laws that legalize medical marijuana in what, I feel, is a first step toward total legalization.

How is the church going to respond?

This is an issue I have heard virtually no theological discussion on.

I am left wondering, Why the silence?

Legalization is coming . . .

Thoughts?

Engaging a new culture

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I just read this article from the Harvard Business Review about the firing of General McChrystal by President Obama.

I, however, discover something in it that while relevant to the topic presented in the article has further implications than for Special Ops dropped into unknown places.

Also, I do not mean to insinuate in any way that the church’s mission strategies should be militaristic.

However, I think we can and should learn from all possible sources since all truth is God’s truth.

With that said, here is an excerpt from the article.

Dropped into an unknown culture, in a land of threatening terrain, with tools insufficient to the mission and dependent on distrustful partners, the team did what it was trained to do — design an entirely new path toward achieving its goal.

The 12-man, multidisciplinary team went through the ritual steps of innovation. The members observed the local culture, collaborated among themselves and with their partners, brainstormed and generated new options, screened for the best, iterated a few, and chose one. In the end, the best option was to get on a horse. The team mounted up to show respect to the culture, establish their social position as warriors, and transport their high-tech GPS systems and laser sighting gear across mountains and desert …

Special Forces soldiers and Special Ops soldiers in general, are taught how to go into unknown, complicated, changing environments, do fast ethnography, brainstorm, generate new ideas, iterate, collaborate, choose the most valid solution for the situation, and execute quickly. They operate in a paradigm of possibility, not reliability, learning by observing and doing, not memorizing standard procedures. They are great Design Thinkers.

What can the church learn about engaging culture from a 12 man special ops team? 4 things:

1. Design a path to achieve a goal.

2. Innovation happens as we:

a. observe the local culture

b. collaborate to discover our best option

c. show respect

3. Operate in a paradigm of possibility, not reliability. What is possible if we . . . ?

4. Learn by observing and doing, not memorizing standard procedures. But we have always done it this way!

The gospel is fixed, but our methodology should be fluid.

What else would you add?

I would love to here your thoughts . . .

Not in my backyard (2)

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A couple of days ago I wrote about a plan to build an Islamic community center in the middle-Tennessee town of Murfreesboro that sparked an eruption of ugly criticism. One quote from the pastor of World Outreach Church stood out:

“We have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam.”

UPDATE: The Daily News Journal reports that Allen Jackson had been misquoted and actually said the following with parenthesis added for clarity.

I would submit to you that we have a duty here at home to understand thoroughly the nature, the intent, the funding of any group that is being invited into our community under that general banner (of Islam).

So much for “world outreach.”

Today I found this helpful post about Christian approaches to Muslims.

If we see Muslims as …
Enemies
Our approach will be …
Attack!/Defend!
Our heart attitude will be ..
hate

If we see Muslims as …
Foreigners
Our approach will be …
Separate Coexistence
Our heart attitude will be ..
Indifference

If we see Muslims as …
Poor, uncivilized, uncultured
Our approach will be …
Invite them to be like us (join us)
Our heart attitude will be ..
Pharisaic/condescending

If we see Muslims as …
Rivals
Our approach will be …
Polemic debate
Our heart attitude will be ..
proud

If we see Muslims as …
Human beings
Our approach will be …
Respectful dialogue
Our heart attitude will be ..
listen and learn

If we see Muslims as …
Unresponsive
Our approach will be …
resigned to do nothing
Our heart attitude will be ..
hopeless

If we see Muslims as …
Lost people Jesus died for
Our approach will be …
Salt/light (demonstrate love)
Preach the Gospel (speak truth)
Pray for their needs (show power)
Become all things to all people (Pauline)
Our heart attitude will be ..
Love

The chart is for work with Muslims but I think you can see that it can apply to much more.

The world is at our doorstep.

UPDATE: 6/3/2010 Bob Roberts reflects on the happenings in Murfreesboro and The Blessing and Opportunity of Religious Freedom in America

Re: group

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I do not know if this is normal and well not much has been normal since the inception of Matthew’s Table. Recently, however, the life of our church community has gotten strange to say the least. So, we are going to take some time to re: group and cancel our usual Sunday gatherings until July 11.

There are several reasons and I wish to highlight a couple here:

1. The Gospel

The Gospel compels followers of Jesus to live, regardless of our occupation, with the same vocation. Jesus said, “You will be my witness” (Acts 1:8). However, I believe we have manipulated a God-centered gospel to fit our human-centered preferences. This is evidenced in that we have seen very few guests, no baptisms, and sporadic involvement in the church and our city from our membership over the past 6-8 months. Therefore, we will spend some time together over the next couple of weeks returning to the centrality of the gospel in the life of our church community as well as discussing where/what/who/how God is calling us to.

2. Leadership

I never imagined all leadership falling on one person, namely me. The leadership model we originally envisioned for Matthew’s Table is modeled after Alan Hirsch’s APEST:

  • Apostles who extend the Gospel through global church planting.
  • Prophets who are particularly attuned to God and his truth for today.
  • Evangelists who are infectious communicators of the gospel message recruit others to the cause by calling for a personal response to God’s redemption in Jesus.
  • Shepherds who nurture and protect make and develop disciples.
  • Teachers who understand and explain Scripture.

I am not called to be, nor could I with all of my best efforts fill all five of these roles. Therefore, we need to work toward structuring our leadership so that we can ensure that all five ministries are present. We want each member of our leadership team to represent one aspect of this fivefold model and be responsible for heading up a team related to that area of ministry. This, I believe, will foster a church in which people will live our and embrace their identity as God’s missional people.

3. Personal burn-out

Getting kicked out of the house that we thought had been given to us by a family member for reasons unknown to us.

A new baby due any day.

Not a day off in at least 2 years.

I am not complaining. I LOVE what I do and where God has placed us, but to put it simply, I’m tired and need to time to recharge both my physical and spiritual batteries.

I pray this time will be a period of renewed focus, energy, and wisdom as we move forward with making Jesus’ name and fame known in Lebanon and beyond.

Not in my backyard

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A plan to build an Islamic community center in the middle-Tennessee town of Murfreesboro sparked an eruption of ugly criticism on Thursday from some residents who don’t want a mosque built in their backyard.

More than 600 people turned out for a meeting of the Rutherford County Commission Thursday night who approved the mosque plan because they met zoning requirements.

Besides it is illegal to reject a project for religious reasons.

Yet some shared their opposition in public comments.

ABC News quotes Allen Jackson, pastor of World Outreach Church as saying: “We have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam.”

UPDATE: The Daily News Journal reports that Allen Jackson had been misquoted and actually said the following with parenthesis added for clarity.

I would submit to you that we have a duty here at home to understand thoroughly the nature, the intent, the funding of any group that is being invited into our community under that general banner (of Islam).

Really?

Maybe Mr. Jackson should consider changing the name of his church. The world is at his doorstep and his statement is hardly “outreach” and is bred out of fear.

Bob Roberts is probably the leading voice for multi-faith trialogue and action. Multi faith is quite different from inter-faith. Bob writes in a blog post titled: How can we practically live out our faith together, despite irreconcilable theological differences?:

Creation of a new platform is critical. The real conflict in the world today is between fundamentalist Christians and Muslims – not moderate or liberals. Interfaith for us means saying, “all roads lead to heaven” and ignoring our sacred Scriptures – I can’t do that – you can’t do that. BUT, if there is a new platform – mult-faith – that says we have differences but the best of our tradition brings us together to build a society or city together – then I can and must do that – I do it everyday with people of all religions and philosophy views of life.

Residents of Murfreesboro, realize the opportunity that God has placed in your backyard. Stop all the hate speech and begin to obey Jesus’ command to love your neighbor as yourself.

Muslims have not heard the gospel and rejected Jesus. Muslims have never heard the gospel and are open to the gospel if treated with love and respect.

UPDATE: 7/23/2010

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Wish You Weren’t Here
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Adopt a people group

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Our church’s global mission strategy is focused on our partnership with church planters in Rome, Italy. While there is of course access to the Gospel in Rome, Italians are less than 2% Evangelical. And while 90% of Italians would identify themselves as Roman Catholic only around 10% are actually practicing Catholics.

This means that Italy has become a last frontier.

italy Adopt a people group

This chart reflects Italy’s status of global evangelization as a “1″
StatusModel Adopt a people group

I think it would be safe to say that most people have never thought of Italians as a last frontier unreached people group yet they are.

Who will join us in praying for Italians?
Who will partner with us as we seek to engage in church planting in the heart of Rome?

If your church would like to adopt, begin praying for, and exploring strategic global partnerships see the International Mission Board’s web site

On prayer

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Prayer is one of the most beautiful/frustrating and perplexing things imaginable. We all have one of those stories of moments when we found ourselves in unimaginably painful situations or we wanted this thing or we didn’t want this thing, and we prayed and we prayed and we prayed.

And God came in like a knight in shining armor and rescued us. Answered prayer stirred up our hearts and passion towards Him, and we got all excited about God moving and interceding in our life situations and just knew God would do it again and again and again.

Some of us have those stories. And then there’s this darker side to prayer that we don’t talk about it a whole lot. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a testimony on the darker side or prayer.

There are these moments and there are these things occurring and we are putting ourselves before God. We get as bare and naked and honest as we can get. And in we believe wholeheartedly that it’s got to go the way we are praying.

Surely God wants my family relationships reconciled, surely God wants my child not to be sick, surely God wants me to get a job so I can move out of my mom’s house, surely God wants my business to prosper. Surely God wants what I am praying for also and therefore He’s going to answer. Because if God does this, then I can . . .

And then it goes silent or the answer is unbelievably perplexing.

I do not know that I have ever heard somebody from the pulpit acknowledge, “I prayed my guts out, and it got worse. I prayed my guts out and knew there was not way it could get any uglier, but as soon as I said ‘Amen,’ the phone rang and it got uglier.

But this happens, doesn’t it? Everyone, if you would be honest with ourselves and one another have had times where you were praying and at times felt like you were crazy.

Or am I the only one?

Context!!!

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Many of the arguments we have about certain theological views are focused on isolated verses from the Bible pulled from context. What is interesting is that so often individuals focus mainly on a single and/or isolated verses.

Rather than the focusing on the entire narrative of the Bible and how it comes together as a whole, we tend to copy and paste our favorite verses together to suit our own needs.


In other words, we let our own personal theology shape our interpretation of the biblical text instead of letting the biblical text shape our theology.