:: New Blog

I am putting together a web log that lists links to church planting, emerging church web logs, and a few misc. places. It is called faith stories.

:: Take the best and go

I've been in "the church" most all of my 42 years, except for about a year and a half of checking out the world and living totally for me (worst year and a half of my life and another blog). I have been in some of the most real communities during some of their best years and I have been in some really bad church settings as well.

One thing I've seen is how easy it is for christians to look to the past. The shout seems to be "Remember When". And noone embraces change because it would be different than "Remember When". I am convinced that God is the God of today. If we ever start looking back we begin to get crusty. Religion is what we see when we look back. We are putting our faith in the past, when God is with us today. I like something I heard Mike Bickle say and think it lines up well with the nature and character of Jesus. He said if you ever stop moving forward with Christ, you will begin moving backward.

My own shout is one I learned from another mentor, John Wimber, "Take the best and Go". In other words leave behind anything that doesn't bear the freshness of Him. Leave methods behind unless they are for today. Leave styles behind unless they speak for Him today. Take the principles we've learned and apply them to today.

**This is my prayer for our new community as we press into Gods kingdom words and works for us, "Lord help us to take the best and go forward, help us to leave old clothes behind."**

:: Callie makes me smile

We were coming home from school this week and in conversation. My 9 year old says I'm never getting married. We start talking about this for a minute. She goes into deep thought and says "Dad, I going to ask God who to marry, and even if he has crossed eyes, a pig nose, and a crooked mouth, if God tells me I'll marry him." That's a good prayer. "No matter what, let your will be done."

:: Fuel 3

We had our third Fuel meeting Monday night. Our group had 6 adults and 3 kids. We have a team forming who all have that divine nudge from God to pursue this journey of forming a community of Christ followers. We talked about what God was doing in our lives at this point. We talked about keeping our mind on obedience each day and not looking too far to the future and not getting stuck in the past. There is a real sense of this being a God thing. We all are acquiring testimony of Gods faithfulness in our transitions and in our desire to further His kingdom. Mark is with us for the first time at Fuel and Christi is their for the first time.

Stories of His faithfulness after praying for Gods will

Elizabeth at work to head boss.
hb: Are you ready to go to work here?
El: If its Gods will
hb: Do you really think God gets involved at this level?
El: Yea, God is involved at every level. I have tons of stories of Him doing that.
hb: Tell me one.
El: ok, let me tell you the story of how God provided for my prom shoes when in high school.
hb: Maybe God does get involved at this level. ... shares some of his life story and talks about a "higher power"
hb: I think maybe God does get involved at other levels. boss leaves

:: Learning to listen

This is part of an article called 10 reasons why your church sucks found on the ooze. Check out the whole article. Listening I think is one of the top disciples of the emerging church.

“First” he said, “Your church is totally irrelevant to the community. You all talk a good game, but you do not see the dynamic of the community changing around you. Second, your church is filled with poor leaders and over bearing bullies who believe the best way to get anything done is to frighten people. All you have are people who will tell you what to do, and not lead us in doing it. Third, your church has no vision. You guys are just dead in the water. Fourth, your church is old. Your church is filled with old people who have no reason to move ahead. They have more life behind them then they do ahead of them. Fifth, your church is inbred. The people my age in your church are all related to the older people so change is impossible. People who are part of the outside don’t feel welcomed into the inside and voice an opinion; it’s filled with mama’s boys. Sixth, your church is more concerned about image them reality. You all seem to be more concerned with the condition with building then with building the condition of your people. The carpet looks great, because no food is allowed near it. The stain glass is wonderful; because you spend more money on cleaning and maintaining it then you do on mission work. Seventh, your church sees no need for change. You are all happy in your fortress and are not interested in opening your doors to the outside. Evangelism is a dead concept, and community is only those inside the building. Eighth, your church doesn't’t share a relevant message for a relevant time. You’re so concerned with doctrine, you are not allowing me to explore the faith and question the unquestionable. Ninth, your church doesn't care about me as a person, only as a checkbook. Over the time I was with the church I heard more sermons on how much I should be giving and not one on how much you were willing to give up. The only time I had anyone from your church visit me was when it was pledge time and you came around and you needed me to increase my giving. It got to the point were I felt no matter what I gave it would never be enough. Tenth, your church is all politics and infighting. Things only get done if you can muster enough political support form others to get your point to be heard, press your issues and lobby for approval. You have to wheel and deal to get anything done.

God keep us from inauthenticity, and allow our authenticity to make a difference.

:: Kingdom Ethos

A simple definition of the kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God. Christ came and ushered in the rule and reign of God on the earth in a whole new dimension. No longer was the presence of God contained in the holy place in the temple. Jesus came as a sacrifice for our errors. After the resurrection of Jesus the presence of God was available to all of humanity. Now the rule and reign of God is upon the earth in us.

There is a time in the future where the rule and reign of God will be a complete work. George Eldon Ladd said we now live in the presence of the future.

Having laid this as a groundwork, we can truly say that our purpose as Christ followers on the earth is to extend the rule and reign of God. This is the greater reality. We are no longer citizens of this present age but are citizens of Gods kingdom. Our lives are to reflect this reality. Our actions, our thoughts are to be vessels of the kingdom of God. We are now ambassadors of our fathers kingdom. We carry His full authority as ambassadors of His kingdom.

So our thoughts, our worldview, our perspective, our ethos is to be one of the kingdom of God, not of the kingdom of this world. I was thinking today how we have data thrown at us that does not work with the kingdom. Our feelings, our experience, this worlds ideas give us an ethos that goes against the grain of the kingdom. When someone is rude to me on the freeway. There are instincts that kick in and my desire is to be rude back. Oh you cut me off, I can do that also. But my kingdom ethos is different. In this paradigm, I may be directed to pray for that person or rejoice in Gods goodness at that moment.

I pray I can learn to embrace a kingdom ethos in a more holistic way in my life.

:: Test

I want to see how this w.blogger software works. Is bloggin strictly postmodern or just an emerging technology? Whatever it is, I like it.

:: Testimonies and the journey

Our journey planting a community of Christ followers in Carrollton is on its way. It hasn't come together as fast as I was thinking, but it is coming together none the less. Part of the process of this journey is letting go of my expectations and asking "What is the father saying?" and "What is the father doing?".

At our first meeting there were three adults and two kids and at our second meeting last week there were four adults and two kids. I mention this for journaling reasons. We are keyed in to the idea of having a community of Christ followers shouldn't be defined by the times we meet together. Meeting together for celebration is a part of our journey but only a part. If we are going to seek first the kingdom of God, we are going to pursue that on a daily basis.

We are having dinners and lunches together and talking of the people we are encountering in our daily lives that need to embrace the kingdom of God through following Christ. In all we are doing we have had a strong sense of the presence of God and recognize that we are just getting on board with His journey.

Testimonies:
Michael Bates has been in the area for about three months. Already he has gone from being a server at a local restaurant to training for a managers position. We see the Lords favor on his step of faith to move out here.

Elizabeth had planned on getting a temp job when she came out. She called about 12 temp agencies. Only one would even take an application because of the many people out of a job right now. Out of that one agency, she was given a temp job the second week. And her first week of work at this job, the firm asked her to apply for a full-time position there. We see Gods favor on her in this.

Mark Pierce just came out this week to make the transition from Lubbock. Marks car is not in the prime of its life and even a trip to Dallas was an occurrence to pray about. The timing on his coming was just right as the weather was overcast and his relic of a car did just fine. As he puts out job applications we are praying for a testimony to come from that the next couple of weeks.

A picture:
We see this community not as a puzzle that we are looking at the lid and trying to fit all the pieces together to make a perfect puzzle, but more like a journey into a forest where we don't know exactly what we will encounter next but are excited about the adventure.

:: Emerging Church: mapping a course

There seems to be a ground roots movement across the world today called the emerging church. As I look at various emerging churches as they spring up there is incredible variety in what they are looking like.

There are some that have a worship style that sings Passion stuff, there are the Hillsong churches, those that use mostly Vineyard worship, some that are totally alternative worship. You have groups that are house churches, others that are church plants meeting in shopping centers, strip malls, schools, or local bars. The types of meetings vary. Some look like traditional churches in format, others wouldn't be caught dead meeting on a Sunday. Polity varies, how they started varies. This is a very eclectic group of people.

I see one thing that is common among the mixture. People today are hungry for spiritual things and are not finding what they are looking for in the churches of today.

With all the variety in the emerging church how do we resonance find our way as we "emerge" onto the scene. Here are some things we could do:

1. We could come up with an elaborate marketing plan to sweep the city and let them
know that Resonance is one cool church and they should come check us out.

2. We could look at the emerging churches we think are doing community in a way that
appeals to us and pattern ourselves after them.

3. We could decide to do everything different from anything we've every seen or
experienced because we want to be different.

Here is what we are hearing from God and believe He is saying to us as we get ready to emerge as a community of Christ followers.

As we have begun to dialogue (an essential part of the community) about what do we do as resonance, we have come to this conclusion. Lets look at Jesus and see what He did. Lets ask the questions of how did he emerge in ministry. How did he live his life? What was He about as He emerged into the world? So our pattern will be Jesus. I know that can sound hyper spiritual. It can sound like buzz lightyear in Toy Story (with big booming voice) "We will follow Jesus pattern." We really don't think this is anything profound and realize probably most everyone would agree with us that Jesus pattern is the direction they are going.

So a couple of things have come up as we have just begun this dialogue within our small community.

. Lets ask like Jesus did "What is the Father saying?" and then lets get in on what the
Father is saying and doing.

. Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God and fulfilling what he taught through His
works. So we know we want the words and works of the kingdom of God to be part of
our journey.

. And recognizing this is a journey. It is not a bunch a events. It is a journey of group of
people who are being the church by a lifestyle of words and works that extend the
kingdom.

Well these are some of the initial thoughts. We met for the second time last night with four adults and two kids. As one friend who is a church planter recently reminded me "Don't forget to enjoy the journey". It is cool serving God, not always easy, but really cool.

:: A semi-definitive list of Christian blogs

Take a look a blogs4God to see lists of some Christian blogs.
Journals

:: When it rains it pours

Wow, we just had one of those weeks where it seemed everything hit at once. I came down with an intense cold for about five days. The van wouldn't start. The brakes on the car wouldn't start. Ethan didn't have all his shots to start school. We couldn't find Callies birth certificate. Our house that was supposed to close, didn't and we had further negotiations on it. We weren't sure about Callies new fourth grade teacher and I had to talk to the principal about the possibility of her switching classes. And somewhere in the midst of all this, I know I am supposed to be about the kingdom. I know I'm supposed to be about the business of planting a church.

Somebody tilted the world or at least our world this week.

On another note I was reminded this week that as followers of Christ we are no longer about ourselves. It is a challenging thing to not be about ourselves. It is a challenge to serve others when I have needs that need to be tended to. It is a challenge to focus on obedience to God when everything around you seems to be calling out "give me your attention".



I find that following Christ is not walking in a straight linear line that is painted with yellow stripes down the middle to give you the correct parameters. It is more like entering a mountain trail that has so much growth you don't know what will come next. Even at times you are not sure which way the path goes. It seems to fade out in the foliage.

This latter path is one that I can navigate only as I continue a divine communication with the creator of the path.

:: What is a weblog?

Check out this report on what a web log is at the Harvard law school blog site. It goes into depth on the heart of a weblog or blog. What is a weblog?

:: deconstructing "knocking on our heart"?

As the emerging church we have to look at how we are communicating the gospel of the kingdom of God. The modern church has it's own venacular. I believe God is all about giving fresh avenues of communication that reach each generation specifically.

I thought of this as I talked this morning with my eight and nine year old. I asked them to read Proverbs 15 and then tell me what jumped out at them. After about ten minutes of dialogue somehow we got on the topic of asking Jesus to come into our heart. Callie (my nine year old) said she remembered hearing that Jesus knocks on the door of our heart the first time. She said she thought their was this little Jesus who would knock on a little door in her heart and then open it and step in. Ethan (the eight year old) told me how when he could feel his heart beating he thought that was Jesus knocking to get in. This brought on a great dialogue about Jesus living in us and what that is all about.

I was reminded that we really need to know who we are communicating with and speak their language. I love talking with my kids about the Lord, they bring up topics I would never think of on my own.

As we are in the beginning week of launching a community of Christ followers, I've been telling our small core to think fresh. We want to communicate what God is doing in us and not try duplicating others.

:: Risk

I love the cover of the new Ten Shekel Shirt CD called Risk. It speaks to the situation we are in at resonance. We are planting a church by stepping out. We feel like this kid jumping from the swing. We are going for it, and it feels unsure in how we'll land, but we're still going for it.

.

Go here to listen to some cuts from the CD: ten shekel shirt

:: The world of blog

Blogging has become one of my favorite hobbies. It might not seem so looking at the site, but I have been soaking up the blog world. It is a new habitat I've never been in and I like it. There are some great blog communities out there. I am even trying to learn a little code, although I haven't found any good publications on the matter yet, just picking up bits and pieces from some of the more technical site.

This seems to me a budding technology that is evolving every day. That's something else I like about blogging, it is a place where innovation is happening by the day.

Although I'm a tiny piece of the blogging world, I look forward to being a part of the community and the exploration of its universe.

:: Check it out

Check out the trailor of the New Mel Gipson movie: The Passion.

:: Kingdom Protocol

I am glad the way God does life is not like the norm of how humanity does life. I heard a story this morning about a complaint in the community of Christ followers in the first century. It went something like this "Your not taking care of our widows, what kind of community is this?" The people had an issue with those who were running the show.

There were twelve guys in charge. They could have taken a poll. Who among you has experience in managing a non-profit organization?, check here. Who has had some experience as an administrator of a food bank?, check here. If you have a degree in management, then check here. This is how humanity might have done it. Or these twelve guys might have said "you know George, he's not doing anything right now, lets appoint him to do it. Or maybe they would have said "This is a crummy little job, we don't want to waste any of our major contributors on this. Make sure someone of no consequence gets this duty."

But Gods ways were different. Taking care of widows was important to Him. There were three qualifications. Put seven men over this task with a good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of wisdom. Then there is a list of seven men who were recommended. These guys were not the little people of the community. They were people who were known, yet they were willing to serve. I like that God is really into people willing to serve. He is not too impressed with people who are impressed with themselves.

Serving God and others is the protocol of the kingdom. It so flies in the face of the realities of our culture. In our culture it is all about me, myself, and I. Those who have committed to follow Jesus wrestle with this also. Sometimes our churches become a place that "I" can get better, a place where "I" like the worship style, a place that "I" have to be fed. The emerging church is one of a faceless generation. They are not plastering their picture upon the face of the earth, but are engaged in making only one face shine. They are putting the face of Jesus before the world. That's the focus of the community of faith I want to be involved in.

Cool is not enough

Once upon a time I was a die hard Macintosh guy. PC's were kinda like the bad guys of the matrix. They were big, pushy, ugly, and not in the least useful. Somewhere along the line of daily routines and working in churches and companies I switched over to PC. I even learned DOS and the ins and outs of windows. Today, I'm much more comfortable on a PC. Although I miss that mystique that Apple always seemed to have. They were always so innovative and styling in how they approached the computing world.

I was reminded about that Apple mystique as we were in the Willow Bend mall one night with my family. I was drawn in to look around at the new Mac models and setups. As usual the Apple store was totally cool. My eight year old Ethan looked up at me as we entered and said "Dad is this a spy store". That was like the ultimate compliment for him. At eight years old, spys are at the top of his cool list. First just a moment I was tempted to go buy a Mac, but just for a moment. It did make me think: Apple has not fallen out of the race.

Finding the river

Last night, Michael Bates and I went over to DFW for an international worship conference. The speaker was Bob Sorge. He used Ezekiel 47 as the jump off point of his message. It speaks about a river of God that flows from heaven. He used this portion of scripture to talk about how churches should worship. He said the goal of every worship leader is not to follow his list, but it is to find the river of God and stay there.

I thought back to a week ago as we attended Harbor Point Community Church in Plano. There was a particular song where the sense of the reality of God was strong in the room. The lead worshiper recognized that and deviated from his list to follow the river. The sense of Gods reality stayed. My eight year old son told me later that day "Dad, I felt something in my heart during the worship I had never felt before, I'm not sure what it was, but I know its kinda good". It encourages me that not only was I aware of God showing up in our worship Sunday morning as was the worship leader was, but my eight year old picked up on it to.

He talked about how we American christians should not be so set on our lists and our linear paradyms, but to set our goal as finding the river of God and hanging out there.

Bob Sorge also talked about how that in Grateful Dead concerts there were times when Jerry Garcia and company would just take off playing music. it wasn't anything they had played before. At these times they were creating new music. It is as if something spiritual was happening as all the band members flowed together. Bob said how this was like an unholy river that the Grateful Dead learned how to plug into, not every concert but in many. This is one of the reason so many "dead heads" would follow them around the country. They hoped to get caught up in this spiritual experience.

We as Christ followers are looking for that holy river, one that brings the reality of Gods presence before us.

I thought about my own life. How many times have I let my agendas and my to do list (for God) keep me from finding the river and staying there. Oh, God show me the river today, let me take a swim.

Net be gone

Wow, It's been almost three weeks since I've been online. Life is a little simpler without the web. I am excited though to be back. We have just made a transition to the North Dallas area to begin our journey of planting a new church called RESONANCE. Our first two weeks here are all about unpacking.

I don't know how were going to get everything that was in our house in Lubbock into this apartment here in the metroplex, but I know that with Christ I can do all things. Honestly Elizabeth and I are hearing from God that we need to simplify. We are attempting to get rid of a lot of stuff we have acquired.

Reality has sunken in, we have jumped of the high dive and are hoping there is water in the pool. So far, so good. We have reconnected with a friend from Lubbock who has moved up here also. Michael is going to help us in this new adventure. Also we have reconnected with our friends Chris and Christy Baggett. They also are signing up for the trip. They will begin to be in transition to North Dallas. This is true Christianity for them, picking up and moving to a new place and trusting God to make life happen and work.

We are elated that God is bringing partners into this journey. There is strength in others who come together for community and pursuit of God.

This is like a roller coaster for me. I greatly dislike heights but I love the ride. There is a mixture of the of emotions that are part of transitions that I greatly dislike, but I know who is running the ride and I am set for the thrill.