Because . . .

I wanted to do something fun with the kids today and let them get out of the routines of life. We went to the mall, went to see a movie, and then got a bite to eat. We saw Because of Winn Dixie. This is not a great movie, but it is a very good one and it relays some good theology about true community. And you Dave Matthew fans will enjoy Dave's role in the movie where he does a bit of playing and singing.

A site to see

Soul Searching: cool design and content. Check out the video clips of peoples stories. I like that uk accent.

How can my ministry promote the kingdom ? not the other way around.

Mike Pilavachi speaks to the issue of giving up our lives in Confessions of a middle aged youth worker.

Things people won't say when they see a Christian bumper sticker or fish on a car

From John Dekker's Journal

Things people won't say when they see a Christian bumper sticker or fish on a car

7. "Look! Let's stop that car and ask those folks how we can become Christians."

6. "Dad, how come people who drive like that don't get thrown in jail? Can we get a bumper sticker like that, too?"

5. "Stay clear of those folks, Martha. If they get raptured, that car's gonna be all over the road!"

4. "Oh, look! That Christian woman is getting a chance to share Jesus with a policeman."

3. "No, that's not garbage coming out of their windows, Bert. It's probably gospel tracts for the road workers."

2. "Don't worry, Billy, those people are Christians. They must have a good reason for driving 150 kilometres an hour."

1. "Quick, Alice, honk the horn or they won't know that we love Jesus!"

Is life fair ?

"to live is Christ, to die is gain"

I had an interesting conversation with my wife this week. We were diligence about when we get tired and the issue of "Is that fair?" comes up. I had to clean the house this week and you didn't have time to help, was that fair? I realized "Is that fair?" is not a question a Christian asks. The more appropriate questions is "God, What is your will in this?" When I ask is that fair, what I'm really saying is "Is this a fair deal for me ?"

Just because something isn't fair doesn't mean it isn't right. To serve another is not a fair thing, but it is a right thing. To bless your enemies doesn't seem fair, but it is right. To forgive doesn't seem fair, but in God's economy it is right. In this life I pray I will die to my expectations of fairness and embrace what is right: serving God which translates as Christ living through us.

And right isn't always fair. It wasn't fair that Jesus had to die and take the burden of the sins of the world upon himself. It wasn't fair that God has mercy on me even though I demean His holiness by my sin.

The mystery of His presence

The past two Sunday mornings at our house gathering, there has been a very real and encouraging sense of Gods presence among us. Our father loves to build up His children.

This Sunday we had a time where children and adults did a playdo sculpture to signify something they knew about God's nature. Teryn, one of our preschoolers shared her sculpture of a mouth with sores on it and told us how it reminds her that God "fixes us when we're broken". I think every adult in the house was moved by that.

We later partook together of the richness of Romans 12. We were reminded that the body of Christ is connected not only with adults but with our children. And that we need them as part of the body. Another comment was how digestive systems are needed as much as shiny hair. Those behind the scenes giftings are just as valuable and needed.

On both occasions we have ended in soaking prayer for one or another of our community.

This morning I was reminded of a Vineyard song of a few years back and find it being my prayer today.

Come walk among us
Come walk a-mong us Jesus
You know that we need You
You know that we need You Jesus

You see our hearts
You know that we're but dust
Its You who made us
Lord in You we choose to trust

Come Lord,Come Lord

Artistry rules

Daniel Pink says:

Logical and precise, left-brain thinking gave us the Information Age. Now comes the Conceptual Age - ruled by artistry, empathy, and emotion

Read Revenge of the Right Brain in this months Wired.

Quick links

Brain McClaren is one of the top 25 most influential evangelicals according to Time magainze.

GodBlogCon 2005 a convention for the Christian blogosphere is in October in Mesa Arizona.

Hugh Hewitt has recently written BLOG (understanding the information reformation that's changing your world)

A generous orthodoxy indeed.

I recently have read through a Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McClaren. A Generous Orthodoxy is one of those books that stirs up sentiment in dramatic ways. It is one of those books that is either loved or hated.

Without going into huge detail about it's contents I found a review that I thought was really fair and along the lines of my own thinking. Check out Craig Bloomberg's review from Denver seminary.

Did I love the book or hate it? The answer is yes to both. It's a book that challenges current paradigms of Christianity, I loved that part. It is a book that stretches the boundaries of traditional Christianity which is distressing. Overall it is a book that should make a person think and not be afraid to ask questions. No, Brian doesn't have all the "right" answers and I think that is one of the points of the book, noone does.

Whether love or hate, you should read A Generous Orthodoxy.

For even more info you can check out the blog.

God's kingdom is the destination

Two quotes I liked from a recent conference examining the emerging church held at Fuller seminary.

, Reggie McNeal called the church to celebrate the "last gasp of the renewal movement of the modern church," with its emphasis on "programs, methods, and systems," and recognize that the emerging church in the 21st century is about "nations, tribes, and movements. Church is not the destination--God's kingdom is the destination. This is what it means to be 'missional' in the world today. Church starts with the world, not our church refuges."

Ryan Bolger in his summary: "In the old modern world, we understood the gospel to mean 'you're sick, and God wants to fix you so you can come be like us," Bolger said. "Churches are no longer seen as places where people go, it's movements of people out, declaring a message that 'A new day is coming and you get to participate with God in the redemption of the world,' and invitation to join God's story."

Those guys know how to grieve

When Jacob died, the Egyptians mourned for him 70 days, then Joseph and his brothers took Jacob to be buried in the land of Canaan. There Joseph mourned for his father 7 days and the company with Joseph which was a mob cried in loud voices. They lamented bitterly. Grief is a lost art in our American consumer culture. We do suffer loss, and loss messes with our souls. May we learn again how to grieve, maybe then we wouldn't be tempted to medicate ourselves to kill the pain.

Reading through the word

I have found recently that I like using the One Year Bible online for devotional reading in the morning. You can change versions you are reading. I like NKJV and NASB but it is nice to look at a verse in others renderings also.

This morning I read:
^{Proverbs 4:23}

Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life

I am reminded that I have to be intentional about watching over my heart, there are so many noises that want my hearts attention and will crowd out the voice of the Almighty.

Emerging Stories

There has been a renewed commitment with myself this year to be a connector for emerging church people. With that in mind I started emerging stories. Emerging stories is a blog with tons of links to emerging stories around the globe.

My intention with this blog is not be all encompassing. So hold any criticisms about who and what is included at this point. I just want to have a place in the blogosphere where you can get a ton of pathways into the emerging conversation. And hopefully if your new to the conversation, you can get a heavy dose of exposure here.

Let me know if you have any suggestions and feel free to send me links and recommendations about the blog.

Indie Allies

Indie Allies was pretty casual this month. More than overall conversations, we had many scattered dialogues.

The Alvis family is wifi

We have finally entered into the world of wifi. We wanted to have two computers in the house that had internet. The kids need to do research for school projects and even mom wants to get on the internet from time to time. I bought a linksys Wireless G router. The setup was simple. The PC's are connected, the next step is figuring out how to get the Macintosh connected.

Simplicity in Identity

Paul begins many of his letter telling the reader that he is an apostle called by God, not by men or of men. He is a bondservant. Paul knows his identity. This gives him purpose and focus. There is a simplicity found in knowing our identity. It gives focus and clarifies direction.

This past year and a half has been about deconstructing identity for our community Resonance. My sense is that the next season for us is one of building a God given identity. Three areas for focus within Resonance this coming season are:

1. Building healthy community:
For us that means being connected on our journeys together and encouraging one another in our pursuit of God as a community.

2. Being a support to Foursquare:
We want to lend ourselves to serving the Foursquare denomination and their vision. It isn't that we think Foursquare is implicitly more correct than other denominations, but it is the family God has called us to support.

3. Being a support and encouragement to the emerging church movement:
As Foursquare is a representative of the traditonal church, we also believe we are to be part of the emerging church movement. We want to encourage, support, and lend ourselves to encouraging emerging church leaders and communities.

As a church we are not an either or type of group but a both and. These three facets of our dna should help us find focus as we launch into 2005.

The Emerging Church: a definition

Check out the defintion of Emerging Church at Wikipedia. There are also some good links to peer at.

Wikipedia is like the open source encyclopedia. Anyone can edit and it is free.

Umm Christmas dinner

We were blessed this year as my mom and dad paid for the four of us to fly out to Lubbock, texas and be with the rest of the family for two days.

Friday I spent time with Shane, then Ethan and I grabbed some Home Plate diner quisine (chicken fried steak and cheese sticks). Home Plate Diner is one of those places that is native to Lubbock and missed by Ethan and I. I spent time installing and working on mom and dads computers Friday afternoon. I enjoy being able to give back in some way to them as they so often have given into our lives.

Saturday afternoon was spent playing card games and getting ready for Saturday night. Adam, my brother in law, as usual brought steaks that we cooked on the grill.

Our Christmas meal Saturday night was giant coconut shrimp, ribeye steak, baked potatoes, etc. It was goooood. It has been a blessing to be in Lubbock and with friends and family. There is something about the yearly family gatherings that adds richness to life.

Now that's stress

Try this for a stress test.

Have you ever found out you were moving immediately? Bad enough leaving family, friends, and things you've know for so long, but add to that no time to say goodbye.

Have you ever had your parents misunderstand something you did to the point of ostracizing you? That would be stressful.

Have you ever been in a situation that everyone thought you were lying about a major event in your life?

Ever had a girlfriend tell you they were pregnant and the baby was not yours? We’re talking serious hurt.

What about this? Have you ever had a supernatural being visit you and give you a message?

What advice do you have for this persons stress level?

a. Give them the Henry Cloud book Boundaries.

b. tell them not to try drugs ever again.

c. Recommend them to the Jerry Springer show

or d. Do you encourage them to continue to follow God and His plan for their life?

When thinking about Christmas we see Christmas cards with Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus with halo's around their heads, sometimes we forget that they walked through some deep dark times on the road to being true followers.

It's a good reminder that following Christ is not neat and clean and happy and stressless all the time. Much of time there are more loose ends than tied ones and more questions than answers.

It is also a reminder that the road no matter how rough is leading us to Christ

Indie Allies

We had our first North Dallas Indie Allies last night. There was much passionate discussion. We touched on being organic and how that involves having intentional struture, contextualizing the gospel to our own habitat, what exactly is emerging, being missional, the little people in our brains, and various and asundry other topics. Not many answers but a whole lot of good questions and discussion.

For me the consensus on many questions keeps coming back to the fact that it is healthy to pursue questions in us. This is part of our search after more of the creator of the universe. There is something in me that continually cries out for more of Christ. I think all my questions are from that outflow. That outflow I think is a healthy one.