Jesus and Java

I’ve started reading a book this week called “Crazy Love,” I know, you read the title and your like what? Just hear me out a minute. It is a book by pastor/speaker Francis Chan, who many of you in our church have likely never heard of, but I would encourage you to pick up this book and give it a read. I am on the first chapter and desire to share with you something Chan wrote in the preface.

“This book is written for those who want more Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity offers. It is for those who don’t want to plateau, those who would rather die before their convictions do.”

I stand amazed when I read this and have to admit that I am VERY bored with “American Christianity” and what it offers as Chan has said. I believe when we step back and look at our Christianity, that is our personal belief in Christ and what the word “disciple” means, many of us would have to admit we have reached a plateau having found the comfort it offers good. I would also add our desire to continue the journey to the summit has waned considerably and I fear for many it may not exist at all.

In my own life, I have this desire of wanting more Jesus of wanting to follow Him no matter the cost but am I willing to do what it takes? Are you willing too? Are we as a church willing? I am excited as I read the pages and scared too because the words are challenging my soul. Later in the preface Chan goes on to say,

“We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God. You’ve probably heard the expression “I believe in God, just not organized religion.” I don’t think people would say that if the church truly lived like we are called to live. The expression would change to “I can’t deny what the church does, but I don’t believe in their God.” At least then they’d address their rejection of God rather than use the church as a scapegoat.”

Wow. He is right you know, I’ve know many people who say this and I have to agree we give people the excuses. Christians stand before the world and are looked upon by our actions, our lives, and our churches. Sad but true, the actions of a few speak for the majority. I’m not sure the direction this book is heading, but the title “Crazy Love” and Francis Chan’s desire to pursue God, “to lead a church of comfortable people into lives of risk and adventure” sounds like a great vision to me. I’ll leave you with the closing words of the preface and hope you pick up a copy of this book.

“Come with me on this journey. I don’t promise it will be painless. Change, as we all know, is uncomfortable. It’s up to you to respond to what you read. But you will have a choice: to adjust how you live daily or to stay the same.”

The title of this post is very original I know… thanks to Jeremy Copeland for it, he is after all the man.

I’ve been reading unChristian… I’m going very slow I want to soak in ever word and it’s amazing I have to say. If your a pastor or not you should read it. If you give any flip about what the 16-29 year olds think about Christianity both inside and outside the church you should read it. Why should you care what this age group thinks? Because they are defining what the future of Christianity is going to be.

Sounds painful don’t it?

On to the book…

Some basic stats that are eye popping among Americans ages 16-29 (from page 34), 91% of outsiders think the church is antihomosexual compared to 80% of church goers. Judgmental? 87% of outsiders compared to 52% of church goers. Are we hypocritical? 85% of outsiders think so as compared to 47% of church goers.

This makes me step back for a minute. Looking at the Christians we can see that a lot of them have some major issues with “modern Christianity” as Kinnaman put it. They don’t think the church reflects what Jesus taught and it makes me wonder if we have become the Pharisees Jesus challenged. People in this age group are “mentally and emotionally disengaging from Christianity.”

Hypocritical. This chapter (3) has one think that really hit home for me (I realize I’m doing a lot of quoting over discussing but It’s because my thoughts are best represented with Kinnaman’s words)

“most of the lifestyle activities of born-again Christians were statistically equivalent to those of non-born-agains… No difference.”

Im glad this is out in the open… really. I truly feel convicted about how Christians play the role of perfect. We are not. this is proof, thank God we are like everyone else. I have a desire to worship God not “play church” and we are very much of this mentality.

I was talking with a friend yesterday at church and we both thought it was ironic how we come and act like everything is fine and great and we have no hardship or problems, we didn’t contemplate suicide this week or skip on our bills because we are addicted to gambling, or sacrificed our standards to get ahead. We had the happy go lucky Christian week. It just makes me think you know? What if we spoke truth?

What’s your take?

The Austin Stone is not going to be just a church in the city of Austin…it’s going to be a church FOR the city of Austin.

I read these words over on Bush’s blog yesterday and I feel God really convicting me about this as it relates to our church and more specifically REFUGE our student ministry here. What would happen if we as believers took this idea and actually did something about it in our communities, our neighborhoods, our cities? Man students what if we took this to our schools? What if we as a church moved from being in our cities to being FOR our cities? Check this video they made to share this vision with their people.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv99xCdEFUA&hl=en&fs=1]

It also brought to light a song I heard at a worship service for a World Changers Mission project we helped with this summer, check it out too.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d61LamkXfwk&hl=en&fs=1]

Try this…
(your church name here) is not going to be just a church in the city of (your city)…it’s going to be a church FOR the city of (your city).

Is this your prayer? Your hope? Your desire? The desire of your church? The desire of God?

I came across this on the net today and thought wow, I love it when truth is prayed, I think Don you need to go pray this same prayer for the Republicans and I think the rest of the world too.

“Father God,

This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future.

We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation.

We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy.

Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left.

Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them.

Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions.

Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle.

Hep us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.

Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.

We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help.

Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world.

A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.

Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world.

Help us be an example of humility and strength once again.

Lastly, father, unify us.

Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.

And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish.

God we know that you are good.

Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans.

I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.”

::Don Miller

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ&hl=en&fs=1]

I was reading over on my friend Aaron’s blog (the paper mirror) and he posted the following.

“let’s say for some odd reason your church dies, and has to completely close the doors. my friend JR Vasser and i were talking about this at lunch. maybe hard to imagine, but whatever size church you have, imagine it having to shut down. close the doors, vacate the building, completely shut down.

would your city mourn the loss of your church?

would your city or town feel the overwhelming loss of a church that is known for service, love, and giving? would the city officials approach the church and say, “look…we’ll do whatever it takes to keep you guys going…with all the things your church is doing in our community, we CAN’T imagine the loss of such a vital part of our city.” really, would this happen if your church was no more?

shouldn’t the church be known for the kinds of things Jesus was known for? justice, love, mercy and grace, truth, serving the poor, forgiving wrongs, healing the sick, being the peacemaker, and befriending the broken and oppressed. the local church should be so valued to a community because of what it gives… what it lives out… and the types of people that come from it. shouldn’t the local church itself be full of compelling people? with a compelling mission?

the local church should be shaping and compelling people, as we imitate Christ. the local church should have been the instigators of our modern social justice movements…not just responders to the rest of the culture. the local church, your church, my church, should be the vital part of a city…meeting the needs, serving, loving, befriending, peacemaking, and LOVING.

so, if your church died tomorrow, would your community even notice the loss?”

So leave some comments on here or over on Aaron’s blog the paper mirror.

“America has the 4th largest number of lost people in the world.” according to the banner I just read on sbc.net (the Southern Baptist Convention website). Amazing. We have the 4th largest number, we also (don’t quote me) have the most Christians per square mile of any country. I think that because according to this site there are 2.1 Billion of us worldwide, 224 Million in the US.

So what does that say? We as Christians live in one of the most prosperous nations of the world, yet we can’t share Jesus with the dude next door? Sad.

Jesus called us to Jerusalem first (Acts 1:8) which I think many of us as Christians have forgotten or maybe the truth is that going to Jerusalem means we might have to actually get our hands dirty for Jesus in our own backyards instead of just sending money to someone else to do the dirty work.

Since we are the most heavily populated Christian nation going to Judea should not require much work beyond Jerusalem if we all decided to get involved.

But we won’t… we are the benchwarmers when it comes to reaching our own nation, the majority of us would rather let other “false religions” do it for us.

ouch.

Backstage Friday From Left to Right: Cleve, Me, Mark, & John

Chillin’ In the Studio

This morning I woke up around 5:30AM (A bit early for those of you who know me) and headed out to North Augusta for “Backstage Pass Friday” at 88.3 WAFJ, our local Christian radio station. 88.3 WAFJ hosts this event during their morning show John & Cleve in the Morning on the first Friday of every month and if your interested in signing up you can do so here. The station has you come in and they talk with you on the air, have you do the weather, and show you the basic mechanics of how the station works. I really had a good time, it was worth the drive in the rain. The whole WAFJ team were great to meet and very outgoing. I enjoyed being on the air with John & Cleve, talking with Steve Swanson the station manager (who moved up from Florida ala JoyFM out of Bradenton/Sarasota), & David Perry the production manager who is a fellow bass player. I’m all for supporting good clean radio; it is becoming far more rare in our era.

I’m going to have to do a post about Mark (he was a guest too), he is part of a motorcycle racing ministry that is nationwide and that is totally worth it’s own post. Can you imagine going 170MPH on a motor cycle at Daytona? I can’t.

Notice the photos? It’s Still Photography Friday! Thanks to David Perry for taking those!

***I also stopped by Saturn to get something minor fixed on my car and scored two free tickets to the Augusta Lynx hockey game tomorrow night against the Pensacola Ice Pilots.***

What a day.

“Birds lack faith. They fly away when I enter the orchard, though I mean them no ill. Even so do we lack faith in God.”
.: Martin Luther

Subject:: Rose on Stone
Camera:: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Aperture:: f5.4
Shutter:: 1/8
ISO:: 800
Focal Length:: 60mm