22
Jun

Have It Your Way

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Church Plant and Faith

A few weeks ago our community spent time going over our values: Faith, Love, and Hope.  We feel these are the three deepest values of being the church.  Of course, while studying love we read from 1 Corinthians 13. 

This past weekend I attend a good friends wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding outdoors under the blue sky and like many weddings 1 Corinthians 13 was read highlighting love.

Like many people who follow the call of Christ to go and make disciples, there are days I want to “throw in the towel” and shout from the roof “Have it your way!”  Sounds unloving, right?  But it’s actually love for God and others that keeps me “going”.

I bring up this honest truth because the apostle who wrote these beautiful words of love to the Church of Corinth actually wanted to give up on them.  When we read Acts 18 we learn that Paul would go out every Sabbath to the meeting place and do his best to convince people about Jesus (18.1-4).  After his colleagues arrived, Paul went from part-time evangelist to full-time giving all his time to preaching and teaching, doing everything he could to persuade people that Jesus was in fact God’s Messiah (18.5).  But without immediate success, all Paul saw was how they argued contentiously and contradicted him at every turn.  So Paul had it with them and quiet, chalking it up to a bad job on his part.  You might say he said, “Have it your way!”  He decided his time better spent with other people who would respond (18.6).

Here is my confession: I’ve felt this way more than once.  That my efforts were in vain and thought to myself why keep trying?  But it’s what follows in this story of Paul and Corinth that keeps one going.

Paul went home.  He returned to where there was people like him: God-fearing friends.  But here is the catch Paul’s efforts weren’t a total loss, for Crispus, the leader of the meeting place, put his trust in Jesus.  His entire family believed with him (18.7-8).  Actually in the course of listening to Paul, a great many Corinthians believed and were baptized (18.8).

One night God spoke to Paul in a dream: “Keep it up, and don’t let anyone intimidate or silence you.  No matter what happens, I’m with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you.  You have no idea how many people I have on my side in this city.” And that was all Paul needed to stick it out in Corinth.  He stayed another year and a half, faithfully teaching the Word of God to the Corinthians (18.9-11)

I’ve never had a similar dream, but I find comfort in knowing God is with me and no one can truly hurt me.  That somehow, although unseen, many people are coming to God’s side in our city.  I too can stick it out and faithfully teach the Word of God in Austin.

I don’t know where you’re at, but no matter, God is with you.  There is no class of clergy and laity in the body of Christ, only disciples.  As a disciple you are called to go and make other disciples.  As you go (and you must keep it up), don’t let anyone intimidate or silence you.  No matter what happens, God is with you and no one can hurt you.  You have no idea how many people He has on His side in your city.  Stick with it Jesus follower and continue to faithfully teach the Word of God in word and action.

“We will, Lord, until you return!”

27
May

A Desk by the Window

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Church Plant, Ethics, Faith and Random

I actually feel very blessed to have my “tent-making” job by a window.  I complain but honestly God is in the details of my circumstances, BUT I really wish I had my way.  To have the luxury of supporting my family entirely from doing what I love - ministry.

Why does God insist on the long road - the job you hate, consent physical pain, delay of immediate joy?  Didn’t Jesus get the memo - accept Him and life gets better: more money, better friends, nicer clothes, and any job you want.

Peter had a lot to say on this issue.  He said, “Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you’ll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want. (1 Peter 4.2)”

Ouch.  I think the part that says “…instead of being tyrannized by what you want,” hits the hardest.  Reminds me of the last LOST episode for the season where Ben asked Jacob, “What about me?” and Jacob responds “What about you!”  So often we assume because we are doing what Jesus expects or commands there is something in the works for us.  Our reward is Christ and no promise of friends, fame, or fortune. 

But this doesn’t mean God is absent.  When life gets really difficult, we can’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job (1 Peter 4.12).  You see if you find “life difficult because you’re doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he’s doing, and he’ll keep on doing it (1 Peter 4.19).”

Here is the conclusion I have come to - true freedom comes from pursuing what God wants and He wants us to care for His people with all diligence.  Not because you have to, but because you know that makes God happy.  Not calculating what you can get out it (salary), but acting out of spiritual impulse (God will provide my needs).  Not telling others what to do, but tenderly showing them the way (1 Peter 5.2-3).

I’ve come to the assumption that it’s unjust to ask people to live for Christ daily outside your sanctuary, if you sleep on the pews.  Actually, I think true Christianity comes from being the church without buildings and actually just living with people.  Maybe this is unorthodox but maybe the deeper truth of Christ is in getting our hands dirty and clothes frayed daily with the people we are sharing the Kingdom of God with?

Nonetheless, I’m content with who I am, and don’t want to put on self-importance.  God’s strong hand is on me; he’ll promote me at the right time. So I live carefree before God; he is most careful with me (1 Peter 5.6-7).

Disclaimer: I don’t really believe Christian = more, better, nicer, all-inclusive
13
May

Don’t Ever Forget

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Faith and Random

I have a confession.  Left to my own resolve I rush.  This causes me to miss so much and forget so easily.  There are those moments that I will never forget, images carved into my memory.  I’ll always remember a huge fight my parents had when I was about four. I can’t forget the smell of my grandfather’s woodshop. The first time I kissed my wife or touched of her hand will always been dear.  I won’t forget how beautiful she was on our wedding day.  And the moment my daughter was born is treasured.

I find remembering the special moments easy, but how about the bad?  The entire Bible is full of those remember commands.  It was the specific command God passed down to Israel through Moses. “Don’t ever forget that you were slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there in a powerful show of strength.  That’s why God, your God, commands you to observe the day of Sabbath rest (Deuteronomy 5.14-15).” 

I forget. I try to remember but when you have a garage with two cars tucked away inside, bedrooms for everyone including your desktop Dell, and running water in overflow - one forgets.  Maybe that is why the Agur (Proverbs 30) wrote asking that God give him neither poverty nor riches, but only his daily bread. Otherwise, he may have too much and forget God or may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of God.

It’s hard to remember.  We don’t want to remember the pain, life’s sting, and unwarranted grief.  It’s even harder to remember the past when it wasn’t your own.  The command to remember was equally directed toward future generations of Israel who would enjoy the suffering of their ancestors.  

I believe that the command to never forget is central to the gospel.  It’s central to how we interact with our world, “such were some of you” (1 Corinthians 6.11). So today take a moment to sit still, allow the hush to engulf you, and think back to who you were.  Think what Christ removed you from, delivered you to, and continues to promise.  To fellowship with Christ is not to forget the past, but to remember it; because it there that Jesus sat you free.

21
Apr

What is your preferred environment of worship?

By Chris 1 Comment
Categories: Church Plant and Random



17
Apr

The Way Church Will Be

By Chris 1 Comment
Categories: Family

book_zisite_lgSo I picked up this book a few weeks ago.  It was written by a pollster, John Zogby, the book is called “The Way We’ll Be: The Transformation of The American Dream.” Although it’s a tough read, not because he doesn’t have good thoughts, just a lot of polling numbers to support what he’s saying.  I guess it should be expected.

But I read it for the last chapter.  It’s here that he briefly predicts the future of religion in America.  I think he said it well and I feel everyone needs to hear it.  If you’ve follow anything religion you already know people are looking for something authentic, but it’s how he predicts this value will shape the future of what church looks like that I want to convey.  Because the book says it well, I will use a lot of quotes.

What he says is the future of Protestantism has mostly to been found in megachurches.  With over 1200 churches, defined as congregations of 2000 or more, megachurches average “20 full-time paid ministerial staff persons, 22 full paid program staff persons, and nearly 300 volunteer workers who give five or more hours a week to the church.”  That’s more people than the average Protestant church can get to come through their doors on Christmas and Easter combined.

He says he certainly doesn’t think “that megachurches are in any danger of disappearing in the immediate future.”  But he sees a “powerful countervailing trend in the authenticity movement and its emphasis on content over package.” He sees the small but fast-growing house-church movement as “compelling evidence that the push back against megachurches is already well under way.”

Much like the early “Christians did when the Church still had to operate underground, house-churchers meet for worship not in soaring glass cathedrals or on sprawling religious campuses but in worshipers’ homes.  Production values are nil.  Hierarchy is flattened of necessity:  These are not staff-rich environments.  As one leader said of the house-church movement, ‘It is about authenticity.  Church services have succeeded at being more characterized by excellence, but one of the consequences of that excellence is artificiality and the feeling that everything is produced and that it is a show.’  Or as another participant told the L.A. Daily News, ‘What is so exciting about doing small-group house church is just the chance to be real.’  In a culture filled with fake and overblown events, that’s a powerful force.  Estimates are that the house-church movement have grown tenfold over the last decade, to about 20 million participants attending either full-time or occasionally. ”

The Barna Group (another pollster) estimates more than 70 million adults have at least experimented with house church participation. In a typical week roughly 20 million adults attend a house church gathering. Over the course of a typical month, that number doubles to about 43 million adults.

They both project the number to grow even more dramatically in the years ahead.

15
Apr

A Biblical Approach to Weed

By Chris 2 Comments
Categories: Church Plant

What is more annoying than weeds?  Until last weekend I had a whole backyard full of them.  But there is something staggering about them - their everywhere! They grow where there is little water (or shallow amounts), where the sun is rigid, and often where grass won’t grow.  I’m using the word weed loosely as some are a nuisance, an unwanted plant in human-made settings or natural areas.  But the strength of weeds is they are native (sometimes nonnative) plants that grow and reproduce aggressively. 

weed2During this recession I’ve seen a few car dealerships close along our main interstate.  One in particular the entire lot is covered with hefty weeds.  At first I responded by think they don’t belong there!  A weed is a plant in an undesired place.  Except as of late I’ve began to compare weeds to the church.

The message of the Kingdom of God, one in the opinion of the leaders of Jesus’ day, took root in undesired places. In Luke 13:18-19 Jesus actually compared the Kingdom of God to a tiny mustard seed. Some think he was talking about the Kingdom of God starting very small, but over time it would grow to grand proportions.  However, the parable, as Jesus told it, carried a different message.  The mustard was so aggressive, it was considered to be unclean. One mustard plant could corrupt an entire garden. There were many restrictions on when and where mustard could be planted, if at all. Simply put, there is a good chance that the man planting the seed was doing something illegal. The mustard plant, both now and then, was often considered to be nothing more than a pesky weed.

Jesus’ message actually got him killed because it showed up where people didn’t expect it, nor wished it.  Like weeds the message of Jesus’ was unwanted for a number of reasons: it’s unattractive to the self righteous, crowded out or restricted religion, and survived in inadequate conditions but with adequate resources (the Father helped).  Some weeds are hazardous, but so is the message of the Kingdom of God.  Weeds cause irritation as does the message of the Cross (1 Cor 1.18) and normally spreads naturally (2 Thess 3:1-3).

So before I share my theory I want you to know I realize that weeds are not favored in scripture (Genesis 3:17-19).  What I am convinced the phrase, Kingdom of God, conveys the center of Jesus’ life and message.  But just like gardening or lawn care, participation is voluntary; the Kingdom of God, like weeds, is present, whether or not people recognize and accept it.

The main thrust of the kingdom is the spiritual transformation of individuals who make up the body of Christ. This ministry of Jesus continues through the Church.  However, the Kingdom of God in not the Church, yet the two have an inseparable relationship. The true Kingdom of God includes all who have believed, or will believe, in Christ as Savior from the Church’s inception until the end.

But I digress, what I believe is the Church should be as simple as the common weed.  The “weed” is not a weed when growing where it belongs or is wanted.  Jesus said he came to the sick.  He said that sin begins death.  If you’re dead, you’re not reproducing. 

Professor Richard C. Lewontin of Harvard University defines weeds as plants that create environmental conditions in which it cannot reproduce.  He takes the example of pine trees that crowd out sunlight such that its own offspring cannot grow.  So imagine the church as the weed thriving in environments that normally suffocate itself to spiritual death. 

weedI believe the church shares similar adaptations as weeds, allowing them to proliferate in disturbed environments whose soil or natural vegetation has been damaged.  Weeds evolve, adapt, and grow in human-disturbed areas.  Should not the local church do the same in the areas of our city and community?  Going where sinful man have disturbed life, adapting and growing in order to bring true life? 

See the church, like a weed, have a nature that often give them an advantage of quickly growing and reproducing.  This is why I’m convinced of the house church method, because it allows the church to be sustainable for many years or have short lifespans with multiple generations in the same area; however, contently spreading to where life is absent.

 ”Weed seeds are often collected and transported with crops after harvesting of grains, and so many weed species have moved out of their natural geographic locations and have spread around the world with humans.”  Okay, Bible thumpers don’t remind me that Jesus often spoke of separating the weeds from the harvest, I get it.  What I’m getting at is that weeds, like the church, move out of their areas and spread around the world through humans.

 Weeds thrive where human conversion has occurred.  Church thrives where human conversion (change, transformation, movement, exchange) will occur.  Humans are the vector (force or influence) of transport and the producer of disturbed environments, so weeds have an ideal association with humans (so does the church).

07
Apr

Human Filters

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Ethics, Faith and Random

What’s your filter?  Everyone has a filter, it’s whatever worldview, orthodoxy, or understanding you use to strain, sort, and categorize what goes through your senses (hear, see, smell, touch, taste). These filters can be good and they can be harmful.  The definition of the verb filter is the act of slowly or partially obstructing the passage (you could insert message).  This isn’t all bad.  Our filters cause every message that we encounter to pass or slip through slowly, as through an obstruction. This allows us to decide if the information is worthy.

 Now you may be thinking, “This is not news!”  Except what if our filters are congested? 

 When we bought our house, we also bought a new refrigerator.  If worked wonderfully.  Except after two years, when friends came over, the water pressure slowly decreased in the door.  I would just tell them to push the button to reset the filter.  But they still complained.  Then two years ago my father was visiting and asked when the last time I change the filter?  I responded that I didn’t know we needed to change the filter.  After reading the owners manual we learned it should be changed every six months.  Our filter was two and half years old - gross.  I actually need to change our filter now.

 So how do we change our human filters?  That is much harder and there is no expiration date.  But it’s important to assess and sometimes reset our filters.  Here are some ways I continually assess and reset my filter to make sure I’m responding to my world candidly. 

  • Read books.  Find books about subjects your comfortable with and read a different point of view. A Christian should read a Atheist’s argument.
  • Listen to different people talk about their view of world issues and dialog.  The secret here is to listen, not convert them.  Listening is much more powerful.
  • Try new things.  I remember in middle school going to a Bat Mitzvah.  I’m not Jewish but the experience left a lasting impression of the origins of my own faith.
  • Visit other countries and get involved.  The world is much smaller due to the internet and you have no excuse for never leaving home.  I know a woman who was born, educated, and raised her children in Texas — until recently she had never left the state.  At age 50 she left Texas for the first time to visit her daughter in LA.
  • Open your life to people not like you.  I think about Jesus often when it comes to this action.  He was completely God and Man - no one was like him - but he opened himself to everyone who would have him.  It’s sort of living life on purpose. 

The real message here is be aware of your filters.  We need to reset these filters to allow us to interact with the world more truthfully.  The best way to do this is to leave your box, bubble, or whatever is keeping your from growing.

23
Mar

Book Recession

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Random

Let me be honest we’ve been blessed to not be directly impacted by the “recession” besides some close family salaries being decreased.  But Summer and I work in fields that are doing well during this time. 

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t felt the consequences.  I love reading.  I remember as a child my mom taking me to the local library to pick out a book for the week.  As we walked in the door she would walk me to the children’s section identified by the green and orange chairs chrematistic of the 70’s.  She would then go the section where her novels shelved. These trips produced a love for non-fiction.

So as an adult on a budget I often borrow my books from the library and save the money to purchase those hard to find books (i.e. church planting).  And until recently I’ve been very happy with my relationship with the local Pleasant Hills Public Library.  As of late the books have been hard to get.  I’m now always on the waiting list and not just for the popular books (Outliners by Gladwell) but the not so popular (Reimagining Church by Viola).  When I go into the library the place is full.  Part of this influx could be their newly reduced hours, but I think a lot of it has to do with the economy. 

People are borrowing more books, instead of buying.  They are visiting the library or sitting outside in their cars to access the WiFi because maybe they’ve canceled their internet, just another luxury expense.  People can relate at the library.

This is nothing new to some people.  When we moved to Austin five years ago, here to plant a church and still looking for jobs, I would go to the library with a friend to borrow CDs and movies because it was cheaper than a album purchase or the rental.  Although I don’t think either of us borrows music or movies from library anymore, it has become common during our “recession” to see people browsing the libraries media, like we once did.

Now let’s pray this remains my only product of the economy.

13
Mar

Video Confessional // March 13 2009

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Faith and Random


Video Confessional - March 13 from Chris McCool on Vimeo.

10
Mar

We Must Change

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Church Plant, Faith and Random

Did you know the phrase “under god” in the pledge of allegiance has not always been in the pledge.  It was put in during the Eisenhower administration (1953-61) to help distinguish the United States from the “godless” communists in the USSR.  Did you also know Christian churches have consistently decreased since the 1950s, but since 2001 there has been a significant fall in numbers?

America is drifting away from religion according to a recent study by Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.  According to the American Religious Self-Identification Survey (ARIS) Christianity’s hold on many Americans is slipping, losing out not to other faiths but to “no faith.”  “Americans are slowly becoming less Christian…The challenge to Christianity does not come from other world religions or new religious movements, but rather from a rejection of all organized religions,” said the ARIS.

Catholics remained the largest religious group nationwide, thanks largely to immigration from Latin America into Texas and California.  But mainline Protestants lost the most ground dropping from 18.7% in 1990 to 13% today. The “no religion” group gained 20 million adults since 1990 and is the only group to have grown in every state.  Only 10% of that group explicitly identifies as atheist or agnostic. 

The survey is clear that adults are leaving denominational religions and not returning to church and claiming no religion, or going to nondenominational or evangelical churches, although they too have seen a decline.

The Northeast now surpasses the Pacific Northwest as the least religious part of the country.  And that is not the end.  For the first time, the ARIS 2008 survey included a question on belief about God, and the findings suggest some Americans may not share fully the theology of the groups with which they identify.

A little less than 70% believe “definitely in a personal God,” with 12% believing “in a higher power but no personal God.”  Some 2.3% say there is no God, while 10% either don’t know or don’t think there is a way to know.  So 30% or more people wouldn’t fit the definition of a disciple of Jesus. 

These numbers bring up a good question.  People normally remain with the faith they grow up with.  And now that a good fraction of the population is being raised outside the religious influence, what does it mean for religious institutions?  Can Christianity change it’s methods enough to reach those leaving the church and/or be positioned to reach the growing future generations who will be “no religion,” agnostic or atheist.

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