Author Archive for Chris

12
Nov

Jesus doing what He does

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Ethics and Faith

A few weeks ago our group (Graceland People) discussed what happens when Jesus comes into your life?  This discussions origin came from an unbeliever friend of mine (His not atheist but agnostic).  He didn’t understand why people say “Jesus Saved Me” when they were actually the people who decided to change.  They were the one responsible everyday to make the decision to be better.  I agreed with him.  When you give your life over to Christ there is a measure of responsibility on our part to choose change daily.  Paul said he dies to himself daily (1 Cor. 15.31). But Jesus does have a part in the change; God through the Holy Spirit does make a difference.

I think many people view “religion” or Christianity as something they do.  Our biggest opposition in America comes from “Christian” atheists who reject the existence of God. I would speculate that many of the people looking for God are convert sinners who already believe in the God of the Bible.  At the end of their ropes they turn to the poplar choice.  This story was played out in Luke 3 when John the Baptizer was poplar with the locals.

We have so many terms for people searching for God but these people were those that felt satisfied with their relationship with God.  They looked good outward, children of Abraham, possibly the “good” Jewish boys and girls.  John pointed out God can make children from rocks, what He desires is green, blossoming lives.  Life change not wet skin.

Of course their response was “what do we DO?” Religion has a way about it, causing you and me to look for actions we can act on.  John wouldn’t loose an opportunity to teach virtue. He said “have two coats, give one away,” “no more extortion,” “no shakedowns, no blackmail.” All this talk of virtue caused the crowds to ask if John was the Messiah.  I think people make the same mistake in reaction to the churches talk of virtue, confusing the Message of Jesus with acts of Christianity.

John intervened by pointing he was not the main character, not worthy to tie the Messiah’s sandal strips.  He then outlined what Jesus does in the believer.  Jesus ignites the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.  He cleans house - makes a clean sweep of your life.  He places everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he puts out with the trash to be burned (Luke 3.16-17 MSG).

What people like my friend see is the Message of Jesus.  Because when people actually get hold of true salvation it changes everything.  The words of Jesus give strength to the people, words that put heart in them (Luke 3.18 MSG).  Yes, Christians make decisions everyday to change, but it’s Jesus who gives the strength and heart to make those changes.

11
Nov

New Evangelism

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Church Plant and Faith

Maybe I’m not clear, “I’m a pastor, I lead churches, people worship and I help!” This is the thought that feels my mind as kind, thoughtful people hand me their church invitation.  I don’t understand why but I routinely get invited to visit people’s churches.  These same people often talk with me about God and church.  They are curious how I start a church, where do the people come from, and why do I work bi-vocationally if I’m a pastor.  But they still feel the need to invite me to come attend their church.  I find this very strange because they feel they are evangelist.  

They either consider my faith unequal, alluring, or it’s easier to invite me to their church - I’m a believer. I think this type of evangelism is easier.  Evangelism for much of the church has not been among unbelievers but focused on receivers - people who already accepted our worldview (~ Erwin McManus).

Honestly, the gospel at least in America has been made into a message that would only win Christians to Christ.   Our religious diversity has tended to exist within the confines of a Christian worldview.  People who respond to our mail market piece, visit our churches on Sunday, and so often heed our preaching are convert sinners who already believe in the God of the Bible.  Perhaps our most extreme opposition comes from “Christian” atheists who reject the existence of God.

Our most basic presentations of the good news of Jesus have been built and filled on the assumed authority of the Scriptures. We know that when we tell the unchurched that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life, the word “God” evokes the same image that we have. When asking an unbeliever about the destination of their soul after death, we know it is unnecessary to build an argument for the existence of heaven. 

But we have been wrong.

It’s easier to convince someone that already agrees with you.  It’s daunting to convert a stranger.  There are two dangerous temptations each of us face when confronted by a stranger (someone who thinks and acts in a way that is foreign to our religious practices). The first is a desire to transform that stranger into our own image, trying to obscure and replace their cultural and religious practices with our own. The second is to exclude and reject the stranger entirely, viewing them as a threat which must be guarded against. In one the stranger is rendered into a clone while in the other they are made into an enemy.

Jesus instructions were to go and as you go tell others, train everyone you meet in this Jesus way of living (Matt 28.19). So how do you “evangelize” unbelievers - make disciples? I believe we endeavor to demonstrate how one can faithfully ask, seek, and knock (Matt 7.6-9; Luke 11.8-11) by making this a necessary part of our lives.  Augustine once wrote, ‘God is He who gives God’, so we must realize that we cannot give God but rather, by demonstrating openness and humility, creating a space where God can give God.  In this way an evangelist can be understood as one who is open to God at all times and encourages others in this way of being - helping to produce a clearing where God is free to give God.

07
Nov

Something Different

By Chris 1 Comment
Categories: Random

squarehead

Can I be honest? Lately, I’ve felt out of place, not the same as everyone else. I’m not saying I feel superior, actually less than, just not fitting the mold. It’s more of my issue than theirs, but I let myself feel like a outsider. Maybe I enjoy the idea more than the practice.

I assume God has something to do with my exclusion. Allow me to explain. At work everyone works five days a week, I work three with a regular Saturday appearance. When I take my daughter to toddler gym, I’m the only daddy. I’m the stay-at-home dad at the playground. Mom’s stir in wonder if I’m “safe” to be there. I’m planting a church with new believers instead of recruiting mature believers. I conduct services in my living room instead of launching in a rented facility. I believe 80% of a churches income toward a Sunday morning worship experience is too much.

Somehow these all make me feel like a “Maverick” (oh no, I’m John McCain and I don’t want to loose). But I wonder if being the square in a world of circles is what God is teaching me right now. I remember a song from the 80’s (Summer what was the song?) that said “it’s hip to be square.” If I can only teach my heart and ego to believe that.

30
Oct

The Type of Art I Want to Learn @ VBS

By Chris 1 Comment
Categories: Church Plant and Random

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29
Oct

Nebuchadnezzar for President

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Faith and Politics

A few weeks ago a coworker and I were sitting in our lobby watching the last Presidential Debate.  I tried not to miss any of the debates - including the Vice President.  My coworker looked at me and said, “You’re voting for McCain, right?”  I looked at her and asked way she assumed that.  She said because “you’re a Christian!”  I told her Obama was a Christian too and I was still considering candidates.  She apologized because the same thing had happened to her that morning.  She was at her dentist and with his hands in her mouth said, “I got me an Obama supported!”  After he was done, and his hands kindly removed from her mouth, she asked why he was inspired to say that.  He said because she was black — but he was an Obama supporter too so it was “cool”.

I was stereotyped as a McCain supported because I’m “Christian” and she was pigeonholed as an Obama supported because she is black.  Do you think something is wrong with this picture?

As I read Jeremiah 27 and 28 today I was reminded of God’s view of politics - He decides elections.  Jeremiah 27.5-6 God’s message is “I’m the one who made the earth, man and woman, and all the animals (elephant and donkey) in the world.  I did it on my own without asking anyone’s help and I hand it out to whomever I will.  Here and now I give all these lands over to my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”

This word from God was shocking to Judah.  They are the people of God and He was handing them over to an unbelieving ruler (I know one day he will be, but not yet)!  Two messages were advocated among the prophets.  One message was from Jeremiah that said, “Harness yourself up to the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people. Live a long life!”  The other message was God would break the yoke of the king of Babylon within two years and return what was stolen.  God will reinstate Jehoiachin as king of Judah and return all exiles that were taken off to Babylon. 

Jeremiah’s message was meant to bring hope (Jeremiah 29:11), the other was to tickle the ears of the listener.  Jeremiah’s message was meant to preserve the life and legacy of Judah.  Hananiah’s message was meant to make Judah feel better immediately.

I’m not telling or asking you to vote for anyone.  I’m simply saying VOTE.  Make a decision about national, state, and local officials not based on skin color, age, religion, gender, or national origin.  But vote by listening to your heart and the Spirit.  And guess what - God may lead me to vote for the other candidate because ultimately He decides the election.  Whoever is in the Oval Office Wednesday is who God put there.

22
Oct

Security and God

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Faith, Politics and Random

Recently I’ve heard more talks on issues of security than in the past.  Much of this is due to the financial crisis we face globally, some in reaction to the U.S. election, and others in response to culture and church.  But what does anyone really mean by security?

Security is defined as the freedom from risk, danger, doubt, anxiety, or fear.  Security is something that gives or assures safety and confidence.  I believe Jesus came to rescue us from anything that offers security including religion, because God is our only source of security.  Why do we search for ways to feel secure?  As a nation, church, party, people we strive for security above all else.   In fact security is illusive, impossible.  We all die.  We all get old. We all get sick. People leave us. People will surprise us. People change us. Nothing is secure.  That’s actually the good news - unless your whole life is about being secure. 

If security is the focus of your “spiritual” life you can’t travel very far or venture too far outside a “religious or morale” circle.  You can’t allow too many conflicting ideas into your mind at one time or they may confuse you, challenge you, or change you.  You can’t open yourself to new experiences, new people, and new ways of doing things that may take you off course.  You don’t know who you are outside planned faith, so you cling to an intended identity.  You become a Christian, Muslim, Jew, you’re a Indian, Egyptian, Italian, American; your heterosexual, homosexual, or you never have sex or at least that is what you say when you identify yourself.  You become apart of an “us” in order to be secure and defend against “them”. You cling to your territory, because it’s your secure place, you must fight anyone who approach it.  You become your religion, cause, party; whatever “it” is that will freeze you, numb you, and protect you from doubt or change.  But all this does is shut down your mind.  In reality it does not make you safer. 

All this striving for security has actually made you more insecure, because now you have to watch out all the time.  There are people not like you, people you now call enemies.  You have places you can not go, faults you can not reflect, and worlds you can no longer inhabit.  So you spend your days fighting things off, defending your territory and becoming more entrenched in your fundamental thinking.  Your days become devoted to protecting yourself - this becomes your mission - that is all you do.  Ideas get shorter and they become sound bits.  There are evil doers and saints, criminals and victims, there are those who if they are not with us are against us.  It gets easier to hurt people because you do not feel what is inside them. 

Real security is not knowing something when you don’t know it.

Real security cannot be bought or arranged or accomplished with bombs. It is deeper. It is a process. It is the acute awareness that we are all utterly interdependent and that one action by one being in one town has consequences everywhere.

Real security is the ability to tolerate mystery, complexity, ambiguity — indeed hungering for these things.

Real security is living on God’s terms, knowing he does not live on ours.

Freedom means that I am not identified as any one group. I’m a follower of Jesus, broader than a Christian; I can visit and find myself in any group.  It does not mean I don’t have values and beliefs - it does mean I’m not hardened around them.  I do not use them as weapons.  In the shared future it will be just that - SHARED.  The end goal will be becoming vulnerable, realizing the place of our connection to one another rather than becoming secure and in control and alone.

 --Eve Ensler's (2005) TED Talk prompted these thoughts.
20
Oct

Changing Jesus?

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Faith

Why don’t I blog more? Recently, my view on the world, ministry, church planting, family, friends, and life in general has been transforming.  I guess I don’t blog more because I don’t want to come over shifty? I consider myself ever changing.  I like that about myself.  I hope I keep changing my whole life.  I love to read, listen to others thoughts, and my head is always in conversation.  Some may find this strange but I find it normal.  Unfortunately people like my wife often get left out of conversations because I had them in my head. **Stop laughing**

I wonder if Jesus changed. I look at my daughter who is now sixteen months old and the world evolves around her (I know my world does), but probably not for everyone else.  At some point she will grow out of this and I will help.  But what about Jesus — did he never grow out of it?  Did he realize at some point that the world does hinge on Him?  How did Mary train up her child knowing he is the Messiah? 

I was trained in college, and practiced after, that the pursuit of leadership skills was key.  Part of being a leader is always being flexible, always engaging change in oneself.  For the last eleven years I have been on the journey of change and becoming better as a leader.  How about Jesus?  Was He ever changing on earth?  Did he journey toward the cross as well as something inside himself?  Was Jesus the same person at 30 as he was at 33?  A great deal of change in me has taken place since I turned thirty years old and started a new horizon in ministry.  Jesus started his ministry with disciples at thirty, was that the start of the biggest change in Him?  Was His teaching affected by this change?

Maybe this “following Jesus” lifestyle isn’t so black and white?  I’m sure it’s more about the direction of the change.

Thinking out loud.

04
Oct

Habitat for Humanity

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Church Plant

One of the core values of Graceland People is Compassionate Living. Jesus radically taught that our neighbor is anyone in need.  Jesus calls his church to be a compelling force for good in the world, and we believe that the church is at its best when it serves, sacrifices, and loves, caring about the things God cares about.

In an effort to be agents for change our group had the opportunity to serve people in need this weekend.  We spent our Saturday building a home with Habitat for Humanity.  If you’re not familiar with Habitat for Humanity it is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry. It seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.

We can’t agree more with the purpose and we had a great time serving.  Here is the group together.

29
Sep

Church Planting - ACL Model

By Chris 0 Comments
Categories: Church Plant

I spent the weekend in the sun at the Austin City Limits Festival.  It’s become an annual event for me, this year being the fourth.  I was happy to rock with my suite mate from college, Matt Boudreaux, he now lives in Waco, Texas and is apart of our church planting journey.  We spent some time with friends of his from Waco and had some conversation about Christian bands.  The conversation started concerning Flyleaf who played earlier in the day and is from Temple, Texas (between Waco and Austin).  Flyleaf is hardcore alternative rock and began their set with “I Love You, Lord”. Not my tastes in music but I appreciate their faith.

I found it interesting that a bands faith or spiritual influence had no effect on my new ACL friends.  Really, they viewed it as only a new subgenres or fusion genres. It didn’t make a difference in their life or anyone they knew.  They respected the message of Christ, but they are indifferent to the message or their personal faith.  I’m not naïve to think people don’t hear Flyleaf (or any other band) and make a decision to follow Christ.  I’m sure they have stories and evidence.  I found their show inspiring and I value people who live out their faith in mainstream music. However, I find people are apathetic toward Christianity, not so much Jesus; it’s a trend I see too often around me.

Summer and I both have multiple friends who have no public (or private) confession of faith in Jesus and they listen to Christian Radio (The River) daily.  Ask them their favor music style (group) and they confess its Christian music, but ask them are they Christian and they answer “no”.  They simply like the positive message of hope and upbeat music more than other styles. 

Maybe this issue is about music and the industry.  But many of these people say it’s the Christianity, the church, not the music.  Well, not the Church or church Jesus spoke so confident about.  The church they find so uninteresting, unresponsive, is the institution or establishment.   This is heartbreaking to me because I’m a church planter, thus the maker of institution and entrepreneur of establishment.  Scary! 

So where have I been for over a month - I’ve been wrestling with what I’m starting here.  I’ve been apart of starting three churches - people have accepted Christ, families are being reached, God is honored - but the people we are reaching now, the relationships forged here need a different type of experience.  They want to be the church, not attend a church.  They don’t want to be told, they want to dialog.  Inspiration can be bought at Barnes & Noble; they want to learn to inspire others.  Being Holy is strange and questionable to them, but being holistic is attractive.

Every church planter must decide who they are because that is the type of church they will start and pastor.  In the past I went into the launch with a preconceived idea of what this church will do, who it will reach, how it will make a difference, when we will launch and how, and where people will come from who attend.  I have no idea anymore and I like it.  I’m not starting a business, institution, or association of believers.  I’m not starting a church - I’m guiding the people God is forming into the church.

27
Aug

Can you picture me without reducing me?

By Chris 2 Comments
Categories: Church Plant and Faith

We are more than our parts.  I’m more than a husband, I’m a father; more a lover of people; I’m a lover of God.  As much as you can describe me as spiritual, I’m a follower of the way of Jesus.  It’s hard to squarely fit anyone into a box.

I remember when I got engaged.  I called close friends and family and told them I had met the woman of my dreams.  Among the nice exchanges they would often ask me to tell them about Summer.  It was easy to list off the endless attributes that made her so desirable, but I often felt the picture conveyed somehow reduced her, because she was so much more then her features, qualities, and reputation.

We have a close friend who introduced a Mexican holiday to us a few years ago called, “The Day of The Dead.” Yeah, I was a little apprehensive about the holiday too, until we attended. It was a night more about life then death.  It was about remembering those who made tremendous influence on our life.  Often you find pictures, clothing, art that reminded people of their loved one.  Even then the pictures couldn’t communicate the depth of these people.  The framed pictures were icons for more.  Ask anyone about their item (picture, art, etc) and you see their countenance change.  You eyes light up, voices change, and stories begin to explain who the person in the picture was - much more then the sum of the parts.

God spoke through a prophet named Isaiah about people taking up idols because they needed something visual to connect with God.  Throughout scripture we find God illusive to images, because He is more than a statue, wood cravings, and symbols.  Recently, I have wrestled with a question from God in Isaiah 46.5 which reads, “…Can you picture me without reducing me?” God is love and love is beyond images, words, icons.  Like the love I have for my wife, she is more than I can communicate.  Like a picture of a loved one, it’s not the picture, but what the picture represents. 

One of lives biggest problems is God doesn’t show up in person and reveal himself.  Even when He did, it was as human and required faith, not evidence.  Many people demand, “God, just show me your real and I’ll believe.”  Throughout the gospel Jesus testified that He has and we still didn’t believe - and won’t.  Why? Because God cared enough to not take away the wonder of whom He is with magic tricks and superhero stunts.  He continues to put that responsibility in our hands.  We are to reflect His image, live out his kingdom of love, and be evangelist of hope. 

Can you picture God without reducing Him?

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