However, I do want to share something I’ve learned along the way, and it is this: just because something may be the right thing to do doesn’t mean that it’s the right time to do it. For instance, I know that at some point I will be hosting a video series with thoughts and discussion on Christian community life and church planting. But when I should start that series is something I keep submitting to the Lord. He knows the timing better than I do. Any time I’ve launched into something prematurely — and I often know I’m doing it since I’m filled with anxiety and confusion rather than peace and conviction — it ends up falling apart. But any time I’ve launched into something knowing that God has released me into that walk of life, everything’s come together in a beautiful way, and “flow happens” as Lance Wallnau would say.

Timing is everything. So as you seek the Lord’s will for your life, as you ask Him to show you your giftings and callings and the deep passions of your heart, make sure you include the WHEN and not just the WHAT and the HOW. In many cases, the “when” may be more the most important piece of knowledge you can possess.

I’m not saying I agree wholeheartedly with this view…I’m simply reporting it and trying to understand my own feelings on these issues. For a really good read by a voice in the blogosphere that I respect, Extreme Charismatic Makeover by Kingdom Grace is worth your while.

I’m torn. I’m torn because I see much good happening on both sides of the equation. Perhaps I’m not skeptical enough, or cynical enough, but my life has been radically transformed by the ministry of many of the “top dogs” in the charismatic world such as Bill Johnson/Bethel Church and Patricia King/Extreme Prophetic in particular. The reason I know I’m on a better path is because there is fruit in my life now and sin habits that have been conquered that was not the case in years past. So it’s very hard for me to throw out the baby with the bath water.

Perhaps God will lead me into a new (or old?) understanding of how to do church that takes me into alternate places, but I absolutely believe that humility and grace are needed in this moment in time so that we don’t enter into a spirit of bitterness or mockery. The Bride of Christ is too valuable, even in the messed up state it’s in. Jesus loves all of it, the good and the bad. I can do no less.

Anyway, for the two people out there who know about my super-secret Web project, you may be wondering what the latest news is. Well, the latest news is sad: the project died due to a lack of time, resources, and motivating vision. Here’s what the project was all about in a nutshell: an innovative Christian social news + networking site that would provide really cool ways to aggregate content from exciting news sites, blogs, podcasts, ministries, and so forth with an emphasis on media and the arts — all the while fostering meaningful relationships that would encourage discipleship and Biblical training. Lots of neat ideas…WAY too ambitious. I honestly would need to assemble a comprehensive team and expend a lot of effort in order to get this off the ground.

The strange thing is that the genesis of this project actually looked a little different and somehow it got lost in the shuffle: a site that would be forward-looking and would encourage and challenge the Church in the West to envision a future age where the Church isn’t a dying institution divorced from the language, culture, and concerns of the day but is wholesomely engaged in restoration and healing and progress within the culture around it.

Here’s what I think: there are many innovative streams within the Body of Christ today: missional, emergent, charismatic, apostolic-prophetic, reformed, and so forth. There are probably more streams that I’m not even aware of. The problem is that, by and large, these streams are not talking to each other — or if they are, it’s largely on a footing of either distrust or sheer ignorance. And so we come to an inescapable conclusion: if we’re expecting to reach non-Christians or former Christians with the Gospel and convince them that the Church is the place to be, then we need to be doing a much better job of understanding and articulating what the Church actually is (and is not) and what its primary purpose is in relation to people’s everyday milieu.

I am a strong advocate of unity within the Church (see my three-part essay on Thoughts of Resurrection for more on this topic), and one of the ways I would like to see unity in action is within the process of taking a hard look at how we “do church” and which ways we can embrace change, uncertainty, innovation, and Spirit-led renewal in order to effect a positive and greater impact on the world around us.

In other words, I wonder what it would look like if Brian McLaren, Bill Johnson, Rick Warren, Frank Viola, and N.T. Wright all got in a room together and talked about the state of the Church. Just a thought. (And if you don’t know who some or all of those people are, that proves my point exactly. We need more cross-pollination!)

So there’s a brief peak into my brain today. What is the solution to this conundrum? That’s something I’m still working on. If it ends up becoming a new project, that’s awesome, but if not, I’m confident someone else will pick up the baton. At any rate, I will continue to post my thoughts here on this blog over the next few months as I wrestle with these intriguing questions.

What do you think?

Before I tell you to go pick up your trusty, well-worn Holy Bible and scan through a pile of verses, I want to back up and try something a little bit different. I am going to extract what I read into a simple summary of points, and as you read through these points, I want to you to ask yourself if this is how Christianity is perceived by the world today (and when I say the “world” I mean the unchurched people in the West who are not particularly friendly towards our faith).

In this passage, Paul extorts Christians to conduct themselves thus:

• Let love be genuine.
• Love one another with brotherly affection. (And of course “sisterly” affection.)
• Outdo one another in showing honor. This one bears repeating: outdo one another in showing honor.
• Contribute to the needs of the saints (i.e., those who are part of the Body of Christ) and seek to show hospitality.
• Bless those who persecute you, and do not curse them. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if your enemy is thirsty, give him something to drink.
• Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
• Live in harmony with one another.
• Do not be haughty or conceited, but associate with the lowly (i.e., the undesirables, the untouchables).
• If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

I have a feeling that if someone walked into a community of people living together in the peace, love, and understanding that is described here, they would think they’ve stumbled onto a hippie commune rather than entered into the presence of the glorious Bride of Christ. Somehow the message of grace found in Christ has been obscured by the pride and arrogance of man, and what was supposed to be a message of freedom has become corrupted and turned into a spirit of bondage. And now those who are enslaved to the desires of the flesh and the schemes of the devil are the ones who are portraying the lifestyle of peace, love, and harmony in our modern culture.

Where did we go wrong? How has the Church stumbled so badly? Why aren’t Christ-followers the most loving, peaceful, harmonious, and understanding people on the planet? Why has Christian become a dirty 9-letter word and Pastor (which means father and is supposed to echo the lovingkindness of our Father in Heaven) become associated with a hypocritical bigot who preaches on Sunday and sins on Monday? How has the Gospel, which means Good News, become Bad News? Why does it seem sometimes like everything Jesus came to proclaim — that the Kingdom of Heaven is now here in our midst; that healing and deliverance and love and grace and joy and peace are now available to all through the redemptive power of the Resurrection of the Son of God — has been completely and utterly lost?

I get that there are hard aspects to the Christian faith, and I understand that we make exclusive and difficult claims about sin, death, and redemption. But it’s interesting to note that the central message of the four Gospels and of much of the other writings of the New Testament is focused on life in the Kingdom of God, not on hell and damnation — or even eternal life in some other plane after we die. Jesus came to proclaim Life — life here, life now. Abundant Life, with deliverance from bondage and freedom from sin and death and every evil thing done by the forces of hell. That is indeed Good News, and that is indeed a Gospel that I am very happy and excited to share with others.

So let love be genuine, as Paul says, and live in harmony with one another. May the word “Christian” become worthy of its grand heritage once again!

(P. S. In case you’re wondering, the passage I discussed above is Romans 12:9-21.)

I want to believe that a man can work a sixty-hour week, spend quality time with his wife and kids, be involved in his community, find time for leisure, and still be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ. The kind of man who prays big prayers and knows God intimately for those prayers. The kind of man who readily leads many others to his Savior and disciples those same people to maturity. I want to believe, but I don’t know any men like that.

Well, it’s sad that Dan doesn’t know any men like that. I’m not sure I know too many myself, but one thing I do know. Separating out all those pursuits, and tacking on “and still be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ”, is the very thing that has caused the problem in the first place.

Why can’t I be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ when I work a sixty-hour work week? Why can’t I be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ when I spend quality time with my wife and kids? (Frankly, all the full-time ministry people out there need to spend a lot more quality time with their wife/husband and kids. A LOT more.) Why can’t I be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ when I get involved with my community, or when I take time off for leisure?

There is a man by the name of Chuck Ripka. Here’s a page about him on his ministry site. He’s a banker. He co-founded a “Christian” bank several years back, and when I say Christian, I mean people call up the BANK for prayer. They go to the bank and get healed. People have been saved by coming to the bank. In fact, that bank is more church for some people than church.

Chuck wrote an awesome book called God Out of the Box which explains his life and his ministry within the context of business, politics, and local community. His work, his family, and his friends are his mission field. It’s a great read.

So, my conclusion is this: you can indeed do it all. But first you need to get out of the horrible mindset that says that ministry is something you do within the confines of “church” that you aren’t doing when you’re working, playing, and generally doing life. That’s wrong, and that mindset must be crushed if we are at all going to have a major impact on future generations.

As Christians, it is our business to perceive what is in the spiritual atmosphere of places and what is in men’s hearts — not to be nosy or rude, but to release the opposite, positive spirits that can negate the negative spirits that oppress people. When deception is removed, right relationship with God and man is possible.

We preach a lot about denying self, but what we don’t preach about as much is what joy, reward, and self-fulfillment there is in taking up the cross and following Jesus. Nothing that the world has to offer actually is self-fulfilling: it’s a lie. The glory of God and the beauty of His handiwork is more exciting, more diverse, and more worthy of extreme passion than rock music, Halo 3, Las Vegas, organic food, degrees, skateboards, or any other thing that Americans worship rather than the One Who created billions upon billions of stars, set the planets in orbit, designed the human brain, and loved each one of us so much that He materialized as a man just like us and died so that we might live forever.

I’m 25. Want to get people like us involved? Give us an idea worthy of our time. Sittin’ in a pew on Sunday morning and listening to another dull “spiritual” sermon or feel-good pop psychology pitch ain’t gonna cut it.

IMC :: Communicating Without Words Rough Notes

IMC :: Design is Credibility Rough Notes

Reading this article about the modern phenomena of boredom, I recall the stories I’ve heard of children and teenagers driving their parents nuts during summer break because they were bored. Bored? School is out, the weather is fine, the world is your oyster, and you’re…bored? Somehow I missed out on that when I was growing up — not because I’m anyone special whatsoever, but because I was blessed to be raised by parents who loved life and were interested in many things, and I was also blessed to be home schooled by them and taught that all of life is “school” and that we have something new to learn and discover each and every day.

So with that in mind, stop allowing yourself to wallow in boredom, and find something that pulls you out of yourself and pushes you into serving a higher purpose. In fact, I issue a challenge to you right here and now: go seek God with your whole heart, and do whatever it is that He commands you to do. I guarantee that your life will never, ever be boring again.