like a fire

The next message in the series Meant for More

I recently took a trip up to the great state of Oregon. This land is beautiful! Beyond the best poets, musicians and painters, this land is beautiful. While there on my visit, I got to meet a church that refocused my thoughts on life and reminded me of what church is about. They showed me something that is so obvious about church that people just don’t get it. What was that something?

Love

They love well. They love the people there who are broken and need fixing, and they love the people there who think they aren’t broken and need fixing, and they celebrate with those who are in the process of seeing how broken they are.

I have spent a long time in church, and I think I forget that the church is in the business of love. Above everything else, the church should be about loving well. Above doctrine, above polity, above finances and above good theology. Seems like a no brainer, but I get caught up in that stuff so often that I think I lose sight of what is imprtant sometimes. I was reading the Bible and this is what I cam across:

And everything you do must be done with love. - 1 Corinthians 16:14

Even better than that was this:

You think that everyone should agree with your perfect knowledge. While knowledge may make us feel important, it is love that really builds up the church. - 1 Corinthians 8:1

You can’t get much plainer than that. I love when the Truth comes alive like that and invigorates your heart. I love it even more when I see it happening. God bless, Foothills Church.

I have been a long advocate for non-conformity to the social networking trends of myspace and its clones. It just seems like false community. There are so many people out there on these sites that can’t see themselves clearly enough to even build a page that would represent them accurately, and that is if they actually want to be seen for who they are, instead of who they want people to see. I might have to change my mind though.

This last week I had the great privilege of meeting with someone I met solely through a blog. Actually it was the second time we have met. I was more encouraged and sharpened by my time than I have been in the community I have been a part of for over two years. Thanks Grant.

I am trying to figure out what community really is. Without any pre-thought, I can say that most people who say this word probably don’t have a clear idea about what it is either. I think that it is more than feel good meetings and friendship, because there are times in community that are tough and not fun. I think that it is more than saying hello at church and asking how someone is doing, because I have been in those situations and felt very lonely. I think it has to be more than just meeting together regularly without getting to know the lives of the people gathered, because that is a place that is too easy to hide. So I guess I know a lot about what community is not, and not a whole lot about what it is.

Maybe someone will comment (hint, hint) and fill me in.

Creating Passionate Users: “Success” should not mean “Management”

This article from CPU prompted a series of thoughts in my head that I just couldn’t stop. The premise is that we measure success wrongly in business by equating management and the proper flow of responisibility with success, when we ought to see success as the intersection of what happens and what we want to achieve.

This is an old argument for the church. Many people belabor the idea that the church uses bricks, bodies and bucks to measure success, and I’m not really thinking of that. What I am thinking of is much different than that. Surely the three B’s aren’t e very good measure of church success. There are just too many “churches” out there that have all three but don’t function as the Body of Christ.

My Measurement
If we look at churches and see that different churches do different things well, then they all can’t be held to the same measure. My goals are mostly centered on making disciples that continue in their faith long after I am around. The way I do that has been different in every place I have served.

My measurement comes from several sources. How many of my disciples are still going to church? How many serve in a church? How many are still struggling with their faith (this is a good thing IMO)?

I think churches need to get over the three B’s and start some new measurements that actually reflect success and communicate those successes to the body.

Sermon Cloud

I just found this new site that relates sermons together in a cloud much like the new Web 2.0 stuff. Very slick and possibly a great way to publish sermons online and have others hear them.