like a fire

More than just a REALLY cheesy song, Greg Stier is tackling the now hockey phrase to redeem its meaning in the church - and doing a pretty good job of it from where I sit. The idea is as simple as it sounds (we are supposed to be both) but this is beyond that concept into a Biblical model that is easily communicated and understood. Check it out and be blessed.

nt: Tim Schmoyer

It’s official. Christianity in America has gone beyond looking stupid. We are actually stupid. I’ll not beat around the bush with this one. I don’t know any other group as widespread that feels the need to impart meaning by making up words. My favorite - “missional”, though I don’t mind “shart” so much. I heard this word about a decade ago and thought, “What!?!? Is that a joke?” It is now probably in the top five hot words in churches across America. It is now in wikipedia and I would guess it will one day be in the slow to accept Webster dictionary

Are we no better than that? We can’t relate meaning in a better way than to make up words that imply meaning that has always been there?

Now, that is where I would say that we just look stupid. But here is where it goes over the top and actually becomes stupid. There is a certain church that is having a Children’s conference this week. Many people will attend and it is a given that people in children’s ministry lean towards the cutesy, touchy feely type of marketing. The name of the conference is Conspire. Not meaning what the word already means, mind you. No, this is a “play” on words combining two words “Connect” and “Inspire” to form a whole new word that already exists an has a meaning of it’s own. Hijacking a word for a conference? Hmm… It is so cute to do that!

So in an effort to lead the next generation, I have come up with a few words that I think might represent important concepts for the future of the church:

1. Paneral - the second meeting place of the church for small groups and staff meetings. Also a possible new STD.
2. Kingdomal - The next iteration of missional, since the definition of missional is relating to doing God’s mission.
3. Discipleshipal - taking to next phase in discipleship to invest the kingdom in people.
4. Cohortal - The way churches will grow in the future.
5. Housal church - Where George Barna writes most of his “statistical” (ahem) books.
6. Missionary - this combines two words that should never enjoyed any degress of separation, namely “Missional” and “Stationery” (forgive the spelling “ery”) Evangelism in the future will happen with the new cutesy stationery in the new Leopard Mail.

I got nothing else at the moment. Sorry.

Edit:

Institutional - Meaning we belief in “Instant” and “Satisfaction”.
Meta-narratival - Churches that focus only on the forest. Who needs trees, they just get in the way.
UGCal 2.0 - This is probably only for those who are uber geeks or bleeding edge people in the church, but when is the church going to catch the bandwagon of “User Generated Content”? Why does pastoral (haha) staff decide content for the rest of the church?

I have been reading a lot of Marko lately. I don’t know if his blogging has changed or if I just didn’t get him before, but he really has my attention lately. Specifically, he is writing a book on youth ministry that I can’t wait to get my hands on.

The latest chapter preview is on identity. This is one of my hot topics and I have been teaching a lot on it lately. Marko provides an excerpt (teaser) for us:

“For our purposes, we’ll define identity as the “who am I?” question. Simply put: one’s identity is the sum of one’s self-perceptions. This includes self-perceptions about character, values, purpose and potential in life, caste, emotional make-up, appearance and body type, intellectual and spiritual and emotional strength or weakness, relationship to family and friends and culture at large, and many other factors.”

He then goes on the describe how preteens don’t have generally have the abstract thought to develop a sense of identity, It is in the teen years that this becomes paramount.

I am so ready to hear what Marko has for this, especially if he has any insights into how we help teens find their identity, especially if they are believers. Check out the post if this whets your appetite.

My thoughts have been gathering for this for a couple a years. What were we created for? What specifically am I here to do? Where is my place in the kingdom? My counselor pushed on most of those questions to make them much more specific. What would I do if I could do anything? The best and hardest question though still has me thinking.

What are five things about you that will always be true?

I still think about that and wonder. I have a couple of answers, but not a complete answer to the question. That question has become a great source of freedom for me. It is specific to me, rather than the vague leaning of my identity in Christ. It helps me know when I am being true to myself rather than living for other’s approval (a big problem for me). So I was thinking about this and the importance of identity when reading John 13 the other day. One word changed my perspective on identity.

John 13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him.

The word “so” changes my perspective on the passage. Basically, because Jesus knew where he came from, where he was going - who he was - he did what followed. Did identity drive Jesus’ mission? I can’t see how he could have done it apart from that knowledge. So that is my new goal and teaching point on identity. Where do I come from, where am I going, and who am I? Thoughts?

Adrian over at slow leadership has published a new book, Slow Leadership: Civilizing The Organization. I have read his stuff for a little while now and usually find it useful for life in general. Looking at one of his latest lists, I though II might use it and put a little Kingdom spin on it. (My additions in italics)

A few potentially useful thoughts about work and working life.

1. When you’ve reached enlightenment, your boss will still be a jerk the world will still be a mess. The good news is that it won’t bother you any more. The secret of maintaining a calm mind is letting go of emotions and refusing to waste energy on fretting about whatever you can’t change. The world is an unsatisfactory place; your boss is an unsatisfactory person. Life is good.
2. There are no acceptable excuses for your bad behavior. Not your dreadful childhood (most people were dreadful sometimes as children, even if their childhood was idyllic), your miserable relationships (miserable people give themselves more of them), the fact you have no money (maybe you did nothing to earn more, or wasted what you had), your frustrating job (you’re presumably too frustrated to do anything about changing it) or the pains in your neck (and the ones you give to others). Life sometimes sucks. Get over it. Don’t add to the mess. Live beyond the mess; it’s in your power.
3. Reality keeps coming at you. There’s no “off” switch. All you can do is cope with it as best you can. Since you’re human Since you’re not God, you’re fallible. There will be many times you mess up totally and many more you mess up a little. If you beat yourself up over each one of them, you’re going to be a continual hospital case. If you feel guilty whenever you screw up, you’ll end up a basket case too.
4. No one can insult you without your permission. Whatever he or she says about you, it’s your emotions that make you feel bad. That, and going over and over the insult in your mind, imagining what you should have said (but didn’t think of until it was too late). Ignore them and insults will have no power over you.
5. You can always be yourself. You don’t need to prove it. When you try to be someone your not, you sin against yourself AND God. It’s impossible for you to be anyone else, however hard you try. Doing something just to prove your ability, courage, or anything else is merely showing off. Only doing something because it needs doing is the real thing.
6. Whatever changes you have in mind, begin with yourself. Many people work diligently to change others, while leaving themselves untouched. If you succeed in making the other person better, it will only show up your own deficiencies in a harsher light.
7. You won’t find meaning in your life by sitting and thinking about it. Amen. To create meaning, you have to take action with some purpose in mind. Locking a new car in the garage and thinking about driving it won’t put any miles on the clock. Thinking about what your life means is the same. You need to get a little mud on the wheels and a few dints in the bodywork. Later, when you look at them, you’ll recall what happened and what each one meant.
8. If you aren’t satisfied with your life, change it. If you won’t change it, put up with it. There’s no middle way. Whatever you do, don’t keep telling us about it. We don’t want to know.
9. Keep living until you die. Some people give up on life while they’re still alive. You can see they’ve done so, because they no longer do any of the things that show life is present. They don’t learn, they don’t change, they don’t develop, they don’t adapt. They may be alive physically, but they’re already dead in any sense that matters.
10. There’s no such creature as a self-made person—unless she conceived and gave birth to herself, fed herself as a baby and a child, made her own clothes from cotton and wool she produced herself, taught herself, built her own house and car, and never needed to go to a doctor, a dentist, a pharmacy or a store. We’re all utterly dependent on one another. Gratitude seems more appropriate than egotistical fantasies. Especially when we consider our Creator.

Check out Adrian’s site, there is lot’s more there than I could publish, and if you liked this, pick up his new book. There is sure to be more of the same in it.

ht: lifehack 

So you may be up to speed with Gmail and Gcal but may be wondering when you get all that GTD goodness coming at you. If so, then look no further than Google Notebook. This is where the integration of Google into a whole planning process is really worked out.

With Notebook you can make the lists that really need to be made. Someone once asked me why they need to make lists. Have you ever gone home feeling like you didn’t get anything done, or that you forgot something? Have you ever forgotten something really big, or even really small that caused you grief or embarrassment later? That’s why I make lists.

This screen shot shows you some of what can be done with Notebook lists. According to the GTD process, you want to divide tasks up into what should be done immediately and what can wait. I like to add a couple of things that are ongoing like projects and events and even some things that don’t have to get done that I am thinking about. My immediate list includes contacts and visits, but there are many more things that are normally on there.

All of this Google puts together in a home page where you can get to everything all at once. There are lists in notebook, your calendar at a glance, gmail, and even google reader if you read blogs. How can life get better? well there are some things that make all of this work even more seamlessl, but that is another post all together.

I hope this series has helped some of you. Please leave me a comment if you have benefited from this or if you have any other usefull ways to stay organized.