ECIPLESHIP for Passionate Christ-Followers

The Greatest Loser outreach is coming September 25-26! Don’t miss out on what God is doing…

What IS the Greatest Loser outreach?

• It’s a weekend that is carefully and prayerfully designed to reach others for Christ.
• It’s success depends upon the Holy Spirit’s work and your invitations.
• It’s a weekend that MUST be bathed in prayer…and then putting feet to those prayers.
• We will focus on what we need to lose in order to win!
• Sean Algiers, from the show “The Biggest Loser” will be with us that weekend.
• The youth will have a BIG EVENT on Saturday evening featuring a youth band and Sean Algiers.
• There will be a Fun Walk on Sunday morning at 8AM with Sean and maybe some others from “The Biggest Loser”.
• Both worship services will feature Sean…and a clear and compelling presentation of the gospel by me.
• We will need at least 100 volunteers to pull this weekend off. We already have about half of that!

What should you do?

• Pray
• Invite many
• Get involved
• Anticipate a God-thing!

Perry Noble is a fellow blogger and church leader that I admire. I’m passing along his thoughts from yesterday because they are so good. You can find his site in “Blogroll” in the side panel, or go to www.PerryNoble.com.

Three Arguments That Sound Spiritual But Are Actually Stupid August 3, 2010

#1 – “The Church Is Not A Business But Rather A Hospital For Sinners.”

Uh…ok, the problem with this argument is…a hospital IS a business…and if it is not ran properly then it will have to close its doors, thus losing its effectiveness in helping those it has been called to reach.

Like it or not in church world today leadership matters.  God made sure we knew that leadership IS a spiritual gift and the reason it has been given was to help the church be more and more effective.

I personally believe the church should be the best ran organization on the planet because God has gifted and called leaders to lead AND filled them with HIS Holy Spirit so that they can do so.

#2 – “Too Many Churches Are Just Chasing Cool and Relevant.”

Uh…so what’s the opposite, chasing uncool, boring, predictable and meaningless?

Sure, churches can go off the deep end and worship creativity rather than the Creator.  But to say that a church should not embrace creativity and inovation and leverage them for the use of the Gospel is insane.

Church should not be a place where people come and see what life was like on this planet during the 1960’s and 70’s…but rather a place where people encounter Jesus Christ and the preaching of HIS Word in an environment in which they understand.  (One does NOT have to be sacrificed for the other!)

We are created in God’s image and called to be like Him…which means that we ARE creative beings.  Somehow I believe that the church is supposed to be reaching kids WAY better than Disney…they have a mouse…we have the MESSIAH who gave His life and rose from the dead.  Our message is SO much greater and should be told in the most effective way possible.

#3 – “Too Many Pastors Today Are Obsessed With Dressing Cool And Shopping At Buckle.”

This one always cracks me up because, well, I happen to like shopping at Buckle (they actually have jeans that fit me!)  I am not so sure about the dressing cool part…but I really do like their clothes.

Honestly, I was not aware that surrendering to ministry meant that I also had to surrender to the pleated/cuffed khaki, sweater vest, comb over club!  (We could really go back and forth all day on this.)

Bottom line…there is a WAR going on for the battle of the souls of men and women…and fighting over clothing styles should not be a fight we dive into!  Dress how you like to dress…and if others want to obsess about it you should feel sorry for them and not fight with them.

I’m keeping it real simple today. My fifteen year-old son, Shane, just started his own blog. If you want to see something cool…and also see what Jesus means to a teenager, you better check out his new site today. Shane’s site is a whole lot nicer than mine. He outdid me again!

Shane and I did something fun yesterday — we went to the Red Bull  Flutag on Harriet Island in St. Paul. What a blast!

“Flutag” means flight day in German. This may be a generous description of the event. Most of the flights went straight down from the 50 foot high ramp, plunging with impressive flair into the mighty Mississippi. It was a display of our human race’s penchant for goofiness. With little other purpose than to have fun, people spent hours on the disastrous flying machines only to give 90,000 attendants a thrilling display of engineering failure. But, wow! Did we have fun! And we even saw a 16 year Flutag world record broken! Someone actually flew 207 feet before getting wet.

I think we Christians sometime miss out. We can get so serious about life that we forget to enjoy this amazing daily gift. We sometimes look like we’ve been weened on dill pickles. Laughter is far from us even though scripture tells us that laughter is good medicine.

So here’s a suggestion for today. Worship God by laughing today…a lot. I think it makes God really happy when we’re happy. I suspect it brings Him some of His best moments. With honest giddy emotion, we let God know what a wonderful world and delightful experience He is providing for us. Even down here.

Cocoons feel safe. A caterpillar wrapped up in one is protected from the outside world so that it can go through a changing process. The danger of our man-made cocoons is that we so often hide in them without any intention of coming out different.

One of the things I’ve noticed recently is that many of us are in cocoons of a sort. We are removed from the world-changing things God is doing. He is definitely doing a new thing in new ways with new kinds of people to reach different groups of people with the same old gospel. The gospel, however, is often packaged in new words with fresh images delivered through creative expressions unfamiliar to the past motifs of traditional evangelicalism.

God really works through people and ministries that worship and serve Him through imagination rather than primarily memory. As I have observed, even in this past week, the ministries that are rocking their world with effective gospel impact are usually those that are doing things with creativity, freshness, new ideas, risky actions, bold endeavors, and powerful teaching of the Word. But, if we’re in cocoons, we have little idea of what’s really happening “out there”. We can miss the new things that God is doing in new ways!

So–if you are unaware (and you probably don’t know if you are), it is important that you break out of your cocoon soon. Let God do a new thing in you so that you will be changed as you re-enter the exciting world of opportunity that God lays before us.

And He says, “Go and make disciples.” And do whatever it takes to get it done…

Check out a few pictures that tell a little about our experiences with our Converge World Wide (BGC) family this past week. Susan, Shane and I were honored, blessed, encouraged, and inspired. Like our statement says, Connect, Ignite, Transform. It happened by the power of God!

I’ve been inspired.

There is amazing strength in connecting with the larger body of Christ. The last three days has been spent in Denver connecting with other brothers and sisters in Christ from our Converge World Wide body. I have been strengthened by the experience once again.

I have experienced:

• Some of the most amazing leaders and let a little of them rub off on me
• Highly respected peers share their personal and ministry journeys
• Affirmation in what we are doing at Edinbrook seeing that other godly leaders and successful churches are doing so many of the same things as we are
• True friendship by connecting and re-connecting with some pretty amazing people — some who I’ve traveled with and have labored with in the past
• Joy in sharing what we have done at Edinbrook…especially through QUAKE. Converge was encouraged and inspired by our Edinbrook story of generosity.

As I’ve reflected on my experiences the last few days, I’ve been reminded of the inestimable value of friendship, accountability, and learning from our larger body in Christ. It helps me know that we are “on track”, that there are new ways to accomplish the old commission, and that God is mightily at work among us.

Yay, God!!!!

There were so many amazing things this Israelite king did so well. Jehu was brave, decisive, and had God’s blessing as well. 2Kings 10 tells us that he “wrecked the temple of Baal converting it to a toilet.” Now that’s making a statement! Verse 28 goes on to tell us that Jehu “destroyed every trace of Baal worship in Israel.”

You also get the feeling that this man had quite a personality! In fact, my Mom would say of my wild-driving brother, “Here’s comes Stuart — he driveth like Jehu!” This ancient king was such a crazy-man that they could tell it was him coming from a far distance…just by the way he drove his chariot. What’s that? Two horse-power? He got everything out of he could, evidently.

Unfortunately, this man had a closet. There were a few things he decided he couldn’t part with. 2Kings 10:29 states, “He did not, however, destroy the gold calves at Bethel and Dan, the great sin that Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel to commit.” The synopsis statement concerning his reign in Israel is made just a couple of verses later: “But Jehu did not obey the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He refused to turn from the sins of idolatry that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit,” (verse 31).

As I read about Jehu, I’m reminded that it is not our personalities, industriousness, outspoken nature, brave actions, or spiritual accomplishments that mean a whole lot in the end. What matters most is that God has “all my heart”. This means that there is nothing in my personal closets. It calls me to clean house in the places that are currently dishonoring God. The “acceptable” idols…even among us Christians today…must be destroyed.

Our favorite sinful “places” must be seen as the enemy’s toilets.

Easter.

God so weak, yet so strong.

A crude cross, a beaten man, a cruel crowd, an ugly scene.

Never has beauty been so repulsive.

Agony endured, shame unimaginable, loneliness overwhelming,

betrayal intense, judgment twisted, loyalty extinct.

Hellish.

Forgiveness unwarranted yet offered, mortality undeserved but eagerly imposed.

Whips, nails, slivers, sweat,

shortness of breath, muscles burning, accusations stinging.

Omnipresence vanished.

Death. Silence. Weeping, guilt, remorse, hiding, fear, despair…

Time.

Power.

The empty tomb revealed.

Jesus alive!

Love unconditional, understanding abundant, forgiveness offered,

hope restored, purpose regained, life abundant, eternity secured.

For you…

Easter. Embrace the Love of God. Live in the Power of God.

My Dad and Mom are coming up from Texas today. They’ll spend four days with us. I’m excited to have them here. I guess I’ll have to behave now.

These two are amazing people. Their names are William (Bill) and Audrey. They’ve invested into my life in profound ways. Both taught me a work ethic and raised me in a nurturing safe environment. My Mom made the best farm food in the world, my Dad made all of us boys work our butts off…and we’re all better for it. We had a lot of laughter growing up — and muddled through some really hard times too. Even though we were religious more than really knowing God personally, it gave me both a basis to believe in God and a passion to have more than a form of something. I’m still passionate about finding and living the REAL thing.

Today, my Dad and Mom are some of the most godly people I know. Their faith is so real and alive. Maybe age does that — I don’t know. I do know that I admire them, love them, always look forward to the times I get to be with them, and learn a lot from them still.

“The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.” Psalm 16:6

I’ve been given — and am still BEING given — a godly heritage. What a gift!