Calibrate NW session 6 – Rich Stearns

CEO of World Vision
Author of The Whole In Our Gospel

We’ve drifted away from being fishers of men to being keepers of the aquarium – Paul Harvey

It may nite be our fault that 24,000 children die every day, but it is our moral responsibility to do something about it.

We are God’s plan to change the world.
But we have to be willing, available, and willing to pay the price to be used by God.  

Luke 4 Jesus in the synagogue laid out his mission connected proclamation and justice!  Have we been that good news for the poor?

Revolutions challenge the powers from within

We can’t just proclaim the good news we have to be the good news

The gospel is not a private transaction between God and me.

We are not saved by works, but we are saved for works

Revolutions start with small people who use their outrage to motivate change.   

Francis Chan Calibrate NW 2010

More and more people are taking the Bible seriously and not relying on tradition.
The problem is that we were not sticking close enough to the Bible.

When we look to scripture we see that God is calling us to be united like a family

Once we were not a people, now we are! God has brought people from all over the world to be one people.

Lack of commitment in church people is troubling

Following Jesus is an everything thing. It’s about your whole life.

How many people in our churches have actually discipled anyone?

The emphasis of the New Testament is making disciples not the services we are having.

We are all called to make disciples. Not just the “trained professionals”

Discipleship is on the job training.

There is a wave of people who read the Bible and now there is something more for the contemporary church. No one is reading Acts and saying. “wow, that’s just like my church.”

The events in the book of Acts wasn’t just for then, but for today as well.

What is the sign to the world that we are right about the truths in the Bible? When they see us walking together in unity.

We are called to encourage each other and strive together knowing that God is our good shepherd.

People want their leaders to be strong and courageous. We don’t need to translate that to arrogance. But we need to believe why God has called us to and that the Spirit is in us and empowering us. Be strong and courageous!

James 5:17 – Elijah was a man just like us

God will choose the weak, the people who are just like us.

1 Peter 4:12 Done be surprised by the fiery ordeal

Calibrate NW session 4 – Alan Hirsch

Look for an Alan Hirsch Calibrate Video

How do we retain a movement that resonates with who Jesus is?

Renewal – recover the apostolic movements

ReJesus: we have to rediscover the role of Jesus and the phenomenon of Jesus.
Christology lies at the heart of the renewal of the church.
When we veer we have lost sight of Jesus
We must radicalize in order to missionalize

Christology > Missiology > Ecclesiology

The subversion of Christianity – that is a book title that I need to look up

Christianity (minus) Christ = religion

ReDisciple: becoming a little Jesus
Embodiment and transmission
Spiritual authority is bound up in this as well
It is our capacity to live our messages
Movements grow based on the ability to grow disciples
Leadership is an extension of discipleship
Consumerism is killing us (from within)

ReMission

(missile and mission come from then same word.  You want to send missiles not receive them)

Missional God
Incarnational God -Jesus was born as a baby instead of sending cosmic lazier beams.
Missional Church means we are going out into the world. We are sent out!
Incarnational church means going deep

ReOrganize
What we need are mission ally responsive, culturally adaptive, organizationally agile, multiplication movements
Don’t plant a church plant a movement.

Movements
– mobilize the whole people of God
Every believer is a church planter every church is a potential church planting movement.

Movements are reproducible and reproducing.

Movements are structurally networked

Movements imply missional leadership & ministry modes. Eph. 4

Calibrate NW session 2 w/ Carlos Whitaker

Twitter.com/loswhit hey people follow him. 

One Sunday in a Gym, next Sunday in a $53 million dollar facility. 
         That would be jarring

If why is our last question for what the church is up to, that messes things up.

If why is first that changes the game entirely

Called to disturb and disrupt the career Christian for the sake of seeing Christ’s face again.

Instead of building a service to attract non-Christians what if you built  attractional Christians? 

The greatest moments in our services are the elements that are not produced.  They are moments where the Divine can interact with the human.  (last sentence is my own)

As we fight traditionalism we are just creating more traditionalism.

Disturb and disrupt

This generation doesn’t want to be entertained they want to be a part of a movement

Francis Chan Calibrate NW 2010

More and more people are taking the Bible seriously and not relying on tradition.  
The problem is that we were not sticking close enough to the Bible.

When we look to scripture we see that God is calling us to be united like a family

Once we were not a people, now we are!  God has brought people from all over the world to be one people.

Lack of commitment in church people is troubling

Following Jesus is an everything thing.  It’s about your whole life.

How many people in our churches have actually discipled anyone?

The emphasis of the New Testament is making disciples not the services we are having.

We are all called to make disciples. Not just the “trained professionals”

Discipleship is on the job training.  

There is a wave of people who read the Bible and now there is something more for the contemporary church.  No one is reading Acts and saying. “wow, that’s just like my church.”

The events in the book of Acts wasn’t just for then, but for today as well.

What is the sign to the world that we are right about the truths in the Bible?  When they see us walking together in unity.  

We are called to encourage each other and strive together knowing that God is our good shepherd. 

People want their leaders to be strong and courageous.  We don’t need to translate that to arrogance.  But we need to believe why God has called us to and that the Spirit is in us and empowering us.  Be strong and courageous!

James 5:17 – Elijah was a man just like us

God will choose the weak, the people who are just like us.  

1 Peter 4:12 Done be surprised by the fiery ordeal   

Nouwen on Leadership and Theological Reflection

Without solid theological reflection, future leaders will be little more than pseudo-psychologists, pseudo-sociologist, pseudo social workers.  They will think of themselves as enablers, facilitators, role models, father or mother figures, big brothers or big sisters, and so on, and thus join the countless men and women who make a living by trying to help their fellow human beings cope with the stresses and strains of everyday living.

But that has little to do with Christian leadership because the Christian leader things, speaks, and acts in the name of Jesus, who came to free humanity form the power of death and open the way to eternal life.  To be such a leader, it is essential to be able to discern from moment to moment how God acts in human history and how the personal, communal, national and international events that occur during our lives can make us more and more sensitive to the ways in which we are led to the cross and through the cross to the resurrection.

The task of Christian leaders isn not to make a little contribution to the solution of the pains and tribulations of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which Jesus is leading God’s people out of slavery, through the desert to the new land of Freedom.

. . .

THe Christian leaders of the future have to be theologians, persons who know the heart of God and are trained — through prayer, study, and careful analysis — to manifest the divine event of God’s saving work in the midst of many seemingly random events of their time.

Theological reflection is reflecting on the painful and joyful realities of every day with the mind of Jesus and thereby raising human consciousness to the knowledge of God’s guidance.

Henri Nowen In The Name of Jesus: Reflections of Christian Leadership. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Co, 1989. pp 86-88

Who Am I? – Poem by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Who Am I?

Who am I? They often tell me

I stepped from my cell’s confinement

Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,

Like a squire from his country-house.

Who am I? They often tell me

I used to speak to my warders

Freely and friendly and clearly,

As though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tel me

I bore the days of misfortune

Equally, smilingly, proudly,

Like one accustomed to win.

 

Am I then really all that which other men tell of?

Or am I only what I myself know of myself?

Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,

Struggling for breath, as though hands were

Compressing my throat,

Yearinging for colors, for flowers, for voices of birds,

Thristing for words of kindness, for neighborliness,

Tossing in expectation of great events,

Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,

Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,

Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

 

Who am I? This or the other?

Am I one person today and tomorrow another?

Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,

And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?

Or is something within me still like a beaten army,

Fleeing in disorder from victory already acheived?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!

 

Church & 30 Rock

I love 30Rock.  Smart, funny, quick.  All good things when it comes to a sitcom.  Kathy and I were watching it the other day, and I was struck by a really fun idea, how does the Church line up with 30 Rock?

This does not reflect Creekside, these thoughts reflect stereotype ideas about local Churches

Jack Donaghey = Lead Pastor

Jack has a lot of ideas, but knows that he is not going to be the one to actually carry them out.  He’s always thinking about leveraging the organization to the next level through things like “Synergy” and “Stratification.”  Jack put in his time and moved up the org chart.  He’s got bosses, but he’s definitely king of his empire.  For Jack it’s TGS and Mircrowave Programming.

Liz Lemon = Associate/Executive Pastor

Liz works hard and carries a lot of responsibility on her shoulders.  Liz is often responsible for making Jack’s ideas happen.  She has freedom to disagree with Jack in conversation but she also wants to make sure that their work is great and innovative.  Liz wants to move the organization forward, but she is working with people who are all working their own agenda, Liz has to build the habit of bringing all these people back to the same agenda.

Tracy Jordan = Youth Pastor

No one knows what Tracy is going to do, but other people will know that they have to pick up the pieces.  Tracy has two guys who Dot Com and Griz who keep him on track.  Youth pastors (having been I youth pastor I know) need to have youth leaders to keep them focused as well.

Jenna Maroney = Worship Pastor

The dreamer. The performer.  Always working on something crazy on the side.

 

I could probably go a lot deeper in this whole thing.  And again, I am not saying this is Creekside, but it’s a pretty stereotypical representation of the Church, based on stories I have heard and seen.  The idea tickled me and I had to write it out.

What happens to us when we hear?

I am learning Biblical Hebrew, one of the key texts in all of scripture is Deuteronomy 6:4, also known as the Shema.  Here is the text:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one

The word “hear” is shema.  It’s a verse that observant jews would recite throughout their life.  It is a reminder of who their God is, and it goes on to talk about how God’s people are to follow after God with all their heart, mind and strength.

I have been spending a good amount of time learning this verse in Hebrew.  If you would like to hear what it sounds like you can click here.

This morning I was listening to an old episode of the Radiolab podcast.  They were talking about how they work with sound to tell stories (download it here).  Radiolab does interviews with experts and they create really deep auditory experiences.  This is one of my favorite podcasts.  You can hear all of them at Radiolab.org.

This statement really struck me, “Sound is touch at a distance.”

Sound is really made up of waves that travel through the air and they travel through our ear canals and touch the tiny little bones and hairs in our ears and our brains somehow translate all of that into something that we can understand.

If sound is just touch at a distance, what happens to us when we hear, shema, the words of God.  God’s words are more than a word on a page.  When we hear them outloud, we are touched by the words of God.

We make contact with God, through his word when he hear it.

And when we pray, God hears us.  Do our prayers then touch God?

So take the time to hear the words of God

Shema Israel, adonai elohenu, adonai echad.

Hear O Israel, The LORD our God, The LORD is one!