It's the End of the World as We Know It

After thinking through my last post, There is Nothing New Under the Sun, I started to think about a topic that was discussed at a recent conference I attended. The topic was of the 4 Generation Cycle and the idea is simple. There is a 4 Generation Cycle that has been repeating since our beginning. I'll briefly explain the concept and how it has played out over the last several generations in America, leading to present day, which is in transition from the 3rd to the 4th generation cycle. (Notice the significance of the Motto for each generation)

The 1st Generation Cycle

Motto: "Anything we can do, we will do."

The first generation cycle is represented by the Builder Generation, those living through World War II. Those in this generation cycle rise to the task at hand, generally brought together around a singular mission resulting from a major conflict threatening their security or way of life. They will band together and selflessly accomplish whatever is in the greater good of the whole. The Builder Generation helped to build a great America economically, morally and spiritually. They selflessly sacrificed a great deal to see progress and prosperity. They worked as a team and put the prosperity and needs of others before their own.

The 2nd Generation Cycle

Motto: "Anything you can do, we can do better."

The second generation cycle is represented by the Boomer Generation, those born out of the WWII era. This generation is born into the collective prosperity and achievements of the last generation. Their focus becomes more inward than outward. What was once an unthinkable, unreachable goal for the last generation is now common every day practice for this generation. They begin to dive inward and their goals are motivated by self advancement and propelled by strong competition. Whatever was accomplished by the last generation, this group will surely take it to the next level and plow over whatever and whoever might stand in their way.

The 3rd Generation Cycle

Motto: "Anything you can do, we could care less about."

The third generation cycle is represented by Generation X. It's no coincidence that this generation was given the name "X". They could care less if they have a name or not. They've become calloused to the inward-focused, selfish-driven accomplishments of the previous generation. They've grown tired of inward-focused ministry, dictatorial leadership and self-serving agendas. Those in the 3rd generation cycle are typically characterized as angry and rebellious. Kurt Cobain's lyric, "Here we are now, entertain us", represents the lethargic, care-less feeling that characterizes this group. And although they won't admit it, they are also self-consumed.

The 4th Generation Cycle

Motto: "All the things you didn't do, we look forward to doing."

The fourth generation cycle is represented by the emerging generation of Americans, known as the Millennial Generation or (Generation Y). They are tired of the complacency and lack of movement they've seen from generations past. They are a generation of optimists, a generation of big dreamers. Those in the 4th generation cycle will say, "We will do what no else else could or cared to do", "We will eliminate poverty", "We will change the world, "We will re-claim the church", "We will re-shape culture".

So what does this mean for us?

Why does any of this matter?

We are witnessing the transition from the 3rd to the 4th Generation Cycle in America today.

It matters to understand what cycle we're in because it explains the power struggle we're seeing in our government and in the church, in the workplace and all around us in culture.

The emerging generation is fed up with the ineffectiveness of our government and the self-serving, earmark-happy politicians that govern it. The emerging generation is fed up with the ineffectiveness of our churches and the inward-focused, self-serving leaders that guide it.

It means that a revolution is on the horizon. It means that a war of governance is imminent. It means there is restructuring, a reawakening, a redefining of what it means to be American and what it means to be Christian.

It means that if real global issues are going to be solved, if the church is going to reclaim its' prominent position in the world and if The Great Commission is going to be accomplished and the whole world reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ, then this is the generation that can get it done!

It also means that there's an urgency, a brief window of opportunity to be recognized and seized before the generation cycle starts all over again. The aggressive accomplishments of the 4th generation will be taken for granted by their children. Their children will be born into a way of life worth fighting for in order to preserve and maintain it, but they'll be followed by a generation of inward-focused, self-serving rebels that will want little to do with what they've fought so hard to preserve and maintain.

If we fail to recognize and seize the moment of this day, it will be several generations before we will again have the opportunity to advance the Kingdom around the world and reclaim the American church in a way that brings an end to this age and ushers in the next. And in recognizing the moment, we must act by encouraging, supporting, funding, partnering and harnessing the world-changing potential of the emerging generation, whatever the cost.

This could be the generation that ushers in the second coming of Christ by fulfilling The Great Commission. It is within our reach. It is within our potential. And it is more than probable that it will happen as the emerging generation takes the lead and follows their God-given Big Dreams!

On a final note,

Isn't it interesting that we are actually writing ourselves out of history? Look up the names given to America's generations throughout the past 200 years and notice the names that have been given to the last three:

Generation X,

Generation Y (also known as the Millennial Generation) and

Generation Z.

Exponential Part 1 of 3 - Move & Multiply

Katie and I spent the last week in Orlando at the Exponential Conference. It was amazing. There were more than 3,000 church planters present. What a joy to stand along side these men and women who are stepping out into cities across the nation to plant churches. It's a surreal feeling to be apart of such a family.

If I had to narrow it down to three things we heard more than any other during Exponential, here they are: (I'll post the first today and two and three later this week)...

1. Move and Multiply. You're running late. You finally found a parking spot. You're running with luggage in hand and stand in the long line to get your boarding pass. Finally, pass in hand, you step almost immediately into the next line, only this line is moving even slower. You're looking at your watch, hoping you'll catch a break and actually be able to board your flight on time. It's not looking good. The person in front of you sets off the alarm. Security is called. Everything is delayed. Clock ticking, you finally make it passed the security and continue running to the terminal. You've got less than 5 minutes before the plane is supposed to depart. You arrive at the terminal with just a minute to spare. You fear it's too late. You pause for a moment and notice that the room is quite full, actually packed, and no one seems to be rushing. You glance out the window and notice your plane is still sitting and no one seems to have boarded. Actually, the tarmac is full of planes. No planes are taking off. The terminal is getting more crowded by the minute. People are beginning to get angry. It's getting stuffy. Frustration swells. Every seat is taken. People are standing against the walls and in the isles. It's chaotic. You now wish you hadn't rushed. You're angry too.

An airport is not the destination. In this case though, it appears that they think they are. An airport is a means of getting people to where they want to go. When an airport becomes the destination, planes grounded and terminals full, people get angry.

What a picture of the church. The church is not the destination, yet it appears that many churches believe they are. All of the effort goes into attracting people to our churches, rather than sending them out. And even though the airport scenario plays out much more directly, people in churches that have become the destination will in time become just as frustrated, even if they are unable to pinpoint the exact reason. Why? Because we were made to multiply. It's deep inside the heart of every Christian, this thing that says, "It's not about us; it's about them." The disciples were called to take the gospel into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and into all the earth. When they didn't, when they seemed to be content just sticking around Jerusalem - welcome persecution. That created movement. And guess what, no one looked back either. It's what we're called to do. Move & Multiply.

Things get ugly when we stop moving and multiplying. When our focus becomes centrally geared around attracting people to our church, more than making and sending out disciples, be ready for a holy shake up. Persecution is right around the corner. If we don't send out, God will stir things up and get the job done himself. Church split? What!

It's impossible to remain comfortable. We must be about the Father's business. It can't be about us. It has to be about them. Them, who are out there. Them, who must be reached by sending, not building bigger buildings and hoarding resources and gifts placed within our churches. Most likely, they were given us in the first place to give us the opportunity to join God in His movement and be apart of sending those gifts and resources into the world for His Kingdom's sake, not ours.

There's a camel on the highway!

It is nearly impossible to put into words the sheer devastation and hopelessness that has gripped the poor nation of Haiti. Nearly every structure has been destroyed or severely damaged. Very few have been able to return to their homes. Most live in small shanties constructed by debris and scrap metal. Clean water is hard to come by. Food is even scarcer. The corruption of the government continues to cripple the people. Food and supplies donated and sent from around the world remain undistributed in mass storage units. Very little has reached the people. People fend for themselves. There is very little aid reaching the people. What the media portrays is not what we saw during our short stay. The need is simply too great and the workers, too few.

In a nation where voodoo devil worship clearly reigns, it is not surprising to see such oppression and affliction. Yet, there is hope. As we traveled through the ruin, we were captivated, as are many of the Haitians, by what we saw. Homes, schools, businesses, government buildings, the presidential palace...all lie in ruin. Block after block of broken concrete, most of the nation's infrastructure destroyed.

Yet, to see a church in ruin was like spotting a desert camel on a well-traveled Ohio interstate. Not every church survived, but most did. Clearly, among the structures that survived, churches are at the top of the list. It has been the church of Haiti, not the government, meeting the needs of the people. It has been the church of Haiti, not the international aids groups, providing medical care and treatment, food and clean water for the people.

The church we worked with is called Light Ministries. It's pastor and his wife have lived and ministered in Haiti for 28 years. Of the more than 1,200 members of their local church, only two people lost their lives to the earthquake, though most of their member's homes were leveled. Five days a week they hold worship gatherings at their home with several hundred participants. They have seen multiplied hundreds of new converts since the devastation took place. God is on the move. There is, in the midst of great despair and hopelessness, an unexplainable hopeful and healing current sweeping through the nation. The standing churches are offering hope. It is not difficult to see that God is at work and people are noticing.

Our project was to reinforce Light Ministries' worship center, which houses the free medical clinic and weekly worship gatherings, paving the way for even more Haitians to discover the hope of Jesus in a time when most hope seems permanently lost.

I'll leave you with one last thought. A thought I have carried with me since experiencing the raw, abandoned, pure praise and worship of a people who have lost what little they had -

Perhaps they are not the unfortunate ones. Maybe we are. Have we pushed God aside to the kingdom of our comfort? Is our worship pure, abandoned and exuberant or luke-warm, second-thought, filling a weekly time slot?

Our fortune has blinded. Their misfortune has enlightened.

Haiti has a unique opportunity. They have little to lose. Oh, how blessed they are, that God would shake their nation at its' core in order to draw their attention to Him. You say, "How can you say God caused such a terrible catastrophe?". I say, "How can you say He didn't?".

Either way, He is capturing the attention of a nation. There has begun an outpouring of His Spirit. A regeneration of a people.

Shall we even consider crying out to God,

"Oh God, would you shake America?"

"Would you bring us to our knees?"

"Would you get the attention of this people?"

"Would you restore what is lost and hopeless?"

How desperate are you?

The Great Sin

Having spent the last few weeks in Haiti, I've had more time than normal to be still and meditate on God's Word as well as to devour a list of reading material that would have normally taken me a month to finish.

Reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity was a breath of fresh air. Not only does he do a great job talking through the basic tenants of the Christian faith as if he himself were the greatest skeptic, he unleashes a fresh perspective on so many topics that have in recent years eluded the Christian Church.

One such topic that caught my attention was of "the great sin".

"There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people ever imagine they are guilty themselves". - C.S Lewis

It is a vice that perhaps none of us would accuse ourselves of, while at the same time would show the slightest mercy when we see it in others. It is the vice of pride. It is vice of Satan himself. And it is crippling the American Church.

It is through pride that Satan fell from beloved angel to despised among all generations and cursed to the ends of the earth. It is pride that leads us to every other vice. In essence, it is pride, the self-serving part of man that continues to feed himself and look out solely for his own interest that makes room for sin.

The more pride we have in ourselves, the more we despise it in others.

"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. Greed may drive men into competition if there is not enough to go around; but the proud man, even when he has got more than he can possibly want, will try to get still more just to assert his power." -C.S. Lewis

There is nothing pride loves more than power.

How is it then that people who are quite obviously eaten up with pride can say they believe in God and appear themselves to be very religious?

[The following is an excerpt from Mere Christianity]

"I am afraid it means they are worshiping and imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people; that is, they pay a pennyworth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound's worth of pride towards their fellow-men. I supposed it was of those people Christ was thinking when He said that some would preach about Him and cast out devils in His name, only to be told at the end of the world that He had never known them. And any of us may at any moment be in this death-trap. Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good - above all, that we are better than someone else - I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil...

...Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices. Teachers, in fact, often appeal to a boy's pride, or, as they call it, his self-respect, to make him behave decently: many a man has overcome cowardice or lust or ill-temper, by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity - that is pride. The devil laughs."

It appears that many of us, as Christians, have replaced one vice for an even greater one. The danger is that, in the name of self-help and "living our best life now", we've elevated ourselves to a height at which the only possibility of viewing others is "downward". Perhaps we no longer care what people think of us because they are so far beneath us. We are in danger.

The moment we think that certain "sins" are beneath us, we have foolishly elevated our standing. The devil laughs, for he has cured a small fault by replacing it with an even bigger one.

Stories from the Short North

We spent a few days in Columbus this week - Steve, Stephen, myself and a few friends and potential ministry partners...

We set up shop in the Polaris area at a really cool new hotel called Cambria Suites. If you're visiting Columbus, I'd recommend this place.

Anyway, we focused a lot of our time in the Short North arts district. It's situated between downtown Columbus and OSU. Just passing through, it's easy to overlook its glamor and appeal, but after parking our car and trekking through the snow we found it to be everything it's cracked up to be, and then some...

The Short North is overflowing with young, creative and innovative artistic types. Trendy and diverse dining opportunities, impressive art galleries, sweet coffee shops, local boutiques like What the Rock and Milk Bar...Let's just say, Stephen fell in love with the place and was wishing he had worn his blue mo-hawk! It's definitely the kind of place that's thriving with potential - a seemingly untapped market if you will.

As we walked along the street, appreciating the rich, dynamic culture that was oozing from everywhere, a friend of mine said, "Intelligent and creative people just don't like church - Church is just not smart and it's most definitely not creative".

It got me thinking. How can we, as a church, tap into the creativity and artistic passion of a place like the Short North? How can we engage the artistic community and provide outlets for them to use their talent within the church? How can the church partner with these people, these shops and support their creative passion? Maybe it's a lost cause. Maybe they're just not interested in church. Maybe it's like my friend said, church is just not smart or creative enough.

Then we met two guys that ran a sweet fashion boutique right in the heart of the district. As we combed through their unique selection and carried on a semi-casual conversation with the two owners, the question finally came up -

"So what are you all doing in Columbus?"

"We're starting a church", I said.
"What kind of church?", they asked.
"A different kind of church", I added.
"How's it going to be different?", they inquired.

We just kept it rolling. They were intrigued, interested, maybe even a bit inspired.

After a few minutes, one of the owners told us about a very prominent church in the area. He said at least 8 or 9 of his friends went there and that they all played instruments and were apart of bands and stuff in the church. I asked him if he ever went with them. His response -

"They never ask me."

"It's weird", he said. "They go to church all the time. And they're never like, yo, you doing anything tonight? You want to come to church with us? I'm always doing stuff, hanging out. Honestly, I'd go if they asked me to, but they don't. So I don't have any idea what that church has going on."

"We'll, I'm officially and personally inviting you to our church", I said.

I couldn't believe it. We left, I got their business cards. And I was at a loss for words.

For too many churches, community has become the mission. A bunch of people from this church or that church all get together and hang out, in community. They do things with each other, in community. When community becomes the mission, its easy to forget the people who are on the outside of your [church] community.

When community becomes the mission, we lose. They lose too.
We all lose.

Rather, community is a result of mission.

Mission is what drives community. Mission is what creates community. Community isn't then, a bunch of people who just want to hang out. Community is driven by people on a mission, the same mission, which brings them together, in community.

So what kind of church will we be?

Our mission is what drives us - to be a church for God, the city & the world.

Our mission is to see the lost and the hurting, the hopeless and the oppressed, the seeking and spiritually restless meet Jesus. That's our mission. And we should always be doing our mission.

The moment we just want to start hanging out together because its fun and safe, we need to hang it up, close the doors and not pretend to be a church.

A church is a community driven by mission, a mission to seek and save the lost. And the more we do the mission, the more our community will grow!

God Speaks Through Screen Savers

It was Monday night. I was sitting in a small apartment with 10 friends. We were talking about our up-and-coming move to Columbus. We've committed to each other to follow the call of God and plant a church there this year. We've seemed to have found a nice routine for our Monday nights. After having fasted the whole day, we meet together at six and share a meal to break the fast and celebrate God. We talk about our day, share exciting stories and spend a lot of time dreaming about what "could be" upon our move to C-town.

There's always a book we're reading as a group to help us develop as leaders and think outside the box, and every Monday night we spend a significant amount of time sharing what we learned. Then, we usually take a bit of time and talk about the pressing needs that each person has and pray for those needs. There are homes that need sold, jobs to be found, weddings to be had, money to be raised; it's quite overwhelming actually.

Then it hit me. Toward the end of an extended time of prayer, while listening to an itunes playlist I created full of The Glorious Unseen and Desperation Band's best worship choruses, my macbook's screensaver turned on. The song, "Overcome" by Desperation Band was playing and images of creation were slowing fading and zooming in and out. I gazed at the beautiful images and absorbed the words being sung.

"Seated above, enthroned in the Father's love. Destined to die, poured out for all mankind. God's only Son, perfect and spotless One. He never sinned but suffered as if He did. ALL authority, EVERY victory is Yours!"

I was taken back to the first night I had sung this particular song at Epic. I remember the power, the presence. I remember the hundreds of young people flooding the altar area, crying out to God for deliverance, to overcome their addictions. I remember feeling like I was in heaven, like God was right there, like we had somehow tapped into something divine.

Then I began to think about the road ahead. Columbus. A new Church. A vision to re-claim a lost generation. A City with 100,000 college students. One of the youngest cities in America. One of the best cities in America for singles. A Church that breaks the mold. A Church that ROCKS the city. A Church for God, the City & the World!

"Power in hand, speaking the Father's plan. You're sending us out, light in this broken land."

It amazed me, as I gazed at the pictures. God is so BIG. Where is Columbus in these pictures? Where is the earth when you zoom out and compare it to the rest of the universe? Even our great planet seems insignificant and small. How much more are our needs insignificant to God? The things we fear, the things that hold us back, the things that keep us from moving forward. What do they look like to God Who made all of this?

Yet, we are not insignificant to God. What we do is important. What God has called us to is great. Yet, our needs? The things we fear? If God can put all of this into place and make it work flawlessly, He can surely put us where He wants us and take care of all of our great, insignificant needs!

"Savior, worthy of honor and glory. Worthy of all of our praise, You overcame! Jesus, awesome in power forever. Awesome and great is Your name! You overcame!"

It's done. Fear of failure, fear of losing what you have, fear of the unknown; Jesus gave it all. All we have to do is trust and obey. Everything else will fall into place, just like the cosmos of creation.

The Decade From Hell

No doubt, my favorite time of year is the Christmas season. But perhaps even more exciting than that is what follows. I am addicted to those “year in rewind” shows, and every channel’s got them!

The Top 10 Political Scandals of 09, The Top 10 Most Influential People of the year on Oprah, The Top 10 Music Videos on VH1, MTV and CMT, The Recap of Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC, The Weather Channel’s Worst Disasters of 09…and the list goes on.

So it seems natural that, at the dawn of a brand new decade, we look back at the previous one, if for nothing else but for a little reflection.

The new millennium was ushered in with every soul on planet earth crossing their fingers. Y2K was coming, or was it? Scary right? We had no idea what scary really was! It wouldn’t take long though to figure out; the most obvious, of course, was the September 11th terrorist attacks, no doubt the most pivotal moment of the last decade, and probably in American history.

I remember that day clearly. I had just finished a college class and decided I’d run to my car and zip to Taco Bell to grab some lunch before my next class. When I got to the parking lot it was so flooded with cars I couldn’t get out of my parking space. My first concern, of course, was the Taco Bell I most likely wouldn’t get to eat in time. Then, someone yelled out of their car window for me to turn on the radio. “America was just attacked”, they shouted. I turned on my radio and like everyone else, sat in disbelief. Could it really be? Needless to say, I forgot about the Taco Bell.

I had just joined the Air National Guard a few months earlier. I never saw this one coming. I didn’t answer my phone for a week. I was afraid of the inevitable, and the inevitable did finally come for me just a few weeks before Christmas. The dreaded orders had arrived. I was going to Afghanistan, by request of the President himself.

To reflect on the rest of the last decade makes my head hurt. No wonder Time Magazine titled their December 7, 2009 issue, “The Decade From Hell”. There was the first Wall Street crash from failing tech stocks in 2000-2001. The September 11th attacks led us into a global war on terror, including Iraq and Afghanistan. We had Anthrax letters, the D.C. snipers, the Wall Street scandals of Enron and WorldCom. Then right smack in the middle of last decade, in 2005 was the worst natural disaster in American history, Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,500 and cost more than $100 billion in damages. The slow response and chaos that followed was nothing short of disastrous.

The housing bubble is something Katie and I are personally paying for. Come to think of it, you are too. We all are. I read that the bailouts cost every American nearly $45,000 each. Yeah, you’re paying for it too. Our house has depreciated so much in value in the last 6 years from when we bought it that to sell it will equate to significant loss for us. Any renters out there? We're moving...

Wages are dropping, unemployment is soaring and Americans living below the poverty line increased to 13.3% in 2008. And our financial trouble is affecting the entire world. But it’s not just financial problems we’ve faced the last 10 years…

There were more mass shootings and school shootings like the Virginia Tech murders (32) and the recent attack on Fort Hood, than in any other decade. There were more large-scale terrorist bombings around the world in this decade than in any other. There were the never-ending Political Sex Scandals, Drug and Steroid Scandals by some of our favorite Athletes and Olympians, the Crash of the Auto Industry, soaring Gas Prices, Color-Coded Threat Levels, Abu Ghraib, Scott Peterson, Bird flu, Swine flu, (My flu, Your flu), Global Warming, Larry Craig, Bernie Madoff, Ahmadinejad, a $1.75 trillion deficit for 2009 alone, H1N1, Ted Haggard…shall I go on?

Of course, we as Christians are immune to this stuff right? After all, we live under the blessing of God. We are set apart. Aren’t we? Quite the contrary. We are set apart, but we are not immune nor should we act like we are.

To whom much is given, much is required.

As Christians, we stand at the brink of incredible opportunity. Are we outward focused, concerned and consumed with bringing light and hope into a dark and desperately lost world? Or are we inward focused, concerned about the effects of the world reaching its’ cold ugly hands into our families and homes?

What has the message of the church been this last decade? “The American Church is in DECLINE”. “Only 4% of this generation are Bible-Believing Christians”. “The American Church is following in close step with Post-Christian Europe”. “The American Church is dying”.

These messages may be true, but let’s not miss the moment. Yes, the Christian church is in decline. Yes, it’s been one hell of a decade (pardon my expression). Yes, we are definitely feeling the effects, in our churches, in our homes, in our families, in our wallets.

I’ve preached these messages. I've preached these messages with passion! I believe them. I believe that the church is in decline as much as I believe all of the other stuff I've posted in this blog.

But I also believe that the message isn’t that the church is in decline.

The message is really, “The Church is About to Dominate”.

Everyone likes to root for the underdog. Why? It’s exciting. Everyone likes a challenge. Everyone likes to see someone or something that looks like a lost cause come from behind and win. Thing is, we only look like the underdogs at the moment. Let's stop believing Christian America is a lost cause. It just looks that way right now.

So, as we look back at the last decade, and we look ahead to the start of a brand new decade, we stand at the brink of the greatest opportunity the church has ever seen.

In the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of a global war against fundamentalist terrorists and evil dictators, in the midst of a financial meltdown, in the midst of a church in decline,

Our finest hour awaits.

Join the movement.
Seize the moment.
Let’s not rewrite history; let’s create history.

What's it going to take from you? Where's the urgency? Where's the passion? Where's the selfless sacrifice? We are called to be a light to the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden or shaken. We are called to be catalysts of change, movers and shakers.

In the darkness is where the light shines the brightest.

This is the finest hour the church has ever lived.

We will rise.

We will dominate.

We will win!

Hundred Million Dollar Churches

I just finished reading a great book with a group of friends. The book is called, “Jesus Wants to Save Christians” by Rob Bell. There are probably a thousand statements in the book that I could use for a blog topic, but I've picked just one that had significant impact on the way I view my faith and my responsibility as a Christ-follower. So here it is:

“Jesus wants to save [Christians] from shrinking the gospel down to a transaction about the removal of sin and not about every single particle of creation being reconciled to its maker.”

America makes up less than 5% of the world’s population yet controls 20% of the world’s wealth.

One billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, while the average American uses 400-600 liters of water a day.

Every 7 seconds, somewhere in the world a child under age five dies of hunger, while Americans throw away 14% of the food we purchase.

40% of people in the world lack basic sanitation, while 49 million diapers are used and thrown away in America every day.

Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half of the world does on all goods.

Never before in all of human history has the world seen a superpower as wealthy and as powerful as The United States of America. We have more at our disposal than any people group anywhere at any time has ever had. So here’s the premise of the book (something that will make you think):

Empires accumulate.

Accumulation gives birth to Entitlement.

Entitlement demands preservation.

Preservation is self-serving.

Preservation is costly.

The US accounts for 48% of global military spending. Less than 5% of the world’s population purchases nearly half of the world’s weapons. If we can spend a trillion dollars on a war, what else we could spend a trillion dollars on?

Most of the bible is written history told by people living in lands occupied by the superpower empires of their day. So it’s very difficult then to fully grasp and understand the Bible when we read it as a people born into the most powerful and wealthy empire the world has ever seen. We’re reading it from the privileged side of power, the opposite side from which most of the writers of the Bible lived.

I heard a pastor this week talking to his church about the need for some of his people to move out of their most attended and crowded service which is no longer growing because there are just not enough seats, to a different service time of which they offer quite a few, so that their church could continue to grow and reach more unchurched people for Christ. Sounds like a simple request, but do you think people are really moving by the droves to give up their seat at their service for someone else? Why should they? After all, they were there first. Why can’t they just encourage the new people to attend one of the other services?

A few weeks ago, while Katie and I were traveling, we caught an interesting story on the national news. They were talking about a church, a Christian church that spent more than 100 million dollars (one hundred million, in case you thought that was a misprint) on their worship center. Who am I to judge what another church spends their money on? After all, they’re a much larger church than any I have ever attended which means they have more money coming in every week which means they have more money to spend which means they can throw 100 million dollars into a church building that looks pretty and makes the Christians who go there feel very privileged. The question I have to ask though is, if we can spend 100 million dollars on a church building, what else could we spend 100 million dollars on?

It’s complicated I know. We are privileged. And yes, God has blessed America. We should be grateful and continue to expand and grow and influence. The problem is, blessing can become a burden, a curse, if it’s not handled God's way. We are made a blessing not for accumulation and self-gain but to be a blessing to others.

Christianity is so much more than a simple transaction about the removal of sin.

“To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity.” –Rodney Stark, Historian

Christianity is living life as Christ lived life. Christianity is standing up for the weak. Christianity is taking care of the widow and the orphan. Christianity is remembering our redemption through Jesus on the cross, remembering our Exodus as people who were once in exile and separated from God brought back into relationship with God through Jesus’ selfless sacrifice.

Christianity is remembering, remembering where we came from, remembering that we, who were once dead in our transgressions, have been made alive in Christ.

Christianity is identifying with the hurting, the sick, the poor, the oppressed and the suffering, even if the suffering is happening in another world, another place far from the comforts of our own privileged homes.

Christianity is movement, action. Christianity is to be embraced and expressed through selfless sacrifice and sacrificial giving. Christianity is lived.

So there it is. What do you think?

I think Jesus wants to save Christians from the exile of irrelevance.

Divided We Stand

My wife and I had the pleasure of taking a little road trip last week with the newest addition to our family, Macy Lee, who is already almost 8 weeks old! When we got home, a full mailbox and a pile of Wall Street Journals were laying in my driveway waiting for me to catch up on a week's worth of news updates and latest economic sagas. In that pile of newspapers, a particular article caught my attention. At first glance, it seemed like news-filler, but after I began reading I realized that God was showing me something profound and beautiful. So here goes...

It has been 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell. But deep in the forest of Grafenau, Germany, a breed of red deer called Ahornia still refuses to cross the old Iron Curtain. This deer inhabits the thickly wooded mountains along what once was the fortified border between West Germany and Czechoslovakia. At the height of the Cold War, a high electric fence, barbed wire and machine-gun-carrying guards cut off Eastern Europe from the Western world. The barriers severed the herds of deer on the two sides as well.

The fence is long gone, and the no-man’s land where it once stood is now part of Europe’s biggest nature preserve. The once-deadly border area is alive with songbirds nesting in crumbling watchtowers, foxes hiding in weedy fortifications and animals not seen there for years.

But one species is boycotting the reunified animal kingdom: the Red Deer. Herds of them roam both sides of the old NATO-Warsaw Pact border but mysteriously turn around when they approach the since dissolved border, this although the deer alive today have no memory of the ominous fence.

One reason stated by wildlife experts is that the deer have traditional trails, passed on through the generations, with a collective memory that their grounds end at the erstwhile barrier. Females, who stay with their mothers longer than males and spend more time absorbing their mothers’ movements, stick even more closely to the traditional turf. (Excerpts were taken from The Wall Street Journal’s article, “Deep in the Forest, Bambi Remains The Cold War’s Last Prisoner”, November 4, 2009)

In 2002, wildlife experts began tracking the herds of red deer using electronic collars and surveying their movement by satellite tracking and video surveillance at the old borderlines. Red deer born of herds from the West side will venture, nose literally touching the now open air where the wall once stood to divide them, and they stop. They move no further. Neither herd has ventured over the place where the wall once stood, though today, nothing stands in their way from expanding their territory into what is now free land for them to roam.

There are two points I’d like to make.

The first is that most of us have never ventured beyond the wall. For many, we’ve gained collective memory through things learned and things experienced which have become dividing walls for us, blocking us from advancing fully into the territory that Christ has already predestined for us to wholly obtain. Though nothing stands in our way, we limit ourselves by looking at the world through human eyes rather than through divine eyes. We have been called, each one of us, to expand, to grow, to accomplish, to achieve, to take risks, to be great.

We are not limited in what we can do, become or accomplish. The biggest limitation that we face is not the difficulty of what is to be grasped or obtained but our own insignificant view of ourselves. It’s our view of ourselves that blocks us in, keeps us small and limits our potential. What we need is God’s view of who we are, what we are to become, what we are to accomplish.

Genesis 1 recounts the words of God toward mankind before the first man and woman were yet living. God said, “Let us make man in our image, to rule over all the creatures and over all the earth…then God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful [great, successful, strong, influential] and increase in number [expand, grow, create]; fill the earth and subdue it [without fear and without hesitation, everything is yours; as big as you can dream there is yet more for you than that].’” –Genesis 1:26-28

Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

We’ve been called to be prophets to the nations. Jesus’ last command to His church as He ascended into heaven was to “Go and make disciples”, not “Stay put and remain in your comfort zones.”

Expand. Grow. Create. Influence.
Yet how do we do that, when we are stuck behind an invisible wall?

(Which leads me to my second point)

The church remains divided. We remain separated by doctrine and denomination. We remain segregated by culture, color and race. We have white churches and black churches. We remain segregated by generation, offering contemporary services for the young and traditional services for the old. We remain divided by the legalism that shapes our worldview and perpetuates the overwhelmingly justified judgment toward those who believe or look or act differently than we do.

The church stands with its’ nose against an invisible wall that was destroyed thousands of years ago by Jesus’ sacrifice to unite all of mankind to its’ creator and return all of creation to its’ fruitful beginnings.

Galatians 3:26-29 says to all of us, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Freedom is ours.

We are rightful heirs to the promises of God.

All we have to do is step across the line.