Monday, October 29, 2007

I knew I should be famous...

Ran across a cool website that lets you see what celebrity you most resemble. I was pretty sure I was come across as the nerd from 16 Candles, but look what the computer thinks....

%1

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Don't be a zombie


I think this shirt is kind of funny. Richard says he would wear it.
But the sad part is that alot of folks think us Christians ARE alot like zombies...brain dead.
And they don't think that because of what we believe. They think it because of how we live. Or maybe because of how we don't live.
So don't be a zombie. Use your head. But also use your heart.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

a church being the church

I got a note today from a good friend here in Champaign who attends a different church. My friend was writing to tell me that her small group had just spent their evening together driving around to various churches and standing in the church parking lots praying for those churches. What a beautiful demonstration of a church getting beyond denominationalism or territorialism. They spent a chunk of time standing in the parking lot at Barkstall praying for us! Praying that we would have God's vision for our future together and praying that people would be drawn to Jesus through our life, our worship, and our mission. I was blown away and so incredibly encouraged.

The timing was interesting. Right about that time, i was driving by a local church on my way to work and noticed that on their marquee out front, they were advertising a night of live music. As i drove by, a little smirk sneaked onto my face as i thought about how completely non-interesting that sounded. Just then, I had this really stinky feeling of guilt. I knew almost instantly how pathetic my attitude was - especially when other folks at other churches were praying for me and for my success. So as i drove the rest of the way to work, i tried to make up for my own hypocrisy by praying that God would bless that church and their live music night so that it succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

I really hope God moves us, as a church, to be a loving and committed part of the Church.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Living Biblically - one way to do it...

This is AJ Jacobs. He spent the last year literally living Biblically. He took every instruction on how to live in the Bible and decided to try to literally obey each command. So he didn't shave for a whole year. And he wore white robes and sandals every day. And he did absolutely no work on Saturdays (I'm sure his wife loved that). He even took an Old Testament passage that instructs you not to sit in a chair where a woman may have sat during a certain time of the month, and well, you know, since you never can be too careful really, he started carrying his own chair around with him. At least he knew who had been sitting in that one.

Well, there's a new spin on how to "Be like Jesus." And while I think it misses the point a little bit, AJ stumbled across some pretty profound truths in his one year experiment.

When asked what was the biggest challenge for him, he said: "That'd be no coveting, no lying, no gossiping. They're little sins, but they're killers. My year made me realize just how many of these sins I committed every day. And refraining from them for a year was really hard but completely transforming."

And when asked about what the biggest lesson he learned, AJ said: "Your behavior shapes your beliefs. If you act like a good person, you eventually become a better person. I wasn't allowed to gossip, so eventually I started to have fewer petty thoughts to gossip about. I had to help the less fortunate, so I started to become less self-absorbed. I am not Gandhi or Angelina Jolie, but I made some progress."

There's a great discussion question here: Do our beliefs enable our actions to change? Or does changing our actions help shape (confirm, strengthen) what we believe? What do you think?

Question number 2: Gandhi and Angelina Jolie - same sentence. discuss.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

What's the launch?

Somebody asked me recently what we were hoping to accomplish with the Launch. I stumbled through an answer and realized I needed to be able to answer that question better. After spending a few days thinking about it, reading the Southwest Strategic Plan, and reflecting on our own 6 pillars, here is what I came up with:

I want this Launch congregation to become a mission minded community of Christ followers who worship, serve, and live life together.

Mission minded reminds us that in everything we do, we are thinking about those around us. We have our non-Christian friends and neighbors in mind when we think about how to set up chairs, what kind of music to sing, what words to use to describe our faith, how we give people chances to respond in giving, everything.

Community reminds us that we are in this together. My faith is not just between me and Jesus. My faith connects me with every other believer, every one of you.

Christ followers is at the heart of the statement. Jesus Christ is at the heart of who we are. Notice it doesn’t talk about what we believe. Though our beliefs are important (we’ll talk about that a lot!) faith is first and foremost a journey of following Jesus Christ.

The next 3 words all describe what we do together.We worship. And we worship together. And our worship grows out of who we are together.We serve. Jesus told us we are the light of the world. Our responsibility is to take the light of Christ into all the dark places in the world. Again, we do that together.We live life together. We are committed to being a church of small groups; a church where everyone feels like they belong; where everyone knows they are known and loved.

One thing that’s not mentioned in that defining sentence is a word about being open to God doing a new thing in us. We are continually asking God to lead us into creative ways of expressing worship, caring for our community, and sharing life together. You never know exactly what you’re gonna discover on a Sunday morning. And the Launch may look quite different in 6 months. Hopefully it will, as long as we’re following our creative and loving God.