A Glimpse of the Future

I am reposting this from Lifechurch.tv's leadership and innovation blog...

http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/2009/01/30/a-glimpse-of-the-future/

Great video. This is not the first time I have seen this, but everytime... I ask myself how are we going to do ministry in the future?

MLK and the Missional Church

This is some what of a follow up to my last post on change within the
American church. I just saw this article about Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. and the missional church.

Good article, especially the part on social justice within the church.

http://www.nationalministries.org/front_center_mlk.cfm

We need broken leaders

Boy has it been a week.

Have you ever gotten to point emotionally and spiritually where you
can't take anymore?

That was me this last weekend and Monday. For those of you that know
me, knows I have been in a spiritual battle for a time in my life.
That is why in part my family moved back to Ohio.

This last weekend and Monday many things came to a head... Spiritually
I was at the end of my rope and emotionally I was fried... It was even
starting to effect me physically. I was struggling... I needed a
release, something to break . So I did.

It started at church Sunday... Then as things continued Sunday and
Monday morning... I just sat and weeped. I hurt.

I think that as Christ followers that are trying to make a difference
we are going to have times like this. When you put everything you
have into following and serving Christ... And love God with everything
that we are... Then we are left vulnerable in this sinful world.

I'm today's world of church and church leadership... Some may think
that this blog post is something that should not be shared. But I
think that leaders in churches today need to be transparent and
authentic... When we struggle... Be honest about it.

I watch a ton of church leaders and the ones that I respect the most
are the ones that are honest and transparent about their issues.

To connect... Minister with people today... It is going to require
church leaders to go to a whole new level of honest... Transparent...
Open relationships with the churches that we lead. The people in our
churches need to know that we don't have it all together and that we
are not "super Christians" with a cape and a cross on our chest.

I realize more and more that churches need more pastors that can admit
they are on a journey and don't have it all together instead of more
degrees and more titles.

What about you?

Our churches are full of broken people that need Jesus... I like the
saying... How can we lead somebody on this journey of following Christ
if we have not? How can we encourage the broken of our church if we
have not been broken ourselves? Will we lead the broken on this
journey... Can we lead them if we have not let God break us lately?

This is a call to drop our pride and dependence on ourselves and to
let God have it... This is a call to myself as much as it is to
anybody else!

The importance of BEING and DOING Jesus... with Penn Teller

The last few days, I have blogging about the fact that there has to be more to this Christian life... Christmas... the way that we celebrate Christmas.

I can tell you a story of about how our actions open and close doors for us to be able to tell about Jesus. But actually, I saw this video the other day... and I have thought about it off and on. But here is a video that magician/ comedian, Penn Teller made about somebody that gave him a Bible.

Look at his reactions... how deeply he was touched, just because a Christian was honest, open... and it even sounds like this guy was BEING and DOING what Jesus would have done. Even though he has deep disagreements with Penn, he was respectful, honest and you can tell by Penn's emotions and the way he talks about this guy... he was deeply impacted.

Watch...



Read through my blog from this week and think if we spend time BEING Jesus and DOING what Jesus did... then think about how it will open the doors for us to be able to share Jesus with those like Penn that are atheists and do believe in our wonderful Saviour, Jesus Christ.

I will write more later about this video. I believe that this is a very rich video that we in the church can learn from. You can tell from Penn that living out our values... our beliefs is more important than our actual words.

Merry Christmas!