Needs.

We had a chance this past Saturday to engage our community by giving things away.  HCC held a Swap & Shop event in which the whole gym full of stuff to be given away to those in our community.

The doors opened at 10 am, but at 9:15 am, the parking lot had people waiting.  Around 300 people came to the event.  On top of that, the entire event was volunteer driven.  The people of Harvest pulled it off.

Check out some of the pictures on HCC’s facebook page here.

Engage #2

I’ve been reading UnChristian by David Kinnaman for the past several weeks. Many of the stats I used the past 2 weeks have come from this book. Here are a few quotes from the book that stood out to me:

“Christianity has become bloated with blind followers who would rather repeat slogans than actually feel true compassion and care.”

“Jesus was called a friend of sinners, relentlessly pursuing the downtrodden. What an irony that today his followers seem the opposite.”

“Christians, and particularly evangelicals, have relied primarily on two methods of dealing with the threats they perceive from the homosexual community: preaching and politics.”

“A new generation thinks of Christianity as devoid of spiritual vibrancy, parochial, small-minded, and ignorant.”

“We are responsible to engage the world.”

Engage #1

Each day this week I will posting additional thoughts from our “Engage” series.

We naturally drift toward a disconnect from God.  It’s our natural tendency.  It’s all part of our sin nature.  If we do nothing spiritually, we end up far from God.

We do not become disciples of Jesus by accident.  We do not wake up one day and are now a disciple.  It takes a real advance commitment.  A commitment that costs us our life.  (the part many do not like)

Many American Christians do not fully engage in following Jesus simply because the cost is too great.

Are you willing to engage?

Exponential 09

Just got back from Orlando where I attended the Exponential 09 Conference. Great time of learning and connecting with others in ministry. I always look forward to hear Erwin McManus speak. His talk I heard several years ago at the Leadership Summit is by far the most any message has ever impacted me. Francis Chan challenged us to be Spirit-led within our work. He is a great man of God.
Anytime I go to an event like this, it takes me some time to process what I heard. It feels like a drank from a fire hydrant, so it takes some time to actually sallow some of the water. My task this coming week is to take this information and filter into my daily ministry at HCC.

What the Church Can Learn from Facebook

Millions of people leverage the social power of Facebook everyday.  Some days I get more messages through Facebook than email.  I think there are valuable lessons the church can learn from Facebook.

• Facebook understands the power of relationship.  So should the church.  People spend hours on Facebook for the relationship factor.  We crave relationship and interaction.  The church continually needs to find ways to connect people.  A weekend service with people sitting in rows listening to a speaker is not connecting people with each other.
• Facebook learns from others (even sites who are much smaller).  It is very clear Facebook has spent much time studying Twitter, specifically how Twitter connects it’s followers.  It’s very tempting, especially for a larger church who seems to have “arrived” to stop looking at others to gain insights into better ministry methods.
• Facebook is continually changing.  This one impresses me.  Most would think it would be silly for Facebook to change, especially with all the success they have had.  However, they have changed formats several times and will probably continue to change, even when the initial response is negative.  The church needs to be a dynamic changing force in the community.  We constantly need to be tweaking, adjusting, moving with the community we serve.  And just like those who complain about the Facebook changes, some in the church will complain.  Keep this in mind – all those who have complained about the Facebook changes are still using it.  Interesting.
• Facebook values excellence.  They just do things the right way.  While Twitter has struggled at times with it’s “fail whale”, Facebook provides excellent service to those who use it.  When people come to your church, do they see excellence?  Do they see things done the right way?  This does not mean we need the best of everything, but what we do have and do, is far above the bar.
• Facebook understands simplicity.  Have you ever been on someones MySpace page and it looks like a tornado went through it?  Random pictures of all sorts of sizes along with a bunch of videos with freaky backgrounds making it nearly impossible to read the text.  Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.  Don’t even start on the music that plays when you open the page.  Facebook has kept its format simple and organized, even through the changes.  Is your church like those MySpace pages you’ve seen that drive you crazy?  Is there so much stuff going on it’s hard to keep it all straight?  The message of Jesus is simple, as should the church.

High Level Leadership

I’ve never really like the term “shout out” but I have to give one today.  

NMC is in Elkhart County (with 2 video venues – one in St. Joe and one in LaGrange County).  Right in the middle of the economic mess.  I’ve never in my life have known so many friends who do not have jobs, or only work a couple of days a week.  

Obviously, this affects the church, too.  I’ve heard many stories of churches laying off staff members or reducing hours.  Some of these churches are not even in Elkhart County, so while the epicenter is Elkhart County, the ripple effect has been felt in neighboring counties.  

Even during this crisis, the people of NMC, especially the leaders, have stood tall and have continued to seek God’s direction and wisdom.  People have given out of their poverty.  Unemployed Christ-followers are helping others in need.  The Leadership has been financially responsible.  

Not one staff member has been laid off at NMC.  Not one.  Amazing.

What’s on the list

A while back Doug at WRFN asked my what I was reading.  Also, had a converstation with a guy at church about some good books on a certain topic.  Here’s my list of what I’m reading right now-

A New Kind of Christian – Brian McLaren

Axiom – Bill Hybels

It - Craig Groeschel

As I looked at this small list of authors – it hit me.  Each are fairly strong voices in the Christian church today.  However, each come from somewhat of a different angle.  There are points from each I agree with, also thoughts from all three I do not agree with.  

I have a few books I will jump into soon – The Shack (don’t really want to, but feel I need to), The Tipping Point by Malcolm Galdwell, and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

25.

I’ve been tagged numerous times to do the 25 random things through facebook.  I will be tagging no one.

1.  I like Twitter better than Facebook.

2.  I could eat Wooden Peel pizza everyday for the rest of my life.

3.  I follow more Husker sports than just football.  Men’s bball team just won 2 road conference games in a row.

4.  I loathe SR 19.  I think it’s incredibly rude to drive 40 mph on it.

5.  I love the smell of Playdoh.

6.  I must have a fan on when I sleep.

7.  I currently weigh 248 pounds.

8.  Adults with braces on their teeth kind of freak me out.

9.  I am 1 of only 5 people who knows what this means – Roach, Gnat, Fly, Wasp, Hornet.

10.  I’ve met George W. Bush.  (The secret service told me to take my hands out of my pockets right before I met him.)

11.  I’ve met Tom Osborne.  (More excited about him than President Bush)

12.  I am a charter member of the NSBA.  I hold the record for most points in a regulation game:  66.

13.  I like technology.

14.  I used to able to dunk a basketball about 15 years ago on the south rim in the NMC Aux Gym.  (hint:  it’s not quite 10 ft.)

15.  I used to work with troubled kids.  I was once stabbed with a bic pen.

16.  I think Kevin James is funny.  Watch the King of Queens if you want a picture into our lives.

17.  I ate 16 Chinese sugar donuts at King buffet in Elkhart.  Russ Claxton and Ryan Detwiler were witnesses.  This was after a full meal.  Had to do it – I was challenged.

18.  I think camping is dumb.

19.  I struggle living in a small town.  Chipotle might cure that.  Family keeps us here.

20.  I’m not sure I will ever fully understand the Amish and why they do what they do.  Pretty sure they won’t see this.

21.  I have friends with the following nicknames:  Bones, Ice, Sea-bass, C, Marvcus.  A couple others are not appropriate for this.

22.  I love maps.  In college, we had a map of every state in our apartment, in directional order.

23.  I do not like to travel as my parents abused me with too much travel as a little child.  I forgive them.

24.  Hoop Dreams is my favorite movie, followed by the Rocky movies.

25.  I’ve been to Mother Teresa’s home – she was gone.  Met her #2.  Not as impressive.

Disciples.

I had a conversation on Twitter earlier today regarding making disciples.  This is something I have been thinking about the past several weeks.

It’s pretty clear from Scripture it’s our mandate to make disciples.  What does that mean?  What does a disciple look like?  How do we know were doing our mission?

There seems to be 2 extremes to avoid.

1.  Introducing people to Jesus, they make a commitment to Jesus, then we do nothing for them.  

2.  Introducing people to Jesus, they make a commitment to Jesus, then we do everything for them.

The first one is neglect – the second is control.

The first one provides no support for a baby Christ-follower who cannot even crawl yet – The second one leaves no room for the Christian to grow.

I think parenting has helped me with this.  We have a 10 year old, a 5 year old, and a newborn.  They each are at different levels developmentally.  The 10 year old is independent.  He really does quite a bit on his own.  Our newborn does virtually nothing on her own – we do stuff for her – she is a baby.  

I hope our church embraces the concept that everyone is responsible for their own spiritual development.  I’ve said on more than one occasion I will not be going home with you to make sure you do what you’re suppose to do.  You have to do it.  

I also hope our churches introduces many to Jesus and helps them on their way to a vibrant relationship with Him, that we nurture baby Christ-followers into self-feeding disciples.

Fun.

Had a great time last night at Community Group.  We spent the evening bowling at Regal Lanes.  Bowled 3 games with a low of 84 and a high of 152.  

Community Groups are doing life together.  It’s fun.  It’s encouraging.  Our faith was not meant to be done in isolation.