In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a little giddy about seeing Senor Bell later on this week. Plus I got the Everything is Spiritual DVD, and remembered how much I loved that talk. So, it’s kind of been the Week O’ Rob.
Nevertheless, here’s an article from the Dallas Morning News about Rob and his upcoming gig at the Nokia Theater.
Did you catch the first song on Grey’s Anatomy last night? It was none other than Derek Webb’s “Name” from The Ringing Bell.
It was strange to listen to Derek sing over the action on screen. I would have expected him to license a song to a show like Justice Files or Living with Ed before Grey’s Anatomy. He is, after all, a bit more concerned with bigger social issues than whether or not George and Izzie have chemsitry. At least, I thought so.
Make that money, Derek!
I just received my copy of Everything is Spiritual, and from the moment that Kyle and I opened the package, we realized that we will never be cool enough to hang out with Rob Bell.
However, included in the fold-out package is a list of resources for further study….so although Rob probably won’t want to watch Survivor with me, at least we could dialogue about Neutron stars and such. Here’s the list:
Here’s a link to an article from the Chicago Sun-Times about Rob Bell’s new speaking tour, The God’s Aren’t Angry. Rob will be in Dallas next Friday, and I know for a fact that there will be at least 25 Athenians ready to hear “how humans invented religion to make themselves feel better.”
Have you ever felt like a certain day was a turning point? Was there a day when you knew everything about life had changed? These days bring to mind weddings, pregnancies, new jobs, Boston winning a World Series.
Last night was the beginning of something new that will ripple through my ministry in Athens and through lifetimes in Ethiopia. At a meeting of pastors, church members, and Buckner reps, I presented an idea to collect students from across East Texas and catalyze them to raise funds for water wells. A recently dug water well in Bantu, Ethiopia cost $30,000 and the goal I have for our team is to dig at least 1 water well per year.
78% of Ethiopians don’t have access to clean water, but we are able to drive to Wal-Mart and buy cases of the stuff. We use potable water to flush our toilets. We can get it free from any tap. And yet, in the rest of the world, a child dies every 15 seconds from water-borne disease. Our team is going to start bringing water and hope to the people of Ethiopia.
We are going to dig deep.
Rick Warren made a great observation during his address to the BGCT convention in Amarillo. (I’m trying to quote him verbatim, but i make no guarantees)
The Church is the only thing that will last. In 500 years, there won’t be any Microsoft or United States of America…but there will still be the Church.
Wrap your head around that. If you follow Jesus, then you are part of something that has endured and will continue to endure. How do we leverage that? How do we operate in that reality instead of trying to fight for what is ours?
In the book of Job, we find a man who is broken and appears as if he’s lost everything. And then things get worse. The author of Job spend but a few chapters introducing his dilemma, and a few chapters of wrap-up at the end. The bulk of the book is an argument between Job and his so-called friends. They arrive to help him through this difficult time, but they end up going round and round in fruitless debate about the nature of his circumstances. Leave it to Job’s friends to engage in pointless dialogue, when they had started off so well. Job 2:13 says the three men sat on the ground with Job and didn’t say a word because they could see how much pain he was holding onto. If the story ends there, we have an amazing picture of friends living alongside of a broken-down traveller. But they have to open their mouth. As if words could make it rain…
Erin and I watched “Reign Over Me” last night. What an incredible story about suffering and ministry. As the movie shows, our natural reaction is usually to get people over the hump of suffering. Take them to a counsellor. Deal with the problem. Move on. Let it go. But sometimes it’s not quite so easy. More often than not, we believe we need to be either informational (get on the solution side) or inspirational (give them hope). But I believe Christ-followers have a much more exciting call on their lives. We are to be incarnational. As we walk alongside of others, we can be Jesus in the flesh to hurting people. Our love can do something that information and inspiration will never do. 1 John reminds us that God doesn’t just have love, he is the very embodiment of love. And when we love those around us, we bring God to life right in front them. Because information and inspiration can’t make it rain. Only love can make it rain…
So here is my prayer for today: ”Love, reign over me. Amen.”
I have been lazy about blogging lately. And I don’t really have anything much to write about, but I at least wanted to post a quick update. I’m anticipating a good entry sometime Saturday or Sunday after I get back from Austin which makes for a quick segue….
Travels
+ Atlanta, GA for Catalyst Conference
+ Bullard, TX for the best football game I’ve seen in person
+ College Station, TX for the 2nd best football game
+ Going to Austin, TX for Emergence 2007
+ Going to Amarillo, TX next weekend for Big Baptist Fun!
+ Going to the House of Blues in 3 weeks for MuteMath
+ Going to Mexico in 1 month on a mission trip
Reading
+ Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
+ The Likeability Factor by Tim Sanders
+ Peppermint Filled Pinatas by Eric ____ from Mosaic
Listening To
+ Band of Horses No One’s Gonna Love You from Cease to Begin
+ Jimmy Eat World’s new CD Chase This Light
+ Jonezetta Popularity
New Favorite Website
Last Thing Purchased
+ Everything is Spiritual by Rob Bell
Last Great Sermon I Heard / Watched
+ Incarnational Ministry by Rick Warren from last year’s Q Conference
That’s it for now. A more thoughtful post is brewing. peace.
Sometimes ideas just hit me. The light goes on. A song sparks an idea for a video. A movie clip gives way to a message. A picture leads to another picture, which leads to another picture, which takes me to an idea for a blog entry.
It’s weird. Concrete example: Last year at the Youth Specialties conference in Austin, I saw a backdrop that was 99.9% white, with just 3 words written on it. That backdrop led to the idea for a DNow theme: “Clean” with simple, white decorations. And as I watching Grey’s Anatomy a month after the birth of that idea, I heard a song by Kate Havnevik and immediately pictured the video that would begin our weekend. Similar instances happened at the camp; rarely did I ever make something because I had to. Usually I was desperate to get the idea out; sometimes it felt like it would consume me if I didn’t do something with it.
There are other moments when I reach for inspiration. I was just passing Greenwood Cemetery in Dallas, and I was struck by how old and overgrown the cemetery looks. It was empty, and I got the impression that no one visits these graves anymore. All of the stories and accomplishments are being forgotten every day. The life really has left that place it seemed. I thought about making a video, but nothing was coming. I thought of getting a camera and taking pictures, but what would they be for? The illustration is neat, but how do I connect that to a larger spiritual truth? I was right on the edge of an idea, but then it was gone.
I don’t know how to harness my creative energy and put it to work. Rather, I usually feel like I’m at the mercy of any ounce of creative juice that bubbles to the surface. If anyone who reads this has any ideas on staying inspired, I’d love to hear it. How do you jump the gap from “almost idea” to “full-fledged possibility?” How do you stay inspired?
Dear Keeper of the Michiagan Scoreboard,
Congratulations, you beat an incredibly inept Notre Dame. I was actually hoping you would lose the game, because I figured if you were 0-3, you would listen to the advice I’m about to give you. But you won, and so you will probably let this nugget of wisdom in one ear and out the other.
I’ve heard a rumor that on certain important moments in the game, your scoreboard and cheerleaders display signs that say “Key Play.” At this point, all 100,000 fans that are crammed into the Big House are supposed to hold up their keys and shake them. Imagine the cacophony of noise that 100,000 jingling pieces of metal can create! In fact, I would guess that the only thing louder than the jingling of keys, could be the screaming of your fans. But you apparently don’t want your spry, young 20-somethings to yell their hearts out, and I don’t know why. Maybe the 98 year old alumni would rather keep the noise down, or maybe it’s just a joke that has spiraled out of control. But whatever the reason, you rob your fans of the chance to really let loose and cheer with every fiber of their being at the exact moment that cheering is needed.
I’m all too familiar with this problem. You see, I not only work at a church, but I have gone to church all of my life. Inevitably, each Sunday, there is some amount of singing that happens at churches across the country. And when the words for whatever Chris Tomlin song we are singing along with that morning hit the screen, we might as well have cheerleaders holding up “Key Play” at the front of the stage. Don’t get me wrong, singing is great. Music can influence our attitudes and receptivity for God’s truth. But just as you have convinced your fans that the only way they can make noise during “Key Plays” is to hold up their keys, so to, we have subtly planted in people’s minds that the only way they can worship is to sing. Instead of remembering that singing is just 1 way to praise our Creator, we have made singing synonymous with worship.
That may not seem dangerous to you, oh Michigan scoreboard keeper, but let me tell you why it is hurting us. There is no way that every Sunday morning song is going to be amazing. Even the best song leaders still write bad songs (i.e. Tomlin’s “America”) If worship=singing and singing=worship, when the singing is not exciting and great, we can mistakenly say “Worship was bad.” What’s funny about that statement is that there is no way worship can be bad. There is no bad worship. There is no good worship. Someone is either worshiping or not worshiping. Worship, in and of itself, is ascribing worth to something, and that’s not something you can do poorly. When you are extolling the amazing-ness of an iPhone to someone else, you are worshiping the iPhone. You could do that with a song, or a poem, or a story, or by simply sitting contently with the iPhone. And if there are that many ways to give value and worth to a phone, how many more ways must there be to attribute worth to the creator of both phones and the creatures that use them. And each one of those ways is good; there is no bad way to worship. There is just worship.
Let’s make a deal. Why don’t you phase out the “Key Play” shtick? Just ask them to cheer. However they do that is up to them. Here’s my end of the bargain: I’ll do my best to remind Jesus followers that worship can mean singing and worship can mean prayer and worship can mean enjoying the rain on a warm, summer day. How does that sound? Good luck next week.
Peace,
Chris
