“People are always more encouraged when we share how God’s grace helped us in weakness than when we brag about our strengths.”
- Rick Warren
“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.”
- Isaiah 40:29 (ESV)
…from Rick Warren’s bi-weekly Ministry Toolbox newsletter.
A week and a half ago I had the chance to hear Mark Driscoll speak at Riverside here in Peoria for the Related Leaders one day conference.
Ever since first hearing his podcast about two years ago and especially since reading Confessions of a Reformission Rev, Mark has been a hero of mine. I was just a tad excited to finally see him in person… like giggling-girl excited. No lie. I realize that’s going to set off some gaydar detectors…. but I digress…
I took a lot of random notes during his talks. This is from his Wednesday night message on the importance of having churches in cities.
Cities are not more important than suburban/rural areas… they are more strategic. By the year 2030, 60% of the world’s population will live in cities. Today, it’s already over 50%.
Culture flows from cities to the suburbs, to the rural areas. Pastors who are sick of picking the pollution out of the cultural river need to work at the source of the river - not the end.
Paul visited cities - not rural areas. Think of the letters he wrote - Galatians, Romans, Ephesians. And then the churches addressed in Revelation - Laodicia, Philadelphia… the focal point has always been a city.
By 300 AD, 50% of cities’ populations had become Christians, whereas only 10% of people in rural areas were believers. Today, we’ve inverted that statistic. We run away from cities, because we want to escape the influence of sin, and we’ve let the culture be directed by a non-Christian world view.
In our church, we are to be a city within a city. We need to be a city of light with our families & morals. That’s what everybody else wants anyway, they just don’t know how to do it.
One thing that’s really kept coming back to me is the idea he presented about there not being enough churches to care for the people in our own area. I’ve heard some estimates of just under 300 churches in town. We have roughly 350,000 in the metropolitan area, so if every church took in the same number of people (1,167), there literally wouldn’t be enough room for everyone. Most churches can’t seat more than 300 - let alone 1,200.
It amazes me how small-minded I can be. I look at Northwoods (4,000) and Riverside (1,800) and I think to myself, “…how great the church is doing in Peoria,” when we’ve barely scratched the surface.
More thoughts tomorrow…
Thursday, January 31st at 9:00a right here in Peoria.
Click on the logo below for more info…
In this week’s email from Relevant Magazine (850 Words of Relevant), they featured an interview with the well-known, controversial author and emergent church leader Brian McLaren.
Regardless of personal opinions of Brian’s teachings, he has some profound insights on the church. Relevant Magazine contributor Phil White asked Brian a few questions about his new (and not surprisingly, controversial) book, Everything Must Change.
**As a side note… I would link to the interview itself, but Relevant hasn’t made it available online… sorry for breaking copyright laws by posting an excerpt here.**
When I was in my twenties, I asked high school kids at a youth conference to name the top five problems in the world and also the top five discussion topics at their churches. The lists they gave me were completely different and that birthed my desire to explore the disconnect between global crises and the inaction of Christians. I’m 51 now, so this idea has been growing for almost 30 years.
I think Jesus would have a tense relationship with modern religious leaders now, as He did in his day, because so many of them have used Jesus’ name to work against Him and what He stood for. For example, for about 80 years before the Civil War, a lot of American preachers misused the Bible to defend slavery. It was the same when I was a boy, when some Christians misquoted scriptures to advocate racism and to attack the work of Dr. King. I think there are similar things going on today, but our children and grandchildren will see it better than we do, unless we really want to see the truth.
As individual consumers we can help build justice for underprivileged peoples by changing our buying habits. One example is by buying through fair trade organizations such as TradeAsOne.com, and by deliberately avoiding purchasing goods we know were created in unethical conditions. When you go shopping without a conscience, you feel happy whenever you get a bargain. But when you are concerned about ethical buying, you aren’t happy at all if your bargain was purchased at the expense of a young woman working for thirty cents an hour, ten hours a day, or a child being exploited in an unsafe factory that pollutes the air he breathes and the water he drinks. You’d feel a lot happier to spend a little more money if you knew that your purchase strengthened an ethical business in an ethical economy.
Government policies must change if we’re to truly bring justice to impoverished nations. For example, U.S. Government subsidization of the cotton industry allows American producers to sell cotton so inexpensively that African producers can’t compete. Our tax dollars are upholding this kind of injustice, and most of us are completely unaware of it.
Now I feel pretty lousy about buying my new pair of jeans on sale.
I hate goodbyes.
I heard Tony Morgan say during a podcast a while back that “…leaving a church is like breaking up with a girlfriend.” Except that since you’re dealing with several relationships in the church, you have to break up a dozen or more times instead of just once.
After last week, I couldn’t agree more.
When we first announced that we were changing churches, it was incredibly difficult. Now that the buzz of leaving has moved throughout most of our social circles, it’s getting easier. It’s less of “…we’re leaving,” and more of “…these are the reasons behind it.”
Here are five things I’ve learned from this process… Continue reading ‘How to Leave Well.’
