One of the issues that has come up recently is the role that the cell phone and Facebook has come to play in our lives. One couple explained a tension they found in the way one of them “Facebooked” on their mobile phone. Social Media is definitely creating a division between relationships, but I want to focus this post on the phone itself.

When this issue comes up I am constantly reminded of The Lord of the Rings and Gollum sitting with “his precious.” So many of us have created an intimate relationship with our phone. What do I mean by this? How is would it be for you to hand your phone over to your spouse for inspection. Did you flinch? I bet some of you did. Maybe, not because that you keep all of your terrible secrets on your phone instead of under your bed or in your closet, but you have bonded with it in some strange man/woman machine way.

My wife has recently taken to picking up my phone to play games or to explore and I have to admit I get this strange feeling come over me. Have I grown to close to my phone? Maybe we need a break? My wife would certainly agree with that.

Here are some questions for you to chew on:

1. Is there a piece of technology that is “your precious?”
2. Do you get freaked out when someone invades your phone space?
3. Have you recently tried to take a techno-sabbatical?

Thoughts?

• Always unchurched
• De-churched
• Friendly unchurched
• Hostile churched

They also identified four markers that will help you hear what the unchurched are looking for;

• Community
• Depth (and content)
• Responsibility
• Cross-Generational connection

Now with the community this group is really looking for something deeper than what most churches typically provide. I still wonder when some of our churches are going to watch an episode or a season of Friends to get a clue as to how we do community. We need depth, we need fun, we need authenticity, we need honesty, and we need more than a 50 minute lecture each week.

One of the hardest things about reading this book is the frustration inside many churched 20-50 something’s that it seems to also shines a light on. I do wish that the book gave more direct quotes from the churches and pastors that are connecting with both the unchurched and with 20-50 year olds. Maybe I do not want a book about transition churches or comeback churches, but maybe I want to read a book about the similarities in churches that are getting it done. For all the research that Ed and the boys are doing I still feel like it is not getting heard by enough people. I get tired of sitting in meetings with pastors who want to connect with the unchurched or young adults, but are unwilling to investigate how other churches are doing it or even take a first step. These churches are running out of young people, much less young leaders to carry on the work of the church. I speak as a person who has spoken with dozens of young leaders who cannot find a church that will give them the room and resources. These leaders end up giving their leadership to other entities and putting the church lower on their priority list. The fact that your parents go to this church or that church does not bind you to it. I keep hearing leaders tell pastors that they need to find their own swagger and their own voice. I believe that most of our young adults need the same advice. In many cases, if we are going to reach the unchurched, these young adults are going to need to leave the church to find a place to use their voice. Stop suppressing the Gospel for the sake of being a part of your parents church. Yes, you have found a place there to serve, but look at your baptisms over the last year or five to see how many people your age have been in those waters. If the answer is 0 then YOU are not using your voice and I want to know why you haven’t.

• What is keeping you as a young adult from inviting people to your church?
• Are you as a church pastor empowering younger generations with the space and resources to use their voice to reach others? If no, why not? If yes, how?
• Ask more people in your church what they think it would take to reach more unchurched and young generations.
• Are you willing to support a young leader who wants to reach out in new ways?

Alright, so I got on a tear there for awhile. If you can’t tell I have some pent up frustrations and feel ready to do something more than talk and write. The short of it is that Lost and Found is a good place to begin a journey. You will find several hints about what is connecting the church with the unchurched. My prayer is that pastors would read this book and get their butts in gear. Visit some churches. Ask lots of questions. Be humble in the process and remember that what got you here won’t get you there. I could write about this for days, but it is time that I did something too. More to come on that in the future.

     I finished reading I Am Legend by Richard Matheson about a week ago. I had heard that the book was very different from the movie and wanted to see for myself. I was originally drawn to the movie because I totally dig zombies, but I am also really into vampires too. I can remember being a kid of about 3rd grade when my dad brought home Night of the Living Dead on VHS. It was the first really scary movie that I watched. I sat next to my brother on the couch peaking through fingers, my body rigid and awaiting something that would jump out from around a corner. I have to say that I loved both the movie and the book. There are  many differences in the two stories, but both can equally stand on their own, which I can’t say for the first Twilight movie.

     I have always been drawn to solitary figures. It is only now as I have been married for a couple years that I have come to appreciate the intimacy of another and the joy that it brings into my life. I enjoyed reading Robert Neville start to learn about the different disciplines and how he would get frustrated as he would hit a learning wall. I readily identified with that as someone who is a jack of all trades and master of none. I am constantly confronted by learning curves and Google has proved to be one the best teachers that I have ever had. This fact about Robert Neville really kicked off some questions inside of me. If I was the only person around would how would my spiritual life be different. Would my character change? They say character is who you are when no one is looking, it is your core.

     In the film Robert Neville is a Christ figure, but in the book he ends up dying for no real reason. His desire was to find others like himself, but it turns out that the others weren’t for sure that they wanted him in his group. They were vampires who had learned to control their disease and Robert was the vampire killer who was killing them during the day. He longing for human community, even if that community turned out to be with people who were different from himself, as long as they weren’t out to kill him. Given the opportunity I think that he would have learned to live with them and coexisted.

     I know several people that are critical of others and would rather be alone than befriend someone who may be a little quirky or eccentric. I think that I tend to be a very compassionate and forgiving friend, especially when it comes to meeting new people. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I do want to point out that there needs to be a place in our lives for extending some compassion to people who may be “socially challenged.” I have had several friends, who my other friends would give me crap for hanging out with or even answering a phone call from. I want to be a blessing to others and sometimes my gift if just being present. That sounds so arrogant to read back over, but it is really an action of humility. I know that as much as I love solitude, I do not really want to be alone.

Is there someone in your life that needs a grace-filled friendship? How can your humble action of being present in another’s life be a blessing?

The simplest way to put it is to think of missional as being incarnational.  Jesus came to earth as the incarnation of God. Incarnation means, "the word made flesh." So if the church is to be missional is has to become the flesh in the world. We do this by taking our flesh into the world, thereby interacting and interfacing with the world that they may find the word which lives within us. The church must not rely solely on trying to draw people inside, but must go into the world. For Jesus going to the world was a three year process and not simply a one time event He used to get people to come to a building after that.

The Shaping of Things to Come connected with me with its urge to rethink the way that we do church. Are we organized around our mission or around our building? How does your building dictate what you can or can not do. What does it mean to "get out" of the church in more than an event mode? For some churches it has meant starting coffee shops, opening concert venues, partnering with non-church organizations to accomplish a community project, opening art spaces, etc.

This book has been added as one of the most important reads of my life second only to McManus’ An Unstoppable Force. Every church leader and anyone interested in reaching more people with the message of Christ needs to read this book to understand the way forward.

      When the opportunity to read and review the new book by Mark Batterson came my way I jumped at the chance. As a future church planter I love reading about the successes and failures of other church planters and the risks that they take it following God.  Wild Goose Chase is Batterson’s second book and came out in bookstores today.

      There have been several books that I have read within my life that have fired me up and stirred me to take risks, move on something that God had called me to but I was sitting on, and get off the bench and into the game. Mark Batterson’s Wild Goose Chase is one of those books. Mark Batterson is the pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C. NCC is one church in 4 locations. Their main location is within the movie theatres of Union Station where 25 million visitors travel each year. What better place is there for a church than where 25 million people pass your doors each year?

    Over the course of his life Mark has taken some incredible risks that God has used to bless his life and the lives of thousands of others. Wild Goose Chase is about breaking out of the cages that confines us from becoming who God would have us become and what He would have us do. The Wild Goose is a translation for the Celtic term for the Holy Spirit.  Mark has defined six different cages that keep us from living the extraordinary life that God would have for us. Much like Erwin McManus’ An Unstoppable Force I feel that Batterson’s book will inspire thousands of people to get off the bench of the comfortable Christian life and into the adventure of following God where He calls us to go. I named my dog after Erwin by the way.

     Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

• Are you living a life of “self-absorbed spirituality?”
• “When we lack the guts to step out in faith, we rob God of the glory that rightfully belongs to Him.” Worship is more than music. It is the way we live our lives everyday.
• “Our faith doesn’t require any faith.”
• “the sacred becomes routine.”
• “We can get so busy doing “ministry” that we don’t have time for ministry.”
• “Faith is not logical. But it isn’t illogical either. Faith is theological.”
• “It’s never too late to become who you might have been.”
• “Our reactions reveal who we really are.”
• “You know what surprises me now? Someone who has the courage to confess.”
• “God often uses the things that seem to be taking us off our course to keep us on His course.”
• “It is the shipwrecks and snakebites that make us who we are. And they are the stories we love to tell later in life.”

      That last quote is one of my favorites because it reminds me of the moments in life when I have followed God when He has called me to do things that seemed crazy to me or seemed to shipwreck what I had planned, but ended up providing me with the most enriching and amazing experiences in my life.

     I don’t care who you are or where you are in your life, Wild Goose Chase is a must read. It is time for you to get off of the bench, break free from the cages that you are holding yourself within, and join the adventure that God is calling you to. Check out www.chasethegoose.com for more information on the book and to read a sample chapter of the book. Purchase this book for your small group to study and spur one another onto chasing the Wild Goose.

     In addition to getting an advance copy for myself I received a copy to give away to one of my blog readers. So here is how I am going to give the book away. It is time for you readers to reveal yourself to each other. Leave a note about yourself in the comments of this post and tell the other blogs readers a little bit about yourself; stuff like your name, where you are from, and what you do. On Thursday I will put the names of the people who have left a comment into a hat and draw. The winner gets the book.

Looking forward to reading more about you.

I can’t wait to start reading. If you haven’t read In a Pit With A Lion on a Snowy Day go out today and pick it up. It is a great read.

What are you reading these days?

• Breaking the missional code means finding the right way to break through cultural barriers while addressing the spiritual and theological ones that exist.
• Churches in North America must understand that to reach the community outside you must contextualize the mission of the church to the people outside the church in the same way missionaries in Ethiopia must learn the culture, language, and customs.
• You must give up your preferences in order to reach the people in your community with the Gospel.
• You should let the Gospel be the only barrier that stands in the way of the people outside the church.
• Give young leaders a place to grow and to exercise their leadership within the church at large not just their niche.

      This is only a few of the high points.  I would love to hear about some of your favorite parts of the book. If you are interested in borrowing my copy leave me a comment.

      I also had to chance to read Mark Dever’s pamphlet on elders in Baptist life. I recently attended the Founder Conference in Owasso, which is put on by reformed minded churches who in most cases still have the office of elder in their governance. I think that some are of the mind that these reformed churches are not very appealing to young people, and in many cases this is true, but there are several reformed churches that are having great success with younger generations. This is especially true with college students, who are favoring the works of John Piper (a pastor), Derrick Webb (a musician), and Mark Driscoll.

      This is the second book I have read this year on eldership within the church, the other being Elders in Congregational Life by Phil A. Newton. In Edmond I had some great discussions with college students, local church staff, and our business administrator about eldership that spurred my interest. Here are a few of Dever’s high points for your consideration:

• The Biblical offices of the church widely recognized in the new testament are bishops or elders and deacons.
• Elder and deacon are not synonymous. Dever frames it this way, "Their (deacons) work is to care for the physical and fiscal needs of the church, to create unity in the body, and to support the work of the pastors and elders."
• New Testament churches had a plurality of elders in a single local church.
• Elders are to direct or lead the church.
• The staff is to determine how to carry out the pastoral directions set out by the elders, though the staff may themselves be elders.

      I believe that I am beginning to lean more towards the reformed mind set personally, but desire that it be a part of a church that incarnates the Gospel within their context.

I am going to the bookstore this week to pick up the next round of readings. Do you have any suggestions, whether church related or not?

      How can we keep our marketing from sucking?  We can create synergy through alignment.  When I think of what closing for the church means I am reminded of this passage of scripture from 1 Corinthians 3:

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

      I am only a servant of God and my job is to plants seeds.  We are all responsible for watering those seeds, but God is the one who makes it grow.  This is why Arrow Heights is "developing" authentic disciples and not "creating" them.  God creates them and He has given us the tools and resources needed to develop them.  Marketing is planting and the most fertile field for me looks very different than you may think.  Fertile ground for me is a place where there are people who are far from God.  People who don’t know God.  People who don’t know why they are far from God.  That is the fertile soil that must be worked.  Will you work with me?  Will you help plant?  Will you take these seeds to fertile soil?