They Like Jesus But Not the Church

I'm reading Dan Kimball's book by the same title. He was one of the speakers at the Willow conference I attended two weeks ago. Dan asked unchurched, non-Christian young adults "What do you think of Jesus?", and (surprisingly to most of us) got very postive responses. However, to his question, "What do you think of Christians?" the response was vastly different.

The book is about being "missional" and intentional about reaching the "emerging generations" (I'm still getting used to both of those terms), and, as you might expect, very thought provoking. Since I'm early into the book I can't give a critique overall. But his synopsis of what happens to believers and how they eventually move totally into a Christian sub-culture and have no contact with the non-Christian world is dead on. The last step of 4 is becoming Jonah.

I'll probably post more about it as I progress through the book.

Kimball's writing style is good for me. Now if I could convince him to do something different with his chosen hair cut! Think "Johnny Bravo".

Vintage

A new worship gathering was launched last night at our church intentionally targeting the emerging generation. This began as a dream a year ago, fueled by the desire to reach out to a growing population here (more so in the summer months) of young adults.

I'm a baby boomer. Consequently the amazing growth in our church has been mostly due to the attractiveness of our worship style, teaching, programs for youth and children and facilities. Our "contemporary" church hits a home run with my generation.

But my generation is growing older and the fact is that the church in general is not cutting it in reaching out to generation X. The culture they've grown up in isn't the America of our fathers. So their opinions of the church and "Christianity" are different. Yet they can be and must be reached with the ancient message in a relevant fashion.

That they've asked me to be the primary teacher in this gathering just underscores the name Vintage! But last night we started with 25 young adults. Free pizza! Our band covered songs by Switchfoot, Delirious? and The Foo Fighters. (Don't ask me. But the songs were great!) We looked at Daniel 1 and talked about the tension between God being fair or God being just. Our theme in Daniel is "Heroes". Here's the video we produced and used last night.

We're looking for God to do something new and great.

Today I'm shopping for a pair of crocs and camo shorts. Just trying to be relevant.

Aye, you may fight and you may die

It's Saturday night and I'm watching Braveheart (again for the umpteenth time). If I'm flippin' through the channels and it pops up I can't resist. There's something about the passion and courage of William Wallace that pulls me in.

Now, I know that much of the film is fiction, but it's still a great story. And everytime I watch it I'm reminded that it's our calling that drives us to serve and lead in a cause greater than ourselves, and to not settle for less than what God has ordained.

"Men don't follow titles, they follow courage." Hello!

That's one cool sword he wields. But thank God for soap.

Challenge the Ordinary

God calls us to live lives of excellence. And to help us understand just what that means He's given us great examples in the Bible of men and women who made the choice to be extraordinary rather than ordinary.

In the Old Testament book of Daniel we find 4 men who made the choice to raise the bar and refuse mediocrity, even in the midst of adversity.

This Sunday I'm beginning a new series in my church from those stories in Daniel, hoping to encourage the believers in our fellowship to soar with the eagles. Soon (I'm told) those messages will be available online via podcast - whatever that means.

We're also venturing into a new realm beginning Monday night with a gathering that targets the "emerging" generation or generation X or whatever you call them. It's a new challenge for me, requiring me to do some things differently in how I communicate. The message will stay the same; just repackaged in a way that we hope will connect with these young adults. I enjoy challenges, so God-willing this new venture will fly.

I'll be surrounding with young people to help me stay on course. That's always a good thing!

Heroes all

Yesterday's news that 9 firefighters in Charleston, SC perished while doing their job has to grip your heart. I watched the news as their chief fought back tears in a press conference. He referred to them as among his best friends.

Everybody loves firefighters. They're the ones who go running into burning buildings when everyone else is running out. It's part of their DNA to do whatever is necessary to save lives. What little boy doesn't go through the stage when his dream is to be a firefighter?

As heroic as they are, they're also mortal. And sometimes (more often than we realize) they die in the line of duty. While they never plan for it, every firefighter knows it's a very real possibility. When the alarm sounds he/she never knows if it might be their last. But they are willing to take that risk for you and me.

Tomorrow at 10AM as many as 30,000 are expected to attend a memorial service, many of those will be firefighters from across the nation. I can't attend. You probably can't either. But here are a couple of things you can do:

• Pause for a moment of prayer at 10:00 eastern time and remember the families and friends of these 9 brave men.


• Stop by your local firehouse sometime tomorrow and just say "Thanks". They're not looking for it, but they appreciate it. (And if you take along a cake or some cookies you'll really brighten their day.)


• When you see or hear a siren approaching, pull over to the right and let them by. And as you do give up a prayer for their safety.

I won!

Today my wife, Gail and I celebrate 30 years of marriage. It's so hard to believe that it's been 3 decades - well over half our lives, now. I offered to take her to the restaurant of her choice this evening. I was looking forward to some great seafood! Her choice: "I want you to grill a couple steaks, then let's sit on the deck and talk".

So the steaks are in the refrigerator marinating!

We met while in college when we both had jobs at JC Penney. She was well known on campus, having been a cheerleader her first couple of years. That's where I had first seen her. She was a beauty then and is still one today.

After we started dating one of my friends came up to me and said, "Your a little out of your league, aren't you?". Yeah. I wasn't a football player or a BMOC.

But I won the prize.

Happy Fathers Day

I was reminded this morning that Father's Day isn't a joy for everyone. Not all of us have had the privilege of being reared by a great or even good dad.

Listening to one such person this morning after a service I realized the pain that some feel on holidays like this. I knew that kind of pain was felt by many, but it was brought up close and personal by one who was struggling with the day and her dad.

What do you say when someone says "I am not happy today because I have to spend time with a dad who...."?

I don't know if it helped, but I reminded her that regardless of the failures of her physical father she had another Father who knew she was having a tough time and would be with her throughout the day. He would not let her down, and would give her the emotional strength and courage to handle it.

That's the great thing about having a personal relationship with God. Our human relationships will all drop the ball from time to time, and sometimes with tragic results. The people God has put into our lives who are supposed to be examples - parents, teachers, pastors - are unfortunately imperfect. And when those imperfections come out, it hurts.

But our heavenly Father will never do that. He's the perfect Dad in every way.

So to Him, Happy Father's Day. You're the greatest.

Final day at Willow Creek

Friday morning at the conference was incredibly great. I can't say enough about the exellence of what took place. First, a couple who are worship leaders at WCCC shared very openly about how they learned to surrender to God while going through great sorrow (a baby with numerous defects) and struggling with their faith. They shared in testimony and song. It was powerful stuff.

Then we heard from Donald Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz. He spoke about the effect of The Enlightenment on Christianity, which effectivly removed the mysticism from it, using Romeo and Juliet to illustrate his point. He then made an appeal to the Christian artists (me?) to get back what we've "lost" in the last 500 or so years. Not only was this guy obviously very intelligent, he was also able to speak at a level even I could understand. And the fact that he has a great sense of humor didn't hurt, either.

Finally, The Urban Poets from Mosaic in LA demonstrated one of their worship "services". Through dance, music, comedy, poetry and the teaching of Erwin McManus they were phenomenal. It works so well for them in their context, which is the arts community of LA. Not so sure how it would be perceived/received in the surf community that is Nags Head!

I also was able to finish two books while on the trip: Why Men Hate Going to Church and The Barbarian Way. Both highly recommended, the first for women in the church, the second for men.

As good as the conference was, it's great to be home!

Another great day at Willow Creek

I'm sitting in a huge dining room, having eaten a great salad and half a cookie (I had to give the other half to Burnie, it was sooo big) from the restaurant here in the church. Now I'm sipping on a caffe latte from their coffee shop. In a few minutes we venture into their worship auditorium for a "film festival" highlighting some of the great videos done by churches across America.

The picture is of Nate and I standing in front of the escalator at Willow Creek. Some people just wouldn't believe a church has an escalator.

These guys know how to put on these conferences. My problem is getting lost in this place and going to the wrong seminar. Today we attended 4 breakout sessions we had pre-registered for. Mine were on Journey Church in Manhattan (how they plan for worship services). Our friend Nelson Searcy is their lead pastor, and one of our own, Jessica A. attends there. Another on unleashing your creativity, taught by Mark Miller from Chic Fila (he was incredible); a third about using journaling in your spiritual growth; and last was a one man play about a pastor, his love for his family and his church and how he was being forced out after 11 years. It was outstanding.

Tomorrow morning Erwin McManus brings in his team from Mosaic in LA to give a demonstration on how they do worship in a very arts centered multi-ethnic community. I've been wanting to go out and attend their conference for some time. I'm sure after tomorrow I'll want to do that even more.

All this is good stretching stuff. To be able to see and hear what other innovative churches are doing to reach the world with Christ is encouraging, humbling and challenging. God has used this time (as He typically does when I can get away to these events) to get me thinking and coming up with ideas.

Nothing's worse than being in a church stuck in a rut. At Nags Head we are committed to doing whatever it takes. That's one thing that makes it a great fellowshp.

I'm really not a prophet

In my post on Friday, June 8 I commented about people dying while on vacation and how I am around that sad event all too often. The post was about crossing the finish line and being prepared for death, and how that last week (as of the writing of that post) I knew 3 people who died.

What I didn't know was that the next night I would be called to assist another vacationing family during the very worst hours of their lives. Another vacationer death. Totally accidental. Totally unecessary. This was a 21 yr. old med school student. I was there to somehow help his parents and brother through the initial shock, numbness, pain and anger.

There are times when there are no words to say but "I'm so sorry". It was very sad, indeed.

No one plans to die while on vacation, especially not young people. Was this young, intelligent future doctor prepared? I really don't know. I wonder if anyone had taken the time to share how he could know Christ and have eternal life? I don't know.

But this I do know. His time came unexpectedly. Usually does.