Lost in Faith

Michael Hyatt over at his blog which bears his name gave four questions to his daughters to help discover if what they were wearing was modest.  My daughters are out of the nest but I talk with many parents who struggle to keep their daughter’s clothed!  Hold the line, parents!

Here they are: “Four Guidelines for Modesty”:

1. If you have trouble getting into it or out of it, it is probably not modest.
2. If you have to be careful when you sit down or bend over, it is probably not modest.
3. If people look at any part of your body before looking at your face, it is probably not modest.
4. If you can see your most private body parts or an outline of those parts under the fabric, it is probably not modest.

I am looking for an opportunity to do a face to face, page to page review of the Journeys with those who lead a group thru it but am having trouble finding a slot for that to happen.

In the meantime:

We have an opportunity via Google Docs that some of you have signed up for.  Please take the opportunity to give us your feedback.  If you’d like to give feedback via Google Groups and haven’t signed up please send Sean an email and he will get you an invite.

Here is the plan for the Journeys and the Study Guides
Revise the current Guides by June
Create a Fast Trac Guide for each Journey of about 4 pages by Sept
Write a book addressing the 7 Journeys by Dec
Regularly offer 7 Journeys  as many different formats as possible

It is amazing how this past 7 weeks has energized our community.  I am stunned at the effect.  I knew we needed to go the the last full measure on the Journeys.  Meaning that we needed to put them center stage and commit to this language to share our journeys.  Now that we have sustaining that effort is only good stewardship of the strides that we have made.

I am sure the is learning taking place all over our movement.  It needs to be shared.  Here’s one: How do you stimulate people to read the Bible, give them a reading plan with only one chapter listed. Yes, the one chapter a day reading plan energized many people to start.  The old reading plan with 2 or 3 chapters from Old and New Testaments was daunting to the newbie.

What else is out there!  What did you learn?

Steve Furtick from Elevation Church gives a shout out to J5 Living

A high school teammate, Jay Lorenzen blogs at www.onmovements.com.

He works with a faculty/student organization so that explains his terminology.  What if you read faculty and students as friends, relatives and co-workers?

“The imagination is how things get done. You have to cultivate creativity.”-Russell Simmons

How do we lead faculty and students to engage mission as a way of life? As movement leaders, we’re always in the process of directing our movement’s imagination toward new possibilities and applications. Henry Ward Beecher once described faith as “spiritualized imagination.” David Fitch, Jonathan Dobson and others suggested the following ways to cultivate missional habits of imagination. I rewrote them for our situation of building movements on the college campus, helping faculty and students to live with more missional intentionality.

1.) Direct imagination towards ways of connecting with people where they are. Have faculty and students see ways to connect with people in their everyday situations, for example, by going to the same place at the same time every week. Help them see the way ordinary life is a stage on which God wants to work. Instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, eating out, and coffee, go to the same places at the same times. Get to know the staff. Smile. Ask questions. Be a regular. Build relationships. If we visit the same places at the same time every week, connecting with others regularly we can revolutionized our missional lives with not a single ounce of extra-expended energy spent.

2.) See mission in other life rhythms as well. Kindle imagination toward seeing mission as part of regular daily, weekly and monthly life rhythms. What do you do regularly? Jog? Work-out? As we live out those rhythms, we need to help people be ready to minister out of their everyday life, assuming God is already working ahead of us to bring people to Christ. Rather than going to a church gym, inhabit the gyms already in our neighborhoods or campus locations. We should avoid creating our own third places and become regular part of the ones already there.

3.) Encourage faculty and students, if they live in a walkable area, to make a practice of getting out and walking around your neighborhood, apartment complex, or campus. Instead of driving to class, the mailbox or convenience store, walk. Be deliberate in your walk. Say hello to people you don’t know. Strike up conversations. Attract attention by walking the dog, carrying along a 6-pack to share, bringing the kids. Make friends. Save some gas, the planet and some people.

4.) Try to direct imagination for inhabiting those community or campus places in two’s or three’s or more. Two or three Christ-followers together become an undeniable force for the kingdom under the Lordship of Christ.

5.) Stoke the imagination of your people for seeking “one person of peace” (Luke 10) among the lost of dorms, apartments, athletic teams, Greek houses, or their neighborhoods. Look for that one who, though never having heard the gospel, is dispositionally ready (been readied by God) to receive. Allow that one person of “reputation and influence” to be the door to the rest of their community.

6.) Direct the imagination towards the way Christ always enters the human situation in humility. Encourage faculty and students to not being the “one with the answer,” but “one searching for the answers that always point you towards Christ.” Help them approach others humbly and in need. Instead of offering them a meal, find ways to participate in a meal with them. If you’re in need, ask others for help.

7.) Direct the imagination of faculty and students toward exegeting their departments, dorms, neighborhoods. Exegeting a place requires inhabiting that place, seeing it as a place for redemption, discovering where the hurting are and the unjust structures are. See the possibilities for ministering the gospel to those who are in need of Christ and through the gospel (over time) seeing that very culture transformed.

8.) In this regard, fire up the imagination toward “appreciative inquiry.” We often approach our “places” negatively. What’s wrong? What needs are there? etc. etc. We can be both more missional and more winsome by directing our community’s imagination to noticing where God is working among us and around us, to recognize it, praise God for it and participate in it through the gifts we have been given. Serve.

9.) Help faculty and students to see the Spirit birthing his kingdom among us as we respond faithfully day by day. Help them keep their eyes on Jesus. Leslie Newbigin warned us that, “the significant advances of the church have not been the result of our own decision about the mobilizing and allocating of “resources” [rather] the significant advances have come through happenings of which the story of Peter and Cornelius is a paradigm, in ways of which we have no advance knowledge.”

10.) Eat with pre-Christian friends. We all eat three meals a day. Why not make a habit of sharing one of those meals with a non-Christian or with a family of non-Christians? Go to lunch with a co-worker, not by yourself. Invite the neighbors over for family dinner. If it’s too much work to cook a big dinner, just order pizza and put the focus on conversation. When you go out for a meal, invite a non-Christian friend. Or take your family to family-style restaurants where you can sit at the table with strangers and strike up conversations. Have cookouts and invite Christians and pre-Christians. Flee the Christian subculture.

11.) Kindle the imagination for servant paradigms of leadership. Help faculty and students reject the heroic paradigms of leadership, in favor of teams in which members live out their giftedness and seek first to serve. In the Scriptures, such apostolic teams seem to be the norm. Missional thinkers like Alan Hirsch have demonstrated that certain leadership types (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist) are conspicuously absent in our communities (where Shepherd, Teacher are the norm). We can help fire imaginations by revisiting these models in Ephesians 4.

12.) Kindle the imagination around hobbies. Help faculty and students pick a hobby that they can share. Help them get out and do something they can enjoy with others. I love to fly-fish and often have the opportunity to invite seeking friends. Try city league sports or local rowing and cycling teams. We can share hobby by teaching lessons. Help faculty and student be prayerful. Be intentional. Be winsome. Have fun. Be themselves.

13.) Kindle a missional intentionality by encouraging faculty and students to volunteer for non-profits. We recently spent the morning with Habitat for Humanity, meeting and working with others from our community, as well as helping a family of seven from Sudan. There are lots of ways to engage the surrounding community….look for ways to kindle the campus’ imagination for bringing the resources of the university to the surrounding area. Take the lead in such efforts.

14.) Help faculty and students imagine how they can better “love the city.” Help them participate in city events–by going to fundraisers, festivals, cleanups, summer shows, and concerts. As they participate missionally, the converse with others, study their city and its make-up. Help them reflect on what they see and hear. Pray together for the city. Love the city. Participate with the city.

This is the Superbowl Dodge Charger ad which probably cost millions to produce and broadcast

This is the rebuttal which costs nothing to produce and broadcast.

Read Alan Hirsch’s Forgotten Ways in less than 5 minutes

Shoal Creek Leadership Training Project (LTP) Looking for Interns – Each summer Shoal Creek looks for college-aged students and young adults with the purpose of igniting a deeper personal faith in themselves, and to also expose them to the inner workings of employment at a local church. We house and feed our interns in exchange for their time in the mornings and involvement with some of our Shoal Creek ministry teams. The LTP gives interns the opportunity to practice what they’re learning about themselves in the bigger Shoal Creek environment. Any colleged-aged student or young adult who wants to take the next step in their spiritual journey should contact Justin Talley to talk about this summer. If you know a young adult who you think might be interested in something like this, please let Justin know that as well so that he can contact them.

justin.talley@shoalcreek.org

Received this email yesterday from a friend after he read my rather lenghty post on the 2nd half of the chessbaord.

Roy,

A friend of mine from college called this morning.  He runs one of the biggest cruise line companies in Florida.  He is on top of the world.  He has been a huge success since he left college and has a wonderful Christian family.  He spent a lot of time this morning describing their brand new ship and I was blown away with all the new features.  After about 20 minutes of describing state-of-the-art innovations, and filling me in on the latest with his family, he dropped a huge bomb on me.  His announcement shook me hard and brought me to tears.  Let me tell you a bit about my friend.

When Kirk started college, he was a very quiet person that kept to himself.  We pledged to the same fraternity as young immature freshmen.  He rushed/persuaded because his brother was a senior in the fraternity.  Otherwise, he would have been happy spending four years in his dorm room and just enjoy going to classes.  We got to know each other through mandatory rush programs for the pledges.  I’ve always seemed to gravitate towards guys that don’t fit the mold of a standard run of the mill person.  I made it a point to make Kirk laugh every time I saw him.  It really made my day when I would get him laughing so hard, he would fall to the ground and roll back and forth on his back.  He was very athletic even though he was shorter and thinner than most.  We joined all the intramural teams we could.  The guys started to dig Kirk as he contributed well to the teams.  At parties he started opening up to others.  He was always laughing and having a good time.  By the time he was a senior, he was voted the President of the fraternity.  We were one of the biggest groups on campus.

Once he came out of his shell, it was apparent he was a natural leader.  Towards the end of his tenure as President, he filled all the mandatory paperwork to apply to our National chapter for the yearly awards.  The changes he put in place, and successes he helped us gain that year, attributed to our chapter winning the top recognition as the best chapter in the nation.

Kirk had never really had a girl friend.  He had been set up a few times for formal parties, but never had a real relationship.

He and I went to a Christian rock concert our senior year.  I introduced him to a quiet girl I had new well from our church youth group.  I’d never seen him hit it off with anyone like this before.  Long story short, they have lived happily ever after together.

Back to the bomb he dropped on me today.  Kirk said that he feels he owes his life to me.  He said he wouldn’t be in the position he is in today without the influence I had on him.  He shared with me an invitation and said he wouldn’t take no for an answer.  He wants to invite me and my family on the voyage trip on the new ship.  This company normally operates the first trip as a training experience filled with employees, partners, and associates from the travel industry.  On this trip he said he not only wants my family on the cruise, he said he wants me to bring all my friends.  I told him that was way too generous.  But, he insisted.  I told him I could think of about five families that would love to join us.  He said that wasn’t enough.  I said I’m sure the rest of my family would love to bring their families.  He said that wasn’t enough.  So, I asked him how many I should plan for.  This is when I cried.  He said he needed 4.000 more rooms occupied.

He went on to tell me the cruise would not be going to the standard destinations.  They have acquired four new islands that have never been utilized.  They have build amenities that are out of this world.  The ocean water is crystal clear blue/green.  The locations are absolute paradise.

Here is where I need help.  I’m thinking if Shoal Creek had 1,000 people attend last Sunday.  If we gave each family the opportunity to invite 3 additional families, then we may be able to fill the rooms.  I know of no other way to fill this number of rooms.  I know this is short notice.  But, the timing is perfect as the cruise sets sail the week Liberty schools are on spring break.  Many folks may have already made plans.  So, we may need to expand the invitee list somehow.  I was thinking we could have tables set up just outside the service area for people to sign up, and list the 3 families they want to invite, and their contact information.  We could have people start calling their friends to ensure they will be available.  Oh, I forgot to mention.  His company is paying for buses to take us to Florida and back.  We will leave on a Friday, and come back 10 days later on a Sunday.  This is a 7 day cruise in paradise!

Do you think we can get that many people in such a short notice?

I’m sorry at this point to say…everything I’ve written above is complete fiction.  I’ve shared it in the spirit of filling the second half of the chess board.  Just think how quickly, and easily, people could make phone calls to 3 families, to spend 7 days in paradise.  Why is it so hard to call 3 families about an eternity in paradise?

Bill Wolkey

According to legend, chess was invented by Grand Vizier Sissa Ben Dahir, and given to King Shirham of India. The king offered him a reward, and he requested the following: “Just one grain of wheat on the first square of the    chessboard. Then put two on the second square, four on the next, then eight, and continue, doubling the number of grains on each successive square, until every square on the chessboard is reached.”

You may give me the wheat or its equal value on the 64th day. This is all I require for my services. The king agreed, but he lost his entire kingdom to Sissa Ben Dahir. Why?

In all, the king owed about 18,000,000,000,000,000,000 grains of wheat. This was more than the worth of his entire kingdom! 18-quintillion—446-quadrillion—744-trillion, etc

The second half of the chessboard is a phrase, coined by Ray Kurzweil.  Raymond Kurzweil is an inventor and futurist. He is involved in fields as diverse as optical character recognition , text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments…

While the number of grains on the first half of the chessboard is large, the amount on the second half is vastly larger.

The number of grains of rice on the first half of the chessboard is 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128 + 256 + 512 + 1024 + … + 2,147,483,648, for a total of 2³² − 1 = 4,294,967,295 grains of rice, or about 100,000 kg of rice.  This amount is about 1/1,200,000^th of total rice production in India per annum (in 2005).

The number of grains of rice on the second half of the chessboard is 2³² + 2³³ + 2³⁴ … + 2⁶³, for a total of 2⁶⁴ − 2³² grains of rice, or the square of the number of grains on the first half of the board. On the 64th square of the chessboard alone there would be 2⁶³ = 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 grains of rice, or more than two billion times as much on the first half of the chessboard.

On the entire chessboard there would be 2⁶⁴ − 1 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice, weighing 461,168,602,000 metric tons.

What does that have to do with ME? I believe that Shoal Creek is on the 2nd half of chess board.  In visual terms if you look at a growth chart, exponential growth starts slow but once the exponential factor hits growth is astronomical.

This is a populations growth chart.

It may be hard to pick out details but notice when the curve starts up the rate of growth continues to increase.

Let me apply this to Shoal Creek.  This Sunday about 1000 people hung out at Shoal Creek.  Imagine if 20% of them bring a friend next week.  1200 people the next week.  And if 20% bring a friend the next week 1440 people the 3rd week and so.  The graph lays long and flat for a while but when it turns up the climb is spectacular.

It took us 7.5 years to make it to 250.  It took another 7 years to get to 1000.  I am not mathematical genius but I see the hockey stick beginning to form!

Of course if these were just number then big whoop.  But they are lives being changed.  Men, women and children being brought into the family of God and learning to live out God’s mission.  Just today I was reminded of a friend whose been coming to the Creek who crossed the line of faith on a Sunday we were talking about J3 receiver to giver.  Wow!

This growth is going to cause us to talk about difficult things, a 3rd Service and When?  Planting new churches in areas where we already have people coming from.  Possibly exploring Satellite Campuses where put a portion of Sunday’s event on video.

But J3 and J5 are also going to cause us to explore taking the gospel to other parts of our city, the rural areas that many of you have come from or into extremely creative non-traditional forms of “church.”

I put church in quotes because church should be a synonym for God’s mission in this world and often it is only a representation of a religious social club.

I digress!  Non traditonal forms of church, like planting a church within a traveling sports team that tends to take families out of the natural weekend rhythm of weekend attendance.  Planting a church in  a workplace like Cerner or a school or even in a geographical location that has a number of Christians living or working close by, like downtown KC.

The hockey stick is forming and the I am going to do everything I can to put gas on the fire and see that everyone in Clay County, the Nortland, northwest Missouri and everywhere God lets us go has a chance to see and hear a clear understanding of the freedom found in Jesus.