Looking for something "safe"?...(part 2)

What about the "people we can't trust"? That was one of the first things the lady said last week about the community we live in... it is full of people that we can't trust. Of course it is... if anything involves people... then there are people all around you that can't be trusted. Have you ever considered this from God's perspective?

From the beginning of time, we have been untrustworthy. Over and over and over we have let Him down. He has given us direction, guidance, love, mercy, discipline, and responsibility... and we still let Him down at every turn.

He didn't have the opportunity to take the time to "get to know us to see if He liked us or not." He knew us from the beginning... Psalm 139 says He knew everything about us before we were born... He knew we weren't good... and He loved us anyway.

What if God had taken this lady's approach instead? We would be in one heck of a mess. Stuck in the middle of a life that was falling apart... with no one around to walk through life with us. In the process of loving us, God even had the audacity to accept us and not be ashamed of us... "So Jesus is not ashamed to call [us] his brothers and sisters" Hebrews 2:11b. A holy God loves us, accepts us, and is not ashamed to announce that we are part of our family... while we are in the middle of living unholy lives... and we somehow feel that we have the right to disassociate ourselves with "people that can't be trusted"... do you see the hypocrisy in this?

Building relationships with "people that can't be trusted" is not safe... but no one is trustworthy... so if safety is our ultimate goal in life, then we must seclude ourselves from everyone... and that is not how God has called us to live.

***more next time

Looking for something "safe"?...

Let me start this post by saying that this will be part 1 of I don't know how many parts to address this foolish idea that Jesus promised "safety" in our lives. If you are looking for something "safe" in your life... DO NOT choose a relationship with Christ.

A couple days ago, I talked with a woman that talked about "safety" for herself and her kids like it was some sort of command that God gave her. For some reason, she has decided that "safety" is the highest calling for a Christian and his/her family. She said many things that fall into this idea... including talking like it was a good thing she didn't know anyone that lived around her... because this community is "full of people that we can't trust." She said that she has to "get to know people before she can decide if she likes them or not" but she refuses to take any actions to get to know people... she pushes people away at every opportunity... because she wants to keep her family "safe".

In October, Russ and I walked the people at Church At The Grove through the most important aspects of the church and of ministry in general. In that series, we said that "Our spiritual maturity and relationship with God is determined by how we respond to the people that God puts in our path every day." This lady is a believer, but measures her spiritual maturity and relationship with God by how "safe" she keeps her family. That is a ridiculous idea that I can't possibly address in one post... I will try to cover it in the days and weeks ahead... but since I can't get her comments out of my head after three days... I decided that I had to bring this up.

God never promised "safety"... he doesn't demand it, expect it, or command it... in fact, the life of a Christ-folllower is just the opposite. Following Jesus is dangerous and always has been. If you're looking for "safety", find another religion to soothe your spiritual guilt. But, if you want to live on the ragged edge of life... where God is desperately trying to connect with people that are not "safe"... where Jesus actively demonstrates His love to people that are unlovable... where God found you in the pit of your disgusting sin and rebellion (and where he found me)... then maybe following Christ is for you.

Choose whatever you want when it comes to your spiritual relationship with God... but if you decide to follow Jesus, then (and I say this with all the love and mercy I can find in my heart) shut-up about "safety"... there are millions of people around you that are not "spiritually safe" and every minute you spend thinking about yourself is a minute wasted from thinking about them.

***continued next time

Cluttered Mind . . . Empty Page

I've started this post four different times... writing each time about a different topic. I think any one of the topics (High Tech Bathrooms, Infomercial Faith, Boxes of Junk) would have been more effective than what I'm doing right now... but I never could get past the first paragraph on any of those things. The reason? My mind is cluttered. Cluttered with a to do list that literally has more than 50 things on it... cluttered with ideas for upcoming topics for messages... cluttered with thoughts about where to find an old broken down wheelbarrow for a video clip we're filming on Monday... and cluttered with feelings of frustration about the annoying "hold" music that has played on the speaker phone for the last 21 minutes as I've waited to ask a Customer Service Agent a simple question. So because my mind is cluttered... this page is still pretty empty considering I've had it open for about 15 minutes.

Have you ever been there? You want to say something, but can't put it into words. It's an awkward situation, to say the least. And when you're in the blogging world, it's quite difficult to justify. I'm supposed to provide you with some new thoughts or ideas or at least some new "plagiarized" (spelling?) content for you to read, think about, and respond to... but for the last 5 days, my mind has been cluttered... and my blog has been empty... sorry about that.

But, now, in the last half of a day in the last half of the week, I'm starting to get my words back... and maybe the weekend will be a good time to clear my head a little.

Regardless... I hope to see you Sunday... it's going to be awesome.

Tomorrow

I don't know about you, but I can't wait until tomorrow. I love being with the people that show up at Youth Middle School every Sunday morning for a Church At The Grove Gathering. I love hearing the stories of people's lives and all they've gone through (or are going through). I love watching God come face to face with His creation and pour out His love on them in some incredible ways. And tomorrow is a day I'm particularly looking forward to.

All throughout the history of mankind, God has intersected the lives of people and He has changed them. As we kick off "The Great Cover Up - Ancient Stories of Grace," I can't wait to see what God does through it. Have you ever considered the incredible things God has done to reconnect with us? Over the next three weeks, we will look at some of these stories from the past several thousand years and how these stories show God for who He really is.

I can't wait to see you there.

And, by the way, thanks again to the more than 80 adults that signed up to help us with the second Gathering we add on Easter Sunday. You are awesome.

I love you guys, and I can't wait to see you tomorrow.

Giving A Voice To The Heavens

I'm sitting here in my office listening to David Odom give a voice to the heavens. David just came back from a cruise where God showed Himself through His creation. I asked David about the song he was singing... one he is in process of writing... one inspired by the words of Psalm 19.

So I grabbed my Bible and read, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies announce what his hands have made. Day after day they tell the story; night after night they tell it again. They have no speech or words; they have no voice to be heard...". What a sad statement... the skies know the glory of God and they tell His story every day and every night... but they don't have a voice to tell the story as clearly as it should be told. They can tell of a "higher power", but they can't tell us His name. They can tell of a "creative creator", but they can't speak of His outrageous plan to send His Son to reclaim the creation. They can tell of "power" and "peace" and "wonder", but they can't say that God... and God alone... deserves to be worshipped by what He has made. They can elude to a "beautiful love," but can't remind us of every time that God has recklessly pursued us with love and passion and grace and mercy.

So, the job is ours. We have to tell the story... His story. David is able to give the heavens a voice through music. Russ and I try to give the heavens a voice as we speak. And all of us can give the heavens a voice as we live our lives day by day. As we talk about God, we take away the "vague-ness" of the "higher power" title He is so often given. As we tell about the ways that Jesus has changed us, we are able to share the story of God's creative reconnection to mankind. As we worship, we can remind ourselves of God's power, peace, and wonder. And as we pursue others with God's reckless love, people can experience His passion and grace and mercy. When we live our lives in order to give a voice to the heavens, people will come face to face with the God that we know... and they will be changed by Him.

Thank you to the 80+ people that signed up to be the voice of the heavens as we add the second Gathering on Sunday morning... God will do incredible things through your service. I love the people of Church At The Grove... you are awesome!!!

My Wife Says Skeeball Players Are Sexy

Don't laugh... if your wife made a comment like that, you would be looking for the nearest Chuck E Cheese right now... sorry, but they're already closed for the night. As a clarification, my wife wanted to say that she does not think that "all" skeeball players are sexy... just me... yes I know she is biased, but I don't care... I'll post it anyway... because my wife is so great and if she reads this tomorrow, it may remind her of one more reason why she married this goof-ball with all my crazy ideas and "have I lost my mind?" moments.

Speaking of "have I lost my mind?" moments... if you chose to skip out on the Gathering at Church At The Grove this morning, you just experienced one of those moments. We had a huge crowd of incredible people that willingly committed to create the most amazing Sunday morning environments over the next three months so that "disconnected" people can reconnect to a loving God. I love these people... I love this church... and did I mention that my wife is really great... now where did I put that last Chuck E Cheese token?

Chuck E Cheese, Skee-Ball, and Risky Faith

Friday, I got a chance to take my kids to Chuck E Cheese for a couple hours. We blew through the first $5 of game tokens in a heartbeat, and then got a little more strategic in how we spent the last $5. After noticing the Jackpot on Skee-Ball was at 175 tickets, I realized it was time to make my move. So I grabbed six tokens and headed that way. It was the fourth token that paid off... 470,000 points... jackpot... the bell rang... the little red light on the top blinked... the tickets started spilling out... my kids celebrated... and God taught me what it means to have Risky Faith.

My first twenty years of my skee-ball career were pretty mundane... ordinary... filled with minor successes and a lot of mediocrity. And then I watched the "master" as I called him. He walked up beside me at the Skee-Ball place at Six Flags (the one near the Looping Starship). I never knew his name... but when I saw him hit 600,000 points, I knew he was worth learning from. He would put one token in and with very little preparation would roll a ball across the lane diagonally toward the top left corner of the pockets... right at the tiny little cup labelled 100,000 points... he was a fool. Many times he would fail and the ball would trickle back down into the miserable 10,00 point pocket. But when he would hit it, his score would skyrocket... 10,000... 110,000... 210,000... 220,000... 230,000... 330,000... 430,000... 440,000... 540,000... and tickets would spill out.

That's when I learned what I had been doing all my life that kept me stuck in the upper 200Ks. My Skee-Ball game plan up to that point was to shoot for the middle and try to perfect my roll. The tiny little cups in the top corners seemed impossible to hit. Sure, the 100,000 points were tempting, but I knew that most of my attempts would fail. So, I would aim for 50K and try to hit it perfectly... nine times in a row. Not once did I ever succeed at getting the 450,000 Jackpot. After watching Mr. Skee-Ball, though, my game is different... changed because I am now willing to risk it all... willing to put everything on the line and shoot for the "impossible" in the top corners. Most balls miss. But that's the beauty of the game... to hit 450,000 points by shooting for the 100K pockets, I can fail some of the time... actually, most of the time... and still come out a winnner. So, now, when I take my kids to Chuck E Cheese and they join me at the Skee-Ball games, they have confidence that they are about to get some serious tickets to spend... no more being stuck with a Tootsie Roll prize...they are going to move up to the stickers or the plastic snakes... or even some really tacky plastic thing that makes a lot of really tacky noise. As a father, I want my kids to have the really tacky noise-maker... I've got good plans for them... and if they're willing to risk it with me... eventually it works out. Sure, it takes me 4 or 5 or 6 tokens to get the Jackpot... and along the way I have my share of 180,000 point games (or even worse)... but I rarely leave without getting the Jackpot at least once... because I take a risk.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for, 'declares the Lord,' plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Russ and I believe that God will use Church At The Grove to offer hope to people. We believe that's what God wants...we believe that's what God dreams about. But it involves us trusting God with a risky faith that attempts those things that seem impossible. Will we fail along the way... sure! But, by risking it all in order to help "disconnected people" connect to the holy God we serve, we will also be amazed at the "jackpots" we hit along the way. Will you join us in this risky journey?

Many of those that attend Church At The Grove with us have spent years trying to learn how to roll the perfect skee-ball, spiritually speaking. We've taken the classes... we've put countless hours into the church machine... we've tried to always shoot for the middle... the safe route... where minor successes are more likely... and we've continued on with life in the middle. But God is putting in our hearts a passion for people that live on the edge... the fringe. People that live their lives far from God are the ones that God is calling us to reach. And, the only way to reach them is to take the "foolish" route... diagonally across the lane toward the top left corner. God is more interested in reaching disconnected people than keeping connected people happy... and we are, too.

What a ride this will be... but the Jackpots are coming... people's lives will be changed by God... and we will all celebrate!

Is God Just Waiting On Us?

Over the last three weeks, Russ and I have been wrestling with some big decisions about Church At The Grove. On Monday, my wife asked me a very soul-searching kind of question: "Do you think God just might be waiting on you and Russ before He does anything else?"

"Thanks for the gut-check, Honey." Yes, in fact I do think God was waiting on us. God's got big plans for the Walnut Grove community and the communities all around it. He's got big plans for the 100,000+ people right around here. He wants them to come face to face with Him. He wants them to be confronted with His incredible grace. He wants them to be overwhelmed by His love and by the love that His people extend. And, for many of the people around here, Church At The Grove is their only hope to connect with Christ.

So, here we go...get ready for two services...get ready for a second opportunity for the people of this community to explore faith through the Sunday morning environment...get ready for God to move in some pretty incredible ways...because He wants to...He's just waiting on us.

Don't believe me?

When you get a chance, read the book of Nehemiah (really...read it...especially before this Sunday). The place where God had freedom to move and work as He chose (Jerusalem) had been destroyed. People lost all hope. Seventy years it lay in ruins. Seventy years God had to wait for one man who was willing to risk something...to take a chance...and rebuild a place for God to work freely. Nehemiah stepped up, gathered a few leaders, and started building. And God did incredible things...eventually providing hope again for the Jewish people and those that lived all around them.

All across the United States, people have lost hope. In many areas, the Church lays in ruins. A place where God once had freedom to move and work as He chose has become ineffective at offering hope to people inside AND outside its walls. Many new churches are stepping up, gathering a few missional leaders, and starting to build communities of people where God is once again given the freedom to work and move as He chooses. Church At The Grove is willing to risk some things...to take chances...and be part of building that community. God wants this area to fully experience His power, understand the love of His Son, and extend His grace to the world...He's just waiting on us.

Extraordinary Living...It's Kind Of Like Guthrie's Sauce

I don't know about your Sunday, but it's taken me a full day to recover from mine...not because it was bad...but because I've had to wrestle with my thoughts and ideas on the whole topic of "ordinary" living...and it's worn me out. As Russ spoke at the Gathering yesterday, I wrote down something that he said, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

As we finished our "One" message series, Russ said, "God invites us to move from ordinary to extraordinary." It's such a simple comment to make, but so difficult to really understand and live by. I mean, what is "ordinary"? My life is different than everybody else's in the world because I'm the only one that gets to live it. And yet, so much of my life is perfectly in line with the majority of the population around me. So, am I simply living an "ordinary" life? I've got a wife, three kids, a couple minivans, a house in the suburbs, a job (aka pastoring a new church), a great church (aka my job), a few really close friends, a large number of good friends and acquaintances, and a little league soccer team that I coach. Yep, that's a pretty ordinary life...I love it...but sometimes things seem a little too routine. Unfortunately, turning these things in and swapping them out for something "extraordinary" has been a little confusing to me. Which of these things is most holding me back from an "extraordinary" life?

I've watched people I know wrestle with this question, and make some really stupid decisions along the way. I've known many people that thought their life was ordinary (aka boring and mundane) because of their wife and kids...so they left...they traded in the ordinary for what they thought would be an extraordinary relationship with "the other woman"...all of those men have ended up disappointed. I've known some that decided their life was ordinary because of the minivan and the house in the suburbs...so they packed up their families and moved...they decided to change their scenery...some were disappointed and some loved it. I've known people that have quit their jobs, left their churches, cut ties with their friends, become distant from everyone around them, and changed sports...all as attempts to trade the "ordinary" life in for the "extraordinary".

As I've thought about all of this in my own life and lined it up with Russ' quote from Sunday, I think I finally figured it out. The key is in the word "extraordinary." If the word was "altra-ordinary" then the concept of completely trading one thing for another would make sense. But the word is "extra-ordinary" which implies something totally different.

When I was in college at UGA (Go Dawgs!!!) we used to go to Guthrie's all the time. If you've never been to Guthrie's you owe it to yourself to go at least once in life (www.guthrieschicken.com). It's an old-school version of Zaxby's with a simpler menu (6 items), greasier food, and a more incredible sauce made with a mixture of red pepper, black pepper, tabasco sauce, mayonnaise, and probably a few other ingredients. My order was usually the same: Chicken finger plate-no slaw-extra fries, and four extra sauces. The "ordinary" chicken finger plate came with 5 fingers, a handful of fries, a little slaw, a piece of toast, and one cup of sauce. I hate slaw, the fries were great, and the sauce...oh the sauce...it was amazing. So I eliminated one small part of the ordinary to make room for the "extra" fries and the "extra" sauce...in other words, I eliminated one small part of ordinary and then just got "extra" "ordinary" stuff to make the meal perfect.

Spiritually speaking, now when I look at my ordinary life, I will no longer see the "ordinary" parts as boring and mundane. Instead, I will see the "ordinary" parts as not fully enjoyed yet. In other words, when the daily grind of some basic parts of life gets in the way of "extraordinary" living, I will ask God to help me enjoy the important things even more and make a deeper impact in every area of my life. I will attempt to eliminate a few small parts of ordinary (pointless errands, wasted time watching Conan, etc.) and then just get "extra" evenings with my wife and kids, "extra" time with my close friends, "extra" opportunity to make a difference in the lives of good friends and acquaintances and strangers around the world, and "extra" enjoyment of building into the lives of the nine kids on the soccer team. That is the "extra"ordinary life I am dreaming about now, and I wonder if that's kind of what God dreams about for me, too.