Loud & Clear

facing the dark

I’ve been on a blogging fast for the last three months. It was unannounced, for which I apologize. With the realization of my job transition out of a Communication Director role into a Campus Pastor role, I knew I needed to draw away for a bit to prepare.

In my reading today, I came across a section that spoke to why I felt the need to pull away. Solitude has not always been a strong spiritual discipline in my life but has become more and more important in these last days. Here’s why:

Only those who have been brave enough to ride their own monsters of anger and greed, jealousy and narcissim, fear and violence all the way down to the bottom will find a truer energy with which to lead. Only those who have faced their own dark side can be trusted to lead others toward the Light.

This is where true spiritual leadership begins. Everything that comes before is something else.  -Strenghening the Soul of Your Leadership pg.44, Ruth Haley Barton

This speaks what I could only feel before. When it’s time to step up, it’s time to step away to take measure of what lies beneath waiting to rise up and destroy everything you’re trying to build. And not that we have the capacity or strength to change ourselves, but God who is within us shapes and calls us toward who he has already made us to be. It’s through surrender and disciplining ourselves to obediance that we are positioned to have God work through us, to accomplish what we are called to do.

When was the last time you took a good long look at what’s lurking beneath the surface in your life? How long since you got away and spent some time in solitude with God and let him wrestle those things to the surface? Can you afford to wait any longer?

the big news

It doesn’t take a degree in economics to know that we’re in a deep recession. Many families at Clovis Hills have lost their jobs and homes and many others can see it from where they are. Just as our families have been impacted, so has our church budget.

Last week, I was called into a meeting with Steve, our lead pastor, and Greg, our exec pastor. I learned that they were eliminating seven positions at Clovis Hills, five full time and two part time. Part of those lay offs was the dissolution of my department, Communications. This includes myself and my assistant Thilani.

I’ve been through this before, a couple times. I know what it’s like to look out and wonder what God is doing and what’s next. God uses times like this to create dependency on Him. He uses it to challenge our faith, our worldly view of security and most importantly our walk.

In fact, for the last six months I’ve wrestled with a restlessness in my spirit, knowing that God was preparing me for whatever was next. The word I got from him was, “Whatever you do next will be something you’ve never done before.” A hard thing to grasp since I’ve done so many things here there’s not much left to pick from.

So, when I walked into that room, I was prepared. I was at peace. God had been prepping me for months for this moment. What I didn’t expect was that the next thing would show up right in that meeting.

I was offered something different. Very different. A campus plant in Firebaugh. It seems there’s several families in that area that have been attending Clovis Hills over the last six months who approached Steve about helping them plant a church or campus in that area, reaching out to both Firebaugh and Dos Palos. The offer was to spearhead whatever that campus would evolve into.

WOW. It was terrifying. It was exciting. I thought about all the things I’ve done at Clovis Hills. Student Pastor. Worship Leader. Performing Arts. Weekend Service Producer. Communication & Marketing. Many of the skills I’d need to accomplish this new work.

I took a solitude day that week and drove out to Firebaugh with my wife. We just wanted to be in the town, drive around, meet some people and spend time in prayer. During that time, God gave me twelve specific scriptures affirming his call on me and what he is doing in Firebaugh. In fact, he told me it was something he was already doing. It’s his work, I just get to be a part of it. It was the last piece of the puzzle.

I’ve officially accepted this new position. I’m still on staff at Clovis Hills and have an office at this campus. And that’s about all I know. I’ll meet these families in the coming weeks. I’ve a whole department to transition out of, setting up systems to keep everything flowing. I have more questions than answers. But if you know me, that’s pretty much heaven for me. Discovery, learning, creating, building relationships and stepping out in faith. There’s nothing better than that!

Please pray for the other folks who are transitioning out. Everyone’s still employed through May with ample leeway to discover what God has next. Pray for hope and peace. Pray for provision. And pray with expectation for what God is going to do through our church and our staff, those leaving and those remaining.

One of the verses God gave me during my solitude time was a promise of what’s to come:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9

Fresno- your mayor is the real deal

This morning I attended the annual Fresno/Clovis Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast. And WOW, it blew me away. The passion, the prayers of church leaders in our community and engagement of public officials was amazing. God is seriously doing something in our community. But…

Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearingin was the real deal. She spoke with such genuine passion and honestly. She spoke unbashedly of her faith as a follower of Jesus Christ. She was moved to tears several times as she spoke about her dream for Fresno and what God wants for the people of Fresno.

Here’s a couple of my favorite quotes:

“God is calling us to be the church of the hungry, not the church of the satisfied.”

She said that what sets us apart is our hungry for God’s love, our need to have God engage in our lives and to make a real difference in our community.

“God wants to overcome your objections to his love for you.”

She talked about God’s passion to pursue us. How we often think of God as a gentleman who easily steps aside for us as we assert our own will. But in reality is his forceful in his love for us and his zeal to break down our objections to his love for us.

It was this passion and zeal that moved Mayor Swearingin to tears as she pleaded with us and God to be the people of Jesus in our communities. To show our state and nation that a city who people would count as last become first simply out of what God can do through people who follow him.

WOW!!! You should have been there. It was unexpected but fully welcomed by the entire crowd.

Dr. Fermin Whitaker brought the final message and was outstanding. But Mayor Ashley Swearingin was the standout of the morning. Agree with her politics or not, Fresno, you’ve got a mayor who not only cares but is a committed follower of Jesus.

And when God is on your side, who can stand against you?

credit crash visualized

do you have an integrated or dis-integrated faith?

I’ve been wrestling through this interesting dynamic in our culture of growing spirituality. As the world continues its path toward one large global village, spirituality continues to rise in the global social awareness while closed system religions challenged as being intolerant, arrogant and terrible out of fashion.

A new dialogue is needed to communicate God’s love to a world that is hungering for wholeness but rejecting hypocrisy.

But this challenge crafting of a new dialogue can’t even begin until we can address the justified global village reaction to believers proclaiming one thing and living another. If we can’t follow our own beliefs, who’s going to listen?

I read a great concept this week from Doug Pagitt. While I don’t agree with many ideas he has, this one really struck me:

“God’s intention for individuals and for collective humanity is to bring together full integration of God’s agenda with our world…”

Our problem is not with our actions, but with our beliefs. There’s a huge difference between knowledge and understanding. Between hearing and listening. Between recognizing truth and believing truth. If we profess faith and do not live it or follow prescriptive rules for life without the inner transformation that birth those behaviors naturally, we have a divided faith. A divided faith invariably leaves gaping holes in our lives filled with sin and hypocrisy.

So the key concept is an integration of faith and deed. This full integration is what we modernly call “relationship.” But with the amount of broken relationships in this world, it’s almost no wonder we don’t fully get the whole picture of faith by that description.

So how do we achieve this kind of integration? For starters, we could try marrying our beliefs with our actions. The book of James says,

“What good is it…if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?”

And this is not a new problem by the way.  In Romans, Paul writes:

“You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it. No wonder the Scriptures say, ‘The Gentiles blaspheme the name of God because of you.’”

We have a dis-integration problem. When the world looks at the Church, it sees dis-integration. Our actions say the opposite of Jesus’ message. In fact, it’s completely distressing me to know that our culture seeing Christianity as standing for the exact opposite things that Jesus stood for.

This simply is the product of a dis-integrated life. Jesus said,

“Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”

It’s this remaining that creates complete integration. Paul says in Colossians:

“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

Do you have an integrated or dis-integrated faith? Whose agenda do you wrestle with each day, yours or Christs? Are you evidencing the Fruit of the Spirit?

Now remember, there’s no condemnation if you’ve got a ways to go on this. I know I do.

But this is the journey we’re on. A journey of transparency, authenticity and integration with the Holy Spirit. And from that wholeness, we will have a foundation to engage a culture yearning for truth but fearful of dogma. Because, as Jesus said, the truth is what really sets us free.

let’s see it

I love a little view into other people’s world’s. Gene started it with an original post. Then Luke and Dana blogged theirs. So here’s mine.

There are some things I like immediate access to for functionality, hence the widgets. I wish TweetDeck was a little cleaner, but haven’t found one better for desktop that lets me manage groups, search, etc. Click for a bigger view.

What’s your desktop look like?

where did miracles go?

I received this question recently and thought I’d answer it here for everyone to chime in on.

“I was reading in Acts today and I started thinking…Once Jesus left the disciples, why were they able to do miracles (like healing and casting out demons) and why don’t we see anyone doing that today?
Do you know?”

This is a really great question. And honestly, I don’t have a really great answer. Let’s start with what we know.

1. Both Jesus and the disciples preformed many miracles. Just peruse through the Gospels and Acts and you’ll see many amazing examples of physical healing and restoration. Sick people got better.  Blind people saw. Crippled people walked. Dead people came back to life.

2. Miracles do happen today, just not as frequently. I know of people personally that were miraculously cured of sickness and cancer that made doctors scratch their head. I’ve read true stories from reliable sources of God intervening in some pretty remarkable circumstances. I’ve seen completely broken marriages fully restored. Relationships mended. Watch some pretty hard, angry, bitter folks completely change into affirming, forgiving and life giving people.

They may not all physical miracles but to me they’re really just as remarkable.

3. Jesus said we’d do even greater things than he did.

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” John 14:12

This is an amazing statement! How could we possibly do more than he did? He was one man who did the most amazing miracles. The disciples did some amazing miracles as well, but they never brought themselves back from the dead. What did he mean by this? I’ll give you my guess…

4. Jesus still has a body on this earth and it’s called the Church. The influence, the prayer, the meeting of needs, the miracles Jesus accomplished while he was on earth is now magnified by millions. As all of us follow Christ, become like him, allow him to work through us, we literally accomplish more per person than Jesus did.

As the body of Christ in our world, we have the opportunity to end poverty, eradicate sickness and establish justice to millions and millions who desperately need it. We have the opportunity to be Jesus to every person we interact with. Because at the end of the day, what is it we are really longing for- miracles or changed lives?

So, why don’t we have miracles today like there were two thousand years ago? I honestly don’t know. I know they still happen, just not as frequently. Or maybe they do and we just don’t know about it. Pretty much any time Jesus healed someone he told them not to tell anyone. Maybe he purposely keeps them hidden.

See, I think God isn’t looking for a quick hook to get the masses to believe, which big flashy miracles could do. Instead I think he is looking for individuals discover a relationship with him through a relationship with us. Really, I think that’s what Jesus was about as well.

What do you think?

guiding principle #3

These are my guiding principles. When I’m unsure, can’t hear God’s voice or filled with indecision, these are my defaults. These are what I know and will measure against.

GUIDING PRINCIPLE #3
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…” Hebrews 10:25

This has been a huge learning for me. I use the excuse that I’m an introvert (a high functioning introvert), so my preference is to be more isolated. I’ve also used the excuse that I’m at church every week and have many conversations with close friends each week. But in my heart, I know that’s not what this verse is talking about.

This is about being connected to a small group of people I’m encouraging, are encouraging me and growing in faith.

God calls us to be in relationship. He commands us to love each other. He calls us to serve each other. He calls us to humble ourselves, to right broken relationships, to put others ahead of ourselves. He tells us to encourage each other.

He told us in John 14 & 15 that if we love him, we’ll obey his commands. See Guiding Principle #1.

When we isolate ourselves out of relationship with him and others, we find ourselves in a prison of our own creation. We become trapped by sin, guilt and self deception. Conversely, we find redemption, freedom and real life change inside the context of walking not only with God but other believers.

This is the beginning of the litmus test guiding principles. This is the first measurable by which we can see if our actions are aligning with our profession of faith.

Are you in a small group or acountability relationship?

predestination- does it matter?

I’ve been working through the Calvinistic thoughts of some of the Emerging Church leaders. Now, people devote entire books to this subject so the little bit I post here is hardly exhaustive. However, I’ve often wrestled with this concept and today spent some time anchoring what I’ve felt in scripture.

I’m settled on two facts that I believe are scriptural and founded on the character of God.

First, predestination is a scriptural view that those who are believers and followers of Christ are chosen by God to be so.

I’m not going to go into all the scripture that shows Jesus Christ died for our sins and provided a means for us to be reconciled to God, through forgiving our sins and making us new creations, in order that we might surrender the leadership of our lives to following and increasing the depth of our relationship with Jesus Christ through faith and action. (Wow, that was a long sentence!)

Starting with that assumption (scriptural, but phrased for those of you who may not believe this yet), here is the scriptural support for predestination:

1. Jesus gave his life for many, not all. Matt 20:28; Matt 26:28; Rom 5:17-19
2. We were chosen for salvation and to do good works through faith. Acts 13:48; Eph 1:3-11; 2 Thess 2:13
3. God has the right to give grace to those he chooses. Matt 20:12; John 15:16; Rom 9:20-21

Second, since we are saved by faith, it is the act of believing and following Christ that confirms you are chosen.

This is an important concept. The point of free will was for us to freely choose to love and follow God. So how does this work together?

1. God calls the chosen through our sharing the gospel. Rom 10:14, 17; 2 Thess 2:14
2. God chooses us through our act of believing and accepting Jesus Christ. John 1:12; Rom 1:16; Rom 9:30
3. Salvation is the fulfillment of God’s promise to receive any who believe. John 6:47; Rom 10:13

Conclusion- speculating about predestination is futile endeavor. The Great Commission doesn’t give us the freedom to simply trust in predestination as a means for people to come to Christ. Scripture clearly shows that through our sharing our faith and the gospel people find salvation and the wholeness both they are yearning for and that God desires for us.

My personal belief is that there is a difference between God knowing who will come to him and God pre-choosing some and condemning others to hell. And this isn’t even going into the scriptures that show that we as believers are able to influence and change God’s mind. So, praying for those we can’t imagine would come to faith is a completely worthy endeavor! I’ve seen it happen!

So, ultimately this concept changes nothing about how we are to live out our faith daily, how we are to put our faith in action and how we are to share the gospel. The Great Commandment and The Great Commission should still govern how we live our daily lives.

What are your thoughts?

freshest new dances going down

Did my generation seriously talk and dance like this in Junior High?