Avoid Being an Idiot

Of books, of course.

My reading since last summer has been less than stellar. I have developed a probably-unhealthy, definitely-enjoyable addiction to Law and Order: SVU that has consumed much of my free time. I’ve only read a few books and they were for class. But now that summer is [almost] here again, it’s time to break out the hardbacks.

Here is what I am currently reading:

• The Reason for God by Tim Keller
• Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll
• Going All the Way by Craig Groeschel
• Developing the Leader Within You by John Maxwell

Books on deck:

• Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley (just given to me today, thanks Jeff)
• When Leadership and Discipleship Collide by Bill Hybels (again, thanks Jeff)
• Compelled by Love by Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation
• UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
• The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch
• The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark
• The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom

Books in the hole:

• What Jesus Demands from the World by John Piper
• How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer
• The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr

Ambitious? Yes. Will I get all these read this summer? Seriously doubt it, but I hope so. But if I can get some of them read and continue on the binge throughout the fall (if college football doesn’t get in the way) I will be happy.

What are you reading?

Yesterday I posed the question, What is Ultimate? Today is for confession.

Many times, instead of holding Jesus as ultimate and structuring all my life around Him, I instead bow to the god of comfort.

I like to be comfortable. In many ways it shapes my life. Here are a few examples:

• It’s much more comfortable to watch TV than to exercise, so I watch TV. That’s why I’m out of shape.
• It’s much more comfortable to eat whatever I want whenever I want. That’s why I’m overweight.
• It’s much more comfortable to always hang out with the same people. That’s why I don’t connect with a lot of lost people.
• It’s much more comfortable to stay inside or keep to myself at home. That’s why I don’t know my neighbors all that well.
• It’s much more comfortable to stay quiet rather than stand up for what is right. That’s why friends can sin in front of me and it not be spoken against.

Too often value my comfort over my calling. I try to find what is easy rather than what is holy. I want more vacation than vocation.

Sometimes I want to pray that God will make me uncomfortable, but I really don’t mean it. So you pray for me. Pray that God would make me uncomfortable and that He would give me the grace to to redeem holy opportunities for my growth and His glory.

What is ultimate in your life?

“The danger and the death of evangelicalism is that we do not hold Jesus as ultimate. We hold something else as ultimate, but think that Jesus can get us there. So we put Jesus’ name on what we are actually pursuing and then we are frustrated when it doesn’t work out the way we want it to.” — Matt Chandler, Pastor, The Village Church

Everybody holds something as ultimate in their life. To put it in religious terms, everybody has a god. And whatever it is that you hold ultimate will shape, mold, and define you. Everything in your life will be structured around achieving whatever it is you hold to be ultimate in your life. Around whatever is your god.

Just four examples…

• Happiness: Some people hold happiness as ultimate in their life. Everything they do is structured around being happy. All their relationships. All their choices. What will make me happy?
• Money: For others it is money. They use their friendships to make money. They use their family to make money. They choose majors in college based on what jobs pay the most. They take advantage of people to get more money. What will get me more money?
• Romance: Some people hold romance as ultimate in their life. Everything revolves around getting a date. Around the feeling of love. Around making someone love them. About making someone need them. How can I be romantically involved?
• Safety: Many people hold safety as ultimate. All decisions are based on what is safe. Where they drive. Where they vacation. What their hobbies are. Who they hang out with. What will keep me safe?

Many Christians hold these things as ultimate, but they use spiritual language and the name of Jesus to pursue them. So Jesus becomes nothing more than a counselor to make you happy. Or a financial advisor to make you rich. Or a pimp to get you a date. Or a bodyguard to keep you safe.

Its not Christianity. It’s paganism with a splash of Jesus.

In theses situations, Jesus is not your god, but rather the vehicle you use to pursue your god.

And the problem, to paraphrase Matt Chandler again, “is that Jesus is not just a good way to get something, but He is what you get. That is the Gospel.”

Jesus isn’t a way to get something better. He is better.

So He should be Ultimate. He should be your God.

Do you hold Jesus as Ultimate? Or do you just put His name on your own created god? What is your life structured around?

Tomorrow: Confession on what I often times worship instead of Jesus.

I just finished reading the last page of my last assignment for graduate school. I graduate on Thursday, but it feels good today to not have any more assignments. Very excited right now!!!

This week’s highlights…

• I found out this week that some guys and gals from our college+twentysomethings ministry at MCBC are blogging. Check out The Idiot or Not, Addiecakes, and Learning to Fly.
• My great friend Jeff , our children’s pastor, is going through the book of James with the kids at church. He’s doing it in a very kid-friendly way, but I think it is cool that he is doing a book study with the kids. He’s taking this discipleship deal seriously and not just playing games and babysitting the kids.
• Jay’s pull quotes from the Exponential Conference are messing with my head. Read some of them here, here, and here.

That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend!

“Ivan Illich was once asked what is the most revolutionary way to change society. Is it violent revolution or is it gradual reform? He gave a careful answer. Neither. If you want to change society, then you must tell an alternative story.” –Tim Costello

Apparently this quote is in the book The Shaping of Things to Come. I haven’t read it yet, but it is on my wish list to read this summer.

I’m captivated by the thought of telling and living an alternative story. By being a counter-culture within the culture. By living the new way of life that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.

I don’t have answers yet. Or a blueprint. But God is stirring something in me.

Most of the teaching I have heard on faith has been much like the George Michael song. You just gotta have it! They don’t tell you why. Or how. Or what is really the basis for faith. But rather that a good Christian has faith. And if you want to be a good Christian, then you should have faith.

Agreed. But how?

Now I’m not saying that all the teaching I have heard on faith is wrong. Its not. Maybe just incomplete. And I don’t think I can complete it here, but hopefully can add to the discussion.

Here’s my thesis: Jesus’ authority is the basis for our faith. Let me explain.

The last verse of Matthew 7 says that “the crowds were amazed at his teaching for he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” Then, chapter 8 shows Jesus’ authority played out.

In Matthew 8, Jesus heals a leper and a paralyzed man, calms the wind and the sea, and casts out demons from two men into a herd of pigs.

In two of these stories, faith is mentioned. The Centurion is commended because of his faith that Jesus will heal his paralyzed servant. The Centurion makes an analogy between his authority over soldiers and Jesus’s authority over all. He knows that if he tells a soldier to go, he will go. And if he tells a soldier to come, he will come. And he knows that if Jesus tells paralysis to leave the servant’s body, it will leave. He has faith. And Jesus commends his faith.

A few verses later Jesus and the disciples are in a boat on a stormy sea. The disciples are scared. Jesus is asleep. They wake Him up to beg Him to save them. Jesus rebukes their lack of faith and then proceeds to calm the winds and sea just by speaking. He shows His authority over the weather.

So the basis of faith is Jesus’ authority. Its believing that everything is subject to Jesus. That He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Its believing that everything must obey the words of Jesus. Disease must obey. Weather must obey. Demons must obey. War. AIDS. Genocide. Criminals. Famine. Economics. Everything must obey Jesus because He has authority over all.

Believing in Jesus’ authority is faith.

Here is the final installment of the series…

Granddaddy story: Back in the early 1980s, Granddaddy went on a mission trip to Ecuador. He made a lot of friends and kept in touch with them over the ensuing years. In 1997, when he was sick with cancer, he wanted to go back to Ecuador to see his friends once more. At this point the illness was attacking his body and causing him to shake a lot.

Grandma warned against him going to Ecuador because of his health. But Granddaddy replied, “I can shake just as good in Ecuador as I can in Travelers Rest.”

With that, Granddaddy and a friend hopped a plane down to Ecuador just months before he passed away.

Church leader takeaway: Don’t let anything come between you and your mission. Be determined. Be focused. Know the risks and then hop on the plane.

Because if you’re gonna have the shakes, it might as well be in Ecuador.

Continuing this blogging mini-series, I’m telling some of my favorite stories from my late grandfather and making some applications for today’s church leader.

Granddaddy story: One day my mom and a friend were heading over the the Anderson Jockey Lot (if you have never been to or never heard of a jockey lot, don’t ask and just be glad. Unless of course you are jonesing for a classic AC/DC cassette tape, an assortment of Confederate flag t-shirts, your long-lost Hank Williams, Jr. memorabilia, or a small farm animal. Then the jockey lot might just be your place). Granddaddy asked if he could ride with them. They got to a particular exit off of I-85 and he told my mom to take that exit. She just knew it wasn’t the correct one and told him so. But Granddaddy insisted that he knew where he was going and that she needed to take that exit, so she did. So they went a few miles down this road when Granddaddy finally admitted that this wasn’t the exit for the jockey lot. He told mom that she should probably just turn around in the parking lot to the right. Then, once they were in the parking lot he said, “and while we’re here in this lot, just park up there and let me run in and get my boat motor that they fixed for me.”

Church leader takeaway: Granddaddy knew where he was going the whole time. And he could have told my mom that he would like to ride with them and pick up his boat motor along the way. But it was more fun the way he did it. People like journeys. They like to be a part of a story. Had Granddaddy just asked to stop by the boat shop, it would have been just another ordinary day. But because he made it funny and interesting, he gave mom a memory to keep and a story to tell.

Leaders, give your people memories. Let them be a part of a story. Its much more fun that way.

My Granddaddy Park was a godly, fun, and interesting man. He passed away almost 11 years ago. After he died, my mom collected memories from dozens and dozens of family members and friends and compiled them into a book. I like read through those stories every now and then to reminisce and reflect. For the next three days, I’m going to post a few Granddaddy stories and some takeaways for church leaders.

Granddaddy Story: When my grandparents were young and dating courting, he took her out for a drive one night. He told her that he was just going to drive wherever she told him to. So she would say, “turn left” and he would turn left. She would say, “turn right” and he would turn right. This went on for a little while until he pulled to the side of the road, got out of the car, and told her to stay put for a few minutes. Of course, Grandma got a little scared. Until he came back with two glass bottles of coca-cola that had been chilling in the river just below where they were parked. He cut a lime and gave her her coke [coca-cola with a slice of lime was her favorite drink back then]. He had pretended to be letting her take him wherever she wanted, but the whole time was getting her to the exact location where he had left the drinks earlier that day. He could have driven her there on his own, but this made the date memorable.

A bonus story: One Valentine’s Day when they were married, Granddaddy did not buy the customary flowers and chocolate for Grandma. No, instead he cut a head of cabbage in the shape of a heart, wrapped it in red saran wrap, and gave it to her. Grandma cooked it for dinner that night.

Church leader takeaway: You don’t have to spend a lot of money to be creative. There is a myth that the most creative churches are the ones who spend the most money on being creative. I’d argue that you have to be more creative when you don’t have any money.

Here are a few things you don’t have to have to be creative:

• A MacBook Pro
• Starbucks
• Several thousand dollars woth of Adobe software
• Spiked, bleached blonde, mohawk
• Twitter (what is the point of this anyway?)

Things you must have to be creative:

• A mission
• Determination to make the mission accomplished a reality

Bonus takeaway: Be creative in dating your wife.