learning and unlearning

thanks men...what a great and challenging discussion at our novel tonic men's breakfast this morning...i think we really did have a refreshing drink this morning....
well...for the rest of you we men talked about chasing lions...and one of the topics that came up was learning and unlearning...and then the rest of the day i have thought much about those two things....here are some of my thoughts....
half of learning is learning...the other half is unlearning...unfortunately i believe unlearning is twice as hard as learning...it is sort of like a computer virus on a hard drive, our minds can become infected with bad files...fears, misconceptions, and stubborn attitudes keep us from operating to our full potential...if these bad files aren't uninstalled, the undermine everything we do...
even Jesus had the purpose of empowering those who listened to him to unlearn...he said...
"you have heard it said...love your neighbor and hate your enemy...but i tell you...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...
let's ask the Lord to help us uninstall all the negative, religious, traditional and irrelevant files that may infect us....
help me Lord!

can you think of things that you need to unlearn?

the E word

everybody knows the E word..."evangelism"...does that word stir up the same images for you as it does for me? Christains who participate in evangelism have an image problem...the impressions we make certainly create perceptions for those who are watching and listening...then their perceptions become their reality...what if the world's perceptions are right?
is there a better way to lead people to Christ...to lead them to a life altering decision...to help them establish a new world view and have God as a part of it? when is the last time you led someone to Christ? how did you do it?

conclusion to what makes music meaningful?

well a few more people responded this week to our poll question...and the majority of you voters responded that freedom and experience is what makes music meaningful to you...it is good to see that the selections give indication of your participation....i think all the choices from songs to the leader to the style...to freedom and experience all work together to make music such and emotional and meaningful part of church...
since most of us love music in some fashion...praise God that we get to worship Him that way...with music!
if freedom is important to many of you...remember where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom...so in our music element the Spirit of the Lord must be welcomed and allowed to flow...
keep enjoying the worship journey!

for the joy set before...

wow! what a long day today! and when it was over i got to take my little boy noah to the urgent care...he had fallen outside playing baseball and had a bad cut on his left knee...of course when i arrived home noah was in tears and everybody was trying to give their explanation of what had happened....that can get a little crazy....
while at the urgent care i observed the doctor work on noah's knee...no stitches needed just some sterile strips...but while she cleaned the wound noah wrenched in pain from the burning sensation....when the doctor had finished the cleaning all noah wanted to know was would he be ready for his basketball tryouts this saturday...as i listened to him i realized that the pain was bearable as long as he could still consider the joy of saturday basketball tryouts....
and then i thought of Jesus...who for the joy set before him endured the cross!
i wonder if we thought more about the joy that awaits us how much more we could endure?

when people look at us, do they see Christ?

i read an article earlier today that posed the question...when people look at us, do they see Jesus? i began to wonder about my answer...really what do they see when they look at me? what did the folks from Jesus' culture see when they looked at him? did they see someone relevant to their culture? did he dress like them? did he talk like them? did he speak their language? did he spend time in their comfort arenas? did he allow himself to be inconvenienced?
so...when people look at us....do they see compassion? hope? strength? joy? peace? ... or do they see judgement? condemnation? apathy? indifference?
i once heard another pastor say...we are God's display window to the world...the world all around is window shopping...when they look in our window what do they see?
think about it!

music is the element of choice!

well, our very first poll question has closed...and we find out from our blog readers that music is the #1 element of choice when making a decision about a church.
what does that tell us? well, music is the big area of church where emotion and experience are created...this tells me that most people are wanting their emotions to be stirred and they want to have an experience not just be a spectator...
sounds like we really need to put some thought and creative effort into our music element at adventure life church...sounds like a lot of fun to me...i love music!
please give any thoughts you have on how we can make the music element really stand out and become distinguished from what everyone else is doing...thanks.

potential to be Christ followers

well...i have been out of town and been unable to post for a few days...but i have really wanted to write about this....
i'm reading again...the book is called unChristian...the book is about the world's perspective on the church...one 25 year old young man said that he felt Christians talk about hating sinand loving sinners, but the way the go about things, they might as well call it what it is...they hate the sin and the sinner...so the running theme in the book is that the world see that Christians are prideful and quick to find faults in others....when what we should want them to see is that Christians show grace by finding good in others and seeing their potential to be Christ followers.
i heard another story about a young lady who went to a church small group Bible study...she went in hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of this Jesus thing...the group of young women were discussing sex, intimacy, and pregnancy...the new young woman brought up the life situation of one of her friends who had been abused...she is now pregnant and considering having an abortion...the conversation then turned defensive with all the ladies trying to convince her abortion was wrong...all she was searching for was some empathy for her friend's situation....what the group did not know is that the new young lady had an abortion herself earlier in her life...she quickly felt on the outside...and the potential she felt she had to follow Christ had just diminished.
the point to recognize is that we never know the full life story of those we are talking to...we really need to focus on talking to versus talking at....we need to recognize everyday the potential in others to become Christ followers.
the people we meet everyday and those we already know live very complex lives...God is wise enough to handle the complexity and demonstrate his love....we should be as well....we should focus on showing compassion especially when we believe so strongly about something....
looking for the potential in others to become Christ followers!

have you prayed about it?

i have been challenged three different times this morning while reading different things by this simple question: "have you prayed about it?"
what should i do with the rest of my life? how am i going to pay the bills this month? what do i do about all the tension i feel at work? how do i get my spouse to help out more at home? why won't God help me in the situation? why can't i convince my teenager that he needs to follow Jesus? why are so many bad things happening? all good and valid questions....my response this morning is this simple question right back at you....
"have you prayed about it?"
i am convinced if we would just take a little more time to talk to God about these life-altering questions and then listen to him ... it would be a better way to live!

"called out" of convenience

we had a tremendous night last night at adventure life church. our super celebration went extremely well. there was a sense of excitement and anticipation in the air...and as i often talk about...i think those who were new to our gathering detected life! special thanks to all you adventure lifers that put forth incredible effort...you're the best!

and what did we talk about...the church...the "called-out" ones...called out of what?...called out of convenience, comfort, and consumption! we discussed how inconvenient it must of been for peter and john to stop on the way to church in acts 3 to engage the lame beggar who was simply trying to survive to beg again another day....stepping into the inconvenient peter offered the beggar way more that he anticipated. wow! if only the church would begin to give the world more than they anticipate.

today...tessa can back from her lunch break and told me about a young man standing in the median at hwy70 and white oak rd....he was holding a sign that read: "why lie...i need a drink"... i had to go and see...i had to go down past the intersection and u-turn back to see his sign...tessa read the words accurately...i had to challenge the convenience of my schedule and respond to such a sign...i pulled up on the curb and quickly got his attention...amazing how when you somehow say "look at me" they will look with anticipation...he came right up to my truck window and i engaged him with direct conversation...i asked if really needed a drink or if he needed something more...i told him immediately my desire was to help him with whatever he really needed...he ended up in my truck and i took him down to chick-fil-a and bought him a meal and continued our conversation...i discovered his name to be Aaron...he is a true road warrior...travelled through many states always searching for purpose and meaning in life to no avail...we determined that the one person who could help him was his father in florida...we called his father on my cell phone and they talked...his father wired money to the bus station in downtown raleigh...enough for him to travel to florida to meet him...i had the privilege of praying for aaron and then dropped him off at the bus stop with great hope for his future...i think aaron got way more than he anticipated...

pray for aaron!

big day!

well...here it is...the day adventure life church really goes public! i'm so excited i can barely contain myself today. this morning i decided to get up early and go to another local church for a time of refreshing and encouragement personally. i chose to attend the sunday morning service at garner christian fellowship....wow...it was a great choice. i like to give a shout out to honor pastor john cavari...what perspective...and what a friend! he actually called angela and i up at the end of their service to have his people pray with us and for us on our big day. we did not anticipate that...but wow! it was special....as they prayed for us several people actually had prophetic insight and word pictures for us. i just had the sense that God really wanted to remind me that He is totally, 100% involved in what we are beginning to do at adventure life church. One of the prophetic images that stood out to me gives confirmation and credence to our vision. The image was a lost deer panting, desperately thirsty for water...the deer continues aggressively until it finds satisfying water...the word declared that adventure life church would be an oasis that will satisfy those who are desperately thirsty! sound familiar?
thank you Lord....for this awesome day in the life of adventure life church!

hard work!

today was a day filled with effort from a lot of great people! we took time this morning to fill door hanger bags with popcorn, movie invitations, and info about adventure life church. we gave out over 300 bags and finally finished in the mid afternoon. we encountered some challenges during the early part of the morning but continued to stay the course. i am reminded that anything that has eventual reward usually requires some labor through discouragement and frustration along the way. i am thanking God for such great people that have surrounded angela and i here at adventure life church. you all are a tremendous blessing to our family.
tomorrow is a big day for us...our first big public event at adventure life church since we planted the church back in late May 2007. if you're reading this blog today please pray that God would show up and make himself BIG in our celebration! thanks for all your prayers.
i'll post a report on how things go tomorrow night following our gathering!
reminder: dream BIG and stay the course!

things to learn and unlearn

well...doing some reading earlier today and came across this list...thought you might enjoy it as well...it is from Rick Warren....
need to learn humility. need to unlearn our consumer approach to spirituality. need to learn a new approach to mission. need to unlearn our dependence on specialized ministries. need to learn to go and serve. need to unlearn our method of goal-setting. need to learn that the so-called average Christian can do ministry. need to unlearn our desire to pray...our instinctive reflex toward a problem is to throw money at it vs praying. need to learn to trust the people we serve.
interesting thoughts for me as I continue to ponder new ways of doing ministry...
your thoughts?

here's some thoughts....i was thinking early this afternoon about how we communicate the message of the gospel to people...and began to realize that most people do not live (as I have in the past) church-centric lives. they don't spend major amounts of their mental energies on church matters. they live 95+% of their week in non-church related situations. so knowing this should change our message how? give me your thoughts!

other questions to help stir your brain a little....
where was Jesus' pulpit?
where did Jesus give his messages?
can the message itself actually change what is in someone's life?

i'm sitting up late tonight watching the Yankees try to come back against the Indians...
not sure it is going to happen for them! really glad though that in Christ we don't ever have to dread the comeback...we are privileged to enjoy the journey filled with outrageous joy!
speaking of joy....the Yankees are down to 2 outs in the 9th...i don't like the Yankees very much, can you tell? whew! Posada almost hit a homerun...just foul! well, i'm getting a little anxious watching the game....whew! struck him out!
good nite now!

hello everyone! the blog is up and running! adventure life church's blog in on go!
send your comments....ask your questions....we'll do our best to respond!