My Favorite Tree

I saw this the other day, and it made me laugh.

The guy on left is my good buddy, Tree Akers.

Yes, Tree, this is your day.  And what a fine day it is.

Pretty Official

This picture makes me laugh.

I guess this is pretty official - I’m teaching at Lander starting Tuesday!  How official, you say?  Well, I have:

• Gotten an ID card
• Gotten a faculty parking sticker
• Seen my classroom
• Tried out a presentation on it
• Met some faculty
• Got a textbook
• Printed off a syllabus
• Found the nearest parking lot
• Found the nearest bathroom
• Got a full class of 30 students supposedly coming on Tuesday!

I am excited about this new endeavor, but I also have a few more things to do before it comes this way

Ready or not, here I come.

See you Tuesday, from 9:45-11:15!

Personal Evangelism Point #3: Invite

Third personal evangelism point:

Invite that person to experience life with Christ.

If all we do is pray for someone’s conversion and invest in them spiritually without sharing the gospel, we have missed the entire reasoning for the first two emphases. Evangelism does not take place without an adequate presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to reconcile people to God (2 Cor. 5:20). Our job is to meet people where they are (Acts 17:22:31) with the intention of bringing them to Jesus (John 1:41-42). Jesus demonstrated a missional manner in how He would lovingly engage sinners but compassionately challenge them to desire for God to change their lives (John 4:4-42).

If someone confesses with his or her mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in his or her heart that God raised Christ from the dead, then Scripture reveals that person is saved (Rom. 10:9). But before anyone can make that decision, someone must go to that person and explain the gospel (Rom. 10:14-15). While many Christians are intimidated by this task (2 Cor. 3:5-6), the mission team must encourage members to see this task as a blessed privilege to proclaim the excellencies of Christ who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9)!

Not every person we share with will become a Christian. Every time we share the gospel, we might be able to plant a seed or reap the harvest, but our job is simply to be obedient to Christ’s command and we can trust Him for the results (1 Cor. 3:6-7). When someone responds negatively, that does not mean we give up on that person - we must keep investing in them. For those that do walk across the threshold of salvation, they are already at an advantage concerning discipleship since they have a close relationship with the person who was there with them from the beginning of their new life. Assimilation into North Side will be most effective and the easiest when individual members are the ones leading them to Christ and not an event or program.

The Unified Church

For those of you who “came to church” today, I hope that God changed your mind. Hopefully, after today, we will stop coming to church and we will start being the church. As we have continued in this Experiencing God series, I thought today was so helpful to remember that we are the “called out ones.”

I loved Jeff’s illustration on the bride. You can’t go to any husband who loves his wife and say, “I love you, but I can’t stand your wife.” If you do, you have just begun a pretty serious conflict. You can’t say, I love Jesus, but I can’t stand the church. That’s his bride!

We are called to be one. It takes more than just showing up - we are meant to belong to one another and build each other up.

Today, we worshiped to the following songs:

• Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
• Jesus Messiah - Chris Tomlin
• Jesus, Lover of My Soul - Paul Oakley
• I Need You to Survive - Hezekiah Walker

Unless you were there, you really can’t comprehend what happened at North Side during the closing today. We stopped “being at” church, and we just became the church. As we sang, “I Need You to Survive,” people prayed with one another, forgave each other, befriended and loved on one another, and worship just happened. Because God sees loving on his bride as worship towards him.

But this message is not meant to be isolated to this Sunday. It’s meant to be lived out everyday. Just like the Jenga game, if you don’t do your part, it might not make that big of a deal, but if we all take out our part, disaster happens.

North Side, it’s time to become the church.

19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. -1 John 4:19-21

Here’s a clip of Juanita Bynum singing “I Need You to Survive.” Brace yourself.

Personal Evangelism Point #2: Invest

Second point for a personal evangelism strategy:

Invest spiritually in that person.

One misconception of personal evangelism comes in the form of our role in the task. We are called to do more than transfer information. We are called to do more than leave a gospel tract. The biblical mandate calls all believers to invest spiritually into the lives of those around them. No matter how much training or confidence a Christian has, God has equipped him or her to simply share what Christ is doing in his or her life.

Since God is at work in the lives of those around us, our job is to simply walk through the doors that he opens for us. Paul had such a great love for the Thessalonian people, that he shared with them more than solely the gospel, he also shared his life with them (1 Thess. 2:8). In fact, the transfer of information or the giving of service devoid of love is useless (1 Cor. 13:1-3). Our reasoning for investing in them is our love for them which is modeled by Christ’s love (1 John 4:19-20). As we engage them, we must look for the open doors to steer the conversation towards Christ (Acts. 3:6). When someone is overwhelmed with the worries of this world, we can share how Christ helped us get through a similar situation. When someone near us is hopeless, we pray for them with them! Due to our love for the lost, we look for those open doors, and we walk right through them pointing people to Christ.

People can resort to arguments, but they can’t argue with results. One of your greatest tools is your testimony - what Christ has done and is doing in your life! No one can argue with that. No one can refute that you now have peace (Phil. 4:6-7). No one can deny if your life has truly been changed (John 9:25). Due to the change Christ made in our lives, we should be unable to keep quiet about how He has transformed our lives (Acts 4:19-20; Jer. 20:9). As part of investing in others, the mission team will equip people to share their personal testimony. We will seek to equip every member how to succinctly and convincingly portray his or her story before Christ (Acts 22:3-5), at conversion (Acts 22:7-16), and after conversion (Acts 22:21).

Book of the Week: I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist

I’m starting a new feature on my blog this week: the book of the week. If Oprah has a book club, why can’t I? Each week, I will post a book I am reading or have read recently and give you the top 5 thoughts from the book. You might even want to check it out.

This week’s book of the week is I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist written by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. I absolutely loved this book! The illustrations, the organization, the line of thinking - it was one of those books that makes you stand up and be even more secure in what you believe. Even though we must believe by faith, this book reminds that our faith isn’t unreasonable. In fact, the driving thought of this book is it takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to have faith in God.

Top 5 Thoughts:

1. “It is one of only two possibilities: either the universe, or something outside the universe, is eternal.” That simple, yet profound statement credibly backs proof for the Cosmological Argument (92).
2. The statement clarifying the Moral Law was profound: “The Moral Law is not always the standard by which we treat others, but it is nearly always the standard by which we expect others to treat us” (175).
3. The authors pointed out a pivotal point concerning miracles. Some Christians struggle with biblical accounts of a man being swallowed by a fish, walking on water, or making a lame man walk, but compared to the miracle of Creation, those actions are not as mind blowing as the original miracle (203).
4. If the disciples truly were lying about Christ raising from the dead, the authors point out that they should have had a better incentive for doing so since that claim led them to being stoned, imprisoned, or martyred (293).
5. The authors’ breakdown of the only possible candidate for the office of Messiah was exacting and thorough. Jesus is the only one able to match all of the Old Testament qualifications (335-6).

Studio Video #10 - Interpretive Movement

Studio work is going great. The North Side crew has been cranking it out with Anthony over at Addeybug and we are getting real close. All the instruments are tracked (unless we hear something else we need), and the majority of vocals are done.

We went through five vocalists yesterday! We had already gotten three, and now we have four more to go. If we get those knocked out this weekend, the mixing will commence at a rapid pace so we can get this puppy out in your hands as soon as possible!

The following video is an interpretive movement of sorts. Amanda (the most beautiful and godly woman in the whole world) is tracking vocals on “Made Me Glad,” and our son, Obadiah, is providing the dance steps for the music. It sounds good, and my boy sure is cute.

Personal Evangelism Point #1: Intercede

North Side’s entire mission strategy is only as strong as how active its members are in the area of personal evangelism.  Since we know that everyone will not come to the doors of North Side to pursue Christ, North Side must go to the people of this community and beyond.  Christ’s command was to go and tell, not come and see (Matt. 28:18-20).  North Side is present in almost every workplace, school, and neighborhood in this community.  If the mission team can adequately equip North Side’s members to the task of personal evangelism, countless numbers of people will be impacted for Christ.  Since this strategy point is so vital to the mission strategy, here’s how the mission team will seek to accomplish this task:

The first point in our personal evangelism strategy is:

Intercede for someone’s conversion.
God is at work around every one of our members.  When we pray concerning evangelism, we are not asking God to start doing anything.  He is already at work around us.  He has been preparing hearts, establishing relationships, and arranging divine appointments.  When we pray, we are simply joining God in what He is doing in the lives around us.

As we join God, we should ask that God enlighten the hearts of those people who don’t know Him (Eph. 1:18).  As God is working in hearts, we should also pray that God open doors for us to share the gospel with others (Col. 4:3).  While we share the gospel with people, Paul showed us that we should also pray that we share it clearly so that the person can comprehend what we are saying (Col. 4:6).  Paul also showed numerous times the need to collectively pray for one another in the area of personal evangelism.  As eloquent as Paul was, he asked fellow Christians to pray for him that whenever he opened his mouth, that he would be able to fearlessly proclaim the gospel (Eph. 6:19).  A main focus in our C-Groups will be to pray for one another concerning personal evangelism.

As North Side begins to corporately and individually pray for the lost, our hearts will become more burdened for their spiritual state, and we will become more urgent for sharing the gospel.  Moses had such a burden for the people of Israel, that he pleaded with God to remove him from grace if it meant giving the Israelites another chance (Ex. 32:-31-32).  Paul’s prayers became so fervent that he desired for himself to be cut off from Christ for the sake of those close to him outside of a relationship with Jesus (Rom. 9:2-3).  As Jesus looked out at all the people who needed peace with God, he prayed that God send more workers out into the field for the task of personal evangelism (Matt. 9:36-38).  Make no mistake, personal evangelism must not only start with prayer, but it must be carried through with prayer.

The next two points to come…

Obama vs. McCain (Rick Warren the Referee?!)

If you weren’t aware of the Saddleback Civil Forum that happened on Saturday night, you missed out.  Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, wrote one of the greatest-selling books of all time, trying to take on all the world’s problems through his PEACE plan, and all around great guy, he decided to bring the two presidential candidates together for the first time since their unofficial official nomination.

Warren hosted it at his church, and he flipped a coin to see who would go first.  Obama got first dibs, and McCain was supposedly unable to hear Obama’s comments.  Warren interviewed Obama for an hour and then asked the exact same questions to McCain right after that.

First of all, even news commentators that are not pro-church or pro-Warren said that it was the most ingenious debate they had ever seen.  It was a controlled environment.  There wasn’t an opportunity to argue.  They were asked the same questions, and then you got to see their differing responses to those questions without any rebuttal or inclination of what the other candidate said.

Secondly, Warren asked some tough questions!  Sitting in his church with all major news stations rolling their cameras, Warren asked questions like these:

• What is the greatest moral failure in your life?
• Describe your relationship with Jesus and what that means to you daily?
• When does an unborn baby receive rights?
• Does evil exist in the world?
• Define a rich person (how much exactly)?
• What do you think about faith-based organizations?

Amanda and I just kept jumping off the couch at how wonderful and revealing the questions he asked.  Warren was brillant.

While there are many reasons I loved this forum, I think my final main reason was that Rick Warren has developed such credibility in this country, that he was able to pull something off like that.  Unfortunately, Christians are Warren’s greatest critics.  He is constantly blasted by his Christian brothers, and I am sure the blog world is going crazy concerning this latest endeavor.

Personally, I thank God for a man who decided to plant his church in the least church populated county in the United Stated when he started.  I am thankful that amidst his great profit on his book, he repaid his church for his 25 years plus salary, started tithing 90% instead of 10%, and doesn’t take a salary anymore.  I am also grateful that he has decided to do something about the orphan crisis in our world, the AIDS epidemic, the malnourished, the oppressed, and so much more.

Basically, he has decided to make his life count.  And the next president was asked some tough questions by him on Saturday night.  And by using his influence, he gained a worldwide audience to give the message that the church is involved in the affairs of the world, and that people who love Jesus are not illiterate.

Thank you, Mr. Warren.  Keep on keeping on.

Reading Scripture(s)

I finally finished a pretty daunting task on Friday.  I finalized what the course reading would be for RELI 101: Sacred Texts and Ideas.

After spending hours of reading the scriptures of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, my mind is very overloaded.

The way these scriptures are written can be so completely different than another one.  Selecting passages to read in which students would be able to understand without having them kill their instructor was tough.  But after much work in Voorst’s Anthology of World Scriptures, I think I finally got it.

I selected passages out of each of those major world religions based on passages that focused on:

1. History
2. Organization
3. Ethics
4. Teaching
5. Ritual

Now, all I need is to correct some errors that my wife caught on my syllabus, get some students in a classroom, and teach!