developing lifestyle worshipers

Last night, I got the privilege to take some friends to Passion 2011 Live Link.  The event was hosted at Center Stage in Atlanta but was being broadcasted all over the world.  Passion was celebrating their CD release, “Awakening,” which is out today.  So thousands of people joined in live over the internet from all over the world.  We were so privileged to be a part of the few hundred at the live venue.  It was a blast.

You might be wondering how I got to be a part of this privileged group – I don’t really know.  I’ve supported Passion ministries over the years by sending lots of students, so I think this was a way to say thanks by allowing me to bring people to the event.  The group that went with me sure thinks I’m something now since they felt like VIPs.  It was just an honor to worship alongside the quality people that went with me.  Just to be in the presence of Jesus is enough though.

But OG will never be the same after meeting Matt Redman in the parking garage.  ”Dude, he’s so famous.  Everytime I meet a famous person, I have a nervous breakdown.  I’m going to have one again just thinking about it.”

We were led by Louie Giglio, Chris Tomlin, Christy Nockels, Matt Redman, and Kristain Stanfill, and they played most of the songs off of the new CD release.  I would really recommend you pick up these 12 incredible new worship anthems.  You can get it on Amazon or iTunes or we will have it in the bookstore soon.

And if you want to see the live event, it is up for 24 hours here at this link:  http://livelink.268generation.com/

Last night, as I worshiped alongside a few hundred rowdy people and joined electronically by thousands of others, I thought what a great time it is to be alive.  Never has the church had such a worldwide opportunity.  Let’s make the most of it!

Ben and I went to Catalyst 09 at the end of last week.  Catalyst is a leadership event for church leaders.  They get church and business leaders to share principles that can be implemented in ministry settings.  The event is always a wow event as far as production and they always have great speakers and worship leaders.

There was so much good stuff in there, I am still processing a lot of it, but I want to give you some of the best ideas from the event for you to chew on this morning:

Andy Stanley

• Stop worrying about who is against you or for you, and start focusing on who you are for.
• God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to him (via Charles Stanley).
• My responsibility is to be obedient to God and trust God for the results.

Malcolm Gladwell

• Unconfident irritates me, overconfidence scares me.
• In times of crises, we think we need daring decisions from our decision makers, but what we really need is humility.

Rob Bell

• Sometimes the crowd thins.
• You have Christian organizations ranking churches and pastors when we serve a risen Savior who says the first shall be last?!  Put the crack pipe down.
• You be you.  Your Heavenly Father isn’t asking you to be like them.
• If it’s going good at the church and bad with the family, nothing is good.

Tony Dungy

• Your job as a coach is to make the players the best they can be.
• Leaders are needed the most when times are hard.

Matt Chandler

• The Fall called us to love the creation over the Creator.
• It’s a lack of gratitude that makes you envy others and that is sin.

Francis Chan

• When was the last time you thought to yourself, “I deserve to be in hell?”.
• Why do we feel like we have to make the resurrection more exciting every Easter?
• Grace makes everyone say, “Man, I wish I had your dad.”

Priscilla Shirer

• When God interrupts our life, will we follow him?
• We run out of energy doing other things that we are unable to do the Father’s will.

Dave Ramsey

• Focus is lost for two reasons: fear and greed.
• Pour intensity into things that matter.  Don’t put a fish on it and drive poorly!
• The culture won’t respect you if you don’t come with excellence.

Chuck Swindoll

• When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him.
• We must be willing to leave the familiar methods without disturbing the biblical message.

Louie Giglio

• Leadership is about knowing and following Jesus.
• Sometimes we lose Jesus Christ in the pursuit of everything else.
• Jesus go in his mark for 1,059 days of ministry and the first 40 were in the wilderness.

Andy Stanley

• Developing a culture of trust is critical to the health and success of your organization.

I’ll post some more stuff in the future – great stuff.  Still trying to process everything.  Hope it blesses you.

The Milky Way Galaxy

Yesterday, in my class at Lander, I was teaching on the cosmological argument for the existence of God.  We are in the part of the semester where we are looking at sacred texts of monotheistic religions, and so I am presenting three of the major philosophical arguments for God.

The cosmological argument is an argument based on the cosmos – the universe, the bigness of the galaxy and such.  Here’s how the argument is stated:

1. Everything that had a beginning had a cause.
2. The universe had a beginning.
3. Therefore, the universe had a cause.

While you are probably thinking that doesn’t seem very profound or even have that much substance to it, we broke down all the implications of these phrases.  1.  Science is a search for causes.  2.  Scientific discovery after scientific discovery (Second Law of Thermodynamics, expanding universe, Big Bang radiation, galaxy seeds, Einstein’s theory on General Relativity, etc.) is pointing to the fact that the universe had a definite beginning.  3.  Since the universe definitely had a beginning, there must be a first cause.

I got a lot of inspiration from Norm Geisler’s book, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, and Louie Giglio’s presentation entitled “Indescribable.”  As I began to show how little Earth is compared to other planets, how little the sun is compared to other stars, how little our galaxy is compared to others in the universe, I could tell that people were as amazed as me.

The Center of the Whirlpool Galaxy

I was ending class when a student raised her hand to ask a question (a definite no-no to other students in college).  She asked if I thought this universe was so big that it should allow for other life.  I told her what’s interesting about the universe is it seems that the only place that can inhabit life is Earth.  She then asked, “Well, doesn’t this universe seem awful big if it’s just for us?”

I almost came jumping over the podium in excitement.

“That’s the point.  If this universe is for us, then it is way oversized.  But if it is made for the glory of the Creator, its just the right fit.  That’s why Psalm 19:1 states that the ‘heavens are declaring the glory of God.’  The Old Testament, which we are about to study, loudly portrays that the universe is meant to make mankind look at it and stand in awe of the Creator.  We are not the center of the universe, he is.  When we look at the universe and marvel at its bigness, it is intended to make us believe in a really brillant, powerful Creator. ”

I love this class.