August 2008 Archives

it continues to amaze me to think about the power of an IDEA... the anxiety and excitement that mix together when we stand on the edge of the future, on the verge of something bigger than we can imagine, on the brink of what COULD be!

stlouisone.org is up and running and active. it is built on a blog platform where we will begin to discuss and build conversations that will continue to create, explore, dream, nudge, experiment with what will be...

i will be posting there along with several authors on the blog from the st louis metro area and beyond that will add their voice to the concoction... more details to come.

here we go...

F

may god bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart.

amen.

i have dreamed of the day that the CHURCH... the people... will unite together in life, in action, in deed, in reality and not just in words and mirages like plastic mannequins pretending to dress the part but lifeless and empty to the core.

tonight i visited my buddies over at matthias lot for a night of refreshment from my norm. with the gathering canceled last week and tonight with the purpose to refresh, re-imagine, re-think and re-new i feel blessed to have been a part of the movement tonight. the movement not known as matthias lot or the gathering or st. louis|ONE, but the movement known as the gospel... the movement known as the church.

the unique partnership that we have built together is indeed UNIQUE! to walk into a place and meet random strangers that say, "i have heard a lot about you" with no competition, no resentfulness but pure camaraderie as sojourners.

may the mannequins who call themselves followers of christ please hook themselves up to life support and join the movement known as the gospel, known by the church and breathe in the freshness of life together...

welcome to the future of the church...
welcome to reality...

F

i saw this on ideablog...
i think the nuances reflect the reality that should be know as the church... the people, the individuals make up the church... we need to take responsibility for who WE are...

good stuff!

F

relationship problems are identity problems...

this is a tough concept to grasp yes, but even more tough to accept, maybe. luke 6:48 jesus describes and connects the image of a house built with a solid foundation to that of a life built on a solid foundation... him! this image brings into focus and further highlights the importance of our identity and what we were intended to be... if adam and eve were naked and had no shame, knowing that shame is linked to understanding our identity, resulting in them ultimately understanding their identity as their foundation.

for us now... intimacy comes with understanding who we are... understanding who jesus is... and understanding what we were meant to be.

there is more to us... to you... to me...

...not because of who we are, or what we can do... but because of who jesus is and what he did and what he wants to continue to do in and through you and i.

if and only when we grasp this truth will we begin the journey toward intimacy... toward understanding who we were meant to be... otherwise our insecurities will always win out because we on our own will always fall short... on our own we just don't have what it takes!

self discipline can only take us so far...

F

who did you talk to today?

this is the first of probably three parts in a series (by the way, the first blog series

i was at st. arbucks last night with a couple that i am giving pre-marital counseling to (i know... pretty scary, marriage counseling from me... lots a images coming to mind) and i swear that every time i go to starbucks something cool, crazy or really random happens. now, i have been going to the same starbucks since i moved here and several of the same people still work there from the beginning so it really has a great ethos and atmosphere at this specific location.

i have never given pre-marital counseling to date and honestly i have looked at what several other guys use and nothing really resonated with me... so i just started from the beginning... gen. 2:25 (adam and eve knew that they were naked and had NO SHAME).

what would your life look like if you had no shame?

the difference between guilt and shame is external vs internal. guilt happens on the outside while shame drives deep within the walls of our hearts. shame is an identity issue. shame stems from a lack of knowing who you are and who you were meant to be. adam and eve at this point knew who they were because they knew what they were created for... INTIMACY!

intimacy happens when we know our identity. i think that i am comfortable in saying that all relationship issues and problems are identity issues and problems. imagine if you had such a sweet intimacy with god and your friend/spouse had a sweet intimacy and closeness with god... you cannot NOT have intimacy and closeness and serenity...

relationship problems are identity problems...

we are in the middle of the biggest identity crisis the world has seen... the church is following in its pursuit... and few are talking about it, if any!

foundations to come!

F

to get a glimpse of community and unity and togetherness is oh so sweet... to grab a snapshot of the conversation that we have been having for over 3 years now in reality... to watch a people stand hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, linked in a mission...

these moments...
these glimpses...
this is the church...

this is what i dreamed about being a part of one day. i know of at least 4 churches that were represented at the candle light prayer vigil tonight for jake gregory, and that was just the pastors! united by a mission and not divided by the barriers that have separated us for so long.

imagine what could happen if this were our norm?

i don't think that we are far off from seeing this more often... we have to... there is no other choice...

tonight i rest satisfied in who he is... what we has done, is doing and will do.

even when we are faithless, he is faithful!

F

what did you pray about today?

F

i am reminded this morning in the fact that when we are inadequate... HE is NOT!

there seems to be so much right now in life that i feel grossly inadequate... i need to remember that he is not and his adequacy is more than enough to cover for my lack of...

good reminder...
take rest in this promise!

F

i wonder what god has up his sleeve?

this is the phrase that keeps coming to mind when i think about sitting in the waiting room at the hospital tonight with over a hundred people... several different churches represented between the students that were there showing support for a friend that is in the ICU fighting for her life.

these are the times that communities are defined... these are the moments that people see and understand.

no cute cliches or lame one liners... just raw life!

peoples lives WILL change in one way or another in the days to come... some people will need to be shoulders, others ears... some wide open arms, others on their knees.

we all have a role, we all have a responsibility!

time to BEcome what we weren't meant to be...

i wonder what god has up his sleeve?

F

alright... i just deleted the post that i had written before all of this... i just couldn't post it... it just started too lame and got even more lame with lyrics from grease and other stuff... couldn't do it... i was thinking of YOU, please just trust me on this one.

so... i will attempt to write this again... in a more "me" way... without the lyrics from grease and all... (what in the world is wrong with me... now i am talking to myself... stopping!)

(deep breath)

alright...

time waits for no one! (brilliant i know...)

what will you do with what you know?

for many of you... there have been moments, conversations, interactions, leaps of faith, journeys, start overs and stops and start overs again... you've seen, you've tasted, you've heard, you've experienced... you've asked questions, sought answers, helped someone in need, hugged someone in love... you have prayed more authentic and deep than ever before, you have felt intimacy more free, sensed freedom as the norm, stepped away from the status quo, de-constructed and built, trusted and followed, failed, fell, slipped, tripped, stumbled, stubbed, limped, got up and tried again, learned, forgave, walked, stepped into the unknown, grew, risked...

CHANGED!

what will you do with what has been given you to?

F

tonight driving home, my 2 year old son was upset because the sunshine went to sleep...

what does tomorrow mean to you?

as a drove i observed and listened to the dialog between chele and ryder... my observation... my two year old son waits in anticipation for the sun to rise for another day of exploration, play, life.

it forced me to wonder what i await for in tomorrow... my observation... appointments, meetings, email, the sun rising too early... i mean i anticipate the opportunities, the moments, the conversations, the time to create... but i have to make myself go there, to be aware of there.

he, ryder, wakes up there!

there is his life... its where he lives... its all he knows...

i hope he will stay there... in a world of opportunities, a world that invites us to see need, to get our hands dirty, to see beyond what is right in front of us, to be hyper aware of the world around us... i hope he stays in the world of innocence...

i hope he knows no better than NOT to dream... than NOT to serve... than NOT to be...

i hope he teaches me...

F

I'm at living word church attending a satelite location for the leadership summit conference at willow creek church in Chicago. now... I have been given the opportunity to attend several conferences over the years and heard some incredible communicators... so hearing the same stuff over and over again gets old (be nice... I know some you are going to try and be cute and be a smart donkey... knowing that I often repeat myself on concepts). I need... we need to be INSPIRED... motivated!

it just happened for me... craig groeschel... the guy behind the global ONE prayer series that we particpated in... just spoke and Im still looking for my face!

one statement he said was, "in order to reach people no one is reaching, you need to do something that no one is doing."

ok... so not the first we've heard this right... the words aren't inspiring... it's the dream behind the words! here's what this does NOT mean to me... lights, media, cool sofas, the aroma of coffee, creativity... etc. NOW I love exploring these things and seeing how they fit into church and we use them to build and cultivate our culture... our ethos...

BUT...

what are we going to do/be that other people aren't?

how about:

LOVE
SERVE
FORGIVE
PRAY

the list can go on... but seriously... who are we going to be and what are we going to do?

this makes sense... everything else just is... a cool place is just a cool place without love... BUT a cool place with love = HOME... a place to belong... a place to SEE the gospel!

I hope this is what makes us different... I hope this is what makes me different!

F
(sent from iPhone)

how long will you allow the things you love and the things that make you come alive be squeezed out of your life?

you know what i am talking about!

you know the times, the events, the things, the people, the conversations that have left you alive... that have made your pulse race... that made your synapses fire like crazy... you all know the feelings and the emotions that represent this "event" in your life.

but the sad reality is that we know all too often the feeling of dryness, erosion, stuck, dark...

i have reflected over the past several days and have been involved in some pretty shaping, nudging conversations that have forced me remember the dreams and go after them.

we can't let the things that drain us, suck the life out us, leave us empty anymore.

i hope that when we feel the squeeze... we run...

i hate running... it hurts my knees, my lower back, my head, my ego!
but i hope that i can learn to run to the things my life, my soul needs most...

may we all begin to learn how to enjoy running... maybe even become marathoners one day!

F

its so easy to fall victim to the consumerist mindset that has taken america captive... its deceptively dangerous because we fall blind to the reality that we have surrounded ourselves in the consumer machine.

consumerism is me-ism...

we will always be consumers... its our reality, but we need to be mindful consumers. this is not a call to go green, or organic, or vegan or pretend like you don't need anything to survive... this is a call to awareness!

to be aware of how easy it is to mask our ideas as and for the good of the mass when at the end of the day its for our preference. our preferences keep our hands clean... its tough to serve the person next to you when your holding onto your preferences.

again preferences are not bad...

but the blind spot is that it can lead us to selfishness and comfort and clean hands... ME-ism...

i want to be the one who is willing to get my hands a little dirty...

F

i have teetered back and forth and back and forth and back and forth on whether or not to get a facebook page... i have come up with some pretty good excuses why i wouldn't but maybe one day, you never know, but for now i am on seth godin's triiibes.com an online community of entrepreneurs, innovators, business owners, marketers or anyone who may want to start a tribe, or group, or gather people to have conversations and discuss whatever you want.

i am obsessed with idea's...

F

i think that trying and caring are directly related...

here is what i am NOT talking about in this post... wisdom says that we DO NOT need to try everything to experience everything and understand everything. there are people in our lives that have made some pretty poor, bad and dumb decisions... you don't need to also... learn from them! these are cheap and easy lessons.

here is what i am talking about in this post... we care about the things that we try. why else would we try them? curiosity is not enough all the time... sometimes we need to care about it or have the desire to care about it. now i'm talking about more than just trying sushi or the thanksgiving medley of jones soda (pea soda, gravy soda, sweet potato... YUM!)

so you have these DREAMS... these IDEAS... these THOUGHTS...

try 'em!

if you really care about them so much... try them... see what happens... see where it brings you, takes you, teaches you!

caring leads to ACTION!

we will not act on things/try new things without caring enough to imagine this being a part of our lives, or even being our lives.

i wonder why people come to church for the first time?

F

alright... before we get all up into this post i need to warn you that this post will be one of the toughest to write and maybe even more difficult to read.

why?

...because it has everything to do with the inconvenient side of relationships.

i wrote a post several months ago in which i described that the global killers of our day really are not aids, poverty, illiteracy, lack of clean water, etc... but inconvenience, selfishness and lack of awareness.

i write that because i think that it also is reflected in our relationships. if i think about the best, deepest, most authentic relationships that i have had in my life are synonymous with inconvenience. we will never understand what it means to be a good friend until we are willing to ride on the roller coaster of inconvenience. relationships just aren't convenient! i would almost say beware of the one's that are!

so... all that to say...

good friends are the ones that are willing to be burned and burned and burned again!
good friends are the ones that go and get you!

is there a point when too much is too much?

sure... you need to find out where that is, but i think that it is a little further down the road than we think!

its difficult to be a good friend... but i also know that we need people to survive and keep us healthy. i guess its time to start learning how to live with inconvenience.

F