We're ALL in this together

I saw this yesterday ... got me to thinking - "I can do more."



I have a responsibility to be His hands and feet. Not my neighbor. Not the guy who has a ministry. I have a responsibility to consume less too.

Consider what you can do / will do to respond. Then do it. I will too.

ht: Deadly Viper

Perspective

I am doing a message on perspective this next week. 

I am wondering if we view our situations in light of God's work in our life or if some of our experiences are because of "lifeinstance"?  

How does one's perspective on/about life shaped?  Is it a matter of your glass being half full/empty?  Discuss ... 

Not necessarily the direction I am going but just want some feedback.

Knee Jerk Reactions & Color outside the lines

Originally posted on Typepad - March 21
We've all had them before. Knee Jerk Reactions. We are too quick to jump to conclusions about situations without knowing all the facts. It's really easy to do when someone's actions don't match up to what
you're used to in your own life. I'm learning that behavior has it's roots lodged in the heart (both good & bad). To keep an open mind, at times, is the ability to hear without making judgments. When we don't
listen, we miss out on many new insights and possible experiences.

If someone would have told me that most of our music would be played digitally and it would be available to the common, not just the elite, that would have blown my mind. What about sending files through the
air (Bluetooth) ... It amazing even today!

I'm try to stay up on what's going on today, especially with my kids culture. But, sometimes I have to do some research to try to keep up & stay engaged in their culture. I like how one person said it, "When I'm engaged in their (our kids) culture, I can stay in relationship with them."

No one is perfect and we all miss the mark with each other! A recent quote from Perry Noble at NewSpring's Unleash Conference is relevant to this topic: "The older generation seems to always get mad at the younger
generation."

Shepard Fairey has this to say about culture and such: "My whole M.O. was very similar to skateboarding and punk rock, which was the idea that if the mainstream wasn't picking up on what you were
doing, create an alternative scene to the mainstream. My attitude was never 'I want to be an isolated person and do my own thing in direct opposition to the mainstream'; it was more like 'I need to be doing
what I'm doing, and I need to figure out how to keep doing it by any means necessary.' Alot of people think if you are into some sort of subculture or alternative culture that means you are anti-mainstream.
My idea was always 'Well, mainstream is kinda sucky a lot of times, but does it have to be?' It would be cool to educate people about the stuff that I'm into. Sort of enlighten the mainstream--raise the bar
all across the board rather than having to feel like an outsider forever."

How can this apply in dealing with the church and The Church?

I need to stop my Knee Jerks and let people color outside the lines. I just might learn something. And, then, someone might find the courage to take their next step towards Christ because I get out of the way.

What Knee Jerks have you experienced recently?

Grappling

Originally posted on Typepad - March 6, 2008

I am talking with several people these days who are wrestling with many paradigm shifting issues. I am one!

Love for God is not an issue. It more of issues with the local church and The Church as a whole. I ran across this quote from Tony Morgan's blog.

"Real faith is dynamic. It's controversial. It's dangerous. It's constantly growing. It asks challenging questions. It involves mystery. You can't put it in a box. You can't keep it quiet. You can't out-grow it. You can't out-dream it. It's more focused on others than it is on self. Real faith gives me peace but makes me discontent to let things stay the same."

We are all on a journey to discover who we are in Christ. May that growth process never end.

What will Church look like?

Originally posted on Typepad - March 05, 2008

Barna released a report recently identifying five segments of church attendance.

From the report:
“The fact that millions of people are now involved in multiple faith communities - for instance, attending a conventional church one week, a house church the next, and interacting with an online faith community in-between - has rendered the standard measures of “churched” and “unchurched” much less precise.”

so, out of the following…which segment do you identify with more? if you would rather remain unidentified, just type in anonymous for your name and don’t link back to your blog.

Unattached - people who had attended neither a conventional church nor an organic faith community (e.g., house church, simple church, intentional community) during the past year. Some of these people use religious media, but they have had no personal interaction with a regularly-convened faith community. This segment represents one out of every four adults (23%) in America. About one-third of the segment was people who have never attended a church at any time in their life.

Intermittents - these adults are essentially “under-churched” - i.e., people who have participated in either a conventional church or an organic faith community within the past year, but not during the past month. Such people constitute about one out of every seven adults (15%). About two-thirds of this group had attended at least one church event at some time within the past six months.

Homebodies - people who had not attended a conventional church during the past month, but had attended a meeting of a house church (3%).

Blenders - adults who had attended both a conventional church and a house church during the past month. Most of these people attend a conventional church as their primary church, but many are experimenting with new forms of faith community. In total, Blenders represent 3% of the adult population.

Conventionals - adults who had attended a conventional church (i.e., a congregational-style, local church) during the past month but had not attended a house church. Almost three out of every five adults (56%) fit this description. This participation includes attending any of a wide variety of conventional-church events, such as weekend services, mid-week services, special events, or church-based classes.

What does going to church look like for you? how do you think “going to church” will look over the next ten or twenty years as our world gets smaller with technology?"


Thanks for Anne Jackson for the info.