40 cents

So we arrived at staff retreat and I was amazed at gas prices outside of Chicagoland. Last night we saw gas for $3.59 per gallon. Of course this morning we drove past the same station and it is now $3.99. How does that happen? And why is it that gas prices go up so fast but down so sloooow. 

Just some deep thoughts from the Lake. 

Fault Lines

Southern California is cleaning up after this "minor" quake. I can't imagine living on a fault line. I have friends of mine in California who might be reading this, so my thoughts and prayer are with you (insert smiley emoticon here).

But I was thinking this morning about other fault lines that we are currently on as a culture. There is friction occuring between groups of people that when reaching a tipping point, might cause some societal shock waves.

Generational - boomer, Xer, millenial, etc., etc.
Spiritual - christian, muslim, oprah
Technological - have, have nots
Philosophical - modern,postmodern, postpostmodern, etc.
Church - mega, house, marketplace, none of the above
Political - red, blue, purple
Race - obama, jackson
Sports - favre, packers

The Future of Creativity

The Utne Reader has a cover article that caught my attention called The Future of Creativity. Chapter 3 of my book Experiential Storytelling is on creativity and is probably one of the most important chapters for me because I believe that the church has lagged in this area for a long time. So I'm very interested in anything that speaks to creativity, especially where things are heading.

It's funny though, one of their first stories basically repeats what I wrote in the book- "try thinking or doing as a child would." It seems that maybe the future of creativity lies in the past. But there were some interesting finds in the magazine.

1. We are not doing a great job with fostering creativity in our children.
How?

By pawning off the task of imagination to commercial manufacturers of marketing and entertainment. 44.5 hours behind "screens" doesn't help.

And we no longer allow kids "free and unstructured play time". Because of this, the America's Promise Alliance stated "a large percentage of the children and youth who will enter the workforce ... are lacking enough of the 'soft' or applied skills- such as teamwork, decision making, and communication- that will help them be effective employees and managers."

2. Society needs better writing with larger truths but is weary of these truths.

Writing has suffered because "the smarter and more intellectual we count ourselves, the more adamantly we insist that there is no such thing as truth, no such thing as general human experience, that everything is plural and relative and therefore undiscussable." Hmmm.

3. Art + Science = Inspiration

Science and technology is affecting us in exponential ways (see wired petabyte blog). Rather than the world of art and science remaining separate, the future will bring these two worlds together to provide for a new creative frontier.


The articles were not very indepth but were provocative. I have often wondered what affect our technology will have on us. If we no longer need to struggle and think for ourselves, will this lead to a less creative culture?

And will our "culture of fear" also curb the creative process? We want to protect and cocoon ourselves when we sense danger, but does this lead us to more homogenous group-think?

How have these changes in culture also affected the church? It seems that there has been a creativity rennaissance within many churches, but is it only in the hands of those delivering the message? Are the people sitting in the services using their God-given creativity in their own missional environments? Or are they simply "pawning off the task of imagination to commercial manufacturers of marketing and entertainment?"

Thoughts?

One Very Full Week

Looking forward to the week, but also realizing that it's FULL!

Gearing up for our annual staff retreat at the lake. This is our time to get away and connect relationally. It's also a chance to make sure that we are on the same page for the upcoming year. I think it was Mark Batterson who said that when he looks at hiring staff you should look for people that you would vacation with. We're blessed to have that kind of staff dynamic at Life Church.

This weekend I'm excited to be speaking at The Orchard church. Scott Hodge is the Lead Pastor and a very cool guy with an equally cool church. They have a great story and he has definitely put his leadership stamp on the church. They are in a series with a movie theme. I picked The Great Debaters because Scott and I talked about sharing on the topic of the missional church and justice. Can't wait to share- 3 times!

Oh yeah, and Scott was the man who kept encouraging me to blog. Thanks.

Family FUNDay pictures

Some pics from the Family FUNDay. It was truly an incredible event in so many ways. Hayrides, carnival games, face painting, amazing silent auction, live music, some serious square dancing, sno cones, cotton candy, cornhole starbuck's beverages- great fun. This puts the Jarot's one step closer to their dream of adopting their baby girl from Vietnam. I love helping people move closer to this dream.

Jarot Adoption Family FUNDay

Here is the invite "post-it" note for the Jarot Family FUNDay. I was there last evening doing some final prep and will get there around noon today. For information on the event or if you would like to donate to the Jarot's adoption, just click on the note or one of the links. It seems almost everyone knows someone who has adopted internationally. It is an expensive process, especially for younger couples who are just starting out. If churches can use their collective energy to focus attention to orphan care, we could make a difference for the 143 million orphans waiting for a home.

You know it's a bad day when...

...when the plane you are flying in suddenly has a gaping hole in the side and falls 20,000 feet. But even worse, they had to land at the Manila airport. It might be an OK country, but I've been to that airport and it's not the most pleasant place to be. And according to Rainman, Qantas still has a clean record, despite this near miss.

The Mega-influence of Rick Warren

I did a double-take when I heard a snippet from CNN saying that the only time that Barack Obama and John McCain would appear together in public before their conventions would be at Rick Warren's church. Then they went to commercial. So I looked it up online and it was true. Rick Warren is going to host his own presidential forum at his church in California.

Rick Warren is approaching mythic status. Seriously. This is unprecedented. He scooped CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and yes, even FOX news. What makes the man so influential besides authoring one of the best-selling books of our time? Well, there is that. But I also think there are a few other things to consider. Here are some of my thoughts.

1. He is a hero among progressives (both Republican and Democrat) for among other things taking on the once evangelical taboo of AIDS and many issues facing Africa.

2. He is the anti-religious-right figure. (i.e. humble, apolitical, loving, giving)

3. He is the guy next door (or at least the one you wish you had).

4. He doesn't take himself too seriously.

5. He stays focused on his mission without getting distracted.

These are all qualities that seem to be lacking in today's leadership right across the board. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that the man seems to have no ego, he'd probably make a good presidential candidate.

I am looking forward to what this Warren-forum is going to look like. If it reflects the man, this could be the most civil and constructive gathering that our two candidates take part in until November.

Christianity Today

I got a chance to tour the Christianity Today International corporate office yesterday. It's a VERY understated building. On my tour, there was one small area that I loved. It was the editors "wing". There was editor-in-chief David Neff, Ted Olsen, Tim Morgan and Mark Moring. Here were the guys I have been reading and often times quoting in one sitting.

One particularly fun part was seeing John Wilson's office. John is the editor at Books and Culture. And his reviews are very important in the Christian world and beyond. So I kind of wondered what his office would be like. I wasn't disappointed as you can see above. It was a mountain of books with a small space for John to write. You could feel the books in the room. It was the "cave of literature."

Thanks for the tour.

Sign of the Times- Fashion Police: Flint Cracks Down on Sagging (caution-contains partial nudity)

"Butt, Officer!"

In my first "Sign of the times" post, Flint, Michigan police have decided to do something about those sagging pants. It's now a crime not just to do crack, but to show it as well. The new Flint police chief thinks it's a national nuisance and is ready to do something about it. But he might have a hard time judging by sagging pants wearer Jayson Miguel and others like him. Says Miguel, "I've been sagging since the fourth grade," the 28-year-old says. "I'll be sagging when I'm old and gray."

No, this is not an onion article, it's from Newsweek Magazine. Full story here-

Cracking Down

Wired to Save on Airfares

Wired Magazine's last issue talked about our new age of data that is turning science on it's head. While a lot of the breakthroughs will never make a practical difference in our lives, there are a few that can help save some $$ on airline tickets. This is especially beneficial in this nasty economy.

Here are 8 tips that the new algorithms are telling us about how to get a cheap flight. I wonder if they can predict the next president?

Algorithms and ticket prices

Out of the Gutter

BEFORE











AFTER







Yes, the gutters have been cleansed. I can now sleep at night without that gnawing feeling in the back of my mind that something must be done. Thanks to the little old lady down the street. She's a Godsend!

Follow The Leader (mini notes from 7-120-08)

you can hear the full message or podcast at www.getalifechurch.com.

Courage


Split Second Decision Time
Back in high school I can remember being at one of those parties that I really had no business attending-but I did anyway. After a while, the crowd started to get a bit rowdy and my friend and I noticed a fight happening. So we did what all high schoolers did when there was a fight, we watched. But as we got closer, we noticed that the person taking the hits from several guys twice our size was a friend of ours. At that moment we had a choice. We could either be the hero and step in and probably wind up in the ER or worse. Or we could stand by, watch it happen and then offer support after the fact. I wish that I could say that we stepped in and did a Bruce Lee on these guys, but we didn't. We stood by and watched it happen and offered support after the fact. My friend turned out to be fine even though he had a bruised ego. And the whole thing lasted just a few minutes.

And that is how those moments of courageous decision come...fast. You have to make a split second decision regarding what to do. That lesson over 20 years ago taught me that it's more painful to stay on the sidelines and think "what if" than to get involved.

This split second decision to go the courage or fear route is something that all of us deal with at sometime. In fact, it probably happens a lot more than we realize. It’s those moments where you have to decide do I do the right thing or the easy thing? Do I do the right thing or the safe thing?

In fact I think a good definition of Courage for a believer is doing what's right in God's sight regardless of circumstances or consequences. And there is a pretty good pattern of leaders to follow in the Bible that shows us what that type of courage looks like. Without those before us acting in courage we wouldn’t know anything about salvation, grace and divine forgiveness.

And there is a common theme of courage that runs through our current book of study in Acts. It is full of people who put a human face to courage. People who threw caution to the wind because there was something bigger at stake than their reputations, their comforts and even their lives.

One of my favorite courage stories in Acts 13.

Context- in chapter 13 it says that the church leaders prayed for Paul and Barnabas and sent them out on Paul’s first missionary journey. And in chapter 14 In a city called Lystra, there was a man who had been crippled since birth and Paul sees faith in him and tells him to stand up and he is instantly healed. The crowd sees this and they think that Paul and Barnabas are gods and they make preparations to offer sacrifices to them.

But it says in verse 14 that they began emphatically telling the people to stop, after all they are only humans and then challenging them to turn from their beliefs in many gods to the one God of heaven. And then in verse 19 it says that unfortunately the crowds were persuaded not to believe them and we read “They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city!!!”

He is stoned and left for dead and what does he do?? He gets up, dusts himself off and he goes back for more! Now that is courage! And just two verses later, it says that shortly after they did leave the city, they went BACK again.

We take these stories for granted. In fact it is almost impossible to relate to them - jailed, beaten, left for dead. We don't face these obstacles in suburban America. And yet, there are still plenty of opportunities for us to walk in courage. And there is a lot that we can learn from the patterns we see from the courageous stories in Acts. Here are some common threads.

Their courage came from following the leader.

They had seen Jesus speak the strong truth of God’s message with unconditional love to all different groups of people. They had seen him being chased by mobs, some wanting to worship him, others wanting to stone him. They had seen him say and do unconventional things, when all of the conventional wisdom or the politically correct wind was blowing in one direction, Jesus would stand in the wind and often times walk in the opposite direction.

As Paul letter writes in his letter to the Corinthians- "follow my example as I follow the example of Christ."

Their courage came from being full of the spirit.

What was different about these men and women of the new testament from Acts on? In the gospels they were bickering about position and titles, they were denying they knew Jesus, they were falling asleep at important moments. What changed? Obviously we could say that they had witnessed a resurrection and that would certainly shoot faith steroids in a person quickly. But Acts reveals to us right at the beginning that the spiritual wells where courage comes from at a moments notice came from their wellspring of the spirit of God filling them constantly with his power, courage,love and grace. The spirit is aware of things long before we can be.

There are multiple examples of filling and courage. Here are a few.

In chapter 4, Peter and John are released from jail (a second home to many of the apostles). It says they came together and prayed, "the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly."

While Stephen was standing in courage and becoming the first Christian to die for his faith, "But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

and Their courage came from one another.

The word or a form of the word encourage appears 10 times in Acts. I was thinking about the words en-courage and dis-courage and both have the word "courage" at the end. Dis means "not a part of, to remove" and En means "put into, make, provide with, surround with". So if you are an dis-courager, like a deflating balloon, you are someone who removes courage from a person. An en-courager puts courage into, makes courage, provides others with courage and surrounds them with courage.

The church needs to be this for each other- a provider of courage. One of my favorite verses is in Hebrews 10:23-"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another."

Date Night!

Stacey and I are big fans of John Mayer. His lyrics are DEEP and he is a TRUE musician. So when we were in Chattanooga a few weeks ago, Stacey and her sister ran into a friend of Kelli's. She said in a serious southern drawwwl. You'all are from Chicago? I bought tickets to John Mayer thinking that Chicago was only 5 hours from here. **Keep in mind that Chattanooga borders Georgia. Needless to say, she wasn't going to use the tickets. In steps the Millers.

And John didn't disappoint. We went to Tinley Park's outdoor amphitheater. His fingers must have been bleeding by the end of the evening. I was very impressed with his apparent humility and his serious ability to connect with a crowd. There really is no other John Mayer.

More importantly, having fun with the person I love to have the most fun with. And that's what we did.

Weekend Preview

Really looking forward to this weekend. Curt will be back in the saddle and he'll be walking us through a portion of Acts with music and narrative.

Then I will be stepping up for chapters 13-14 in our Follow The Leader series. This week we are going to take a look at courage, something that was in abundance in the early church. I think the older I get, the more I seem to recognize it when I see it. And the more I seem to feel frustrated when I lack it. Here are some questions to think about.

What did courage look like in Acts? What does courage look like in the American church today? How does fear inhibit it? And what are some ways that we can increase our courage? And finally, why did Dan Rather end his shows with that word in the late 80's? OK, might keep that last one out for Sunday, but we will be looking at the other ones.

Is it just me?

Is it just me or is the whole picture of Heath Ledger as the joker just a wee bit creepy?

Starbucks Lists Stores to Be Closed

Is your bux on the black list? Find out here...

starbucksobituary

Good luck my friends.

Wired for CHANGE

The latest Wired magazine has a cover story called the End of Science. The story starts with these words.

The quest for knowledge used to begin with grand theories. Now it begins with massive amounts of data. Welcome to the Petabyte Age.

The idea is that because of the we are living in an age where the ability to process information grows exponentially every second (tera-second), the models of science are no longer relevant.

Speaking at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference this past March, Peter Norvig, Google's research director, offered an update to George Box's maxim: "All models are wrong, and increasingly you can succeed without them."

It's a fascinating read. But I've been wondering the same thing about the church. What affect does living in the Petabyte Age have on the church. How does it affect the way that society views God, themselves and each other? And in what way does it affect the church? And can the same obituary be given to church models? Will this age turn our view of the church on it's head?

This would be a conference I would love to attend. Let's call it GOOGLED: the affect of the Petabyte Age on the church. Hmmm.

Cultural Creatives

Ryan Lott was my worship leader for a ministry in Cleveland we started called Journey. Yes, we named it after the 80's band.

He moved to New York and released his first solo album under Son Lux called At War With Walls and Mazes. The above video is from the album.

He is one of those cultural creatives who is always thinking in multiple dimensions and shades. I need people like this in my life to re-fresh.

Enjoy.

My Hands Did This!

I'm not a man who was given much mechanical aptitude. I'm not even sure what that means. But here it is, proof that I can assemble SOMETHING. We rescued this playset from imminent destruction on the treelawn of a neighbor and as you can see, our two little ones are true believers in recycling. Thanks to Preston for giving me the assist.