Simply Missional

According to Francis Chan these are the 17 signs of a lukewarm Christian. OUCH!

1. Lukewarm people attend church fairly regularly. It is what is expected of them, what they believe “good Christians” do, so they go. Isaiah 29:13

2. Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living. If they have a little extra and it is easy and safe to give, they do so, After all, God loves a cheerful giver, right? 1 Chronicles 21:24, Luke 21:1-4

3. Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what is right when they are in conflict. They desire to fit in both at church and outside of church; they care more about what people think of their actions (like church attendance and giving) than what God thinks of their hearts and lives. Luke 6:26, Revelation 3:1, Matthew 23:5-7 4.

4: Lukewarm people don’t really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin. They don’t genuinely hate sin and aren’t truly sorry for it; they’re merely sorry because God is going to punish them. Lukewarm people don’t really believe that this new life Jesus offers is better than the old sinful one. John 10:10, Romans 6:1-2.

5. Lukewarm people are moved by stories of people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act. They assume such action is for “extreme” Christians, not average ones. Lukewarm people call “radical” what Jesus expected of all His followers. James 1:22, James 4:17, Matthew 21:28-31

6. Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends. They do not want to be rejected, nor do they want to make people uncomfortable by talking about private issues like religion. Matthew 10:32-33

7. Lukewarm people gauge their morality or “goodness” by comparing themselves to the secular world. They feel satisfied that while they aren’t as hard-core for Jesus as so-and-so, they are nowhere as horrible as the guy down the street. Luke 18:11-12

8. Lukewarm people say they love Jesus, and He is, indeed, a part of their lives, their money, and their thoughts, but he isn’t allowed to control their lives. Luke 9:57-62

9. Lukewarm people love God, but they do not love Him all their heart, soul, and strength. They would be quick to assure you they try to love God that much, but that sort of total devotion isn’t really possible for the average person; its only for pastors and missionaries and radicals. Matthew 22:37-38

10. Lukewarm people love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves. Their love for others is typically focused on those who love them in return, like family, friends, and other people they know and connect with. There is a little love left over for those who cannot love them back, much less for those who intentionally slight them, who kids are better athletes than theirs, or with whom conversations are awkward or uncomfortable. Their love is highly conditional and very selective, and generally comes with strings attached. Matthew 5:43-47, Luke 14:12-14

11. Lukewarm people will serve God and others, but there are limits to how far they will go or how much time, money, and energy they are willing to give. Luke 18:21-25

12. Lukewarm people think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven. Daily life is mostly focused on today’s to-do list, this week’s schedule, and next month’s vacation. Rarely, if ever do they intently consider the life to come. Philippians 3:18-20

13. Lukewarm people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor. Matthew 25:34, 40, Isaiah 58:6-7

14. Lukewarm people do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty. They want to do the bare minimum, to be “good enough” without requiring too much of them. 1 Chronicles 29:14, Matthew 13:44-46

15. Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them sacrificing and risking for God. Matthew 10:28

16. Lukewarm people feel secure because they attend church, made a profession of faith at age twelve, were baptized, come from a Christian family, vote Republican, or live in America.

17. Luke warm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to. They don’t have to trust God if something unexpected happens-they have their savings account. They don’t need God to help them—they have their retirement plan in place. They don’t genuinely seek out what life God would have them live—they have life figured and mapped out. They don’t depend on God on a daily basis-their refrigerators are full and, for the most part, they are in good health. The truth is, their lives wouldn’t look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God. Luke 12:16-21

18. Lukewarm people probably drink and swear less than average, but besides that, they really aren’t very different from your typical unbeliever. They equate their partially sanitized lives with holiness, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Matthew 23:25-28, Luke 14:34-35

HT: Micah Fries

Scotty just sent me these pics: Xenophobia in South Africa - The Big Picture - Boston.com.

WARNING: These are some of most horrific pictures you will see.

Amazing pics that shows the current turmoil. The crisis in Zimbabwe is spilling over to S. Africa which creates massive tension and then chaos comes to the forefront and really sad things happen.

But let me say this: There is so much to be hopeful for. It’s hard in the West to see the good that is going on. Please keep that in mind. That being said, please do something to help. Support a local church, pray for the leaders and the country, donate to various organizations that are on the ground like Servlife & Steven & Amy who live in Cape Town and serve S. Africa, Zimbabwe and Sudan.

I think God calls the church to go to the darkest places of the world…So the gospel can explode and hope can come and life can be redeemed.

David Crowder has a great article on Rid the Yard of Sticks. This is why i love DCB and their music. To me they are the anti-Christian-superstar. Which is a breath of fresh air.

Today has been one of those “good” days. After a  budget meeting this morning that almost caused my head to explode. By nature I’m a dreamy type of fellow so whenever I stop dreaming I start dying or I get waaaayyyy Type A.

So I needed a release and I got one. J Ashdown called me; he just attended a conference session by Erwin McManuin Sac-town . I hope J unlocks this a bit for us but Erwin talked about three-key areas of connecting to our community. I forgot the first…But the second was redeeming the workplace. But it’s the third area that got me more pumped then a bodybuilder on steroids.  (minus the extra shrinkage.)

Erwin said we need to redeem the places that we’ve been invited to already. (think Acts/Mars Hill) I love that thought. So powerful and true. So many times we are trying to push down doors to share our faith. But if we serve and love and give there is a really good chance we will be invited to share the gospel with those around us. They will want to know…They will be desperate. Our lives should be that different.

Of course the key is doing life who those who are far from God. So we can love them and hope that one day we will be invited to share the gospel because we’ve already lived the gospel in their midst.

How dope is that!

Following the Zimbabwe election has been quite stressful. It’s sad to see a country suffer because of poor leadership. I think of the 64 orphans or Pastor John and his family. They suffer for reasons that make no sense. But that seems to be the struggles of Africa. A few get rich while the majority live in poverty.

I’ve been praying that God would work deeply in Zimbabwe. Bring hope to the people, give them a future and the day-to-day necessities to live and enjoy life.

I’m also praying that God would save or eradicate Mr. Mugabe. Feel free to pray also.

These past few months I’ve spent the majority of my time working on systems for Vista. We are currently creating 1 page “expectations” docs and 18-month strategies for all of our key ministries. On top of that we are working on implementing our new deacon ministry, a new finance team and preparing for our fall launch.

At times this can be mind-numbing. Usually by the time I get home I’m wiped-out. At the same time I’ve had to realize that if we want to be a “church that reaches the city of Austin” or a “church that raised $5-million dollars to fight global poverty” or a church that starts “missional communities throughout our city” we have to also be a church that does internal things well.  You can’t put the cart before the horse. 

I have to remind myself and others at Vista that these systems will lead to missional activity. We don’t desire to be a safe church with a good gathering and all that. We want to really see the Kingdom explode in our people and become a church that reaches our world with the Jesus-story. 

Therefore systems have become my biggest priority. We have plenty of vision, I think our strategy is great, but implementing that vision and creating a sustainable systems is simply vital. So we work daily on creating these systems so we can be free to do things we love like HELP or Jeff speaking or raising-up leaders, or working on missional communities and shepherding our people, etc. 

I just can’t wait till I can focus on some other things…Soon…Please be soon. 

photo posted from my iPhone

Spent some time with my bride last night as we celebrated 12 years of marriage. We headed to Moonshine for dinner and then to Caffé Medici for a latte. Its quite surprising how we seldom spend one-on-one time these days. With work, church, kids and community its rare to find moments to connect.

Much of the conversation was about the future. But we also discussed the past few years. It seems like we sold everything and moved from Raleigh forever ago; but its only been two years. We headed cross-country on a family road trip and then settled in Seattle. Long story short we decided to head back to Texas after 2 months and then landed in Austin.

We only knew two people, had no jobs and life was pretty stressful. But within 6-months we were able to get back on our feet and and get our lives moving in the right direction. Necole and I  now have a defined pathway that is very clear now, we are no longer restless souls (well, that may be wrong) but focused on living the next 30 + (or whatever God allows) years on raising a great family, living for God, fighting global poverty and creating a church community that simply desires to serve their generation and share the story of Jesus. We also have some great business idea’s that we hope will create some financial freedom and propel us on our mission.

To top it off we now have our “core” family living 5-minutes from us and a great community that cares for us. I say all that to say this: sometimes you just have to trust God and go with your gut. 

it even gets better with the Red Sox winning last year…To bad the Lakers had to ruin the storybook ending by losing to the Celtics of all teams. I guess you can’t win them all. 

yummmy..cafe Medici

photo posted from my iPhone

Less is more. We hear this all the time. But I think it’s something that needs to be embraced, especially for smaller churches that rely on a lot of volunteers to keep the organization running. It’s so easy for visionaries to dream big, but many times they (me) never implement the vision-therefore the vision lies dormant in pile of unfulfilled dreams. 

Even simple church structure can become very complicated. We do four things at Vista. 

1. Sunday Experience. 

2. Kids

3. Small Group

4. Glocal Outreach

But that still does not include daily admin, assimilation, leadership development, counseling etc. It can be daunting when you put it all on paper. Every ministry seems to have a sub-ministry. 

At Vista we are trying to instill the importance of doing all things well. Which does not mean we will succeed in all things, but at least give it our best shot. In order to do that, we must keep everything simple.

Now if I can just figure out how to keep the simple, simple. I think that may be asking to much.