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i just finished watching a special on cnbc about warren buffet (yes, i know it is friday night) - incredible story of his life and how he has stayed true to what he believes since he started buying stocks seriously at the age of 20. this commitment has led him to make billions of dollars. people in business and in finance want to know his secrets. well, he basically lives by 2 rules in his life.- Don't lose.
- Don't forget rule #1.
i love that! as i am watching the show, i began to think about the church. what would it look like if we began to live by those rules?
i mean we know we don't lose in the big scheme of things, so why live not to lose? most of who are followers of Christ live lives of mediocrity. we know we win, so we get complacent. we care more about our own lives and forget there are many people in our world who have not connected to Christ, who are not followers of Christ. but do we care?
i want to be around people who don't want to lose! people who want to impact their world! what would it look like if all of us who were followers of Christ began to live our lives by saying we will not lose!!!!! we have so much more at stake than buffet does. what's a few billion bucks! especially when it comes to eternal life?don't lose.i think i am going to put that somewhere i can see it everyday.it might change the world...
new life is doing things most churches either dream of or never think about doing - now, that in no way makes us better than any other church. it just means we have a lot of people on staff who are adhd!
new life has been the catalyst through passion4planting in getting the national new church conference to be as big as it is. prior to last year, this conference was mostly a one-denominational family gathering. last year - with passion4planting leading the charge - this conference brought in around 1000 church planters from all over the world and from any different denomination you could think of!this year, that number will be more like 2000 +!!!! how cool is that! more than 2000 people will show up in orlando to talk about, to learn, to interact, and to begin their journey in church planting.the best part? when new life started 13 years ago, one of it's 2 main reasons for existing was to plant churches. because of our involvement and leadership in this conference, new life still continues to change the landscape of God's kingdom. that's what a bunch of adhd's will do for ya...
for more info on the conference, check out the exponential web site.
this thursday - in our office we were talking about people who work for companies and whether they know the mission of their organization. the facts? only 30% of people who work for a company know why they exist or can tell you their mission. 30 stinking percent!!!!! that means - math majors - 70% have NO CLUE or do not have the ability to express it. WOW! so, how about you? can you tell someone why your company exists? what it's purpose is? or better yet, how many of you can tell someone why new life exists? what is our purpose and our process? what is our mission?think about it...
don't forget - 3 services tomorrow! 9.30, 11 am and 6 pm. the morning services are the same, the 6 pm service is different. we finish up our series tomorrow. so come on out, bring some buddies and hang with us for a while. remember, free bagels and coffee...
so yesterday i asked my eldest if she wanted me to move out of the house - she said yes! my two kids are in this 'we are still attached to the umbilical cord' deal. it makes me laugh! and drives my wife crazy! got to love them kids!
...i was joking around with my kids before anyone thinks something strange is happening in our home...
on monday - the campus pastors and two others spent the day talking about life groups. this summer we took a few days to think about what we need to work on here at new life and one of the main areas was life groups. so monday, we revisited those discussions.
truth is, life groups are what make this clock tick. without them, we lose momentum, people, the life blood of the church. yet, i wonder, what keeps people from being a part of life groups?
my answer is simple. people don't see the need for them and don't hear the stories of how people's lives have been changed through life groups. our goal here over the next year is to make sure our stories are getting out. when the stories get out, life change happens...
we just started this new series today - all about how christmas changes people. so what about the name? it came from tim jones - our resident funny guy. we were sitting in a creative meeting about 2 months ago and we were brainstorming about title ideas for this series. tim blurts out chrismorphosis right at the start of our conversation and we all jumped on it! (tim couldn't believe it because at that point, he had had a rash of really bad top 10 lists for us and thought we had no love for him).anyways, too bad he can't come up with something so fast for our next series. tim?
i always like conversing with people about baptism - it is always fun to hear other's thoughts or opinions on this part of our spiritual journey. i know in some circles baptism is something of an anomoly and in some ways an after thought. the funny thing is that in many churches, baptism is becoming popular again - like it's a new thing! the dunking type of baptism (which is what the word baptism means anyway).
so here's to dunking people around the world!
WOW! - that is about all i can say about my experience yesterday at arlington. a friend's father had passed away and i went to the funeral in arlington.
i have never visited that site before. it was unbelievable to drive past all of those graves. to think about all who had given their lives in military service. those who had died while in harm's way and those who had passed on later in life, but had also given many days, months and years to our country in some fashion. i was deeply moved by that commitment. it was also hard to be a part of a military funeral. my brother-in-law is in iraq right now helping patrol the tigris and euphrates rivers. it was hard emotionally for me to even begin to think about having to have a funeral for him like yesterday at the age of 21. but i know it is always possible. i try to think positively on the situation with him being there, but know we may get that call and have to be a part of a military funeral.
an experience like yesterday brings things into perspective. there are definitely teaching points from being there but sometimes it is best to sit back and be quite...
no, this isn't the name of a new christian store like bed, bath and beyond - this is one of those cool things where God is at work at new life. erika rizkallah is part of our centreville campus. she is in charge of the kitchen environment out there (share your stuff portion). a couple of weeks ago, she was at the hospitality table in centreville and saw a lady standing there who was perusing the info. erika thought she looked a bit confused and asked if she could help her out. ...this is where God stepped in...the lady said to erika, "i am a vp at a local hotel chain. we are upgrading all our bedding and i am looking for some place to donate all the bedding and some of the mattresses. we are actually doing this nationally. would you all be able to do something with them?'erika said something powerful - YES! erika and her crew have now taken these new beddings and began to disperse them to local organizations - homeless shelters, women's shelters, and other places where people are in need. today erika said she called a local organization about helping them out. the lady said, 'how much bedding can you help us out with?' erika said, 'about 50 beds.' there was no response on the other end. erika said, 'hello?' the lady on the other line came back on and said to erika, 'i am sorry. i am crying.'God is at work here at new life in more ways than we can imagine. what important conversations are you having this week and how is God leading? we may be surprised!
scary sounding - i know some of you will see those two words and faint either from thinking chad is psycho, or it reminds you too much of college. either is a viable option though!i watched a movie last night called what the bleep do we know? it is all about this idea of quantum physics. so what is quantum physics? i am not totally sure, but in a nutshell that is too small, it is the basic idea that all we learned back in the day about the atom being the smallest 'thing' we know of in existence was false. there are things smaller than atoms. things that are continually moving! atoms aren't fixed forms. there is a lot of 'air' in them. and those nuclei we talked about? they are moving too. and because of this, our world we know is actually different than the one we 'see'.quantum physics also says because of these facts, there may be other dimensions living in our time which is their time too. quantum physics also say that our minds are more powerful than we think because we have the ability to bring to fruition the mind over matter saying we have heard for many years.now whether you buy this stuff of not isn't the point. the point in all of this is how as i watched this movie, i thought to myself, THIS IS OUR FAITH! this helps explain Jesus! this helps explain our spiritual world! it doesn't answer the questions we may have but it does help us understand Jesus' walking on water (it is possible), how he walked through a wall (possible), and how prayer can change a city (really happened). i won't go any further right now, but it does give me something to ponder...and i am not a nutjob, i promise!
doing some reading in 1 kings and came across this verse - 'in building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.' this is when solomon was building the temple for the people in jerusalem. think about all the new homes being built in the areas we live in. what do you hear? hammers, saws, nail guns, heavy machinery, lots of noise! yet, here is solomon building this huge place (think a full-size basketball court up to the ceiling at a high school) for God to dwell and it was pretty quite. one probably heard conversations taking place, stones being moved around, people yelling when their fingers were caught between the big stones - but otherwise, silence. no hammering, no chiselling, no iron tools banging around.sounds like not only was this going to be a place where God would dwell, it was going to be built in a fashion that said to everyone, 'this place is sacred. we want it to be holy when it is built, AND we want it to be holy now.' interesting.now, if we could only get local developers to think the same way about developments...
what does it mean to be missional - at least in our context of church? hmmmm...good question. being missional is important for any church. most churches fall into the trap of being missional only for the people that are at their church. what i mean is - in many ways - the church becomes something of a country club. in this setting, the questions become what can we do to appease our people? what programs can we start that make our people happy? this isn't missional, although it is stated that it is.here's the dilemna in that - it's not what Christ has asked us to do. as Jesus was ascending into heaven he said to GO. so how we doin'?to do what Christ called us to do, we have to be missional in our purpose. there has to be a reason for our madness! and i believe being missional comes in 2 ways...- sunday mornings - this is one of the ways we are missional. it is called 'attractional' in some places. and that is not far from the truth for us at new life. we want to be attractive to people. we want to break down barriers. we want to break down walls. we want people to come check us out for what we do - what we teach and who we are on sunday mornings. thus the songs we do, the sermons we preach, the videos we do, the unexpected that happens each week. we want sundays to attract people to the life of Christ.
- community impact - this is another way we are missional as a church. this one hits home because too many times, we expect sundays to be the end all as a church. the truth is we are supposed to go into our communities and make a difference. that can mean throwing up the movie screen and showing a free flick to the community, handing out free ice cream, connecting with a local event and using our toys as a gift to the community. but it doesn't end there. being missional as a church in our communities means we are looking for ways to also impact lives of those who are hurting. who are we caring for? are we looking for ways to help people out besides using our toys? this one has been haunting me for some time. the early church grew because it was impacting lives. whose lives are we impacting?
missional church. i want to be a part of a church that is missional. a church where the people in it are all thinking beyond themselves and taking the message of Christ - to GO - to a new level.so how we doin'?
