My friend Jason Merino is going back to San Diego this weekend to finish his college degree. He has one class left. Something to do with Greek. We hung out quite a bit this summer, and we had some really good talks. There weren’t many ends of discussions or neat conclusions, but good convo none the less. He posted a challenge that I am going to attempt and see where it takes me. You can read about the challenge here. It is more or less 77 days without buying things we don’t need.
I’m going to write down everything that I buy, trying as hard as I can to really think about whether or not I need it. Then see where it leads me. It will end on Oct. 31st. This might be really, really hard. That’s two reallys. You should really read the challenge to see the why behind it all. And yes, I’m the other character, the one with the Jetta.
I was thinking a lot during my trip to Mexico about the Great Commission. It is usually lumped into missions commissioning services. Something along the lines or, “And Jesus himself said that we are to go into all the world. So we commission you to go to Mexico.” At some point I asked myself why in the world they don’t mention the second part. The part where we are called to make disciples of all men. It really started to get to me. It was like they hadn’t quite figured out how youth mission trips to Mexico fit into the Great Commission, so they use it as much as makes them comfortable, but recognize that the long term effects of short term missions can be minimal. I know it may sound harsh, but those are thoughts I had that led me to thinking about what it means to make disciples of all men. I think it would be at least somewhat valuable to look at how Jesus made disciples. Sometimes we get the wrong picture and it ends up looking like this: (thanks to vintage21.com for this excellent video)
I thought a lot about what Jesus did, and I don’t want to reduce it too much, but I probably have. Essentially, he did the right thing, and he invited other people to live with him. Then, he just kept doing the right thing. When people needed correction he corrected, but it wasn’t really as important as doing the right thing. When they asked questions, he told stories. When he had to, he used words like “Get behind me Satan.” That was just that once though. I think it is often debated what it means to make disciples, and it is better to be debated than to try to make them the way that jesus did in the video. Perry Noble just posted a blog about this very thing, and I think he has at the very least a solid direction. I love that they are doing everything they can to make disciples. That’s way better than just whole heartedly embracing the first part of the Great Commission.
I really liked this post today on the Catalyst website. Tim really took what I don’t like about Starbucks and flipped it and stuck it to the western church. I think he at least has a valid point. There are some obvious generalizations that are not across the board. Either way, I agree with shutting down. At least cutting some of the crap, the sacred cows that do nothing save lateral movement, to make time for self-evaluation. I think it would be healthy to say the least.
I submitted a banner for Tony Morgan’s banner contest for his blog, and mine was put up on March 1st. Just some photoshop reflection style stuff. But it’s green. Which is perfect for beginning March.
Pretty cool.
In line with this post from Dave H. in C-Town, I present to you “Embarrassment in Caleefornya” courtesy of the SacBee:
Today at Capitol Alert: Ralph Drollinger, the controversial Capitol chaplain who created a stir this week with remarks that some legislators are “disgusting to our Lord,” is firing back at his critics with a second Web posting, where he says tolerance of nonbelievers is “to neuter the message of Christ.”
It’s not just that he makes us all look like chodes, it makes him look like one too. I think in order to believe in ‘the message of Christ,’ you kind of have to admit that you are ‘disgusting to our Lord.’ Otherwise you haven’t really understood the message. This sucks.
I’ve seen confession sites before like post secret, where people send in post cards to get secrets off their conscience, or christians confess, where christians confess to the world what they have done wrong. Both have been thought provoking, but neither really took my breath away like this new one. I’ve been reading Perry Noble’s blog for a while. Since Tony Morgan, one of the Simply Strategic guys, moved to South Carolina to work at Perry’s church, I have been very impressed with their honest approach to Sunday mornings, sharing Jesus, and being the church. They are starting a new series soon that they just put up 6 billboards and one website for. Parents Are Clueless takes it to a whole new level. Reading these confessions, quick to the punch, reveals the brokenness and need for restoration in real, real ways. It gets me thinking about all the baggage people carry around with them, and what some good old fashioned honesty and time spent on our knees together could do to restore a lot of the relationships that are compromised by self made walls like ignorance and fear. I’m looking forward to the podcasts.
I have been wanting and hoping to go to a conference in ATL called Catalyst. It is bad timing every year. It’s right at the end of the first quarter, and it is really far away, so travel sucks. Anyway, I’ve been staying up to date on what is happening there by reading their blog. This post about Shane Claiborne’s speech had some cool stuff. My two favorites are:
Christianity is like the ark. It stinks sometimes, but if you get out, you’ll drown.
Community is surrounding ourselves with people who are like what we want to become.
This post by Dan Kimball is great. He gives someone else props for making the cartoons. I feel like the 2nd is true, but that’s just like me, now isn’t it. My dad’s pastor feels the 2nd is true, I’m sure. At some point there was a copy of The Emerging Church resting at the bottom of a waste basket.
