Awning

Today we did some more work on the ONE24 building! We took down an awning that was over the front entrance. Good times. I'll try to post some pics & video of the event. We ended up using the truck to pull the supports out of under the awning after using a massive saw to cut through the steel (BOOM)!
I've finished some interesting books lately: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team & Death By Meeting, both by Patrick Lencioni. I enjoyed these two books about teamwork and meetings: I definitely found some things I need to be putting into practice!
I also finished reading The Gospel According to Starbucks by Len Sweet which looks at the Starbucks experience to see what the church can and should learn from what they're doing as he exegetes culture and the Bible. I just started with the first few pages of The Missions Addiction by David Shibley.

Well, Sarah's been out of town since Friday afternoon helping a great-aunt of mine and she will be getting back tomorrow afternoon. Between now and then I will be getting some much needed sleep, then leading worship in the morning and finally going to play some paintball with the guys from the Radiate CORE group I lead.
Until next time: same bat time, same bat channel!

CRU

I got to speak at Campus Crusade in Moorhead, MN last night. Sarah and I were able to go up a bit earlier to catch up with Kory Wolter at Qdoba (love that place, although not quite as much as Chipotle :). Anyway, it was great to be able to share some reflections from the book unChristian together with some thoughts on Acts 4:13 where the Jewish leaders were amazed at Peter and John and "took note" or "knew" that they had been with Jesus. It was a call to be like Jesus, or as Len Sweet says, be the "spittin' image" of Jesus. Let's stop being known for what we're against (and hypocrisy, judgmentalism, etc.) and let's be known for being like Jesus: kind, loving, compassionate, brave, risk taking, gracious, genuinely caring, radical about the right things, supernatural, the list would go on, but basically characterized by the same kind of radical love.

Fear Factor

Today will probably go down in Radiate history as the most disgusting day ever. We were talking about fear and it's effects this week and decided to have a little Fear Factor competition tonight. We started out dropping marshmallows covered in ketchup into people's mouths, there was a lot of missing the mark that went on there. Then we had a Chubby bunny style game with Warheads instead, that was hilarious, I think Izzy got 30 in his mouth! (there was lots of drool!) After that we went into digging coins out of a bowl of worms followed by the return of the Diaper Delicacy...this year we had to (I say we because I was one of them) pull 3 worms (gummy) out of the bottom of this disgusting goop in a diaper and eat them...I came in second :( (I almost puked!)
Anyway, a few thoughts on fear: I think that the spirit of fear (be it of man, rejection, the unknown, death, etc.) controls and manipulates us and keeps us from attaining what God has for us in every area of our lives. What's worse is that many times we open ourselves up to fear for thrills (like horror movies or other activities intended to give you a rush by making you scared) and then wonder why we struggle with fear, anxiety or self-esteem problems. I think that that rush from fear is satan's counterfeit for the Fear of the Lord...the kind you have when you have experienced him and realize how truly awesome He is! God is waiting to show himself to us and teach us experientially what it means to know and fear Him, but instead we chase after cheap thrills to give us a rush...it's like he's saying: "come to me and ask me to teach you to fear me (to know my awesome power even be freaked out by it) and you will have life, peace, rest, knowledge, wisdom, fulfillment, etc (check out Proverbs for more, also read Psalm 34).
So don't buy into the counterfeit of the spirit of fear and get some of the Fear of the Lord and you'll realize that you don't have to fear anything else anymore!

Too Much Espresso

So yesterday between noon and 5 p.m. I had 4 shots of espresso. Apparently that is a little too much for me, I didn't really feel the effects of it until I tried to go to sleep: I didn't fall asleep until 4 a.m. So the good news is that I finished reading Deadly Viper Character Assassins. It was a great book, with some very creative writing styles, that deals with ways the enemy would ruin our lives by messing with our character. I am also almost done reading unChristian, which has really helped make me more sensitive to the way Christians have hurt other people, many times without intending, and unfortunately sometimes intending to.
I had to meet someone at ONE24 at 8 a.m. and I slept through my alarm! Thank God I only showed up 5 minutes late...phew.

Well, I'm gonna go get another espresso :-)

Faith/Trust

Tonight we talked some more about Faith/Trust in the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 22:17-19 (NLT) "Listen to the words of the wise; apply your heart to my instruction. For it is good to keep these sayings in your heart and always ready on your lips. I am teaching you today—yes, you—so you will trust in the Lord."
It's interesting how Solomon keeps pointing us back to listening to what he has to say and diligently studying it out. In the last couple of weeks we looked at how to find faith and benefits of faith listed in Proverbs. In these verses Solomon is reminding us to get into what he is teaching us as a basis for trusting God. So, it would seem that if we're having a hard time trusting God we need to read more of what he has to say and "apply our heart" to it...he even goes as far as saying that we should memorize it so that it is not far from our lips! What a crazy thought! :-) I think it's awesome that we can trust God and that not only does He want us to trust Him, he helps us trust him by showing us some things we can do to grow in our trust of him! He's that good!

Transforming Love

Last night at the college ministry Collette Michal (she's the InterVarsity staff that has been working on the NDSCS campus for several years now) shared on Luke 7 where it talks about the woman that was a "sinner" and came and washed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume mixed with her tears and then dried it up with her hair. There are many different things that we could have focused on from that passage, like her using her "glory" to wipe his feet, or the extravagant worship she showed, or hypocrisy of those who saw her worship. Instead Collette led the group in digging into the transforming power of God's love. How she was a new person who left that place not only forgiven by Jesus, but also validated. Imagine the sense you would have when the Messiah acknowledges your worship, forgives your sin AND dismisses the judgments and labels that had been put on her by the world and the religious!
I think a lot of times we forget where God has brought us from and we are like the Pharisees that judged the woman for her past life. How many times do we pounce on people for their sin, but rationalize our own? How many sins are we "against" as a church while we dismiss or ignore those things in our own life? Do you judge a person who has not experienced the love and grace of God more harshly than you judge yourself? I know I have. God help us to be more like YOU!

First Concert

We had an awesome ONE24 fundraising concert tonight (our first one). Clyde Bauman (Mylo Hatzenbuhler) and The Chancellors Quartet did an amazing job. We had a great video that outlined the ONE24 vision and were able to talk to a lot of people that were able to hear about the project and many others made a decision to get involved! God is so cool!

Back from Minneapolis!

Sarah and I just got back from Minneapolis where we were picking up Kirsten, an old friend from school. She's checking out ONE24 and what we're doing here, which it's a perfect weekend to be out here doing that: we have a fundraising concert featuring Mylo Hatzenbuhler and The Chancellor Quartet this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. It will be a great weekend of raising awareness about ONE24 and how people can get involved! We'll be working on some of the final details today and tomorrow.

Ipod Faith?

Have you ever thought about the cultural phenomenon that the Ipod is? They're everywhere! You can't even give them out as prizes anymore because everyone and their cousin has one! Seriously, has the Ipod created a movement within culture or is it simply an expression of it? All I know is that there's this interesting relation between the Ipod and how many people view faith. The vast majority of Americans consider themselves spiritual yet Christianity as a movement does not comprise the vast majority of Americans. If you sit and talk spirituality with people, I would suggest it, you might notice, as I have, that this spirituality tends to be a blend a la carte of different religions.
Much like the Ipod personalizes your music selection by allowing you to listen to what you want when you want, (and even customize the interface to look the way you want) we have taken pieces from random religions and blended them together to form I-Faith. I think that sometimes this effects Christians too, we become I-Christians. You know who you are :) We say: "I think that..." OR "I don't think that..." OR "I don't believe that..." But so many times our beliefs are simply what we want them to be or what makes us feel good and are in now way TRUE!
Just something to think about. It's such an easy trap for us to fall into. If you catch yourself defending or opposing something, but you couldn't in any way point to where in the Story of the Bible you got that conviction from, it may be that you have fallen victim to the I-generation.

Final Catalyst Thoughts

Well, Justin and I made it home safely Saturday afternoon. And then I was focused on making sense of my scattered notes on my Treo for Sunday's sermon: Miracle Killer: Doubt and Unbelief. I may post a brief synopsis of that later, but I wanted to make sure I dropped some more highlights of Catalyst before that.
Friday was a great day at Catalyst we got to spend some time with some of the staff from Our Savior's Church in Lafayette, LA where a good friend of mine, Josh Bigwood works. We also got to sit behind another friend, Seth May, that I went to school with at Elim Bible Institute.
Craig Groeschel spoke about being a Practical Atheist from Isaiah 29:13-14. It was awesome. Here are some ways that Practical Atheism manifests:

• Believing that our effort is better than God's power
• Believing that our private life does not effect our ministry
• Believing that we must please people more than God

He spoke about trying to lead people to Christ, but not letting Christ lead HIM. His prayer for us was that God would disturb us...so I join in that and ask: God disturb me.

John Maxwell reminded us to intentionally add value to people every day.

Erwin McManus challenged us to change the future.

Wintley Phipps sang the most amazing rendition of Amazing Grace...you can hear him here.

And wrapping up the event, Andy Stanley spoke about Creating A Leadership-Friendly Culture (creating systems that encourage leadership).

Well, I have to go. We have a ONE24 fund-raising and awareness concert this Sunday night at 6:30 to prepare for. I'm speaking about the Father's Forgiving Love tomorrow night at the college ministry and Wednesday we will be beginning a mini-series called Faith Factor (out of the book of Proverbs).

Awesome Day at Catalyst

Today was awesome. We left for Catalyst around 6:20 and didn't get back 'till close to 10 p.m. It has definitely been the most intense conference experience I have ever had. An amazingly creative intro with opera, Japanese drummers, banjos, jugglers, orchestra, and rock bands that led to a day where we broke 3 world records (most soap bubbles blown, most frisbees simultaneously thrown, and most bubbles burst by flying frisbees, I'd say that one is a bit of a stretch for a record, not sure if it's real).
Andy Stanley opened up asking the question about what you do when you realize you're the most powerful/influential person in the room: humble yourself and serve those in the room. Leverage your power to help those you lead.
Rick Warren had a powerful message on laying down what is in your hand (Moses' staff) and how God brings those things to life when you let things go and when you try to hold on to it it stays dead...basically.
But overall the best message from today was Francis Chan. The Holy Spirit spoke so many things to my heart. He took Jeremiah's call in chapter 1 and looked at the call that God gave him: to say what God told him to say and to do what God told him to do...no matter what people think, say, or if they leave the church, or like it, etc. He shared some personal examples of radical ways that he and his church are choosing to be counter-cultural and more like Jesus. As far as I can tell this guy is a humble prophetic voice to the church that is calling us to be more like Jesus. And to do what He says ALL THE TIME (crazy concept, I know).
Awesome day. I should go to sleep, I have to be up in less than 5 hours.

Favor

So on Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. Justin Moline (who has been working with us on the ONE24 project in Wahpeton, ND for about 6 months now) and I headed for Minneapolis to catch a flight to Atlanta where we would be attending the Catalyst Conference. God gave us a great trip to the airport and all the way to Atlanta.
We knew that we would be riding public transportation from the south side of the city to a northeastern suburb. We weren't sure exactly how though. I was told by several locals that it was too difficult to ride it that far (45 minutes in your own car), so I checked a group cab and found out that would be at least $65. I sat down next to a lady and found out she was on her way to Catalyst with her son and they offered to give us a ride to our hotel for free! How cool is that!?!
Wednesday morning we got up and headed for the Catalyst Conference Labs, for which we had no tickets (or money to buy tickets) to see what might happen. Because of the public transportation and walking it took us over 2 hours to get there. By the time we got there the labs were already under way and we decided it was a good trip that helped us get to know the city, BUT we felt it was worth a shot to swing by the registration table to give God the opportunity to do something really cool. So as we're talking to one representative about the next day's event another one asked us if we had tickets for the Labs and then asked us if we would like some...to which we enthusiastically replied: SURE! Long story short we got $140 worth of ticket each because we showed up 20 minutes after a guy with extra tickets told them to give them to somebody who needed them! Isn't God cool? You never know what might happen if you pray and ask God and then give Him the opportunity to answer those prayers. Thank you God, we only missed one of the sessions and were very blessed by what we heard today (did I mention that the tickets we had for the actual conference were also given to us?). God provides ALL of our needs, not just some...the funny thing is that He uses creative means and not always what we think at the time.
Please pray for God to keep speaking to Justin and I while we are at Catalyst.