A Book You Have to Read...

One of the best parts of being in ministry as you age is seeing what your former students turned adults do as God grabs a hold of their hearts and unleashes their passions and skills in our world...this book is written by a former student of mine who is also one of my best friends...and God is using him thru written and spoken words in ways that make me more than proud and more than blessed...and his ministry is really just beginning in many ways even though he's been used mightily...grab a copy this spring and you won't regret the read...I can't wait to have him share his story and THE STORY with my students at Cornerstone next month...check out my personal review of the book below...

mY Generation: A Real Journey of Change and Hope
by Josh Riebock


I have spent the last 20 years working with students and spend my time each day with this generation of college and post-college students...there have many many how-to books written about how to do ministry with this complex and compelling generation...and many of them were written from an outsiders perspective...Josh has written something completely different...he offers an insiders perspective and uses the tool of story to help all of us to understand the passions, questions, and power of this unique generation...his use of story offers a window to the soul of a group of people who we must seek to unleash for good in our world...read it and be inspired and overwhelmed and more ready to engage the GEN Y group...I've watched Josh personally live out this journey and his openness is refreshing and effective in being a model for connecting with this community...I'm grateful for all of us who work with this generation that this book is out there!

LION-CHASER MANIFESTO by Mark Batterson

I spoke at our CU chapel this morning on the topic:

KOPION--Living with a Grand Passion...

I closed with a calling to our community to discover and pursue that which grabs their heart and keeps them up at night as they consider what God might want them to invest all they have in its pursuit...and these words from Mark Batterson were the prayer I sent them out with today...

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. Chase the lion!

Reading Set #2 to Dig Deeper in Series on Poverty and Justice

Here's another reading following the second talk in this 3 week series...really enjoying the conversations and discussions and learnign taking place in this group of young adults...love thinking about how they will lead the church in this Kingdom response to the needs of our world and its people...

Topic for this week is:

Recognizing Where Injustice and Inequality in God’s Kingdom Equation Reign in our World Today: Taking a Look and Having a Conversation about the Places, Faces and Issues Around the Globe and in our own City we have to know about today…


READING FOR WEEK 2: Picture Justice: Embracing a Global Neighborhood by Bethany Hoang, Director of the IJM Institute at International Justice Mission...

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B2fjQcNaJgcdMjQzYzIzMmMtZWNhOS00ZmQ1LTg0MmYtNTczYzY4MWY1ZTU4&hl=en

Reading Set #1 to Dig Deeper in Series on Poverty and Justice

I'm really excited to spend 3 weeks teaching and learning and engaging the issues of poverty and justice with the college and career crew at ADA BIBLE CHURCH...here's the topic for week 1:

A Look into the Scriptures: How God Feels about Poverty and Justice, and His heart those who are suffering...and His belief in those who can bring healing


Each week, I'll be linking a few documents for folks who want to read some good stuff that dives deeper into the topic for the week...

READING #1: God's Special Concern for the Poor by Ron Sider
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B2fjQcNaJgcdZjBiMjU0NDctMTNlYS00MjdhLWFlOTMtYjRkMTVmZTJkMzUy&hl=en

READING #2: Reading the Scriptures with New Eyes by Chip Huber
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AWfjQcNaJgcdZDNobWQ4Ml8xZ3I2emNwZ3A&hl=en

Would love to dialogue about these readings or the material presented at Union on Tuesday nights...may we grow in our biblical concern for the people and things that break the heart of God in our world today...

LENT and Our Sponsored Kids

I never grew up celebrating or even really knowing about Lent...well, I guess when we lived in Milwaukee you couldn't miss the fish frys that emerged on every restaurant sign in late Winter on Fridays...

However, in the last several years after attending my first Ash Wednesday service at my church and even writing a piece last year for a World Vision student-focused lent curriculum it has become something I think about just like I start thinking about Spring...

I love the notion of seeking to identify with Jesus and the road He traveled leading to the cross and ultimately our celebration of the Resurrection...and as God has broken and rebuilt my heart through my identification and involvement with my friends in Zambia over the last eight years Lent has become something more spiritual and something I feel compelled to try and participate in a tangible way...

I'm going to be re-reading Rich Stearns' fantastic book The Hole in the Gospel during Lent as part of the ACTS group I help lead at Cornerstone with some students concerned deeply about issues of poverty and justice in our world...I long for the Gospel in all its fullness and richness to penetrate my mind, heart, and soul...

And as an activity of remembrance of those who have been thru suffering as Jesus did as the Least I decided to try and not eat anything after dinner for the next 40 days...now that isn't really that big a deal, I know...but for a late night sports junkie (especially in this blasted Eastern time zone!) it will be a bit of a struggle to not nibble on something from the cupboard...

But I felt led to do this because those desserts and snacks represent extra...and as I almost daily think about and pray for Monica and Peter and Gracious and Andrew, our sponsored kids in the village I've traveled to several different years, I know that their meals and their lives don't include extras...extras often consume my life, my family's life, and my culture's lives...and the support we send them monthly may sometimes just provide the basics that are often missing...and as I contemplate sneaking over to grab a snack after 10 pm over the next several weeks, I'm planning to stop and pray for these amazing kids I've gotten to meet and fallen in love with on the other side of the world...praying that they will have breakfast as the sun rises in Zambia on that day and that God will pour out His love and provision in their lives well beyond Easter 2010...

May God give me the strength to enter into their world without extras just in the smallest of ways as I learn to be content and healthy and disciplined and changed in these days leading to Holy Week...

With Hopes Lent Will Be Meaningful for Many of You...

Where is God in Haiti? by Rich Stearns

A piece from the president of World Vision USA who is wrestling with the question many are asking inside and outside the church...

Since the devastating earthquake in Haiti, who of us has not asked the question, “Where was God?” The sudden deaths of so many innocent people and the staggering human suffering that persists seem to mock the very notion of a loving God. Where is God in Haiti?

There was another time that God was mocked in the face of suffering and evil. It happened on Calvary as Jesus Christ, God’s own son, was spat upon, beaten, and hanged on a cross. And people asked, where was God then? If he was God, why didn’t he save himself?

God had another way. On that cross, Jesus faced all the evil that ever was or ever would be. He took upon himself the sins of mankind, the evils of injustice, the pain of suffering and loss, the brokenness of the world. He felt every pain and took every punishment for every person who would ever live.

Where is God in Haiti? Christ is not distant from us in our times of suffering. He lies crushed under the weight of concrete walls. He lies wounded in the street with his legs broken. He walks homeless and hungry through the camps. He weeps uncontrollably over the child he has lost.

Where is God in Haiti? He hangs bloody on the cross: “A man of sorrows, and familiar with our suffering” (Isaiah 53:3).

“But where is hope?” we might ask. Here, alas, we need to see something not easily seen from human perspective. We, not God, are trapped in time. We, not God, see only in part and cannot yet see the whole. We, not God, must wait for that day when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

What then must we do? Unlike God, we live in the time between the already and not yet, and we must wait until then. Until then, we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. Until then, we are called to comfort the afflicted; give food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Until then, we are to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and grieve with the grieving. Until then, we are to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the stranger.

We are to let our light so shine before others that they might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven. Until then, as the apostle Paul wrote, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors … as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Until then, we must show forth God’s deep love for Haiti.

The Battle Lines Over Justice by Skye Jethani

Is justice an imperative or an implication of the gospel, and why are people getting so stirred up about the answer?

As I write this, Christian relief agencies, denominations, churches, and parachurch ministries around the world are mobilizing to aid the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. But the call to alleviate suffering and rescue the oppressed is not only being answered in the wake of catastrophes. Over the last decade there has been a significant awakening to social justice issues among evangelicals. From Rick Warren’s PEACE plan to the efforts of Christian bands like Jars of Clay and Hillsong United, issues of justice and compassion have moved from a sideshow among evangelicals to the center stage.

Research conducted by LifeWay last year found that “Younger evangelical pastors are less likely to self-identify as conservative than older generations and more apt to view social justice as a gospel imperative.” Commenting on the findings, Ed Stetzer said, "I think ultimately that we are at a season right now where the issues of social justice are growing and a desire to integrate compassion and commission are clearly evident among younger evangelicals and evangelicals as a whole.”

Some are celebrating this movement as long overdue; the healing of an unfortunate rift in the church that occurred nearly a century ago by pitting social concern and justice against the preaching of repentance and salvation. The impact of the Modernist-Fundamentalist controversy shaped the direction of the American church for most of the 20th century by creating an “either/or” scenario. Either a church cared about social justice or it focused on saving souls.

The fact that orthodox, conservative, Bible-believing evangelicals are now showing great interest in matters of justice and compassion may indicate the aftershocks of that rift 100 years ago may finally be over. Or are they?

Earlier this week J. Mack Stiles, a 30-year veteran staff worker with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, wrote an impassioned article explaining his belief that IV is slipping into the errors of liberal theology. Central to his argument is the recent elevation of justice within IV’s ministry—an elevation that parallels what’s been happening among younger evangelicals in general.

Stiles’ objection is not that IV, or many other evangelicals by extension, should not engage in social justice, but that they are elevating justice too high. “As important as social action is,” he writes, “we still must not confuse the gospel with an implication of gospel living. If we do, the gospel message is lost in a sea of confusion.”

Stiles articulates the critical question: Is the pursuit of justice a gospel imperative or a gospel implication? Those, like Stiles, who view justice as an implication are concerned that elevating it will take attention, resources, and urgency away from what they see as the gospel’s core—the salvation of souls. In addition, the new excitement around justice could be a slippery slope toward the social gospel that neglects salvation altogether.

On the other side are those who believe we evangelicals have been defining the gospel too narrowly for too long. Richard Stearns, president of World Vision and the author of The Hole in Our Gospel, says:

“Proclaiming the whole gospel, then, means much more than evangelism in the hopes that people will hear and respond to the good news of salvation by faith in Christ. It also encompasses tangible compassion for the sick and the poor as well as biblical justice, efforts to right the wrongs that are so prevalent in our world…The whole gospel is truly good news for the poor, and it is the foundation for a social revolution that has the power to change the world.”

There are many voices on both sides of this debate, and the rhetoric seems to be increasing in volume. One side is vowing to guard the gospel against neo-liberalism; the other side is hoping to restore the gospel to its fullest expression by reconciling proclamation and demonstration.

Is the stage being set for another church rift in the 21st century paralleling what happen 100 years ago? Like InterVarsity, are you feeling the tremors in your church of a conflict over the scope of the gospel and the proper role of social justice? And where are you turning for informed theological reflection on this subject? How we address this controversy, and not simply which side we land on, may impact the evangelical world for decades.