What is happening in your story?

I have been reading “Million miles in a Thousand years” by Donald Miller and it got me thinking? In his book he tells the story how one of his earlier books was made into a movie. The book was about his life. When they started the movie script he was confronted with the question: “How many memorable stories did he have?” The type of story that people would sit and watch. If they have to make a movie about my or your life would it be a slow moving movie or would their be scenes where people would actually want to sit and watch. One of the perquisites is that it must be something worthwhile, funny, adventures or painful. A really good story has something of everything.

I have realised that really good stories seldom just happen, you have to dream, you have to go out there and make them happen. If you settle for an ordinary life you will be rewarded with a boring life. If you go for daring you would be ALIFE. What is the things holding us back? Spending to much time doing nothing, having no goals,  only taking on things that we know are in our reach. If I look back at my life it is filled with wonderful adventures. I did my special forces training, did my doctoral, lived and worked on the streets for 2 and a half years.  Got married and went through a painful divorce. Got married again and have a wonderful family. I am blessed in the ministry that I really enjoy. Got my provincial colours in rugby and pool. Did a epic tour through Africa with my three sons in the beginning of the year. Drove 3600km on bikes through South Africa. There are many things I did – what am I doing?

I dream about going to see the polar bears in the wild, about going into Africa with my camera and my family. Teaching pastors in Angola. But to live this extraordinary life I have to make some changes to what people see as normal. I have to get of my bud! Loose some weight, get fit and prioritise! This week I am going to sit with my family and dream about worthwhile stories. What is your dreams and what are you going to do about it.

For inspiration read the book by Donald Miller but choose your story otherwise you will end up wasting a good story.

Laat God jou verander . . . wil jy?

Onthou jy nog die animasie kleikaraktertjie, Morph, wat so uit die potloodhouer geklim het? Ek het my altyd verwonder aan die kleimannetjie wat deur “sy skepper”, Tony Hart, deur verskillende vorme aan ons bekendgestel is. Ek kon myself verwonder aan aan wat Tony Hart met die bolletjie klei kon regkry.

So staan ek ook in verwondering oor God – Hoe Hy mense verander. Dit bly vir my een van die grooste wonders om te sien hoe God mense nuut maak. God lap niks. God maak nie heel nie. God maak nuut! Die opstellers van die Dordtse Leerreëls, een van ons belydenisskrifte, se verwondering oor God se werk in mense hoor jy duidelik in hul formuleringe: “Hy dring . . . in tot die binneste dele van die mens met die kragtige werking van die wederbarende Gees; Hy open die hart wat gesluit is; Hy vermurwe wat hard is; Hy maak dat die wil wat dood was, lewe; wat boos was, goed word; wat nie wou nie, nou inderdaad wil; wat weerspannig was, gehoorsaam word”. Paulus verwoord dit so mooi in 2 Kor 5:17 - Elkeen wat aan Christus behoort, is ’n splinternuwe mens; ’n nuwe skepping in die kleine.

Op Sondag, 18 Julie, begin ons met ‘n nuwe reeks tydens al die eredienste: Laat God jou verander . . . wil jy? Ons gaan met die reeks die Bybelboek, Romeine, as ons basisteks gebruik. Die brief aan die mense in Rome laat ‘n mens in verwondering staan oor God wat mense verander, soveel so, dat mense op grond van Sy groot ontferming, hulself kom gee as lewende en heilige offers vir die Here Rom 12:1. God se hand wat na my uitgesteek word, doen iets aan my – ek wil diensbaar raak vir God. Anders gestel: Die genade van God is wel onverdiend, maar dit is nie gratis nie: Die oproep van Christus: Volg MY, eis gehoorsaamheid! Om maar net vergiffenis van sonde sondermeer te verkondig, is om God se gade goedkoop te maak. Nee God se genade maak ons nuut: Dit laat ons anders leef: dit beïnvloed ons denke; dit laat ons diensbaar wees in God se koninkryk met die gawes wa Hy aan elkeen van ons gegee het; dit laat ons met ander oë na mekaar en ander mense kyk; dit laat my word wat God sê dat ek is!

Die teks en temas vir dié tyd is:
18 Jul - ‘n Kragtige verandering - Rom 1:1-17
25 Jul - Waarom verander? - Rom 3:21-31
1 Aug - Vrug van verandering - Rom 5:1-11

8 Aug - Dood vir die sonde, maar lewend vir God - Rom 6:1-14
15 Aug - Mense met sonde - Rom 7:1-25
22 Aug - ‘n Ander lewe deur die Gees - Rom 8:1-7
29 Aug - Niks kan my skei van die liefde van Christus - Rom 8:31-39
5 Sept - Verander vir ander - Rom 10:5-17

12 Sept - Laat God julle verander - Rom 12:1-8)
19 Sept - God se liefde verander ons menswees - Rom 12:9-21
26 Sept - Maak die sirkel groter - Rom 14:1-23
3 Okt - Die evangelie is vir alle mense - Rom 15:1-13

Terwyl ons met die reeks oor verandering besig is, gaan die kerkgebou ook deur ‘n veranderingsproses sodat ons kinders beter bedien kan word; ons voor en na eredienste lekker kan saamkuier; en ‘n meer geskikte plek vir ons meditaiewe eredienste, klein begrafnisse en huweliksbevestigings kan hê.

Laat God ons verander . . . wil jy? Ek wil graag deur God verander word!

Jesus Manifesto: Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola

First published on http://paul-barnard.blogspot.com/2010/06/jesus-manifesto-leonard-sweet-frank.html

This is one of the best books I have read in my life. Not because of all the new insights but because of the central truth. This is much more than a book but an outpouring of love for Jesus.
The truth is, I agree with perhaps 90% of the book–especially the central thrust–that Jesus Christ is a living and active presence here and now–and that we, by extension, are called to manifest Jesus' presence into the world. This idea might seem like a "no duh" to many Christians. However, as the authors point out, "the reality and experience of an indwelling Lord has been almost lost to the Christian faith."
Jesus Manifesto serves as a helpful reminder that Jesus isn't some long-dead sage who showed us a new way to live. Nor is he a theologically abstract principle or idea. One needn't look too long to see that most of Christianity assumes a sort of deadness to Christianity–that it is a religion of principles laid out by someone who is no longer present. This has certainly been my own experience of Christianity, for the most part.
Rather, Jesus dwells in us and, therefore, the important question isn't "What would Jesus do?" but "What is Christ doing through me…through us? And how is He doing it?"

There are huge implications to such a shift in our thinking. If being the embodiment to Christ to the world is much more than simply living out good principles, then all bets are off. Our faith becomes a terrifyingly beautiful journey with Christ in the world.
Since Christ's abiding presence in his Church is central to our life together, Frank and Len set out to challenge those things that set themselves as the engine for our faith…like conservative morality, church growth, miracles, movement-building, social justice, evangelism, leadership principles, prosperity, spiritual warfare, systematic theology, etc.

Christians have made the gospel about so many things—things other than Christ. Religious concepts, ideas, doctrines, strategies, methods, techniques, programs, and formulas have all eclipsed the beauty, the glory, and the reality of the Lord Jesus Himself. On the whole, the Christian family today is starved for a real experience of the living Christ. We know a lot about our Lord, but we don't know Him very well. We know a lot about trying to be like Jesus, but very little about living by His indwelling life. "Jesus Manifesto" presents a fresh unveiling of Jesus as not only Savior and Lord, but as so much more. It is a prophetic call to restore the supremacy and sovereignty of Christ in a world—and a church—that has lost sight of Him. Read this book and see your Lord like you've never seen Him before.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
LEONARD SWEET occupies the Chair of Evangelism at Drew University in NJ and weekly contributes to sermons.com and a podcast, "Napkin Scribbles." He is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Fox University and has authored numerous articles, sermons, and forty books.
Len's Website: www.LeonardSweet.com
Len's Twitter: http://twitter.com/lensweet
FRANK VIOLA is a best-selling author, international conference speaker, and church planter. His books include Reimagining Church,The Untold Story of the New Testament Church,Pagan Christianity (with George Barna), Finding Organic Church, and the best-selling From Eternity to Here.
Frank's Website: www.FrankViola.com
Frank's Blog: www.frankviola.wordpress.com

Church without an Edge!

By Paul Barnard as first published on http://paul-barnard.blogspot.com/2010/06/church-without-edge.html

Last night I couldn’t sleep. I sat up past the early morning hours I usually hit the sack. In my time with God I was extremely aware of the fact that we have become a ‘safe’ church. Safe not in a good sense, but in the sense that we are working on our structures every possible moment. We want to make sure we have everything under control! 
Al we talk about is structures, busy defining ourselves en redefining. The question is not what would Jesus do, rather the question is: What is Jesus doing? How much time would Jesus spend building Church structures, making sure everything is documented, clinical correct.

When I look around me I see Jesus reaching out with love to those who do not deserve it. The program driven church of the West evaluate success by the number of people involved in their programs or the overall experience of people in the congregation. We have highly successful churches according to ourselves, but alas there are so few people coming in from the outside making a decision to follow Christ. We look to leaders who are modelling Christ to us. A Christ sitting in meetings and programs, teaching the same people different fads over years and yet each time, proclaiming how wonderful it is.
For us to be Church with a Edge we need to be outside in the world and to model a Christ living grace and mercy. If we want to train people in the congregations to follow Christ we have to be living examples in the community we live in. This is not a program but a living example of a life of love. This can only be done if we are willing to bow our knees before the living God and realise that it is not our Church, but the body of the living God. We made the Church a wonderful organisation, neat, tidy and a place where we are always in control. With all our rules and dogma we are making it difficult for those on the inside and the truth is that those on the outside doesn’t even stand a chance. We could never be in control of the body of Christ, Christ alone is in control.
If we look at the early church we see a dynamic community, who prayed together, read the word of God together, ate together and then made a difference where they went. We want to make Church(congregation) much more than it need to be. We are so busy keeping people so occupied with al the ‘Church’ work, meetings and programs that the real Church does not have time to make a difference there where Jesus is at work in the world.
Church with an Edge is a Church who realise that they are nothing if they are not with Christ Jesus the Lord.
What would happen if all the leaders we have in the church commit themselves to be in the world every day making a small difference where there is a opportunity while proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ? We would see people coming to the Lord, needs being med and people in congregation inspired to go out and do the same. Who would miss all the meetings and programs when the world comes to Christ? We must lead people to Christ and give them a loving community where they are loved rather than a lot of programs, courses and dogma.
To be Church with an Edge I believe that we must realise that the power base we claim for ourselves are false. That the importance of our plans and programs are a illusion and that we must start to by a basic community of Christ again.
Lots of Love, few rules and Adoring Christ.

The more you judge the less you love.

By Paul Barnard as first published on http://paul-barnard.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-you-judge-less-you-love.html

In the church today we talk far to much about what is right and what is wrong and not nearly enough about love, grace and mercy. We must be careful of what we say about others, especially is we take the moral high ground. Christianity does not allow moral high ground it urges us to confess our sins! Don’t live the lie. When we hide our sins we tend to point to other people’s weak points and declare Sinners.
In Galatians 6 we read:

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. ² Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³ If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, ⁵ for each one should carry his own load. ⁶ Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor. ⁷ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸ The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

We are only there to help restore the fallen brother and then gently! The major part of the teaching urges us to look at our own lives. To test our own actions WITHOUT comparing it to others. Is does not depend on how others treat me. My actions are born out of my relationship with Jesus Christ and is not a mere reaction.
When I live a life where I am pointing fingers to others even if they were pointing fingers to me first then I am missing the point. I can not judge other people I can only look at my own life. To live a life where you judge others while you are taking the moral high ground is to mock Christ Jesus according to this scripture.  When we live the lie we try to smear the character of those who point to our sins. We try to get people on our side by telling stories behind their backs.
We need confess our sins, we need to confess our weakness and we need to embrace the other sinners. We need to bring grace to those who judge us and mercy to those who confess their sins. But most of all we need to rejoice in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

What it means to have a mother.

Someone responded to this cartoon “And his Mother would probably do it” But actually the right answer is much more likely to be: “And his Mother would do it happily and she would look forward to each trip”.

In a sense Mothers are NUTS. They are willing to give all they have to see their children happy. They are willing to sacrifice themselves, go the extra mile, maybe twenty if necessary?

I wonder if it would not have been easier if God introduced Himself as the Heavenly Mother. Would it not be much easier to understand the grace and love of God if it was associated with a Mother? I know that when we talk about the gender of God that God made Man and Woman in His images. That our understanding of God is sometimes flawed because we see God predominantly as male, God is so much more!

The second thing that struck me in this cartoon was how Calvin assumed the role of his mother was to make life easier for him. Do all his dirty work and be contended with this. Where in your life would you find somebody NUTS enough to be willing to make these sacrifices for self righteous and unthankful people? I can only think of Mothers and God.

Thank God for Mothers.

How Facebook Killed the Church

Thanks to Guillaume Smit en Leonard Sweet for bringing this article to my attension.

Guillaume wrote the following on his blog(THEOLOGY, MISSION & MINISTRY: HOW FACEBOOK KILLED THE CHURCH):

I found this article thanks to a tweet from Leonard Sweet with the link. It is written by Richard Beck, Associate Professor and experimental psychologist at Abilene Christian University.He blogs at Experimental Theology. You can read the original post HERE.

There has been a great deal of hand wringing in the Christian community about the onset of Web 2.0 relationality (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, blogs, MMOGs). The concern you often hear is that "virtual" relationships are no replacement for "authentic" relationships.
No doubt this is true. But I've done some research in this area and here's my general conclusion: Facebook friends tend to be our actual friends.
No doubt, the vast majority of the people in a friend list on Facebook are strangers, acquaintances, or old school friends you haven't seen in years. But no user of Facebook is confused enough to think that she is "in relationship" with any of these people. These are just the penumbra around the core of our Facebook interactions, connecting with people we actually know and are friends with.

In short, Facebook isn't replacing real world relationality. Rather, Facebook tends to reflect our social world. For example, in a soon to be published study some ACU colleagues and I used Facebook to predict student retention at our school (i.e., which freshmen return for their sophomore year). We found that on-campus Facebook activity was significantly correlated with measures of "real world" relationality. Further, on-campus Facebook activity also predicted who would come back for their sophomore year. For example, if you had a lot of Facebook Wall Posts you felt more socially connected and were more likely to come back to ACU for a second year. Which makes sense. Who would be posting on your Wall day to day? Sure, old friends might give you a shout out from time to time on your Wall. But for the most part Wall posts come from people who you'll actually see today. Or at least this week, month or year. The point is, you know these people. Talking with them via Facebook is authentic relationality. It's staying in touch, coordinating plans, offering up encouragement, saying a prayer, working out misunderstandings, and sharing a moment.

Over at my friend Mike's blog there was a recent discussionabout why Millennials (also known as Generation Y) are leaving the church. His question was, why are they leaving? Most of the answers took aim at the church. Churches are too shallow, hypocritical, judgmental, or political. Many surveys have shown these attitudes to be widespread among Millennials. Consider the Barna research summarized in the book unChristian. Young Christians and non-Christians tend to feel that the church is "unChristian." Too antihomosexual. Too hypocritical. Too political. Too judgmental. That's how young people see "the church." And it's hard to blame them.
But my argument at Mike's blog was that the church has always been this way. Is the church of 2010 much different from the church of the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, or '90s? I don't think so. So, yes, the church is screwed up. Always has been. The church has been a depressing constant over the generations. So the change isn't with the church. The change is with the Millennials. If so, in what way and how has this change related to the church?
The most obvious change is in mobile and Web 2.0 connectivity. Generation X didn't have cell phones. Nor did they have Facebook or text messaging. And you can't tell me that Millennials see the church any differently than Generation X saw it. Look to the right at cell phone subscriptions plotted by decade. Most have Generation X as birth dates between 1961 to 1981. Which has Gen X as college students in the years 1979 to 1999. As you can see, most Gen X'ers didn't have cellphones. And based on the sociological evidence Gen X was much more cynical and anti-establishment when compared to the Millennials. So you can't tell me Gen X'ers didn't see the church as judgmental, hypocritical, or sold-out. They did.
So what happened? Why didn't Gen X leave the church while the Millennials are leaving in droves?
The difference between Generations X and Y isn't in their views of the church. It's about those cellphones. It's about relationships and connectivity. Most Gen X'ers didn't have cell phones, text messaging or Facebook. These things were creeping in during their college years but the explosive onset of mobile devices and social computing had yet to truly take off.
So why has mobile social computing affected church attendance? Well, if church has always been kind of lame and irritating why did people go in the first place? Easy, social relationships. Church has always been about social affiliation. You met your friends, discussed your week, talked football, shared information about good schools, talked local politics, got the scoop, and made social plans ("Let's get together for dinner this week!"). Even if you hated church you could feel lonely without it. Particularly with the loss of "third places" in America.
But Millennials are in a different social situation. They don't need physical locations for social affiliation. They can make dinner plans via text, cell phone call or Facebook. In short, the thing that kept young people going to church, despite their irritations, has been effectively replaced. You don't need to go to church to stay connected or in touch. You have an iPhone.
Sure, Millennials will report that the "reason" they are leaving the church is due to its perceived hypocrisy or shallowness. My argument is that while this might be the proximate cause the more distal cause is social computing. Already connected Millennials have the luxury to kick the church to the curb. This is the position of strength that other generations did not have. We fussed about the church but, at the end of the day, you went to stay connected. For us, church was Facebook!
The pushback here will be that all this Millennial social computing, all this Facebooking, isn't real, authentic relationship. I'd disagree with that assessment. It goes to the point I made earlier: Most of our Facebook interactions are with people we know, love, and are in daily contact with. Facebook isn't replacing "real" relationships with "virtual" relationships. It's simply connecting us to our real friends. And if you can do this without getting up early on Sunday morning why go to church? Particularly if the church is hypocritical and shallow? Why mess with it?
Why are Millennials leaving the church? It's simple. Mobile social computing has replaced the main draw of the traditional church: Social connection and affiliation.
Basically, Facebook killed the church. May it Rest in Peace.