Music Like Magic

What does a few hours walking around the North Point Mall get you? It gets you the lamest musical experience I've had in years...maybe ever. I had the "privilege" to play the Beamz as the slogan on their poster lured me to "play the light." The Beamz music system is a series of laser lights that when passed over, "play music." It has to be the stupidest thing I have ever seen! If any of you feel drawn to the light just stop by your local Sharper Image and experience the power.

Holograndy

If you look closely, you will see Andy Stanley on the stage of North Point to giving his third message in the sermon series "Faith, Hope and Luck." Look closer. He's right there. He looks real and sounds real but is he real? He's actually being projected on a giant screen in life-size StanleyVision at the Buckhead campus of North Point. It was a pretty amazing display of very expensive technology. It was kind of like the Presidential show at Disneyland but not as lame...it actually wasn't lame at all. It was interesting to see people laugh, pray and even interact with their projected pastor. It was quite the virtual experience.

Drive 08 starts tomorrow night and I look forward to my mind being stretched in the next few days. I think an event like this does two things for you. I think God helps to define you by challenging you with things you can add to you ministry or developing philosophy. I also think events like this help to define you because God shows you things that you should omit from your ministry or philosophy. The tempting thing is to go to a church like North Point and think everything they do is something you should do because they are so successful. This does not seem like wisdom. I pray for God's wisdom in the hours ahead. I also pray God stretches me in inspiring ways and even uncomfortable/challenging ways as well.

Canvas Went Down to Georgia...

I am taking my first trip to The South this next week. Aaron and I are heading out this weekend and we have a pretty fun trip planned. We are going to start in Atlanta and go to the Drive Conference at Northpoint Church. Andy Stanley is one of my indirect mentors at the time and I look forward to seeing first had what God is doing down there. We also have the privilege of driving up to Nashville and spending the day with Natalie Grant and her husband Bernie Herms. Bernie is going to give us a day and show us around his studio and allow us to sponge off of his experience in the recording industry. It's going to be an awesome time. Heather and I went to Natalie's concert a few weeks ago and had the privilege to met her back stage before the show. It was my first time meeting Natalie but Aaron has been close family friends for years. She said to me back stage, "We look forward to having y'all out to the house." Now I don't know how a Seattle girl starts using vocabulary like that but I think it's one simple word - Nashville. I reckon I'll post our adventures down south for y'all to see. (Just in case you're wondering...Heather won the tickets and the backstage passes to the Natalie Grant concert...she rocks!)

Running Machine

I am so proud of my wife! She ran in her first long distance race this past weekend - The Tom Wales 5k run on Capitol Hill. She has been training with her buddies from high school as they prepare for a triathlon this summer. She ran a personal record on a pretty difficult course. I was very impressed. As awards were being given out, her name was picked in a raffle and she won a book. She wins everything! I'm waiting for her to win a trip to Hawaii. Until then, we will enjoy all the concerts, dinners and books we can handle. I am so proud of her and the dedication she has shown the past few months. She's an inspiration to me in all she does. She models what it means to worship God with the whole of your life and with the excellence that is pursued along the journey. She definitely gives God glory in all the facets of her life. It think it's time for God to reward her with a trip to Hawaii!

Blue Like Leadership

I went to a leadership conference yesterday in Everett. Author Donald Miller was the main speaker and I went with my long-time friend John O'Malley. John is a big Miller fan and it was great sharing the experience with him. It was interesting to hear Miller speak about leadership because he doesn't consider himself to be a leader. He sarcastically defined him as the second fiddle guy who would rather sit in the pew and criticize the way ministry is going. His talk consisted mostly of stories and relationships he had with people he considered to be leaders. It was a simple but profoundly powerful message. Here are the few notes I took during his session.

-It's tempting to not lead out of relationship
-Lead out of relationship...even friendship
-Lead a small group of people but influence many
-The point isn't the vision, it's including people in the vision
-Include people in your vision...even include them in your rewards
-Leaders don't point out the nothingness of culture...they speak something into the nothingness

If you have read any of Donald's books, this is right in line with his approach to life. He always seems to look past the corporate and marketed church and cuts to the core of how things are...or at least the way things should be. There seems to be a camp that says you can't have deep relationship as a leader. Keep a buffer, a cushion. Don't get too close or you can't lead. Maybe even worse, don't get too close because you might get hurt. Sometimes it's worth getting taken advantage of or even getting hurt to experience the authentic life. My mom used to say like this when she would give money to homeless people. She said that it's worth the risk of your generosity being used for something it wasn't intended for. She would always remind me as boy, "It's worth risking being taken advantage of sometimes." I think the church could operate a lot more like this. It seems living life as it was meant to be lived has a price. It would seem that leadership has that same price. As a leader sometimes it's worth taking the risks that come with relationship. Dear God, may I have the courage to lead that way.

Proud

For those of you who read my blog, I must admit to you that I am a proud man. I don't mean proud like I am of my beautiful son or proud like when I accomplish something that honors God or blesses others. Not even proud like when I started shaving for real because I had to, not because I wanted to feel like the Brawny guy on my mom's paper towels. No, I am the kind of proud man that the Bible speaks against or warns of. I realized this past week that I am just flat out proud. Pride is a root. A cancer. An oil spill of the soul. A welcomed sniper. A hound of winter and I became pride's prey this week.

If you actually read my blog or have checked in recently, you will notice that I deleted a post. It was actually the last post I wrote. I don't know if anything in that post was all that inappropriate or if it was wrong of me to write it. I do know, however, that I needed to delete it. I initially felt that my thoughts and feelings were justified and that I had a right to post them. That still may be the case but as days went on, God began to convict me about it. When I say convict, I mean he began to illuminate what was in darkness. At first I thought it was just the echoes of rules or traditions I grew up in. I thought maybe it's just good old responsibility knocking at my door but as I listened and looked closer, I realized it was God bringing my pride out into the light. As the light shone brighter, I knew I could either push it back into the darkness or deal with it.

Even though I put an end to this one area of pride in my life, there are so many dark corners of my heart. Proud. It's not a title but the reality of my nature. However, my job is not to fix the old self, but to let it die and continue to become the new creation Christ has created me to be. I encourage you to search the darkness that keeps you from accomplishing God's best. You see, I think you can still accomplish good while being proud, but I don't think you will ever accomplish the greatness God has for your life if you don't kill the gunman on the grassy knoll. If you look close enough, the spotlight shines brightly. Don't push it back into the darkness. Deal with it.

Spirit Filled

I think I am a part of a generation that is getting tired of mere experiential faith. What I mean by that is there are some that don't see the value in having experiences that have little to no impact on how the world functions. I think the baptism in the Holy Spirit has become this for many of us. It seems limited to a moment in time, an experience, an event. I am afraid if the spirit-filled life is only a moment at an altar we may lose the baptism altogether as generations that follow us see the lack of purpose and power. I am convinced that if the baptism of the Spirit isn't affecting a life outside of an event or moment then there isn't much evidence that the life is actually spirit-filled. What good is initial physical evidence if there isn't any other evidence to follow? "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." What a mighty percussion section we have become.

I am not suggesting that experience or moments in the presence of God are invalid or unnecessary. On the contrary, I myself have been forever changed by those moments. However, if we limit the working of the Spirit to a camp or tent meeting, then we have done a disservice to the Spirit's working. May we not forget the moments following the upper room. The world was changed because what followed the day of out-pouring. There was a mighty evidence that happened but that evidence was a means to an end. May we be consumed with the end not just the means!

Easter could never of happened without Christmas. Pentecost could never have happened without Easter. The Great Commission could never have happened without Pentecost. But the Great Commission couldn't have been carried out if men and women hadn't taken courage, lived empowered and missional lives. We are the ancestors of those men and women. May their flame continue in us. May we be inspired to pursue the Spirit and his in-filling so that we may lived empowered lives that change the world and make much of the name of Christ.