Last week I was visiting my friends at Newsong in Irvine, California. Dave Gibbons had invited me to speak with the community about some of the ideas in my book, With. This video is a few minutes from my message about the importance of how we see the world. Drawing from the story of Mother Teresa, I unpack why the challenges facing the church in the West are the result of neither resources nor motivation, but rather vision. And by “vision” I don’t mean the kind of organizational BHAGs that seem to occupy many ministry leaders’ thoughts these days. Instead I mean the ability to see with eyes of faith; the kind of sight granted to those minds the Holy Spirit has illuminated to see the world differently.…

Ingredient Five: Illuminating Worship

Now I’m venturing into dangerous water–worship. Opinions are strong about what kind of worship is best, right, and even permissible in the church. And we all have our cultural and personality-based preferences. But I can best describe my bent as illuminating. By that I don’t mean theatrical lighting and lasers. I mean worship that illuminates a vision of who God is and the reality of his presence with us.

Ideally worship at Church³⁶⁵ would not be where people come to be “filled up” for the next six days, but where we gather to see the cosmos as it really is–a God-with-us world in which Christ is reigning. Everything would be positioned to help us see this reality and diminish the false visions we’ve ingested…

 I. You  shall not make for yourself an idol out of Scripture. 

This is a particular temptation among evangelicals who hold a very high view of Scripture. We forget that our highest calling is not to have a relationship with the Bible but with Jesus Christ of whom the Bible testifies. (John 5:39)

II. You shall honor the Scriptures as sufficient.

We have a common temptation to get “behind the text” or discover what “really happened.” While archeology and other disciplines are incredibly important, we must not forget that what God has given in the Scriptures is enough for life and faith.

III. You shall remember the metanarrative and keep it wholly.

In my experience more Christians can recap the meta-narrative of the Star Wars saga…

Last Sunday I spoke at Mars Hill Church in Grandville, Michigan. Listen to the full sermon “With”.

Below I’ve also included a number of quotes cited in the message:

The older brother: “All these years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command. Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.” -Luke 15:29

The father: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” -Luke 15:31

“There truly is no division between sacred and secular except what we have created.  And that is why the division of the legitimate roles and functions of human life into the sacred and secular does incalculable damage to our individual lives and the cause of…

The Wizard of Oz was a mighty and powerful being to be feared and respected…until the curtain was drawn back and the Wizard turned out to be a mechanical façade created by a little man pushing buttons and pulling levers. The classic story came to mind this week as I heard two separate stories of megachurch pastors literally outsourcing their Bible study and exegetical sermon preparation work.Apparently the trend is not as uncommon as one might think, although I’m sure not every large church pastor utilizes the services of outsiders. The program works like this-a megachurch pastor has limited time and many obligation. He simply cannot pour hours of labor into studying the Bible, exegeting the texts, reading…

 Earlier this year I wrote a few posts about how the economic crisis/recession might impact our understanding of the church and mission. In those posts I differentiate peoples’ “core time” from their “leisure time.” Most churches target a person’s leisure time when seeking to advance God’s mission. In other words, churches desire to see more people sacrifice more of their flexible time to participate in groups, activities, ministries, and programs that they believe align with what God wants done in the world.

There are multiple problems with this model, but chief among them is that it leaves a person’s “core time” (often 80% or more of their week) untouched. In other words, people come to believe that most of their life and time simply does not matter…

Christians will often say, “We’re all sinners.” But the way we operate often communicates something else. Within church communities there is a tendency to see those with obvious addictions or vices as among the “seriously sinful.” Others may see themselves as “merely theologically sinful.” For them sin is a doctrinal concept rather than a daily battle for survival.

In Luke 7 a “seriously sinful” prostitute encounters Jesus at the home of Simon, a “merely thologically sinful” Pharisee. The scene forces us to acknowledge the way we categorize people to elevate ourselves, and the dangers of remaining blind to our own evil. Do you really believe “we are all sinners”? Let’s find out.

Listen now. No Perfect People Allowed

Amazing.

How else can you describe what happened last night when Barack Obama became the first African American elected President of the United States? The internet is saturated with essays documenting the magnitude of this event, but it’s the images of people cheering, crying, and celebrating throughout the world that really capture the emotion of it all.

Amid the reflection there have been numerous references to Martin Luther King Jr.’s pioneering civil rights movement and his “dream.” One commentator on the news last night said the day King delivered his famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial he could not have known that a two year old boy in Hawaii would become the fulfillment of his prophecy.

I’ve been fascinated by Martin Luther King since seminary–not just as a…

Time magazine has a really interesting article about religion on YouTube. No one should be surprised to learn that Christians, Jews, Muslims, and every other brand of religion is flooding YouTube to educate the ignoranent masses about their doctrines. Time includes many examples of videos to watch. I particularly recommend the Christian version of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” called “Baby Got Book.” (Somebody get me a bucket.)I’m working on an article right now for Christianity Today, and the subject of YouTube preaching is directly related. I’m trying to discuss the impact of mass communication technology on preaching, and what the relationship is between a sermon and the community from which it arises and to which it is addressed. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill famously said, “All politics…

Fifteen hundred years ago, the emperor of Rome built a tomb for his beloved sister. The small building was designed in the shape of a cross with a vaulted ceiling covered with mosaics of swirling stars in an indigo sky. The focal point of the mosaic ceiling was a depiction of Jesus as a shepherd surrounded by sheep in a green paradise.

The mausoleum of Galla Placidia still stands in Ravenna, Italy, and has been called by scholars “the earliest and best preserved of all mosaic monuments” and one of the “most artistically perfect.”

But visitors who have admired the mosaic in travel books and on postcards will be disappointed when they enter the mausoleum. The structure has only tiny windows, and what light does enter is usually…