Book Update… no seriously, a book update

Okay, A couple of people have been asking, so here goes. I am writing the book. It’s coming okay. There’s other things going on, so it’s coming.

Please remember, the point of this deal is for me to right the book, not to publish a book. If I can actually write and finish the bloody thing I’ll be shocked and amazed and will be able to say my children I wrote a book. That’s the main thing I’m going for. Also, it’s sort of an obedience thing.

I’m not going to tell you what it’s about because, well… I guess I just don’t want to, and really the main reason I’m mentioning it publicly at all is because I need the accountability of having on record that I said I’d get this thing done.

I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my…

Heart?

A couple of blocks from our house is a very cool little grocery store, the Italian Centre (make sure you check out their web page) We go there fairly often because it’s close and it’s possibly the coolest grocery store on the planet (they sell Proraso for you straight razor afficionados) and they give my daughter Zoe a lollipop whenever she asks politely.

Zoe loves the Italian Centre for this. Whenever it’s mentioned she begins, every ten seconds, to declare “I can have a lollipop”

“Yes, and we need a loaf of bread, a quart of milk, and a stick of bu…”

“… and I can have a LOLLIPOP”

You get the picture. Anyway, when we get to the store Zoe rushes us through everything so that she can can politely ask for a lollipop and when the magic moment comes and the cashier reaches for the bucket Zoe literally begins to vibrate. The actual lollipop never lasts that long because she crunches them like her mom, which I think is incredibly weird, but what really amazes me is that her excitement and pleasure over this lollipop never wanes. We’re at this place a lot, they know Zoe by name, but she is still as happy with that lollipop as the first one she had. She doesn’t feel entitled to have it. She’s not bored with it. And what’s more, her pleasure is contagious, because we love going to the Italian Centre just to see her get this silly lollipop.

I wonder if that is part of joy; the capacity to receive the same gift over and over without boredom or entitlement robbing us of it’s pleasure. I make love to my wife, play with my kids, preach God’s word to his people, drink cold fresh tap water, fill my lungs with air; each of these an incredible gift that I am capable of ignoring or taking for granted

The Bible, which I tend to think is important, says that joy is part of the Fruit of the Spirit. It’s in Galatians 5 and basically the gist is this: If we’re living by the Spirit the inevitable outcome is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Which begs the question: if I don’t have these, if I’m not growing these in myself and those around me am I living by the Spirit? I should be growing in my awareness of and pleasure in all the things God is giving me, right? I’m not always great at this.

But I’m better than I was four hundred and thirty-one words ago.

There are more important things about who you are than how you feel about penises or What I wish I had said to the girl on pride day

I said that in a sermon not to long ago. Yet another reason why I like church planting. I can say the word penis with fear of reprisal.

On Pride Day this year Bridgepointe Church went down to Churchill Square to hand out bottles of water. Now, while I realize the silliness of bottled water and myself am a fan of tap water, bottled water is way more convienient to hand out to revelers on a hot summer day.

Earth Water, an Edmonton company, gives 100% of their profits to the UN for water projects so If you have to drink bottled water go to them. Anyway, we went down to the Pride celebration to hand out bottles of water. We attached to the bottles a card that had our website and a video I did. There were a lot of reasons why we did this, but mostly the driving impetus was that we wanted to be obedient.

There is a huge gulf between the homosexual community and the church for reasons that have been talked about ad nauseum by people more intelligent than me and that gulf isn’t getting smaller. we felt God telling us to so something about this. The best thing we could come up with was to give water to hot and thirsty people. I don’t know if thats the best way to bridge that gulf but it’s a start. We can paralyze ourselves by making sure that we get a message perfectly right, and making sure we offend no one, but at some point we just have to take a step toward the other. We say “Here is a bottle of water. This is either the love of Jesus coming from the Body of Christ, or its just a bottle of water, or it’s something in between that. Whatever it is to you, here you go.”

Back to the penises. Anyway, everyone we met was very positive, and thirsty, so it was a good experience for us. The only hiccup was one young lady who looked at the card and asked if we were a Pro- Gay or Anti-Gay Church. I tried and failed to clever my way out of it by saying “We’re a Pro-Jesus Church.” She, politely, pushed a little bit and I stumbled and mumbled something about not fitting into categories, and she was unsatisfied and reminded me that this was a Pro-Gay event. (Really, I was wondering why all these dudes were wearing buttless chaps. Who knew?) We both moved on. I don’t know if she drank the water.

This is what I wish I had the time and courage to say:

“I’m sorry that you assume that as a person with a Church that I have to fit into one of those two categories. People like me, Christians… we’ve earned your distrust and you have every right to think and say whatever you want about me. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. We’ve sinned against God and against you. We’ve failed to be who we have been called to be.

That said, I can’t fit what we think into a thirty second sound bite… I can honestly say that I don’t fit into either of those categories. I don’t think I even know what gay fully means but I do know this: there are infinitely more important things about you than who you’re attracted to. I reject the idea in our culture that who we are is intrinsically tied to what we do with our genitals, and who we do it with. That is not the defining characteristic of a human being, because long before you or I are gay or straight or whatever labels we accept we are a unique creation of the Living God.

We are also incredibly broken people in an incredibly broken world and the fact that we have to have this conversation is testament to the fact that we have no clue how to live with each other, let alone God, and I believe that Jesus was God, who came here to save us in every way that we need to be saved, and what you do with Jesus is way more important than what you do with anything else. I believe Jesus knew you were worth dying for, and in the light of that, what I think is sort of irrelevant.

But in the midst of our inability to live together well, we want to bring water, and I don’t know if you’re gay or straight, but I know you’re thirsty. It’s a hot day. Pro-gay church, anti-gay church… I don’t know… today we’re an Anti-thirst church.

Just for right now, in this moment, can that be enough?”

How to read the Bible #2 : Where to start

#2 in our Bible Reading series

Amazon, I love you

Thank you, Amazon. You are never ending source of books and amusement. Thank you for recommending this book

because I own this book

keep the recommendations coming

How to read the Bible

We’re experimenting with some teaching stuff  online.  Let  me know what you think about both format and content

Thanks and enjoy

Bring me your broken, worn out, sucky church planters yearning to…

I love how any combination of “church failure” “church plant failure” “church sucks” or the like bring people to my blog. By far the most popular thing I have written for internet perusal is Church Planting Sucks. I know writing about it will make it even even more common, but whatever. It’s about time someone started writing for those who feel like they’re failing.

Anyway, if that’s how you got here, and you are crappy church planter who is wondering if you’ll be working at Taco Bell in six months, or you think church sucks and are frustrated that nothing is happening to change it, I have a word from the LORD for you.

I don’t say that lightly so take me with all the weight that the all caps implies.

Thus says the LORD:”Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” - Jeremiah 9:23 - 24

God isn’t asking you how big your church is, or what your format is, or how your giving is going, he’s asking you how well you know him. Get your priorities straight church planter. Get to know God and who he is, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The same goes for you jaded church friend. You are perfectly right in your frustration with the church and her foibles, but are you getting to know God better? Is your frustration leading you to a place that frees you and builds the Body?

God has got some joy for you when you invest the time in knowing him. He promises that.

fathers

I haven’t posted much lately, mostly because I haven’t got anything to say and the book project is taking up a lot of my mental energy. I just haven’t had anything interesting to say.

I was re-reading Robertson Davies‘ Deptford Trilogy to immerse myself in great writing. I probably read it once every couple of years. There was a part of the Manticore that inspired me. Dunstan Ramsay is speaking with David Staunton about Staunton’s father Boy and Ramsey says something to the effect that every man has many fathers in his life, and what may be more important than his biological fathers are the ones he chooses for himself.

So the next couple of entries are going to be about fathers, specifically the fathers I’ve been blessed to have.

if I say it out loud it will be real, right?

So I’m working on a book. It sounds silly even as I say it but I am and I want to finish it so I’m going to pressure myself by announcing it publicly. Feel free to ask me how it’s coming so I will feel stupid if my answer is that I haven’t touched in six months.

Please bear in mind I said that I’m writing a book, not publishing a book or selling a book. These are very different things. Of course it would be nice to publish and I may do it myself, but the main goal hear is to actually write the thing. We worry about other stuff later.

The book is going to be about the church, because thats where my head is at these days. I want to people to fall in love with the Church again, with all her flaws and stupidities and meanness, I want to help people see her as the Bride. I want to see her as the Bride.

We’ll see what we can do.

The best laid plans… #1

So we’re in a re planning thing for Bridgepointe. There are some church planters or aspiring or recovering church planters who end up here, so I’ll put the plan up in small parts for your perusal and ridicule. Enjoy.

What

What is a church?
We believe that the local church is a group of people called by and committed to Jesus and his work who preach and teach God’s word, who participate in the sacraments (or ordinances) of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, who hold each other accountable to live lives consistent with the good news, and who share resources to accomplish God’s purposes. The local church is tied to the global and timeless Church that is Christ’s body here on earth.2. Jesus called and empowered the Church to be his witnesses here, taking his message to all the world and teaching people to follow him Bridgepointe Church is a group of people who passionately believe that we have good news to share with Edmonton and the world. This good news is that Jesus and his Kingdom reign is here, and he loves us, and that we can be saved in every way we need to be saved.
What kind of church?
We often hear the question “Does Edmonton need another church? Does North Central need another church?” and the answer depends on what you mean by church. If you mean a nice, polite gathering of people who say pretty Jesus words and are unable to risk and dream because they are stuck in survival mode, the answer is no. If you mean a small group of Christians who are angry with the church as they have experienced it and define themselves by everything they’re not the answer is no. If you mean a group of people, gathered into community by God and a common vision of what he’s doing in this city, a group of people that is large enough to make a difference and small enough that their main task isn’t managing their size, then the answer is yes, we need more of those. We need many, many more of those.
In response to this need and what we believe is God’s call, our goal is to have 200 people regularly committed to Bridgepointe by fall 2011. This goal isn’t made for the sake of numbers alone, but at this size we can concern ourselves with something other than our own survival, and can commission people to plant more churches. Our goal is to be a church of missionaries, training and inspiring missionaries to change Edmonton and the world.