There was a moment during worship on Thursday night where there was such passion and intensity, that I was shocked. To see that many people (over 2000) praising and crying out to Jesus that fiercely…wow.
I have only witnessed that raw intensity in worship of Jesus a few times in my life (and to see our little girls singing and crying out to God was awesome!).
I am convinced that we are going to see a move of God in our generation. We are going to see it. The culmination of years of prayers, tears, and sacrifice. It is going to happen.
The love of Jesus is going to be expressed worldwide in a way that we haven’t ever seen before.
A move of God is coming.
And I am going to be a part of the movement.
The movement to change the world in the name of Jesus.
In 1964, Bob Dylan wrote the lyics, ” …you’d better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin.” Those words couldn’t apply more to our present epoch. We live in the new frontier of rapidly changing times.
With social networks such as Facebook, Youtube and Ustream our communication has drastically changed since 1964. This change has affected the definition of our words and brought about the creation of new ones (see . . .terabyte, HDTV, WiFi, DVR). So with a million different voices clamoring for the heart of this igeneration, how does the church clearly communicate the timeless love and message of Jesus?
Carl is a balloon salesman who along with his wife Ellie, have a dream. Their dream is to visit a place called Paradise Falls.
The couple has grown old together in the restored abandoned house. Unable to have children, they repeatedly try to save up for their trip to Paradise Falls, but something always seems to come up that requires their savings. One day, Carl is finally able to buy tickets to South America. On the day he plans to surprise her, Ellie gets sick with what will become a fatal illness.
The rest of the film details Carl Fredrickson’s quest to honor his wife’s legacy and redeem the dream that had gone unfulfilled for so very long.
And through a harrowing adventure that contains talking dogs and a flying house, Carl steps into his dream at long last.
In the real world exists many Carl Fredricksons.
People that wake up everyday to unfulfilled hopes and unrealized dreams.
There are countless stories behind these sleeping dreams.
Mistakes. Missed opportunity. Injustice. Lack of access.
And there are millions of reasons why these dreams sleep, but there is only one reason that they awaken:
Someone decides to wake them up.
Someone stops making excuses. Someone stops blaming others. Someone stops regretting the past. Someone stops focusing on the why-nots.
Someone makes a choice to live differently.
To be courageous.
To be dangerous.
To take a leap.
To renounce the familiar.
To do something never been attempted.
And yes, it’s risky.
But a dream has never been redeemed without exercising a little faith.
Latest message in “The Talk” our series on sex, love, and relationships here at Renaissance Church. While looking at the words of Apostle Paul to the Corinthian Church we look at what it means to be the “Body of Christ”.
The Mad Hatter: [Points to Alice’s heart] In there.
Like Alice we have, “lost our muchness”.
Lost our moxie, our courage, our imagination. We have stopped hoping, dreaming, and believing.
Resigned to a hopeless, dreamless, faithless world we do our best to convince others to live there with us. Instead of inspiring others into “muchness“, we lead them into leastness. Having allowed ourselves to be made small, we do our very best to shrink others.
I had a conversation with high-school senior a few weeks ago. As is my custom with any high-school upperclass student, I asked what she was going to do after she graduated.
Her face crinkled up.
“Maybe I will get a job.”
“Maybe I will go to school.”
“Maybe I will…”
I interrupted.
“What do you want to do?”
“Hmmmm. Maybe sports medicine.”
“Cool. What school do you want to go to?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay. Let me ask you this: If I gave you 10 million dollars right now, what would you do? Where would you go? What is your dream?”
“Oh. Maybe I would go to UCLA or University of Arizona. Then I could work in someone’s practice.”
“What if you had YOUR OWN PRACTICE? What if you had a huge sports complex with your name on the front and you helped train and rehab the best athletes from all over the world? Wouldn’t that be cool?”
“Yeah, it would.”
I smiled back, but she didn’t seem too convinced. Recalling the conversation, it appeared that the legions of leastness had already gotten to her. Had already crushed her hopes, sabotaged her dreams, and broken her beliefs.
Somewhere along the way she lost her muchness.
So I tried to give her some of mine.
I’m still hoping, dreaming, and believing in the impossible. Still jotting down ideas and scribbling plans that have never been seen before or heard of at all.
For many of these impossible dreams I am:
Too old, too young, too poor, too little known, too this or too that.
And many of these impossible dreams are:
Too wild, too crazy, too dangerous, too risky, too unprecedented, too strange, too odd, too expensive, too this or too that.
But I refuse to listen to the legions of leastness.
Their favorite way to start a sentence is, “That is too…”, and then they fill in the blank with a word designed to steal muchness.
But I’m determined to keep my muchness.
And I am hoping that you are determined to keeping your muchness too.
“You’re mad, bonkers, off your head! But I’ll tell you a secret: All the best people are.”
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
How fragile we are how fragile we are
-from the song Fragile by Sting
“Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
-James 4:14
In the past few weeks we have been reminded of the fragility of life.
Sometimes it just takes seeing something common in an uncommon way that makes all the difference.
In the above picture, I discovered a brand new way to save time in the morning:
The Shower Toilet!
You can handle your “business” while freshening up for the business of the day.
At the same time!
And you can read the paper too (even though it might get a little wet)!
The crazy thing is, this isn’t a new invention, but a combination of old things already invented.
The “shower-toilet” is the result of seeing something in a way that it has never been seen before.
And though I don’t think there will ever be a huge market for the “shower-toilet“, the principle still works.
Seeing the common uncommonly, using what is old as new, and thinking differently are vital parts of being effective leaders in this crazy world that we live in.
When faced with a tough problem, stop.
Look again.
Think different.
See different.
Because more often than not, the answer is right under our noses.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
-Matt. 5:13
The world is watching us.
We may not be aware of it, but the people of the world are watching us.
Watching us. Studying us. Checking to see if we are real.
Trying to determine if we really believe what we say we believe.
We presently exist in a time of great trial, great difficulty, great testing, and great intensity. Tragedies fill the airwaves and the internet, television and print media. Whether economic, relational, medical, environmental, we are facing things that we have never faced before.
Even though that is in the news, those realities and details aren’t the biggest story. What has the potential to be the biggest story is how the people of God will react and respond in this season of challenge, as Allan Greenspan entitled his latest book, we are in an ‘Age of Turbulence’.
In this ‘Age of Turbulence’ the biggest question is, how are the people of God going to respond? Are we going to lament, complain, point fingers, get critical, get nasty, and get caught up in the spirit of the age?
Or are we going to pray and seek God, asking Him for strength and for grace when everything screams the opposite. Can we serve hurting people the way Jesus would, no matter what? Can we show the world that we love Jesus more than politics, more than our nation, more than our stuff? And because we love Jesus so much, and because His love is now inside of us…we love THEM so much?
At Jesus Culture Conference with Tiffany and the girls.
Unbelievable event. Absolutely unbelievable.
There was a moment during worship on Thursday night where there was such passion and intensity, that I was shocked. To see that many people (over 2000) praising and crying out to Jesus that fiercely…wow.
I have only witnessed that raw intensity in worship of Jesus a few times in my life (and to see our little girls singing and crying out to God was awesome!).
I am convinced that we are going to see a move of God in our generation. We are going to see it. The culmination of years of prayers, tears, and sacrifice. It is going to happen.
The love of Jesus is going to be expressed worldwide in a way that we haven’t ever seen before.
A move of God is coming.
And I am going to be a part of the movement.
The movement to change the world in the name of Jesus.
Posted in The Church, Media/Culture, The Future, Worship, World Change | 1 Comment »
In 1964, Bob Dylan wrote the lyics, ” …you’d better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin.” Those words couldn’t apply more to our present epoch. We live in the new frontier of rapidly changing times.
With social networks such as Facebook, Youtube and Ustream our communication has drastically changed since 1964. This change has affected the definition of our words and brought about the creation of new ones (see . . .terabyte, HDTV, WiFi, DVR). So with a million different voices clamoring for the heart of this igeneration, how does the church clearly communicate the timeless love and message of Jesus?
To check out 1st 2 messages of the New Frontier Series, click here for “Inheritance” and here for “Flip the Switch”.
Posted in The Church, Media/Culture, The Future, Creativity/Innovation | No Comments »
“It’s a whole lot more satisfying to reach for the stars, even if you end up landing only on the moon.” - Kermit the Frog
Shoot for the moon today.
Why not?
What do you have to lose?
Posted in Media/Culture, Creativity/Innovation, Dream Awake | No Comments »
Up is a beautiful movie that tells the story of Carl Fredrickson.
Carl is a balloon salesman who along with his wife Ellie, have a dream. Their dream is to visit a place called Paradise Falls.
The couple has grown old together in the restored abandoned house. Unable to have children, they repeatedly try to save up for their trip to Paradise Falls, but something always seems to come up that requires their savings. One day, Carl is finally able to buy tickets to South America. On the day he plans to surprise her, Ellie gets sick with what will become a fatal illness.
The rest of the film details Carl Fredrickson’s quest to honor his wife’s legacy and redeem the dream that had gone unfulfilled for so very long.
And through a harrowing adventure that contains talking dogs and a flying house, Carl steps into his dream at long last.
In the real world exists many Carl Fredricksons.
People that wake up everyday to unfulfilled hopes and unrealized dreams.
There are countless stories behind these sleeping dreams.
Mistakes. Missed opportunity. Injustice. Lack of access.
And there are millions of reasons why these dreams sleep, but there is only one reason that they awaken:
Someone decides to wake them up.
Someone stops making excuses. Someone stops blaming others. Someone stops regretting the past. Someone stops focusing on the why-nots.
Someone makes a choice to live differently.
To be courageous.
To be dangerous.
To take a leap.
To renounce the familiar.
To do something never been attempted.
And yes, it’s risky.
But a dream has never been redeemed without exercising a little faith.
Posted in Media/Culture, The Future, Leadership, Dream Awake | No Comments »
Final week of “The Talk”, a series about love, sex, and relationships.
In “Freedom’s Children” I discuss how to step into both the freedom and forgiveness of Christ.
To listen or download, click here.
Posted in Relationships, The Church, Media/Culture | No Comments »
If I get on American Idol, Survivor, The Apprentice, America’s Next Top Model and someone notices me…then I can get my “Big Break”.
We live in the generation of the “Big Break”.
The thing is, this mentality is so pervasive that we have begun to think that God works this way.
If we just do the right stuff for long enough, well enough, hard enough then God will take notice…and He will give us our Big Break.
But when our service is tied to our Big Break ambitions, we are not really serving.
At least not anyone but ourselves.
True service to God is achieved when we recognize that we have already gotten our Big Break:
Jesus Himself.
“But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.”
-Luke 22:26
Posted in Media/Culture, Worship, Discipleship | No Comments »
Latest message in “The Talk” our series on sex, love, and relationships here at Renaissance Church. While looking at the words of Apostle Paul to the Corinthian Church we look at what it means to be the “Body of Christ”.
To listen or download, click here.
Posted in The Church, Media/Culture | 1 Comment »
Mad Hatter: You’ve lost your “muchness”
Alice Kingsley: My “muchness”?
The Mad Hatter: [Points to Alice’s heart] In there.
Like Alice we have, “lost our muchness”.
Lost our moxie, our courage, our imagination. We have stopped hoping, dreaming, and believing.
Resigned to a hopeless, dreamless, faithless world we do our best to convince others to live there with us. Instead of inspiring others into “muchness“, we lead them into leastness. Having allowed ourselves to be made small, we do our very best to shrink others.
I had a conversation with high-school senior a few weeks ago. As is my custom with any high-school upperclass student, I asked what she was going to do after she graduated.
Her face crinkled up.
“Maybe I will get a job.”
“Maybe I will go to school.”
“Maybe I will…”
I interrupted.
“What do you want to do?”
“Hmmmm. Maybe sports medicine.”
“Cool. What school do you want to go to?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay. Let me ask you this: If I gave you 10 million dollars right now, what would you do? Where would you go? What is your dream?”
“Oh. Maybe I would go to UCLA or University of Arizona. Then I could work in someone’s practice.”
“What if you had YOUR OWN PRACTICE? What if you had a huge sports complex with your name on the front and you helped train and rehab the best athletes from all over the world? Wouldn’t that be cool?”
“Yeah, it would.”
I smiled back, but she didn’t seem too convinced. Recalling the conversation, it appeared that the legions of leastness had already gotten to her. Had already crushed her hopes, sabotaged her dreams, and broken her beliefs.
Somewhere along the way she lost her muchness.
So I tried to give her some of mine.
I’m still hoping, dreaming, and believing in the impossible. Still jotting down ideas and scribbling plans that have never been seen before or heard of at all.
For many of these impossible dreams I am:
Too old, too young, too poor, too little known, too this or too that.
And many of these impossible dreams are:
Too wild, too crazy, too dangerous, too risky, too unprecedented, too strange, too odd, too expensive, too this or too that.
But I refuse to listen to the legions of leastness.
Their favorite way to start a sentence is, “That is too…”, and then they fill in the blank with a word designed to steal muchness.
But I’m determined to keep my muchness.
And I am hoping that you are determined to keeping your muchness too.
“You’re mad, bonkers, off your head! But I’ll tell you a secret: All the best people are.”
-Charles Kingsley
Posted in Media/Culture, The Future, Leadership, Creativity/Innovation, Dream Awake | 1 Comment »
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
How fragile we are how fragile we are
-from the song Fragile by Sting
“Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
-James 4:14
In the past few weeks we have been reminded of the fragility of life.
A mine explosion in West Virginia. A plane crash that kills the President of Poland. Mud slides in Brazil(above picture). A fatal head-on collision in Sacramento.
And there are more. Many more.
Too many to name.
While we know that life is short, and tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone…we often live as if those realities aren’t true.
We make extremely short-term decisions while acting as if we have all the time in the world.
But the truth is that our world is running out of time.
In a moment we could be standing before God, giving an account of our days.
In a moment this life could be over.
In a moment we could be standing in eternity.
In a moment everything that we know could be a thing of the past.
In a moment.
Somewhere along the way we have lost our vision of eternity.
Because we have lost our vision, our moments have lost their value.
When we understand the fragility of the moments we have, we learn to value our moments.
Question: How are you valuing your moments?
Posted in Media/Culture, The Future | No Comments »
Sometimes it just takes seeing something common in an uncommon way that makes all the difference.
In the above picture, I discovered a brand new way to save time in the morning:
The Shower Toilet!
You can handle your “business” while freshening up for the business of the day.
At the same time!
And you can read the paper too (even though it might get a little wet)!
The crazy thing is, this isn’t a new invention, but a combination of old things already invented.
The “shower-toilet” is the result of seeing something in a way that it has never been seen before.
And though I don’t think there will ever be a huge market for the “shower-toilet“, the principle still works.
Seeing the common uncommonly, using what is old as new, and thinking differently are vital parts of being effective leaders in this crazy world that we live in.
When faced with a tough problem, stop.
Look again.
Think different.
See different.
Because more often than not, the answer is right under our noses.
Posted in Media/Culture, Leadership, Creativity/Innovation | 1 Comment »
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
-Matt. 5:13
The world is watching us.
We may not be aware of it, but the people of the world are watching us.
Watching us. Studying us. Checking to see if we are real.
Trying to determine if we really believe what we say we believe.
Looking to see if we are who we say we are.
This has been clearly evident during the earthquake crisis in Haiti and culture’s response to Pat Robertson’s comments about Haitian’s “pact with the Devil”.
The Minnesota Star Tribune published a letter to Robertson from “the Devil.”
Jon Stewart of the Daily Show literally reads from the bible to illustrate the God of Compassion as evidenced in the scriptures contrasted with Pat Robertson’s response.
But this really isn’t about Pat Robertson.
This is about us.
We presently exist in a time of great trial, great difficulty, great testing, and great intensity. Tragedies fill the airwaves and the internet, television and print media. Whether economic, relational, medical, environmental, we are facing things that we have never faced before.
Even though that is in the news, those realities and details aren’t the biggest story. What has the potential to be the biggest story is how the people of God will react and respond in this season of challenge, as Allan Greenspan entitled his latest book, we are in an ‘Age of Turbulence’.
In this ‘Age of Turbulence’ the biggest question is, how are the people of God going to respond? Are we going to lament, complain, point fingers, get critical, get nasty, and get caught up in the spirit of the age?
Or are we going to pray and seek God, asking Him for strength and for grace when everything screams the opposite. Can we serve hurting people the way Jesus would, no matter what? Can we show the world that we love Jesus more than politics, more than our nation, more than our stuff? And because we love Jesus so much, and because His love is now inside of us…we love THEM so much?
Can we do that?
Can we really do that?
Because the world is watching us.
Posted in The Church, Media/Culture, World Change | 2 Comments »