“Our message to the world isn’t, ‘hey, you need to enhance your life.’ Our message is ‘we have met life.’”

“What does transcendent leadership look like? It looks like leadership that is old enough to be informed with confidence [through] the acts of God. It’s present enough to convince every person that they are known and understood. And it is forward enough to breathe hope, no matter the circumstance.”

“We have to be a confident church. That comes from being linked to the past. We have to be a relevant church. That comes from being linked to the present. And we have to be positively motivated to the future. All those things are linked to our connectivity to Jesus.”

He goes on to use an illustration about how they save trees in Hong Kong in the process of building the skyscrapers. Here’s the choices they have:

1. No go. We can’t build for the future, because we have to preserve the past.
2. Clear cut everything. We need to move forward and we’ll do that even at the expense of our past.
3. In the process of modernizing, preserve. This is the longest and most costly way. They honor the past, but lean forward.

God told Moses that His name was I AM. That was a memorial name (I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). I AM is present (I AM here now, Immanuel, God with us). And I AM is future (Ps 135:13 – Your name, O Lord, endures forever; your fame, O Lord, is known to every generation.).

It is important that we embrace our past. Christianity has a rich 2000 year history which was birthed out of Judaism which was born at the creation of time. We hold to an ancient, God-breathed, canonized text. We cannot leave it and must believe in it’s power to shape us today and our future. Although our world has changed a lot, our core hasn’t. We have things to learn from Augustine (died 430), Luther (1546), Wesley (1788) and Chesterton (1936). Our history is rich. We’d be fools to ignore it.

It is important that we embrace our future. As Giglio points out, “we live in a country where the church is designed primary for and funded by 45 and 50 year olds, and that is not going to work. If you’re not already a culture-shaper by [that age], you aren’t going to be.” To engage, and thus, effect culture, we must embrace the future generations, “constantly capitulating to what is to come.” It is important that we reach out to our children, youth and young adults.

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church*,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

~ The Apostle’s Creed was written over 1600 years ago.

Many people think you develop thick skin in ministry. You don’t need thick skin. With thick skin, comes a thick heart. A soft heart is what makes you great in ministry. Hardness comes when we are hurt and unable to heal. You need to fight to keep a soft heart.

God called David “a man after His own heart.” David’s heart was soft. He spent years being attacked by Saul… years. Yet he kept forgiving. He fought for a soft heart. Once he became king, he would rather give up his kingdom than lose God’s presence.

Sensitivity is a “weak” spot in your spirit. The tenderness that resides there allows you do flow in your giftings.

2 Corinthians 12:6, 9-10 – /6 If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, … /9 “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. /10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Ephesians 6:30-32 – /30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own,s guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. /31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. /32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

For further reading, A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards.

We’ve heard this Scripture used many times; mostly regarding money. However, that’s not what it’s about. And in using it that way, dissolves its power.

Let’s talk about when it all goes wrong, because some time in your life, or your ministry, it will. No matter how sanctified we get or who you’ve put on a pedestal, we will all fail. Misunderstanding leads to hurt, hurt leads to bitterness…

God cannot use your bitterness.

Luke 6:27-38 – /27 “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. /28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. /29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. /30 Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. /31 Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

/32 “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! /33 And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! /34 And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.

/35 “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. /36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

/37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. /38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

It’s about forgiveness. You will be wronged. You will be hurt. People will talk about you. People will take advantage of you… so what do you do?

CS Lewis, in The Weight of Glory, talks about the difference between forgiving something and excusing it…

• Forgiveness says, “Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology; I will never hold it against you and everything between the two of us is exactly as it was before.”
• Excusing says, “I see you couldn’t help it or didn’t mean it; you weren’t really to blame.” If no one is to blame, there is nothing to forgive.

Lewis goes on to say,

“In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites… If you had a perfect excuse, you would not need forgiveness; if the whole of your action needs forgiveness, then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what we call ‘asking God’s forgiveness’ very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses… We are so very anxious to point these out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the really important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which the excuses don’t cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves with our own excuses.

All the real excusing He [God] will do. What we have got to take to Him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting time by talking about all the parts which can be excused.

Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it. That, and only that, is forgiveness, and that we can always have from God when we ask for it.

Finally, he concludes about forgiving others…

You must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart — every wish to humiliate or hurt… In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent of guilt left over… To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.” We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.

So read it again. I hope it changes things for you…

Luke 6:38 - Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Before I begin, I’d like to mention on caveat. The Church is obviously different than Corporate America. The dynamics just aren’t the same. Like many of you, I’ve cringed when the two are treated as one-in-the-same. However, I think we can extrapolate some of their concepts and approaches to effective accomplish the Great Commission.

I’ve been keeping one eye on the iPhone 3.0 launch today. Here’s a couple things I’m seeing from the launch that may benefit us:

1. Collaboration With Partners

A large portion of the today’s launch was given to “outside” developers. Some of my favorite, and most useful, apps weren’t created by Apple. Many times in the church, we treat our local congregation as the “be all and end all” of church ministry. None of us would profess to having the knowledge, energy, time or resources to come up with the absolute “best” in the Kingdom (though this shouldn’t stop us from trying). This is where collaboration comes in.

What are some tools and resources you use to build the Kingdom? We get our ideas from blogs and other churches. We can get videos for illustration from resources like sermonspice.com or web design from churchplantmedia.com. Collaboration is key to effectively accomplishing the mission.

2. Listen and Respond

“Copy and Paste” seems archaic in computer terms, but ask an iPhone user what life has been like without it. Apple listened to their customer base and responded with the feature. I understand that if you gather 25 people in a room, you’ll get 26 opinions on how your church should operate (there’s always one with multiple personalities). However, that shouldn’t stop us from constantly evaluating what we’re doing (big and small picture) and responding to the needs of our base. Are you doing everything possible to meet their needs? What is unnecessary that you ARE doing? And what is necessary that you aren’t?

3. Make the Presentation About the Content

If you’ve ever seen these launches, there’s somethings that you won’t see. Smoke, intelligent lights, dancing ladies, etc. They realize why people come. I read a quote the other day that made me look hard a church ministry:

Churches too often look for “Lights, Camera, Action” instead of “Father, Son, Holy Spirit”

All the technology is great. It’s a worm on our hook as we fish for men. However, let us never forget why people come. They need the Message.

Smashing Magazine
Noupe
Web Designer Depot
Colorburned

Other Notables

PSDtuts
Lost and Taken

Just for Fun

Wordle – I’ve seen this before, but saw post about it on Noupe today. You can create a custom “tag cloud” using their text field or your own RSS feed.

I created this desktop from my blog’s RSS feed:

John 8:3-11 – /3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group /4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. /5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” /6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. /7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” /8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

/9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. /10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

/11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus fought against a religious system that made it hard for people to come to God. Yet today, our church’s fight viciously against abortion, homosexuality, etc. I don’t have a problem with the fight. The fight is good. However, we stand against the purposes of Christ when our rhetoric becomes hate-filled and damning. Sinners know where the Church stands. I’d argue that if you had to get them to be gut honest, they’d tell you they were “sinners.” But why do we need to make them state the obvious to us. They need to come to God and be cleaned, not come to us to be cleaned so that they can come to God.

We have to understand the sides in the fight. The sides aren’t sinner vs saved, because then it comes down to your interpretation (or admittance) of truth. If that’s the case, then it’s just a screaming match that no one will ever win. The sides are God vs what keeps people from Him. If we agree that sin keeps people from God, then by all means, we have to speak Truth against the sin. However, in our fight against the sin, we’ve made it personal. We have pointed our fingers, screamed and held up signs. Where is the love in that? It seems we’d rather pick up rocks, than offer a hand of love and forgiveness…

With every finger we point, our own guilt is more evident. The Pharisee in us is more evident. We would rather hate sinners and love our closet sins, than hate our own sin and love the sinner.

“Do this in remembrance…” How many times have you heard that in your church? Most church’s even carved on a table. But what are we remembering? We’re all just sinners saved by grace. And even now, our righteousness is as filthy rags (in today’s language, that’d be tampons or pads, in case you were wondering). And we remember our personal need for a savior. In connecting back to the memory, we’re reminded of the need in all of us.

Luke 6:36-38 – /36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. /37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. /38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

PS. How twisted is it that we’ve taken verse 38 that’s clearly about forgiveness about money?

Demetri Martin has a new show on Comedy Central called Important Things. It comes on Wednesdays.

My Top 5 Strengths

Relator
Context
Ideation
Self-Assurance
Strategic

Relator
…You might feel upbeat and cheerful when you keep busy. Perhaps completing certain tasks exhilarates you. Why? To some extent, finishing one thing frees you to undertake additional work.

Context
…you may examine certain kinds of circumstances… Once in a while, you figure out how bits and pieces of information from the past explain what is happening today. To some degree, you grasp the complexity of various situations. Perhaps you gravitate to specific people.

Ideation
Perhaps you embrace opportunities to be creative. By nature, you are occasionally concerned about what individuals might think of you. It’s very likely that you sometimes feel comfortable sharing your original ideas with groups. You occasionally wonder whether some people view you as aloof or standoffish. Perhaps you give this impression because beginning discussions or engaging in small talk is difficult for you.

Self-Assurance
…you sometimes look for opportunities to put your talents to use in ways that are productive. Chances are good that you occasionally adopt a practical, factual, or unemotional position on certain issues. You might be unsentimental and realistic… You might tend to concentrate on the basic facts. Maybe you avoid letting prejudice or favoritism cloud your judgment. It’s very likely that you might be honest with yourself about yourself.

Strategic
…you may feel wonderful when people value your innovative ideas (who doesn’t?). You may have little difficulty finding the right words at the right time to express what you are thinking or feeling. Maybe you can present your concepts in a reasonable, orderly, or methodical way. It’s very likely that you might acknowledge your ability to detect specific configurations in events, data, or people’s behavior. Sometimes you help people examine the consequences of taking action or failing to take action. Once in a while, you rely on examples, stories, or jokes to illustrate your main points. Because of your strengths, you sometimes know what has gone wrong. You try to uncover facts. Perhaps you are not intimidated by an overwhelming amount of information.

Separators

These are handy to separate out the different types of Applications you have in your dock. For me, I have all my Internet Apps grouped together and all my design apps in another group. In Terminal, type or copy and paste this (between each step hit the return key):

1. defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add ‘{ “tile-type” = “spacer-tile”; }’
2. killall Dock

Now you’ll see your newly added separator in the Dock. You can click and drag it to where you want and add more if necessary.

Pinning

I’m not a huge fan of having the Dock centered. Most of the Apps I use, like Photoshop or Dreamweaver, have a left justified UI. I’ve found that I prefer to have my Dock “pinned” to the right. Here’s how to do it. In Terminal, type or copy and paste this (between each step hit the return key):

1. defaults write com.apple.Dock pinning
Option 1 – middle – Centered on the Screen.
Option 2 – start – Left Justified
Option 3 – end – Right Justified

I chose to right justify so mine looked like this:
defaults write com.apple.Dock pinning end

2. killall Dock

Make Hidden Apps Transparent

Does exactly what it says. In Terminal, type or copy and paste this (between each step hit the return key):

1. defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
2. killall Dock