Do you feel busy? Take a moment for this week’s short, interactive devotional – “Focus”.
In addition to the free Chazown resource, you may find Rob Bell’s short video on this topic, Shells, helpful.
May 07
Video Devotional – Disciple – Mark 2:14
I hope you enjoy the short devotional. I had fun creating it and would appreciate any feedback you may have, and sharing it with others if you liked it. (Use the arrows to move forward at your own pace.)
PS – I’ve decided to be intentional about starting to blog and will be releasing one of these devotionals each week, in addition to other blog posts. You can check back for updates, or subscribe to the blog’s RSS, follow me on twitter, or friend me on Facebook to hear when new devotionals are posted.
Nov 12
What’s in your office?
I have a new piece of art for my office. As you can see from the picture, it is a statue of an elephant. By now you may be wondering why I would choose an elephant for office décor, questioning my taste in art, and wondering why I would spend time talking about it rather than hiding it.
I picked out the elephant statue as an intentional reminder and invitation. A reminder and an invitation to both you and to me. You see, it can be all too easy to ignore or not name the “elephant in the room”. For a variety of reasons we often times leave something big (which needs to be named and addressed) unspoken, unexamined, and unaddressed. Many of us probably have “elephants in the room” at school, at work, at home, and even church.
Does it really help things to leave the elephant unnamed and unaddressed? Sometimes we avoid naming the elephants in the room out of what we may call love or caring for another person, etc. But in not naming the elephant in the room we are letting it wander around and damage the room…. people’s lives, organizations, you can fill in the blank. Could it not be that the more loving and caring action would be to name the elephant in the room in our relationships, in our churches, in our workplaces?
Now this isn’t license to start going off on people or giving everyone a piece of our minds just to make us feel better. In Ephesians 4:15 Paul writes: “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” It is important that we speak the truth, address what needs to be addressed, but to do so with love. Too often people may have said that they were “just speaking the truth” but in reality were just wielding a verbal club to try to get their way. Perhaps experiences like that may have made us skittish of naming the elephants in the room in our lives. We don’t want to appear insensitive or attack others verbally. But not naming the elephant, not speaking the truth in love, can also have just as much or sometimes more of a negative impact. Silence and inaction aren’t an option.
When we do acknowledge the elephant in the room may we do so and share in love, think through what would be appropriate and helpful ways to share or name the elephant, and who we need to talk with.
I heard someone at a retreat center speak about how they got an elephant as a visual reminder and invitation to name the elephant in the room. And so I now have an elephant statue in my room as a reminder and invitation to myself to name the elephant in the room, to speak the truth in love… and a reminder and invitation for you to name any elephants and to speak the truth in love.
Oct 26
Think Orange: Imagine the Impact When Church and Family Collide
Reggie Joiner wrote a great book called Think Orange: Imagine the Impact when Church and Family Collide … It isn’t a curriculum, a push for a certain doctrine, the final thought on everything, or for churches of only a certain size or type. It is instead a framework and call for churches to partner with families in order to best create an environment for faith formation for children, youth & students and to:
Design a STRATEGY that combines FAMILY with the faith COMMUNITY to demonstrate the MESSAGE of God’s story to INFLUENCE the next generation.
Yep, if you are to sum up the book / concept up in one sentence, this would be it. It touches on all those 5 Orange essentials. However you and I know that one simple sentence doesn’t do a book justice as much as it may try to summarize what a whole book says. It is in the unpacking of each of those 5 essentials, how they work together, living it out, and the other insights of the book that add to the strengths of this framework for ministry to and with children, youth, families and more.
I’ll share a quick thought on each of the 5 essentials.
Integrate Strategy: Align leaders and parents to lead with the same end in mind to create synergy.
- Yep, it is a good thing for a church to have a clear goal or strategy that they are intentional about and that everyone is on the same page with it. Sadly, even in churches there may be silos where leaders of different ministries / departments don’t work together or aren’t on the same page. If the ministry leaders aren’t on the same page with the same end on mind and have a strategy that they pursue together, then it’s likely a consistent, intentional strategy hasn’t been shared with parents either.
Refine the Message: Craft core truths into engaging, relevant, and memorable experiences.
- Jesus’ message wasn’t and isn’t boring or irrelevant; he conveyed it in relevant, engaging ways that made sense to the culture he was in. In John 1:14 we read that God “became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” We need to be intentional to convey God’s message in ways that people can understand and that apply to the situations and life that they find themselves in. Intentional in “moving into the neighborhood”, developing relationships with others, understanding culture, speaking the language people speak, and sharing in ways that are meaningful, make sense, and are relevant to them.
Reactivate the Family: Enlist parents to act as partners in the spiritual formation of their own children to build an everyday faith in the next generation.
- Too often churches, without meaning to, say to families by what we do (if not say), “We know best how to help your children grow in faith, just bring them to the events that we offer.” Many of our churches could step it up and partner in a deeper way with the family. After all what goes on at home and the influence of parents can be more impacting than the limited time than children are at church. What if churches partner with parents and give them tools, encouragement, equipping to take whatever next step that makes sense for them to be a part helping their kids grow in faith? What if partnering with parents was intentional, part of a strategy, … more than an afterthought of sending a monthly e-mail letting parents know what events they should send their kids to at church next month?
Elevate Community: Connect everyone to a caring leader and a consistent group of peers.
- Growth happens best within the context of community. If we think back to what formed and shaped us into who we are today, is it primarily a sermon, a particular lesson that we learned in a class; or is it more likely to be a relationship with someone that we know cared for us and perhaps something shared in that context? I am not saying that sermons, lessons, and content aren’t important … they are, and we need to proclaim God’s word as best as we can. However, we also need to focus on building caring and safe relationships that can nurture and support us and those we love, today and in the years to come.
Leverage Influence: Create consistent opportunities for students to experience personal ministry to mobilize the generations to come.
- Its important to help and let the next generations, our young adults, youth, and children, to serve in ways that are meaningful to them. To help them be followers of Jesus and experience the joy and fulfillment of using their gifts, passions, etc. in order to serve others and join in what Jesus is doing in our world. We need to focus on helping them find and get involved in a personal ministry that they love, and not simply the occasional “cute” photo op or experience that “we” may want them to get involved in.
Well, that’s the brief, quick and dirty snapshot of the five concepts. If you’re interested in learning more about the book and concepts you can read a preview here, grab a copy of the book, or watch a short video below.
What are your thoughts on thisframework offered in Think Orange?
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