Quote of the week...

'The term 'burnout' was a convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death.'

Henry Nouwen from In the Name of Jesus

The Imago Dei and Homosexuality

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them- Genesis 1:27

Here is a thought about the Imago Dei and Homosexuality:

Premise #1
God is not male or female. God’s character is reflected in men and women. When we speak of God being male or even "Father" it is because our language limits our ability to adequately express the nature of God. The communication of humanity (this is not just limited to English) can’t capture or express the infinite, triune nature and personality of the Godhead.


Premise #2
Men and women are different. They are different because God created them uniquely to reflect distinctive parts of his nature, character and qualities. Some parts of God’s singular image were split between men and women in order to more fully reveal the Creator of both. Since both come from and proceed from God they are different reflections of God.


Premise #3
A married couple provides a fuller reflection of God. This is not to say a single person doesn’t reflect the image of God, because they most certainly do, as Adam did. However, they embody only a portion of God’s character, qualities and traits because the other gender reveals something about God that their gender does not. Marriage is the union of the split image of God. The joining together of a man and women to become one is the reuniting of the singular character of God.


Conclusion
In the plan of God, the relational option of homosexuality would then be invalid. Two people of the same gender cannot reconstruct the split image of God because they bring duplicate reflections of God together. Only two different genders can bring the two different reflections of God’s character traits and qualities embedded in humanity together to recreate God’s single nature that was divided between the two of them.

Church Closures

In The American Church in Crisis (Zondervan, 2008), David Olson notes that some 3700 churches will be closing their doors annually for years to come. Taking into account both closures and projected new church starts, an additional 2,900 new churches need to be planted each year in the U.S. just to keep pace with population growth!"

Andy Stanley Rap

This just murdered at Catalyst!

Teaching Round Table

Recently, I created a Teaching Round Table as part of my teaching responsibilities at church. It is a handpicked group of people who have their fingers of influence in parts of The Next Level Church I may not. They are a cross section of the TNL community who are capable of speaking for their representative groups. These people are single, married, divorced, young, old(er), new and old in the faith. Some have kids and some don’t. Some are career professionals, some are not, some have a formal education and some don’t.

I invited 6-8 people to be a part of this weekly discussion, knowing at any one time there may only be 3-4 people who can actually make the meeting any particular week. This group help me by:

• giving insight into future TNL teaching series.
• being a sounding board for my talk (sermon) ideas (examples, polls, big ideas, etc)?
• giving constructive feedback on talks from the previous week.

I first came across an idea similar while researching my dissertation a few years ago. I found the idea in a book called “The Round Table Pulpit” by John S. McClure. Also, in an article called “Sermons Most Likely to Succeed,” Lori Carrell points out that "successful" sermons integrate listener's perspectives. She says these perspectives:

• generate fresh talk ideas.
• increase teaching relevancy.
• increase specificity and depth of informal feedback .

In the few short weeks this discussing group has been meeting I have found it to be helpful in expanding my perspective revealing points of view I don’t naturally recognize and it has improved my application of Scriptural texts.

Thoughts from Catalyst

Christianity is fundamentally a communication event- Shane Hipps

Words engage debate and argument, where pictures by pass the left side of the brain and creates a experience (feeling) in the right side of the brain- Shane Hipps

It is time to put the adventure in the venture of church- Alan Hirsch

Life is that which exist far from equilibrium. We will not accept the status quo. We are the pilgrim people of God. We need to push away equilibrium in order to live- Alan Hirsch

When God does his greatest work through you, you won’t know it- Andy Stanley

Wanting to leave your make is not ego, it is the finger print of God on your life- Andy Stanley

The American cultural story is about getting more with comfort- Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson

The story of culture will always shape people and the message of Jesus will only be an interruption if we do not think through how we (spiritually) form people and how we see the future- Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson

Incarnation over relevance. Relevance is pointless, but contextualization is crucial- Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson

Things are not going to change, they have already changed. The shift is not happening, it happened- David Gibbons

Remember, people can’t relate to successes, but they can relate to pain and failure- David Gibbons

We think that more knowledge will lead to better decisions, it doesn't- Malcolm Gladwell

In times of crisis we think we need daring and bold decision making, but we don’t, we need humility- Malcolm Gladwell

We worry about incompetence. Incompetence irritate me, but overconfidence scares me- Malcolm Gladwell

Anytime we teach purity or morality apart from the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ we will create a culture of unchurched people who will leave the gospel behind- Matt Chandler

Don’t assume the gospel in your teaching. We are treating people and applying the gospel like people understand it. Point it out them- Matt Chandler

Lead people to the gospel- Matt Chandler

Catalyst 09

For three days last week I was in Atlanta Georgia at the Catalyst Conference. Catalyst is a church leadership gathering originally geared for those under 40 years old. This was the 10^th anniversary of the conference. It may still be geared the under 40 crowd, but it not only attended by that age group.

Those who gather in Atlanta for this conference run the gambit in ages, denominations, positions and most notability dress. Catalyst seems to be a black hole sucking in anyone pastor with a goatee, faux hawk, graphic T or a iPhone from all over the US (guilty as charged on at least one account)

Catalyst is summer camp for pastors. There are skits, loud worship bands with good looking young hipster leds, good teaching and entertaining distractions. Oh did I mention the pony, the armored car or the 35 foot belly flop into a kiddie pool with only a foot of water!

In the end Catalyst is about teaching leadership ideas to church leaders either directly by sharing management principles or in directly by refocusing the leaders on the Shepherd of the church. There was no unstated alternative like the National Pastors Conference which is a great book sale disguised as conference sponsored by Zondervan.

However, Catalyst is half helpful and half fluff. The valuable part comes in the form of the exposure to world class teaching from church leaders who are in the trenches of everyday ministry, Andy Stanley, Matt Chandler, Rob Bell and Francis Chen to name a few. And yes, there were some ladies involved, Jessica Jackley from Kiva, Margaret Fienberg and Phyllis Shirer. These people are some of the best biblical communicators in the world and they come to Catalyst to teach and encourage church leaders of all kinds.

Also, the worship music was incredible! Moving, inspirational and executed excellently. Again, the musicians were second to none. I just wish the names of more than Steve Fee and Eddie Kirkland came to mind.

The fluff part came more in the amusement. A comic host/side kick, 13,000 little rubber footballs thrown around the arena in mass, crazy videos, confetti poppers and don’t forget the hardly seen pony (we think it was a colt for Tony Dungy) and the Guinness world record setting belly flop!