Values and Simplicity

John Maeda reflects on the Glass House and how it relates to his theories on simplicity. The best line, though, is about halfway through: “When we all have values, life is simpler.” Interesting thought.

I Once Was Lost

In his latest book, co-authored by Doug Schaupp, Don Everts explores how people come to Jesus in today’s postmodern culture. I Once Was Lost is based on the stories of two thousand postmodern people and how they found their way in to a following of Jesus. Everts, whose books Jesus With Dirty Feet and The Smell of Sin are absolute must reads for any Christ-follower, will be speaking at Journey this weekend as part of our July at Journey series.

One, of many, learnings from the new book was this: Act more like Paul. We (Christians) need to begin “affirming kingdom impulses” that skeptics have, and then point them to Jesus. Everts and Schaupp write:

“We [Christians] struggle to emulate Paul in this. We fear affirming sin in our friends and so we say nothing, or we judge. Maybe we turn a blind eye and naively tell them, ‘It’s all good.’ We might be shocked if God showed us today how many non-Christian friend’s values are worth affirming: the gay activist’s commitment to equality, the Muslim coworker’s sacrificial weekend involvement in caring for the poor. Unfortunately, these often go unnoticed.” (p. 45)

How would our efforts to reach out be altered if we thought this way? How would we respond to our non-believing friends? How would we change by examining our friends inherent goodness (”God-ness” even)?

God at the Movies…in Albania?

If you follow this blog, you know that Journey just finished up a six week series called God at the Movies V. (More on that series here.) It’s one of our favorite series to do each year, and is, arguably, the most popular series of our ministry year. Apparently, it’s popular around the world, too. Our programming team received this email:

“I thought you’d enjoy seeing how God is working in Eastern Europe.  My pastor friend…is doing a “God at the Movies” series this week in southern Albania.  He was inspired by what was happening at Journey during his visit.”

How cool is that? Below is our poster (left) and the Albanian poster (right). It’s incredibly flattering, and, simultaneously, a huge win. We really hope that the Church (worldwide) is always thinking and growing and stretching the way they leverage popular culture. My prayers are with this church as they reach out in new and unique ways to help people find this amazing grace found in the person of Jesus.

Prejudice

Sarah gave me this a few months back, and has been something that has resonated so deeply:

“One of the hardest spiritual tasks is to live without prejudices. Sometimes we aren’t even aware how deeply rooted our prejudices are. We may think that we relate to people who are different from us in colour, religion, sexual orientation, or lifestyle as equals, but in concrete circumstances our spontaneous thoughts, uncensored words, and knee-jerk reactions often reveal that our prejudices are still there. Strangers, people different than we are, stir up fear, discomfort, suspicion, and hostility. They make us lose our sense of security just by being “other.” Only when we fully claim that God loves us in an unconditional way and look at “those other persons” as equally loved can we begin to discover that the great variety in being human is an expression of the immense richness of God’s heart. Then the need to prejudge people can gradually disappear.”

Henri Nouwen

Laughter in Church

In putting our weekend services together, the creative team strives to create moments in which people can be moved in a deep way, moments where they can encounter God, moments of “awe.” But every once in a while, we try and be funny. I will admit that this is often harder for us - it’s easy to come off cheesy, but to come off funny, is a lot of work. There really is a fine line between humor and idiocy.

However, this past weekend we did it. We were funny. Our video editor, Dan Stevers, did a great spoof on the musical number “That’s How You Know” from the film Enchanted. Through the use of our recently purchased green screen, Dan inserted Rod Kaya (Weekends Pastor), Ed Noble (Teaching Pastor), Jason Denison (Worship Leader) and Matt Bradford (one of our volunteers) into the magical world of Enchanted. It was hilarious.

One of the things I’ve learned in crafting weekend services, is that it’s good to laugh. People don’t usually expect to laugh in church. Laughter opens up hearts and minds. Laughter breaks down barriers. Laughter builds bridges. Laughter puts people at ease. Laughter is something we’ve all got to try and be better at. (And of course, if the laughter is at your own expense, even better. People like to know that you don’t take yourself too seriously).

Inspiration, again.

One of the best books I’ve read this year was The Myths of Innovation, by Scott Berkun (for more on that book, read here). The Guardian had an interesting article on how to write a movie, and the following excerpt reminded me of a lot of what Berkun talks about:

“I think people see inspiration as the ignition that starts the process. In fact, real moments of inspiration often come at the last minute, when you’ve sweated and fretted your way through a couple of drafts. Suddenly, you start to see fresh connections, new ways of doing things. That’s when you feel like you’re flying. The real pleasure of any script is the detail. And a lot gets lost in the process. Put it back in at the last minute.”

Replace all the talk of screenwriting with any other sort of creative output, and you will still have great advice.

[via Kottke]