Affected by Numbers

70,000 - Number of people killed in an earthquake in Sichuan, China. 5 million are still homeless.

84,000 - Number of people killed in a cyclone that hit Myanmar (Burma). 2.4 million are still in need of aide.

14 - Years that civil war has been raging through Sudan.

230,000 - Number of people displaced due to the Georgia-Russian Conflict.

10,000,000 - Number of refugees worldwide. Half are children.

3,000,000 - Number of people who die of malaria each year.

33,000,000 - Number of people infected with HIV/AIDS. 2,000,000 died from AIDS complications in 2007.

25,000 - Number of children that die each day from malnutrition.

27,000,000 - Number of men, women and children held as slaves.

2,000,000 - Number of children trapped in forced prostitution.

80 - Percent of human trafficking victims that are women or girls.

32,000,000,000 - Dollars of profit made each year by the human trafficking enterprise.

300 - Number of Christ-followers killed each day because of their faith.

25 - Percent of Christians in North Korea held in prison.

50 - Percent of US marriages that end in divorce.

21,000,000 - Number of Americans suffering from major depression.

17,600,000 - Number of Americans that have a problem with the overuse of alcohol.

Next weekend, our church will hold services in which we will focus on intercessory prayer. These facts, along with others, will serve as the focus of our prayer time.

Ten Learnings from the Leadership Summit

There were so many great take-aways and things I am going to need to process/implement/chew on/wrestle with/think about, but here are ten of my learnings from the 2008 Leadership Summit:

1. “What happens if we invite people into our churches and they never change?” - Then you’ll be like Jesus. Jesus invited Judas in to his inner-circle and he never changed. (John Burke)

2. Sometimes you do everything for God…and die. Happiness is not the key. (Craig Groeschel)

3. Successful ministries have a “laser focus.” More ministries don’t make your church better. Better ministries make your church better. (Craig Groeschel)

4. Reach out and love across EVERY barrier. (John Burke, Effrem Smith, Bill Hybels)

5. “Jesus didn’t come to make us safe. He came to make us brave.” (Gary Haugen)

6. When non-believers ask hard questions (i.e. “What’s your church’s stance on gays?”), there are deeper questions being posed. (John Burke)

7. Pray this: “Bring it on, God.” (Catherine Rohr)

8. Sacrifice privacy for accountability. (Catherine Rohr)

9. “When Jesus returns, that is when true justice comes…but until then, it’s just us.” (Efrem Smith)

10. Don’t allow yourself to become a full time pastor (or church employee) and a part-time Christ-follower. (Craig Groeschel)

The Church and Same-Sex Marriage

During the last weekend of July, we focused our services on addressing the issues of homosexuality, California’s Proposition 8 and same-sex marriage.

Ideally, we would have liked to address these topics on our own terms; however, the growing fervor of this issue in California, specifically among the “Church World,” caused us to expedite our process. A large number of churches in California, especially in San Diego County, are involved in a campaign to get Proposition 8 passed. We, at Journey, felt as though God was not calling us to be an active part in this political push. Rather, we knew we were called to do what Greg Boyd talks about in The Myth of a Christian Nation and be a “power under” sort of body - one that serves and loves others.

We did feel like we had to live in the tension of both the grace of Jesus and the truth of God. Therefore, we needed to speak honestly about how God’s scripture informs this issue. At the same time, we wanted to ooze the grace of Jesus - we really wanted it to flow out of everything we said that weekend (and in our lives, for that matter). To attempt to paraphrase the message or give a comprehensive (and concise) overview would be futile - this is really a message that needs to be listened to in it’s entirety. (Ed’s message here. It would also be helpful to listen to Sound Bites, Part One first.) Sufficed to say, it was an incredible message, one that not only communicated overwhelming love toward homosexuals and those of the LGBT community, but also opened the door for a continued conversation. Simultaneously, and this wasn’t expressly planned, the weekend was a recasting of the vision and purpose of our church - To reach as many people with the good news of Jesus.

One of the things that came out of the preparation for this weekend was what we’ve come to call our “Statement on Same-Sex Marriage” - which, sounds ominous, but we really wanted to have a cohesive vision of how we, as a church, would respond to Proposition 8. I was honored to have been asked to be part of the team that crafted this statement. Here it is:

We, at Journey Community Church, desire that everyone would come to know God and understand that there is an indescribable grace available through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We desire to see many people, regardless of sexual orientation, live in a way that is God-honoring, aligns with God’s plan and restores them to wholeness.

We believe that, according to our understanding of the teachings of the Bible, that God designed marriage to be between one woman and one man. It was and is His desire that marriage be a covenant, designed to be a human expression of God’s relationship to humankind. Accordingly, Journey Community Church, its pastoral team and its staff believe that same-sex marriage is not God’s desire and does not align with His plan.

While we do believe that our values should inform the way we vote, we do not believe that God ever intended his Church to be a political organization. Therefore, Journey Community Church encourages individuals within the church to defend human life, family life, and advance the common good through active participation in the public square as citizens – we are committed to providing scriptural and pastoral equipping and guidance to aid individuals to this end.

However, we are committed to keeping our focus on our purpose – “to reach as many people as possible with the good news of Jesus Christ.” The kingdom of God, as expressed on earth through the Church, is a body that was created to serve others. In mixing it with political activism, that intent can be undermined.

Therefore, while we are not in support of same-sex marriage, we will not enter into the specific public policy debate or make that the focus of our ministry. Journey is a place designed to serve and love people, a place where those who are far from God can come and find Him, a place where hurting people can discover restoration.

It is our desire as a church to reach out to all people – gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender – we desire for our doors to be wide open. We believe that using our influence for the cause of public policy would compromise our ability to continue to make Journey that sort of place.

(Downloadable version of Journey’s statement here.)

Our community actually applauded when it was read in our services, some people actually wept when they heard it. It was so cool to know that our church is filled with people who so want Journey to be the sort of place that is defined by love and grace. As Ed said in his message (paraphrasing): We don’t have the luxury of talking about the “sinners out there,” we are them - there is no they. We are sinners. We are people who have come to know grace. We are people who were so far from God, people who hated him, people who didn’t know love, people who you would never find in a church.

I was so proud that we are a church that doesn’t ever want to water down God’s gospel - a gospel of insane grace, a gospel of unhindered love, a gospel that has saved sinners like us - like me. One of our taglines at Journey is that we are a “come-as-you-are church” - and we really mean it.

For several good posts on this message and this issue, visit Ed’s blog.

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).

God at the Movies V is closing.

Well, this weekend, God at the Movies V is officially coming to an end. We’ll be finishing up the series with the second People’s Choice film, Enchanted (read more on Weekend Update). It has been a great series, as we’ve examined the intersection of modern cinema and God’s story. I must say that this was, by far, the best installment of the series yet.

The entire Weekend Design Team pulled together and created six excellent weekends (and a seventh for Father’s Day that was sandwiched in there). Every service was packed with creative elements and moments of awe. There is nothing like artists using their gifts in the local church. Our music team stepped it up and performed a total of four special songs throughout the series (the band nailed it on “Viva La Vida” - how cool is it that we go to a church where they do Coldplay songs?). All of these songs served as great connection points to the films.

Of course, there was the Woods family’s story of how God brought them and their son together, the incredible dance during the Amazing Grace weekend (read more about that weekend here), and countless stories of people who invited their friends, family, co-workers, strangers. In fact, that is one of the most encouraging things about this series - the “invite factor” of the JCC family. I love that I get to serve at a church where the people really “get it” - where they understand that we do series like this to meet people where they are at, to provide a common ground to dialogue about ours and God’s stories. There were so many stories of people who came and encountered Jesus for the first time; so many stories of people who were delivered from bondage and despair; so many stories of people who had their lives changed. There really isn’t anything like the local church.

So don’t miss this weekend as we wrap it up this awesome series. And if you are saddened that God at the Movies V is no more, don’t worry, God at the Movies 6 begins May 2009.

For podcasts of the messages from God at the Movies V, click here.

Musings on Grace

Two weeks ago, as part of our God at the Movies V series, Journey’s Teaching Pastor, Ed Noble, looked at the film Amazing Grace. My opinions on the low-quality film-making aside (I was one of two on the Weekend Design Team who didn’t like the film), Ed’s message and the overall flow of the service was something to cause awe. Heading in to the series, we knew we wanted to create a package in which the notion of grace could be experienced, not just talked about. What culminated was nothing short of a God-inspired moment. Looking back, it was one of those moments of wonder - moments we are always striving to create in our weekend services.

One of our pastors, Rod Kaya, set up the package, reminding us that, while grace has a definition, it is very rarely understood. It is something that we can think about, but it is harder to grasp, let alone experience through words. From there, we played a video piece that set-up some of the history of the hymn “Amazing Grace” and John Newton’s legacy as a slave-trader turned priest, a true story of God’s grace. The piece was synced to Yvette Flunder singing an a capella version of the prolific first verse.

Following the video, was a dance wonderfully choreographed by Pamela Turner and performed by she and Megan Merk. Pamela did a wonderful job in capturing the essence of grace. It wasn’t a “pretty” dance - something her and I both did not want for the piece. However, it was a dance that capture the raw emotion and picture of grace in people’s lives. (Rod posted a sort of bootlegged recording of the dance here).

When the dance finished, the lights faded and we returned with another video piece. Inspired by Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace?: Visual Edition, the piece was an experience of grace in the most visual way (selected images below). Combining text and black & white photographs (and Jonathan Elias’ moving composition “Move”), the video expressed the scandalous nature of this thing called grace.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am the creator behind the piece. Most people didn’t realize, because it flashed for just an instant, but I included myself in the myriad of images of people touched by grace (third image below). I am not writing to brag about the piece or to gain attention for my work. I am writing this post to say that I am a person who has learned to better understand grace. I am writing to say that, along with images of Martin Luther King, Jr., Adolf Hitler, members of the KKK - stands my photo - a person marked by sin; yet, a person who grace is afforded. I do not fully grasp its entirety, but because of circumstances and the path of my pursuit (and at times anti-pursuit) of God I have come to gain a more deep and real knowledge of grace. I have learned it’s wrinkles. It has become palpable, known, experienced.

Such grace causes me to have “a wretch like me” understanding that Ed mentioned in his message. Such grace causes me to face the fact that I am not the sole receiver of this grace. Scandalous grace, grace that melts ungrace, is given to members of the Ku Klux Klan, transsexuals, Christians, philanthropists, children and drunks. I have learned that the limits of grace’s reach are endless. It is precisely that fact that affords me grace. I have learned that grace, in an unfair and illogical way, is afforded to all…even to someone like me.

The Myth of a Christian Nation

In his book, The Myth of a Christian Nation, Gregory Boyd evaluates the effect of joining religion and politics and argues that, in a pursuit to merge the two, Evangelical Americans are destroying both institutions. The book was incredible and deserves the attention of anyone in the evangelical church. Boyd argues that we can never combine the “power-under” kingdom of God with any “power-over” kingdom of the world:

“We have lost the simplicity of the kingdom of God and have largely forsaken the difficult challenge of living out the kingdom. We have forgotten, if ever we were taught, the simple principle that the kingdom of God looks like Jesus and that our sole task as kingdom people is to mimic the love he revealed on Calvary.” (p. 64)

The book is a liberating [sic] experience for those of us in the church who do not necessarily always tow the “Christian Conservative” line. At the same time, it is a powerful, and biblical, argument as to why the church (American, European, whatever) should never become co-opted by governments or kingdoms of the world.

“My critique is rather toward the American church. We expect nations to be driven by self-interest, but we shouldn’t expect kingdom people to applaud this fact, especially when the national self-interest involves taking lives! Isn’t our central calling as kingdom people to manifest the truth that this old, self-centered, tribalistic, violent way of living has been done away in Christ? Are we not to display the truth that in Christ a new humanity has been created, one in which there are no ethnic, nationalistic, gender, social, or economic distinctions? Aren’t we called to ‘live by the Spirit’ and thus put away all ‘works of the flesh’ - including aligning ourselves with various sides of ‘dissensions [and] factions’?” (p. 90)

While Boyd asserts that the kingdom of God shouldn’t be combined with any government, he doesn’t advocate an uninvolved or pacifist mentality. He says that our beliefs should inform the way we vote and our political views - but, we can never fully place our faith in our political systems. We must pursue a better world, through law and order - but as Christ-followers, we must always remember that the only kingdom we have total allegiance to is that of God. We must always keep in mind that our mission is to reflect the love exemplified through Calvary. In fact, in the example of Jesus, we find a person who wasn’t out to topple the worldly kingdom…but rather, he chose to change the world from the bottom up - by serving the poor and caring for the unwanted:

“Did Jesus spend any time and energy trying to improve, let alone dominate, the reigning government of his day? Did he ever work to pass laws against the sinners he hung out with and ministered to? Did he worry at all about ensuring that his rights and the religious rights of his followers were protected? Does any author in the New Testament remotely hint that engaging in this sort of activity has anything to do with the kingdom of God?” (p. 92)

Seriously…an amazing book.