Want a free audio book with no strings attached? While there might be a few ways to get your hands on some second rate stuff out there, www.christianaudio.com is a great place to check out if you’re into Christian audio books.
One of the cool features of the site is its “First Chapters” podcast where they release the first chapter of a certain book as a podcast. You get to hear the first chapter and, if you like it, you can go ahead and purchase the rest of book.
But by far the coolest thing about www.christianaudio.com is the free monthly download. And instead of being stingy by offering titles no-one has even heard of, www.christianaudio.com make available awesome titles.
This month is no exception. The free audio book is Leonard Sweet’s “So Beautiful” – released on www.christianaudio.com even before the printed version is released! What a deal!
Leonard Sweet is currently the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew Theological School (Madison, NJ), and Visiting Distinguished Professor at George Fox University (Portland, OR). He the author of more than one hundred articles, 600 published sermons and thirty books, most recently The Gospel According to Starbucks (2007).
The blurb on “So Beautiful” goes along the lines of..
What is commonly known as DNA today was called “…so pretty!” when it was discovered years ago, and over the course of his ministry, author Leonard Sweet has discovered that this divine design also informs God’s blueprint for the church. In this seminal work, he shares the woven strands that form the church: missional, relational, and incarnational. Sweet declares that this secret is So Beautiful!
Using the poignant life of John Newton as a touchstone, Sweet calls for the re-union of these three essential, complementary strands of the Christian life. Far from a novel idea, Sweet shows how this structure is God’s original intent and shares the simply beautiful design for His church.
And to wet your appetite even more, check out the following short promo..
“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To THE WEAK, I BECAME THE WEAK, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” 1 Cor 9:19-23
In modern expression, this would read, “I do whatever it takes to connect to people wherever they are so that what I say about Jesus can be understood clearly by them in their situation.”
In this day of pluralistic generations…baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and whatever other label the marketers impose on us, one thing remains very true – the way we engage life is vastly different amongst the generations. What’s normal for the baby boomers is seen as stupid by the Gen Y’ers and vice versa.
To legitimise one view over the other is a foolish exercise on a number of levels as each camp will hold on fast to what they believe. Having said that, if baby boomers look down on Gen X or Y for their “foolish ways” they need to remember that they helped create this generation in their pursuit of profits and share holder return. Yes we are the product of your greed – much like the current financial crisis.
It’s no wonder then that a generation of rebelious and angry people are the result of the seeds planted by previous generations. And one of the ways this generation get’s it’s therapy is from music – and the angrier the music, the more dark it is, the more the young resonate to it – just ask the growing emo subculture.
And that’s where I take my hat off to a Christian band called Flyleaf. These guys are heavy, these guys are dark and they dwell in dark areas of the human experience. But what sets them apart is that through their music, they connect to a lost and hurting generation by dwelling on their level of human existence and point people to a God able to meet their needs at exactly the place they are at.
One of my favourite passages of scrpture is this:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Cor 1:3-4
Flyleaf’s lead singer, Lacey Mosely, had a tough life. From the bands website she says:
“My mom was a young single mother of six. We didn’t have money and things were hard for all of us. We moved whenever we couldn’t make ends meet in one place, and that happened pretty often so there was a lot of struggling, suffering and character building.
“It’s easy to get depressed when you’re dealing with that kind of stress,” she continues, “especially when it looks like things will never get better. There was nothing constant in my life, and nothing to believe in. I got into some really bad stuff that I thought would make me feel more loved, or maybe just numb, but it cost me everything that was important to me, and literally almost took my life.”
This is so typical of many of the young these days. As a result of the behaiviour of parents, the kids get all messed up – like I said, we are the offspring of our parents issues.
Flyleaf’s self-titled debut album echoes with songs about abuse, neglect, addiction and dysfunction, and messages about overcoming adversity – a true light at the end of the tunnel for todays generation.
Check out the following interview to get into the band’s mindset:
Below are a bunch of songs from the band for you to enjoy. But before you check them out, play the next video to see them impacted by the poverty in Africa:
This band is truly connected to the western young and are impacted by the devestation on this planet and are compelled to do soemthing about it. These guys are truly missional and before any of you religous people freak out, get a life, get humble and get “changed”. And now for their music…
My highly anticipated event at the Sydney Entertainment Centre has come and gone. Mark Driscoll’s “Burn Your Plastic Jesus” event was a sellout with 10,000 people treated to typical “Driscollonian” brilliance.
To say that he was funny is the understatement of the year. He had the crowd in tears on several occasions with his take on Australian, and particularly Sydney, culture. Curiously I did see some people walk out early in the piece – most probably thinking that Driscoll was all comedy and no substance. Their loss!
And as you can see from the photo, I did get to shake the man’s hand after the event as he stayed back and had a chat and prayer with anyone keen to meet up with him. I’m the tall guy on the left and my mate and Pastor is on the right. When we told him we drove up from Melbourne, he was blown away by how far we’d driven – he has done his homework on Australia!
Not since Billy Graham back in 1975 have 10,000 people packed the arena to talk about Jesus! Driscoll has been likened by some to be the modern day Spurgeon and now he seems to be on par on what Billy G was able to achieve!
But instead of elevating him to superstar status and worship him as an idol (and heaven knows how hard some can fall – check out this story on Mike Guglielmuci), I simply take my hat off to a guy sold out on the message of Jesus and the advancement of His Kingdom.
I’ve been listening to Driscoll for 2 years to the day of the event and have seen him grow in maturity, influence and impact as he follows his calling as founding Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Additionally his work in the church planting movement Acts29 and ministry in The Resurgence and various high profile connections with some of the leading theologians of our time, has elevated Driscoll to monumental “influential” status in Christianity and indeed the world – being recently included in Seattle’s Top 25 most influential people (and this in the city of Microsoft, Starbucks and Kurt Cobain!)
But push all that stuff aside and you have a guy sold out to his hero – Jesus Christ. The “Burn Your Plastic Jesus” event was designed to destroy the false views of Jesus held by Sydneysiders (a bunch of Australians inferior to Melbournians) and to replace it with a biblically accurate rendition of what Jesus said and did.
Thanks to Dave Miers, here are the 7 plastic Jesus perceptions Driscoll addressed:
Religious Jesus
Bling Jesus
Moral Jesus
Aussie Jesus
Country Jesus
Spiritual Jesus
Pensioner Card Jesus
It’s my personal opinion that Driscoll held back on his assessment on many of these areas – in particular the Bling Jesus – which stands for “prosperity gospel.” He did mention that Sydney has a likening to “Bling Jesus” in particular referring to a 11% increase in “Bling Jesus” denominations. Anyone who knows Driscoll knows that he can’t stand the “prosperity gospel” and undoubtedly he was referring to Hillsong and like minded denominations. But as a guest to our shores – he held back. Which was kind of strange for him.
But his pictures of the various “jesus” stereotypes and his explanations had everyone laughing – except for those who held onto these views. I was blown away at how much he understood our culture as he went through these stereotypes.
He then took a few mobile phone Q & A’s before nailing what Jesus said and did. In particular, he addressed the following areas:
Jesus said he came down from heaven (John 6)
Jesus performed miracles
Jesus said he was God (Mark 14:61-64 + John 10:30-35)
Jesus said he was without sin (John 8:46)
Jesus forgave sin (Mark 2)
Jesus is the way, truth and life and no-one comes to the Father but through him (John 14:6)
These are taken out of his book Vintage Jesus and in his explanations, he trashed the plastic views. Personally I felt as if he rushed this area a little and would have loved to see him rip into the Revelation 19 rendition on the reality of our Glorified King – as was printed on our booklets. His teaching in this area is some of the best bible teaching I have ever heard!
But by this stage, he had been talking for a good 1.5 hours and to an unaccustomed crowd to long teaching, this may have been a little tiring. Additionally like a good guest, I think Driscoll didn’t want to come across too strong in his views as this was his first visit here.
Having a chat with him after the event, he mentioned that he plans to hold an Acts29 bootcamp in 16-18 months time and is meeting up with John Piper and Matt Chandler next month to convince them to come down for the event. Now that would be cool indeed!
Overall an awesome night! Jesus was glorified, Driscoll was funny and the venue was packed! Check out the five minute clip below of some of his teaching including a dig on the Bryon Bay dopers! Like I said, in his 3 weeks here, he nailed our culture to the bone! Truly a missional mindset!
I’m all for missional churches where the timeless message of Jesus is shared in a way relevant to modern culture. But, and it’s a huge BUT, a line needs to be drawn when church is done in a missional way to cater for the downright fallen nature of mankind.
A good example of this is found in the following video where a church is held in, of all places, an abandoned drive in theater. Check out the video below: (just get passed the 30 second ad at the beginning)
“Since I’ve been retired, I’ve decided to take the easy way and sit in the car.”
This was one of the comments of an attendee at this so called church. Really? The easy way? What ever happened to counting the cost and “taking up your cross” and all that? As Jesus sweated drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, did He do this so people can “take the easy way?”
I know the “emergent type” people would embrace this kind of church as it embraces modern culture. But even the reporter asked the question:
“What about community and fellowship?”
To which a glib reply was that people get together before and after church for coffee and catch up session. Nope sorry. this type of “church” sucks in a major way. This church is catering for a mindset of:
“Let’s go to church this week to make us feel good. We get our message and feel all holy and sanctified – and we can do it in our cars while we pat our dog. We then can go home and feel justified that we got our fill of the word and we can do it all the easy way.”
Check out the article here to see some of the comments. An unbelieving world hates this kind of crap and the witness they leave behind is almost as putrid as as their so called church. I guess it’s all summarised with the comments from the “pastor” when the reporter asked:
“Isn’t there a risk, when all is said and done, that it’s so convenient – God won’t count it?”
Where the pastor replies:
“I know she does”
Give me something to punch right now! Why is the “Church” in such a spastic condition? I guess my King knew of this when His Spirit uttered to Paul to write down the following words:
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” 1 Tim 4:3
These old farts put their own comfort above the Body of Christ. In doing so they make the Head look like an idiot.
With all the talk these days about Emergent/Missional and Seeker Sensitive Churches plus the discussion around liberal or fundamental Churches and whatever else, I ground myself in Scripture as to what to expect as a reaction to the Gospel being taught.
As Christians, lets not kid ourselves about the message we deliver. We preach Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and the reasons for it. This is the Gospel and this is the message we are asked to spread across the whole earth.
All the different streams of Christianity mentioned above attempt to get this message across in a meaningful way in the hope that people respond to it. But what gets in the way is when we deliver it in a way to maximize acceptance rather then focus on the substance of what we teach.
More and more I am shifting my opinion to focusing on the message instead of focusing on the acceptance of it. And in doing so, scripture says that we will always encounter 3 responses to what we believe:
Disbelief and mockery
Interest and further discussion
Belief and commitment
As anyone following this blog would know, I am a fan of Mark Driscoll and the Church he pastors – Mars Hill Church. Mars Hill gets its name from an interesting passage of scriptures found in Acts 17 when Paul visits Athens. The entire story can be read here.
In a nutshell, Paul visits Athens and is moved by the idolatry found there. Being the center of civilised society, Athens is alive with culture, education and arts. But because of the idols found in the town, Paul is moved to reason with the Jews, devout people, anyone in the market place and philosophers about the Gospel.
Read the passage this way: Paul speaks to everybody and anybody about the Gospel. And in doing so, he comes across Epicurean & Stoic philosophers. The “epics” taught that the pursuit of pleasure, not knowledge, is the meaning of life. The “stoics” taught that wisdom is found in being free from intense emotion, unmoved by joy or grief and a belief that everything in nature is God – aka pantheism.
In many ways, what the “epics” and “stoics” stood for is what we in modern society also hold dear to our hearts. So perceived as a “babbler,” Paul is asked to address Mars Hill – where all these goonies get together and try to “out-philosophise” each other. There, Paul tells the Gospel in a relevant and missional way – a way their mindset is able to digest.
The result of this?
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Acts 17:32-34
Here are our 3 responses:
Some mocked
Some wanted to know more
Some believed
What Paul did was address Mars Hill in a relevant, and yet confrontational way – not shying away from controversial issues and then he hit the topic of resurrection. And this is when “the *@!# hit the fan” at Mars Hill. Anything in regards to resurrection was a major issue at Mars Hill given their philosophical beliefs – and this is probably why Paul didn’t get to finish his spiel and get to his favorite topic – the resurrection of his Messiah. And Paul simply left Athens leaving a few members of Mars Hill as believers, some wanted to know more and probably most chasing him out of Athens in mockery.
Fast forward 2000 years and we find ourselves in the ridiculous cycle of which “conversation” or approach is better in getting people to accept the Gospel of Jesus. I hear and get every perspective:
To the fundamentals, I get your desire to hold onto truth and prevent the twisting of scripture in order to make the Gospel more “palatable” to the masses.
To the emergents, I get your desire to present the Gospel in a relevant, new and fresh way – to keep up with the times.
But what I don’t get is when “fundies” hold onto traditions while forsaking modern culture. And what I don’t get is when “emergies” in their pursuit of relevance, question the doctrines of scripture. It’s OK to question traditions – but don’t question doctrine.
To both camps, I say: Remember that the truth of the Gospel will always encounter 3 responses:
Disbelief and mockery
Interest and further discussion
Belief and commitment
That’s why I so like the “missional” mindset of Christianity – to present the never changing truths of Scripture in a modern cultural context. Forget about the two extremes of the church - fundamentalism and liberalism – they focus on irrelevant issues.
Paul presented the Gospel in a cultural context. At Mars Hill, he didn’t bother getting into historic Judaism as he did elsewhere – he met his listeners where they were at. But he didn’t shy away from tough topics which made him look like a goofball to some and downright offensive to others. He stuck to the truth, he experienced the “3 responses” and he moved on.
Some mocked. Some wanted more. Some believed. Paul left Athens.
When the modern Church teaches, it has to understand that the same principles apply:
Teach truth in cultural context.
Don’t shy away from tough topics.
Experience the 3 responses.
Move on.
I hope I’ve opened that can of worms inside. Please tell.
Chances are if you spend time online, you have a Facebook account. If you don’t know what Facebook is, then get your head around these stats:
More than 70 million users use Facebook
Facebook is the 6th most trafficked website in the world
Number one photo sharing application online
14 million photo’s uploaded each day
More than 2 million people are on Facebook at any given time
Facebook is a social networking site where users have the opportunity to connect to people they know and share whatever they like. Sounds like the online world loves Facebook. So the question beckons, where do we need to be as a Church to reach this world?
Apart from manning our pews on the weekends, we need to be where the people are. And Facebook is one of those places. Chris Forbes, founder of Ministry Marketing Coach, has released a 31 page free eBook on the subject called, “Facebook For Pastors – How to build relationships and connect with people using the most popular social network on the internet.” This eBook covers the following topics:
How to make the most of your profile information
Tips for Networking with People in Facebook
All about groups, messages, poking, etc
Brand Your Ministry
Meet prospects for your church
Learn more about the members in your church
Fine tune your communication skills
Testimonies from Pastors who use Facebook
and much more!
Download it for free here! I wanted to post it here to get the word out. I will read it in due course and pass it onto my Pastor for his consideration. Would you pass it onto yours?
Paul says..
I’m all for missional churches where the timeless message of Jesus is shared in a way relevant to modern culture. But, and it’s a huge BUT, a line needs to be drawn when church is done in a missional way to cater for the downright fallen nature of mankind.
