In Seth Godin’s book, Tribes, he states…

“Some tribes are engaged in change.  Many are not.  And it doesn’t matter whether it’s a church or a corporation, the symptoms are the same.  The religion gets in the way of the faith.  Static gets in the way of motion.  Rules get in the way of principle.” (my emphasis)

I completely agree!  In the church world we are so driven by doing “church” that we forget to BE the church.

We are constantly looking around to see what other churches are doing instead of being quiet and listening to what God wants us to do.  So we become “cookie-cutter” churches and “cookie-cutter” christians that all look the same, act the same, dress the same, and all have the same (crappy) religion!

And, guess what?  That religion gets in the way of true faith!  It’s stops us from taking real action.  We get off message so we are sure to stay “in the rules.”

Let’s kill the religion and live in faith!

Maybe then we can be about that change Seth is talking about.

peace.out.

This past week I continued my series on Luke.  I was in chapter 20 verses 20-26 (if you want to check it out).

I said some things that are not very popular with our American christian culture.  And I wanted to reflect a little on that, and clarify some things.

One of the comments I said was that America is just another man-made empire… just like Egypt, Rome, or any other empire.  I’m sure that did not sit well with most people.  Americans are very proud of our nation (as we should be), and we don’t like it when we are told that we might be wrong or we might be evil.  Here’s the deal… I get that we are “better” than Hitler’s Germany, or Hussain’s Iraq.  No arguement there.  But that really isn’t my point.  My point is that we as Christians and Church people should be willing to go beyond our patriotism and recognize we have a single citzenship – in Heaven, not a dual citizenship- Heaven and America.

In Luke 20 it describes Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.  He immediately went to the Temple and cleaned up! Literally!  He brought the serious smack and told them “You have turned a house of prayer into a house of profit!”

My question is this.

Where did the cheif priests and leaders of the Jewish nation learn to “turn a profit”?  Where did they learn how to weasel people out of their money?  Was it from the Scriptures?  Was it from the law of Moses?  NO!  They learned it from the Romans!  In fact, the Jewish leaders of Jesus day were in bed with Caesar and Rome MUCH more than they would care to admit.

So, this is my point… the religious leaders of that day LOOKED more like Rome than Heaven.  They acted more like Caesar than God.  They had allowed the culture to dictate their behavior.  They had dual allegiances.  They were not set apart anymore.  There was nothing distinguishing them from the world.

That is our problem in America.  Our churches are run just like an American business.  Our church government looks like the American government.  Our values and actions are much more American than Christian.  When the church begins to look like the society in which it is found, then we are lost!  If we are honest – and I’m not stupid enough to think we will be- we will notice that our churches are a reflection of America and not of Heaven.  Where has the church learned to behave the way it behaves?  From watching the American way of life!  We are saturated with the culture.  We are called to be IN the world but not OF it.  I fear we have failed miserably.

America might be great.  You may think America is the greatest nation in history.  But we are not called to be American.  We are called to be the Holy Nation, set apart, set aside, for the purposes of God and Heaven! IN the world not OF it!

So let’s quit defending the American way of life and start having only ONE allegiance… to GOD and GOD alone!

peace.out.

This is one of the books I’m reading right now.  I love anything by Apple, so when I saw this at the bookstore the other day, I knew I needed to own it.  It’s not a book BY Job’s or even written WITH him.  The guy who wrote it has interviewed a lot of Apple people and has done a ton of research on Apple over the past 12 years.

This book is Leander Kahney’s attempt to give the masses an understanding of how Steve works and how he runs Apple.  There are a ton of life lessons and work lessons in this book.  As a leader, I really like how this book is put together. At the end of each chapter Kahney gives us a section called “Lessons from Steve,” bullet points that we can put into action in our workplace.

Here is an example…

Chapter 1 is about Focus.  At the end here are the “Lessons from Steve:”

* Get Busy.

* Face hard decisions head-on.

* Don’t get emotional.

* Be firm.

* Get informed, don’t guess.

* Reach out for help.

* Focus means saying “no.”  ”Jobs focuses Apple’s limited recources on a small number of projects it can execute well.”

* Stay focused, don’t allow feature creep. (If you don’t know what feature creep is, get the book).

* Focus on what you are good at, delegate all else.

I find this stuff fascinating and very helpful.  You may be a PC Guy instead of Mac Guy… but that really doesn’t matter.  What Job’s has done a Apple is amazing and we ALL can learn from a great leader.  As i look at that list above, most of the pastors and churches I can think of don’t do a good job of that, and I think we could all learn from this kind of leader and corporation.

That’s my thoughts.  hope you get the book, and i hope you learn from it.

peace.out.

At theedge we talk about being relational a lot.  Why?  Well, because we believe everything good comes out of relationship.

I was talking to our staff yesterday as we were planning and praying about 2010.  I shared with them some thoughts about community and relationship that had impacted me.  These thoughts came from Larry Crabbs book called Connecting.  (Great book, by the way).

Here are a few of those thoughts that really hit home for us here at theedge…

“We will not heal many souls when ADVICE or INSTRUCTION is at the CENTER of our efforts.  Our power to influence lives does not come from telling people what to do.  Nor does it come from revealing to people the details of their internal mess.”

(Those are the two most common ways church treats people, by the way).

He goes on to argue, “Communities heal when they focus on releasing what’s good.”

Wow.  That is good stuff!  And i totally agree!

You see, the problem with the church today is we want to just tell people they are wrong and then give 3 easy points on how to do better.  We give pithy, pious advise and intruction.  Not that advice and instruction is bad or unneeded, it’s just not really what Jesus calls us to.  We are called to be LIKE Christ.  And, yes, Christ was a great teacher, advice-giver, instructor, but all His teaching was backed up by the most important thing…Love!  Relationship!  Connecting!

Jesus was a master at connection.  The reason His teaching and advice are so life changing is because He really cares about us.  You can sense the heart of Jesus in his interactions.  He deeply cares and is deeply connecting, which means he is focusing on releasing the good in each of us.

I want theedge to be that kind of place.  We are not hear to preach AT you or DOWN to you.  We are here to deeply connect with you, because we see the good in ALL of God’s creation.  And that kind of relationship is what brings healing… to YOU AND me.

love.love.serve.

This week I will be preaching out of Luke 18.  In the verses we are covering is this little nugget…  ”What is impossible with human beings is possible with God.”

I mean, really…Is there any other statement Jesus makes that captures the heart of what it means to follow God than this one?  Is there ever anything we can do to impress God?  Is there any amount of holy living or righteousness that entitles us to get anything from God? The answer is NO!

Anything we get from God is completely and totally mercy and grace. We do not deserve any of it. Why? Because, righteousness, holiness, eternal life, living Godly…ALL of it is impossible for human beings. We CAN’T do it! We are unable to live that way. The ONLY way to righteousness and forgiveness is through the free gift of God!

So, when it comes to being a Christian, remember, it is impossible to BE a Christian. We BECOME Christians because of the work of Jesus in our lives, not because we do or did anything.

love.love.serve.
peace. out.