Happy Birthday to ME!

Actually, it’s not my birthday.  My birthday isn’t until December.

BUT . . .

One year ago today, APK’s Attic was launched in blog form.

In that 1 year of time, there have been 192 posts (193 including this one) and 32 comments.

I hope it has been worth everyone’s time to read, and I hope your lives have been impacted.  There’s so much more to come!

Back from Baltimore

It’s almost midnight on Sunday night, so I’m just going to do quick-hits . . .

• Our trip to Baltimore was good.
• The trip BACK was not so great.  45 minutes late taking off, a detour to refuel in Savanna, and finally landing in Atlanta over four hours late because of the crazy weather in Atlanta this weekend.
• The Savanna airport has designated “non-smoking” areas, because you can smoke anywhere else.  What’s up with that?
• Our time IN Baltimore was helpful.  Overall, things went how we expected them to, but not as good as we had hoped.  We have a lot of stuff to think about and evaluate.
• Best part of the trip was being able to get out and talk to people in a few locations.
• We had a Garmin (GPS) in our rental car.  Now I want one.
• I swear the rental car was smaller than this car. It was a Chevy and the body made pinging noises while we were sitting at stoplights.  It made for good humor, and got us where we needed to go.  Not to mention it worked well for city traffic.
• Roxie (our Chihuahua) was so excited to see us she couldn’t sleep and kept us up most of the night last night.
• My Google Reader had 56 blog posts on it that I read over the past hour and a half.  I think I might cut off some blogs to give me more time to do more important stuff.
• Journey Church rocked today.
• Eric had his preach on this morning.  He was kinda hollerin’ at one point.
• Several guests on a Spring-Break weekend.
• One couple that came was invited by my wife. 
• I love my wife!
• No Growth Groups this week — get out in the community, invest, and invite!
• Easter is next week.  We’re pumped about the stuff we have lined up for families.
• I have to go to work tomorrow.
• I need to get some sleep.

Another Long Saturday

Emily and I have committed to having a dinner date on Thursdays and a stay-home together night on Fridays.  We made this decision several weeks ago and are pretty much sticking to it.  With me essentially working 3 jobs right now, my Saturdays are very busy.  Emily accepts that as reality for now.  She’s cool with it, because she knows she has me on Friday nights.  That’s her night, and I look forward to giving it to her each week.  She’s definitely worth it.  Actually, she’s worth a whole lot more than I could ever give her.

Well, today was a typically busy Saturday.  I completed my first-ever monthly report for the Baltimore association.  Filling out the form probably helped me realize how much we have to do than it did help me feel like we’ve gotten a lot accomplished.  However, I feel like part of the team in some small way. 

I also did my usual Travel Guide and got it online for the Growth Groups at Journey.

AND, Emily and I cleaned the house up enough to get some pictures taken and I uploaded them to our InfoTube listing site.  As I worked on my computer in the office, I saw several people pick up brochures today.  It sure would be nice if we could sell our house soon.  It would be a huge step in moving into church planting quickly.

I’m looking forward to a couple days off from architecture to go to the ChurchPlanters.com conference.  I’m ready to EVOLVE!

Well, it is now midnight.  I’m off to bed.

True Religion (4 of 4)

It’s Saturday, so I need to finish up the “True Religion” series before we start a new idea at Journey tomorrow.

To recap, we’ve been doing a blog follow-up series on Matt. 6:1-18.  We asked the question, “What if Jesus preached this passage today?  What religious activities would he talk about?”

We finish up the series by discussing the “religious activity” of evangelism . . .

Evangelism

When you share your faith, do not be like the hypocrites. For they schedule their evangelism and target people with no regard for the person they are targeting. The number in a book is their reward. Instead, invest in peoples’ lives quietly, living an exemplary life before them, taking advantage of the opportunities to share truth day by day. Then your Father who sees your quiet influence will reward you.

Churches spend countless hours in “Evangelism Training Programs.”  There’s Evangelism Explosiong, F.A.I.T.H., L.I.F.E., Share Jesus Without Fear, and countless other programs out there to help Christ followers know how to share their faith.  The premise behind each and every one of these programs is necessary.  We need to spend time helping people understand how to share their faith in Jesus.  Additionally, many of these programs offer a scheduled time during the week to go out into the community and practice sharing your faith.  This offers accountability to be about the business of sharing your faith.

However, recent research has shown that the results of these efforts may actually be doing more harm than good.  (If you want more on this, go buy and read UnChristian– it’s a must-read for 21st Century American Christians!)  People who are outside of the Christian faith see our “scheduled” evangelism as being EQUAL TO Mormons and JW’s coming and knocking on doors.  You know how YOU feel about those groups . . . People see us the same way!

The other big cmplaint revealed in UnChristian is that this tactic makes people feel like they are a target . . . That we only care about them to get them to agree with us.  The reverse should be true . . . We should want them to agree with us because we care about them.  The only way to overcome this is not to turn every conversation into a “you must accept Jesus” message.

When my wife (I love you, Emily!) comes to me with something she’s struggling with, she doesn’t always want me to “fix it.” Sometimes she just needs to vent. Sometimes she just wants me to hug her and let her know I will be with her through the situation.  Sometimes she does want a word of wisdom.  Sometimes she really does want me to fix it.

Our relationships with outsiders should be approached the same way.  The key word: LISTEN!  Listen to what they have to say.  Try to empathize with them.  Try to understand their perspective.  Demonstrate you genuinely care about them and what they think.  THEN, you will probably get enough of their respect to actually share the Gospel with them in a meaningful way.  You may even get a response.

I’ll be honest.  I’m really bad about this one.  It’s a lot easier for me to talk to people cold-call about Jesus.  It’s harder to talk to people I know.  THIS IS REALLY STUPID!!!  I mean, for real.  If the Gospel is really as important and essential to true life as I claim it is, I wouldn’t worry about losing a friendship like I do with people I know.  AND, if the Gospel is truly about expressing the LOVE of GOD, I would want to build relationships with them in conjunction to sharing the Gospel.

I’m a real idiot on the evangelism thing.  This last topic was last for a reason, because I need your prayers to help me see people the way God sees them.  My maturity as a Christ follower depends on it.  My future in ministry depends on it.  My ability to influence the world around me depends on it.

Until next time . . .

True Religion (2 of 4+)

Yesterday we began a follow-up series on Matt. 6:1-18.  We asked the question, “What if Jesus preached this passage today?  What religious activities would he talk about?”

So far, we identified three topics.  Today, I want to begin expanding on those topics.  We begin with Worship:

WORSHIP

When you worship, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they look forward to their worship experience from week to week and talk about their conferences and events to be known as religious. They have received their reward. But when you worship, consider how God is asking you to change your life throughout the week. And your Father who sees your heart will reward you.

When I consider WORSHIP as a religious activity in the 21st century . . . I think our tendencies to pervert true worship tend to fall into three major camps.  Interestingly enough, at different seasons in my life, I have fallen into each of the three camps, so I do not write to point fingers, I write out of my own journey.  All of us tend to lean toward one of these . . . Each of the camps have some validity, but our motivations need to be kept in check to keep it true worship.

Camp 1:  The Show

I thought long and hard about what to call this camp.  I could call it “Tradition,” “superficial,” “Outward,” or a number of things.  The basic idea with this camp is that we trade in genuine worship for superficial perspectives to try and impress each other.  I don’t care if it is dressing in your Sunday Best, or to have the highest quality church music around, to put on the biggest show, to have the best programs, or whatever.  If you are in this camp, you are in danger of trying to impress fellow Christians with your appearance or abilities more than you are of truly worshiping God.  A lot of traditional churches and “contemporary” churches of the 80’s and 90’s can easily fall into a routine of looking good and doing things “bigger and better.”  “We want to be the best church in town” is the call of this camp.

Camp 2: The Experience

Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between Camp 1 and Camp 2 because some churches fall into both . . . But the basic idea of this camp is that we trade in genuine worship for an incredible worship experience.  Whether it be incredible spiritual highs from special conferences, to the holy moment week-to-week, or the late night “worship session” at your friend’s house . . . You live for the worship experience more than the God you claim to worship.  You spend your days looking forward to the next High Holy Moment.  If you are in this camp, you are in danger of trying to impress either yourself or fellow Christians with your spirituality more than you are of truly worshiping God. I personally believe Louis Giglio, John Piper, and their gang saw their movement slipping into this camp, and that is why they cut back on the One Day and other Passion events. Hats off to these leaders for recognizing what the movement was becoming.  They aim at drawing us to worship God, not the worship experience.  True Worship leaves the worship event/room and infects our lives not with an excitement about worship, but a passion for God.  “We want to offer the best experience in town” is the call of this camp.

Camp 3: The Attraction

This camp is vastly different from the first two.  The first two camps trade in genuine worship to impress Christians.  The basic idea of this camp is that we trade in genuine worship for a concert for the unchurched. This is the camp a large number of church planters today would tend toward.  I am not accusing.  I tend to lean in this camp today.  There is nothing wrong with packaging the Gospel and Worship in such a way that it communicates to our culture and crosses barriers to the Gospel that the other two camps have built. However, in our attempts to communicate to our culture, we are in danger of trying to impress the unchurched more than we are of truly worshiping God.  This does not mean we remove all things secular from our worship services.  It does not mean we abandon our awesome bands and cool environments.  True Worship means we carefully use all of these things as a tool to draw those far from God into a place where they can come to know Him and worship Him. “We’re at least as cool as you are” is the call of this camp.

No matter what camp we tend to fall into, we tend to make worship about us.  Worship is about God and God’s work in us.  Anything else is hypocricy.

Until next time . . .

True Religion (1 of 4+)

Journey gave me the opportunity to bring the message yesterday.  I am going to use part of my message to begin a “teaching series” here on my blog . . .

We’ve been studying through The Sermon on the Mount . . . Yesterday we looked at Matthew 6:1-18 . . .

In this passage, Jesus talks about three big RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES that people were doing in his day . . . He instructed the crowds that doing the activities is important, but doing them for the right reasons is even more important.  Jesus talked about GIVING, PRAYER, and FASTING . . .

As part of our application . . . I asked a question:

What if Jesus taught this message today?  What would he talk about? What religious activities are popular today that he would instruct us to do correctly?

As examples, I came up with 3 big topics: Worship, Discipleship/Bible Study, and Evangelism.

What would Jesus say?  I suggested:

WORSHIP

When you worship, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they look forward to their worship experience from week to week and talk about their conferences and events to be known as religious. They have received their reward. But when you worship, consider how God is asking you to change your life throughout the week. And your Father who sees your heart will reward you.

Discipleship and Bible Studies

When you study the Bible, you must not be like the hypocrites who chase after every source of information available so that their knowledge amazes the people around them. Their knowledge is their reward. Instead, study your Bible carefully, expecting God to transform your heart. And your Father who knows your heart will reward you.

Evangelism

When you share your faith, do not be like the hypocrites. For they schedule their evangelism and target people with no regard for the person they are targeting. The number in a book is their reward. Instead, invest in peoples’ lives quietly, living an exemplary life before them, taking advantage of the opportunities to share truth day by day. Then your Father who sees your quiet influence will reward you.

Over the next few days, we’ll break-down these three topics and explain why I think Jesus would say this to Christ-Followers today.  If you have any other suggested “RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES” to discuss, leave a comment and I’ll think about adding it.

Double Duty Weekend

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but I am teaching at Journey Church tomorrow.  I love the opportunity to teach.  I am extremely thankful that Eric gives me the chance to teach because he is coaching me and helping me refine my preparation and delivery.  The few times I have gotten to teach at Journey have been extremely helpful to me. 

I have completely changed everything about my preparation and my style of message. What I was taught in seminary was great for the type of people most churches communicate to.  However, God is really working me over to plant a church that will connect with people far from God.  It’s not going to be easy.  Gary Lamb ranted about it today.  That kinda scares me.

To communicate to folks like that takes a totally different approach.  The message never changes.  However, how you prepare it and how you deliver it can and should be dramatically different.

That’s what I have to opportunity to learn how to do at Journey.

The biggest downfall right now . . . On weeks that I teach, I have double-duty on top of everything else I am doing.  It is 11:21pm. I am about 98% prepared for my message (I’ll never be 100%.)  And, I just uploaded this weeks’ Travel Guide.

One more email to my Growth Groups Leaders, and I’ll be off to bed . . .

I’m going to be wiped out for the Super Bowl in HD on the BIG SCREEN tomorrow night, but I’m excited to be there!

Oh, and teaching this week gave me an idea for a series of blogs for this week.  I want feedback and suggestions once I get it started, so stay tuned!

Crazy brainy day

I drained my brain a bit today.

I just realized how long and deep (and long) my blog post was earlier.  Obviously my brain was working quite well at that point.

I also got bogged down researching some stuff in the building code late this afternoon at work (have to pick up there in the AM)

Emily and I had a really good discussion just before dinner about some little things each of us can do to improve our relationship.

Then, I think the stuff I came up with for GG this week is pretty intense.  We’ll see what Eric thinks. 

My brain has just been shooting me all over the place today.  It’s after 11pm.  It’s time to shut it down and get some rest.

New Year running . . .

It’s already January 5, 2008.  CRAZINESS.

I don’t know about you, but I hit this new year running. I’m already working on my goals listed in my post earlier this week.

My one boss approached me this week and said we need to start working out a calendar for the year so everyone can plan on how we’re going to transition.  There’s so much planning to do to Transform Baltimore, and so many variables still outstanding, that I honestly don’t have very many specifics for a calendar.  Please be praying that a few items start falling into place so I can start refining the calendar.  I think it would be a great help for everybody . . . Godwin-Jones, Emily and me, Journey Church, and any potential team members and supporting churches out there.

Yes, the goals related to Transforming Baltimore probably affect every other goal I set out for this year . . . so that’s where I need to start.

I’m starting the assessment process soon . . . and as soon as I start that process, I am going to start concentrating on supporting churches and narrowing down a specific focus area in Baltimore.

Vince Antonucci has convinced me that a few team members to go with us will be nice, but we need to get a majority of our team in Baltimore, and a large percentage of those need to be people currently disconnected from church and/or God.  So, I’m a little less worried about “the team” as I was in the past . . . but there are still a few key players that I am praying for.

I have to admit, that one big prayer request is for wisdom in knowing when to put our house here in Auburn on the market to sell.  With the housing market as messed up as it is right now, Emily and I are very concerned about this.  I would love to run into somebody that wants to buy our house before we even put it on the market.  I like to pray big prayers sometimes, you know?

Please join us as we pray for a radical movement to Transform Baltimore.

A New Leaf . . .

I haven’t blogged in a coupe of days because I’ve been living in computer confusion.  I got an unexpected little early Christmas present this week.  So, this is my first blog entry from my new computer!

I know you Mac freaks out there are disappointed to find out that I am using yet another Dell.  Well, sorry, but the architecture industry generally works from AutoCAD, and AutoDesk doesn’t support Macs . . . so as long as I’m in this industry, I’ll either have to stick with a PC, or dual-boot a Mac, which is not something I want to do anytime soon.

So, here’s to my first blog entry from my new computer!