S.E.E.D.S Music Video: Design Post

A while back I posted about a Christian Rapper named Canvas that I though had real talent and had pure Gospel in his lyrics.  I had the privilege of working with him for the past few weeks filming a video for the title track S.E.E.D.S.   It was a lot of fun, not just shooting the video, but also sitting around talking about Jesus with him.

At any rate, the video is included below:

The Gospel Has Words

Have you ever heard the quote: "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words"?

The saying is often attributed to St. Francis Assisi.  It basically argues the idea that Christians spend too much time talking about Jesus and not living like Him, which has its merits to be sure, but one of the things Jesus did during His time on Earth is proclaim the kingdom of God--out loud, with words, using his mouth, talking to people.  He did not pull His punches.  He was not politically correct; in fact, He was deeply offensive, so much so that those who disagreed with Him killed Him.

And just to be clear, St. Francis Assisi probably didn't author the quote above, and if he did, he certainly didn't mean that Christians ought to solely use their "silent testimony" and never share the Gospel out loud lest they offend someone.  How do we know? 

We know because St. Francis Assisi was a fiery preacher that condemned sin and preached the Gospel.  He said crazy things like “repent, performing worthy fruits of penance, because we shall soon die . . . Blessed are those who die in repentance for they shall be in the kingdom of heaven. Woe to those who do not die in repentance, for they shall be children of the devil whose works they do and they shall go into everlasting fire."  And then he sent his followers out as missionaries to proclaim this message, not really a silent, “look at my actions” thing to do.

And most importantly, let’s not forget that the Gospel is good news.  Unless you’re a mime, how do you share news without using words to communicate it?  And without the good news of Jesus Christ, how can anyone be saved?

So, pursue social justice: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and champion the powerless; live out your faith: flee from sin, love your neighbor as yourself, pray for the sick, and obey the commandments; but don’t do it with your mouth shut: preach the Gospel, proclaim the kingdom of God, and give glory to God for any good that comes out of your life because He is worthy!

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14)

Why are Christians so Power Hungry?

There are a few different types of power hungry Christians that I’ve met over the years.  There are the Dominion groups, both conservative and charismatic, who want to take over the world for Christ the king, either politically, socially, or spiritually.  There are the signs and wonders groups that want to call down fire from heaven anytime they should so desire.  There are the legalists who like to rule over their followers through condemnation.  And there are the traditionalists and denominationalists that set up hierarchies of power to maintain proper distance between individuals and God.

The thing is all of these groups have taken elements that Jesus taught and built man-made traditions around them.   But the kind of power a Christian should seek can never be found in man-made traditions. 

Jesus once told the disciples, “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven." (Luke 10:19-20)

Jesus also said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

If you want to know power, seek to know God.  He doesn’t need your help to bring His kingdom to earth, He doesn’t need your help to perform signs and wonders, He doesn’t need your help to convict sinners, and He doesn’t need your help as mediators when dealing with people. 

But when you know Him, when you speak to Him and He speaks back, when you submit to Him and obey His commandments, when you love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might, He will endow you with power from on high to accomplish His will on Earth, which might include all those things mentioned above.

The point is don’t start out thinking you know what’s best when it comes to wielding God’s power.  You are not a superhero out to save the day.  Don’t pray, “God give me the ability to do ‘x, y, or z’.” Rather, seek God’s face because He’s God.  Get to know the One who gives and takes away.  Pray, “God I want to do whatever you want me to do today.  I’m totally submitted to You because I love You.” Serve Him in your weakest moments just as lovingly and confidently as in the moments where it seems like all of heaven is at your beck and call, not because of anything He can do for you, but because of Who He Is:

The I Am, The Beginning and the End, the Creator, the Almighty One, Savior, Deliverer, Provider, Healer, the Jealous One, Merciful and Just, Father, Bridegroom, Brother, Friend . . . Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come!

Why Doesn't God Speak to Us More?

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a survey titled: If You Could Experience God . . . The question was “If you could experience God physically one way, which would you rather do”, and the following options were given:

Feel God

See God

Hear God

Taste God

Smell God

The results of the survey were

9%    Feel God

18%  See God

73%  Hear God

It’s encouraging to see so many wanting to hear God’s voice over any other physical encounter with God, but why aren’t more hearing the voice of God.  I think it has to do with our prayer lives.

Most Christians have a very shallow personal prayer life.  We pray in church, and we pray over our meals, and sometimes when struggles come up in life or if we really, really want something, we pray for help.  Our corporate prayer life is even more dismal, in that we might have a Sunday school prayer and a prayer during service, but there’s not much beyond that.  And the average duration for any of these prayers?  Less than 5 minutes.  According to a recent Gallup poll, the average Christian in America spends one hour a week praying.  One hour a week for the Almighty God, that’s all we can spare.

Let’s compare that to some of the other world religions:

Muslims are required to pray five times a day facing Mecca, each of these prayers are 10 – 15 minutes in duration.  So that’s about an hour a day. 

Hindus pray and meditate at least three times a day, usually lasting several minutes, hours, or days.

Buddhists meditate for hours, days, and sometimes months at a time. 

It doesn’t really matter which direction you turn all the other religions spend more time in devotion to their deities then average Christians do.  Why?

Exodus 20:18-19 has the answer.  God has just called all the Israelites to meet Him on the mountain.  He’s delivered the ten commandments audibly with a visual display of His glory, and it says, “All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die."  God is offering to be their God and offering a relationship with them unlike any other in history since the fall, where He will talk to them audibly, and they reject it out of fear.

Just like the Israelite’s on the mountain, God has offered us a personal relationship with Himself unlike anything offered before.  To have Him dwell within us and redeem us, yet we don’t pray as often as these other religions. Why?

It’s because we have a living God who will answer us.  It’s easy to pray or meditate all day when nothing is going to answer.  But we know He’s going to answer, and we’re afraid of hearing His voice.  We’re afraid of feeling His presence.  We know that when He comes near, He’ll point out all those things that we do wrong, and He’ll require change.  We know that He’s going to turn our comfortable little worlds upside down, so we stay silent.  We approach quickly and nimbly with trite empty prayers and run away before He can reply, and we say, “Pastor, you talk to God and tell us what He says.”  

Futurecast: What Today’s Trends Mean for Tomorrow’s World

George Barna and his Barna Group are some of the most trusted names in market research for Christian ministries, non-profit organizations, and various media and financial corporations.  While in 1984 the company was originally founded as a simple research company, in 2004 the company regeared its focus to research and facilitating transformation based on that research.

Futurecast is a collection of the most recent data on the Christian demographic in the nation coupled with Barna’s predictions for the next 5 years based on that data as well as transformative suggestions on how to act on that data.  One of the biggest changes those familiar with Barna’s early years will notice is the steer away from trying to initiate social change from the top down (government, business, education, etc), to focusing on how we can impact individuals for the kingdom in our sphere of influence. 

Personally, I think that should be obvious, but I know many Christians, and I’m sure you do too, who would rather take on the government in all its abstract bureaucracy than tell their neighbor about Jesus.  But as Barna points out, individuals make up society.  Reaching one person who reaches one person who reaches one person who reaches one person is an exponential catalyst for social change. 

If I had to pick one thing to critique, it’s Barna’s championing of the home church movement as something new and separate.  While I wholeheartedly support the home church movement in the U.S., I don’t think it needs to separate from the legacy church and form its own denomination like Barna implies. While he doesn’t push it too strongly in this book, I just finished another book that Barna coauthored entitled Small is Big where that idea is presented pretty forcefully (Click here to read my review of Small is Big).  However this critique is at best a side-note to Futurecast and doesn’t detract from the book at all.

Overall, the numbers Barna presents in his book about U.S. culture and Christianity are not overly shocking, though there are a few surprises in there.  If you’re at all interested in where our nation stands in terms of its Christian culture, then I recommend Futurecast whole heartedly.

Thanks to Tyndale Publishing for sending me a free copy in return for my honest opinion.

Buy it now: $16.49

Small is Big

Tony and Felicity Dale | George Barna

What is a church? Is it a denomination, a building, or is it a people?  Are two or three enough to be a church like Matthew 18:20 suggests?

In the book Small is Big, the Dales and George Barna present a look at the growing movement of simple churches spreading throughout the world.  Perhaps the most famous are the house churches of China, which have spread out of a necessity via a repressive government. (See Brother Yun’s Heavenly Man and Paul Hattaway’s Back to Jerusalem)  The stories that have come out of these churches have caused many traditional church goers begin to wonder if they were missing something about what Christ intended His church to look like.  Small is Big looks at models of simple/house churches in the world, what goals of the simple/house church should be, how these churches relate to legacy and mega churches, and also the Dale’s experience in planting and networking simple churches.

Overall, I loved the book.  I have pushed off this review for days trying to think of things that I could critique, and while I can certainly point to doctrinal issues I don’t necessarily agree with, the overall position they take is that the simple church, the legacy church, or the mega church are all God’s churches, and He should be the ultimate power and authority of every position of leadership, revelation, counseling, outreach, and doctrine.  And it’s hard to argue with that because it’s true.

The one thing I did disagree with, that I think is worth mentioning, is the notion that simple churches are largely incompatible with legacy or mega churches.  That they cannot be small groups of those larger churches or that members of the simple churches have to give up going to their larger churches and just focus on their simple church.  I think simple church leaders would benefit greatly by having a legacy or mega church home, especially one that was willing to be a network hub for their churches with a pastor or leader who could give resources, guidance, and prayer when it’s needed rather than just dividing the simple church or networked church from the rest of the body.  I see simple churches as fingers and hands.  They are more outward focused than most of the body, and they do a lot of great, skillful work, but separated from the arms (legacy) and the torso (mega), fingers don’t have much strength or purpose.  The Dales admit to receiving a lot of help from these sources, but they discourage those starting simple churches from continuing to attend at legacies and megas.  It seemed to be a contradiction.

All in all, Small is Big a great resource for the simple church movement beginning here in the West.

I received a free copy of the book for review from the publisher.  All opinions are my own.