Passion Burns Within

I am teaching on Baggage tomorrow

someone posted this on facebook i liked it

I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within.”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy.”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
This is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.

And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it .

Read the message, then read it again in reverse.

Which generation do you belong in?

hope you enjoyed

Socrates posed the idea that the unexamined life is a life not worth living.   The concept behind this rings true for me on a variety of levels. On a personal level the culture surrounding us continuously sells us a bill of goods on how to think act and speak.  It is commonplace for a person to accept the “standards” of success, beauty and happiness that is flashed in front of them. In reality those ideals can be unattainable and leave us empty. On a professional level there are many who would qualify their work by certain benchmarks and the professional world would uphold those as the keys to success. But what if their is something more? What if success is more fluid and less concrete a concept? On a spiritual level as a Christian it is easy to fall into the trap of going through the motions and adhering to the “do’s and don’ts”  list that we like to promote.  But what if Christianity is more than prayer, study and going to church three times a week?  Does abstaining from sex, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and foul speech really qualify me to be a golden boy of the Christian faith?  To me a life unexamined means accepting the status quo which means missing the point and the greater things in life. Average is okay but in any arena in this world average does not accomplish much. As a avid sports fan I know that if your team is average there will be some changes made , usually starting with leadership.   Average does not take much effort and  as the adage goes “nothing worth anything comes easy”.

To question the truth of Socrates statement appeals for ,what I believe to be ,a complicated answer.  At the core of the statement and the beginning of complication is the word “worth”.   As I have learned in the few lectures that  I have covered to date the principle focus of philosophy is to question and discover truth about fundamental ideas. So when we discuss the “worth” of something we have to ask “What is worth” and “Who determines worth”.   There is also some problematic phraseology here at the end of the statement.  Surely we would not advise someone to take there life if they were not willing to examine their lives. Could their lives make an impact if they simply accepted the status quo?  I am positive that there are many people that have accepted th status quo that are dearly loved and treasured.  They may find fulfillment in the status quo but may also be blind to what they are missing.  It seems that from an outside in perspective that the statement has merit but their are many other co-factors that need to be addressed before it can be expressed as implicitly true

Steven furtick posted a great blog this morning here

It addresses a concern I have had for some time about motivations. To many times it is about where we stand as a little c church and not a big C church. That is why we are floundering. That is why 75% of my county is not attending church and not being productive Christians. We need to focus on reaching people for Christ no matter where they are or where they wind up attending church.  I often tell people who either inactive or unhappy with our church that they need to be involved in a church and if they don’t like ours anymore find one they can be active in. In the end it is about the Kingdom expanding not my church’s roll

While serving in my first paid staff I served under a great man of God who enabled some shifts in my philosophy of ministry.  One of those shifts was the concept of Ministering where the ministry was. That is to say that one should not get bogged down in a format to the point that is missing out on opportunities to reach people for Christ.

This is a plague on many churches that are either stuck in  tradition or sold on a “model”.   Too many times we force things that we think should work but don’t work in our situation. For example, if you have a youth ministry that meets on Sunday night but have more youth coming to your Wednesday night function that wasn’t meant for them then you need to shift your efforts to Wednesday night.  This may seem simple but think about how mind blowing  and earth shaking this would be in  most churches.  To take a long standing beloved program and eliminate it in favor of something new on a completely different night would make many church members take up arms.   This is an unfortunate reality but a reality we must deal with. The fact of the matter is that many churches let decades pass before they make changes. In the end many people slip through the cracks and fail to be ministered to. This kind of tragedy is one that the church has far to long turned a blind eye to and is why Sunday attendance and church membership is slipping at an alarming rate.

When you get right down to it there is no Biblical mandate for when we minister only THAT we minister. So find where your ministry is and get going.

This video is circulating the scene right now.

It is a great story but that is all it is…. a story. Countless times it has been discredited as a urban legend or myth. Unfortunately pastors and church leaders continue to try to pass it off as fact. This causes many problems.

1. It shows people on the outside how easily we can be fooled by a lie and makes them more skeptical of our position

2. When we defend it as truth it reveals our stubborness

3.  When we discover it was made up we take a hit to our confidence

Ultimately stories are great but Truth is better the truth of Christ trumps all and we should always rely on that!

My friend Chris has posted a blog on change.

You can read it here