GOD on Your iPOD: "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day

The newest offering by California-based punk rock band Green Day is 21st Century Breakdown. "Know Your Enemy," the first single released from the album came out in April of this year.

The repeated tagline of the song is "Do you know the enemy? Do you know your enemy? Well, gotta know the enemy, wah hey." The song is actually about anarchy, common fodder for the antiestablisment tendencies of punk. Other lines in the song that further the anarchic theme are: "Violence is an energy against the enemy," "Revolt against the honor to obey," "Overthrow the effigy, the vast majority," "Silence is the enemy against your urgency, so rally up the demons in your soul."

So, seen through the lenses of punk, the song sounds a common call to rise against the status quo, against the control of restrictive government or any other system that seeks conformity.

But, if you look with God lenses, there's much more that can be gleaned. The basic question is a vital one: "Do you know the enemy?" Let's make this simple. Far too few people really understand who the enemy is in life. We spend our days fighting with other people, fighting with traffic, fighting with our government, fighting with our finances, fighting with worries and stresses. And as a result, we lose sight of the real enemy, Satan.

And the refusal to acknowledge his reality, his activity, and his presence, is exactly what he wants. If we do not recognize him, we get caught up in things that don't matter. We make other people, people created in God's image, the object of our hatred and anger. We get frustrated over things that we aren't supposed to try to handle in the first place. We allow little goadings by the devil to "spur us on to hate and evil deeds." We spend our time on things that don't matter. We listen to lies that he tells us to discourage us, to keep us silent, to keep us from taking action, to keep us from following our God-given dreams.

It is vitally important that we know our enemy. Who is he? A few things the Bible tells us about him. He is the father of lies and everything that comes from his mouth is a lie. He is the accuser of the saints, standing before God always making accusations against God's people. He is a deceiver. He makes evil look attractive. He is a serpent and a dragon, but he masquerades in resplendent beauty as an angel of light. He has set himself against God and God's people and seeks to devour us like a lion on the prowl.

From the punk rock standpoint, the anarchy encouraged in the song is certainly a tool that our enemy loves to use. But, I think you can probably make something else out of the song, turning it on it's head entirely if you see Satan as the real enemy instead of an ordered society. I'll leave it to you to make the rest of the applications from the song. Let me know what you get.

GOD on Your iPOD: "Lifeline" by Papa Roach

Wow, it's been a reeeallly long time since I blogged about anything, but I got an idea for a new feature on the blog.

In May, we finished up a message series at The Crossroads called "GOD on your iPOD" in which we looked at the message of God's love that is written into so many of the songs that connect with us and that we listen to each week. Now, a little more explanation, I'm not talking about explicitly "Christian" songs. In fact, that was one of the requirements. The songs had to be from artists that did not exclusively bill themselves as Christian artists, although some of the artists may have been Christ followers. The songs also had to have charted well in some area within the last year. Beyond that, we were just looking for songs that showed that God speaks through and to people through music. If you'd like to hear more, you can listen to all of them on The Crossroads' podcast at http://www.welcometothecrossroads.com/.

I had more fun with this message series than any I have ever done before. We already have committed to doing a message series like this each year. I was really sad to see the series come to an end, and there were still so many songs that could have been a part of this series.

So, I've decided to just keep you posted on some of the music out there that peaks my interest, that causes me to think, and that connects me with the greater story of God's love as I encounter them. Maybe I'm the only one that will see the message in some of them, but I hope it will start some discussion and keep you listening to music with a discerning ear and listening for the still, small voice of God as he sings his love songs over us.

Alright, well, the first song I want to introduce you to is by the punk/hard rock band Papa Roach. The song is called "Lifeline." I first heard the song a month or so ago and immediately was captured by it. It talks about someone who has had some really big struggles in life and wants someone to throw them a lifeline. Listen and let me know what you think.

Unspeakable

Being silent is hard for me. Really hard. I am a people person. I like to connect with new people. I am a church planter, so talking to other people is a pretty vital part of my job. So going for three weeks without speaking at all was a huge blow to me.

Here's the story. In June of last year, I began to experience some hoarseness in my voice. I do speak for a half hour to forty-five minutes every week, so, being hoarse is not something out of the ordinary. However, I put my voice under some additonal strain by doing some singing and preaching. I was also under the stress of getting ready to start planting The Crossroads. Stress causes tightness in the throat, so that created more strain.

I didn't worry about it at first, but a week turned into a month turned into three months. I began to suspect that I probably had a cyst on one of my vocal cords. The same thing had happened four years earlier, and I was pretty sure it felt the same. The solution the previous time had been surgery to remove the cyst, but I was not too anxious to have another surgery. The surgery is quick (like 10 minutes) and simple (if there is such a thing when it comes to surgery), but there is a risk with surgery that I would be left permanently hoarse (not good).

So, I was reluctant to go to the doctor, as in I didn't go to the doctor until December. The doctor confirmed my suspicions and gave me two options: repeat the surgery with the aforementioned risk or go on complete vocal rest for three weeks. I reluctantly chose option B. My enforced silence started the week after Christmas and went halfway through the month of January.

Tough, really tough, and frustrating. Tough trying to communicate everything imperfectly through hand signals, grunts, facial expressions, and writing on a marker board. Tough not being able to join in conversations. Tough not being able to give instruction and direction (being a type A personality). Tough and frustrating being misunderstood, misinterpreted, and "misquoted" even by people who love and care for you. It was so refreshing when someone "got" what I was trying to say and so frustrating when I just had to give up trying to communicate because the conversation had already moved on before I could get out what I was wanting to say or because other people simply could not understand me.

I have been asked by a lot of people what God told me during that time, and here's what I got. One of the weeks of my silence covered a week when we were on a mission trip to Mexico delivering blankets, stuffed animals, and Spanish gospels. Being in a vanload of your friends for a twelve hour drive, going into Mexico as one of the few Spanish speakers, and not being able to talk, that was sheer misery.

The trip was phenomenal, as it always is. The first day in Mexico, I did what I always do. I cried. We took about 700 blankets into a little fishing village on the Gulf Coast. As we distributed them, I came face to face with the reality that always hits me: "It's not enough!" There are so many millions of people who need to know about Christ. There are so many hurting, hungry, cold, impoverished people. We as Americans are so blessed. And it's not enough. For the 700 people whose lives we blessed and with whom we were able to share something of Christ's message, there are millions more who need to feel his love and hear his message. It's just not enough.

Okay, okay. So, here's what I learned. The church is the body of Christ, and the vocal cords are getting strained. For too long we have relied on "career missionaries" to get the job done. We send them money every once in a while, we pray for them, we may send them cards and letters. But we have placed the full responsibility of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth on a tiny segment of the church. As a result, the voice of the church is often silenced, and maybe it has even become sick.

How can you see this? USAmerica is now the third largest mission field in the world. Our voice has been silenced even on our "home court." Our voice is no longer being heard. We do not have the strength to proclaim to the world, much less our own nation, the message of Jesus Christ. Why? In part because we have relied almost exclusively on the vocal cords of the church (missionaries, pastors, evangelists) to communicate the message. And that's not the way God designed the body.

You see, there is far more to communication than just the vocal cords. I learned from my doctor that I have to take better care of my voice by doing more than just pushing my vocal cords harder. Effective speach requires much more of the body. Good projection depends on the abdominal muscles, the lungs, lung capacity, breathing techniques, the mouth, the tongue, even what you eat or drink and when you eat or drink. Effective communication also requires more than just the voice. Facial expressions, eye contact, hand gestures, tone of voice, choice of words, all of these things are vital for effective communication. In short, the whole body must be involved to effectively communicate.

We need the whole body of Christ to be involved in sharing the message of Christ if we ever hope to "do enough" to reach the world for Christ. We need everyone to be involved at home and around the world in loving people, touching people, and sharing God's message with other people. I wonder if God sometimes feels frustrated that he has the most incredible message in the world for the world, but his voice is weak because his people are not carrying that message to all the world.

In Christ, we have been given "unspeakable joy" (1 Pet. 3:8), but that doesn't mean we don't speak about it.

Link

Check out Ed Stetzer's blog for an honest evaluation of what we have to do to stem the tide of decline in our churches: http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/.

Subbing for LaRissa

I spent the last two days substitute teaching for my wife, LaRissa. Subbing facilitates church planting in two ways. One, it helps supplement our income so that the needs of my family do not become a burden on the church plant. Very important. I would say, if you as a church planter, are not willing to consider the possibility of serving bivocationally to further the resources of the plant, you need to take a long, hard look at the call to plant.

Second, subbing gets me connected with kids, their parents, teachers, and administrators at the schools to give me one more connection point in the community. Subbing has given me the opportunity to have at least some beginning conversations with people about the plant.

Okay, so that's the reason for subbing. But what I really want to say is how much I have enjoyed subbing. Not at all what I expected. I thought I would be able to get through it and do a pretty good job at it, but really had no anticipation of enjoying it. But I am loving it. Okay, I said it.

LaRissa's class has been a joy over the last day and a half. Yeah, they can be rowdy. And, yeah, there are a couple of little boys who are real stinkers. But they are really a sweet class, and I just love seeing their little faces light up when you do something as simple as give them a "knuckle bump" for a job well done. (I've got to say, my wife is a phenomenal teacher, because her class was so easy to handle.) I have a real heart for the little boys who are stinkers. They want so badly to please you. You can just see that there is a battle going on inside of them. They want to please, but there is this energy inside that just has to come out. They will either make some of the most incredible lion-chaser, CEOs, or pastors in the world, or they will wind up in prison somewhere. The influence of some really good teachers will probably make a lot of difference.

Sure, some days I think applying the board of education to a kid would really help them out, and some days I am totally worn out. But, overall, I have surprised myself at how much I have liked it.

Family Stuff

I've kind of gotten you up to date on the plant, but what about the family? Many of you are probably interested in how LaRissa and the kids are doing.

As we start life in a new town, LaRissa has also started a new job. She is now the new 1st grade teacher at Joe K. Bryant Elementary in Anna.

LaRissa was pretty nervous about starting this new job. Before she got started she was already missing her friends from Pottsboro, but God has definitely blessed her as she strikes off on this new adventure.

Within her first week at school, LaRissa had already made incredible friends with the teachers on her team. She is having a blast working with some incredible ladies who she really loves. LaRissa is an incredible teacher and is already doing a great job in her new environment.

All of the teachers on LaRissa’s team came to our Kickoff Service. God continues to give LaRissa opportunities to be salt and light in her new job. Many of the opportunities we have had to connect with people in Anna have come as a result of her job. So, we thank God for that.

LaRissa plays keys for our worship band. Her skill level continues to grow incredibly, and she has such a passion for worship and worship music. I am so incredibly blessed to have a wife who not only supports my calling as a church planter, but who also has that same sense of calling and who is completely loving this amazing adventure we are on.

We also are so incredibly excited at how our kids are adjusting to life in a new school. James was a little nervous about starting in a new school, but he is making lots of new friends, and he is loving band. He is learning to play the saxophone. It sometimes sounds like he is strangling a goose, but he is getting better every day. Looks like he may have gotten his mother’s musical talent.

James is also loving our journey of being church planters. He said that he is enjoying church planting even more than when I was pastoring in an established church. One night a couple of weeks after school started, as he was saying his prayers, he prayed, “Lord, please let this week be over soon.” I thought, “Oh no, school is not going well.” After he prayed, I asked him why he prayed for the week to be over soon. He said, “Because I can’t wait for it to be time for church again. It is so awesome seeing people come to know Jesus!”

James and Grace are both playing soccer in Anna. They were not terribly excited about that because apparently Anna has the worst soccer team in the league. The exercise is good for them, though, and it gives us another opportunity to connect with people in Anna.

Grace and Katie are both students at Joe K. Bryant Elementary. They, too, are making new friends and enjoying their new school, even though they miss their old friends. The first part of this week, Grace went to the Collin County Adventure Camp for a couple of days and had a great time. (Kevin Spaeth, the director of the camp, and his team really do an awesome job.)

Grace helps out each week in the nursery at The Crossroads, and Katie helps in Kids’ Cove, our children’s area. All of our older kids are a big help with setting up and taking down each week. We really want them to see it as an incredible privilege to be a part of what God is doing and to be the pastor’s kids. Katie is taking tumble at Tiger Cat Tumble and Cheer, the place where we meet for worship each week. That is yet another opportunity for us to make connections in the community and forge a stronger relationship with our landlord.

Abby goes to daycare at Kiddie Kastle in Anna. She has lots of fun and is making new friends, too. We asked her what her friends’ names were and she said, “Umm, girls.” I still get to spend quite a bit of time with her. She is definitely Daddy’s buddy.

We are so thankful our kids are excited about this amazing adventure to which God has called our family. It is so neat to see them as active participants in our ministry who are learning at an early age what it means to be on mission Christians.

As for me, I am busy, busy these days. I spend quite a bit of time in my office (the Java Jams coffee shop in Brookshires) meeting new people, trying to be a pastor to the staff of Brookshires, and working on my computer. I also just this week started substitute teaching in Anna. If things go well, I should be able to teach quite a bit. This will be great because it will help supplement our income as well as giving me an inroads into the number one community connection in Anna, the schools.

Well, that's about all I've got for now.

Acts 1:8 Conference

I went to the Acts 1:8 Sent Conference in Austin this weekend with some other people who really have a heart for global missions. Reggie McNeal was the keynote speaker, and his message was wonderful. The basic content of what he had to say was that it is time for the church to "be the church" and stop "doing church."

Lots of good breakout sessions and the possibility of connecting with a group that does mission trips into the interior of Mexico doing saturation evangelism and planting churches. LaRissa made contact with a missionary in upstate New York, and there is the possibility of being able to partner with some new church plants in his area.

Think Outside the Bubble

More stuff from They Like Jesus but Not the Church:

One of the challenges of being missional and reaching people who aren't yet followers of Christ is actually having relationships with those people. The problem is that the longer you are a Christ-follower, the greater the likelihood that you don't know anyone who isn't a Christ-follower. You become trapped inside the Christian bubble.

Dan Kimball traces the steps by which this happens in the Christian's life:

Phase 1: We become Christians

"I recall reading that within the first year of someone's becoming a Christian, they tell approximately twenty people, from among their family and friends, about their faith and even invite them to church. This is only natural because generally everyone in a new Christian's circle of friends is outside of the church." p. 42

Phase 2: We become part of church life

"The longer we are Christians, the fewer number of friends we have who are not Christians. Even though Christians often work alongside non-Christians or have non-Christian neighbors or sit next to unbelieving students in class, we generally tend not to actually befriend them, or pray regularly for them, or get involved in their lives so they trust us and we can be the salt and light of Jesus to them. When I ask Christians who they went ot the movies with Friday night or who they went to the beach with last weekend, it usually turns out they went with Christians from the same church. ... Shouldn't it be that the longer we are Christians and the longer we walk with Jesus and understand the grace of God, the more we desire to see others experience God's grace as well? It seems incredibly ironic that as we mature and get to know Scripture better and get to know Jesus better and are transformed all the more by the Spirit, fewer non-Christians get to experience those things through relationships with us." pp. 42-43.

Phase 3: We become part of the Christian bubble

"Slowly we begin to see evangelism as something the church does, primarily through events. We get more excited about going overseas to the mission field on summer trips than about the mission field we live in every day. We start to see evangelism as inviting people to go to a church, where the pastor will do the evangelizing and explain Christianity, instead of spending time with people and talking with them and being the church to them. ... For the most part, only Christians are in our circle of peers. We begin buying little Christian stickers or put metal fish symbols on our cars, and we even have a few Christian T-shirts. We set our radios only to our favorite Christian radio shows, and most of the music we listen to is Christian. We make a trip to the amusement park that has the special Christian day each year featuring Christian bands. We find ourselves regularly using Christian words and phrases and cliches, such as backsliding, prayer warrior, fellowship, quiet time, traveling mercies ... The transformation is complete. We have become citizens of the Christian bubble." p. 44.

Phase 4: We become like Jonah

"After several years as citizens of the bubble, we begin to complain and point out the terrible things happening in the culture. Like Jonah ... who ran away when God told him to go to the wicked city of Ninevah, we don't want anything to do with those who aren't following God as we are. ... Like Jonah, who, even after God gave him a second chance and he saw the people of Ninevah repent and cry out to God, complained about not hving shade over his head and being uncomfortable, we complain about how well the church is providing what we want and grow numb to the fact that people all around us need the love and grace of Jesus." p. 45.

Evaluate yourself. Where are you in terms of the bubble? The challenge for being missional Christ-followers, for planting a missional church, is getting out of the bubble, thinking outside the bubble, building relationships outside the bubble. What do you need to do to get out of the bubble? How can you build friendships with people who aren't Christ-followers? What are the areas of your life where you have insulated yourself from non-Christ-followers?

They Don't Like Christians

As Christ-followers and churches, we are facing a serious public relations crisis. Check out some thoughts from They Like Jesus But Not the Church:

In our increasingly post-Christian culture, the influences and values shaping emerging generations are no longer aligned with Christianity. p. 15

Translation: We are no longer living in a Christian world. We can no longer assume that people know the basics of the Christian faith.

To them, Christianity isn't normal ... We've got to realize that in our emerging culture, we are now in a different culture and we need to view it and the people in it as a missionary would. Christians are now the foreigners in a post-Christian culture, and we have got to wake up to this reality if we haven't. ... Among those who are under thirty-five years old, and especially younger people in their teens and twenties, there is a quickly growing misperception of what Christianity is, what church is, and who Christians are. pp. 29-31

This may sound odd, but quite honestly, I don't blame people in our emerging culture for what they think about us. If I weren't a church leader or if I weren't friends with Christians who really are following Jesus in a loving and balanced way, I would probably judge Christians and Christianity based on what I could see from the outside. And it isn't a pretty picture. Based on outside observations of Christians, there's no way I would want to become one of them. I wouldn't want to become an angry, judgmental, right-wing, finger-pointing person. I wouldn't be saying that out of rebellion against God or the church; I would simply conclude that from observations of Christians and from not wanting to change into something I wouldn't want to be like. pp. 32-33

People generally have a negative view of Christians and the church. The good news is that those same people have a very favorable view of Jesus. More to come.