Archive - May, 2009

Wanna Get Your Copy of Hip 2B Holy?

May 29, 2009 in Connexus,Current Affairs,Television with 0 Comments

Many of you have asked how you can get a copy of Global TV's Hip 2 B Holy, a documentary that heavily profiled our ministry at Connexus and several other Ontario churches.

The cost is $30 CDN ($28 USD) + GST (6%) and PST (8%) for a total of $34.20 CDN.  Send your requests to:

90th Parallel Productions Ltd
203 Gerrard St. E.
Toronto, Ont  M5A 2E7
Phone: (416) 364-9090
Fax: (416) 364-0580
E-mail:  
www.90thparallel.ca


They'll send you a DVD. 

Thanks to our friends at thinkyouthministry.ca for the info.

The Reason We Do This

May 27, 2009 in Life,Mission,Strategy with 0 Comments

So we've heard from a lots of people this week.  Thank you for the avalanche of messages.  But one or two comments have a way of putting it all into perspective.

Sam spoke volumes when he posted this on the blog.  This is all he wrote:

I'm so glad Connexus came along. I was dying spiritually before. Thanks for introducing me to Christ.

Among the emails was one from a woman who started attending one of our campuses at Easter because a friend invited her.  She is so grateful that her relationship with God is coming back into focus.

Elvis and Katie attend our Orillia campus.  Their story is a powerful indicator of how God puts lives back together again when people are committed to creating the kind of environment where people with little to no church background can find Christ.  

Had another moment on Sunday when I watched several families bring their children in front of God and a community stand around them committed to helping families win at home.  

I love it when stories about people who had given up on church or never thought about church start to pour in.  

Two things:  First, thanks to our incredible team that makes this happen.  Our amazing staff team, our unbelievable volunteers (did you see the blizzard footage in Hip 2B Holy?  Our crew is crazy!) get up every day in the hopes that people would find an environment where they could enter a growing relationship with Jesus.  

Second, church for people who don't go to church is possible. Among the emails and notes have been inquiries from across Canada about whether there are churches like this in their region.  There are some great churches emerging.  It's so encouraging.  But we need more.  More churches that strip away the human baggage and lead people into an authentic relationship with Christ. 

So here's my question: if these stories move you, if there's something burning within you that makes you want to offer this kind of environment, what's stopping you from gathering a team and starting a church in your city or region or repositioning your existing church for a new mission and strategy? 

What if there were hundreds – thousands – more stories waiting to be written, and God was looking to you – as a believer or a skeptic – to be part of the plot line?  

An Open Letter

May 25, 2009 in Leadership Community,Life,Mission,Television,Web/Tech with 32 Comments

Dear Hip 2B Holy Viewer,

If you happened to have watched Hip 2B Holy on Global, and you're one of the people who hasn't gone to church for a long time or ever, this letter's for you.

First, I just want to say sorry for keeping you away for so long.  The church has not done a particularly good job of being clear or even being open to people who aren't part of our club.  That needs to change and I hope it is changing.

Second, sorry for any and all anger directed at you by Christians.  I'm always amazed that Jesus rarely had a harsh word for religious "outisders".  Instead, he kept his harsh words for insiders who didn't reflect God's heart (usually religious leaders).  How we got it backwards, I'll never know. So for the times we've held placards denouncing you and whatever your group stands for – sorry.  It's not like Christ to attack the people He died for.

Third, sorry for behaving like Jesus died for the church.  His compassion and affection were actually sent for the world, not just for a small minority of people or peoples.  When Jesus died and rose again, we were all covered by that.  Sometimes we in the church behave like it was for us only.  That's wrong.

Fourth, sorry for making it so hard to understand what God is saying.  If you've tried church, you realize that often we just get "weird" about how we do church and we make it hard for someone with no background to understand what's happening or going on.  That needs to stop.

Finally, while the documentary did a great job in many respects, I felt a bit bad about its portrayal of mainline Christianity.  Yes, it's in decline.  Yes, I was in mainline circles for a decade and left, but there's no bitterness.  There are pockets of life and some fantastic Christ-followers in mainline churches.  Wish that had come out.  

There is a lot more to be said.  But the bottom line is this: Jesus loved this world passionately enough to die for it and offer us new life.  

I hope you can be part of a new dialogue – a new beginning.  Many of us are still getting our heads around what it means to be loved by God.  I don't fully understand it. 

When we gather, we want to create an open, accessible, even irresistible environment in which people of all backgrounds and life-stories can come together to discover grace, forgiveness, transformation and hope.  

We need you.  We need skeptics, doubters, people who think they are beyond the reach of love, people who feel the whole Christianity thing is garbage.  We need you in community – in our community, to be part of the community and part of the dialogue.

Thanks for watching…If we can help in any way, we're in.  Post a comment.  Drop by our website. Send me an email.  Come to one of our services or drop by a church in your neighbourhood.  

There's a powerful message and relationship with God that's really worth exploring.  I hope we can do that together. 

Carey

I Only Got to Verse One

May 25, 2009 in Connexus,Life,Spiritual Growth with 1 Comment

So in Part Two of the series "Signs from Beyond" (yesterday in Barrie, this coming Sunday in Orillia), we talked about God's will being revealed mostly in scripture.  

The assignment?  Read Romans 12.  Why?  Because most of us don't want to read the Bible. Most of us would rather hear from God directly rather than read the Bible to hear from God, even though direct communication is NOT something God does very often.  And even when we read the Bible, most of us don't read it as though God is speaking to us.

So the assignment was simple: read Romans 12 every day for a week and try to apply it to your life. I promised to do that too.  

This morning I started. I only got to verse one.  Actually, just the first part of verse one.  I didn't eve make it through one verse before I got stopped in my tracks.  Here's what hit me: the part about giving our lives (bodies) fully to Godin light of all He has done for us. 

Now I preached on this text yesterday.  I studied it during the week.  I've read it 100 times in my life, maybe more.  But I missed the part that says in light of all He has done for us. That stopped me dead cold.

I started thinking:  Do I really think about all that God has done for me?  What if I did?  That could change my motivation.  That could double or triple my gratitude.  If I really think about all God has done for me, my brain would melt. The Christian story isn't about what we can do for God, it's about what He has done for us.  It's about grace, mercy – God standing with us when I least deserved it. Wow! 

So I didn't read any further today. I had enough to saturate my little brain in applying just one verse to my life.  Usually I read 3-5 chapters of the Bible a day.  I got stuck at verse one.  And it's still eating at me.  I wonder what the rest of the week will hold?

Who says God's Word doesn't speak?  Try it.  Romans 12.  What's it saying to you?

Who God Really Is…

May 24, 2009 in Life,Spiritual Growth with 0 Comments

I had an experience last Thursday that really sent my world spinning. Without going into a lot of details, a friend went into a deep crisis that had a number of us deeply worried and scared for his well being.  For a period of about 12 hours, we didn't know which way things were going to turn out.

I went to bed that night incredibly concerned for my friend, but also deeply grateful for our faith. Because this was a situation that involved suffering on multiple levels, I found myself accessing my faith at a deep level.  I found myself so thankful that the kind of faith we often long for – a God who makes everything nice and ends suffering – doesn't exist.

Instead, I found so much peace that the central symbol of the Christian faith is a cross.  I found so much comfort in the reality that God chose to enter our suffering.  I was so grateful that although no one knew how the circumstances facing us would out, there was a peace inside I couldn't describe.

Sometimes I think the Christian faith is best understood from the perspective of suffering.  When you have a need, it puts you in touch with some of the deepest strands that run through every life.  

If you are looking for a promise that everything will always be perfect and you will never suffer, the Christian faith will disappoint you deeply.  But if you are in touch with the fragility of the human condition, your personal needs and the needs of others, the story of Jesus will resonate more deeply than anything I know.  At least it did – and does – for me.

I'm sure at some point this week you'll need to jump into a story that gives meaning to your disappointment, your frustration, your fear or your suffering.  Jesus is ready to meet you there, and for that, I'm so grateful.  

A Story Bigger Than You and Me

May 20, 2009 in Mission,Spiritual Growth,Strategy with 1 Comment

A thought I've had on and off for years grabbed me again this morning:  


Wouldn't it be great to live a life story so compelling only God could claim credit for it? 

In the Old Testament, God had a reputation. It would have been absurd to claim personal credit for the parting of the Red Sea or for the collapse of the walls of Jericho.  The people of God were caught up in events so big only God could plausibly get credit.

Jesus' life is another example. In the early church there were miracles to be sure, but their extreme generosity and self-sacrifice turned heads.

Part of me wants to write my own script (okay, a big part of me does).  But if I write my story, it will be pretty small.  I'm not talking about fame or renown (it's not that kind of "big" I'm talking about). I'm just saying on my own strength I can accomplish about an ounce of good.  God could accomplish an avalanche of good through any of us, if we let him. He can write stories I could never write.

The problem with a lot of North American Christianity is that our stories are too small.  We're less into life-change and more into life modification or amendment.  We prefer order to disorder, predictability to unpredictability and control to surrender.

So what story do you think God might want to write in you?  Struggling with mood?  Surrender it.  He could use you to bring joy.  Struggling with your marriage?  Surrender and let him write a new chapter…heck, a new book.  Struggling at work?  Let him change you.  Your church boring or stuck? Give it back to God.  It was his in the first place.

My prayer today is this: God, give me a story only you can write.  Whatever that looks like or what it accomplishes is up to you.  But give me (and our community) a story that only you can write.

What's your prayer? 

The Lost Art of Confession

May 13, 2009 in Life,Mission,Spiritual Growth with 9 Comments

I took some time off from blogging, not just in the last month, but for much of 2009.  

I got deeply immersed in twitter (and still am), but some ideas can't be captured in 140 characters or less. I'd love to develop a dialogue here again, and if you're up for it, so am I.

I spend some extra time this morning praying and spent some time confessing my sins.  True confession: I don't confess my sins well. I need to do it more often and more thoroughly.  It seems far easier for me to ask God for things or pray about things than it does to honestly confess my shortcomings and trust Him to provide forgiveness and the grace to change.

Tell me if you think I'm wrong, but when I read people's tweets I don't see a lot of humility (and I likely don't see enough in my own).  Rarely do we as Christians show our vulnerability, dependence on God or need for Him.  It's easier to pretend we have it nailed and others need to change.  In fact, that is the posture of many preachers and leaders today.  If we had more humility in the church, we'd have more Jesus and less of us in the mix.  How could that hurt the church?

I so need to do more confession…more quantity and quality.  Confession is a gift from God, based on grace, that can help in so many areas.
  • It is the basis of salvation – what got us back with God will keep us back with God.
  • It's the key to dependence – I don't need to depend on God if I'm depending on myself. 
  • It's a powerful way to grow self-awareness which is the key to transformation – I can't change what I can't see, and God won't change what I won't acknowledge.
  • It helps me see other people's points of view more clearly – when I see my own shortcomings I can see the value of Christ and his work in others more clearly.
  • You're only confessing what God – and often everybody else – already knows is a problem. 
  • It leads to greater humility and to greater- Christ-likeness  
  • It makes me a better leader – leaders who understand their weaknesses are much better able to lead dependent on Christ. 

Humility is so attractive in others, and confession leads to greater humility. But while humility is attractive in others, it makes me feel like I'm going to die 1000 deaths, which is likely what God needs me to do to allow him to control my life.  I think that's why it's a struggle to confess deeply, regularly and honestly.  So I am going to resolve to go much deeper in my prayers of confession in the next month.

What's your relationship with confession?  How do you struggle?  What if anything keeps you from confessing your sins more freely and deeply?