The Resurrection Will Not Be Televised

"Bee Hold Her" Music Video

2012-01-27T06:06:00.000-08:00

The Radical Re-Humanization Project

2012-01-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

"‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets,’ came the reply, ‘neither would they be convinced, even if someone rose from the dead.’"

—Luke 16:31

Observation:

Even if someone rose from the dead to bear witness to the necessity of being righteous in one’s life, the testimony would fall on deaf ears whose ideological convictions would mandate that the testimony was dismissed, and even discredited. The request, which was not granted this rich man in the parable, has been granted to us through the resurrection Jesus the Christ. Sadly his testimony has fallen on many deaf ears. Even many who espouse to be part of the Church, which is the body of Jesus, dismiss and discredit his testimony because of ideological convictions that demand complete fidelity.

Application:

Ideologies allow us to distant ourselves from the engagement and process. Ideologies allow us to dehumanize our neighbors and turn them into the “other,” an ideological antonym that does not need be encountered but merely chastised. Often in my critique of different ideologies I find myself ensnared by an ideology that allows me to make “them” into the “other.” In doing this I only serve to further disunify the body of Jesus, and also dismiss the testimony of Jesus, which calls us to radical unity in love. The challenge I want to pursue this year is one of engagement, process, love, and re-humanization of the ideological “others” in my life in such a way that enemies become neighbors again.

Prayer:

Lord, help me to encounter the “others” in my life with compassion and love. Help me to see the image of God that is intimately innate within your creation. In the name of Jesus I pray Amen…

Contemplating Carl: Holiday Edition, 2011

2011-12-26T00:28:00.000-08:00

I Love the Holidays!!!
Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year! I love Christmas time. I love the intentionality of catching up with family and friends. I love the lights on houses. I even love, though it is hard to admit it, Christmas carols. Christmas is that time of the year where we come together with those we love in order to remember. I love New Year’s day for the opposite reason. I love it because it is a time for new beginnings, when the last year has past by and a new year is brimming with potential. The uncertainty of the new year brings about hope.

In the past I have focused on the potential and hope of the new year, often forgetting to take the time to remember. But this year, in the spirit of Christmas, I want to focus on remembering the past year and what God has done. I want to remember, while at the same time looking forward to the new year in hopeful expectancy. Some of the highlights of this past year include watching God provide for my tuition in the last minute, the birth of my two nieces (Tiannah & Finix), my mother’s back being healed, and being able to spend Christmas with my little sister and her family. It is important to remember the good things in life, because far too often we allow the negative things to cloud our perception and color our experiences. I cannot count how many times I have begun to complain about how things are going when a small voice reminds me that I am allowing the negative to shape my perception.

It is as basic as it sounds, a negative perception will lead to negative experiences and a positive perception will lead to positive experiences. This is an oft forgotten axiom that serves as to remind us to think positive. Especially during the holiday season this concept is forgotten.

We get caught up in the hype of “Christmas shopping.” Buying gifts for others becomes a burden of obligation instead of a joyous generosity. The Christmas season, nowadays, is more often remembered for stories of fights over parking spots and shoppers pepper spaying each other over getting a deal, than friends, family, and Jesus. I think something is a miss in the midst of this kind of mayhem and memory lapse.

Christmas is an opportunity to intentionally reflect on what God has done in this world and in our lives. I find hope in remembering because it awakens us to what God is still doing in the world and in my life. I cannot allow my experience to be colored by a negative perception any longer, and this Christmas and New Year’s day is the perfect time to root my perception in the hope of what God is doing in the world and my life. So it is the light of new beginnings, hope, and remembrance that I cheerfully announce that “I love the holidays.”

Life Support

To everyone who has supported me over the years thank you for your life-giving gifts. God has used you to do the miraculous and to spur me on in my faith. If you would like to help support my ministry and my time of equipping for the future ministry God has called me to please feel free to do so. Your support goes towards helping cover the tuition costs of attending Fuller Theological Seminary, which is roughly $5000 a quarter. Please pray about whether God may be calling you to partner with me in ministry through financial support. Also I ask that you consider supporting me through prayer as well. You, my brothers and sisters have been a great source of encouragement to me, thank you.

If you would like to support me you can send a check or Money Order to:

Carl Amouzou

c/o Walnut Valley Vineyard
P.O. Box 5484
Diamond Bar, California
91765

Please make the check out to Walnut Valley Vineyard Church, but make sure to either write “Intern” in the memo line (do not write my name on the check) or attach a note stating that the money is in support of Carl Amouzou. If it is easier for you, feel free to send several post-dated checks all at once. Your donations are tax deductible if given through Walnut Valley Vineyard Church.

“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.”—Luke 1:46-48

Faith, Hope, & Love,

Carl Amouzou

The Bridges of God: A Study in the Strategy of Missions by Donald McGavran

2011-12-06T22:31:00.001-08:00

1. The Crucial Question in Christian Missions

Donald McGavran in his opening chapter asks, what he considers The Crucial Question in Christian Missions, “How do Peoples become Christian” (1)? This is a very different question than churches in the West, even still, are asking. Churches in the West are concerned with the how individuals become Christians. The modus operandi revolves around reaching the individual for Christ. The West today reflects more the mission fields of China and Japan than the West reflects the Christendom of its history. More frequently people in the West are not so much rejecting the good news of Jesus, but completely ignorant of it.

2. The Unfamiliar in People Movements

The nation state is a modern construction. So according to McGavran, when one reads the word “nation” in the Bible it is not referring to a nation state, but rather a people group, or maybe in contemporary contextual language a certain group of people. In the context of the West, society has tribes, but these tribes in the postmodern era are more likely to be formed around affinity than race or ethnicity. So in the same way that McGavran is exploring “People Movements” in the non-West, the Church in the West must move from individualistic conversion to the conversion of entire people groups. An interesting development that is happening in Missions among Muslims is the emergence of Messianic-Muslims, Messiah following Muslims much like Messianic-Jews. The question that McGavran prompts me to ask is how do we create Messianic-Hip Hopers, Messianic- Goths, Messianic-Punk, Messianic-(insert cultural tribe here)?

3. Peoples and the New Testament Church

McGavran in this chapter attacks the assumption that Paul chose to go to unreached places. McGavran subverts this perspective of Paul’s mission by reading his own assumptions about people movements into Paul and the other New Testament missionaries’ travels. McGavran suggests that the motive for traveling where they did was the result of going to visit family and kinsmen in these locations, aunts and uncles that were ready to hear the gospel. McGavran’s theory takes just as much speculation as the one he is trying to overturn.

4. Down Through the Centuries

At the heart of McGavran’s theory of tribal conversions is the homogenous unit principle. All though McGavran is right in asserting that the West’s focus on individual conversion is detrimental, his focus on the notion of need for the homogeneity of the tribal group converting to remain intact after conversion is at odds with the call for oneness and unity in Christ. How does the Church move away from the individualism that has been injected by the West but also at the same time redefine tribalism through Christ rather than ethnic groups?

5. The Characteristic Pattern of the Great Century

McGavran suggests that the era of mission stations is coming to an end. Applying this insight into, what is rapidly becoming, the post Christendom West, one must assert that the era of brick and mortar churches is also coming to an end. The Church in the West must begin to move out of the safety of their buildings and away from the anchor of million dollar mortgages that inhibit the mission of many churches. McGavran seems keen on embracing socially constructed boundaries such as caste and race in order to more pragmatically spread the gospel. This I believe is not in line with boundary breaking teachings of the New Testament. The gospel is not about being pragmatically spread, but rather authentically incarnated.

6. The God-Driven People Movements

McGavran has a theory, that people are converted in groups, that colors all data that he has analyzed. McGavran’s theory is probable, but I think that he tries to make the data fit his claims. By McGavran’s own admission there was no evidence that familial connection existed between the servant of Adoniram Judson and the people of the Karen tribe who converted, but yet McGavran insists that it is reasonable that there was.

A question this people movement theory raises is, can such a principle be utilized in a highly individualized society, such as the West? McGavran’s insistence on familial connections makes the usefulness of his theory very limited in Western society. The needs of an industrialized society do not facilitate the kind of familial bonds needed for a people movement to arise, but nonetheless it is plausible to utilize McGavran’s concepts of tribal conversion within the new social constructions that exist in the West.

7. Gathered Colony Strategy in the Light of People Movements

McGavran’s assertion that the spread of the gospel and the Church must become indigenous within its local context rather than an impeding fortress is a concept that must be considered by the local churches in the West. What does the Church look like in the indigenous population of your community? The Church needs to incarnate in the indigenous community, rather than members of the indigenous community becoming extractions from context into the walls of the church.

8. Co-operating with Growing Churches is To-day-s Strategy

I am not comfortable with McGavran’s use of conversion as a means of strategic positioning in the fight to out maneuver and win out against, what he juxtaposes as, competing religions to Christianity. McGavran talks about how Christianity must be strategic in converting people groups if Christianity is to win the animists over the Buddhists, Hindus, Communists, and Muslims. This is very disquieting especially in light of the historical implications that McGavran places on strategic conversion, which our geopolitical in their nature than spiritual. This seems to be tantamount to the Greeks’ Hellenization of a defeated populous in order to assure loyalty to the Grecian empire.

9. Important Aspects of this Dynamic Strategy

Three thoughts, first, McGavran’s vocabulary of people movements has been translated into the church growth movement in the West. Second, the military language McGavran uses turns Christianity into a hostile takeover, which is typical of Christendom imperialism. Third, although much of the application of communism in the world has been totalitarian and rooted in Atheism, the kernel of collective responsibility found at the heart of communism makes it a useful vehicle to be explored, rather than a competing ideology, as McGavran suggests in this chapter.

10. Financial Aspects

McGavran raises a very true point; financial allocation must be reimagined. The current strategy of church planting in the West, replicating buildings and finally programmed shows, is not fiscally sustainable. Just as the financial aspects of the mission station according to McGavran are not fiscally sustainable.

11. Research in Growth

McGavran in this chapter makes a great point; the success of the mission must be measurable and progressive. What marks success in missions? Do growing numbers mean that the mission is successful? Numbers are important as they do mark out vitality, but they cannot be the end game of the mission. McGavran stated earlier in the book that if only one person is converted it is still a successful mission, but he seems to undermine that statement by defining success as quantifiable growth.

12. Marching with God to the Heart of the Nations

Is God on a march into the heart of the nations or is God busy roaming the fringes of society pulling those cast away by society from the gutters of Calcutta through the hands of a tiny nun? The language of Christian triumphalism that resounds throughout this book and closes this book is hard to reconcile with the claims of the Jesus. McGavran closes by saying that the avenue that God is found on is “ever-widening,” while Jesus claims that the road is narrow and hard to find. Just a closing thought.

The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch

2011-12-05T00:59:00.001-08:00

Section One: The making of a Missionary

Introduction

Alan Hirsch gives an overview of where he wants to go in his book, The Forgotten Ways. That locus is simple. Hirsch wants to answer the question, “How did they do this?”[1] How did the early Church go from twenty-five thousand people to over twenty million in just over two hundred year? How did the Church in China go from two million to over eighty million? How did the explosive growth movements through out the Church’s history do it? The Church in the West is in rapid decline. Hirsch’s proposed premise seems to be that if the Church in the West is to experience not just revitalization but growth, it must answer the above questions and use the answers to transform the Church’s ecclesiological praxis. Hirsch’s answer to the above questions is “Apostolic Genius,” which he lays out as incorporated in these six concepts: Jesus is Lord, disciple making, missional-incarnational impulse, apostolic environment, organic systems, communitas.

Setting the Scene, Part 1: Confessions of a Frustrated Missionary

In this chapter Hirsch sets the tone for The Forgotten Ways by rooting it in his own transformative experience as a spiritual community leader at South Melbourne Church of Christ. Hirsch recounts how he came to lead a dying community that was sprung into a chaotic, but vibrant, existence that transformed the community. The church went on to plant other churches learning about how to engage society in new ways, which Hirsch now claims are the foundation of his insights on becoming/being a missional church.

Setting the Scene, Part 2: Denominational and Translocal Perspectives

Hirsch in this chapter, in a brief summary, asserts as fact that today’s “postmoderness” is much more akin to time of the early Church than the time of Christendom. Thus prompting the question, why is the Church trying to continue to do “church” as if the Church is still in the era of Christendom? Hirsch lays the ground work for why the must re-embrace its missional roots now that it finds itself marginalized on the fringes of society. Hirsch suggest that change most often comes from the fringes of society, thus the church is actually in a position to reengage society, if it is willing and able to become missional.

Section Two: A Journey to the Heart of Apostolic Genius
The Heart of it All: Jesus is Lord

The centerpiece of apostolic genius and mDNA is the fact that Jesus is Lord. Hirsch theoretically breaks down how many Christians are confessing monotheists, but are practicing polytheists. The church has been held captive by the dualistic way it sees society, the separation of sacred and secular. Hirsch shows how when realigned the church can have a holistic view with Christ at the center. Hirsch finishes the chapter by showing to examples of how the dualism can lead to disastrous results.

Disciple Making

Jesus talked with, walked with, and shared life with his disciples. The entrance into ministry, or their discipleship did not take place in a classroom, but rather on the roads they journeyed on with Jesus, their Rabbi (teacher). If Jesus discipled his followers in the midst of mission, through hands on application as well as the dialogical exchange of concepts and ideas that were rooted in the mission, why is it that the church today is content to merely convey ideas through monologue and call that discipleship?

Hirsch touches on a very important topic that the Church needs to answer. Hirsch says, "Please don't get me wrong, we need serious intellectual engagement with the key ideas of our time, What is truly of concern is that such engagement takes place largely in the passive environments of the classroom" (121). I would add that "the passive environments of the classroom" not just removing disciples from the context of ministry, but is also creating a socio-economic boundary to who can be discipled or who can participate in the engagement of the key ideas in the Church.

Missional-Incarnational Impulse

To quote Rob Bell, "Everything is Spiritual." Hirsch in this chapter makes the case that God in the person of Jesus incarnated godself into creation, and thus one can see Missio Dei, meaning the mission of God, lived out in the incarnation of Jesus. The Church has operated under the model of secular and sacred spaces for a long time. A misnomer of the nature of space as dualistic created a culture in the church were we invited people to come to share our sacred space, hoping that that space was attractive enough to draw them in. Hirsch suggests that Jesus' model of ministry was to go into the places that had been deemed secular and make them holy by incarnating the gospel there. In this way every place is spiritual.

Apostolic Environment

Today's top down, tiered style of leadership, I would add even most concepts of flat-line leadership, have diluted the biblical concepts of leadership in the New Testament Church. Hirsch presents what is in essence a cyclical model of leadership that is based on Ephesians 4:11. In this cyclical model of leadership the Church starts with apostolic leadership, which creates space for Prophetic leadership, which creates space for Evangelistic leadership, which creates space for Pastoral leadership, which in turn creates space for didactic leadership. All of the above Ephesians 4 leaders are needed in order to create an apostolic environment in which new church movements can be birthed.

Organic Systems

The multiplicity of the church is dependent on how reproducible the DNA is. Hirsch uses a parable about the inventor of the chess game in order to show how the concept of squared exponentially multiplied the requested reward. To borrow a phrase from Walter Brueggemann and mix it with Hirsch, we have lost our apostolic imagination. This has become an era of cloning versus an era of innovation. There have been some incredibly innovative churches during this time but the majority of churches are just trying copy an irreproducible model.

Communitas, Not Community
Guerrilla wars are not fought by institutional structures. Guerrilla wars are fought by decentralized fighting units that are bonded over their central or common mission. The mission is central not the organization. The organization is free to change and adapt as is demanded by the needs of the mission. America, the “most powerful” military in world, on more than one occasion has been brought to a halt by military forces of far inferior size and strength, because of the implementation of guerrilla warfare. Hirsch’s vision of the Church, as communitas, sounds a lot more like Communist revolutionaries in the jungles of Vietnam, than the highly structural and institutionalized American military lead from the centralized location of the Pentagon.

[1] Page 18

My Thoughts on Last Week's Class: Week 9

2011-11-28T15:08:00.001-08:00

Last week's class was a lot of information given about how best to write and complete the church plant proposal. The class was informative as to some of the questions that I had regarding the completion of my church planting proposal. The approach given by Prof. Bolger is fairly different from the traditional strategic plan, as per taught in my undergrad work.

My Thoughts on Last Week's Class: Week 8

2011-11-21T15:10:00.001-08:00

Social Media and participatory media are intricate parts of our society today. For many in our society being "wired" is a twenty-four-seven thing. Thus the Church needs to not just incorporate social and participatory media as an appendix to what they already do, but rather become, as Brad Abare phrased it, "Incarnate Gospel-Bearers" within our society's "wired" world.

Contemplating Carl: Fall 2011

2011-11-13T22:21:00.001-08:00

Towards a Communion Theology

God is good. It is amazing how God always shows up and in ways that you would, or could, never expect. In the midst of our uncertainty God is already at work. We must remember Paul’s admonition, “that's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good” (Romans 8:28 MSG).

I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has been on this journey with me, loving, praying, and supporting me. If it were not for your exhortation I can honestly say that I do not think I would be able to go on. God has used you to spur me on in my faith, thank you.

This quarter at Fuller Theological Seminary has been excellent. I have a renewed passion for learning and equipping myself for the call of ministry that God has brought me into. I am taking Medieval and Reformation Church History, Systematic Theology focusing on ecclesiology (study of church) and eschatology (study of the last things), and Church Planting. The overlap between the classes has been excellent and has really helped me to think through my place in the Church. John Zizioulas, a Greek Orthodox theologian, has this concept called, “communion theology” the idea that “everything ‘personal’ exists only in relation to the other, i.e., in communion.” This concept is about how the Church operates as the image of the Trinitarian God. The Church only exists so much as we are in relation with one another.

I believe Jesus spoke of this concept of communion theology when he said to his disciples, prior to his crucification, “You must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” It is our loving relationships to one another that show the world that we are followers of Jesus.

Over the last six years of my life I have seen this concept of communion theology shape and mold my life more and more into the image of Christ. From the family and friends who have been praying for and exhorting me through out my life to all the aunty and uncles in Hawaii who adopted me into their extended family, I have only existed in relation to the body of Christ. You, my brothers and sisters, have been there giving me identity as a part of the Church.

So when I say that God is good, I most tangible see that incarnated in you. When I say it is amazing how God always shows up, you as the image of God darken my doorstep with good news. When I say that God is already at work, it is because you have been faithful to the promptings of God in your life and the outflow of that is God showing up in the lives of those around you. It is in this way, through the Body of Christ, that God is accomplishing God’s purposes in the world, and in my life.

It is in light of this communion theology that I am able to grasp the generosity and support of my brothers and sisters, my fellow members of the body of Christ. Thank you for being faithful to God’s call in your life. Thank you for helping me to be faithful to mine.

Miraculous Provision

4 pm. Friday September 23, 2011 was the dead line to pay my past due tuition from my Spring quarter in order to be able to register for classes in the Fall quarter. I had basically concluded that I would have to take another quarter off from school due to my inability to pay my tuition. With many people praying and supporting in whatever ways they possibly could, I was able to pay off the past due balance at 1 pm that afternoon., with three hours to spare.

God has continuously provided for me over these past few years. God has put me in a place of radical dependence on him. I have seen my faith in what God will do grow, but I have also been pushed into places of despair with only God to lift me out. It is in those moments, when you think that all hope is gone and you are swept up into God’s arms and placed back on solid ground, that your faith is expanded all the more.

All I have in this life is my faith in God. God has stripped away my false sense surety in anything else slowly one layer at time. Psalm 20:7, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God,” rings all the more true in my life. I have placed my trust in so many things other than God throughout my life, but I believe that God has been showing me over these past few years that I need only trust in him. My security lies in God. That is the truth of my existence, but it is funny how my perception of circumstances leads me away from that reality and causes me to embrace the lie that either God will not provide or that I can provide. A friend of mine who is a pastor once told me that in ministry, unless one has a radical faith in the provision of God, they cannot succeed. Success is not determined by material gain, but rather by the steadfastness of our commitment to the truth that God is the one who will always provide.

I’ve Got What it Takes to Rock the Mic

I have been rapping since the age of seven. Ever since I heard Run D.M.C’s song It’s Like That. I formed my first rap group in the third grade called “K.I.D,” which stood for kids in disguise (it was taken from the Christian Rap Group P.I.D, which stood for Pastors in disguise). “I rapped with my homie on the phone/ we talked about this we talked about that/ then a dial tone cause were done with the chit chat...” were the first bars I ever wrote.

I have pursued music off and on through out the past six years, but have been hesitant to really get back into the music scene due to my history in the the music business. During the summer I was presented with an opportunity to join a hip hop group called G4C. G4C is a collective of hip hop artist that use hip hop as a tool for ministry. We have begun production of an album together and we are also starting to perform as a collective.

Rewinding a little bit in order to explain my decision to re-enter the world of hip hop in a more official capacity. Through a few different people God confirmed that my time in music was not over and that God was going to use it as part of my ministry. So after praying about whether or not I should accept the invitation, to join G4C, I felt that this was part of the ministry that God is calling me into. I will post music soon on my blog.

Life Support

Thank you again, to everyone who has supported me for your life giving gifts. God has used you to do the miraculous and to spur me on in my faith. If you would like to help support my ministry and my time of equipping for the future ministry God has called me to please feel free to do so. Your support goes towards helping cover the cost of seminary, which is roughly $5000 a quarter. Please pray about whether God may be calling you to partner with me in ministry through financial support. Also I ask that you consider supporting me through prayer as well. You, my brothers and sisters have been a great source of encouragement to me, thank you.

If you would like to support me you can send a check or Money Order to:

Carl Amouzou
c/o Walnut Valley Vineyard
P.O. Box 5484
Diamond Bar, California
91765

Please make the check out to Walnut Valley Vineyard Church, but make sure to either write “Intern”in the memo line (do not write my name on the check) or attach a note stating that the money is in support of Carl Amouzou. If it is easier for you, feel free to send several post-dated checks all at once. Your donations are tax deductible if given through Walnut Valley Vineyard Church.

“those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away..”

—Isaiah 35:10

“I pray that your partnership with us in the faith

may be effective in deepening your understanding

of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.”

—Philemon 1:6

One Love, One Body, One God,
Carl Amouzou

Email: Cnotebrown@gmail.com

My Thoughts on Last Week's Class: Week 6

2011-11-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

The far reach of technology into the world is amazing. The World just reach 7 billion people. There are 6 billion cellphone subscribers in the world. The spread of technology throughout the world has in essence changed the way the world can and does relate to one another. During the Arab Spring I found myself in communication with people in Egypt who were on the ground in the protests using Twitter and Google to reach out to others on the Web. Information travels in real-time. Thus allowing real-time reactions to current events. I am not sure how this will change the nature of church methodology in the future, but I do not think that many of the attempts so far have been able to grasp the enormous gathering potential.

My Thoughts on Last Week's Class: Week 5

2011-10-31T13:16:00.000-07:00

Last week we spent a large portion of the class meeting in small groups talking about fresh expressions of faith that we have participated in and about our church planting projects. I found it fascinating listening to others share about the previous experiences in communities that differed from traditional expressions of church. The thing that struck me the most about the various experiences is that they were all very different, but at the same time they all seemed very organic. The shared emphasis was communion, out of which the individual church expressions evolved.

Literature Review: Church in the Present Tense—A Candid Look at What's Emerging

2011-10-31T04:17:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Church in the Present Tense: A Candid Look at What's Emerging is a book written by four authors, Kevin Corcoran, Jason Clark, Peter Rollins, and Scot McKnight. The as the title suggest explores what it means to be the Church, or shape a community of faith within a postmodern context. The views expressed are as varied as the four authors are in their own personal experiences, but like the fragmentation of society they still construct a vivid picture that people, who are considering church planting in the twenty-first century, need to stand in front of and ponder the subtle nuances that beg interpretation.

Philosophy:

Chapter One—Who's Afraid of Philosophical Realism? Taking Emerging Christianity to Task

In this chapter Kevin Corcoran makes the case that postmodern philosophy is not necessarily committed to antirealism, thus in the context of Christianity God does not need to be viewed through apophatism. Corcoran also argues that we need to look at postmodernism from a wider perspective than just seeing it as "cataclysmic, epochal shift [that] occurred in the fairly recent past."[1] It seems that Corcoran's reasoning for arguing against the view, that postmodernism is an "epic [shift]" that he calls an "over exaggerated" claim, is because it is rooted in a "view [of] the world [that] is the academic and abstruse work of philosophers."[2] Corcoran goes on to use Stanley Hauerwas' essay "Discipleship as Craft: Church as a Disciplined Community" to lay the ground work for his case that the Christian faith is rooted in praxis, which is the reason why he argues that postmodernism is compatible with epistemological realism. The Praxis of the Church is rooted in the reality of the risen Christ, "then Christ must [really] be risen."[3]

Chapter Two—The Worldly Theology of Emerging Christianity

This chapter is written by Peter Rollins. Rollins proposes a few different ideas in this chapter, but in the interest brevity and interest one idea will be focused on. Rollins suggests that the church needs to be a place "where we put aside"[4] our identities and embrace the neither/nor identity found in Christ. In America the Christian faith has been co-opted and assimilated through syncretism into the civil religion of the state. In order to regain our identities in Christ one must like Paul suggest in Galatians chapter three assume the identity of neither/nor. Rollins suggests, "that [Paul] calls into question the socio-symbolic identity of his readers."[5] The outworking of this line of thought is that Paul is actively deconstructing the categories of identity, thus the three categories mentioned, race, gender, and class can be implicitly used as a hermeneutic in today's church. Rollins takes the above idea and works into his concept of suspended space, which is the place where the above is set aside, and argues that is where Christian formation can take place.

Theology:

Chapter Three—Consumer Liturgies and Their Corrosive Effects on Christian Identity

Jason Clark, the author of this chapter close to the end of it says, “The future of the church resides with those who, though critical, are nonetheless deeply devoted to living within it.”[6] The hyper individualism of modern metanarrative of autonomy gave rise, like no other time within the Church, to consumerism, meaning that the modern era saw the Church go from very few competing churches to thousands upon thousands of competing expressions of “church” all vying to sell you their version of the Christian faith. Gone are the days of struggling for unity replaced by exegetical evidence that [insert denomination or type of church here] hold true sound doctrine. The battle of rightness won out over the battle for unity. Often because of the disgust or distain for what the Church has become, one is tempted to leave the church instead putting in the work of continually reforming and striving for unity. Clark’s chapter on consumerism in the Church was a real challenge dissidents in the Church to stay put in the Church.

Chapter Four—Thy Kingdom Come (on Earth): An Emerging Eschatology

Kevin Corcoran writes a chapter on how emergents view eschatology. Corcoran does a good job describing how, because of the vapid misuse and understanding of eschatology, emergents are tempted to ignore eschatology all together. Corcoran goes on to paint a picture of eschatology rooted firmly in the concept of the kingdom of God. Corcoran also explores other theorist of eschatology that many emergents have turned to and show how anything less then an incarnational kingdom perspective is lacking. I must note that although I tend to agree with many points that Corcoran makes, I am hesitant to embrace his perspective as it requires far more processing than time has allowed since reading it.

Worship:

Chapter Five—The Renewal of Liturgy in the Emerging Church
Life is liturgy. Jason Clark argues that the Church needs to re-embrace intentionally acknowledged liturgical practices. Liturgy helps to root the person in the story that they are a part of. In reflecting on this chapter the imagery of drug addiction came to mind. Drug addicts have a very particular liturgy that they reenact daily, if not hourly, that roots them in the narrative of drug addiction. Many addicts have very particular locations they get high, they have particular dealers that supply them, they have praxes they utilize to fund their addiction, so on and so on. If the Church today wants to anchor itself in the narrative of Jesus, the Church needs to re-embrace liturgy. Clark suggests that churches take up the Christian calendar as a liturgical praxis that will help root them in the narrative of Jesus.

Chapter Six—Transformance Art: Reconfiguring the Social Self

Christianity should be revolutionary. The church should be a transformative community. Peter Rollins says in this chapter that the church or at least the religious institution called the Church has become the great subduer of the oppressed masses helping them to cope with their oppression rather than transform it into liberation. Christianity is the very thing that allows us to continue to not change.[7] In regards to the Church, “the point is not to provide a space for people to engage in acts of love but rather to help reconfigure one's social existence so that acts of love become part of our whole existence.”[8] Karl Marx’s critique that “religion is the opium of the masses”[9] seems all too real to observers of Christianity when they see that the of “religious” folk’s lives seem to be compartmentalized in such a way that they can continue in their vain of life without every really seeking transformation. The Church needs to be a place where transformation is not just a conversation or belief, but a holistic way of life.

Bible and Doctrine:

Chapter Seven—Scripture in the Emerging Movement
Scot McKnight steps into an on going conversation about the nature of the Bible as narrative, instead of instruction manual. While I find McKnight’s insights intriguing he is ultimately summing up where the conversation has landed, which I believe to be his task. The Bible in recent times has gone from manual for living, which is exampled by acronyms like B.i.b.l.e. (basic instructions before leaving earth), to metanarrative or at minimum master-narrative that encompasses everything within the biblical narrative, to wiki-narratives, which views the Bible as user generated stories that invite the reader into further participation.

Chapter Eight—Atonement and Gospel

Scot McKnight in the final chapter of the book puts the Evangelical Church’s “Gospel” and “Atonement” theory under the bright lights of the interrogation room. Ultimately McKnight ends this chapter by saying that at the heart of the gospel, as preached by Peter and Paul in the book of Acts, is the resurrection of Jesus. McKnight does not say that the emphasis on justification, propitiation, and substitution are not important; McKnight asserts that those doctrines are not what the apostles emphasized when “gospeling.”

Footnotes:

[1] Page 9
[2] Page 10
[3] Page 13
[4] Page 23
[5] Page 24
[6] Page 56
[7] Page 97
[8]Page 100
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people

My Thoughts on Last Week's Class: Week 4

2011-10-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

The leader’s role is not to get in the way of the people movement. The leader's job is to support what others in the community want to do. Becoming more of a mentor, guide, and facilitator.

—Paraphrase quote based on the McGavran conversations in class

The above conversation from the my Church Planting class at Fuller Theological Seminary really caught my attention because I, as a leader in the church, have struggled in the capacity of trying to do leadership from a more flat-line organic way and/or non-hierarchical structure. For the past year I was leading a community of young adults within my church. I found that when I tried to allow the community to define itself, while I worked more as a mentor and facilitator, it did not really work. The group seemed to default to a more consumeristic mindset, where they wanted someone to provide community for them. The biggest critique of the group was that the young adult community did not meet their expectations. The group individually wanted to be part of an already formed community that provided the things they wanted, but we struggled as a group to form such a community.

On the other hand, the community that I helped lead while I was in Hawaii from its inception bought into an organic flat-line type of leadership and community. The other founding leader and myself served the community as guides and facilitators, and now from a distance (as neither of us are currently living in Hawaii) mentors. I am not really sure what the differences are between the two communities that allowed one to flourish in a flat-line leadership structure and one crumble.

My Thoughts on Last Week's Class: Week 3

2011-10-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

Something that was said within the lecture of the class that seemed almost a side note struck me, and has been rolling through my mind through out the week. The concept is that a community needs to be able to discern and name their own sins. It seems counter-intuitive and is the opposite of what I was taught through out my Christian rearing. The statement that the Bible is quite clear about what sin is, which seems to be the teaching that is reiterated over and over again in the churches that I have belonged to, never sat well with me because when I read the Bible it just never seemed so cookie cutter clean. I still need to reflect further and wrestle with the practical implications of this idea, but I think it is necessary for communities to interpret the scriptures for themselves and discern what sin is.

I Wish We’d All Been Ready

2011-10-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

Scripture:

“‘So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,’ says the LORD Almighty.”

—Malachi 3:5

Observation:

I do not know how anyone in America can read passages like this one found in Malachi and not seek out sackcloth and ashes in lament. When I read this passage I immediately became overwhelmed with a deep sense of sorrow. YHWH personally is coming to put you (read plural) on trial for your (read plural) crimes against God. Adultery is normative. It is almost to difficult to sift through the lies told. Studies show that America has the one of the widest gaps between rich and poor in the world. The prison industrial complex continues to oppress the young men of impoverished communities for profit. Widows (in the biblical context is any women without means to meet her needs and/or the needs of her children) struggle to raise their children often losing them to the prison industrial complex. Many foreigners in the midst of America are maligned, mistreated, and taken advantage of consistently; the fact that many foreigners are referred to as illegal (read meaning without rights) speaks of the justice they are denied. Christians in America believe that because we say “under God” or “in God we trust” that we actually fear God. The truth is there is more reverence for the “free” market in many of the churches in America then there is for God. When “in God we trust” is written on notes and etched in coins, one must ask which God, YHWH or Mammon.

Application:

America YHWH is coming; Wake up! Wake up, to the injustices that we (read every person in America, not just Americans) are complicit in because we reap the benefit of her unjust spoils. Listen to the prophetic voices of old who are speaking in our midst today. Do not turn a blind eye to injustice and a deaf ear to the cries of the oppressed. Let us actively pursue justice, the putting of things to rights, and not punitiveness. Let us become reverent of YHWH placing our trust in God and not in capitalism or any other system. Let us be agents of reconciliation on mission in the kingdom of God and not any other kingdom (read literal, not spiritually metaphoric). America YHWH is coming, and in the words of the late Larry Norman, “I wish we’d all been ready.”

Prayer:

Lord, I repent of my complicatedness in the injustices of the society that I am a part of. Show me how to act prophetically and live a life of reconciliation. In the matchless name of Jesus I pray Amen…

My Thoughts on Last Week's Class: Week 2

2011-10-10T13:19:00.000-07:00

The discussion based on the life and ministry of Donald McGavran was very informing. The concept of building bridges into cultures rather than trying to assimilate another culture into the Eurocentric Western culture has been something that I have been wrestling with for sometime now, McGavran just provided language. Also the fact that the way we do “church” could actually be a barrier to people interacting with Jesus provoked much thought about methodology for me.

My Thoughts on Last Week's Class: Week One

2011-10-02T22:15:00.000-07:00

There are many motives to plant churches. I want to see my church replicated. I want to create a space that I can call church. I have been called by God. So on and so on. In listening to people tell their stories, the reason why they chose to be part of the church planting class, I heard many of these reasons mentioned. But the reality is I do not think any motive can be so clear, and even if it starts out that clear it morphs, changes, and evolves along the way to become this convoluted "I am really not sure." My own motives for wanting to church plant are among the beginning list. I feel that God has called me to pastor and I want to be part of creating a space that I can call church. My motives sound pretty clear, but the reality is all sorts of other things have attached themselves to those reasons, like not wanting to disappoint or fail God in what God has called me to do just to name one. My prayer and hope is that while I am in this church planting class I can gain understanding and perspective that will help me sort through this unfastidious beast I refer to as my calling.

Contemplating Carl: Summer 2011

2011-09-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

The Precipice of Life

It is funny how life kind of seems like a rough draft that is always in various stages of editing. This is the dynamic nature of existence, but movement can be a scary thing. Safe, normative, static is what many people long for, but that is a myth that cannot be achieved. Every now and then we experience moments of stagnation where life has the appearance of being static. These moments become overwhelmingly monotonous and we desperately desire something to change. When life changes too much or too rapidly we long for life to become static; when life is momentarily static for too long it becomes stagnant and we desire for our lives to be more dynamic. So like a writer we sit with our rough draft moving between moments of writer’s block and inspiration.

I feel like most of my life is in a moment of static suspension where I am just waiting. Waiting to find out about my permanent residency petition to be resolved. Waiting for the finances to continue in school. Waiting for things to begin to click in ministry. Waiting for the moment when things become dynamic again and life can once again teem with inspiration and movement. It is like I am standing on a precipice over looking a beautiful lagoon waiting for someone to signal me to let me know that things are clear below and it is ok for me to finally jump.

I am learning that the greatest point of fear and curiosity exists in standing on the edge while looking down. It is the not knowing, the uncertainty that is all at once exhilarating and terrifying. I do not know how things are going to play out for me. I am uncertain as to how I will fair while plummeting towards the water. I know that God has called me to be a pastor. I know that God is leading me to church plant. I just need to have faith that God will continue to see me through the space between where I am now and where God has called me to be.

There are times when I think that I cannot make it and I am overwhelmed by the way things seem to be. I look back and see God’s faithfulness in my past, but looking forward is filled with uncertainty.

I was forced to take the summer quarter at Fuller Theological Seminary off for various reasons. The two main reason were finances and working on my immigration status. I have the paper work now that signifies that my petition for permanent residency has been received and I am now in the waiting process. But the finances for school are still needed. It is at these moments I am reminded of Jesus‘ words from the gospel according to Matthew, “do not be anxious about your life ... but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”

The more I come to understand that my job is to just jump the clearer the water becomes. So as I stand on the edge of life’s precipice I wait for God to signal me to jump. Knowing that that is the only thing I can do the rest is left in the hands of God. The resolution of my permanent residency is in God’s hands. The finances for school are in God’s hands. My ministry is in God’s hands. Making all of this just another stage of editing that is continually refining my story and improving it.

Worship & Healing

This August I was able to spend three weeks in Hawaii. I would love to say that it was a nice vacation; it was nice, but far from a vacation. I joked with my mom, who is a pastor in Honolulu, that I was busier on vacation than I was at work.

One of the reasons that I went to Hawaii this summer was to help with a worship retreat, with Andy Park, that the Spanish Campus of New Hope was hosting at the Bellows Air Force Base camp grounds. Three days of worship, fellowship, and listening to Andy Park speak about living a life of worship. On the final evening of the retreat, after Andy had finished speaking, he said, “I that God was wanting to heal people tonight.” My Mom, who has been suffering from severe and debilitating back pain for the past several months, raised her hand when Andy asked who needed healing. Everyone gathered around my mother, laid hands on her, and proceeded to pray for healing for her back. After about ten minutes of prayer my mom said she could feel her big toes. She explained that that was significant, because due to the damaged discs pushing on nerves, her toes had been numb and without feeling for over three months.

The next day my mom woke up early and went for a swim. That evening in church she demonstrated how the mobility in her back had greatly increased since being prayed for the night before. The day after that she was playing volleyball on a sand bar and snorkeling off the coast of Kaneohe. God had performed a miracle and healed my mom of her severe and debilitating back pain.

I look forward to the completion of this healing and the news that all the heath issues that have been ailing my mom are gone as well. But until then I will rejoice in this miracle and thank God for healing my mom of the agonizing pain in her back.

Creating Space

I have been part of the Walnut Valley Vineyard Church community now for one year. I have enjoyed the opportunity to serve this community in the capacity of young adults pastor. It has been a great learning experience for me. Forcing me to deal with a myriad of different circumstances.

One of the things that I have been doing as the young adults pastor is cultivating a community that has been aptly named “The Living Room.” The Living Room is a place where the young adults gather to share life and engage in conversations about life. It has been great getting to know and work with the young adults of Walnut Valley Vineyard Church. I have had the privilege of watching members of this community grow in and wrestle with their faith.

I also have had the opportunity to work directly with the senior pastor Mark Maki. In addition to with the young adults Pastor Mark has placed me in charge of revitalizing the Sunday morning service, which allows me to tap into the skills I gained while overseeing the Youth service in Hawaii. I love being involved in creating an environment where people can gather to worship God together. One of the greatest things is standing at the back of a room and watching people gathered, hands raised, worshiping God together.

Life Support

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith ... may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”—1 Peter 1:6-7. I rejoice that God has allowed my life to be a testimony of his faithfulness and your generosity. I am believing God for the provision necessary to return to Fuller Theological Seminary. In order to do so I must pay off the balance of my spring quarter, which is $2600. This will allow me to register for the fall quarter, which, begins September 26, 2011. I thank everyone for their continued financial support and prayer. I believe that our continued partnership is how God will show his provision.

If you would like to support me you can send a check or Money Order to:

Carl Amouzou

c/o Walnut Valley Vineyard

P.O. Box 5484

Diamond Bar, California

91765

Please make the check out to Walnut Valley Vineyard Church, but make sure to either write “Intern”in the memo line (do not write my name on the check) or attach a note stating that the money is in support of Carl Amouzou. If it is easier for you, feel free to send several post-dated checks all at once.

“but they who wait for the LORD

shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.”

—Isaiah 40:31

“I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.”

—Lamentations 3:24-25

One Love,

One Body,

One God,

Carl Amouzou

Email: Cnotebrown@gmail.com

How Would Jesus Read the Bible?

2011-08-27T02:33:00.000-07:00

Scripture:

“The LORD has opened his arsenal and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Sovereign LORD Almighty has work to do in the land of the Babylonians.”

—Jeremiah 50:25

“Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. Wail over her! Get balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.”

“‘We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to our own land, for her judgment reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the heavens.”

—Jeremiah 51:8-9

Observation:

Traditionally proper Biblical exegesis, the science and art of Biblical interpretation, has been tasked with trying to figure out the one true meaning of a passage of the Bible by deducing what the original audience would of understood the passage to mean. I think this approach is an impossible task for two reasons. First, it assumes we can actually close the historical and cultural differences in order to actually step into the shoes of an Ancient Near Eastern Mind. Second, it assumes that the original audience was one great mass who thought the same, reasoned the same, understood the same, and so on; the original audience must have been Borg. A friend of mine, Michael Vielsted, said that his approach to Biblical exegesis is to ask, “How would Jesus read this?” I asked my Michael what Jesus he was referring to, historical Jesus or Jesus alive and active today in history? He said Jesus alive and active today in history, which, led me to begin pondering how would Jesus read the Old Testament today.

How would Jesus read today’s passages from Jeremiah? How would Jesus interpret the proposed divine pestilence prescribed by Jeremiah as just vindication? How would Jesus understand Yahweh opening his arsenal and bringing out the big guns of wrath?

I think first Jesus would ask what does it look like to see God pour God’s wrath? Then Jesus would point out that when God’s wrath was poured out on him it was an abandoning humanity to its own brutality and allow humanity to do what it does best, consistently choose death. God’s wrath poured out on Babylon historically looked like God allowing a civilization that consistently chose death to experience the outcome of those choices, or maybe better stated allowed to live in the reality their constant choosing of death had created.

Second I think Jesus would tell us to live the Sermon on the Mount by mourning the loss of, praying for, serving, binding the wounds of, doing everything we can do to bring restoration to our enemies. I think that Jesus would say that the command to choose life means that one mourns death and actively seeks to bring life wherever death is found.

Last I think Jesus would repeat the words that he spoke to Peter in the garden of Gethsemane, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Which is the reality of choosing death instead of and over life. The only remedy or course of action that could and would result in healing is repentance, that is to say the about face from choosing death to choosing life. The axiom, “live by the sword, die by the sword,” is a misquoting of Jesus that leads one to believe life can ever be found in the sword. One cannot live by the sword; One can only die by the sword.

Application:

Life is subjective; everything must be interpreted and reinterpreted continuously. Even Jesus reinterprets the Hebrew Scriptures over and over again in the gospel narratives. He realized that the people he was talking to had a particular interpretation of the scriptures that he needed to challenge. I am continually challenged to try and read and interact with the Bible from new perspectives that challenge my previous interpretations. The hermeneutical lens of “how would Jesus read the Bible” is a challenge, but I am glad that my friend Michael told me about how he was trying to better understand the Bible because it is critical in deconstructing my previous paradigms of interpretation.

Prayer:

Jesus, help me to see the Bible the way you see it. Help me to read you into the text instead of myself or any other perspective. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

A Messy I Like You type of Love

2011-08-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Scripture:

“He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

—John 21:18

Observation:

Dr. Paul Louis Metzger pointed something out in this passage last week that I noticed and found no real significance in before. In this passage Jesus asks Peter three times “do you love me;” Three times Peter responds to Jesus saying that he does love him. All three times that Peter responds he uses the Greek verb for love, phileo. The first two times that Jesus asks Peter the question “do you love me,” Jesus uses the Greek word of love, agapeo, and the third time he uses the same word for love as Peter, phileo.

The reason I dismissed this as not significant is because of the way that I was taught to read these two Greek words for love. The professor who taught me Greek said that even though many people make the claim that agapeo is a divine and unconditional love and phileo is a lesser love based on fellowship, the reality is that the two words are used synonymously throughout the Bible. If we look at this passage and see it as Jesus just using these two different Greek words for love synonymously then there would be no significance to Jesus’ use of phileo the third time he asks Peter if he loves him. But if there is a difference in these two kinds of words then the use of phileo potentially carries with it a huge significance.

Metzger posed the question to us, the class, “what if phileo is not a lesser love, but a greater love?” Metzger went on to explain that if phileo is a love based in fellowship and friendship instead of unconditional love then Jesus’ use of it is an affirmation of the statement, “I no longer call you slaves, but friends.” Jesus is appealing to a deepening of his relationship with Peter. It seems to suggest that Jesus is saying, “Peter you love me within our slave/master relationship, but do you love me as a brother, as a friend, as an equal.” In a patriarchal society that is based on class and position, and where upper mobility was rare this change in relationship is huge. This change is not just a statement of liking Peter more, but rather an elevation of status and a dismantling of their hierarchical relationship making the phileo kind of love the greater kind of love.

Application:

Metzger’s interpretation of the John 21 really challenged me. In my paradigm unconditional divine love had always trumped human relationship love. But what is greater a love that by nature requires nothing to maintain or a love that requires sacrifice in order to maintain the conditions that even make love possible? I think sacrificial love will always win out.

Metzger talked about this dichotomy by using the example of Christians saying, “I love you with God’s love, but I don't like you; I have to love you, but I don’t have to like you.” The reality of that statement leads to the obvious fallacy that God can love you and not like you, but the reality of God’s love is that God does not just want to love you God wants to be in a messy I like you type relationship based on a phileo kind of love. In this kind of love God is no longer this transcendent being, but an imminent and incarnational lover. The irony is that it is easy to see God within a Hierarchal relationship where God is boss and beyond me, but to see God as a human divested of power washing the feet of his friends is actually very difficult to comprehend for me. Samir Selmanovic on Twitter said, “You will never understand God until you can see God kneeling before you washing your feet.”

Prayer:

Lord, Help me to comprehend your love for me. Thank you for constantly deconstructing my paradigms. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

What is the Conversation that God is Having with Your City?

2011-07-15T00:57:00.000-07:00

Wow it has been a minute since I last posted anything. Tonight at The Living Room (WVVC's Young Adult Ministry) we had a conversation based on the book of Acts 17:16-34. This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible, because in this story Paul doesn't just preach he joins an on going conversation that God has been having with the city of Athens. Paul doesn't once refer to scripture or even mention Jesus by name, instead Paul utilizes the Athenians own poets and philosophers showing how they were talking about the God Paul knows. Paul is invited to speak to Athen's leading thinkers and share about "his" God. Paul answers the Athenians' question by referring to an alter that the Athenians had in their city that said "to an unknown God." Paul begins to tell the Athenians about his God by telling them how God is part of their story already. Paul does this by quoting Athenian poets and philosophers.

At the end of this passage in the book of Acts it says that "Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed." I have heard many people say this is an example of a failed sermon by Paul because only a few people believed, but the Greek word translated as "few" in some older English translations does not refer to a small number and that is why most English translations in their revised versions change the word from "few" to "some." Paul may not have had 3000 people respond like Peter did in Acts chapter 2 on the day Pentecost, but those massive responses were the exception not the rule. If we are faithful to the narrative given in the book of Acts we know the rule is one person here, a couple of people there, and a few more people over this way. So the fact that very prominent and influential people chose to believe is actually a very good thing. Paul was talking to the leading thinkers of Athens, he was talking to the trend setters, the early adopters, the people who would influence others to believe and follow the God Paul espoused. The truth is that because these people decided to follow Paul the conversation in Athens would change. But in order to change the conversation that was taking place in Athens Paul had to listen to what God was already saying to the people of Athens. Paul did not come in and try to start a new conversation; Paul simply highlighted the places God was already in conversation with Athens.

To many "models" presented in the Church as "the way to win people for Christ" rely on trying to start new conversations with people using language they do not understand. Quoting a bunch of Bible verses to someone who doesn't believe in the Bible, or maybe doesn't even know what the Bible is, is for the most part not to effective a way to try and start a spiritual conversation with someone. That is like trying to start a conversation with someone who only speaks Mandrin by quoting French to them. God is already speaking to people. God is already in the midst of a conversation with all of creation. As ambassadors of God we need to listen to what God is saying and join in that conversation.

The question I asked tonight at The Living Room is, "what is the conversation God is having with our city?" This is a question that all of us need to answer in order to be an effective witness to our cities, to our friends, to our families, or to whoever God puts in front of us. How is God already speaking into their lives? What is the conversation God is having?

Faith of My Fathers

2011-06-24T23:57:00.000-07:00

Scripture:

"Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years of Jehoiada the priest."

2 Chronicles 24:2

Observation:

I remember when I was younger my stepfather had a very keen insight into this verse that he shared with me. He said, "Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD as long as Jehoiada was there with him because Joash never developed his own faith. Joash was living off the faith of Jehoiada." As you read the account in 2 kings you would think it ended in treachery against a good king, but 2 Chronicles cast such a different light. Joash's assassins, Zabad and Jehozabad, come out looking like the Boondock Saints dispensing a type of justice against the wicked.

Application:

Looking back now I realized that I completely missed the point of what my stepfather was saying to me. Growing up the son of a pastor, watching and listening to my mom's narrative about serving God, had me partaking in the work of God. I saw God use me in many ways. But when I was in my early teens I left out from under my parents’ faith. I began to search for myself. I began to listen to other voices trying to lead me. These other voices led me into gangs, violence, drugs, and all sorts of other things that I know and even knew then did not honor God.

It is funny how easy people are swayed when they are just listening to other people. I have seen so many young people who stop listening to the voices of their parents’ faith and start listening to the destructive voices of the world. Joash's story is not unique; my story is not unique. It was not until my faith became my faith, and not the faith of my parents, that I began to listen for God's voice in my life. I find it interesting that Joash is never credited with listening to God for himself. Joash is only credited with following God as long as Jehoiada lived, and that is because he was following Jehoiada and not God.

Who are you following? Whose faith do you have? To what voice do you give audience? Questions that I have had to wrestle with and truthfully still wrestle with sometimes.

On another note the story of Joash makes me think about Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Did not Jehoiada tell Joash the way he should go? Did not my parents tell me the way that I should go? Did not the countless other parents of lost sons and daughters tell their children the way that they should go? If the answer is yes how did they stray away so far? Maybe in the midst of the busyness of life we forget to train and think telling will suffice. As an uncle, future parent, and pastor I need to heed this warning to not just tell but to train children. I need to help them cultivate their own faith and not just live off of mine.

Prayer:

Lord, help me to hear your voice. Help me to listen for you and you alone. Lord help me to pursue you. Lord, help me to train young men and women of God who cultivate their own faith in you. In the name of Jesus Amen...

Contemplating Carl: May/June, 2011

2011-06-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

The Light Still Shines

John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” This verse has been a constant comfort through out my life. It is that light at end of the tunnel that compels me to keep moving forward in hope.

There is no doubt that life can be difficult. There is no doubt that in life there will be obstacles that need to be overcome. Even when those obstacles seem insurmountable and we feel utterly defeated there is something in us that thrusts us forward. That force, or whatever you want to call it, is the light that shines in defiance of the darkest nights. And as long as you keep your gaze on that light you see hope. You have hope. You can see the end.

The past six years of my life have been an arduous journey, one of tenuous struggles and marvelous triumphs. But when I look back I see the faithfulness of God. I see how God has brought me this far. I see how friends and family have supported me through prayer, encouragement, and finances as a finished my B.A. in Bible College. I see moments when I have stepped out in faith as I pursue the calling God has placed on my life. I see so many wonderful things, even the obstacles that I have overcome now seem like monuments to God’s faithfulness. My past is victorious when illuminated by the light. As wondrous as it is to reminisce I know God is calling me to move forward, calling me to continue on the path he has placed me on.

To be honest, this past season I felt like giving up. I felt defeated by life. I took my gaze off of the light and felt like I was being swallowed whole by the darkness that encroached upon me from all sides. It is when life seems darkest that the light has the potential to shine brightest. Even the most minuscule amount of light penetrates like a finely focused laser. Every time I have come to that place of exasperation God has sent someone or something to turn my focus back to the light.
So as I travel the path that God has laid before me, school, ministry, pastoring, incarnating the light to others, I thank God for his faithfulness. I thank God for my friends and family who support me. I thank God for the obstacles that show me how dependent I am on God. I thank God for the darkness because it magnifies the intensity of the light.

It is in this spirit of thankfulness that I thank you as well. God has partnered us together on this journey and has shown me his faithfulness through your faithfulness. So in the midst of the dark nights of life remember to fix your gaze upon the light and we will walk this path following God together. Because we are partnered together, please do not hesitate to let me know how I can be praying for and supporting you as well (Cnotebrown@gmail.com). Together we continue to incarnate the light and shine brightly in a world that thinks darkness is the norm.

The road is long and narrow, but we rejoice because we have the light. We rejoice because the light shines. We rejoice because the darkness will never overcome the light.

Miracles Abounding in the

Normalcy of Life


My little sister just had her second child; meet Tianah

My phone started to vibrate and beep in the dead of night. I glanced over at my alarm clock, 12:53 am. I grasped for my phone, opened it, and read a text message that read “Michelle’s in labour.” By the time any one answered a phone in Vancouver, Canada I was an uncle again. I am so blessed to have such wonderful nieces and nephews.

The day before I woke up and got ready for church like any other Sunday. As I bent down to pick up my shoes my back went out, which was odd because for the last few months my back has been rather good. After the service began I had to sit down for worship because my back was in so much pain. During the service I remember praying, “God, I need to hear from you.” At the end of the service pastor Mark stood up and began to call out specific things that God was wanting to heal that morning. The first thing he said was, “God is wanting to heal someone who has intense back pain, specifically in their lower back.” I raised my hand and was instructed to go over to the side to receive prayer. A couple from the church began to pray for my back. I felt my back begin to tense up and spasm, then the pain was gone. I don’t know why but I began to cry. The heaviness on my life that I felt was lifted and I began to hope. “Carl, if the pain comes back it is the Devil trying to attack you, just rebuke the pain,” said the husband. Later that night the pain came back very intensely. I prayed and rebuked the pain. I went to sleep, got woken up by news that my sister was in labor, and when I got up the next morning the pain was gone. Ever since that night my back has been pain free. I am not saying that God caused my back to go out, but he sure did use the moment to bring healing into my life. I felt as if it was God shining his light in my direction just to let me know he is still there.

Branches on the Vine

John 15:5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” This is one of my favorite verses. First, the helplessness we have outside of God, and second because of the interconnectedness that the whole Church has to Jesus and through Jesus to each other.

The sun setting on the drive up to Phoenix, Arizona
for the Vineyard National Conference

At the beginning of May pastor Mark and I attended the Vineyard National Conference. I love coming together with pastors and leaders from all over the country, it is a show of the unity God desires in his Church. Bert Waggoner, the current National Director of Vineyard, closed the conference with a powerful message about the holy Spirit infusing an ecumenical, multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-gendered movement. His message gave words to how I feel the Church needs to operate. He told a story about how at an ecumenical meeting he led the spirit fell on pastors from many denominations, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, Baptists, Evangelicals all a like. A parable about the unity found in the vine and the power of God that flows through it.

I have been challenged greatly in my time serving in a Vineyard church. God has been showing me many things. We are all just branches in the vine, living, breathing, and moving together through Jesus.

Life Support

God is faithful to complete the work that he starts (Phil. 1:6). It is because of this that I trust God to provide that which I cannot. Please be praying with me as I trust God for the $4000+ needed to pay off my tuition this quarter. I received a letter today telling me that I cannot register for classes until I have paid off my tuition bill in full. I have 30 days to do so, or I cannot receive my grades for this quarter. I know that God will provide. Please pray about whether God is asking you to have a hand in this provision. I thank all of you for your support through prayer, encouragement, and finances. “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,” Ps. 40:4

If you would like to support me you can send a check or Money Order to:

Carl Amouzou
c/o Walnut Valley Vineyard
P.O. Box 5484
Diamond Bar, California
91765

You can make the check out to Walnut Valley Vineyard Church, but make sure to either write Intern program in the memo line (do not write my name on the check) or attach a note stating that the money is in support of Carl Amouzou. If it is easier for you, feel free to send several post-dated checks all at once rather than having to remember regularly.

"May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you"

—Number 6:25

Thank you for all the love, prayers, & support.

“Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
—Isaiah 40:31

One Love, One Body, One God,

Carl Amouzou

Email: Cnotebrown@gmail.com

The Precipice of Stupidity

2011-05-29T23:43:00.000-07:00

Scripture:
“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.”

—Proverbs 12:1

Observation:

I love proverbs because it puts things so plainly. No sugar coating, no beating around the bush, just blunt reality. This verse jumped out at me tonight because I think it is speaking to something that has been innate within me since I was a child. How often do we think in our superior knowledge we do not need to heed the correction of others? We think we know it all. We think we know better than everyone else, or at least we think we know better than you. But this proverb tells us such posturing is stupid. Not only is the posturing stupid, but the person who is posturing in such a way. Lovers of knowledge are life long learners. Lovers of knowledge have no problem assuming the mantle of student and listening to whoever is teaching. Learning involves discipline. It is impossible to be a serious student without discipline. It is impossible to acquire wisdom without correction. Both correction and discipline are needed. They are like two horses synonymously pulling forward a wagon. Discipline is the internal measure that allows one to stay the course, while correction is the external measure that helps one to stay the course.

Application:

On the background of my desktop there is a quote from Jim Rohn that reads, “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.” Just to be honest I didn’t even know who Jim Rohn was until I googled his name after reading the above quote. So my embracement of the quote is not an endorsement of the man, or anything else he said, because I lack enough familiarity with him to do so. I stumbled upon this quote one day, as I was being work avoidant. This quarter at seminary has been a difficult one for me. I have been completely and recklessly unfocused. After the mid quarter disappearance of the folder that contained all of my work I lost focus. It was like I succumbed to defeat, or at least an attitude of feeling defeated, which evaporated my motivation to work and thus my focus. But the reality was I lacked the discipline in my studies necessary to overcome this looming fiasco. Ever since I can remember I have taken short cut after short cut on my studies relying on my ability to work quickly to make up for my procrastination and lack of discipline. I spurned many attempts made by professors, friends, and family to bring correction into this area of my life. I was able to stay the effects of my stupidity up until now. I was never faced with a challenge that seemed insurmountable in my studies that I could not hustle my way through. I called myself a lover of knowledge, but the reality was I was a lover of stupidity.

There is an old adage that says, “don’t burn bridges until you have crossed.” While, I burned the bridge of discipline a long time ago, and now here I stand on the precipice of stupidity and I am scrambling to try and find a bridge. Life does not go as expected sometimes. The only consistency of life is that it will be inconsistent. You cannot always plan ahead, but you can discipline yourself to act rightly in any situation. So in short it boils down to one question for me, will I build a bridge of discipline supported by pillars of correction or will I continue to play with the fires of stupidity? Hopefully I can look back on this and say lessoned learned, because even thick skulls get crushed with enough pressure.

Prayer:

Lord, I repent of my stupidity, lack of discipline, and rejection of correction. Help me to focus and heed the lesson of this quarter. Help me to stop validating my procrastination with excuses and reasons. Help me to press through the inconsistency of life and finish well nonetheless. In the name of Jesus I pray Amen…

Bad Party Jokes, Harold Camping, and the Comedy of Being Left Behind

2011-05-23T00:37:00.000-07:00

Almost at the risk of just being another voice to pipe up in the seas of trendy, I am going to comment on May 21, 2011’s non-rapture and the Harold Camping fiasco. Before I get into what I actually want to speak to, I have to confess that I was amongst those laughing at the ridiculous nature of Harold Camping’s claims. At no point did I for one second think the world was coming to an end and that Christians were going to be raptured. So in gleeful delight I partook in all the jesting that was going on tweeting, “Breaking News: it is after 6 pm and everyone except Kirk Cameron got left behind." The comic of how God was using a computer to download the rapture was my favorite. But then I read a blog post titled, “Harold Camping, Rapture, Jesus, and Randy Macho Man Savage—It’s kinda Funny but not Really” by Eugene Cho that sobered the occasion. In his blog post he mentioned the story of a mom who tried to kill her two daughters to save them from having to live through the tribulation. At that moment all of a sudden all of my clever commentary became hollow noisy gongs, to use Paul’s imagery of lovelessness. I would love to say that I never cracked another joke about the nonrapture, but the reality is that, as Eugene Cho put it, “it [is] funny but not really.”

In Matthew 24 Jesus says, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. … So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Jesus over and over again says that his return is a mystery. His return is to be expected at any time, so one is to be ready. Being ready means setting about doing what God has called the Church to, and that is love one another and making disciples. Loving one another and making disciples is our task; our task is not trying to predict when Jesus is returning, nor is it about wrapping Jesus’ return with horrible theology (but that is another matter). We mock Jesus and try to make him a liar when we set about trying to unveil the mystery of his return. I have never seen anything good come from people gorging themselves on eschatological conspiracy. If those who claim to be disciples of Jesus, set about doing what Jesus actually told us to do, loving one another and making disciples, the Church would not be the butt of jokes told at parties by people trying to break the ice. Now for the super cheesy closing line, now that’s no laughing matter.

This Is a Cut Throat Game; Find Ways to Get a Head

2011-05-16T13:42:00.001-07:00

The Head of Sheba being delivered over the wall

Scripture:
“Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bikri and threw it to Joab. So he sounded the trumpet, and his men dispersed from the city, each returning to his home. And Joab went back to the king in Jerusalem.”

—2 Samuel 20:22

Observation & Application:

The bible is full of stories where people are said to have acted wisely, or justly, or righteously, or any number of “insert positive adjective here” descriptions. But the reality is that most people living today, at least in the West, would fundamentally disagree if people tried to act like that today, but still make excuses nonetheless when they do about how it served the greater good or something like that. But yet we hold up these stories from the bible as “principles” to follow. Should we then cut off a man’s head because he opposed the president? If that were the case the Tea Party would have been short lived. Should we chop up the body of a rape victim and mail the pieces across the country, mimicking another “principle” from the scriptures? But that is the problem with trying to make narratives a deposit of principles that need to be imparted to the reader. Can one derive principles from the narratives? Absolutely. Is that the point of the passages that contain these rich narratives? Not at all.

Now if we look at this passage carefully we find government sanctioned murder. David is fearful, and after the Absalom fiasco he had good reason to be, and kills a man who has done nothing wrong besides tell people to go home. Sheba actually quells potential trouble by dispersing a disgruntled crowd before tempers got the best of them. But no doubt, when reading this passage people will cue into the word “wise” describing this women’s actions and say something like, “she saved the city with her quick thinking, we need to think quickly as well.” Turning a tragic narrative of unneeded death into a lesson on thinking quick. The real principle, if we must derive one, of this story is that those who speak truth to power end up with their heads being lobbed over the wall of a city. But that principle won’t sell books or even “preach” in a church, so chances are it will be ignored. This is a narrative that should be mourned not celebrated. Sheba is another victim of King David’s life falling apart as he finishes poorly as a leader.

Prayer:

Lord, guide me as I read the different narratives and listen in on ancient conversations about you. Help me to not blindly and ignorantly turn the Bible into a depository of principles to be followed, but rather engage the narratives as rich history that we can interact with. Help me to be a leader that finishes well, not conveniently. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

Sinking Sand

2011-05-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

Joshua

Why do we push people to take sides, to form opinions, to choose one stance or another? Most of our interactions are formed in false dichotomies; you are either with us or against us dualisms. Think about it we have a litmus test of questions that are asked to gauge where someone is theologically, politically, socially, or any other dividing wall people have put up. What do you believe about homosexuality? Are you Democrat or Republican? Do you watch Fox News or MSNBC? What is your take on the rapture or hell? So on and so on goes our list of qualifiers for consideration of membership.

I love the passage where the commander of the armies of Yahweh tells Joshua he is not there to take sides. And just like the commander of the Yahweh’s armies is not called to take sides, I do not think that Christians are either. We are the people who are to be all things to all people so that we might win some to Christ, just like Paul said.

Lately there has been a myriad of issues that people have tried to push me to take a side on like the LGBT community, the Rob Bell controversy, the death of Osama Bin Laden, and many other issues. I just do not feel it is my place to cast judgment. And to be honest I am hesitant to take any side, because I have a problem anytime we turn people into issues instead of treating them as solely and wholly loved by God. Now do not get me wrong there are lots of things that I do take sides on, sometimes rightly and other times failing to adhere to the ideals of grace. I will always try to take the side of love or the side of the oppressed and marginalized. When I look at the life of Jesus I see him taking those stands, which often put him at odds with the political and religious folks. I don’t know where I stand on many of these issues. It is not because I am ill informed and just need to be further enlightened, but rather because I do not want to treat any person as less then the image of God. Often we fight for our side and sacrifice people to do so. I would rather sacrifice my opinion and fight for people instead. You know I guess it boils down to this I stand on the solid rock all other ground is sinking sand.

Prophetic Worship Vs. Pathetic Worship

2011-05-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

Scripture:

“David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals.”

—1 Chronicles 25:1

Observation:
What is prophecy? Prophecy is a call to return to God. Prophecy is a call to realign the focus back to what God has called his people to. Prophecy is a call to be faithful to the covenant God has made with his people.

I love this verse because it transcends time. The Church just like Ancient Israel prophesies musically. This is what our times of worship are really all about. Good worship songs call the worshiper to forsake all other things and return to God realigning the worshiper to God’s covenant.

Application:

Reading this verse today reminded me of something that I have been contemplating for a while now. I have been thinking about how so often when I worship God in our church gatherings my actions become so disconnected from the words that I am singing. I cannot how many times I have sung the words from the song Hungry, “I’m falling on my knees offering all of me, Jesus your all this heart is living for,” and just stood there singing. I wonder if I am the only one who feels the hypocrisy of my sung words verses my implied actions? I am not insinuating that any one person’s worship is less than genuine; I just know that mine is not all the time. But I want my times of worship to be prophetic calling me, reminding me, that I constantly need to repent and renew myself in God’s covenant.

Prayer:

Lord, help me to draw into you in my times of worship. Let me offer all of me, not just lip service. Lord, allow me to partake in the prophetic nature of worship and answer the call. In the name of Jesus I pray Amen…

Contemplating Carl: April 2011

2011-05-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

I Am a Minor Who Mines for Untapped Potential

Nothing is more exhilarating than seeing someone realize that they are able to do something they never thought possible. I remember when I first started in ministry I was ripe, ready to learn, and unaware of my potential. It took leaders investing in my life, challenging me to do things I thought I was not capable of doing.

A person is not able to judge their potential until they are forced to do something beyond their defined boundaries. I did not think I could lead a ministry until I was pushed to lead one. I did not think I could deliver a sermon until I had to stand in front of a room full of people and give one. I not think I could help shape the lives of young people until I began to mentor some. With every new experience we learn, adapt, and grow through even negative experiences if we are diligent to extract lessons hard learned. Someone told me that with every click on the internet we are making it smarter; imagine the limitless potential we have if we learn from every click in our lives.

Sometimes people like computers need someone to help them organize the data of their lives in order to understand the significances of their experiences and grow as a result. The facilitation of growth, the unleashing of potential, is that not a pastor’s job? I believe that all disciples of Jesus are ministers; a pastor’s ministry is equipping the Saints for the work of the ministry.

God has called me to be a pastor. There is no doubt left in me regarding this call. When I was six years of age I was told that God had set me apart for this ministry, and until I was twenty-four years old I ran as fast and as far as I could from this call only to end up at the doorsteps of the Church. Five years later I have earned a Bachelor’s degree in Pastoral Ministry and Bible, and now currently work towards the completion of a Masters of Divinity. But I did not arrive where I am now without the aid of pastors, teachers, leaders, friends, and family pouring into my life, investing in the actualization of the call that God gave me when I was six years old. Truth be told, I could not be where I am without the aid of those who have partnered with me to see the potential in my life mined, and released.

A friend's Birthday party @ the Fuller Theological Seminary
housing

I have given my life to this call. There is no plan B for me. I have lost my life for the sake of Jesus, and he has given me a new life brimming with potential not yet mined. But in the same way that God uses people to mine the depths of me in order to unleash my potential God uses me to do the same in the lives of others. Every time I see one of the people who God has graciously allowed me to mentor and help release their potential I cannot help but feel a sense of extreme joy welling up inside of me as I see them divesting themselves into what God has called them to do.

It is my hope that as you partner with me in ministry, that as you invest in my life you too feel a sense of joy at what God is doing and has done through your efforts in my life. I am so thankful for every person who has laid hold of a pick ax to diligently chip away the rock that encrusts my God given potential.

A Deeper Meaning on Resurrection Sunday

I awoke on the morning of Good Friday, got ready for a day of studying, turned on my computer, went to click on the folder titled “spring 2011 quarter,” and noticed something wrong. As hard as I looked the folder was nowhere to be found on my computer or on my online backup. Somehow in the sync the night before the folder went missing. It completely disappeared as if it never existed. Panic gripped me as I realized all the work for my spring quarter at Fuller was gone, including my assignments for the week that I had just finished the night before. The nice people at Apple eventually helped me recover some of my files from their online server, mainly notes and such, but sadly none of the important ones like my homework due that evening.

Pastor Mark preaching "I Wait for the Lord more than
watchmen wait for the morning ... —Psalms 130:6"

Pastor Mark had asked me a few days prior if I could lead the church in communion on Good Friday. As I began to pray about what God would have me say, two passages came to me, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 and Revelation 22:17-21. A summery of how I presented these passages goes as follows: we do communion proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes as a testimony of his victory on the cross and the fullness of resurrection. I asked everyone to partner with someone and pray for each other and serve one another communion. I partnered with a women who I had never met before. We took the elements of communion, sat down, and I asked her what is an area in your life that you want to proclaim the Lord’s victory in that I can pray for? Her response brought me to a still almost ashamed to tell my prayer need. She told me how her family had lost a two year old little girl in a drowning accident and how she needed the Lord’s comfort. As we sat there I prayed for her, tears trickling out of both of our eyes. All of a sudden my loss earlier that day seemed insignificant, an insult to the grief shared by this women. I stumbled to try and move past her praying for me, but she stopped me and said please let me prayer for you. She prayed that God would help me to finish my schooling strong and to redo my lost assignments quickly. We served each other the elements of bread and wine (grape juice), stood, and embraced as we said goodnight.

The cross is about taking the worst this world can deal out and God saying “is that all you got? My turn.” The Resurrection is victory. Victory over sin and death. Easter, Resurrection Sunday, was cast in a different light for me this year. A light that reminded me that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,” as John 1:5 tells us. So until our Lord Jesus comes we will proclaim victory every time we hoist a cup and break bread.

A Frank Plea for Your Help

I try to make this section of my news letter extremely short because I do not like asking for money, but God has put me in a season where I need the partnership of friends and family in order to continue in what He has called me to. My third quarter at Fuller Theological Seminary is almost finished and I have been unable to pay my tuition thus far. The balance of my tuition is $4,400. If you are able to assist me in paying any of the balance of my tuition I would be extremely grateful, but if you are unable I ask for your prayers, and am grateful for those as well. But please pray and consider if God is leading you to partner with me in ministry. Thank you.
If you would like to support me on a monthly basis, or through a one time donation, you can send a check or Money Order to:

Carl Amouzou

c/o Walnut Valley Vineyard

P.O. Box 5484

Diamond Bar, California

91765

You can make the check out to Walnut Valley Vineyard Church, but make sure to either write Intern program in the memo line or attach a note stating that the money is in support of Carl Amouzou. If it is easier for you feel free to send several post-dated checks all at once rather than having to remember regularly.

Thank you for all the love, prayers, & support.

“Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
—Isaiah 40:31

One Love, One Body, One God,

Carl Amouzou

"May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you"

—Number 6:25

Email: Cnotebrown@gmail.com

Two Stories

2011-04-23T16:16:00.000-07:00

Scripture:

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

—Matthew 10:29-31

Observation:

Sparrows according to this passage are not worthless, but slightly more than worthless. I remember when I was a child going to the corner store and buying candy. The cheapest candy one could buy was five cents. You could not even buy a momentary sugar rush for a penny, even though according to my step-dad you could buy a penny candy when he was a child, but lets just be real about that they also walked forty miles uphill both ways to school and back while barefoot in the snow. That just shows how almost worthless a sparrow was. And as little value a sparrow conducted God takes care of them making sure that not one of them will fall from flight. So Jesus uses this bit of information to calm the nerves of his disciples, “don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” The cynical part of me wants to be like “wow, thank you Jesus, we are worth many slightly above worthless sparrows.” But the reality of that statement is that God is in control and he is watching after us, and if he cares about almost worthless sparrows with great intensity, imagine how much more he cares for you. That reality is later shown to cost the life of God’s son on the cross. How much does God care about you? He cares enough to die on your behalf.

Application:

The biggest lie I have believed in my life, that the enemy has told me, is that I am worthless. I have no value has been a lie whispered in my ear in the dead of night over and over again, “Carl, you are nothing, never were, never will be.” But this passage tells me different. The reality of the cross screams, “No, you are infinitely valuable!” But, somehow I cannot buy into that reality, I cannot let that be my defining truth, because that would mean I do not have to prove my worth, a reality I have bought into my entire life. The thing about time is you cannot ask for a refund. So, the time I have spent bought into this lie is lost to me.

I remember about ten years ago in British Columbia, where I am from, there was a big scandal that happened because a bunch of high-condos that were ruined because of leakage during rain. What happened was a development company took plans for condos in arid Arizona and just copy and pasted those same condos in British Columbia. The problem is that British Columbia is not arid, it is actually very wet; Vancouver is the rainiest city on earth. So when the rains fell the condos eventually leaked, which led to mold and rot, and eventually led to condos being uninhabitable. Some people spent many times the value of their condo to repair the damage, while others just walked away deeming it more profitable to just walk away and start again investing in a new place.

Too often we buy into the story of valuelessness. We spend allsorts of energy and effort trying to show our value. When the reality is we have bought into lie that will cost us more and more; sometimes we just need to walk away and invest in something better because it is more profitable. The enemy has been sowing lies getting us to buy into a different story for far too long. We need to walk away from the story of valuelessness and buy into the story of infinitely valuable, because that is the story we were always meant to live.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for showing us that we are infinitely valuable to you. Help me to stop buying into a faulty and subpar story and only buy into your story of infinite value. Thank you, I pray in the name of Jesus Amen…

A Rugged Cross,an Empty Tomb, & Everything that Lays in Between

2011-04-16T03:55:00.000-07:00

As we officially head into the final week before Easter. I have been reflecting a lot about Lent, the Passion Week, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. It is sobering for me to realize how unfocused I am on the weight of Jesus' sacrifice, on the significance of his resurrection, on Jesus' conquering death. Easter becomes a service that we do, instead of an event experienced and remembered. As much as one wants to quote abstract theory about how the Church has arrived at the place where Easter is seen primarily as an opportunity to get new people into the doors of our churches, the reality is talk is cheap and ineffectual. We must regain the gravity of the resurrection. We must meditate on the meaning and significance of the cross. We must cling to the hope of the empty tomb. Two things have been very provoking for me as I reflect on Easter; the first is an album called Songs for Lent by New York Hymns, which can be downloaded for free, and a video I stumbled upon on YouTube that mixes Johnny Cash's song Hurt with the stations of the cross. So this Easter season may you draw near to the cross as you reflect. May you find meaning in your actions as you invite people to partake in the resurrection. May you remember that Easter is about the slaughtered lamb reigning in victory.

Gungor, God, & Stereotypical Terrorists

2011-04-14T05:15:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine posted this video on his Facebook a few months back. I love the video, concept of what the band is calling people to do, but with that said I had a few questions raised by this video. The following is a Facebook conversation between my friend and I discussing the video, please feel free to add your comments to the end (please note that this is lighthearted, but still meant to provoke thought):

Carl Amouzou: I like the song. One question though, if the song is about moving past "boxed" images then why was the terrorist a brown man with a turban? Are we incapable of seeing any other ethnic group in that role? Ok that was two questions but what can you do? Three.

Friend: You're absolutely right! The song is about moving away from thinking in "boxed" terms and as we give up our misconceptions of God we will start to do the same with our misconceptions of our fellow human beings. What I'm saying is that it's a process and this song is a step in the right direction in the same way your question is. (not sure that's technically an answer but I feel ok knowing that your original question wasn't to obtain an answer but to get people thinking ; )

Carl Amouzou: Thinking people are dangerous. We just need to be fideist and blindly follow without any Questions ever!!!!!! Why take God out of his box it is warm and comfortable (he sits on a cloud for God's sake, literally). Leaving the thinking to agnostics and atheist real Christians don't think. Right?

Friend: 2nd Opinions 3:5 "Be transformed by the removal of your mind" Such a great verse xD

Rewired, Disconnected, & Unplugged: John Mayer & a Generations' Plight with Pornography

2011-04-09T01:39:00.000-07:00

I was surfing Facebook while taking a short break from writing a paper and saw this article, about John Mayer and Porn, posted on a former student's Facebook.

Funny, I ran into John Mayer one night in Hollywood with Ron Jeremy and he seemed to be quiet familiar with Ron's work. Here is what he has to say about porn. Here is a blurb.

MAYER: I’m a self-soother. The Internet, DVR, Netflix, Twitter—all these things are moments in time throughout your day when you’re able to soothe yourself. We have an autonomy of comfort and pleasure. By the way, pornography? It’s a new synaptic pathway. You wake up in the morning, open a thumbnail page, and it leads to a Pandora’s box of visuals. There have probably been days when I saw 300 [naked girls] before I got out of bed.

PLAYBOY: What’s your point about porn and relationships?

MAYER: Internet pornography has absolutely changed my generation’s expectations. How could you be constantly synthesizing an orgasm based on dozens of shots? You’re looking for the one photo out of 100 you swear is going to be the one you finish to, and you still don’t finish. Twenty seconds ago you thought that photo was the hottest thing you ever saw, but you throw it back and continue your shot hunt and continue to make yourself late for work. How does that (porn) not affect the psychology of having a relationship with somebody? It’s got to.

PLAYBOY: You seem very fond of pornography.

MAYER: When I watch porn, if it’s not hot enough, I’ll make up backstories in my mind. My biggest dream is to write pornography.

PLAYBOY: Masturbation for you is as good as sex?

MAYER: Absolutely, because during sex, I’m just going to run a filmstrip. I’m still masturbating. That’s what you do when you’re 30, 31, 32. This is my problem now: Rather than meet somebody new, I would rather go home and replay the amazing experiences I’ve already had.

PLAYBOY: You’d rather jerk off to an ex-girlfriend than meet someone new?

MAYER: Yeah. What that explains is that I’m more comfortable in my imagination than I am in actual human discovery. The best days of my life are when I’ve dreamed about a sexual encounter with someone I’ve already been with. When that happens, I cannot lay off myself.

It is sadly so indicative of how an entire generation of young people view sex and gratification. This is why it is so important that as young people you, we, begin to wire our minds for holiness and not gratification. Our synoptic pathways are being built and reinforced daily, what are you doing to make sure that the pathways pursuing holiness are the dominant pathways in your mind?

#thingsyoudowhenprocrastinating

2011-04-03T02:58:00.000-07:00

Just in case anybody questioned who owned todayhttp://twitpic.com/4ggcms #thingsyoudowhenprocrastinating

Contemplating Carl: March 2011

2011-03-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

Obedience and the Divine Provision of God

God has been so good to me. I am in my fifth year of theological study, having already earned a Bachelors degree in Pastoral Ministry and Bible and now about to start my third of twelve quarters of a Masters in Divinity degree. God has been so good to me. Being a Canadian citizen I have been unable to work for a living here in America; I have also not been able to procure grants or student loans to pay for school. But God has seen fit to provide for my every need concerning education. God has been so good to me.

I just want to thank everyone who has participated in the call that God has given me for this season, to equip myself for the work he has called me to. We are co-laborers in Christ. My accomplishments in our Lord are your accomplishments as well. My successes in our savior are your successes as well. I thank God everyday for everyone who has made the decision to be faithful in ministering to me in my need.

God has called his people to be a people of obedience. Fully submitted to the call and mission of Jesus. I am continually awed by those who remain faithful to this call to obedience, even at a great cost. Psalm 128:1 says, “Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in obedience to him.” And Jeremiah 7:23 says, “Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.” There are so many other promises concerning those who are obedient to God.

Recently a friend of mine, who is fairly new in the Lord, told me that following God is counterintuitive. Further elaborated he said you would think you should do something and in reality it is the opposite that God is asking of you. The first example that came to my mind when he said that was that in order to be prosperous in the kingdom of God one must be committed to generosity and giving.

Studying in the Library at Fuller
Theological Seminary

Now I have always tried to be generous; even with little I try to be faithful to give. For me the idea of tithing or giving has always been connected to looking after those in need in our midst. But in January God told me to commit to giving a tithe, above and beyond what I was already giving, to the church that I am serving at here in Cali. Now, just being honest this has been hard for me to do, because I am working with very little and every penny is counted on to make it. A couple of weeks ago my finances came down to either tithing or paying for gas to get to school. I wish I could say it was an easy decision, but it wasn’t. I went to the bank emptied my account and gave my tithe to the church and started to think what class was most important to attend as I only had gas left to get to one. The next day I went to my weekly meeting with my pastor and on the way home we stopped, checked the mail, and there was an envelope addressed to me. I opened the letter and there was a note and $200. I was so overwhelmed by God’s faithfulness that I started to cry. God had already set into place the provision that I needed. Even if I hadn’t been obedient God was faithful, but how would I have felt if I was disobedient at that moment. God has been so good to me.

Prayer, and the Divine Orchestration of God

A picture of me and the camera that was filming the
footage for a video that I shot with some friends in
Honolulu while I was back

At the end of my second quarter I headed home to Hawaii to spend sometime with my mom and help her out. I had a week in between the end of the winter quarter and the beginning of the spring quarter. So I wanted to spend it being a blessing to my mother. It has been difficult for her since Bob, her husband and my stepfather, has been stuck in Canada for the last six months taking care of some necessary paper work. (This is an area that I would ask you to pray please that God would make a way. I too will be working on my visa in order to finish my studies.)

My trip back to Honolulu was good and God moved mightily. I had the opportunity to speak everyday that I was on the island. It is amazing how God orchestrates things. On many of the times that I shared someone would comment that that was exactly what God had been speaking to them about and that I either confirmed or clarified.

Before I left Hawaii I was part of the birth of a community called “The Parking Spot” (named such because we literally met in a parking spot at the Pac Rim dorms). Upon learning that I was going to be in Honolulu my friend Mel, who is leading this wonderful community now, asked me to come share with them. He told me they were going through a series on passion. I had a great message about releasing the potential of passion prepared for the meeting; but God had different plans for that evening.

I took a nap prior to the gathering; I pulled an all-nighter finishing a paper for school the night before. I woke up and God told me that he had a different message for me to give at the gathering. So as I dressed and drove to the Pac Rim dorms I spent time in prayer asking God what I was to speak on. I arrived, greeted everyone, and then we began worship. It was then that God gave me the message for the night. A passage from Psalms and three points that he was calling The Parking Spot to become passionate about; community, prayer, and holiness. God spoke powerfully calling us to our knees before him in an extended time of corporate prayer. Remember that this gathering took place in a oil stained, gravel strewn parking spot; the entire community got on their knees. When I stood up after the prayer time my legs were trembling, God had transformed that dirty parking space into holy ground. After, many in the group shared how they had prayed prior to the meeting that God would speak to them through me exactly what they needed to hear. Thinking back now the time they were praying was the same time I heard God tell me that he had a different message for me to speak at The Parking Spot. It is amazing how God orchestrates things.

An Invitation to Partner in Responding to God’s Call

God has been so faithful to provide over these past few years that I have been equipping myself in Bible College & Seminary. Thank you so much for your generous support through finances, prayer, & exhortation. I could not have gotten where I am today without you. I still have a little further to go in school & invite you to continue this journey with me. Tuition & fees at Fuller Theological Seminary are approximately $5500.00 this quarter & I also have living expenses; I need your help in order to continue in my season of equipping for the call God has placed on my life.

If you would like to support me on a monthly basis, or through a one time donation, you can send a check or Money Order to:

Carl Amouzou

c/o Walnut Valley Vineyard

P.O. Box 5484

Diamond Bar, California

91765

You can make the check out to Walnut Valley Vineyard Church, but make sure to either write Intern program in the memo line or attach a note stating that the money is in support of Carl Amouzou (but make sure not to put my name on the check). If it is easier for you feel free to send several post-dated checks all at once rather than having to remember regularly.

Thank you for all the love, prayers, & support.

“For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me.”

—Colossians 1:29

One Love, One Body, One God,

Carl Amouzou

Email: Cnotebrown@gmail.com

Opportunities Vs. Obstacles

2011-03-05T20:40:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshkol and explored it. Taking with them some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, ‘It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.’ … Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.’”

—Deuteronomy 1:24-28

Observation:

When Moses sent out the twelve spies from the twelve tribes of Israel two of them returned with reports of opportunities to overcome obstacles and ten of them returned with reports of obstacles that would overcome opportunities. All twelve of the spies looked at the exact same data but there were two vastly different interpretations of the data.

Application:

When you are confronted with a problem do you see an opportunity or an obstacle first? Far too many times we see obstacles that overcome opportunities in our lives instead of opportunities to overcome obstacles. The way that we see problems will drastically affect our ability to be successful. If we see obstacles first we will always feel a sense of defeat even before the challenge confronts us, and thus it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But if we see opportunities first we will always have a sense of a victory just waiting to happen even in the face of failure. I cannot remember who said this next statement but it has had a tremendous effect on me; “there are no problems until you have solutions.” Meaning that problems are only opportunities to find solutions and once you find solution the opportunity becomes a problem past. It is far too easy for us to see the obstacles first and develop a fear of failure, as ten of the twelve spies did, then to see opportunities first and develop the courage to take on the challenge.

In my life I have shied away from way too many opportunities because I saw obstacles first. But it is funny any time that I did take the opportunity I began to find ways to overcome the obstacles. Dave Ramsey said the difference between people who are successful and people who are not is that successful people find themselves standing on a pile of failures instead allowing themselves to be buried by them. I would add that those who do not take the opportunity to overcome the obstacles are even bigger failures because they let imaginary piles of failures bury them.

If we are the type of person that sees opportunity first, we will begin to even see failure as opportunity. Take Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb as an example. A reporter asked him how it felt to have failed a thousand times before making a light bulb that worked. To this Edison responded, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” Every failure in the eyes of the person who sees opportunity first is not a failure but a step towards success.

Prayer:

Lord, give me the sight to see opportunities first and then give the courage to tackle every obstacle. Lord, I want to live a life like Joshua and Caleb defined by a heart wholly devoted to you and thus unafraid. In the name of Jesus I pray Amen…

Naked Impotency & Impossible Trust

2011-03-03T23:40:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

—Mark 10:27

Observation:

In Ancient Israel wealth was considered a mark of God’s favor and the righteousness of the man. So, when Jesus says that it will be easier threading a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, the disciples are bewildered because their model of “good” has been re-categorized as “not good enough” by Jesus. But when the disciples despair, “then who can be saved?” Jesus responds by telling them that salvation is impossible for Humans. There is nothing you can do to save yourself. No matter how “good” you are you will never be good enough to save yourself. It is what Jesus follows with that makes me think he had a fourth office while performing his earthly ministry, “Anti-motivational speaker.” “You cannot do it, but God can!” is not exactly Tony Robbins fodder. The point of Jesus’ anti-motivational moments is to deter his followers from thinking that anyone besides God can do “it” for you.

Application:

I have mixed feelings about the fact that I cannot do “it,” but God can. On one hand I relish the fact that no matter how hard I try whatever modicum of control I think I have is merely a mirage. But on the other hand when things look impossible, specially when things look impossible, I am not in control of the outcome anyways so I am free to just trust God. I do not have to busy myself with that which I cannot do, but rather do that which God has called me to. But therein lies the conundrum; it is hard to just trust God! It goes against every cultural norm that we are wired to believe: Just do it, if you believe it you can achieve it, if you work hard you can make it, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps, the list of axioms goes on. We are programmed to believe we are a people who cannot be stopped or held down as long as we continue to strive. But it is not true. It does not matter how hard you try; it does not matter if you believe it you cannot achieve it. The truth is “with man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” That is the reality of our situation; realizing that you are impotent is probably the most naked feeling you can experience.

When I look back over the last five years I am just awed by how God has taken the seemingly impossible and not just made it possible, but actually done above and beyond what is fathomable. Even in the midst of my doubt God shows himself to be faithful. I am an alien unable to work, but yet I am part way through my master’s degree, because “all things are possible with God.” I have seen God heal the terminally sick. I have seen God multiply food. I have seen God reach into the depths of poverty and despair and bring forth hope and life. But nonetheless I still try to do “it” on my own far too often, and without missing a beat God reminds me that it is him and not I that makes things happen.

There is a certain shame that has been assigned impotency in our society. Our inability to do “it” is to our chagrin and in our attempts to nullify the effects of impotency man has come up with all sorts of ailments, pills, contraptions, and things of every ridiculous nature. We cannot accept the fact that we just cannot do it. We cannot accept the fact that Nike’s marketing department has been lying to us since the 80’s.

This inept thinking that for some reason we do not need God; we too like God can do “it” has been a lie that has deceived us since the serpent spoke it to Eve in the Garden of Eden. In fact the reason that the Devil rebelled against God was because he thought he too like God could do “it”. At the heart of thinking that we can “just do it” is rebellion against God. Prior to believing the lie that we could “just do it,” we were naked and unashamed. Maybe the shame comes from the fact that we no longer trust that “all things are possible with God.”

Prayer:

Lord, help me to exercise the lie that I can do it myself from my life, mind, and body. Help me to trust you for everything that I need, want, or do. In the name of Jesus I pray Amen…

The Celebration of Giving

2011-03-01T07:27:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“On the day of firstfruits, you are to hold a sacred assembly when you present an offering of new grain to the LORD at your [Festival of] Weeks; you are not to do any daily work.”

—Numbers 28:26

Observation:

The harvest of grain came once a year during the harvest season in ancient agrarian societies. Payday in essence came after months of laborious work. It was after this time of Harvest that Israel was to have a celebration of weeks in which they had a day of first fruits on which they gave offerings to God.

Application:

How awesome is it that giving offerings to God was framed in the context of celebration in ancient Israel. Their offering of firstfruits came once a year in ancient Israel. Today we do not have to wait a year to get paid; we get paid bimonthly or every two weeks. Imagine if the Church today embraced the day of firstfruits as a celebration. Every two weeks we would take a day off, get together, and celebrate while we gave our first fruits to God. Hold up if I am not mistaken we do have something similar to that it is called a weekend and most of us have two days off, the only difference is we do not celebrate giving our firstfruits to God.

I remember growing up in church and hearing the messages about tithing (giving ten percent of your income to God). Most people I knew begrudgingly gave their tithe to the church, if they gave at all to the church. It definitely was not a celebration.

When I came back to the church in my mid-twenties I didn’t have much money, but I gave my tithe faithfully at first. It was a duty I was bound to fulfill as a good Christian. But in my first year of Bible College a professor of mine pointed out that tithing was not in the New Testament of the Bible and thus as Christians we were not bound to tithe. “I don’t have to tithe,” I must have screamed at the top of my lungs in my thoughts. I stopped tithing regularly and decided that using my money to do other things to help people was just as good as giving to the church. I learned over the next few years that many people used this excuse that tithing was Old Testament in order to not give to the church.
While I was in Hawaii I had the privilege to visit a traditionally Black church, named City of Refuge. Tithes and offerings at this church were not merely pass the bucket a long and pout as you watch your money walk off with the usher. No, tithes and offerings in this church were a time of celebration. Everyone got up and danced down the isle placed their envelope in the basket and shook the pastors hand or even gave him a big hug. Tithing was a party at the City of Refuge.

The difference between City of Refuge and my traditional experience in Church around tithing was celebration. Giving to God is a cause to celebrate, but often our greed, or bondage to money makes it a solemn occasion of duty rather than a festival. The Church, as a whole, needs to learn from churches like City of Refuge and recapture the celebration of giving to God.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for all that you have blessed me with. Sorry for ever begrudgingly giving back to you. It should be an honor and a privilege to tithe, not a solemn duty. Lord, help me to recapture the celebration of giving to you. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

Dialectical Innovation

2011-02-25T16:03:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.”

—Mark 2:4

Observation:

“Hey Jesus is in town! If we could only get Johnny, our paralyzed friend to him he could be healed” shouts an excited young Jewish man to his three friends. After this moment of excitement these friends become disheartened at the sight of the massive amount of people trying to crowd into the house where Jesus is ministering.

“What are we going to do now? We are never going to get past this crowd and through the door to see Jesus” must have said one of the four friends.

“What if we don’t try to get through the door?” asks another of the four friends.

“We could lower Johnny down through the roof right in front of Jesus!” the friend retorts excitedly.

So being unable to get to through the crowd to Jesus these four men had to think fast and innovate in order to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus. Digging a hole in the roof of a house is not exactly a brilliant idea, but it was the idea that allowed this group of men to accomplish the task in front of them and successfully deliver their friend to Jesus in order to be healed. Their quick thinking and innovation led to their friend’s healing.

Application:

It is not always the brightest ideas that are the best ideas to lead a person to success. Innovative ideas that allow a leader to get to where they need to go and do it before someone else beats them to the punch are often the best ideas. Innovative ideas are not even always new ideas, but they are at least a new perspective on an old or popular idea. The healing of this paralytic man was the result of his four buddies’ ability to look at a popular idea from a new perspective. Everybody wants to get to Jesus, not a new idea, but literally dropping by was a new take on the popular idea. The people who saw these guys on the roof must have been like what are these guys up to? Once they saw them drop their friend through the roof in front of Jesus the thought that went through everybody’s’ mind, except the owner of the house I am sure, was why didn’t I think of that first? Great ideas only have impact when they are implemented and you only get credit if you implement it first. But like the four friends sometimes you are not first with the great idea or your idea is just like everybody else’s idea. The difference between everyone left outside and the four friends is that they were able to take that common idea and make it an exceptional idea by being innovative and implementing it first.

Over the years I have had many good ideas but more often then not they have never taken root or if they did died lacking longevity. When I was in my early twenties I started a record company called “Embassy Records” with a three friends that I had grown up with. Now starting a record label was not a new idea, neither was releasing mixtapes, but what made Embassy Records different was that we took these ideas and found a way to make our presence known on downtown street corners, on club stages, outside the club, on the radio, even on local television and we did it with a $500 seed investment and tenacity. Besides a couple of bad business decisions, what ultimately killed Embassy Records was our failure to continue to innovate. We had initial success because we were very innovative and did things no other record company was doing in the city Vancouver by being very adaptable. Other record companies and artists took what we were doing and either just copied are idea sloppily saturating the market with inferior products that weakened Embassy Records’ brand identity, while other companies took what we did and figured out innovative ways to take it farther than we did. The result of this was that Embassy Records got left behind and stuck in a crowd. Embassy Records was like the first person in the above passage that said lets go see Jesus for healing, not a new idea, but new in this region. The companies that copied our idea of doing mixtapes were like the crowds that surrounded the house that Jesus was in blocking the four friends from getting in. The companies that took our idea and innovated further on it were like the four friends who figured out a way to be successful in the midst of a crowd trying to do the same thing.

The Church cannot lose its creativity and ability to be innovative. But far too often the Church in recent times has found itself copying what others are doing, and copying it sloppily. The Church cannot afford to spend its time copying what culture is doing. The Church needs to be setting culture and the only way that is going to happen is when we regain our creative spirit and ability to be highly innovative.

Prayer:

Lord, please show the Church how to regain its creative spirit and ability to innovate. Be our guide in this world and help the Church to stop following culture, but become the forefront of culture in this world. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

Team Moses

2011-02-23T02:53:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me.”

Numbers 11:14

Observation:

Moses had quite the task. Moses was in charge of six hundred thousand people (no matter how you translate that number of people it was at minimum forty-two thousand and as many as two and half million). That is a lot of people, and these people were not the easiest to lead. They were always complaining. They were always grumbling. They were always wanting to go in the opposite direction of where Moses was supposed to lead them. If I were Moses I would have been tempted to tell these people exactly where they could go and it would not of been the promised land. On numerous occasions Moses despaired at the responsibility of leading “these” people. I don’t think at any point did Moses actually think he could lead all these people on his own accord, but it was at this moment of weariness that Moses tells God again, “I cannot do it on my own; I need help.” It is at this request that God gives Moses some structural support in the form of seventy elders.

Application:

I don’t think there is a leader alive, or for that fact that has ever lived, that has not at some point despaired in the midst of the daunting task of leading people. It is a great weight that has crippled many a would be leader’s back causing them to run into oblivion instead of moving forward in their task of leadership. I know personally too many used-to-be-leaders who burst under the pressure of having to lead.

A leader who thinks they can lead on their own is either in a very dangerous place as a leader and in for some hard lessons or leading way below their full capacity. The sooner a leader realizes that they need help the more successful they will be. In fact, it is the leaders who prior to taking on the mantle of leadership realize they will need help and thus organize and plan help who will be the most successful.

First, leaders need to realize they need God’s help, as “there is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1). Second, leaders need to realize they need a team to help. Being able to successfully build teams as a leader will exponentially deepen the potential of a leader. If one were to take a quick survey of the most successful leaders throughout history, they would notice that all of them had very skilled and capable teams around them. The more a leader can diversify the roles of their leadership team the more specific and specialized support they will receive.

The most valuable lesson I have learned as a leader is to build strong teams that can help see the vision through. I have been blessed to have many great leaders in my life that have helped to mentor and coach me as an emerging leader. But the most valuable thing about learning how to build teams as a leader is that you begin to release the people on your team’s leadership potential. Great leaders will always have other leaders orbiting around them because good leaders want to be around great leaders. Consequently great leaders are always investing in the next generation of leaders and this comes from being able to build teams as a leader.

So who are you investing in as a leader? Who are you releasing as a leader? Who is on your leadership team? Are you seeking God to help you lead?

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for the great mentors and leaders you have put in my life that have helped to shape and mold me as an emerging leader. Lord, help me to invest wisely in other leaders, help me to release their potential to be used for the kingdom of God, and help me to build strong leadership teams. Also Lord, help me to strengthen myself in you, like your servant David did, when I am weary. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

Lessons Learned While Male Bonding Over the Engine of a Car

2011-02-08T18:44:00.001-08:00

A couple of Fridays ago I took a friend, who had just moved from Hawaii to California, out for lunch. After lunch was over I needed to drop my friend off where he was staying in Huntington Beach and head over to Pasadena to work on a paper for a class. I hopped in my car turned the key and the car just went dead. All the lights went out on the dashboard, the radio clock reset, and a weird clicking sound came from underneath the steering column. Over the twenty-nine years of my existence I have owned more cars that didn’t work than cars that just started when you turned the key. So I got out of my car popped the hood and began to pretend like I actually know anything about cars. After a minute I opened the glove box and called my roadside assistance for a tow truck. Right after I got off the phone my friend who was with me told me that I should try starting the car one more time. So after telling him it was hopeless I got behind the wheel turned the key and the engine came roaring to life.

I took the car into to Pep Boys Auto that following Monday. I had them check the battery and do all the free tests, as that is my budget right now. The battery and everything else checked out fine, so I asked the guy what he thought might be wrong and in broken English he told me it was the positive wire that connected to the battery. So I went back inside and asked the guy at the counter how much it would cost to have the wire fixed or replaced. The guy was an official looking young man in a white shirt. He looked at me and said that he would have to look at the car first. So we went outside to the car and I began to tell him the symptoms of what was wrong while he looked under the hood. I told him the other guy in the blue mechanic shirt said that it was the positive terminal wire. The guy in the white shirt adamantly told me that it was impossible that it was the positive terminal wire, and then added that he had no idea what was wrong and that I would have to wait until the car stopped working before they would be able to find the problem. Great I thought to myself another problem I do not need. About week later the car gave up its ghost and would not start at all.

Why is it that at the most inopportune times things decide to go wrong? Or how come when things go wrong they usually go wrong in waves? It is like standing on a beach about to take wedding photo's and you get hit by a rogue wave that sweeps you out into the ocean and every time you surface to get a breath of air another wave crashes down on top of you trapping you in a never ending barrage liquid punches.

This past season of my life has been like a set of waves crashing over me. So far over this past few months I have managed to swim to the surface and catch a breath, even if I get pounded by another one right away. I have found that during this time of trial and tribulation, hellfire and brimstone that I am a lot more resilient, resourceful, forgiving, and capable than I could have ever imagined.

I remember when I was a child I used to be very inquisitive. I was the type of child that would take apart a radio just to see what was inside and if I could make something better from the parts (yes I know that by today’s standards it is like playing with Lego compared to three year old kids who can build atomic nuclear reactors while playing Nintendo DS). But as I grew up I began to believe that I could not do it. Do what? Do anything. I began to believe that I was the type of person who could not be successful. I became paralyzed by the fear of failure and thus never attempted things that I could actually fail at. But on the flipside I never attempted anything that I could actually achieve success of any real significance.

With every wave that has crashed down upon me this past season, I have managed to swim to the surface and catch a breath. But with every new wave I still despair. I still find myself first believing that I cannot and will not succeed. This mentality of failure is so ingrained in my thinking that even when I am succeeding I am still waiting to fail. So when a moment of failure comes I can say to myself “look! Carl you failed again.” Reinforcing the idea that I cannot succeed. I choose to define myself by my failures.

It hit me today as I was fixing my car, that up until I moved to California I had surrounded myself with people who could be successful for me. Instead of risking failure I would surround myself with people who could do the things I was unwilling to try myself because of my fear of failure. There is no way that I could possibly fix the car myself. That is why I brought my car to Pep Boys Auto. But as I despaired over how my world was crashing around me because the car was not working, my step dad kept telling me on the phone various things that I could do to fix the car myself and I kept looking for someone who could fix the car for me. But I woke up this morning and realized that there was no one to do it for me, and I could not afford to pay for the car to get fixed, so if the car was going to get fixed I would have to do it myself. My step dad had recommended that I look up the problem on Google to see how to fix it. So I googled the make, model, symptoms, and found out that the problem was corrosion on the positive terminal wire just like the guy in the blue shirt at Pep Boys had told me. So after a quick trip to AutoZone, eight dollars, and my pastor and me male bonding over the engine of a car the problem was fixed and I was successful at fixing the car myself. True, I had people help me be successful, but the difference is that they helped me and were not successful for me.

This latest wave that crashed on me has taught me two things. The first thing it taught me is that God has given me the capability to accomplish and do so much more than I ever thought possible. The second thing this wave has taught me is that you do not listen to the guy in the white shirt at Pep Boys Auto over the guy in the blue shirt who actually fixes the cars and does not just give you the invoice.

Embracing Brokenness & Receiving Healing

2011-02-07T01:06:00.000-08:00

As I sit at a local Denny's studying and reading I overheard a conversation at the table next to me. Now I was not trying to listen in, but the conversation taking place was louder than the music in the background. These two men in their mid-thirties were talking about infidelity. One of the men had learned that his girlfriend had cheated on him, sometime in the not too distant past, and now he was trying to make sense of his life. His friend offered all sorts of theories about why women cheat, that basically boiled down to women want to brag about having sex with rich or famous men while men just go for hotness. From the various women I know I would say that his theories were extremely flawed; in reality he was himself trying to make sense of why his previous girlfriends had cheated on him. Two men trying to make sense of the brokenness they feel from being betrayed by women they loved. Two men theorizing about how every woman will cheat because she is only after money and fame. Two men who are trying to hide behind rationalizing their brokenness instead of embracing it as a starting point for healing.

In one of my many ADD moments of the night I was checking my Facebook and read a status update about how a spouse's infidelity had broken up a home. Reading some of this person's other updates revealed a person who is trying to hide their brokenness with shallow attempts to fill a void. As I read their update my heart just sunk inside of me. I felt like I wanted to shed tears for them but had none cry.

What is it about brokenness that makes us want to hide from it? What is it about us that make it so easy to deceive ourselves into believing that we are not really broken when we are in a thousand pieces? Some of the saddest things that I have seen in my life are people who have never confronted the brokenness in their lives and thus end up living lives that are just designed to mask the pain instead of heal it. I have met people who are so full of resentment and hate because of something someone had done to them at some point in their life and they never dealt with the brokenness, and as result in a very insidious way that brokenness actually began to have dominion over their life. It is a very sad thing that does not have to be. Now I am not saying that a person cannot be angry or upset with someone who has wronged them, but how much more of your life are you going to give a person who has hurt you? How long are you going to feed your brokenness instead of embracing it as a reality that needs to be healed? My prayers go out to the broken hearted tonight. I pray that you find a place of healing. I pray that you embrace your brokenness as a starting place for wholeness to emerge.

Spiritual Reflexes: Fast, Pray, Listen, Act, & Repeat

2011-02-06T23:35:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.”
—Acts 13:2-3

Observation:

The Church at Antioch was worshiping the Lord and fasting, and they were fasting and praying. There seems to be an emphasis on the fact that the Church at Antioch was fasting while these other activities, worshiping the Lord and praying, were taking place. While the Church was fasting they received instruction from the Holy Spirit about what they were supposed to be doing and when they finished fasting they acted on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Application:

Two things stand out in this verse that are very applicable to the Church today and immediately to my life as well. The first thing is the need to fast. The second thing is the need to swiftly act upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Until very recently in my life I had placed very little importance on the issue of fasting. Many in my generation and I would venture to say many in the Western church have placed little importance on the issue of fasting. I realized a couple of things about fasting in the past month, as I completed a twenty-one day dusk to dawn fast. The first thing I learned is that I/we have a lot of desires and distractions that grasp for our attention. Second, when we create space in our lives by clearing away those desires and distractions and focus in on God a funny thing happens we begin to hear God/Holy Spirit speak to us. The last thing I realized over this past month is that far too often we fail to head what we hear from God/Holy Spirit and fail to implement the actions necessary to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

When the Holy Spirit speaks we need to first listen and second act. Very simple, take the first step, take second step, repeat, and the next thing you know you are walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. One! Two! One! Two! Picture soldiers running drills over and over again, repetitiously ingraining the steps beyond just memorization, but into natural reflex. One! Two! Fast and Pray! Listen and Act! Fast and Pray! Listen and Act! Drilling it into us until it becomes our spiritual reflex.

Too often we beseech God for guidance in our lives and come away without hearing God’s voice. Is God not speaking? Is God remaining silent in our lives? God is not silent. “God is always speaking, your just not listening” as Carlos Licona an Evangelist from Miami recently told me. And even when we hear God speak into our lives we fail to act. When we fast and pray we are creating space to listen to God, but once we hear God we need to act. What if that was not God? Seemed to be the common doubt that ran through my head during my twenty-one day fast and after talking to others it was the common doubt they expressed as well. A friend of mine named Lanre reminded me “that God’s thoughts are higher than ours,” meaning that God usually calls us to things that we wouldn’t do or wouldn’t think of.

This year started out with a lot of excitement and expectancy for me. But I am at least functionally ADD and a little OCD as well. So that means that I have a hard time focusing on any one thing but when I do focus I become compulsive about getting it done. This year I have had a difficult time finding a rhythm. I have been praying that God would help me focus. Today at church Pastor Mark spoke about listening to God and at the end of the message he prayed and gave space for the Holy Spirit to speak. I heard the Holy Spirit say, “fast and pray for three days and I will guide you.” Remember that I just finished a twenty-one day fast two weeks ago, so fasting again so soon doesn’t exactly sound logical to me. Pastor Mark asked for us to share what God spoke to us, but I didn’t because I let my doubts about whether it was God or not keep me silent. But then the very first verse of today’s reading I read confirmed what God was saying to me. I need to make fasting and praying, and listening and acting a normative part of my walk. One! Two! One! Two!

Prayer:

Lord, Keep my ears perked, my heart open, and my feet ready to move for when you speak to me. In name of Jesus I pray Amen…

Agents of Hope

2011-01-31T17:41:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“He dealt craftily with our race and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die. At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house; and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.”

—Acts 7:19-21

Observation:

When watching The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston we see the Egyptian soldiers running through the villages of the Hebrews killing all the male infants with the sword. But according to Stephen, in the book of Acts, the method of death was abandonment. When we read about this account in the book of Exodus it says that the Pharaoh commanded the male children to be thrown into the Nile River. Either way when we read that Moses mother placed her baby in a basket and abandoned Moses among the reeds of the Nile River, she was giving into Pharaoh’s command. She tried to hide the infant child as long as she could, the passage in Exodus tells us, but when she could no longer hide the child she succumbed to the command of Pharaoh and abandoned her baby to the Nile River. This is not the defiant mother we see in the movie The Ten Commandments, but rather a broken woman who has finally submitted to tyranny when she could no longer hide from it.

The story of Moses does not end there. Moses is found by the daughter of Pharaoh and then given back to his mother to nurse. When Moses’ mother came to the end of her rope and gave in to the hopelessness of the situation that seemed to engulf her world God made a way out of no way. She didn’t abandon Moses hoping to get him back one day, no she abandoned him to die, but God in his mercy and magnificence gave Moses back to her and Moses’ life became defined by this act. The statement “a way out of no way” defined Moses’ life, as he was destined to be the liberator of the Hebrew people. The hero of this story is not Pharaoh’s daughter, it definitely is not Moses’ mother, but rather the hero of the story is Moses’ sister, Miriam. If it was not for her watchful eye Moses’ mother would never of received her son back. Moses still would have gone on to accomplish what God had destined for him, but his mother would have missed the whole thing. The moral of the story is that even when we give into hopelessness God can always pave a way for us; we just need to keep a watchful eye.

Application:

There are going to be situations that seem hopeless and will get the better of us leading us to succumb to the looming despair. There will be times where we just can’t take no more and give in to the voices calling us into the dark. The reality is that many are battling the demon of despair and hopelessness right now in their lives. But the truth is even in the darkest moments of life there is a light at the end of the tunnel; we just are not in position to see it. Sometimes we need someone else to identify the light for us like Moses’ sister did for his mother. This passage is not about the power of positive thinking; this passage is about the power of God to make a way out of no way and being able to see God at work.

Two principals jump out at me from this passage that are extremely important to apply to my life. The first principal is always leave room for hope. The only time a situation can become truly hopeless is when we succumb to the temptation to surrender our hope. For example, Moses’ mother had no way of knowing if Pharaoh, or the agents acting on his behalf, would discover Moses, but she assumed they would and thus gave up hope that her baby could continue to live. The second principal is the need of having people around us who can identify hope even when we cannot; we need agents of hope in our lives. Moses’ sister never took her eye off Moses, and because of her tenacity she was able to identify hope; Miriam was able to act as an agent of hope for her mother and thus bring Moses back to her mother or maybe better stated, as she was able to bring her mother back to Moses.

So lets take a survey of our lives right now. Do you always leave room for hope? If not, how can you begin to create space in your life for hope? Do you have someone in your life that can act as an agent of hope on your behalf? If not, how can you actively begin to seek out someone who can act as an agent of hope on your behalf?

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for providing a way out of no way. Thank you for always being my hope. Thank you for sending agents of hope into my life in the midst of my dark storms. Lord, please show me when and how to be an agent of hope to others. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

Giving Away the Monotony of Life

2011-01-27T19:00:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”
—Acts 3:6

Observation:

Jesus has gone to the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit has come. The disciples are walking in the power and authority given to them by Jesus to make disciples.

Life continued in Jerusalem just as it had before. People were going to the temple for prayer. A lame man lay at the gate called beautiful in order to beg. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. People came to the temple and passed through the gate called beautiful, as they had done during the hour of prayer for as long as they could remember. Nothing disrupted the monotony of their daily lives. The lame man, whom everybody knew as the one who begged at the gate called beautiful, cried out for alms just as he had done the day before and people passed by him just as they had done the day before. But today he looked expectantly at Peter and John hoping that they would give him something. Now this is the point of the story where Jesus’ departure, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the disciples walking in power and authority changes the monotony of everyday life in Jerusalem. Everything this day would be different. Nothing would be the same for this man, who all his life had been defined by his circumstances, because things were about to change on this day. This man would no longer be defined as the lame man who begged at the gate called beautiful. No, from this day forth he would be known as the man who was healed at the gate called beautiful. This day would be different. This day would change his life. This day somebody stopped and gave him what they had. This day somebody incarnated Jesus to this man and changed everything.

Application:

Too often we get stuck in the monotony of everyday life and just pass by the lame man who lays at the gate called beautiful as we go about our religious ordinances. Life doesn’t change too often for most of us. Life doesn’t change too often for the people we encounter daily. Life just seems to happen around us day in and day out.

Most people complain about the monotony of everyday life. Most people daydream of exotic getaways and new adventures that they never really plan to attempt. Most people go about their daily lives undisrupted.

The reality is that life is happening all around us. There is nothing monotonous about life except the fact that we just allow the days to slip away without ever realizing the potential of that given day. What would happen if you stopped for a moment from your daily rituals, just long enough to do something different, just long enough to change the monotony? Everyday we pass by opportunities to change everything or least everything in someone’s world. But that requires that we be open to give what we have away. It requires us to make ourselves available for God to use us in divine encounters.

Last night I was walking into the cafeteria at Fuller Theological Seminary to grab dinner before class. I passed by a woman who by all appearances was homeless. She asked me for a dollar, but I politely told her that I had no cash and kept walking. As I walked inside the cafeteria a small voice told me to go back and talk to her. I turned around and headed back over to where she was seated. “Sorry I don’t have any cash on me but I could grab you a meal if you want” I said. She declined and told me that someone else was already bringing her some food. I bid her goodbye and told her to have a goodnight. I do not tell this story because I actually did anything. No, I tell the story because like everyone else I merely pacified this woman and did what was minimally required to pass her by. But what was the reason that God asked me to go back and talk to her? I stopped for a moment but quickly reverted back to the monotony of the day. What could the reason possibly have been?

A person’s real need is not “silver and gold,” but rather the incarnation of Jesus in their lives. But it is easier to give someone a dollar and keep moving than to stop and incarnate Jesus in their lives. Life is full of opportunities to change the world. Unfortunately most of us are to busy with the monotony of our day to day lives to stop and allow the miraculous to happen by incarnating Jesus in the lives of those we encounter daily. A person’s real need is not “silver and gold,” but rather a tangible expression of the love of God. How can you incarnate Jesus in life of one person you encounter today? When you answer that question you will figure out the key to breaking the monotony of just doing life and realize what it means to live life and live life abundantly.

Prayer:

Lord, open my eyes to the divine encounters you would have me incarnate your love in. Remind me to stop and take a moment to break away from the monotony of life so that I might actually live life and live life abundantly. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

January 2011 Newsletter

2011-01-17T20:49:00.001-08:00

Click the page to download that specific page page 1 & page 2

The Lost are Found

2011-01-15T19:48:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. … Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. … Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”

—Luke 15:7,10,31-32

Observation:

Yahweh is a God of celebration. He celebrates when he finds those who are lost. He celebrates when those who left return. He celebrates when those who were dead come back to life. He celebrates. He rejoices. He searches. He waits. He watches. He prepares. He celebrates when the lost are found. When reading these three parables there are two modus operandi regarding the recovery of the lost. First, there is the active searcher, seen in the lost sheep and the lost coin. Second, there is the watchful waiter, seen in the lost son. Why this differentiation in techniques? It is not obviously apparent why the father does not actively search for his son? The sheep and the coin are lost and cannot find their way back. The son, who is lost, does not think he is lost, in fact he thinks he knows the way he should go. The father could have pleaded with his son not to go, knowing that his son was about to embark on a fool’s errand. The son thought he knew the way and until he found that the way he was going was folly there could be no dissuasion. But once the folly of the path was discovered the son only needed to repent and walk back the way he had come to get home. The difference between the two parables where there is an active searcher and the parable with the watchful waiter is the way home. The first two parables the only way home is through active search, that was the only way to restore the lost. The second parable the only way home is repentance and thus the father could only watch and wait to restore the lost.

Application:

We were lost at some point in our lives; some of us are still lost today. All of us fit into one of the categories presented above. Some of us needed some one to actively search for us, for some of us that active search would be in vain because we did not think ourselves lost. Some of us needed to repent as the father watches and waits, for some of us that watching and waiting would only contribute to keep us lost because we did not know how to get home and possibly some did not even know there was a place called home.

I fall into the later category. No matter how hard someone searched for me I would as kindly as I could rebuke them for their search efforts because I knew where I was and thus did not consider myself lost. I continued on my way and those around me could only watch and wait for me to return. I remember a couple of years ago a couple years after I returned home to God my stepfather, with tears in his eyes, shared with me how he prayed and waited for my return. He shared with me the agony he felt watching me go down a path that could only lead to destruction.

Last night, as I was reading, I caught wind of a friend on Facebook’s plight. I saw an update about her missing son. I could only imagine the agony she was going through as a mother not knowing where her son was. Did her son disappear of his own volition or was her son in need of someone to actively search for him? Thankfully due to the diligent search for her son he was found at 1 pm today. Her son was lost and could not find his way home. I could feel her agony emanate from my screen when I read, “I'm trying so hard not to cry as my [baby] is sleeping on the couch with me! Need to stay positive!”

The outcome of both these situations is the same; parents celebrate the return of the lost. I saw the joy in my stepfather’s eyes as he thanked God for my return. I could feel the thankfulness my friend felt as she typed the words “my son is home safe.”

The Church’s job, our job is to see that the lost are found. Sometimes it requires going into the highways and byways to actively search for those who are lost. Sometimes it requires the Church to keep her doors open waiting to embrace any wayward soul who should walk through her doors. Either way we should agonize over those who are lost and we should rejoice over those who are found.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for embracing me when I returned. Lord, show me when to search and when to wait. Lord, I pray for those who are lost that no matter what they will find their way home. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

The Difference Between “Disciple” and “Dissipell”

2011-01-14T20:02:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’”

—Luke 14:28-30

Observation & Application:

When I was 16 I worked for my uncle at his Hip-Hop clothing store called “Concrete Jungle”. I remember when a store opened up just around the block from our store that sold imitation Hip-Hop clothes, knock-offs of the popular brand names. People would come into our store and see the price of an authentic “Rocawear” leather jacket and complain. Often the next day the return to our store sporting their latest purchase, a knock-off from the store around the corner. They would walk in wearing their pleather “Roocawire” jacket. It was all I could do to not laugh at how ridiculous they looked trying to pass off this horrible imitation as the real deal, all while bragging about how little they had to pay for it. Without fail after a couple of weeks the jacket would fall apart or they would stop wearing it because their friends ridiculed them for their “fake gear”. The price for authenticity and quality is never cheap. Even if you get a good deal you will still have to spend some money. The true cost of trying to save a few dollars on a “Rocawear” leather jacket by purchasing an imitation, in the end, always cost the customer more then they wanted to pay and they were always left wanting.

The cost of discipleship is high. Not to many people are willing to pray the actual price. They want to buy into the building project called “becoming a disciple of Jesus” and then realize they are not willing to invest the capital necessary to finish the project. But leave it up to good old ingenuity to figure out a way to create a façade that looks like a finished building, but is really a hollow shell. In many ways modern Christianity is a façade, a bootleg of real discipleship, thus cheaper to buy. The cost: attend church on Sunday, tithe regularly, and don’t let anyone know that you struggle with sin. As long as you can pay those bills each week the façade is a tangible reality called Christianity. The current consumer climate in the West has also infiltrated this façade and now you can shop for the façade that suits you best. You can buy into the façade that makes you feel the most comfortable. No matter how hard we try to pass these façades off as the real thing, they remain cheap imitations, knock-offs purchased by a bargain shopper.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for being the real deal. Lord, help me to discern the fake from the real and always choose the real you no matter what the cost. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

Holistic Healing

2011-01-14T18:07:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.’ But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?’ When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.”

—Luke 13:10-17

Observation & Application:

When I read the gospels I see sickness, infirmity, blindness, dumbness, and physical handicaps linked to sin and demonic affliction on a regular basis. It is almost normative that Jesus’ healing miracles are linked to liberation from sin and demonic affliction. But this notion of demonic sickness almost seems like nonsense to our modern sensibilities. With our doctors and diagnosis, we attribute illnesses of every kind to scientific reasons that we can cure or at least medicate. But if we are to be faithful to the gospel text then we have to accept that at least some infirmities and physical handicaps are caused by demonic affliction. A friend of mine says that he has not been sick for seventeen years and the idea of illness offends his redeemed and spirit-filled sensibilities. He would say, “When God saves us he saves us holistically.” It is interesting that the Greek word, sōzō, is translated with the words to save and to heal. The word itself presents a holistic idea of salvation and healing, when the definitions are kept together and not separated by English translation.

If sin is what brought sickness and infirmities into this creation, then logically one would have to conclude that when Jesus dealt with sin on the cross he also dealt with sickness. Thus the concept of salvation, or better put the reality of salvation, becomes a holistic healing of mind, body, and soul. So the question that this conclusion begs, in my opinion, is what are the implications for how we understand and live out our faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection?

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for your healing touch in this world. Lord, thank you for your work on the cross. Lord, help me to have a holistic understanding of your salvation/healing. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

M.A.D.D (Ministry Attention Deficit Disorder)

2011-01-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

Scripture:
“But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.”

—Luke 10:40-41

Observation:
Simply put sometimes the task takes preeminence over what is truly important. Martha in this passage is upset because her sister Mary is not helping her with the task of ministering to Jesus and complains about it. I sometime think that Martha gets a bum rap by many in the Church, because the reality is that somebody has to do it. Somebody has to put in work. It is not always as easy as just kicking back and relaxing, but a balance must be found. Also another point I see in this passage and is, in my opinion, the source of Jesus’ rebuke is the fact that Martha is complaining. When serving in ministry the task needs to be done out of an abundance of a joyful heart and not out of a contrite spirit. Martha was distracted not by the task but rather by the fact that her sister, Mary, was not helping her with the said task at hand.
Application:
There was a season of ministry that I went through where I constantly sized up other people serving, or not serving to be specific, and complained that they were not pulling their weight. This was a difficult season for me because I was never satisfied and felt close to burnout. I almost called it quits on more than one or maybe twenty occasions. But the source of my angst was not that I was being overworked, but rather that I was upset that others were not working as hard as I was. I began to get distracted not by the ministry I was doing, but rather the lack of ministry that I felt others were not doing. It is still a temptation for me to compare myself to others in ministry and size up whether I feel they are working hard enough or if I am working hard enough by comparison. But the reality is that in doing this I am making myself the judge and that is not a job I am meant to do and that is the reason why judging others is probably so hard on me and causes so much angst when I try to act in this role. It is God’s job to judge what people are doing including the things that I am doing. When we begin to complain that others are not working hard enough we are trying to take on a job and task that is God’s alone.
Prayer:
Lord, sorry for trying to usurp your job. Sorry for allowing myself to be distracted from what you have called me to because I am too busy keeping tabs on what others are doing. Lord, help me to focus on what you are asking me to do and not what others are doing or not doing. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

It's a Family Affair

2011-01-08T20:57:00.000-08:00

Scripture:
“Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.’ But he said to them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”’

—Luke 8:19-21

Observation:
In this one statement Jesus redefines the very notion of family. One way to look at this passage is to say since it was Jesus’ mother and siblings (since the Greek usage here could be referring to brothers and sisters as collective siblings) beckoning him he simply retorts to them this new definition of family. The fact that Jesus’ earthly father Joseph was not present is why the father is not mentioned in this redefinition. Could another way to see this passage be to say that the reason that father is not mentioned in this definition is because God the father was, is, and will be Jesus’ father? So the redefinition thus begins to encompass the family dynamics of the kingdom of God that Jesus is preaching. In the kingdom of God, God is our father, and our family is comprised of fellow co-laborers of the gospel, specifying that it is not just co-hearers of the gospel but rather co-hearers and doers.
Application:
In the Church today we have become very good at hearing the word and ignoring it, or at minimum at least not allowing it to draw us into action. It is amazing that the average congregant can sit in their respective church on Sunday morning can hear a message assumedly from the word of God and then go home unchanged and unaffected. We have become such good hearers of the word of God that we are inoculated to the effects of it. It is no wonder that the family dynamics of the kingdom described by Jesus in this passage are no longer at play in the average church setting. Divisiveness is rife in the Church. People who are supposed to be siblings no longer speak or co-labor together because petty beefs. The Church is not living out the family dynamics laid out by Jesus; God is the father, while the co-hearers and co-laborers comprise the rest of the genealogical construct. As witnessed in sociology strong families are key to a strong society. Good family dynamics are key to the impact of the Church, as agents of the kingdom of God, in the world; Participation and not just hearing is key to good family dynamics in the kingdom of God. Are we willing to become co-laborers of the kingdom of God? Are we willing to take what we hear and put it into action? Are we willing to embrace Jesus’ vision of kingdom minded family dynamics?
Prayer:
Lord, help me to see my shortcomings as a member of your family. Please show me how I can better do and not just hear. Please help me to procure unity and remove divisiveness from my involvement in this family. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

For the Love of It

2011-01-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

Scripture:
“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

—Revelation 2:4

Observation:
The thrill of new love is often enough to entice one to pursue the relationship. But as the love grows older the heart grows colder. Jesus says that the response to this waning love of the Church needs to be to remember, to think back to the thrill of new love, to return to the works of catalytic motivation. Too often the response is separation, whether intentional or aftermath. The love is allowed to die. But that is not an option that the church can pursue without cataclysmic consequences. One of the saddest things to see is a church that has allowed that love to die and consequently the church itself is dead. This love is actually the sustaining force of the church and when the love is gone so is the church. Jesus even warns the church that if it did not repent and return it would see its flame go out.
Application:
I had a conversation with a friend recently who was telling me how he has lost the passion and desire he once had for the ministry he was involved in. This is a feeling that everyone in ministry will go through and have to wrestle with. Too often the response of those who go through this situation is to let the ministry or their season in the ministry die. Consequently they end up hoping from one ministry to another. This is not to disavow the fact that God does call us to move on sometimes, but the reality is that more often then not God is telling us to stay put and we are packing our bags and moving on to seemingly greener pastures. But no matter where we go, to keep the metaphor consistent, all the green grass turns brown and needs the loving touch of the gardener.
Pastor Wayne Cordeiro once said in one of his leadership classes that immature leaders will quit when the going gets tough, and I would add that for mature leaders they get going when it gets tough. Pastor Wayne proceeded to teach that when someone starts ministry their passion is usually really high, but their commitment and skills are not. So after a season the passion drops to almost nil but it is in this season that commitment and skills are gained and as they grow the passion begins to rise in accordance to the commitment and skill. So the leader is less the zealous newbie and more the mature leader. In ministry a leader must remember why they are there in the first place and work to cultivate a passion for the ministry or else that passion or love will die and that leader will move on.
Prayer:
Lord, thank you for the opportunity to serve you and pursue your kingdom purposes. Thank you for the valley seasons of my life in which you have molded and shaped me more and more into the man you created me to be. Help me to cultivate a love for the ministry you have me involved in. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

Security Clearance

2011-01-03T19:11:00.000-08:00

Scripture:
“For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.”
—Revelation 7:15
Observation:
In the midst of this earth-shattering ordeal those who are faithful to God are sheltered at the throne of the one who has conquered, Jesus. The book of Revelation is written to seven churches that are facing heavy persecution or are about to. The Church has witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the armies of Rome. There has been persecution breaking out all over the empire. But the Saints are encouraged that no matter what may happen God will shelter and protect them. What has happened to those who it seems God did not protect, the martyrs? They are in front of the throne worshiping. So even in the midst of the darkness, when the death springs its snares and grasps you in its clutches the conquering one has victory and has their backs. This passage does not explicitly state that the reason that these saints feel such freedom to worship is because in the presence of the conquering one they are secure, secure in who they are as defined by God. One can face the most egregious of situations when they feel secure. So the fact that these saints faced death is testimony to the security they felt in God. The readers of Revelation are facing the choice between life and death, and the irony is that in losing their lives they actually gain them. This is what seems to be the message communicated by “The Revelator”.
Application:
Today the marketing strategy seems pretty blatant. Do you have insecurities? Well how about a spray that will make the ladies dry hump you in the club to fix that low self-esteem. Or maybe a pair of inflatable boobs will fix negative self-image. Do you feel like people don’t respect you? Well we have the perfect solution, a 150-caliber dessert eagle that is guaranteed to make you a respectable man. The list goes on of insecurities that the world is trying to fix with silly products and self-mutilation. The truth is though that no matter how many insecurities we try to fix another will most certainly pop up right away.
I have come to the realization recently that much of my experience has been maligned by my insecurities. I also realize that I have tried to deal with these insecurities outside of God. I have tried to build a more agreeable identity based off of ideals of masculinity that were taught to me by pimps, hustlers, and gangsters. I did not even realize how much these ideals had been deeply rooted into my life. I allowed my insecurities to dictate how I acted and treated people. These ideals of masculinity that have masked my insecurities need to be uprooted and burned.
The more I move away from these fundamentally flawed ideals and press into God the more my response has been worship and prayer. The more I lose my illusion of control the more I find myself feeling secure in who I am in Christ. When you grow up in a constant state of fear concerning life, you develop a hard-shell to mask that fear because being afraid is not an option for a man according to the ideals I was taught. Sometimes it takes intense pressure or force to crack that hard-shell. That is exactly what happened to me, I was hit with a massive blow that broke that hard shell into pieces. The irony of being so hard is that you do not allow anything to affect you, good or bad. You begin to miss out on the good things of life because you have become encased in your defenses. When that hard-shell broke into pieces I was overwhelmed by all of the emotions that I felt. I did not know how to fix it. I did not know how to regain an illusion of control. I did not know how to put ground underneath me. The only thing I could do was surrender to God. The more I surrendered and relinquished control over to God (as if I had control in the first place) I began to find security. I began to understand who I am. I began to discover my God given identity. It is funny how losing one’s life is the key to gaining life.

Prayer:
Lord, Thank you for freeing me from the bondages of my illusionary control. Thank you for giving me security in you. Thank you for being my conqueror. Lord, help me to continue pressing into you and allowing you to give me definition and my identity. In Jesus name I pray Amen… 

The Child of Promise: Part Three Out of the Ashes

2010-12-13T13:41:00.001-08:00

Over the past few weeks I have faced many challenges in my life. I have been put in a position of having to trust God despite of how the circumstances appear to be. A repeated theme has been brought in my devotions over this last couple of weeks. What started as a reflection on the promises that God has given me in my life has now turned into a running series on the theme of God's promises.

Scripture:

“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.”

—Hebrews 11:17-19

Observation:

God had miraculously given Abraham Isaac, his child of promise. Now after giving Abraham this child of promise, God seemingly wants to take back the gift. Abraham a man of faith willing obliges God. Many things must have been running through Abraham’s head as he walked Isaac up to the place where he was to sacrifice Isaac his son. But two questions probably would of perplexed him greatly. First, that if God really wanted Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, what made God any different from the other gods who demanded child sacrifice as appeasement? Second, If God really wanted Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, how would God make good on his promise? This passage tells us that Abraham believed that God could and probably would resurrect Isaac from the dead. But what about the first question, why would a seemingly good God want a child sacrifice like the other gods, especially Isaac the promised child? This idea of sacrifice would have been quite perplexing. But when looking at this scenario in light of the future sacrifice of God’s son on the cross, we see a foreshadowing of the cost of God’s promise. Maybe God was trying to show Abraham that although Isaac was promised God’s promises carry a huge cost, but that cost is not to be paid by Abraham or Isaac? Maybe God was teaching Abraham that it is in our willingness to let go and give over to God that our true capacity to love is found? Maybe anything less then complete abandonment of self-desire to God is narcissism at its root and thus must be cut down and replanted in God? Maybe God was ultimately showing that he was the complete opposite of those other gods who demanded child sacrifice, so opposite in fact that the only child God demanded sacrificed was his own? And maybe until Abraham let go of all self-desire he would never comprehend God’s desire?

Application:

If you have ever driven by a forest or by farmland that had recently been burned the look is utterly devastating. The destruction is evident. But if you were to drive by a year later there would be all kinds of new life teeming from the ground. If you were to drive by a few years later you would no longer be able to see the utter destruction, there might be clues of what had happened previously but the land would be alive and well. The effect of the fire is that in destroying everything, it destroys that which had begun to choke the land of its ability to support life and thus the fire releases the land’s potential for new life. New life grows rapidly in the ashes of the former. The ashes of the former now serve as fertilizer for the new life.

Sometimes in order for God’s promises to be fulfilled in our lives the former must be cleared out because our ability to support those promises has been choked out by weeds and other things that would suck the soil of its nutrients. Jesus talked about people being choked out in his parable of the sower. Our letting go and giving to God allows for that which would see the promises' potential remain unreleased to be burned and destroyed. Creating clear and fertile ground for the promise to be realized. Out of the ashes comes life. Out of chaos comes order. Out of abandonment comes embracement. Out of sacrifice comes the promise realized.

Prayer:

Lord, give me the strength to let go and give everything to you. Lord, allow me to see your purposes in the burnt out hallows of my life. Lord, create in me a heart that is ready to teem forth with life. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

Child of Promise: Part 2 the Reminder

2010-12-13T13:38:00.001-08:00

“So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”

—Hebrews 6:18

Observation:

When God makes a promise he does not break it. It is impossible for God to lie thus he cannot renege on his promises. But many times the fruition of the promise comes in an unexpected way, in a way that could not be imagined. The author uses the promise to Abraham as his launching point to talk about that promise fulfilled. There is no way that Abraham would of imagined that God promise of an heir and Abraham being the father of many nations would of come to fruition in the way that it did. Abraham believed God in God’s promise, but Abraham went about trying to see that promise fulfilled by the means that he had available and truthfully kind of made a mess of the situation on numerous occasions. Abraham’s way got him Ishmael a child that he ended up abandoning. God’s way gave him Isaac the child of promise.

Application:

God has given me various promises in my life and it has been crazy to see these promises come to fruition in my life. They have come in ways that I would not have expected and even through major pain and suffering. There are promises that God has given me that I am now pursuing and I wonder am I pursuing these promises my way or God’s way? Am I in the process of bearing an Ishmael or an Isaac?

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for your promises. Thank you for your faithfulness. Lord, show me and guide me in your way. Lord, if I am trying to see your promises fulfilled by my might show so I can yield to your will. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

The Child of Promise: Part One

2010-12-13T13:36:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”

—Romans 4:20-21

Observations:

When we look at the life of Abraham we see a man who believed in God’s promise but did not know how to see that promised realized. God promised Abraham son and that he would be the father of many nations. Abraham went about trying to make this promise a reality by bearing a child with his wife’s maidservant named Ishmael. Ishmael was the child of fleshly efforts to conceive and prove good God’s promise and led to great heartbreak and agony for Abraham. But in due time God provided Abraham with the child of promise named Isaac. There was nothing that Abraham could do to bring forth this child of promise but trust that God was going to be faithful to his word.

Application:

Sometimes we try to rush the promises of God by our own efforts and find ourselves with an Ishmael of a situation. If God has promised something in your life you must be patient for He is faithful to do it. I know in my life that God has made certain promises and because of this I have tried to by my own efforts see these promises realized. But I must be patient and allow God to fulfill the promises his way and on his time. Oh how difficult is the task of believing God. “God I do believe, help my unbelief” has become a steady prayer of mine over this last while. But I know that when the timing is right God will give me my Isaac, my child of promise.

Prayer:

Lord, I do believe that you will fulfill your promises in my life. Help to me to have the faith to be patient. Guide me in what you would have me do to see these promises realized in my life. I love you Lord and I thank you for all your blessings and corrections. In Jesus name I pray, Amen…

Becoming Your God Given Identity

2010-12-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

Scripture:

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God”

—Ephesians 1:1a

Observation:

Paul, an apostle of Christ by the will of God is probably the only way Paul could describe his life. The best way to describe the beginning of Paul’s conversion to Christ would be to call it a hijacking. Paul was a man who pursued what he perceived as his calling vigorously. Paul was on his way to Damascus to lay down the law on the followers of Christ when Jesus accosted him. Jesus through him to the ground and basically told Paul what the deal was. After that Paul became a committed follower of Jesus. Paul became an apostle Jesus literally by the will or force of hand of God. God did not force Paul to become an apostle but God did stack the deck against Paul pursuing anything else. But at the end of the day it is a sense of belonging in Paul’s tone when he writes “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” It is not a begrudging fact but rather a sense of identity. Paul’s true identity was unleashed that day on the road to Damascus. Up until that point Paul was only living out what he thought he should do, not what God had created him to be. The difference is Paul’s identity before Christ was found in what he did, after Christ it was found in who he is. It is a sense that when God is in the picture we can become nothing else besides what God has created us to be. True we may be busy doing all sorts of things, even things that are detrimental to our well being, prior to God grabbing us and showing us the bigger picture of who we really are.

Application:

In my life I have done a lot of things. Some good things and some bad, but nonetheless I have done a lot. It is funny that when I was six a pastor friend of my mom prophesied that I was going to be a pastor. I vigorously ran away from the calling on my life to be a pastor. I got involved in drugs and drinking, gangs, I started a record company that produced foul music, I occasionally helped at church, etc. But like Paul there came a point in my life where Jesus just said enough is enough and accosted me. Jesus took my life and began to move it in the direction that I was supposed to be moving. Jesus never forced me to follow him, but he certainly did stack the cards against me doing anything else. Today I am a pastor by the will of God. I can be nothing else. I am not defined by what I have done, by what I do, or by what I will do. I am solely defined or identified by what God has made me. I look at many people and praise God when I here testimonies here there testimonies. But I praise God the most when I here the testimonies of people who all there life have had an awareness of who God had created them to be and they could be nothing else. But all of us who have tried to do a lot things by our own volition, need only listen to the voice of God wooing us to become who he created us to be. And at that point we can become nothing else. We are only identified by the will of God and not by what we do. Who has God created you to be?

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for grabbing a hold of me. Lord, thank you for creating me for your glory. Lord, I pray for all your children who are resisting the call to become who you created them to be. I pray that the enemy will loose every foothold he has laid claim to and your children will return to you and embrace their God given identity. In Jesus name I pray Amen…

Confessions of a Religious Sadomasochist

2010-11-26T19:06:00.000-08:00

Scripture:
“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”
—Matthew 23:2-4

Observation:
The sad thing about the Pharisees is that they were convinced they were doing everything right. It was not until after the resurrection that they started to understand how far away from being right they were, and that was just a lucky few like Paul who saw the light and repented. They preached the law but then practiced the law in such a way they were actually the worst violators of it. They tried to teach others how to follow the law their way and made the task of trying to follow the law all that much harder. In essence they were religious sadomasochists who engaged in prohibition instead of a godly-control.
Application:
When we are taught about what it means to be a follower of Christ we are often taught it through the lens of prohibition. This is the idea that if we can only practice abstinence, meaning that we abstain from anything deemed in appropriate, we will be counted as approved and accepted. The problem with this is that it does nothing to deal with the actual problem, a lack of godly-control, and thus walls and boundaries are set in place in order to protect this prohibition and maintain this practice of abstinence. But what do we do when the wall crash and the boundaries are violated? Do we build bigger and stronger walls, while pushing the boundaries further and further away? No! I tell you this is useless and thus will fail eventually as well. It is merely a religious Pax-Romana. The solution is to address the issue that is really the cause of this felt need for prohibition and abstinence. No this is not to say that we engage life in any manner we deem fit, but rather it is to understand that no amount of boundaries or walls will give you godly-control in your life only complete surrender to God can do that. When we surrender to God godly control becomes a byproduct as well the other fruit of the Spirit. But this religious sadomasochism is the reason why people can go their entire lives professing to be followers of Christ and never really see any of the Spiritual fruit that is supposed to accompany that path.
I have to confess I have become a really good practitioner of this religious sadomasochism. But thankfully we serve a God who allows us to mess up and return to Him. I realized that these prohibitions serve a two-way function in my life. First they did help me not to become tempted in certain areas of my life, but at the same time they also served to keep me from realizing areas that I needed to surrender to God. These prohibitions only leave us unable to experience and not in control. The only way that followers of Christ can gain control is to completely surrender the entirety of their being.
Prayer:
Lord, thank you for showing me the difference between prohibition and surrender. Lord, I want to surrender the entirety of who I am to You and allow you to shape and mold me in your image. Amen…

Make the Homeless Problem Homeless in Honolulu

2010-11-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

I shot this video as a project for my media class @ Pac Rim Christian College

Discipline and Punish

2010-11-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

For many people today they seem to use the words discipline, correct, and punish as synonyms. Discipline and correct are very similar in definition and thus are synonyms, but punish is not. Discipline or correct means to bring into alignment. Where punish is an act of vengeance, literally meaning to take punitive action. Even if the person has already been brought into alignment punishment seeks to make them "pay" for their deviancy. In today's society it is all about punishment, "this person did this and they need to pay" kind of stuff. Prisons, lawsuits, even the way most parents "discipline" their children (society tries to redefine these words as synonyms as well, but they are not) are punishment based meant to make the person pay for their crime. It is not about alignment. God does not punish us, Jesus bore our punishment on the cross. God corrects and disciplines those He loves, meaning he brings them into alignment with him. It is because of this redefinition of words that people view God as vengeful and wrathful. God's wrath bore down on Jesus, his love bears down on us. Seemingly little word interchanges have made a big difference in the way people see and interact with God.

Who Can Tame the Beast of Oppression?

2010-07-25T03:31:00.000-07:00

Scripture:
“If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still.”
Ecclesiastes 5:8
Observation:
Corruption runs rampant in the world’s government systems. They are systems that are run by greed and the lust of power. The oppressed and the vulnerable are first to get crushed by the ruthless footsteps of the system. The seat of authority in the worldly system fails to administer justice and rights to the poor because those who do not have much economic clout do not serve their ultimate interests. Those who stand to fill their coffers off the backs of the oppressed also fill the coffers of the king and thus as far as the hierarchical structure is concerned it is they not the poor whose interest will be protected. This system is exploitative in its very nature. It is a system that is dependent on the exploitation of those who are deemed beneath you.
Application:
The other night a ministry that I work with called The Parking Spot held an outreach in an area of town that is home to many homeless persons. As we were fellowshipping and sharing a meal with our impoverished brothers and sisters, I noticed a line of police cars escorting a bulldozer and several dump trucks down the street. The police and city workers were in the process of literally sweeping the possessions of the homeless people of that community into the trash, bulldozing the makeshift-homes of these already downtrodden souls. My heart broke as I saw the tears in the eyes of one of the homeless men who was scurrying to secure his meal to his bike so that he could try and salvage something from his home, which was being devoured by the beast of oppression. Who was standing up for these already vulnerable people’s rights? Who was speaking truth to power, seeking justice for them? The answer is no one that night. But what can you do in the face of such heartlessness? How do you stem the tide of systemic oppression of these people by a system that wants to hide the homeless problem in the crevices of the back alleys? Honolulu is a city that is determined to make homelessness problem invisible rather than work to see these people dignified in their humanity and pulled from the vices of poverty. The city officials continue to pass laws that make being homeless illegal, while not providing any alternatives. In the face of such oppression what can be done? These questions need to be answered by the Church here in Honolulu. We cannot sit back and wait for government programs to end poverty we can and need to role up our sleeves and begin to become advocates of justice and righteousness.
Prayer:
Lord, give me the courage to stand up in the face of corruption. Give the resolve to stand up for those who cannot. Amen…

How Do Homeless Celebrate 4th of July?... They don't

2010-07-04T04:32:00.000-07:00

This Sunday is the 4th of July. A day of celebration and commemoration of the Independence of the United States. This day is normally spent together with friends and family around a plentiful dinner table. Unfortunately, not everybody will be able to join the partying. Outside our doors, in our streets are both homeless and poor people who not only wont have an invitation to such a party, they will hardly have enough food to fill them that night. Normally, the needy in downtown Honolulu will go to the feeding ministries in the evening to be able to eat but because the 4th of July is a federal holiday all of the feeding houses and ministries will be closed the 4th and the 5th. This means that the people who are dependent on those ministries in order to feed themselves and their families will have absolutely no place to turn those days.
They will be completely left to themselves.

This doesn't have to be!

The Parking Spot is committed to affect change in the area of Kalihi as well as being a positive influence in the homeless community there and on that night we will do our best to hand out food and support the homeless and needy on a night that is supposed to be festive for all. We will pull together what little funds we have in order to make this happen.
But we cannot do it alone... we wouldn't want to even if we could.

That is why we are asking you to come out and help us. We need people who are willing to show the homeless and needy that there are still people who care about them and most importantly that God loves them and have not given up on them. You can do that either by walking the streets with us those nights or by donating money or food that we can bring to them. We will need both!

If you want to help either by showing up or by donating give me a call or email me and we'll arrange how to pick up your donation or inform you of where and when to meet us for the outreach.

Love & Power

The Parking Spot

The Resurrection Will Not Be Televised pt. 3:How to Subliminally Subvert a Revolution with Mass Marketing

2010-05-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

Over the next few days I will publish the totality of one of my final papers The Resurrection Will Not Be Televised. Feel free to comment and give me your opinions.

The Deconstruction of the Corporate Other
Now days one cannot watch television for more than five minutes without seeing the mass marketing bastard child of Hip Hop and advertising execs, who are trying to cash-in on Hip Hop’s lure. Hip Hop started out in the parks of the South Bronx after dark and has ended up in bed with various corporations, stockholders included. Hip Hop went from having groups with names like Public Enemy and Poor Righteous Teachers to Niggaz with Attitudes and Murder INC (Asante 115). It became like the scene in the cult classic film, “The Mack”, where Goldie is watching money rain down on him and with an egregious smile on his face he celebrates his ill gotten gain from the exploitation of women through prostitution. The en-masse sale of Hip Hop into the greedy hands of the barbarian hordes, also known as the record corporations, transmogrified Hip Hop from a vehicle of transformative struggle into a juggernaut of venomous stereotypes, impositions, which began to poison and erode the minds of those plugged into to the catholic sound system.

The Death of a Revolution & Leaders in High Prices
It is a sad sight to see leaders in the Church on television hocking religion like a cheap ponzi scheme that is hustling the gullible masses out of their money. Christianity has been hijacked and co-opted by hustlers and schemers lusting for wealth and power.

Offer a man, rebelling against the system of the status quo, money and power and one will see how deep his convictions really are. Then threaten to take away that money and power and see how hard he will fight to maintain his elevated position. Chances are he will fight harder than those protecting the system he once opposed to keep this system running smoothly and functioning in such a way that he can continue in his position of wealth and authority. This is how the Roman Empire co-opted the Church.

This love affair between the Church and those in power has continued through out the centuries. Today too many in the Western Church are enchanted by the ideals of the power structure that they oppose the values and principals that founded Christianity. Instead of being the vanguard of Jesus’ revolution of love, they have become the staunch defenders of Babylon, quelling grace with every action contrary. Refusing to ask questions that represent the heart of Jesus’ revolution of love. Instead of asking, how can we protect the weak and vulnerable? They ask how can we protect our interests? Instead of asking, how can we love our neighbors and greater dignify the image of God? They ask how can we keep immigrants out of our country? Instead of asking, how can we pursue greater justice and peace? They continue to ask questions that speak power to the system instead of truth (Wallis XXIV).

Conclusion:
If one’s only interaction with Hip Hop or the Church was through corporately owned television and other similar mediums, they would never know that looming in the underground is a movement that, like the Quakers, are not afraid to speak truth to power. This movement embraces the title of “post” knowing that dying in the present is the only way to bring the revolution back to the forefront. This movement is not post-Hip Hop or post-Church. But rather they are post-Hip-Hop-as-a-corporate-whore. They are post-the-imperially-co-opted-Church. They are post-materialism. They are post-autocratic-authoritarians. They are post-anything-that-denigrates-the-living-and-breathing-image-of-God-as-scene-in-humanity. The systemic forces that have fought to control Jesus’ revolution of love are the same systemic forces that have overtaken the voice of Hip Hop. Thus as a Christian and a child of the Hip Hop generation I have a calling to dissent against, nay I have an obligation to dissent against these systemic vices that have sought to mute the very voices that once cried out to God for liberation. Then and only then will the chorus line of freedom be sung. The resurrection will not be televised.

The Resurrection Will Not Be Televised pt. 2: Revolutionary Beginnings

2010-05-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

Over the next few days I will publish the totality of one of my final papers The Resurrection Will Not Be Televised. Feel free to comment and give me your opinions.

The Marginal Jew & Organic Revolutions of Love
The origins of Christianity lay in the humble servitude of a Jew, named Jesus, from a small town in Galilee, called Nazareth, who in the ultimate act of service gave his life “as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28, NIV). This act of redemption is the central event that culminates in the birth of the peaceful Church and the death of the Zionist Messianic hope of over throwing the empire by means of violence and the reinstatement of the Jewish king. Jesus started a revolution of love, which was to grow organically like a mustard bush (Matthew 13:31, NIV), instead of a violent deposing of the oppressor as expected by his Jewish contemporaries. Jesus knew that “you can’t lead the people, if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people, if you don’t serve the people” (West). Thus he commenced on his revolution of love birthed in the ultimate act of service.

Malcolm in the Middle of Criminal Minds
“By any means necessary,” the most infamous words spoken by the late Malcolm X, have influenced the Hip Hop generation immensely. It would be fair to say that the Civil Rights Movement is the mother of the Hip Hop generation, but if it is the mother that means then that the revolutionary Black Panther Party is the father. In the revolutionary spirit of its father and the nonviolent praxis of its mother, Hip Hop was birthed if only to utter the words “We will be heard by any means necessary.” So with the catholic sound system, comprised of speakers and stereo amps gathered from throughout the neighborhood, they gathered in the parks and “partied for their right to fight” (Enemy) to be heard. Hip Hop was created to be a vehicle through which the consciousness of the ghetto could be raised. Afrika Bambaataa, often considered the godfather of Hip Hop, gave it its name. “The word ‘hip’ comes out of the Wolof language, spoken by the Wolof people in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania. In Wolof, there’s a verb, ‘hipi,’ which means ‘to open one’s eyes and see.’ So hipi is a term of enlightenment” (Asante 250). So Hip Hop was created to be the soundtrack of the enlightenment of the ghetto.

Prophets & Apostles
In the midst of a system that was deaf to the cry of the poor and made mute the voice of the oppressed, Prophets and Apostles went forth to speak on behalf of those who had no voice and were not heard. They proclaimed good news to the poor, freedom for those locked down, enlightenment to those blinded, and the release of those who are oppressed (Luke 4:18, paraphrase), and whether with a mic in hand or two by two the message went forth.

Both the Church and Hip Hop were born of struggle and strife, conflict and controversy. Both the Church and Hip Hop started out as voices of spiritual, cultural, and social reform in the midst deep oppression. The Church was birthed in an occupied Jerusalem, oppressed by the imperial forces of Rome. While Hip Hop was birthed in the projects of the South Bronx, New York, a ghetto heavily harassed by the notorious NYPD. Both sought to subvert their oppressors’ brutal tactics by shouting to the people that “there is something better than this.” Not to intermingle their struggles as one, but too establish the cognitive similarities of their origins. The Church was birthed in the intrinsic mixing of the metaphysical and the physical, while Hip Hop was birthed purely out of the physical. Both have expanded to affect the entire world. Both have seen a rapid expanse in their infantile stages. Both have been infected with lust for power and money. Both have whored themselves out for profits. Both are beginning to be referred to in the passé by adding the prefix “post” to their names.

The Resurrection Will Not Be Televised: Introduction

2010-05-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

Over the next few days I will publish the totality of one of my final papers The Resurrection Will Not Be Televised. Feel free to comment and give me your opinions.

Introduction & Overview:
“Hip Hop is dead,” proclaimed Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones in 2006 echoing the sentiments of a disgruntled generation abandoned by the institutionalized version of its first love. The rapper known as Common announced in 1994 that he “used to love H.E.R.” a solemn ode to how Hip Hop had changed and not for the better, like a girl growing up too quickly caught up in the fast life.
“The Church is dead” is the rallying call of a disenfranchised generation. After witnessing the Church’s influence wane to the point where many people have never even heard of this once giant behemoth of societal ascendancy. The Church, who the bible says is the bride of Jesus, has been unfaithful. She has whored around with the fraternal twins, money and power. Augustine of Hippo put it best when he said, "The Church is a whore, but she's my mother" (Campolo).
So like a chicken with its head cut off can continue to run around because the body just has not figured out that it is dead, although seemly moving neither the Church nor Hip Hop has figured out it is dead. It is argued that society at large is better off existing in the incarnation of the proclamations that the Church and Hip Hop are dead. But the truth is that this symbolic proclamation of death is just that, symbolic and not the experienced reality. Death is pronounced when the entity is removed from the source and purposes that birthed it. It is as if to be removed from one’s origins is to be cut off from the source that dispenses life into it. The gospel according to John in the fifteenth chapter conveys this idea using the metaphor of branches connected to a vine. To further push the chicken with its head cut off metaphor, Jesus as the head of the Church has been detached from the current purposes of many in the Church, or at least that is how those who decry her death perceive it. Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ,” when he offered his opinion of the Church. In light of this it is important to partake in the conversation about moving a generation from mass marketed systematic institutions back to the cultural revolutions of social justice from which they were birthed.

Dave Ramsey, Peter Pan, & Movies that Quote Gandhi

2010-03-14T23:37:00.000-07:00

“I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toy’s R Us kid” remains ingrained in the minds of an entire generation. While many in my generation have gone on to start careers, start families, and start their lives, too many in my generation are stuck in this mystical land in between the carefree memories of childhood and the actualization of what they thought life would be like when they grew up. We have been lied to. “Get a good education and you can become anything you want,” we were told. Yet today we have the most over qualified menial task workforce ever. I have friends with multiple Masters degrees, who get paid just above minimum wage, working security patrol jobs while living at home with their parents. We are called lazy and immature by our elders, the same ones who deceived us with their individualistic, materialistic, and autocratic propaganda leaving an entire generation completely and utterly nihilistic.

I just finished reading Dave Ramsey’s book Financial Peace Revisited for a class at school. In this book Dave Ramsey, I think correctly, identifies the fact that the twenty-something generation is disabled. He says we have come of age but yet many are not adults because of their lack of ability to be self-sufficient. I agree my generation is deep in debt and only a short arms length away from the financial support of our parents. But honestly, not to cast blame, what do you expect of a generation that was passed back and forth between mom’s home and dad’s house, all while they were too busy to be there so they pacified us with “things” and money. But Dave Ramsey was right in his diagnoses that my generation as a whole, from the home to the school, was never taught how to live.

I remember when I was young I loved the movie Peter Pan; I love the story of kids who refused to grow up. I cannot help but draw the parallels of comparison between my generation and Peter Pan and his Lost Boys. Growing up I, like many my age, sought escape from the harshness of life’s dark mist. All night every night my friends and I would fly off to Never Never Land, where we were, if even for a moment, away from the skull duggery of everyday life. But Never Never Land came with a sharp price. The price we paid was mediocrity. And in the midst of this mediocrity we struggle to find significance in our lives.

Today I watched the movie Remember Me. The movie starts off with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, “Whatever you do in this life will be insignificant, but it is important that you do it.” I would be lying if I told you I did not have a habit of falling in love with quotes by Gandhi, so I won’t say that, but I will say that I added this to my growing list of loved quotes. Without ruining the movie for those who have not seen it, it is in short about a young man, Tyler Hawkins, who is struggling to find the significance in his life. The movie ends with the same quote by Gandhi except this time Tyler adds his commentary to the end.

“Whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it because… You can’t ever really know the meaning of your life… And you don’t need to… Just know that your life has a meaning… Every life has a meaning… whether it lasts one hundred years or one hundred seconds… Every life… And every death changes the world in its own way… Gandhi knew this. He knew his life would mean something to someone, somewhere, somehow.”

So yeah maybe Dave Ramsey is right and my generation is a bunch of Peter Pans who struggle with the actualization of childhood dreams forgotten. Maybe like Peter Pan we shun the shackles of responsibility. But maybe, just maybe, Peter Pan got it right and life is not about growing up, but rather about finding enjoyment in all that one does, about loving deeper, and about sitting down and listening to a good story. Children dream about doing the impossible and only come to believe they cannot once someone tells them to grow up and be responsible. After all I do not think that most of our parents would say that Jesus was irresponsible or immature, yet he forsook all the trappings of life to do the impossible. He spent countless hours telling stories, camping under the stars, fishing with his buddies, and still managed to live the most significant life in the entirety of history.

Lost Grace

2010-03-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

When I saw this scene last night I was honestly floored as something spoke gently to me "Carl, this is how people feel about the Church." Here was a man, Ben Linus an evil and sinister man by confession, who was standing there broken, hurting, and begging for forgiveness. He knew his life was full of wickedness and it was eating him up. When he was asked the question "where will you go?" Ben answered "to Locke he's the only one who will have me."

How many people have left the Church for the world because they felt those are the only people who would have them? We live in a world that is broken and hurting. Far too often instead of welcoming those broken and hurting people into the church we turn them away with our judgment about who they are. We need to be a people who will answer "We will have you" no matter what they have done. It is not our job to judge people, that job belongs to God alone. But it is our job to reach out into the messy world and love the broken and hurting. Too much of the time we get our job confused for God's and end up sending people who are desperately looking for someone who will have them into the waiting arms of the world, which instead of hugging them strangles them to death. We must remember that each and everyone of us has stood before Christ broken and hurting and he said to us "I will have you". How can we now do anything different?

Jon Ferguson's Six Coaching Questions

2010-03-03T16:06:00.000-08:00

Today during the Leadership Network's Aha! Web Conference Jon Ferguson, a pastor from Community Christian Church in Chicago, gave us six questions that leaders, who are coaching others, need to ask.

1. How are you? – I want to have a relationship.

2. What are you celebrating? Where are you winning? What are the victories?

3. What challenges are you experiencing?

4. What do you plan to do to solve these challenges?

5. How can I help you?

6. How can I pray for you?

PeterRollins.net � Blog Archive � An alternative Valentines Day message

2010-03-03T08:41:00.000-08:00

PeterRollins.net � Blog Archive � An alternative Valentines Day message

Checkout this story about love & loss.

Criticizing Church, Defending Church - Jesus Creed

2010-02-24T12:16:00.000-08:00

Check out Scot McKnight's call for Augustinian Ecclesiology. What are your Thoughts
Criticizing Church, Defending Church - Jesus Creed

What is Blaspheming the Holy Spirit?

2010-02-24T11:26:00.000-08:00

Scripture:
“28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Mark 3:28-30

Observation:
No forgiveness! Wow that is a hefty price tag. “All sins will be forgiven” with the exception of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. But what is blaspheming the Holy Spirit? Well let us look back through this passage to see what prompted this statement from Jesus. Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath, was followed by a multitude, sought out by the sick, proclaimed as the Son of God by demons, and he appointed his twelve apostles. After all this Jesus went home only to be confronted by his family with accusations of insanity. Not only is he called a lunatic by his family, the scribes who came down from Jerusalem took it a step farther and said “he is possessed by Beelzebul.” Their aversion to Jesus and his ministry led them to accuse him of having an unclean spirit, and that it was the source of his power to cast out demons.
Before we answer the aforementioned question we must make two assertions. First Jesus did nothing of his own accord, but only what his father told him to do. Second we must also remember that Jesus’ power came from the Holy Spirit. Everything that Jesus did was the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
So from this passage of scripture what can we derive as the definition of “blaspheming the Holy Spirit”? Well in my opinion I would say that the above passage defines “blaspheming the Holy Spirit” as attributing the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit to unclean spirits, or demonic spirits as they are often referred. Notice how the two types of spirits stand in stark contradiction of each other. Holy, meaning set apart or clean, contrasts the unclean. The scribes were calling that which was clean and of God unclean.

Application:
It is very easy to be a skeptic of the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit. We are programmed to expect things to operate according to certain normative laws and when they do not red flags are raised. The sad thing about this is that in the midst of the mundane we long to see the spectacular, but when we see it we are quick to stamp it out like a rhino and fire. As much as we expect something great to happen in the church today the moment things start to change we start to get leery.
Growing up in the Pentecostal tradition of Christianity I have seen the Holy Spirit work powerfully and was taught to expect that that was the norm. But I have to be honest, the older I became the more I watched with a skeptical eye.
A year or so ago I visited a church in Argentina. For the most part things seemed legit until the team I was with went to the church’s Friday night prayer service, which I was to speak at. We walked into a building, which the church called their prayer chapel, and people were doing all sorts of funky things, quote end quote, under the power of the Holy Spirit. Such things like foaming at the mouth while shaking, spinning around in circles, falling over, screaming, and talking in weird languages. Many members of the team were overwhelmed by what they were witnessing, not knowing how to process such dramatics, while others on the team went on with business as usual.
Now a discerning Christian would notice three things happening in that service. First, People desiring the sensationalism of the Holy Spirit were responding emotionally to what they perceived as acting like the Holy Spirit was doing something with them. Second, Unclean spirits were manifesting. Last, the Holy Spirit was also at work, helping us discern what was authentic and what was not.
I tell this story because the skeptic in us would naturally write off this experience as not of the Holy Spirit. But we would be wrong. We would be letting our perception of what is the normative Christian experience dictate how we judge this situation, making us no different than the scribes, who because Jesus was acting outside of what they considered normative, judged him possessed by an unclean spirit. I believe Jesus’ warning about blaspheming the Holy Spirit is really a call for us, who have the Spirit, to ask for discernment.

Prayer:
Holy Spirit, I pray that you will give me the gift of discernment. So that I may never find myself, in all my skepticism, trying to judge your work as profane. Amen…

A True Gospel Message

2010-02-03T12:34:00.000-08:00

Scriptures:
“34 Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. 35 In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. 36 This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism. 38 And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
39 “And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, 41 not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. 43 He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.”
Acts 10:34-43 (NLT)
Observation:
Peter’s 10-point gospel message:
1. God shows no favoritism, he accepts everyone who fears him and does what is right.
2. There is a peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.
3. God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power.
4. Jesus went around doing good, healing everyone oppressed by the devil because God was with him.
5. The Apostles were witnesses to all that Jesus did.
6. Jesus was killed on a Roman cross and God raised him to life on the third day.
7. Jesus did not appear to the general public after his resurrection, but rather only to his disciples who were chosen in advance by God to be his witnesses.
8. The disciples ate and drank with Jesus after he had risen.
9. Jesus ordered the disciples to preach everywhere that Jesus was anointed by God and Lord of all, the living and the dead.
10. Jesus was the one whom the prophets had testified about when they said that everyone who believes in him will be forgiven all their sins through his name.
The result of the acceptance of Peter’s gospel message was that all who heard it had the Holy Spirit poured out on them and they were baptized in the name of Jesus. This is the conclusion of the initial giving of the Holy Spirit. It had now been poured out on the Jews, the Samaritans, and the gentiles. The Church although still developing was inclusive of all who feared God and did right.
Application:
When we preach the gospel today what are the points that we emphasize? Do we preach a gospel that is line with what the Apostles taught, or do we preach a different gospel? Do we preach a gospel that is inclusive of all who fear God and do right or do we set up other stipulations for who can be and is acceptable to God? I fear that many in the Church today add more to the gospel message, thus preaching a different gospel than the one given by the Apostles.
Prayer:
Lord, let my witness and testimony line up with that of the Apostles. If I preach a different gospel at any point Lord please show me where I error that I may preach only that which you have commanded. Amen…

Complete and Utter Dependence

2010-01-26T11:05:00.000-08:00

Scripture:
“4 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Look, I'm going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.”
Exodus 16:4
Observation:
Can they Follow My instructions? Can they trust me to lead, provide, and shepherd them? Even Moses was put to the test by God. Brought to the seaming brink of destruction, desolation, dehydration, and starvation the Israelites cried out to Moses, and Moses cried out to God. The difference between Moses and the rest of the Israelites was the heart from which they were crying out. The Israelites cried out of a heart of mistrust and complaining, while Moses cried out of a heart of trust and desperation. Moses trusted God to do something. He trusted God to handle business. The Israelites on the other hand had a very short-lived memory of all that God had done for them. Sure enough God would do something great for them and they would celebrate until the next trial faced.
Application:
I am like Moses or am I like the Israelites? Do I trust God with a deep desperation for him or does mistrust and complaining define my interaction with him? Sadly far too often I praise God when things are good and complain when they are not. But this has become too easy for most Christians today, with our focus on making sure we hoard and store up for tomorrow. Now I am not saying that saving is necessarily bad, we are called to be good stewards, but is God asking his people to let go of their false sense of security and just trust in him for provision. The Church in the West has been a financial powerhouse for a long time. Religion in America is one of country’s highest grossing industries. Have we been storing up the manna instead of utilizing all we can and trusting God to provide more. Churches are dying every day in America with thousands of dollars in the bank and sometimes millions in property holding. While others struggle to trust that you will provide for them.
It is funny this past year the youth ministry’s budget was slashed tremendously, but yet we finished the year in the black. True we cut a lot of the fluff from the ministry and had to be resourceful in how we accomplished things but it was a year of trusting God to provide. More people donated to the ministry, we cut extravagant spending, and focused on what was necessary to move forward in what God had called us to do.
There is something about having to rely on God that allows us to truly experience him. Much of the Christian religion in America is completely devoid of a necessity for God. Why wait for God’s provision when we can store up for ourselves? Right? But maybe, just maybe, like the Israelites God is asking his people to return to a relationship of utter dependence on him.
Prayer:
Lord, as I move forward in this season help me to have complete trust, desperation, and dependence on you and you alone. I pray for your provision of the finances that are necessary to attend school. Amen…

Washroom Leprechauns are Better than Garden Gnomes

2010-01-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

The movie had just ended and my girlfriend told me she really needed to use the washroom, so I decided it would be the perfect time to do the same. As I walked into the washroom I saw Vin Diesel’s mini me, except for the spikey-gelled hair he was a dead ringer. “Wow little fellow are you looking for your pot of gold,” I said to myself as I envisioned myself patting him on the head. Now I know that this is not politically correct but regardless it was the first thing that popped into my mind. It was one of those moments when you can’t help but chuckle to yourself. But as I passed by him he must of noticed the smirk on my face because all of a sudden he tried to flex a little harder with a look on his face that said, “what are you laughing at, buddy?” Which only served to cause me to laugh a little harder. I don’t normally walk around thinking random thoughts about people but the movie we had just finished watching had a running joke in it about a leprechaun, so my guess is that’s what prompted the pot of gold comment.

Movies of are really a barometer that gauges the thoughts, fears, trends, and concepts that people are wrestling with. Movies are really just an on going conversation about what’s on people’s minds. That is why so much of the time we get enveloped emotionally with the films that we watch. We find ourselves reacting to what took place on the screen even in subconscious ways. It is this truth that we need to understand because truthfully we must face the realization that movies shape more people’s theology than, the bible and/or the Church. So it doesn’t help when movies made about biblical ideas by the Church portray poor theology.

Growing up I remember watching movies like “Left Behind” and thinking to myself that the bible doesn’t say anything about this stuff. Now I am sorry if I offend any Kirk Cameron or Tim Lahaye fans, but I realized even at young age that people have no idea about what will happen in the future. The more I saw movies about the rapture and heard Jack Van Impe talk, the more I realized that these people were just grasping at straws trying to solve the bible’s unsolvable mystery. Even now when I Googled Jack’s name to make sure I spelled it correctly a bunch of You Tube video links popped up trying to direct me to Jack’s Inca calendar meltdown. People don’t have a clue and they are so uncomfortable with that thought, that it drives them to develop all sorts of far-fetched theories about what will happen in the future. But the truth is there are some things that are certain, like God is victorious and Jesus will return. The rest of their theories don’t discount these truths, but they simply just go off the deep end with estachalogical paranoia.

As the Church we do not need to make “Christian” films, because truthfully there are already lots of Christians just making great films. We do not need to brand everything with the big “C” word. But we can point out Christ in movies without having to hire Kirk Cameron to play the lead role. Let us be part of the conversation without trying to sanitize it and brand it “Christian”.

Freedom Abolitionists and Subjective Slavery

2010-01-22T06:57:00.000-08:00

Scripture:
“For since I am free from all I can make myself a slave to all, in order to gain even more people.”
1 Corinthians 9:19
Observation:
Paul asserts his freedom as the ultimate ability to be subjected by his own doing. Paul is free to do and say as he pleases, but as he puts this idea in context a few verses later he becomes like those whom he is seeking to reach with the gospel. It seems like Paul is saying that if he were giving the gospel as a means to get paid, it would inhibit his ability to actually reach people with it.
This concept conjures up images of congregationally ruled churches. The pastor is not free to do and say as he pleases. He is bound by the fact that he receives a paycheck from this church and they have the power to stop it anytime they want. He is not free, but bound to this certain group of people. By not taking his right to get paid for the gospel, Paul makes sure he avoids this fate. Paul is not scared to offend. He is not scared of rejection by the influencers. He is not trying to win over anyone for monetary purposes. His only subjection is a willing one to further the gospel by gaining more people.
Application:
Recently I have seen this play out in dramatic fashion. Choices were made not based upon conviction, but rather they were based on what the employer demanded. Many Pastors seem to have this same dilemma. Now to be sure I am not talking about differences in methodology, I am talking about conveying the gospel which at times can be very convicting and hard to swallow for many Christians who have become more in love with particular systems and traditions than with seeing people molded by the gospel. A lot of pastors are scarred to say what their convictions would lead them to say for fear of the establishment.
I have been in ministry now for just under four years. I have served less than three different youth pastors. I have been subjected to many ministry philosophies. I have served faithfully and diligently, and have never feared speaking my mind when I saw things going wayward from a gospel perspective. But at the same time I have also never feared losing a paycheck because I have never gotten one from ministry. So this idea is somewhat removed from my personal context but nonetheless I have seen its vices grip many co-laborers of the gospel.
Prayer:
Lord, Please help me to be led by the convictions you have given me not by any given by man. Amen…

The Gospel According to Lost

2010-01-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

ABC's "Lost" has been at the center of many late night coffee shop conversations. One cannot help but talk about what happened last on the show. It screams at you to just say something. It wants you to devise your own theory. It whispers, "Go ahead and tell people what you think all of this means." Pastor Chris Seay the author of "The Gospel According to Lost" does just that. He explores each character in depth and begins a conversation with the reader about the show's spiritual implications.

I’m not going to lie, Lost is one of my favorite television shows. Naturally I was curious about what pastor Chris Seay had to say about the show. I opened the book with a slight apprehension, wondering if this book was just going to be over spiritualized allegories. My apprehension was soon elated within the first chapter of the book. I found that the book had many helpful insights to the show and angles to discuss in conversation. I loved how the author invites the reader to make the Lost experience communal by watching it in a group setting and discussing the shows finer points over kimchi brought by your Korean neighbors.

*Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.

Winter Support Letter

2010-01-05T14:36:00.000-08:00

2010 New Year’s Resolutions

2010-01-01T03:08:00.000-08:00

The coming of each New Year is pregnant with potential; the potential to accomplish great things; the potential to make major mistakes; the potential to change the world by reaching out and taking a hold of the God given opportunities in front of you. In years past I have let them slip by without ever challenging myself to fully engage the potential that it bared. That is not to say that I went unaccomplished, but rather that I left it not fully explored. This year I want to challenge myself to take full advantage of the potential that this New Year has, and in order to do so fully I am writing a list of seven New Year’s resolutions and they are in no particular order:
1. To Engage My Academics to My Fullest Potential: This coming semester, at Pacific Rim Christian College, I want to not just do well, I want to do my absolute best. I am more than capable of getting straight A’s in my classes without fully exerting myself academically, thus this semester I want to empty myself out by engaging fully and rigorously everything that I am asked to do this semester.
2. Complete the 52/52 Challenge: The 52/52 challenge is to read 52 books in 52 weeks (for those who are mathematically challenged that is a book a week for one year). I love to read. I love the exchange of ideas between an author and the reader. I love the robust conversation that can erupt around ideas in a particular book. So this year I want to consume and digest a rich variety of books and authors.
3. Work on My Health: Let’s face it I am not getting any younger. The longer I put off taking care of my health the harder it will be. I am roughly 80 pounds overweight. It would be nice to say that I plan to loose all that weight this year, but honestly I would ecstatic if I lost 20 pounds. So my goal for this next year is to loose at least 20 pounds and if I loose more then great.
4. Become Organized, Tidy, & Neat: I would be lying to myself and everyone else if I said that I was a highly organized, tidy, and neat. The truth is I keep all appointments mentally, my room is an ominous pile of clean clothes, and neat has never been an adjective used in front of my name. So this year my goal is to completely eradicate those problems. Psychiatrists say that it takes about three months for the brain to learn new behaviors. So I will commit this year to learning new behaviors in regards to organization, tidiness, and being neat.
5. Get into Seminary: This particular New Year’s resolution is not as easy as it sounds. I have a very good GPA, somewhere around the 3.7 mark. But grades are not my hurdle that needs jumping. The seminary that I want to attend is Fuller Theological Seminary, and being an international student I need to raise my entire degrees tuition prior to being accepted. To be exact that means I need to come up with around $48,000.00, and to assure you that is no small amount to someone who is unable to work due to my visa situation.
6. Pray More: Not that I do not pray now, but the truth is we could always spend more time seeking God in quit contemplation or beseeching Him in earnest prayer. This year I want to spend more time doing just that.
7. Launch a New Evangelistically Based Ministry: One of my favorite things is when God gives someone a fresh vision for a new ministry. Over this past year I have been in dialog with a group of young Bible College students about what effective evangelism looks like in our generation’s context. This year I want to launch a ministry with my fellow disciples of Jesus that speaks to the need for effective evangelism to my generation. Not entirely sure what this will look like, but nonetheless I would like to see it take shape this year.
So there you have it, my 2010 New Year’s resolutions. Please feel free to pray and support me as I do my best to fully explore the potential of this New Year.

The Ecclesiology of Shawn Carter

2010-01-01T00:57:00.000-08:00

“Lights is blinding, girls need blinders
So they can step out of bounds quick,
The side lines is blind with casualties,
Who sip the life casually, then gradually become worse?
Don’t bite the apple Eve,
Caught up in the in crowd,
Now you're in-style,
And in the winter gets cold en vogue with your skin out,
The city of sin is a pity on a whim.
Good girls gone bad, the city's filled with them,
Mommy took a bus trip and now she got her bust out,
Everybody ride her, just like a bus route,
Hail Mary to the city you’re a Virgin,
And Jesus can’t save you, life starts when the church ends,
Came here for school, graduated to the high life,
Ball players, rap stars, addicted to the limelight,
MDMA got you feeling like a champion,
The city never sleeps better slip you an Ambien”
—Jay-z “Empire State of Mind”
Recently Mr. Shawn Carter has ruffled the feathers of the Religious Right with his chart topping song Empire State of Mind, leaving them crying at the top of their lungs “Blasphemy”. In the third verse Mr. Carter says, “And Jesus can’t save you, life starts when the church ends.” The first time that I heard this song was when Jay-z performed this song as the finale of the MTV Music Awards with Alicia Keys. I cannot lie when I first heard him say the controversial lines I said to myself “did he just say what I thought he said.” I immediately thought that Jay-z was just offering his two-cents about how the Church has let people down. But upon a second and subsequent listenings of the song my opinion about what Mr. Shawn Carter was trying to say rapidly changed.
After a more careful analysis of the lyrics it becomes obvious Jay-z is commenting on the frequent migration of young ladies from the church to the high life. The life they are chasing starts when they walk out of the church and into the world or ballers, rappers, and limelight. Mr. Shawn Carter makes the assertion that his city, New York, is full of these types of young women. The type woman who becomes seduced by the serpent and ends up taking a bite of Eve’s apple. The use of the apple line is a clever metaphor for the lure of New York City, which is called the “Big Apple”.
Back in the day when I used to go out “clubbing” I met many young ladies who were out in the club Saturday night, fornicating early morning, then would sleep for a couple hours, before heading off to church to praise God. The seduction of the high life has ensnared many young girls who end up in trapped in a life of meaningless sex, drugs, alcohol, and Hip Hop.
The line where Mr. Shawn Carter says, “Jesus can’t save you” is referring back to the line before. He is addressing the city of New York with that line. He calls New York by many names in this verse, but ultimately uses these names to address the city’s fallen state. If we look at the line “Hail Mary to the city” and understand the double intended use as religious and a reference to the miraculous last ditch effort in a football game. Religion seems like a pungent farce in light of its daughters leaving the church and hitting the club. The fruit of this city’s sin is the sidelines littered with casualties. And by all appearance Jesus didn’t save these victims of Eve’s apple.
So the question that needs to be asked is are Mr. Shawn Carter’s lyrics blasphemy or a reflection of his empirical experience of the Church? I would tend to agree with the later because sadly the Jesus has been defamed, marred, and misrepresented by the Church, leaving many disenfranchised with Jesus. But the Jesus they feel let down by is not the Jesus that died on the cross and resurrected. No the Jesus that has let them down is Scandinavian, beauty pageant winner that looks down upon the world from the walls of the church building. As a follower of the Jesus who conquered death, I feel obligated to try and reflect him to a world that has been hidden from his truth.

Songs Sung in the Key of Freedom

2009-11-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

Scripture:
“And they sang a new song:
Worthy! Take the scroll, open its seals.
Slain! Paying in blood, you bought men and women,
Bought them back from all over the earth,
Bought them back for God.
Then you made them a Kingdom, Priests for our God,
Priest-kings to rule over the earth.”
Revelation 5:9-10
Observation:
One of the ways that abolitionists and former slaves sought to subvert the system of slavery is by purchasing slaves into freedom. Humanity has had its neck under the foot of sin for a long time. A cruel master has dominated Creation, but now the Creator is back and this time he’s out for blood. Literally put God descended to become part of that which he sought to redeem. God paid in blood the cost of redeeming creation.
Through the efforts of great minds like Fredrick Douglas, the acts of those like Harriet Tubman, and the men who gave of themselves on the fields of battle the dream of slavery’s abolition in America came true. But even after Lincoln freed the slaves, many of the former slaves decided to tether themselves to their former masters because the bondage of slavery afforded a certainty that freedom did not. In the same way even though the ransom has been paid many choose to tether themselves to sin as their master.
God chose to redeem His creation for a purpose. He redeemed humanity to be a kingdom of Priest-Kings meant to be stewards of the earth. I am not sure but it seems that John in using the image of Priest-Kings to conjure up the memory of the Maccabeus, Israel’s emancipation from the tyranny of Greek oppression, and the era of their greatest expanse as a sovereign state. The Maccabeuses were a priest family that sparked a revolt against the occupying Greek forces and led Israel as kings for about a hundred-fifty years before eventually falling to the Romans under the inauspicious guise of sibling rivalry. Minus the folly of the sibling rivalry this would be a powerful image of hope to a group of people who are being oppressed and persecuted. I imagine that these songs were sung by the down trodden Christians to remind them about the hope they have in their redeemer, much like the negro spirituals that were sung by the oppressed African masses in the cotton and tobacco fields of the south. These songs were more than just ways to pass time and think of happier times to come, no they were a way for the oppressed to actively subvert the system that sought to break their spirits.
Application:
Today we stand and sing songs with arms held high, eyes closed, lusciously trying get close to God. Often the words that ceremoniously pass through our lips are nothing more than words we simply sing, completely devoid of their meaning and significance. Our songs of hope have been hijacked by songs that make us feel an emotive response to an environmentally induced spiritual sensuality.
The Church as a whole has yet to embrace its true purpose as Priest-Kings of the Kingdom of God regents here on earth. Instead the Church has sought to maintain a position of worldly power. Instead the church has tethered itself to another master who has lured her away with visions of grandeur. We, the Church, have been bought with a price. We, the Church, have been set free, but yet we still choose to put on the shackles of bondage instead of embracing our emancipation.
Prayer:
Lord, thank you for freeing me to serve you. Thank you for allowing me to submit myself to you. Amen…

Pseudo-Apostles, Über-Preachers, and Televangelists

2009-11-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

Scripture:
12-15 And I'm not changing my position on this. I'd die before taking your money. I'm giving nobody grounds for lumping me in with those money-grubbing "preachers," vaunting themselves as something special. They're a sorry bunch—pseudo-apostles, lying preachers, crooked workers—posing as Christ's agents but sham to the core. And no wonder! Satan does it all the time, dressing up as a beautiful angel of light. So it shouldn't surprise us when his servants masquerade as servants of God. But they're not getting by with anything. They'll pay for it in the end.
2 Corinthians 11:12-15 (The Message)
Observation:
I love Eugene Peterson’s wording for these false apostles, he calls them Pseudo-Apostles. If I may throw my hat in the ring in naming these shysters, then I would call them Über-Preachers aka Televangelists. Paul is so intent that he not be counted among the hustlers that he pledges to not receive any pay from the Corinthian church. Instead he points out the generosity of the Macedonian church in there support of him. Paul’s concern is not that these people are preaching, his concern is that the people he loves are being duped and swindled. Paul goes on to tell his parishioners that they shouldn’t be shocked by these antics; in fact they are to be expected of Satan. He calls it a masquerade that will end with a toll.
Application:
I cannot lie one of the things that burn me the most is watching Über-Preachers aka Televangelists hustle the people of God with promises of grandeur and riches. It kills me that people give money to these shams and do not realize that they are playing into two things, first their own greed and desire to rub the magic Jesus genie, and second the preachers greed and need to serve the wrong master.
I have battled with myself over my theology of money, materialism, and consumerism. Prior to actively seeking out God on my faith journey, my theology was the more the better, and however you got it served the end purpose of possessing more. As I read through the scriptures and examine my experiences my theology has changed and continues to morph. I have diligently worked to unshackle myself from Mammon. In my quest to escape the luring gaze I attempted to completely shut out the idea of monetary gain. But in doing so I realized I was not being faithful to the teachings of Jesus, such as the shrewd manager. Now as a youth minister and one training to be a pastor I go forth weary of the gaze of Mammon, but knowing that my savior has given us stewardship of such things in order to advance his Kingdom. I must remember who my master is and never stray. I must remember that I am advancing His kingdom and not mine.
Prayer:
Lord, cause me to always remember and serve you as my master. The lure of riches has ensnared many a man of God, Lord cause it to not be so with me. Lord, help me to shape my theology in such a way that highlight who you are and brings glory to you. Amen…