Did that get your attention? ChurchCrunch had a post yesterday on how we oversell things in ministry by the big words we use and how that has spilled over into the technological front. He showed a mashup of Apple’s keynote and their excessive use of these words.

I have grown tired by the over promotion, hyped up marketing, that many pastors and churches use to promote their next series, program, worship or whatever it is. “Don’t miss my next series it will change your life.” “Hear never before heard revelation that not even God knows!” “Our worship is the best on the planet and even the angels stop their worship to hear ours!” “This word I’m going to deliver is going to blow your mind!”

It seems that in order to keep people coming back they have to one-up their previous message as if the Gospel isn’t enough to keep people coming back. When everything is amazing, incredible, the best, wonderful, stellar, will blow your mind, knock your socks off and awesome — well then, nothing is!

I’m for marketing but we had better make sure we are delivering on our hype. This over use of powerful adjectives has desensitized a whole host of people to what is truly amazing, incredible, life changing, majestic, glorious, awesome — Jesus, transformed lives, maturing Christ followers, a community growing in love and good deeds and people coming to Christ. Now that’s amazing!

Psalm 12:3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts”

What do you think?

I just started to read Bill Hybel’s book Axiom — Powerful Leadership Proverbs. It’s a compendium of leadership nuggets from one of the most well known pastors in America and lead pastor of Willow Creek. It will take me a while to go through this book as I am finding each proverb extremely applicable to my current experience. I’ll be going through it like a devotional and share my thoughts periodically.

In the proverb, Language Matters, Hybels shares how the best leaders wrestle with words in order to communicate their big ideas in a way that captures the imagination, catalyzes action and lifts spirits. This is something I have been wrestling with myself in articulating the vision of SentChurch. I know deep in my heart what I desire to see but I am finding it challenging to draw out the words that convey what can call people to action. Much prayer is being focused in this direction.

It’s not just about creating catchy slogans or meaningless jargon to be hip, trendy and cool. Too many churches do that in an endless stream of cheap copycats and cheesy campaigns that don’t rally anyone around the cause. A quick viewing of Christian television, if you can stomach it, reflects how little effort is put in to choosing the right words. They all sound as if they hired the same dated, campy marketing agency. Consequently, they sound the same and fewer people are listening to them.

Choosing the right words is about crafting a story that excites the heart, appeals to the mind and causes the spirit to soar to new heights of possibility. Carefully and prayerfully chosen words that are inspired by the Spirit, elevate a group of common people to do uncommon things, make the ordinary extraordinary and move people from the mundane to the realm of the miraculous. That’s how powerful words are.

What words excite you and catalyze you to take action? I would love to hear some of those. Have you given careful thought to how you communicate your dream and vision?

Yesterday was one of those bittersweet moments in life as it concluded a chapter for my family and I. It was my last Sunday on staff at The Gathering Place. A place I have worked at and served for the past ten years. A place where my family and I received healing, new life, new relationships, new direction and vision. I don’t think I have fully absorbed the moment but I am sure it will hit me fully in the coming days.

This new chapter of my life following Jesus involves great adventure, risk, danger, chaos, uncertainty — and I am really excited about that! Starting a business in this economy when many established business are failing and a new church when many are shuttering their doors, sounds like lunacy. I would tend to agree if I hadn’t heard clearly from the Lord to move in this direction.

Some of my favorite church bloggers have taken a leap in to the unknown at this time. Ben Arment, Carlos Whittaker and Tony Morgan have all left secure positions with amazing organizations to follow Jesus’ call and their passion. The beat of God’s kingdom doesn’t march to the same beat as the one of this world. Jesus beckons us out of comfort, safety, security and our sanitized environments to follow him.


Alan Hirsch recently unpacked a series of posts dealing with Living Systems Theory, change and chaos theory and its correlations to the church and spiritual movements. He cited this on living systems:

Nature is at its innovative best near the edge of chaos. The edge of chaos is a condition, not a location. It is a permeable, intermediate state through which order and disorder flow, not a finite line of demarcation. Moving to the edge of chaos creates upheaval but not dissolution; that’s why being on the edge is so important. The edge is not the abyss. It’s the sweet spot for productive change. And when productive agitation runs high, innovation often thrives and startling breakthroughs can come about. This elusive, much sought after, sweet spot is sometimes called ‘a burning platform.’ The living sciences call it the edge of chaos.”

Surf the edge of chaos, follow Jesus wherever he leads you — that is the sweet spot! When we stay in our safe zones, we lose that which makes us most like God, our creativity. He is the Creator, and out of chaos he created inexpressible beauty.

I would ask my friends to pray for us for the following:

J.J. Abrams, mastermind behind the hit TV series Lost, Alias and Fringe and the reboot of the Star Trek empire, wrote a fabulous essay in the May issue of Wired magazine on the Magic of Mystery. You can read the article in its entirety here.

J.J. writes that we are in the middle of the “age of immediacy” where wonder and mystery are lost because of the instant access to information that will, at best, give us a satisfying understanding. Because information is ubiquitous, knowledge a mouse click away, true understanding has become bothersome. As he puts it, “an unnecessary headache that impedes our ability to get on with our lives (and most likely skip to something else).”

Kids don’t want to discover for themselves the hidden “easter eggs” in video games so they go online and get video game “cheats” and “hacks” that enable them to leap frog the experience of discovering those on their own. Want to know absolutely anything about anything, “google” it! The question is though, have we lost something in this “age of immediacy”?

This got me thinking a lot about God and spirituality and my role as a communicator of what I believe to be “truth.” In our quest to instruct, teach, impart wisdom and knowledge, communicate the deep truths about God, inform about doctrine and theology, have we inadvertently stripped away people’s desire for the mystery which is God? Have we robbed people of the experience of mining these deep truths for themselves? Have we eschewed the insatiable desires for easy answers and inspired people to explore, unearth, probe and uncover life changing revelation for themselves?

We live in an age where if you have a desire to learn about Jesus, a simple search will yield 223,000,000 results. However,knowing about Jesus is not the same as experiencing Jesus. That can only come through a careful examination of his teachings, embracing his way of life as our own, wrestling with the hard issues he confronts us with, dealing with our fallen nature in light of his resurrected one and living our lives with him at the center of our existence. A total experience! No easy answers, no “7 steps to knowing Jesus”, no shortcuts, no hacks and no cheat sheets.

I have been challenged to not strip away mystery by self-serving easy answers and savor the experience of discovery. Information is cheap these days. We must go through the process and not underestimate it.

J.J. closes his essay with this thought. “Perhaps that’s why mystery, now more than ever, has special meaning. Because it’s the anomaly, the glaring affirmation that the Age of Immediacy has a meaningful downside. Mystery demands that you stop and consider—or, at the very least, slow down and discover. It’s a challenge to get there yourself, on its terms, not yours.”

Savor the process, enjoy the journey, embrace the mystery! That’s life!

Yesterday marked a very important milestone in my life. Pastor Sam announced to our congregation that at the end of the summer, I would be transitioning out from my role as executive pastor at The Gathering Place, to launch out on a business endeavor and to pursue the call of God on my life.

I am overwhelmed by the support of friends, family, the staff at TGP, Pastor Sam and our wonderful church family to the news of this transition. It did not come without much prayer, confirmation, soul-searching and the support of my amazing wife. I’ll be sharing more details about the business as well as a future church plant in the days ahead.

Here is what you need to know:
* Pastor Sam is fully behind this and overwhelmingly supportive. I wouldn’t do this without his blessing, it’s that important to me.
* Nothing is wrong — in fact, I couldn’t be transitioning when things are at a better time here at The Gathering Place. God is working in our church!
* It’s a step of faith and most definitely a risk! — I turned 39 yesterday! Most folks want to be settling in to a stable career by that time.
* I’ll continue in my current role through the transition and working just as hard to make sure everything is taken care.
* We’re not moving — we are called to this region and that is where we will serve God.
* God is faithful! He has demonstrated that to me time and time again.
* Following Jesus is never safe, comfortable or secure, but it is always GOOD! The purpose of life is not to arrive safely at death.

Please be praying for me and my family as we follow Christ.

It’s hard to put in to words the closing session of Exponential. I felt like I was part of UCF smackdown. Francis Chan brought the sledgehammer to this session. He pastors Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California. He is the author of Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

I first heard Francis at Catalyst ‘07 and his message there rocked my world. Francis has a unique way to call you back to the simplicity of the Gospel and following Christ passionately, radically and intensely.

Some notable points: