killing the blog

 

Thanks for joining me for the ride! But that’s it for echoes. I’ll talk about why more later, but if you want some of the inside scoop, check this out.

You can catch up with what God is doing in my life on my tumblr at ArdentVox.com.

i can’t do that

One thing you learn quick when you work at a church is that you don’t have the luxury of saying, I can’t do that. With a limited number of staff and an unlimited amount of needs, the words, I can’t have to leave your vocabulary quick.

A while back I moved my office into an empty space in the preschool building. Obviously we don’t want to pour money into offices, so we had to do it on a dime. This meant building our own wall, buying scrap carpet left over from another job and throwing it together with stuff we had around the church.

During the construction process people asked, where did you learn to build a wall? My answer made most of them laugh: Google.

I’ve never built a wall before (or even helped someone build one) – but I do know how to get the information I need to do what needs to be done. So often we let our lack of experience keep us from what God has for us to experience today. Or, we let having a bad experience in our past, keep us from doing great things in our present.

You may not know how to do something, you may have even had a bad experience doing something – but don’t let the past dictate your future. Learn. Grow. Risk.

winds of change

I sat right inside the door at a Starbucks in Keller yesterday (in one of the coveted comfy chairs). I was working on scripts and the wind was working on a cold front. Each time the door opened I would get hit by another blast of weather that felt a little cooler than the previous.

The interesting part was how much I noticed the temperature change each time. Had I been outside at a patio table, I probably would not have noticed it changing. I would have been sipping my espresso and all of the sudden thought – Man, it’s cool out here! When did that happen?

Because I was inside and the air was a constant temperature, each time I felt the outside it felt different, cooler, changing.

Our ability to notice small changes in our lives is directly linked to the environment where we place ourselves. Satan never attacks us head on. He slowly changes things – attitudes, perspectives, friends, core beliefs – like the cold front that blows in over a 4 hour period. If we are outside we hardly notice things changing. If we’re on the patio, away from the protection of our Christian friends, absent from the church, out from under the shelter of our God – we might not even notice until after the temperature has dropped and things have turned for the worse. We look up and think to ourselves - Man, it’s cold. How did I get here?

When we keep our inner circle a shelter from the enemy, when there is wisdom from godly friends, inertia from our church, protection from our God – we notice every temperature change. We feel it. We see it. We know what the enemy is doing and we aren’t deceived.

“My soul takes refuge and finds shelter and confidence in You; yes, in the shadow of Your wings will I take refuge and be confident until calamities and destructive storms are passed.” (Psalm 57:1 AMP)

heartbeat of repentance

I dropped a tweet the other day that messed some people’s theology up:

Repentance for a Christian is less about forgiveness and more about trajectory.

When we become a follower of Christ we accept the doctrine of total forgiveness. Most of the time we say, “God has forgiven your sins, past, present and future.” Then American Christianity introduces it’s filthy works-based theology into the equation and the new believer is taught to pray. “Make sure you ask for forgiveness for your sins every time you pray!”

This is ludicrous.

If I am a follower of Christ, and I have accepted the forgiveness of Christ, so I am already forgiven. Redeemed. Pure. Holy. Justified. Righteous. I need no other forgiveness than that which Christ offered me when I began following Him.

I do need to repent though. I am 100% forgiven, but not yet perfect. I will still make mistakes. Sin. Things I need to turn from and go the other way (repentance). Repentance is the picture of changing directions 180 degrees. Repentance is turning our back completely on our sins and heading the other direction. Repentance is a total change in trajectory.

Forgiveness is foundational for the Christian – repentance is essential for the Christian to grow and mature.

As a Christian, God has already forgiven me through the burial and resurrection of Jesus. When I repent of something, I am asking for a new path. I am admitting what I have done is sin and asking for God’s supernatural power in my life to reset my journey’s trajectory in alignment with His will.

It is easier to spend our time working on forgiveness that we have already been granted, and not enough time on our knees praying and on our feet realigning our life in accordance to God’s heart.

We shouldn’t spend our lives praying for God to bless us with that which He already has given. We should spend them focused on our journey – on living in response to the blessing we never could have earned, didn’t deserve, and left to ourselves, would not have even thought to ask for.

Repentance is less about forgiveness because we are forgiven – it is more about trajectory because we are constantly redirecting our lives in response to God’s grace, love and passion for us.

dressed to impress

There is an interesting conversation going on this week at the ManOfDepravity.com blog about what people wear to church and why. Here are the thoughts I chimed in with:

My observation has been that for most churches, church attire has less to do with theology and more to do with demography. There are always churches that fall outside the norm, but for many, if the income is high and people have to dress up during the week, they are ready for a break on the weekend. Shorts, that shirt your boss told you not to wear, shoes that the HR lady would frown about, etc.

For working class churches, where uniforms, jeans and t-shirts are common during the week, they jump on the opportunity to wear their Sunday best. Church, for many people, is the reason you have “nice” clothes. Slacks, ties, jackets, dresses and hats are the way to go.

Both styles are reflective of the culture of the church – and both can be healthy in their own ways for the different people churches must reach. Ultimately we should be less concerned with what we want to wear to church, and more concerned with what our church’s style communicates to the first time guest. Everything impacts evangelism and a rough first impression creates more superficial walls that must be knocked down before people can experience change.

(My comment has been edited for this post, but you can view the original post and comment here.)

politicked

Cast your vote. Raise your voice. FellowshipChurch.com

sometimes great things are just one “what if…” away.

This past spring we were rethinking our environment in the preschool. For years (maybe even a decade) we have had a single long counter where our greeters are stationed to check families in. This spring we floated the question, what if we went away from the long counter top and tried something new? It would open the room up, give us more artistic options, maybe we could even use angles to bring more energy into the design.

The first concept was to do multiple mini-counters all facing the doors.

Then we had the idea to drop the angled mini counters and matching our movie theme by using the art-deco elements so many theaters do. What if we connected them together somehow?

That idea spurred one of our pastors to take the art deco idea to the max – what if the registration stations were fan-type marquees, and we connected them with random angles?

This concept got approval to move on and we went into further design. Over the next few weeks, the idea came that we could insert light boxes into the check in stations and have each one be a stand alone element. The shape and repetition would provide the energy and the angles would open up the floor.

After this step, the design was finalized, cut lists were made, the shapes were cut, lexan ordered and a team of volunteers came together to bring our new check in stations to life.

It all started with the simple question, what if…

passion and patience

One of my biggest daily struggles is balancing passion for where I want to be with patience for where I am.

When we moved in our house, this was our fireplace:

People came in, some complemented it – told me how modern it looked, but most didn’t say a thing. To them, it was simply how it was supposed to be.

I hated it. 

Don’t get me wrong, I was the one who had designed it. But I designed it with an end in mind. I had a plan, and every time I walked through the living room it was a reminder of my unfinished vision.

Dreamers are a dime a dozen. Everyone has projects, ideas, visions, plans. The difference between a successful dreamer and a frustrated dreamer is simple: execution. Successful dreamers know when to execute, how to execute and whom to execute with. They know how to bring their dreams to life.

I had 10 other projects that needed to be completed before the fireplace. I had skills to learn (on those other projects) that would give me the skills I needed to put in the fireplace. Timing is everything.

It’s hard to stay encouraging when you see things as they could be. As a dreamer, it is paramount I stay patient. Not get discouraged or depressed that everything can’t come to life today. I need to celebrate the day – but stay focused on the future. I need to stay positive about the present without growing complacent toward the future. I need to accept what the fireplace is, but strategically work to develop the fireplace into what it could be:

(For you DIY’ers, click here to see the whole transformation)

God caused the boom… who caused the bust?

I’m not one to stir up controversy, but I really want to get your thoughts on this…

Time online dropped an article this afternoon asking the question, “Did God want you to get that mortgage?“

“Has the so-called Prosperity Gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis? …Prosperity’s central promise — that God would “make a way” for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, toxic expression during sub-prime boom. (Encouraging) congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe “God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house.’”

You can read the full article here.

What do you make of this? How close are the ties of the supernatural and the natural when it comes to our world? If you purchased a house during the boom and lost it in the bust, does that make it not God’s will?

food (if you can call it that…)

Yesterday was a crazy day and for some reason eating got bumped… So, for anyone who thought I had it together, here is what I had to eat yesterday:

7:30a: Grande Double Shot on Ice with turkey and egg breakfast sandwich.

 

10:15a: Handful of candy corn because I opened my desk drawer and smelled it.

 

2:30p: Two peanut butter cups and a piece of Now or Later.

 

6:30p: 80% of  a piece of cheese cake (intended to eat the full piece, but started feeling dizzy from the sugar).

 

9:15p: Bean burrito and a cheese wrap from Taco Bell.