caffeine, please.

Jerry Springer's ministry?

Today, in one of many busride discussions with fellow BGU students, a thought crystallized about the appeal of the Jerry Springer show.  (I know this is completely random--which could also easily be the name of this blog.)  But admit it--we've all often wondered, even aloud, "if people's lives are such a ridiculous mess, why do they choose to let it all hang out, often literally, on the Jerry Springer Show?" 

But what if the reason is redemptive?

Maybe, just maybe the unconscious thinking goes like this:  "My life is a wreck.  If I go on Jerry Springer and tell everyone about my mess, afterward my life will still be a mess.  But after the show I'll be (in)famous, for a minute.  And maybe being (in)famous for a minute will make my mess a little bit more worth it."

No, I don't think anyone would actually have this internal dialogue consciously.  And no, I don't think this redemption has value that lasts.  But I do think this is at least part of what drives people to publicly expose themselves when things are all wrong.  Pastor Jerry Springer, bringing a version of redemption to the messiness of life?  I admit, its a stretch but worth thinking about.

Chicago plunge class brief update

I'm having a great time in the Chicago Plunge class with Ray Bakke and Coach Wayne Gordon this week.  We've encountered about 20 churches of all traditions, sizes and languages, had insightful presentations and Q&A's with people like Stephanie Neely (City Treasurer), Robert Steele (Cook County commissioner), Vance Henry (director of the CAPS program), Glen Kehrein (Circle Urban Ministries), Dr. Marshall Hatch (pastor of Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church), and the singing of the men's choir of Hope House (ministry of Lawndale Community Church).

The days are long and filled with lots of note-taking, but the learning is exactly how I would design a class.  Lots of field experience, dialogue and hearing the best practices and experiences of experts from their very own place in the world.  Tactile learning is what Glen Kehrein called it today.

Coach's tears

My theology of tears is developing.  Tonight at the introduction to the Chicago Plunge class I'm taking with Ray Bakke and Wayne "Coach" Gordon of Bakke Graduate University, Wayne Gordon shared an opening devotional.  His words were moving.  He said this in the course of his talk:

I cry every day.  When I stop crying, its time for me to leave Lawndale.

Spoken by an articulate, hard-working, passionate and visionary leader, these words touched my soul and serve as another confirmation from my earlier post and an area where I continue to pray.

Great Saturday

I've talked often about Saturday in our house being a day that we make different from all the rest.  We don't use an alarm clock, we don't answer phones or do email, we eat donuts (essential), and we spend time creating family memories together.  This morning was a pretty special Saturday.

After meandering out of bed and getting dressed, we picked up Jaley from a sleepover and headed over to Lakeview Pantry for grocery delivery.  On our way we prepped the kids that we'd be offering to pray for the people we delivered to as well as delivering their groceries.

At the first home I had Tyce, Lena and Olivia with me (while Gil and Jaley were double-parked downstairs).  The woman we visited was grateful that we would offer to pray.  We held hands in a circle together as we prayed.  She was touched and hugged all the kids before we left.  Happened again at another of the houses when we were all able to go up for the delivery.  She was also very receptive and grateful.

Afterward we headed off to Swedish Bakery to grab our Saturday-essential-donuts and then spied the Puppet Bike across the street!  (We had seen a spot on PBS the night before and the kids thought it was cool.)  We hustled over to catch the unique show and munch our donuts.  Good times.

Leadership Summit

Bob Burns, my friend over at Armitage Church, invited us to attend Willow's Leadership Summit at their church via simulcast.  Since Armitage is about a half mile from my house, it was a no-brainer.  Took in half of Thursday's sessions and most of Friday's--powerful.

• Bill Hybels first session talked about simplifying decision-making through the power of axioms (proverbs).  This was a valuable session for me.  I started to make a list of axioms I operate from.
• Gary Haugen's challenge to "leave the visitor's center" was right on.  I love International Justice Mission's vision and ministry.
• Catherine Rohr of PEP was phenomenal.  This spitfire is fearless and driven and all of it for Jesus.  Loved her passion and her ministry.
• Bill George's session was not super-great from a presentation quality standpoint but one of his stories gave me a seed thought that has really been rolling over in my mind.  Very grateful for that nugget.
• Craig Groeschel's session--"It"--was worth the whole conference.  I bought the book and am ruminating on what he shared.  Craig is just one of the most humble, strong, thoughtful and self-deprecating leaders I've encountered.  That's a tall order when you have that kind of success.

Receiving input from leaders like these is essential in my life.  I feel like my leadership tank got filled.   Grateful to Bill Hybels and the whole Willow team for the vision and labor to make this conference happen.

On the fringe

A couple stats from UnChristian:

• less than 3% of young Americans age 18-41 believe all 8 points of a biblical world view (that absolute moral truth exists; that the source of moral truth is the Bible; that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches; that eternal spiritual salvation cannot be earned; that Jesus lived a sinless life on earth; that every person has a responsibility to share their religious beliefs with others; that Satan is a living force, not just a symbol of evil; and that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful maker of the universe who still rules that creation today.  (p. 75)
  
• there are about 20 million total born-again Christians in this country [out of a population of over 300 million] who describe faith as their top priority and who say their entire purpose in life is summed up by the statement "love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength." (p. 210)
  

This means that people who have sold out to loving and serving Jesus are a small and increasingly shrinking minority of the overall population.  Oh, I know that many people occasionally have attended churches in their lifetime--maybe even recently.  But when it shakes out to real and living followers of Jesus, the numbers get pretty small.  Many Americans are in fact, de-churched.

Does this bother you?  Or excite you?  It excites me.  We're a Church that is moving quickly to the fringes of power and influence in our culture and I believe it is the best thing that could happen to American Christianity.  The church on the fringe is a church that exchanges pursuit of power for pursuit of people.  Church on the fringe is the Church of the New Testament. 

The thing about the fringe is you can choose to feel marginalized, wander off and think about the "glory days" of power and influence or you can choose to hunger for God and pray for the heart of the church to be renewed with a passion to lovingly serve people.  Jesus was born and died poor and marginalized yet full of power and authority that transformed peoples' lives forever.

Jesus, give us joy in being on the fringes of power and courage to love and serve this city for Your glory.

Sunday funny not quite smackdown

About 5 minutes into the message at Lincoln Park on Sunday, 3 young men in dark pants and white button down oxfords walked down the aisle and slid into a pew about 1/3 of the way back.  My immediate thought--"hmmm.  got a couple Mormon missionaries here this morning." 

Not thinking much more of it I went on teaching from Matthew 25.  After our worship gathering I noticed that these three young men were at a table talking to a regular attender and Moody student.  Confident that these 3 missionaries weren't actively confusing people or trying to recruit the confused, I headed over to Lakeview for our 10:45am gathering. 

On Monday morning I bumped into the young man from Lincoln Park who talked to the three "undercover missionaries". 

"I'll bet you had some interesting conversation yesterday morning, huh?"

"What do you mean?"