A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.
- J. Oswald Sanders

I am a risk taker, perhaps more than most. Some may say that I have faith, and some may see it as borderline insanity, I’d say both are correct. I am a church planter, which by definition means that I lack a great deal of sense and invite a great deal of pain into my life…and I love it. Its what consumes my mind and heart. This idea of taking great leaps of faith and stepping boldly into unknown situations is a wonderfully terrifying feeling that everyone should experience at least once. Its like a bungee jump that never stops, on the up bounce I catch my breath, but before any real comfort sets in I’m plunging head first back into the thick of it and, like I said, I love it.

Not everyone is built like I am, just the idea of bungee jumping makes some people cringe, and I can appreciate that. I don’t think that everyone is built to take the same kinds of risks, but I am convinced that every follower of Jesus is called to take significant risks. Think about the different risks that His followers took during His ministry on earth.

• Matthew just stood up and walked out of his job (Mark 2:13-17).
• Mary washed Jesus feet in front of a gawking crowd (John 12:1-8).
• Andrew and Peter walked away from their largest asset (a boat) that allowed them to make their living (Luke 5:2-11).
• The woman at the treasury followed Him by giving two pennies (Mark 12:41-44), while the rich young man was asked to risk a fortune (Matthew 19:16-30), each amounting to all they had.

Each person in a different walk of life was called on to risk something significant in order to further Jesus’ mission, and I’m convinced that He asks no less of us.

This is a scary idea, risking our lifestyle, or very standard of living for the sake of Jesus’ plan. But, ultimately a choice will be made, though it might not be made consciously. The choice each of us must make is to simply answer this question: “What is more important, my comfort or Jesus’ plan for the world?” My answer to this simple question radically changes the way I live my life and makes me excited to take risks in order to accomplish great things. Your answer to this question will change you and your family. If you haven’t answered this in your own heart yet, I pray that you wrestle with it and that ultimately you choose the path of great risk that leads to great reward.

I am a consumer. At times I’m a consumer out of necessity. But, too often I’m a consumer out of habit, envy, or selfishness. It’s only natural, right? We live in a society that is completely consumer driven. If every ad is geared toward me, and every business I enter just wants to make me happy, then why shouldn’t I just think about myself and buy myself nice shiny things?

Here is where the problem lies, businesses are about me because they want something from me, money. And lately, money is something that I don’t like to part with, mostly because of how little I have. So my choice is simple really, continue to consume at an unhealthy rate and go into debt, or confess my compulsion to consume and enjoy what I already have (which is a lot).

I confess:

• To wanting a new MacBook Pro because it’s cool, even though I have a 3 year old Dell that works perfectly fine for my present needs.
• To wanting an iPhone even though my current cell phone does absolutely everything that I need and more.
• To wanting a new pair of shoes even though I have at least 10 pairs in my closet that do nothing but take up space.
• To wanting to buy more books, even though I haven’t read the ones that I already have and should read.
• To wanting a new camera, even though the one we have works great.
• To wanting a new Tivo that records 2 channels at once because the one that records just one channel is lame (even though it works great, and I don’t need to watch any more TV anyway).
• To wanting a new guitar, even though I can’t play the one I have.
• To wanting more things than I can afford, for absolutely no reason at all.

It’s pathetic, I know.

This is where I am, and I am unwilling to be a pathetic, weak willed consumer drone that buys everything that I don’t need any more. Instead I choose to save money, pay off debt, and be free of selfish consumerism. I am convinced that even though this will not give me the immediate gratification that society tells me I need, in the end I will be far better off and much happier.

But, after thinking through all of this, here is the question that really haunts my mind. If I have been so consumer driven in my every day life, how consumer driven have I been in my spiritual life? I guess that’s a question to ponder….

If you don’t know who Mike Yaconelli is, you are missing out. Check out this video. Watching this really gets me motivated and reminds me what following Jesus should be like.

As you know, last week my wife and I traveled to Arkansas to visit with family. On the way, my wife brought out a book on CD for us to listen to, Love and Respect by Dr. Emmerson Eggerichs. I was not a very loving husband as I let out a groan, not because I think that I am a great husband, but because I was not ready for confrontation or transformation, I was feeling just fine at the moment being a mediocre man. Shame on me. It took about 4 hours to get through it and by the time it was over I was glad that I had listened.

Break through thought for me from the book. A simple question.

“Sherry, have I done anything to make you feel unloved?”

Underlying every conflict are hints of unlove and disrespect. I will not even attempt to do a book review but I will say that if you are married or want to be, you may should give this book or book on CD a go. I do not agree with every thing and I wish that the last section was the first section, but overall, I like it and it has helped my marriage.

In order to have community with a person you must have a right relationship with them. This means two things; you must know the person (there is no right relationship where there is no relationship), and forgiveness must be a priority in the relationship.

Forgiveness is necessary because in every relationship, big and small, there are annoyances, wrongs, and frustrations that must be over come. Merely overlooking these issues will only get you by in the short run. To maintain a relationship that has longevity and depth, there must be forgiveness. Real forgiveness.

If you are like me, you understand this because you need it. We all need it. Forgiveness is a grace afforded us that we have not earned but can appreciate as a gift. We must seek that forgiveness when we are wrong, and we must be intentional about giving forgiveness to those who wrong us.

Lets imagine a relationship that doesn’t involve what I call “intentional forgiveness”. You have known this person for years. For the first few months of your friendship everything was going well and it seemed like you might have found a great friend. Then, over the course of time that person’s selfishness started showing through. Rather than possibly offending your new friend, you decided to shrug it off. The problem is, every time this selfishness shows through now, it’s harder to shrug off. Eventually you find yourself avoiding your friend, after all, they are only interested in themselves and don’t really care about you anyway.

Because you chose to avoid the discomfort of forgiveness, you forfeited what looked to be a promising friendship. Intentional forgiveness isn’t easy, it’s not comfortable or convenient, sometimes it requires that we have difficult conversations, but this type of forgiveness is the key to deep community among friends.

In a real relationship, where there is a deep level of community, there are always uncomfortable encounters of intentional forgiveness. I’m not saying this is easy. Relationships are hard. Developing community within a relationship is even harder. There’s no fast track to deep relationships, intimacy (community) only comes after working through something difficult together. Intentional forgiveness, for you, or from you, is one of those difficult processes that must happen in the development of real community.

This, of course, is just one component of what it takes to build real, deep community. More thoughts on this are coming…

What are your thoughts?

I read this post a few days ago and have been inspired to create a similar list about community.

Begin sarcasm…

1. Keep conversations short.
   You are busy, you have a lot to deal with in your life, if you talk to someone you might get close to them and that takes time and energy that you don’t have. Just keep it short and sweet, don’t bother talking about anything more than the weather. If you don’t know a person is hurting, then you don’t have to do anything about it.
2. Always sit in your “assigned” seat
   By always sitting in the same seat you always sit around the same people. These folks know the deal, and stick to the appropriate 30 second conversations: weather, sports, how the new preacher is doing, etc. Also, this keeps you from having to venture out, meet new people, and possibly sit next to someone you aren’t familiar with.
3. Avoid new people
   It’s one thing to deal with all the people that you already know at church, but it’s another to actually meet new people. Seriously, you aren’t good with names, you don’t have the time, or the energy, so just walk right past anyone you don’t know. After all, they won’t notice that you totally avoided them.
4. Come in late
   Don’t overlook the beauty of this one. By coming in late you totally avoid even the 30 second conversations. And (bonus), you avoid the new people! It just makes life easier.
5. Leave immediately after the service (or early)
   This has the same benefits as coming in late, with the added benefit of getting on the road more quickly to beat those other churches to eat. This way you get out of that crowded church building so that you can go sit with your people and eat a meal. If you add this method with the coming in late method you could go to a church for years and never meet anyone.
6. Be physically present but mentally absent
   When talking to someone, pretend to listen by nodding your head and saying “uh huh” while you are really thinking about what show comes on TV later that night. Basically, just don’t engage anyone on any level. After all, you’re just there to put in your “time” and then get on with your life.
7. Don’t share a meal
   If you goal is to avoid community, this step is of the utmost importance, don’t ask people to lunch! Sharing a meal is an intimate thing that creates deeper relationships. So, when someone asks you to lunch fake a stomach ulcer or something, just get out of it.
8. Stay very, very busy
   The busier you are, especially on a Sunday, the less time you have to “deal” with people. In fact, attempt to be so busy that when speaking to someone you never even stop walking past them as you say hello.
9. Make your default response “everything is great”
   People will always ask how you are doing. Make sure that you have your “default” answer ready so that when they ask you are ready to say, “everything is great!” This must be your default response, otherwise you might actually let on that your life is not perfect, or worse, that you are struggling. This colossal mistake could lead to deeper conversation and deeper relationship. If you are going to really avoid community while in church, this is probably your best weapon.
10. Don’t show up
    This is definitively your best method of avoiding community overall because there is no community where there are no people.

Seriously…

Sadly, I see much of myself in these 10 things. As a minister I tend to fall into many of these habits because I am busy and because I feel like I need to talk to everyone. I also see this happen in the church every week.

How about you? Is there anything that you would add to this list?

I was watching Everest: Beyond the Limit the other day and some of the team had just made it to the summit, the highest point on earth. One of the climbers that almost made it, Tim Medvetz, said something that I thought was interesting. He said:

The biggest thing I learned this year, probably getting to the summit is only half way…

Tim got within about seventy yards of the summit, only to have to turn back because he knew he didn’t have the strength to get up their and back down in one piece (keep in mind that seventy yards on Everest is more exertion than you or I typically do in one day). So Tim’s quote is coming from a man that understands, in terms of life and death, that the summit of the climb is only the half way mark. This way of thinking seems very foreign to me. My thinking is typically more short term and focused on immediate gratification, so in that situation I would probably say, “Oh, I’m only 70 yards from the top, I can do this” only to get to there, appreciate the view, and die. But, I think his way of thinking is better, realizing the glory of the top of the mountain while appreciating the difficulty of coming down from it.

I am reminded of when Moses went up Mt. Sinai. He had struggled through [tag]hardship[/tag], but had faithfully led his people out of slavery. Now Moses goes up on the mountain into the very presence of God and spends more than a month with Him (Exodus 24:15-18). I don’t think there can be a more powerful mountain top experience than that. But, at the end of that glorious experience what did Moses come back to? A people that had turned away from the one true God to follow a golden calf made by the hands of his own brother (Exodus 32:4). He came off the mountain of glory and stepped into gut wrenching reality of sin. Moses fought hardship getting up the mountain, and he fought hardship coming off the mountain, until the day he died.

Now that sounds a little depressing until we look at the bigger picture. If we zoom out and remember what happened after Moses’ death, we remember that his people were ultimately delivered into the promise land and we remember that Moses led them most of the way. We also realize that Moses helped his people survive which included the line of Abraham, the bloodline of Christ. He set the stage for the gospel by bringing the law to the world, which served to expose sin, showing the people their need for a Savior (Romans 7:7-12). He led an absolutely amazing life that had eternal value.

So…what does this mean for us? Life tends to be a series of climbing up the slope and coming off the mountain with very little time to stop and enjoy the view from the summit. But, that’s ok, because the short time at the summit does two things for us; it makes the hardship of coming up the slope worthwhile, and it prepares us for the task God has for us, which is always an adventure but is rarely easy.

Climbing is a hard, but glorious task; I pray that we climb well.