Incessant Rambling

I find it fun to go through times like I am currently. I’ve been pretty frustrated with a lot of things, and stressed with the amount of things in which I am involved. So, when I get on a soapbox like I have been lately with evangelism, it’s gratifying to have it affirmed by the things around me.

Not more than 24 hours after this post, I happened upon a link to Issue 4, 2006 of the WCA News. The particular issue happens to be focused heavily on evangelism and affirmed everything that has been floating in my head lately. I’ll pull out some highlights, but please take some time to read the issue in your spare time.

The first article, titled “Evangelism in 3-D” highlights Willow’s 3-D philosophy: Develop Friendships, Discover Stories and Discern Next Steps. Here’s a quip about the root problem of evangelism today:

People hate evangelism. Christians shy away from it. They’re afraid of it, discouraged by it and feel guilty when they fail to drag a seeker across the line of faith. If Christians dread evangelism, non-Christians despise it. They feel pressured, preached at, cornered, judged, condemned and reduced to spiritual projects. “Somewhere along the line, we’ve forgotten what evangelism is really about and we’ve reduced the process to simply inviting people to a weekend service,” says Willow Creek’s Director of Neighborhood Evangelism, Garry Poole. This is a problem.

This is a serious problem, folks. The statement “…they fail to drag a seeker across the line of faith” sums it up too plainly. This isn’t a task at which we can fail.

The same article also offers some responses to the question “what is your knee-jerk reaction to the word evangelism?” You can read for yourself to see some pretty scary responses. Poole also had this to say:

“We needed to shift from ‘doing community in the church’ to ‘doing church in the community,’”

And this:

Developing friendships is showing an authentic interest in their interests. “Don’t try to be interesting, just be interested.”

And this:

And whatever you do, don’t view your neighbor as a project. No one wants to be reduced to a spiritual project just so you can check them off your list.

How many times do we write a name down on a card and… yeah. Poole said this, too:

Christians often view evangelism as getting the seeker to listen to us while we share a verbal witness — give our testimony in the hopes they will better understand the gospel… We’re omitting a critical part of the process — the other person’s story. Non-Christians are eager to tell their stories.

Amen, brother. I am in the midst of another amazing book titled The Revolutionary Communicator. The first principle in that book is that communication is about listening. People just want someone to listen and be authentic.

There is a great deal more to learn from that article, but let’s move on to one by Bill Hybels, the Senior Pastor at Willow. In Just Walk Across the Room (also the title of his new book), Bill describes a relationship he had with his son’s childhood soccer coach, Brian. It is a relationship that was Spirit-led and took years to yield a new believer, surprising no one more than Bill himself. He nurtured the relationship on Brian’s terms, serving him, listening to him and just being a friend. Relationships and serving others goes a very long way to expanding the Kingdom.

And finally, an article titled Connections: The Bridge to Grace, also highlights the importance of relationships with an interesting story. The author’s wife was in the middle of an evangelism course and had an assignment to have evanglistic conversations each week (what is an “evangelistic” conversation, anyway?). He describes a conversation where her close friend opened up and shared some things that completely redefined their relationship…

A soul connection was made. For the first time in many years, this friend saw Jesus and the church in a different light — a very positive light!

Interestingly, though…

…she flunked with an “F”… because she failed to present the plan of salvation… and that was the assignment.

Granted, this was an assignment for a graded class, but sadly, I feel like this is exactly how we view our role in evangelism — an assignment that gets graded.

While tracts, strategies and events are brilliant tools perfect for certain situations, evangelism is about “walking across the room” and building relationships. The Bible tells us to be prepared to answer questions, but not to shout those answers to those who are not listening.

I didn’t plan on writing this, but I felt the need. Who knows if there will be more. Stay tuned.

A recent Bible Study led to a discussion on asking for signs from God. How do we know it’s a sign from God? What do we say to those who need to “see to believe?” It turned into a discussion about “the lost” and “the non-believers” and how we as Christians prove God’s existence to “them”.

Only recently have I felt our church making an effort to tear down that invisible wall around our group of believers and really make our community more than an afterthought. Evangelism tends to be something we make about “us and them” and appears in events like we’re doing this weekend which, while effective, is just an event.

We as Christians continue on with our defensive bubble, asking those around us to come in and hear what we have to say, or with this idea that we have something to prove. We make Christianity more about religion than about relationships.

Christianity is not exclusive. It isn’t something we do. It is something we are. I believe the self-inflicted bubble has contributed more to the angst against believers than anything else. Where is the humility in being set apart? We take that so literally that we seclude ourselves. Or, in a thinly veiled attempt at evangelism, we try to convince this “them” that we have something “they” should want.
It is not our job to prove anything. It is our job to serve those in need. It is our job to serve those not in need. The Holy Spirit does the tugging.

Please, do not take this to mean that I’m against sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ or that I’m encouraging a strictly passive approach to sharing (or not sharing) the Gospel. I believe wholeheartedly in the Great Commission. I just feel like we tend to look at it more as a job or an obligation than a heartfelt desire to expand the Kingdom. We put such emphasis on telling people about Jesus, that we completely skip over the first step of building a relationship and meeting the needs of people.

If we truly want to make a difference, there is no convincing to be done. There is only serving.

I’m typically pretty indifferent when it comes to politics. Honestly, I just don’t care. It really feels like it’s a self-sufficient machine. A robot operating only to rule the world. Voting only seems to matter so that we end up with the least evil person in the seat. Even then, the result doesn’t feel like it actually means anything.

So why do I feel like I should chime in about Hillary’s announcement? One sentence:

I can say I know how Washington Republicans think, how they operate, and how to beat them.

She spends the first half of her announcement talking about the mistakes of our current president. She spends one paragraph talking about questions facing our country. She spends a majority of the rest tooting her own horn. Then, in this one sentence, she starts her entire campaign out saying, “it’s Us against Them.” That’s why I hate politics.

Sure, my political views tend to lean towards the Republican side. Does that mean I automatically disagree with the Dems? I disagree with many of the platforms typically supported by them, but not because they’re Democrats. Does that mean I automatically agree with the GOP? Nope, it doesn’t mean that either.
I’m tired of this two-sided struggle. It ping-pongs back and forth needlessly. Bipartisanship is a farce unlikely to ever end. It’s not that we need another party, or we need people to cross party lines at all. Frankly, I feel like we need to get rid of the party structure all together. What a joke.

Is there anything we can do? Vote better people in? Speak out? Sadly, no. Sure, that’s pretty cynical, but at this point, I’m pretty confident it’s a lost cause.

Just as I was getting pretty frustrated with the new year and losing the wind in my sails, along comes a healthy dose of reality. This morning I received confirmation on two new projects and may have another come in shortly. That’s good news, obviously. However, in reading Getting Things Done, I’ve started making a list and trying to get organized. The difficult part is getting past the initial list phase and isolating my “next actions.” My list happens to be rather overwhelming. Here is is, in short form, along with ’07 goals for each item (in no particular order):

My family

Currently: I’m working a lot. I spend a ton of time locked in my office whether I’m working or not. It’s hard to separate my professional and personal lives when working from home. I feel myself becoming independent again and just generally disconnected.

Goal: Most of this is personal, so I won’t bore you with the details. I mainly want to make family a priority again and reconnect.

Evermind Media Group, LLC

Currently: Luckily, I just had another influx of good projects. For some reason, steady work is not easy to find. For that reason, I find myself being easily distracted on personal projects or non-money-making activities. That’s not good when you’re self-employed and the only breadwinner in your family.

Goal: Obviously, I want to make money. That will take a steady stream of clients that I can have fun working with. In order for that to happen, I need to work harder to network and market myself. I’m working on getting the website finished, and my first product/service to be released hopefully in Q2 of this year, so here’s to hoping that goes well. There are also plans to continually expand my services further into the ministry arena. Those may get put off until next year.

First Baptist Church Ellisville

Currently: I’m still serving as volunteer tech director. With the addition of another audio engineer, I have been able to step back to only mixing every other week and am able to sit with my family to worship. We’re working to expand our video production capabilities as I type this.

Goal: As mentioned above, we’re working to expand our video production capabilities. This includes the addition of professional cameras and related gear as well as producing quality video content for service enhancement and outreach. There is also a serious need for more volunteer help. I’d like to see us at least double our team to support some more creative efforts as well as beef up our operation teams to facilitate our worship services.

Fellowship of Technical Ministries

Currently: Sadly, we’re in a holding pattern for this ministry. Twelve months ago, I was fired up about being part of the leadership team. Today I’m frustrated. Only two other people from that original group have shown up at meetings. I’m sure some of it is due to my lack of planning quality meetings, but I can’t bring in guests for a crowd of zero.

Goal: I really am passionate about this ministry. I hope that we can get it started off on the right foot this year. The organization’s founder is back in town next month, so hopefully we can light the fire again and gain the much needed support once again.

Project Wunderllama

Currently: This is the product/service I mentioned earlier. I’m working on it as time is available (which isn’t often).

Goal: I’d like to get it released sometime in Q2. I think the big picture of this service could really revolutionize technical ministries in general. The goal is to essentially provide tools to equip those involved in technical ministries with tools and knowledge to help them better do their jobs.

Unofficially Titled Worship Project

Currently: I’ve been asked to help produce a worship event coming up in May. We’ve met once and have another meeting this weekend. This is something I’m more excited about than anything in recent months. I’ve been trying to pull something similar off for a while. The team seems to be really passionate about making this a reality and extending it into a longterm ministry.

Goal: For the year? Just to pull it off well. For the future? Turn it into a stable longterm ministry that may one day go on the road.

General Stuff

Currently: My hobbies are being ignored. There isn’t really time for “general stuff” right now

Goal: Hopefully, as a result of putting GTD into practice, I’ll have more time for family and my general interests. I finally got the rest of my dad’s tools from his shop. I need to finish building my garage shop and start putting the tools to good use. I honestly feel like I’m honoring him when I use them. There are a few remodeling projects to be done around the house, like a new office so we can reclaim another guest bedroom so people don’t have to sleep in our dining room.

If our finances ever get back to normal (or even better than normal), we desperately need new cars. Working from home, I don’t have to drive the Death Mobile (’94 cutlass cierra) as much, but it’s the priority. Our ’02 Passat is fine, but the warranty is almost up and is rather expensive to maintain. We want a Highlander and a Camry. It’d be nice to see that happen soon.

I heard recently that Gold’s Gym has bought a building right around the corner. I plan to be the first to sign up.

I want to express myself via art more.

Without getting too lame, I don’t feel like I have much of a social life. Most of my friends are related to my wife or live several hundred miles away. Being involved in my role at church, I don’t have the opportunity to socialize via an ABF (church-speak for Sunday School). Working from home, I don’t meet very many new people, much less any that I’d want to hang out with.

There are a great deal more, including some things I can’t really discuss publicly yet. We’ll just see where we are in 11.5 months.

Conclusion

Generally, I just need to get organized via GTD and better manage my priorities. I didn’t discuss much about how what motivates me leans more to the pro-bono side than the money-making side, but hopefully that will change one way or another. Have any advice?

Honestly, I have no idea what that title means. However, the last two months since Asher was born have been C. R. A. Z. Y. When I redesigned this site, I had every intention of posting weekly, of polishing the design and keeping things fresh. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Funny how a new baby can change things so drastically.

With that said, I’m learning a great deal about myself.  While I’m a motivated person, I procrastinate. Sometimes, that procrastination leads to things being forgotten. Luckily, the forgotten things tend to be things like this site, not my family or my work.

I have some pretty huge goals for myself for 2007. Many of them carry over from 2006, as I got a bit distracted by trying to build my business. Now that I’m relatively comfortable and have several projects ongoing, I feel like I can step back, look at the big picture and see how things line up.

Stay tuned for more writings in the areas of church technology, media, web design, philosophy, my family, etc. There may even be another redesign in the works as I complete my company site (finally), update Asher’s site, wrap up my first product offering, start at least two more blog sites and pursue ministry from an entirely different perspective.

http://asher.solarfrog.com/2006/10/26/asher-is-here/

Church plants are springing up every five miles all over the nation. Each has the same basic purpose, but with completely different motives. This concerns me. I agree with the basis of the idea that church needs to change. However, I think we need to be very very careful as to how we approach it.

Movements have been labeled Missional, Emerging, Reformission, etc. We’re not dealing with movements. We don’t need a name. We’re dealing with people. By labeling these movements, we’re boxing ourselves in. We must be very careful to not build cookie-cutter approaches of how to “do church” into these movements. Challenge all you want, but understand your audience before you just plain make things worse.

There is a book by George Barna titled Revolution. I won’t write a book report or even review it here (maybe later). However, he labels this group of people rethinking church as “revolutionaries.” I love the term. My mom thinks it conjures images of war. Webster defines “revolution” as:

a sudden, complete or marked change in something

Culture has changed since Jesus’ time. Culture has changed since your church was founded. Culture has changed since you were born. We need to embrace change or we’re going to be seriously irrelevant if we aren’t already.

Where we have to be extremely careful is the fine line between revolution and rebellion. I’ve spoken to too many people involved in planting a new church that say something along the lines of “We’re going to be a church for people burned by the church.” Right away you’re founding your body on rebellion, a dangerous ideal. You’re saying that church is bad (it probably is), and we’re going to do it better (you probably will). What you’re also saying is that “church pissed us off, so we’re going to show you how church really should be done.” Stop now.

I’ve actually heard the statement “church should be done like this.” Church should be “done” however best addresses the needs of the culture in your community.

God can’t bless a bitter attitude. What God can bless is meeting people’s needs. Take that exact same group of people who have been “burned” by the church and find out what else they have in common. Just take out the “we’re frustrated” piece and focus on building honest, positive relationships. So what if they’ve been burned by the church. The point is building a relationship with the one true God, not a group of people called a church.

Yes, church needs to change. We need to get up out of the pews and make a difference in whatever culture is around us (there are probably several vastly different cultures within a five-mile radius of your church building or your home – pick one).

We need to be smart about how we spark change. Saying “church sucks” may work to inspire some folks (it did me), but it would anger others, backfiring completely. We could spend weeks talking about who’s problem that is. Sure, the people who get angry when challenged shouldn’t be angered by the idea of change, but I have a feeling we can make much more progress with more effective communication.

Understand your culture. Build relationships. Change what needs to be changed. Just please, please, please communicate effectively. Your message may be right on, but if you don’t understand your audience, or you communicate that message poorly, you’re going to have bigger problems than you started with.

Since the pilot, the television in our house has been tuned to NBC on Monday nights for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It’s a beautfiul portrayal of the pressures that surround entertainment in this day and age. At the same time that special interest groups are fighting for their right to free speech, other groups are fighting to silence that which sheds negative light on their particular message.

NBS, the fictional network that airs the fictional SNL clone, Studio 60, heavily controls what sketches make it to air. If small-market Terra Haute is threatening to not air the show, NBS balks. That was then. In the pilot, the current producer freaks mid-show (it airs live, as does SNL) and walks on camera to slam the censorship that is a result of ridiculous political correctness for the sake of art. This, my friend, is real life.

The show continues and we find that the newly hired president of NBS actually stands up for art, by refusing to continue the micro-managing, hiring back the ex-writer and producer that were on the show in its hey-day, and brute-forcing her way through protests, small markets refusing to air the show, etc. All of this leads to newfound success on the fictional network and show.

So, what’s the point? Several articles and conversations have recommended a boycott because of the token sketch causing the ruckus at the fictional Studio 60, titled “Crazy Christians”. Though it airs, we never get to see the sketch, so we have nothing to go by but the fictional show’s frenzy. Also at the forefront of the criticism of the show is how the female lead is portrayed as a hardline Christian and somewhat “nutty”. Because the show paints Christians in a negative light, and makes fun of this seemingly “nutty” group of people, we, as Christians, should not watch the show, regardless of its entertainment value.

Some people fail to see the humor in this real world fight against Studio 60. The show ignores the protests and boycotts of Bible-belt markets and airs the sketch anyway. They poke fun at the protests. Yet, here is the same group of people, in real life, boycotting a show that is poking fun at the group boycotting the subject of the show. Seems kind of counterproductive, no?

Besides the fact that I enjoy the entertainment value and humor of the show, I see something that we as Christians can take away from it. Lose the bubble mentality. Look at the show from the perspective of the “other side.” They’re writing the material into the show because that’s how they see us. Why give them more ammunition by taking the defensive and boycotting the show that is making fun of us boycotting?

Rather than fight against the show, use it as research. Find out what they’re really trying to say. Is it simply humor for humor’s sake? Satire? Probably, but let’s assume for a moment these people really do hate Christians and are using Studio 60 as their platform. Find out why, and embrace it. What a concept, huh?

We as Christians too often take the defensive approach. Sure, there is reverse discrimination happening all over the place these days for the sake of political correctness. By taking the defensive approach, we build this little bubble around us and prolong the idea that “Christians are crazy.” When people think of Christians, they think of protests, annoying “ram-it-down-your-throat” evangelism, boycotts, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Joel Osteen. Why prolong the insanity? We don’t want to listen to what they have to say about us, but we’ll talk all day and night about what’s wrong with them. People, believe me, we have our flaws too.

Remember, Studio 60 is an entertainment program. You may not think it’s entertaining, but don’t make it your platform for saying “Christians aren’t crazy.” We may not be crazy, but the rest of the world sure thinks we are. By doing exactly what they say we do by being crazy, we don’t help our cause any. It’s time we actually do something to change the world’s opinion of us and speak their language.

We don’t have to change the message, but we definitely have to change they way we present it.

I’ve been meaning to get a new design up on this site for quite some time. I really dug the Hemingway theme, but I decided that since I’m a designer, I should probably come up with my own thing.

So, I’m playing this weekend. I may stick with it. I might not. You’ll probably see a lot of broken things, but I’m kinda doing this in real time, so bear with me.

Please.

Update: I know there are bugs in IE. They’ll get taken care of eventually.

Update #2: So I didn’t play as much as I had planned. It looks like things are going to stay this way for a while though. My current to-do list now includes tweaking the layout a bit, filling out the missing content, adding the archive pages, and expanding the footer. Well, that and actually start writing interesting things here. I have some top secret features that I’ve been working on for a while that I’ll reveal as they are completed.

Expect something in-depth weekly, with smaller posts throughout the week. I’ll hopefully be filling up the “Found Objects” section more frequently as well, as my current source for interesting links, Andy Rutledge’s Design View, has (very) sadly gone offline for the forseeable future.

In the past few days I have seen and heard several advertisements for companies who state “[product or service] from the name you know and trust.” All but maybe one of these companies I had never even heard of. This type of advertising drives me crazy. Should you be telling me who I trust or should I be able to decide for myself?