There is an amazing metaphor in Hosea 10 that really got into my spirit today. By the way, the image that comes to mind when I read these verses is a mental picture from a trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania two years ago. I remember watching an Amish man drive his yoke of oxen with a plow through his field turning the soil over preparing to plant his crop. Verse 12 says, "Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground." Unplowed ground is ground that has been ignored. The surface has gotten hard and nothing can be planted. And nothing grows through the surface. Hosea is telling the Israelites to break up the unplowed ground. That is the only way to prepare for whatever it is that God wants to do in our lives! By the way, I think Scripture is a plow. It turns the soil over so God can plant new thoughts in our minds and new feelings in our hearts.

Then it says, "It is time to seek the Lord until He comes and showers righteousness on you." We can't control the rain. But we can prepare the soil. I'm afraid that too many of us worry about rain instead of preparing the soil. Our job is to prepare the soil and seek God until it rains!

So here's the $64,000 question: Where has your heart hardened? The key to that question is this question: where have you lost hope or lost joy? What have you stopped thinking about because it's too painful? What have you stopped praying about because it's too unbelievable? Where has your heart become hard? Where have you closed your mind? Answer those questions and you'll know where you need to plow!

I'm experimenting with spiritual disciplines this year and I just got a great idea from Ted Haggard, pastor of New Life Church in Colorado. During his twenties he established a habit of getting away for three days every month to pray, fast, and listen to large portions of Scripture on tape. That discipline has morphed some, but he still does three days away once a season (winter, spring, summer, and fall). Haggard uses that personal retreat to reorient himself. I think one of the most overlooked spirtiual disciplines is the discipline of retreating. Jesus practiced it throughout his ministry. I know that not everyone can afford the luxury of three days away, but everybody can personalize this practice and develop the discipline of retreating. For what it's worth, Howard Hendricks said, "You can't minister to people if you're always with them." Lynn Barclay, the director of Young Life in North Carolina said it this way: "Serve from your saucer not your cup." I love that image. We've got to minister out of the overflow of what God is doing in our lives!

Fridays seem to be my "idea" day :) Here are a few of the ideas that are percolating in my spirit.

I'd love for us to have a church planting school in DC. I'm inspired by what Redeemer Presbyterian Church has done in NY city. I meet with church planters almost every week. We have a church planter in residence on staff. And that is our passion. I think we need to move in the direction of a church planting center at some point sooner than later. I don't want this to be one of those ideas we just talk about or think about. I think my ministry mentoring small group this summer is my way of taking a step in the direction of pouring more of my life into people who are called to full-time ministry. I think the mentoring group and church planter in residence position are baby steps in the direction of a full-orbed church planting center. Part of my passion is the number of church planters who come to me asking us to help them.

I also continue to think about a conference for church planters. I've been invited to speak at a couple of multi-site conferences in the coming months. And I've done a number of church planting boot camps. But I think it'd be cool to do a conference for church plants. I think the target would be pastors from the pre-plant stage to 5-7 years into the plant. I'd love to tag-team with a church from NY city and create a DC/NY connection. I think our coffeehouse will be a great environment for a gathering of church planters. I think it would allow us to do small conferences for approximately 100 pastors.

One of the things I've been asking the Lord for lately is "radical conversions." I'm been praying for people who seem to be light-years away from God to cross the line of faith.

One of the most amazing transformation stories in Scripture is the demoniac in Mark 5. He was a lost cause. He was a demoniac, but Jesus didn't see a demoniac. He saw a missionary. One of my favorite quotes is a Goethe quote: "See a man as he is and he will remain as he is. See a man as he can be and should be and he will become as he can be and should be." Jesus saw people as they could be and should be.

Jesus commissioned the demoniac as a missionary in Mark 5:19: "Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you." And the man became a missionary to the Decapolis. Lord, give us radical conversions! By the way, it starts with us seeing demoniacs as missionaries! Then evangelism is easy. It's as simple as "telling people how much the Lord has done for us."

I'm nearing the end of my month-long journey through the gospels and enjoying every chapter along the way.

Matthew 7 really rocked my world. I think one of the most important universal laws is the law of measures. We tend to think of it in financial terms--"give and it will be given unto you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together will be poured into your lap." But I think the law of measures is attitudinal as well. Whatever attitude we exhibit is what we'll get in return. If you don't believe me, do a "smile experiment" and see how many people smile back at you.

Matthew 7:2 says, "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you." Translation: how we treat others dictates how we will be treated. That is such a powerful principle.

Then Jesus tells us to focus on the plank in our own eye instead of worrying about the speck of dust in someone else's eye. In other words, you worry about you. By the way, the best way to identify your own faults is to look at what bugs you about others!

Matthew 8:26 says, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid." I don't think this is a great revelation but simply a reminder that faith and fear are inversely proportional. The more faith we have the less afraid we are. Faith = no fear.

I think open-mindedness is at the heart of humility. If I had to choose between two types of people--someone who is super smart but not very teachable or someone who doesn't know much but is super teachable--I'd take the super teachable person every time! There is a powerful phrase in Matthew 13:15. It says, "They have closed their eyes." I never want to close my eyes or ears or mind to the things of God.

Matthew 13:34 is the heart of my philosophy of communication. It says Jesus "did not say anything without using a parable." He spoke in narratives. He used stories and illustrations. I never cease to be amazed at pastors who think "expositional teaching" is the only "biblical form" of teaching. There is one problem with that: Jesus wasn't an expositional teacher. He didn't do a verse by verse exposition of the Old Testament. He told stories. I'm not suggesting that we don't do our exegesis. I'm just pushing back a little. I think narrative preaching is more Christlike.

Matthew 16:15 is the Litmus Test. So often I'll circle around to that question when I'm talking with people about Jesus. The real is this: was Jesus who he said he was? I love the way C.S. Lewis talked about it. He said that Jesus was either a lunatic, a liar, or Lord. If Jesus wasn't the Son of God but he thought he was the Son of God then he was certifiably insane (a lunatic). If he knew he wasn't the Son of God but claimed to the be the Son of God then he intentionally misled billions of people (a liar). But if Jesus is who he said he was then he is Lord.

There is a phrase I've seen several places in the gospels--"break with tradition." Jesus and his disciples were absolutely revolutionary. I never want to be part of the "religious establishment." I want to follow Jesus and in the gospels that meant butting heads with the religious types. I don't want to be different for difference sake. I think "breaking with tradition" can be a form of rebellion or pride. But there is a "breaking with tradition" that comes from keeping in step with the spirit and not being afraid of what people think. That's what I'm after.

I had coffee this morning with someone who I would call a "thoughtful seeker." They are really wrestling with issues of faith. Nothing energizes me like a conversation with someone who is asking genuine God questions. I think he wants to believe, but it has to be with intellectual integrity. I respect that.

I think everybody has "sticking points" at some point in their spiritual journey. I think the big three are 1) juxtaposing the creation story with science 2) the inspiration and infallibility of scripture and 3) what about other religions. Those sticking points keep us from jumping in with both feet (or both hemispheres of the brain). I love the picture he painted. He said he wants to be able to walk around the circle of faith without any gaps. I told him that there will always be gaps. But I'm hoping our conversations "close the gap." By the way, I think taking a leap of faith is a lot like our synapses. A thought is really an electrical impulse that jumps from one synapse to the next. That is still a mystery to neurologists. In the same sense, I think faith always involves a synapse. You've got to jump. But the real question is how wide the gap is. There is a difference between a two-foot gap and mile-wide gap. I'm praying our conversations close the gap.

By the way, I asked him a question I've never asked anyone before. I said, "If Jesus said to you what he said to Peter, Andrew, James, and John, 'Follow me.' What would you say?" He said, "Absolutely." I found that response fascinating. For what it's worth, I think the one true litmus test is the question Jesus asked the disciples in Matthew 16: "Who do you say that I am?" That is THE QUESTION. But what might be just as significant is the fact that Jesus didn't ask it till they were three years down the road! I think we ask the question and then invite people to follow Jesus. Have we got it backwards?

My blog serves a number of different functions. Sometimes it's my journal--a way of capturing the moments of my life that make me laugh. Sometimes it's my "napkin" where I write down random thoughts. And sometimes it's my online confessional where I share some of my failures and struggles. I think that confessing our sins to one another is a lost spiritual discipline. An online confession may not be what the Scripture writer had in mind, but it's better than no confession at all. So here's my cyber-confession.

I was asked to update the community on our coffeehouse project the other night and I was kicking myself afterwards because I felt like I missed an opportunity to be a bold witness for Christ. Someone asked what "Ebenezers" means and I gave a water-down version. Instead of a literal translation: "Hiterto the Lord has helped us" I gave a loose paraphrase: "So far so good." I took God out of the equation and I felt so convicted afterwards. I don't want to "justify" what I did, but I often find it helpful to do an autopsy of sin. Here's my autopsy. One of the people at the community meeting was a neighbor who complained about the Easter Eggstravanganza because we talked about Jesus (God forbid). We explained that we totally funded it and there are these things called "freedom of religion" and "freedom of speech." But that didn't pacify her antagonism. Anyways, I think I went into this meeting on the defensive. That defensive mindset affected the way I fielded questions. I also have an underlying fear of people thinking of Ebenezers as a "Christian coffeehouse" because that often conjures negative pictures of half-rate coffeehouses (unfortunately). That combination of factors put me in a defensive mindset. So I chickened out instead of openly sharing that God is the one who gave us the property in the first place. He gave us the idea. He gave us favor with zoning and historic preservation. And He's the one we're trying to glory! Long story short, I wimped out. I felt like I let the Lord down and didn't "represent" Him the way I could have and should have. And I feel like I missed an opportunity to be an unashamed witness. Here's the good news: it strengthens my resolve to not be a "defensive Christian" who is always watering down or soft pedaling the truth. I want to be an authentic and unashamed witness for Christ with everyone in every situation. All I can do is pick myself up, dust myself off, and learn from this mistake. I feel better now :)

Josiah had his first driving experience yesterday! Thankfully, it lasted less than a second. We were in the van and I let him play in the driver's seat. With the van running, of course! So he was playing with the wipers and windows. And all of a sudden we start moving! Josiah had pulled the gear shift into drive. I quickly reached over and put it in park about two feet from the bumper of the car in front of us. He was in the state of shock. I was in the state of shock. It happened so quickly! The funny thing is that we had just picked up the van from the body shop where we had a little ding repaired (courtesy of me, by the way). That would have been just great. Get it fixed and then break it again all in the same day :) I'm hoping Josiah's next driving experience is about thirteen years from now!

We were driving in our mini-van toward the intersection at D and 1st Streets, NE yesterday and we almost got into an accident. As I approached the green light a car ran right through a red light. There was probably a three second differential. And I couldn't help but think, what if I'd buckled Josiah's carseat a little quicker or driven a little faster? I just wonder how many "close calls" we have that go unnoticed. I wonder how many thank you's we owe God? I thank God that angels are watching over us. By the way, I wonder if God assigns the best angels to the worst drivers?

Within the last week I've heard and read an amazing story that makes me dream bigger dreams. A few years ago, the Great Western Forum (former home of the Los Angeles Lakers) went on the market. It was already under contract when Faithful Central Bible Church got into the negotiation game, but that didn't keep them from pursuing a dream. They formed a separate for-profit corporation and after a $3 million dollar miracle they purchased the Forum. The Forum still functions as a profit-making entertainment venue for concerts and sporting events during the week. And the church uses it on weekends. I love that combination of ministry and marketplace!

Bishop Kenneth Ulmer shared some "lessons learned" in the article I read. "I would simply encourage a pastor or leader to move to a solid place of conviction that whatever endeavor he or she is pursuing is truly of God."

The church was turned down for financing twenty times because no one understood their vision. Ulmer said, "What we wanted to do had never been done before. There was no model for it." Several bank presidents said to Ulmer, "Pastor, chuches don't do this." They do now!

Ulmer said, "You have to be positive that you are walking in the revelation of God if you are calling your church to follow you." Revelation is the key to conviction. No revelation = No conviction. I'd rather have one relevation than a thousand good ideas. I'd rather have one soul-deep conviction than a thousand shallow interests. I want to be a convict for Christ. I want to have such deep convictions that they drive me to do crazy things. I love what William Scolavino said, "The height of your accomplishments will be determined by the depth of your convictions." I think he's absolutely right.

I just read something I totally love. An entrepreneur named Taryn Rose was interviewed in Fast Company. She gave up a medical career to pursue her passion for designing shoes. She said, "I feared regret more than I feared failure." I love that. By the way, her passion for shoes has turned into a $20 million company. I think I feared failure more than I feared regret early in my life. The older I get the more I fear regret.

I just read a fascinating article on change in Fast Company. According to research done by Dr. Edward Miller, the dean of the medical school and CEO of the hospital at Johns Hopkins University, the odds against change are nine to one! Their study involved heart-bypass patients. Even with their life on the line, only 10% of those patients changed their lifestyle to avoid a possible relapse!

The question is why? Conventional wisdom would say that a crisis is a strong motivator of change! But neurologists and psychologists are making fascinating discoveries about change. Here are a few of the insights:

A compelling vision of the future is a much stronger motivator of change than a negative fear of something bad happening! Here's my take, heaven is more motivating than hell. Romans 2:4 has always been a linchpin in my theology--"His kindnes leads us toward repentance." In other words, when God wants to change us he doesn't threaten us. He doesn't use fear tactics. He's entices us with his kindness.

One myth of change is that the facts will set us free. But our thinking isn't guided by facts. It's controlled by narratives. The key to change is changing one's metaphors! Change isn't sustained intellectually. It is sustained emotionally. We need compelling reasons that emotionally charge us. And it can't be someone else's reasons. It's got to be reasons we came up with ourselves!

Another fascinating myth is that small gradual changes are easier to make and sustain. The truth is that radical sweeping changes are easiest and most sustainable! That is fascinating. Incremental change rarely works because we can't see sufficient results. I think radical repentance--like buring the books in Acts 19 or burning the plowing equipment in I Kings 19--is the best way to sustain change. You have to "burn the boats" so turning back isn't even an option.

The good news is that neurologists have discovered that our brains retain plasticity throughout our lifetimes. In other words, it's never too late to change.

My parents were in DC over the weekend and it was fun to hang out with them. I noticed a couple of subtle changes in the way I relate to my parents.

I'm more interested in our family history than I've ever been. I crave stories about my grandparents and ancestors. It helps me put my life in context. I had no idea that both of my grandfathers on my dad's side were alcoholics. It makes me wonder how my dad turned out so good. He is an anomaly.

I don't know if this is true for other parents, but I'm realizing that the way my parents relate to my kids totally dictates the way I relate to my parents. I love the way my parents love my kids. I'm grateful for doting grandparents who love to spoil their grandkids!

Albert Einstein said "compound interest" was the greatest mathematical discovery of all time. In the financial world, compound interest is essentially earning interest on interest. Over time, investments earn exponential returns because the principal keeps growing. Let me redeem that concept and juxtpose it with prayer.

I don't know if I can think of a better description of prayer than compound interest. Not only does God answer our prayers, but those answers to prayer start spiritual chain reactions that can stretch for centuries! For example, my grandpa Johnson was the spiritual patriarch of our family. Who led him to Christ? And who led that person to Christ? And who prayed for that person that led my grandpa to Christ? I think someday we'll be amazed as God connects the dots and traces the genealogy of our prayers. When I think of my personal spiritual heritage I think of compound interest. I'm the beneficiary of not just prayers that were directly prayed for me. I'm the indirect beneficiary of all the prayers that were answered in the lives of everyone who has touched my life. So our prayers compound interest. They have a direct and indirect impact on the course of history. We need to take the long view with our prayers. It's not just about what God wants to do right here right now. Our prayers compound interest for eternity. Our prayers earn eternal dividends. That inspires me invest more of my time and more of my energy in prayer! Our prayers never die. They compound interest forever!

My Gospel Journey continues through Matthew's gospel. Here are a few reflections.

You gotta give Joseph some credit. I think he's a little under appreciated. I admire two things about him. Matthew 1:19 says, "He had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream." Joseph had to make the same choice all of us are faced with: do I do what makes sense to me or do I do what I feel like God is calling me to do. I think all of us live with that tension. We have to choose between the best laid plans of man or the dreams of God. Joseph chooses to go with the dream. He was willing to change his mind after he made up his mind. That is spiritual plasticity. After thinking everything through he was willing to throw out his plan!

Matthew 1:25 says that Joseph and Mary were married "but he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son." Joseph and Mary showed tremendous sexual restraint. They were in love. They were married. But they choose to wait until Mary gave birth to consumate the marriage. Their hormones were submitted to God. Sometimes that is the toughest thing to submit. They sacrificed physical pleasure for a season until the miracle took place.

There is a little phrase in Matthew 2:13 that challenges me: "Stay there until I tell you." I think some of us are paralyzed by wondering what God wants us to do next instead of just doing what God told us to do last. Instead of second-guessing or triple-guessing ourselves, we need to do what God told us to do last. It reminds me of the way Peter Marshall discerned the will of God. He said that there were two keys: he had to feel called to something or somewhere but he also had to feel released from somewhere or something. At one juncture in his ministry, he felt called to New York Avenue Presbyterian, but he didn't feel released from his current pastorate. So he gave up his dream of pastoring in Washington and turned down the pastorate because he didn't feel released. A year he felt released and God re-opened the door of opportunity in DC. We need to feel called and released.

Sometimes we need to "stay put." I think a big part of discerning the will of God is understanding our spiritual temperament. Are you a risk-taker or over-analyzer? Are you a grace-giver or truth-teller? Do you love change or hate change? If you know your temperament it'll help you make wise choices. In the context of this passage, are you a "stay put" or "move on" kind of person. If you're always looking for what's next you might need to "stay put" for a while. If you're "stuck in the mud" it may be time to move on. Knowing your predisposition helps you get outside your comfort zone.

Matthew 3:17 is one of my favorite verses. At Jesus' baptism, the Father says, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." I would have put this passage at the end of his ministry. The Father says it before Jesus had really "accomplished" anything. He hadn't preached a sermon or performed a miracle yet. It's a reminder that God doesn't love us any more or any less based on what we do or don't do. It's not a performance-based love. Nothing you do will make God love you any less! It's impossible.

During our men's prayer this morning I really felt a confirmation that we are coming into a season of miracles at NCC. The Lord impressed a few things on me this morning. The epitome of unbelief is reducing God to the size of our biggest problems. We believe God for amazing things when nothing is wrong. So the size of our God fluctuates. He gets bigger as our problems get smaller. He gets smaller as our problems get bigger. I pray for a faith that gets bigger as my problems or challenges get bigger!

I believe that knowledge and faith and directly proportional. The more you know the more faith you can have. But I also know that knowledge can be a barrier. We can become "slaves to logic." I wonder if our faith is too complicated. I read the gospels and everybody who Jesus healed seemed to have such simple childlike faith. I'm praying that God would reduce me to the faith of a child.

We took the kid's to the air and space museum yesterday and they had a ten-foot cross-section of an American Airlines Douglas DC7 airplane. You can board it and walk through it. I noticed that Josiah seemed a little uncertain. I asked him if he wanted to see it. And he asked me if it was going to take off! I thought that was so funny and so astounding! By the way, after that, we went a few different exhibits and one of the rockets. And Josiah kept asking me if stuff was going to take off! I told Lora and we were sort of marveling. It was a ten-foot cross-section of plane. The rocket was indoors. But Josiah didn't know what couldn't happen. I love that simple childlike world of possibilities. He didn't know enough to know what couldn't happen. True knowledge should increase our world, but it can also decrease our world if we allow the world to be limited to what we know! Information can create logical limits. It can actually reduce our world. But true knowledge always results in humility which I define as a heightened appreciation of the bigness of God. You know how much you don't know.

The more you know the more limitations you tend to develop. That is the curse of knowledge. That is why faith is more about unlearning what we know than learning what we don't know!

I have a renewed hunger to experience God in new ways. I want to sing a new song! But new expressions require new experiences. I want to think new thoughts. I want to feel new feelings. Lord, do a new thing in me! I'm waiting and willing.

I have a fascination with metaphors! I never ceased to be amazed at the power of metaphors to totally revoultionize the way people think! I've always believed that metaphors are the key to communication. Aristotle said, "The greatest thing in style is to have command of metaphor." Jesus was the master of metaphors. And His use of metaphors has turned me into a connoisseur of metaphors! I still remember when I feel in love with metaphors. It was when I bought a book of metaphors ten years ago titled The Babinski Reflex. I seek out metaphors everywhere. Just last week I did quite a bit of research on the slingshot effect because I loved it as a metaphor for relationships.

I think Jesus was so memorable and is so quotable because he spoke in metaphors. He usually would share one "organizing metaphor." Most of them were agricultural because he lived in an agrarian society. If Jesus were communicating in our culture I'm positive he'd use technological and athletic and scientific metaphors. I just wonder if our preaching has become too analytical. I wonder if "three point" preaching only diffuses the message and dilutes its impact. I enjoyed taking homiletics in college and seminary, but I think I learned as much about "how not to preach" as I did about "how to preach."

Dick Foth shared something with me years ago that totally changed the way I preached. He told me to make one-point. I'm forever grateful for that advice. Many of my sermons have multiple points, but I usually try to have one "big idea." And I'm feeling more and more drawn to preach one-point messages, to have one big idea, to have one organizing metaphor. I like the metaphor of a kaleidscope for preaching--call it kaleidscopic communication. A kaleidscope is one object, but you look at it from different angles to reveal different patterns. That's how I try to preach. I try to help listeners look at the same truth from different angles.

I don't want to say lots of stuff that people don't remember. I don't dismiss the "cumulative effect" that messages have week in and week out. But I want to say things in a way that people remember forever. And that usually requires saying one thing and saying it in a very creative or very memorable way. Metaphors are the key!

The Law of Physics was an attempt to build messages around different laws of physics. So I'm doing this on some level. We try to approach each week with one "big idea." But I feel compelled to do it with greater intentionality. I need to say less so people hear more.

I just finished Mark's gospel. Here are a few reflections.

I think we underestimate how much faith it takes to obey God in the little things. In fact, I think it's tougher to trust God for the little things than the big things! Before the triumphal entry, Jesus told the disciples to go get a colt that didn't belong to him. There is another word for that in conventional circumstances: theft. I'm sure the disciples felt a little self-conscious as they untied it. Have you ever walked out of the store and set off the sensor? You feel guilty even if you didn't take anything! I think that's how the disciples felt. Jesus told them to untie a donkey that would be tied at a doorway. "As they untied it, some people standing there asked, 'What are you doing, untying that colt'?"

Let me put it in modern context. That'd be like hoping into a car you don't own and taking off with it. This "small act of faith" by the disciples is underestimated. But I'm impressed with their obedience. I think Jesus was always giving them "little tests of faith" to see if they'd pass or fail. The disciples pass this one.

I think what I'm trying to say is this: I want to obey God in the little things. It took courage for the disciples to do what they did. I want to obey God in little ways. At the end of the day, I think it's obedience to the "still small voice" or promptings of the Spirit that get us where God wants us to go!

One of the things the Lord has been teaching me is that matter must submit to spirit. We get it backwards. We think that what we can see and touch is more real than that which is invisible or intangible. We've got it backwards. Materialists think matter is more real than spirit. Spiritual people know that spirit is more real than matter. Everything originates from Spirit. There's an old saying: mind over matter. I think an even more profound truth is: spirit over matter. I think that is what happens in Mark 11:20. Jesus cursed a fig tree and it withered overnight. Matter submitted to spiritual authority! By the way, isn't that what Jesus meant when he said you could tell a mountain to jump into the sea?

I love the story of the woman who anointed Jesus with the Alabaster Jar of Perfume. I think there are two lessons I take away. Jesus didn't have the time of day for the "second-guessers." I think some people act like self-appointed second-guessers. This woman performed a wonderful act of service, but there is always someone who can find something wrong with something right. In a very self-righteous way they said, "Why this waste of perfume?" I think Jesus was frustrated by people who could always identify problems but never offer solutions. Do you know anyone like that? I think the rebuke to "second-guessers" is found in verse 8: "She did what she could." I love that. That is what God is looking for! Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right about God. Don't let what you can't do keep you from doing what you can! I'll take a "can-do" person over a second-guesser any day of the week! Let's quit second-guessing and start doing!

God's timing is impeccable. Last week I told a story about Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willowcreek Community Church. I just got a phone call and I'll be having dinner at his house in August. Let me explain.

Willowcreek does an annual Leadership Summit that is a world-class leadership summit. More than 50,000 leaders will attend. The day before the summit, Willowcreek is going to host a Multisite Conference. Jim Tomberlin, who oversees Willow's multisite efforts invited me to be part of a panel. The crazy thing is that the panel consists of all the churches on our "reconaissance list." I'm absolutely blown away by the caliber of churches that will be part of it. We'll be way out of our league, but I'm excited about the opportunity to be part of it. I'm such a big believer in the multisite model. I cherish the opportunity to encourage other churches to do "ministry in the middle of the marketplace."

I just find it interesting that I mentioned the Willowcreek Association last Sunday. And just yesterday I blogged about doing conferences. And I get invited to me a part (a very small part) of the greatest leadership conference in Christendom. How crazy is that? Only God.

Earlier this week I read something that impacted me. I can't remember where I read it so I've got to paraphrase. There are factors that lead to our success that we can't control. In other words, not all opportunities can be orchestrated. Some of them can only be ordained. And there is a difference. I think this falls into the category of "ordained opporutnity." I think one factor that none of us can completely control is networking. Greg Ligon, who works with the leadership network, recommended NCC to Jim Tomberlin. It was word of mouth. It was relationship. It was networking. You can't orchestrate that kind of thing. The last six weeks I've been asking God to do something unplanned and uncontainable in me. I think this is part of that. There is no way I could have planned dinner with Bill Hybels! It's one of those unplanned blessings.

In my prayer time this morning, I specifically thanked God for the way He orders our footsteps. I think He also orders our phone calls. By the way, when I saw the (312) area code I almost didn't answer because I didn't know who it was!

I just read about a fascinating concept called "the slingshot effect." Someone mentioned it to me yesterday and I did a little research.

One key to interplanetary journeys is "gravity assist" maneuvers. Spacecrafts use the gravity of different planets to get them where they want to go. The orbit of different planets are used to change trajectories.

The first spacecraft to experience a gravity assist was NASA’s Pioneer 10. In December 1973, it approached a rendezvous with Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System. It was traveling at 9.8 kilometers per second, but following it's passage through Jupiter's gravitational field, it sped off into deep space at a speed of 22.4 kilometers per second.

It's almost like those merry-go-rounds on playgrounds where you spin around and if you let go you'll "fly off" in a particular direction. That kind of acceleration is called the slingshot effect.

So here's my point. This friend I met with yesterday likened relationships to "gravity assists" and it made so much sense to me. I can think of a half dozen people--mentors and pastors and professors and friends--who have pulled me into their orbit and used gravity assists to slingshot me to where I am in my interplanetary journey. Was that a run on sentence? You get the point. We're called to "spur one another on to good deeds." It's the slingshot effect. I just think it's a cool way of thinking about relationships!

I read one of the blog comments and thought I'd respond: "I'm curious as to where you place multitasking on the progression-line of spiritual maturity?"

I think it's towards the top of the list. I think we've got to get past "compartmentalizing" God. The ultimate goal is to be conscious of God moment-by-moment. Heaven will be the uninterrupted presence of God. So the goal is to move in that direction now. To appreciate every blessing, to notice God's handiwork all around us, to sense His unconditional love for us all the time. I think spiritual multitasking is the difference between a dial-up and DSL. Spiritual maturity is DSL. We're online all the time and our bandwidth continually increases.

All of that is to say this: spiritual multitasking is at the top of the "spiritual actualization pyramid" to borrow Maslow's hierarchy terminology. Like Jacob in Genesis, we come to the realization that "God was in this place and I didn't know it."

This is a tough blog for me. I'm still processing what I'm writing so I may second-guess what I've written, but I feel like I need to blog while all of this is still "raw." I also know that many of my blog readers will resonate with some of what I've experienced. On Good Friday I stopped taking my asthma medication. I asked God to heal me and I believed that He would. So I took a step of faith. I didn't tell many people because I wanted to wait until the miracle was confirmed. I felt like I wanted to be off my medication for fifty days. I made it twenty-five days, but yesterday I had to take my inhaler. On one level it was a huge disappointment. I really believed that God was going to completely heal me and I'd never need to take my medication again. But the combination of allergies and working in the dust-filled renovation of 205 shut down my lungs. I struggled for every breath all day and when I layed down to go to sleep I just flat out couldn't breath. So I took my inhaler.

Part of my disappointment was that I had the guys in the men's prayer group lay hands on me and pray for me that morning. And there is always this subconscious disappointment about involving other people and then feeling like I let them down or God let them down. But I believe that is a lie of the enemy! I think he wants to paralyze us with fear. So here is what happens: we're afraid that God won't answer our prayers so we don't ask for prayer and we don't pray. As simple as that sounds, that is the trick the devil plays on us. I'm not going to fall into that trap or believe that lie. Just because I experinced a "setback" doesn't mean that I'm quitting!

I love the story about the invalid who had been crippled for thirty-eight years. That is a long time, but he never lost hope! He was still believing thirty-eight years later! Same with the woman with the issue of blood. Twelve years later she's still believing God will heal her! I'm so impressed with the way they never gave up, even after years of "no answer." I think many of us lose the miracle because we give up on God. We quit praying or believing too soon. What if Naaman had only dipped himself in the water six times? What if Elijah had only prayed for rain six times? What if the Israelites had only walked around Jericho six times? The answer is simple: they would have forfeited the miracle that was one dip, one prayer, or one walk away! The Lord has really impressed something on my heart this week. I said on Sunday that easy answers produce shallow convictions. In the same way, easy miracles produce shallow faith. I'm not looking for easy answers or easy miracles because I don't want shallow convictions or shallow faith. I'm willing to wait thirty-eight years. I'm willing to believe God for a miracle seven times. Here is what scares me more than not experiencing a miracle--experiencing a miracle and not appreciating it. By the way, I'm believing God for a complete healing which means no medication. I'm also praying that God would double my lung capacity. It was 16% the normal lung capacity of the normal person three years ago. But I don't what to overlook the fact that twenty-five days off of my inhaler may be the longest "no medication" stretch of my life! So I thank God for that while believing for something more!

So I had to take my inhaler. That's the "bad news." I wanted so badly for God to heal me now! I couldn't wait to share the testimony of the way God had healed me. And I honestly thought He was going to. I don't think I was trying to man-u-facture a miracle. But it wasn't the right timing.

Here is the "good news." I still think the Lord will heal me at some point. Maybe this was only my third time around the wall. Maybe this was only my fifth dip in the Jordan. Maybe this was only my sixth prayer. It's always too soon to give up. And here is what encourages me. I woke up disappointed this morning, but it honestly didn't decrease my faith. And it didn't demotivate me at all. I think sometimes we pray for a miracle once and when it doesn't happen our way in our timing then we give up forever. I'm not giving up. I want it to happen the way God wants it to happen, when God wants it to happen. I really felt directed to two passages to help me process my "disappointment." One of them is the story in Daniel 3. I love the resolve of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. King Nebuchadnezzer threatens to kill them, but they confidently respond, "We do not need to defend ourselves in this matter. If we are thrown into the furnace, the God we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn't, Your majesty can be sure that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up."

These guys had a "no matter what" faith. I love that phrase--"But even if He doesn't." They believed that God could deliver them from the fiery furnace. But even if he didn't do what He was capable of doing, they weren't going to change their minds and it wasn't going to shake their faith. They decided to do what they thought was right no matter what. I want a "no matter what" faith. I want an "even if He does not" faith.

Another passage the Lord really put on my heart was the story of Uzzah in II Samuel 6. He's the guy who was killed because he reached out and grabbed the ark of the Lord to keep it from falling. It was called an "irreverent act." What is that about? I think it revealed a lack of faith. Uzzah grabbing the ark was like saying, "God can't take care of himself." Sometimes we function with this mindset that we need to help God instead of allowing God to help us. Uzzah was afraid of God embarrassing himself. I really wanted God to heal me to glorify Him. But am I guilty of trying to "steady the ark"? I'm afraid that if God doesn't heal me, God might embarrass himself. The Lord is giving me a greater boldness and willingness to "lose face." It's a "no regrets" approach to life and God. Lord, forgive me for feeling like I need to "protect your reputation" or "keep you from embarrassing yourself" by not answering my prayers when and where I want them answered.

So in a strange way, this unanswered prayer has increased my faith. It feeds my belief. I'm still praying for several things.

I asked God to breath into me the way He breathed into Adam in Genesis 2:7.
I'm praying that my lungs would be opened like the man in Mark 8:34. Jesus said, "Ephphatha!" or "Be Opened." I'm asking God to open my lungs!
I believe that matter must submit to spirit. And I'm asking the spirit to heal my matter.
There are no allergies and no asthma in heaven and I'm praying that His kingdom would come and His will would be done in His Temple, my body.

I need to create a blog category for crazy ideas :) This is one of those blogs that I second-guess. I probably should sleep on these ideas, but I think some ideas die because we sleep on them. And forget about them. I had a couple of meetings that gave me a couple ideas today. My antenna is up every time I meet with someone. You never know when the Holy Spirit is going to use someone or something to give you direction. The truth is: if our antenna was always up we'd hear the Spirit speaking to us all the time!

I had two people today mention something about doing a conference or gathering for churches or church planters. It's something I've thought about. Just as there are hospitals and teaching hospitals, there are churches and teaching churches. I think we're called to be a teaching church. I think I'm such a "learner" that I'm more inclined to think about "what I can learn" than "what I can teach." I'm also painfully aware of our weaknesses. When I think of church conferences I think of a caliber of churches like Saddleback and Willowcreek and Fellowship Church. But maybe we need to start somewhere. I don't want to reinvent the wheel. The last thing we need is someone trying to do a Willowcreek conference or Catalyst conference. They are already being done. So I ask the question: what is our niche? How could we serve the kingdom-at-large? What needs are not being met? I'm processing those questions. I've always felt like we'd host a church conference in DC, but I've never felt like we're ready. But it's one of those things: will you ever feel ready? If you waited to have kids till you were ready would you ever become a parent? Our two passions are creativity and church planting. We also believe in ministry in the marketplace and we're pretty good at doing church in a theater. I wonder if there is a market for a church planting conference? I think Fellowship Church does a great job with their Creative Conference so I'm not sure we need to bark up that tree. I'm just thinking out loud. I think the key to this kind of thing is identifying our strengths and unmet needs.

Here's a second crazy idea. Someone brought up the idea of NCC broadcasting a Television show today. That is an interesting prospect. I tend to write off anything that has to do with TV, but it got me thinking. We do broadcast our messages on a Spanish station in South America. But I've never really entertained the idea here. But there are some factors that could lend themselves towards a TV show. We're pretty adept at media stuff already. In fact, we already tape our messages and show them on the big screen. It woulnd't be a quantum leap to show them on a smaller screen. And we're building the coffeehouse so it's "studio quality." I'm not sure we need another "church service" or "preacher" on TV. But what about some kind of "talk show" based out of a coffeehouse targeting the twenty-something demographic? I think Xers and Yers feel somewhat neglected and there is a growing realization that the "twixter stage" is so critical. We spent our entire lives managing the decisions we make in our twenties. I think Capitol Hill would be an interesting place to pilot that kind of thing. It'd be cool to do a SNL--Saturday or Sunday Night Live. I've often thought of making the coffeehouse service more interactive with a Q & A. This would be an extension of that.

Another crazy idea, but who knows. I've learned not to dismiss "seeds" that get planted in the soil of my spirit. I think a talk show addressing the issues facing twenty-somethings would have a niche. I think it'd need to have a "raw" or "authentic" edge to it. I think it'd have to be "unscripted" in a sense. In fact, that's not a bad name. It's sort of the equivalent of unplugged. That scares me, but I also love to see the Holy Spirit work in unscripted ways! I can certainly envision a live audience at the coffeehouse. As I blog these thoughts I had to admit that it's sort of an "out of body" or "out of mind" experience because none of these thoughts would have entered my mind just yesterday. And maybe this is an idea for someone else to latch on to and make happen. But I felt like it worth the ink. Although I guess there isn't really any "ink" in cyberspace so it was worth the bandwidth.

I think the fear of "starting small" is what keeps most people from achieving anything great. We want to "start big" and if we have to "start small" we won't start at all. I think our core value--everything is an experiment--empowers us to take small risks and big risks. We can even enjoy our failures that way. We laugh about our botched experiments. Hosting a conference and/or TV show are potential failures. But how much damage can you do on a local access channel :)

Enough crazy ideas for one day!

By the way, can you tell my I'm a possibility thinker? Emily Dickinson said, "I dwell in possibility." Me too.

I just met with an NCCer today who told me they thought they were done with church before coming to NCC. In other words, he was dechurched. He said something so simple, but I realized it was a dream coming true. He said, "People come to NCC because they want to come." I don't take that for granted.

When he said that it brought back thoughts from Seminary when I really dreamed about pastoring a church that people loved coming to. In fact, I remember the exact thought. I wanted to pastor a church that people hated to miss. When they were away for a weekend they felt like they couldn't wait to get back. I can't imagine anything more dreadful than pastoring a church where people come out of obligation. One of the things this NCCer said was that he appreciated two things about NCC. What was interesting is that he couched them in terms of "who we're not." He said there is no spirit of manipulation. And there is no spirit of obligation. Praise God. I love pastoring a church full of people who want to be there. My conversation today reminded me not to take that for granted.

Like I often remind our leaders: life is too short to be part of a church you're not excited about. I rebuke the spirit of obligation. What a terrible way to live. We don't have to go to church. We get to. We don't have to serve. We get to. We don't have to share our faith. We get to. We don't have to pray. We get to. We don't have to tithe. We get to. I could go all day :) The spirit of obligation has got to go!

I feel like I'm getting a lesson in servanthood this week. We've got a group of twenty guys doing an extreme office makeover at 205 F Street. We'll move our offices down there in a couple of weeks. These guys are like energizer bunnies. They get up at 5 AM and go till 6 PM. It honestly reminds me of the way the Israelites rebuilt the wall in the book of Nehemiah. It says they were up before dawn and working past dusk.

I feel so incredibly blessed to have them here! They are exposing brick and gutting bathrooms and installing lights and laying tile. But part of the blessing is that they are from my home church. A lot of the guys knew me when I was a teenager. I'm absolutely blown away by their skills and their spirit.

One of the things I love most about the renovation is the wall that abuts the coffeehouse downstairs. We exposed the brick so it'll look pretty cool. That is the wall we used to lay hands on asking God to give us the adjacent building. And He did. I feel like that is my prayer wall. It symbolizes God's faithfulness! When ever I look at that wall I'm reminded of the way God answers impossible prayers.

Last fall I said something in a message I haven't forgotten. Yes, even preachers forget what they preach :) I said that God loves to play chicken with us. He often tests us to see if we're going to believe him against all odds. The Israelites chickened out when they saw the giants in the promise land. David didn't chicken out when he faced the giant Goliath. Peter didn't chicken out when he got out of the boat and then he did chicken out when he looked at the waves. I think spiritual breakthroughs are usually proceeded by a game of chicken. If we chicken out we miss out and wander in the wilderness. All of that is to say this: I've been really convicted in the last week not to chicken out. There were a couple instances last week where I was tempted not to pray specific prayers for something because I was afraid they might not get answered. But I didn't chicken out. And God answered them. The coffeehouse project has been stalled for several weeks because we couldn't pour our last footing because of water. I felt prompted to pray Friday so we called the team together and prayed. And God answered our prayer! Even the superintendent acknowledged that it was our prayers that made the difference! I think too often we don't pray because we're afraid of God not answering. I'm getting over that. I don't want to chicken out anymore!

I think most of the good stuff that happens in our lives is because we didn't chicken out.

I continue my journey through the gospels. Here are some throughts from Mark's gospel. Mark 6:5 says that Jesus "could not do any miracles" in his hometown. Why? I think familiarity is one of the greatest dangers to spirituality. We get used to the grace of God. We take miracles for granted. We lose the romance and mystery. We can't see what is right in front of us! I think that's why Jesus couldn't do any miracles. The people said, "Isn't this the carpenter?" They put Jesus in the carpenter category and they couldn't think of him in any other terms. By the way, Mark 6:6 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. "Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith."

There is a tension in Mark 7 between the "commands of God" and the "traditions of man." The Pharisees let their human traditions supercede the commands of God. That is a danger every church faces. We become enslaved to our own traditions. The end result is a second-hand religion versus a first-hand faith. And we end up with lots of "sacred cows." What I love about Jesus and the disciples is that they weren't afraid to break with tradition. The Pharisees said, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders?" They were unorthodox! So here is my conclusion: orthodoxy is unorthodox!

I love the little statement embedded in Mark 7:37: "He does everything well." One of my all-time favorite quotes is what Dorothy Sayers said of Jesus. She said, "I daresay that no crooked table legs or ill-fitted drawers ever came out of the carpenter's shop in Nazereth." Jesus did everything with excellence!

There is a curious miracle in Mark 8. Jesus heals a blind man, but it's not a complete healing or complete miracle. I would call it a partial healing or half-miracle. The man says, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." So Jesus put his hands on him again. "Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything celarly." Sometimes miracles happen in stages.

I have lots of different definitions of sin. For example, sin is meeting a legitimate need in an illegitimate way. Here is the latest definition that really resonates with my personal experience. Sin is lost potential. It is wasting my time and energy on something that doesn't deserve it. I look back on my life and I wonder where I'd be if I hadn't wasted so much time and energy on sinful things. And I've come to the simple conclusion that sin is lost potential. Let me flip the coin. Stewardship is reaching our full God-given potential. Sin is the opposite of stewardship. It is "falling short of the glory of God." In the words of John Maxwell, "Potential is God's gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to God." I think "potential" is a helpful way of rethinking and redefining what sin really is.

I blogged about the "speed of faith" a few days ago. An NCCer had an interesting insight. She said that Engle, the guru who wrote about the process people go through before converting to Christ, said that the average number of "positive touches" people need to convert had tripled from nine touches to twenty-seven touches in the last twenty-five years. That means it may take three times as long for the average person to come to faith in Christ.

The implications are pretty profound. But the bottom line is that we've got to be more patient. Cold-turkey evangelism is even less effective now than it was twenty-five years ago. We've got to invest more over a longer period of time.

We're all about helping people find their way back to God. Some people are a long ways away. But we've got to be willing to put more miles on the odometer. We have to walk further and take longer because our culture has drifted further away from God. I think postmoderns need more information. And that's not all bad. It may take longer to make a decision, but it results in deeper convictions once a person has crossed the line of faith.

I admire people who have "staying power." I think longevity is one keep to success. And that usually involves "toughing it out" when the going gets tough! I think most of us have a tendency to jump ship when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances. So the circumstances that could cause the greatest amount of spiritual growth and devlopment are effectively avoided by us over and over again. I think lots of Christians practice avoidance spiritaulity. I know Jesus taught us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation." But that is exactly what the Holy Spirit did when He led Jesus into the Wilderness for forty days! We are always trying to avoid adversity and confrontation and difficulty. And then we wonder why they aren't growing.

Pastor Joel shared a Scripture at our Ethiopia meeting tonight that resonated with my spirit. In Genesis 26 there is a famine, but God says to Isaac, "Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live." Verse 6 says, "So Isaac stayed in Gerar."

I think we need more of a "go down with the ship mentality" instead of a "jump ship" mentality. I think our consumer culture has affected the way people view church. They have a consumer mentality. If something happens that they don't like they "jump ship" because there are so many other options out there. Instead of growing through confrontation or discipline, they take the easy way out.

I met a pastor a few months ago who felt called to "stay in a situation" that he didn't really enjoy. But he felt like the Lord wanted to teach him some things by keeping him there. I was so impressed with his submissive spirit. Sometimes submission means staying we we feel like running away as far and as fast as we can.

Too often we are tempted to run to Egypt. But sometimes the Lord doesn't want us to do what is easiest or most logical. Sometimes we need to stay in a relationship or in a job or in a place even when there is a famine! Sometimes we need to stick it out or gut it out.

According to Webster, multitasking is the concurrent performance of several jobs by a computer. I think it may be one key to spiritual growth. Let me explain.

I Corinthians 10:31 has always been one of my favorite verses. "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." I had a new thought today. Is this verse about multitasking? I've always thought of multi-tasking in negative terms. Do whatever you're doing and be "fully present." And there is a time and place to be totally focused on one thing. But I wonder if this verse is about inviting God into every area of our life. Do we compartmentalize our spirituality? In other words, do we give God ninety minutes on Sunday or fifteen minutes in the morning? And then exclude Him from the rest of our lives? I've always thought that one key to spirituality over the long-haul is fitting God into the rhythm of our day. Maybe multitasking is the key.

Deuteronomy 6 is all about multitasking. It tells us how to impress the commandments on our children. It says, "Talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates."

In other words, surround yourself with God reminders. I tend to think of terms of our five senses. How do we surround ourselves with visual or auditory or tactile reminders? It can be a screen savor or memento that act as visual reminders. How do we surround-sound ourselves? I have an idea, but let me make one other observation first. I think the key phrase in Deteuronomy 6 may be "walk along the road." If that verse was written today it'd be "drive along the road." I'm absolutely convinced that the commute may be the most underappreciated and underutilized opportunity for spiritual growth. Most Washingtonians spend more than an hour a day on the metro or on the beltway. Too often that time is wasted. What if we saw the commute as our devotional time? What if we invited God onto the metro or into our car? What if we did a little multitasking? So here's my idea. I got my first Ipod last week. Based on a news report I saw last week, I'm one of 5.61 million Americans who got an Ipod in the last three months! I wonder if the Ipod is the key to spiritual multitasking. So many Christians feel guilty about "not spending enough time with God." What if we took God with us everywhere we went? That's what I did last week. I listened to worship music and the Bible as I walked back and forth from work. My commute is all of five minutes, but I redeemed that time! I even listened to some of my messages while I worked out. I exercised by soul and my body at the same time. I think the church needs to lead the Ipod charge. I'm not stuck on the brand, but I think the technology needs to redeemed to for spiritual purposes!

In the 17th century, a Carmelite friar named Brother Lawrence wrote a book that has become a spiritual classic. Three centuries later, The Practice of the Presence of God is just as relevant now as it was then. The singular goal of his life was to live in the presence of God. His life was an experiment in how to live in constant communion with Christ. What's interesting is that he said that "formal times of prayer" appealed to Him less and less. He believed that prayer is not necessarily "saying prayers" but "a way of living in which all we do becomes a prayer." He said, "Learn to see God and His glory in everything we do, say, and undertake." Brother Lawrence's life consisted primarily of menial tasks. But those tasks did not divert his attention from God. He said, "Each of our actions is a way of carrying on a little conversation with God." He said the great delusion is that time set aside for prayer should be any different than any other time during the day. "There is no mode of life in the world more pleasing and more full of delight than continual conversation with God; only those who practice and experience it can understand it." Brother Lawrence mastered the art of spiritual multitasking! Imagine if he'd had an Ipod :)
So here is what I am. I began the day with an unexamined assumption that multitaking is bad for us spiritually. And I end the day thinking that multitasking may be what it's all about. It's about inviting God to be part of everything we do. Ironically, it's saying to Jesus just what Jesus says to us--"Come, follow me."

I just finished Luke's gospel. Here are some thoughts.

I'm so challenged by Luke 16:8: "For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light." Here's my translation: we're getting beat at our own game! I'm learning more and more to funnel my competitive spirit into the beating the world at it's own game. We're competing for souls. That ought to fuel our competitiveness!

Luke 19:11 is interesting to me. It's the mistake most of us make: "The people thought the kingdom of God was going to appear at once." I am process-oriented because I think God is process-oriented. I think sometimes we lose faith because we expect things to happen to quickly instead of "bunkering down" for the long-haul.

As a communicator, I am awed by Jesus. I wish we had the "audio pages." Luke 19:48 says the people "hung on his words." Lord, I pray for that kind of anointing! By the way, the key to people hanging on "your" words is making sure you are speaking "His" words!

I'm amazed how often the gospels reference "degrees of punishment." For example, Jesus tells the teachers of the law that they'll be punished "most severely." I think there are "degrees of hell." I'm not sure how the dust will settle, but heaven and hell are not "one size fits all."

I'm more and more convinced that our destiny comes back to our decisions and the most important decisions are our pre-decisions. Luke 21:14 says, "Make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves." This is a simple thought: pre-decisions are decisions you make beforehand. But those decisions will determine our destiny. If we don't live by design we live by default.

I had a new thought regarding Jesus and Barabbas. What happened to Barabbas? In a sense, Jesus saved Barabbas. If it weren't for the injustice done to Jesus, justice would have been served on Barabbas. Sometimes the injustices we experience can grace others. That is certainly true of my story. I was saved after watching the Hiding Place. I often think about the injustice Corrie Ten Boom endured. She suffered in a concentration camp for hiding Jews, but her injustice helped me discover the grace of God.

Luke 23:43 is one of my favorite verses. This criminal is about to be crucified. That'd qualify as the worst day of your life. And Jesus says, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Jesus turns the worst day of his life into the best day of his life! What a transition--hanging on a cross one moment to the gates of paradise the next!

Luke 24:25 says, "How slow to believe." I think this reveals "the speed of faith." Some people take a long time and some people take a short time. Faith happens at different speeds. There is an interesting connection between this and the "quickening of the Holy Spirit." It is the role of the Holy Spirit to quicken us so we believe faster! He heightens our "spiritual reaction time." I think our ability to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit is a key measure of faith.

One last thought. Luke 24:41 says, "They still did not believe because of joy and amazement." It was too good to be true. I had a thought a few months ago: if it's not too good to be true it can't possibly be true! The gospel is too good to be true, but it is true!

I never cease to be amazed at the way the world has changed. We're like fish in water. I think we view technology the way fish view water. It surrounds us so we take it for granted. I often pause to think, however, that scribes used to dedicate their entire lives to make one copy of the Scripture! That makes me appreciate what we have!

If you go to biblegateway.com there are nineteen versions of the Scripture at your fingertips. They can be searched in a matter of seconds! Technology has put theology at our fingertips. The least educated Christian today has more resources available to them than the most educated scholar a hundred years ago.

Are we being good stewards of the technology? That may not seem like a stewardship issue, but I think it is.

How we manage our web sites is a stewardship issue. The Ipod is the latest and greatest revolution in digital technology. Is the church ready to embrace it and redeem it for God's purposes?

The marriage of technology and spirituality can produce exponential fruit for the kingdom of God if we're as "shrewd as snakes."

Arthur Schopenhauer said, "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." I think that is not just truth of theology. It's true of methodology.

I want to be ridiculed. I've always felt like NCC is called to be part of the R & D department of the Kingdom of God. That means we are the ones who blow things up in the labratory! We need to have a few accidents and make a few mistakes. It's the only way to stay relevant and innovative. If we aren't being ridiculed we aren't revoultionary enough for the religious establishment. That may sound harsh, but I'm reading the gospels right now and it seems rather tame to me. Jesus had time for everybody except the self-righteous who had God all figured out. He didn't have the time of day for them! I think God prizes desperation above all else! Are we doing discipleship with desperation?

You may need to read this twice: if you really want to help someone understand something you need to confuse them. That probably makes no sense, but it will. It all comes back to body building. Don't you love it when people say that :) If you want to build your muscles to their maximum potential you need to confuse them. Our bodies are amazingly adaptive. So if you follow the same routine each time your work, your muscles will adapt. You need to change your sequence or exercise to keep confusing your muscles. If you do the same thing over and over again your muscles get used to it and stop growing. The same is true intellectually and spiritually.

Psychologists call it inattentional blindness. We tune out those things we see over and over again. We do the same thing with background noise. You don't notice your furnace anymore. When we first moved into the city, the sirens kept us awake at night. Guess want gets our attention now? No sirens. I remember our first vacation after living in the city. It was so quiet we could hardly sleep!

Ever notice that Jesus didn't give "easy answers." He often answered questions with questions. He wanted people to discover the truth for themselves. He wasn't content with second-hand knowledge. He wanted people to have a first-hand experience. He didn't want people to memorize truth. He wanted them to internalize it and personalize it. So sometimes he added to the confusion instead of resolving it. That takes guts, but that is part of leadership and communication.

Every pitcher needs a good change up. Their may have an overpowering fastball, but hitters will adjust and adapt and eventually hit the fast ball. But a change up keeps hitters second-guessing. Pastors need a change-up pitch. We need to mix things up every once in a while. When you do something unpredictable it forces people to confront their assumptions and expectations.

Most people go through the motions most Sundays. They have learned how and forgotten why. They sing from memory instead of singing "in spirit and in truth." They pray "rote" prayers that lack conviction and faith.

Can I share a pet-peeve? A few years ago we had an intern at NCC and at our first meeting, an incredibly important meeting determining our second location, he couldn't stop yawning. A yawn means I'm bored or tired or disinterested. I took him aside after our first break and told him that a yawn communicates the wrong message. I'm afraid that too many Christians are yawning through our services. Someone needs to do a nation wide study on yawning in church. Chuches are too boring. We ought to be on the edge of our seats waiting to see what the Holy Spirit is going to do next. The Holy Spirit practices the law of confusion. Sometimes he confuses us to help us understand. I know that's confusing, but there is understanding on the near-side of confusion and understanding on the far-sid