Missional Moms

Helen Lee has just published a book that looks worthwhile: The Missional Mom: Living with Purpose at Home and in the World. Ed Stetzer featured her in a blog post. Lee:

I wonder if the reason that today's Christian mothers experience life as being burdensome and unfulfilling is because they have misunderstood the purpose of their lives, and how motherhood fits into that purpose to begin with.

When I first became a mother nearly a decade ago, as much as I loved my newborn baby boy, I also wrestled with a constant stream of internal questions: was motherhood supposed to be my highest or only calling? What was I supposed to do with other gifts and callings God had given me? Was asking these kinds of questions evidence that I was a bad Christian mother? Was I instead supposed to be wholeheartedly embracing motherhood as the cornerstone of my identity and the recipient of all my energies?

For the past year and a half, I've been pondering these questions. I've specifically wondered whether pursuing a missional lifestyle could be the key to helping mothers regain a sense of perspective and purpose in their lives. I spoke with about 40 different mothers whose lives reflected a missional perspective, who lived with a strong sense of purpose and with the intentional desire to impact the world in whatever way God had called them. They were women who clearly took their roles as mothers and wives seriously, but they also kept those roles in the proper perspective, under God's lordship and direction for their lives.

…

The more I began to interact with missional moms, the more I discovered that motherhood was not a phase in one's life that you had to just tolerate and survive. A missional mom is no less tired at the end of the day than other moms. But she goes to sleep knowing she has pursued God's mission for her life and made an impact in the world. And that is what makes all the difference.

“Blissfully unaware of the inherent contradiction”

Read the article in The Chronicle of Higher Education by “Ed Dante,” a pseudonym for a man hired by college undergrads and grad students to do their writing assignments. Though the article isn’t limited to ministerial students in seminary, they’re included:

I do a lot of work for seminary students. I like seminary students. They seem so blissfully unaware of the inherent contradiction in paying somebody to help them cheat in courses that are largely about walking in the light of God and providing an ethical model for others to follow. I have been commissioned to write many a passionate condemnation of America's moral decay as exemplified by abortion, gay marriage, or the teaching of evolution. All in all, we may presume that clerical authorities see these as a greater threat than the plagiarism committed by the future frocked.

He writes, “From my experience, three demographic groups seek out my services: the English-as-second-language student; the hopelessly deficient student; and the lazy rich kid.” I’m guessing his seminary student-clients aren’t the first and third categories. Meaning that there’ll be churches out there soon led by the hopelessly deficient and the ethically questionable.

HT: Christianity Today

When Kindle Books Cost More Than the Shelf Editions…

Slow down before you buy that e-book reader. If e-book readers are touted as a cheaper way to read books, then riddle me this:

I can get Long for This World for $9.50 in paperback or $15 for my Kindle. What a deal! In fact, add just $2.40 to the Kindle price and I could have it in hardback sitting on my shelf.

I can get The Fever for $10.50 in paperback or $13 for my Kindle. Oops. Add $2.70 to the Kindle price and I could have it in hardback.

I can get Bernard Cornwell’s latest installment of his Saxon Chronicles, The Burning Land, for $8.65 in paperback or $10 for my Kindle.

At these prices, my Kindle gizmo will pay for itself in book purchases in no time. In. No. Time.

LeaderLines: Do You Remember the Mission?

Peggy Noonan says that people will look back at the first decade of the twenty-first century and say of America, “They forgot the mission.” As partners in leadership at Hillcrest, let’s make sure that’s never said of us.

In her end of year article for the Wall Street Journal a year ago, she looked back across the first 10 years of the new century and wrote:

We have been through a hard 10 years. They were not, as some have argued, the worst ever, or even the worst of the past century. The ‘30s started with the Great Depression, featured the rise of Hitler and Stalin, and ended with World War II. That’s a bad decade for you. In the ‘60s we saw our leaders assassinated, our great cities hit by riots, a war tear our country apart.

But the ‘00s were hard, she observed, and most worrisome to her was the loss of mission among so many important American institutions.

She reviews the federal government, Wall Street, her Catholic Church, public schools, and journalism, and she concludes:

Name the institution and you will probably see a diminished sense of mission, or one that has disappeared or is disappearing….And as all these institutions forgot their mission, they entered the empire of spin. They turned more and more attention, resources and effort to the public perception of their institution, and not to the reality of it. Everyone gave their efforts to how things seemed and not how they were.

She calls on the nation to “repair, rebuild, and return.” And she asks some questions that should send you into some soul searching as we prepare to move into the second decade of the twenty-first century:

If you work in a great institution: Do you remember the mission? Do you remember why you went to work there, what you meant to do, what the institution meant to you when you viewed it from the outside, years ago, and hoped to become part of it?

I’m so blessed to have you as a partner in leadership at Hillcrest! May Noonan’s reflections and her final questions generate some New Year’s resolutions worth keeping!

Tom

HT: David Murray

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

For the Love of God: A Worthy New Year’s Resolution

Want a good project for the new year? Try For the Love of God.

Written by D.A. Carson, For the Love of God is a daily devotional designed to walk a person through the Bible in a year while assisting the reader in discovering the riches of God’s Word.

This website posted Carson’s daily devotionals from 1998’s volume 1 in 2010, and they plan to post his daily devotionals from 1999’s volume 2 each day in 2011.

• Subscribe via Feed
• Subscribe via Email

Thanks to The Gospel Coalition, you can get free PDFs of both volume 1 and volume 2. Volumes 3 and 4 are being written now.

Sign up to receive the daily devotionals in 2011!

The Kindle: Crack for Book Addicts

Ah, the Kindle. Yet another way to feed my habit of having too many books going at one time.

I already have 3 tree-killer editions I’m reading: Marilynne Robinson’s “Home” (signed by the author—thanks for the Christmas gift, Michael!) and Fehrenbach’s “Lone Star” and Nasar’s “A Beautiful Mind.”

Now I’ve got 5 e-books going: Bernard Cornwell’s “The Last Kingdom” and John Piper’s “Suffering and the Sovereignty of God” and Laura Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken” and David MacIntyre’s “The Hidden Life of Prayer” and George Herbert’s “A Priest to the Temple.”
Is this nerd ADD? Or maybe I just—Hey! There’s a squirrel book!

“The greyer the world gets, the brighter it becomes”

From the cover story in The Economist:

Life is not a long slow decline from sunlit uplands towards the valley of death. It is, rather, a U-bend.

When people start out on adult life, they are, on average, pretty cheerful. Things go downhill from youth to middle age until they reach a nadir commonly known as the mid-life crisis. So far, so familiar. The surprising part happens after that. Although as people move towards old age they lose things they treasure—vitality, mental sharpness and looks—they also gain what people spend their lives pursuing: happiness.

…

The nadir varies among countries—Ukrainians, at the top of the range, are at their most miserable at 62, and Swiss, at the bottom, at 35—but in the great majority of countries people are at their unhappiest in their 40s and early 50s. The global average is 46.

…

The greyer the world gets, the brighter it becomes—a prospect which should be especially encouraging to Economist readers (average age 47).

I’ve never known how to evaluate such formal research into something as nebulous as “happiness.” But at 49, I can say to this story, “Bring it on!” On a more serious note, of course, the article calls us to make sure to teach young and old alike the source of happiness (Hint: Jesus had something to say about that in 8 “beatitudes” at the start of Matthew 5.)

Links to Your World, Tuesday December 28

“Whatever” Retains Title of “Most Annoying Word or Phrase”

 

How do you keep a loved one's tantrums from ruining your relationship? Here are some tips from the experts.

 

“There are only three types of people who frequently use marijuana: glaucoma patients, cancer patients, and losers. If you’re not on chemo or have tunnel vision then you likely fall into the last category.” (Joe Carter)

 

Justin Taylor makes a list of helpful online resources for your new year’s resolution against porn.

 

“We watch what apps you download, how frequently you use them, how much time you spend on them, how deep into the app you go.” Quoting the leader of a tracking company, from a WSJ article about how smartphone apps track your behavior without you knowing it.

 

Austin ranks among the 10 ten worst commutes.

 

Google Zeitgeist wraps up the old year:

 

"I feel a strong urge to purchase the new device. Owning the new device will please me and improve my daily life."

Wisdom from The Onion:

Millions of consumers proceeded to their nearest commercial centers this week in hopes of acquiring the latest, and therefore most desirable, personal device.

"The new device is an improvement over the old device, making it more attractive for purchase by all Americans," said Thomas Wakefield, a spokesperson for the large conglomerate that manufactures the new device. "The old device is no longer sufficient. Consumers should no longer have any use or longing for the old device."

Added Wakefield, "The new device will retail for $395."

Able to remain operational for longer periods of time and occupy a demonstrably smaller three-dimensional space, the new device is so advanced when compared to the old device that it makes the old device appear much older than it actually is. However, the new device is reportedly not so radically different as to cause confusion or unwanted anxiety among those familiar with the feel of the old device.

"Its higher price indicates to me that it is superior, and that not everyone will be able to afford it, which only makes me want to possess it more," said Tim Sturges, owner of the old device, which he obtained 18 months ago when it was still the new device. "I feel a strong urge to purchase the new device. Owning the new device will please me and improve my daily life."

Read the rest at the Onion.

LeaderLines: An Update on the Search for Our Next Minister to Students

Seven weeks ago we said good-bye to Jim Siegel and we began a search for our next Minister to Students. Last Sunday I shared an update with our students, and I want to share it with all our partners in leadership, too.

To date, we’ve received nearly 50 resumes, and I’ve asked 10 of those candidates to provide more information. Of those 10, I’ve interviewed 8, and of those 8, I’ve found three I want to bring to the next level of consideration.

Even as we’re moving to the next level with these three, I’ve just received 2 resumes that bear a closer look and I’ve asked the candidates for more information. I expect to interview them at the start of the new year.

Of course, it’s impossible to tell you when the process will end with a candidate in front of the church. But I can tell you it’s a joy to visit with so many men and women who love the Lord and who would love a chance to serve here!

Here are two ways you can help:

First and last, you can pray. You can pray for God to quickly send us the one he has prepared for this important work. You can pray for God to prepare us for new leadership. You can pray for God to work in a powerful way during the interim time through our youth leaders, our parents, and our students.

Second, you can spread the word. There’s a page on our website with the job description and instructions for submitting a resume: www.hillcrestaustin.org/studentministrysearch. Forward this information to anyone you think should consider this position. Also, forward this information to any church leader you know and ask them to think about those who might know of candidates we should consider.

May God guide us, and may he strengthen our student ministry during this interim time!

_____________________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

“Just Don’t Believe”

Comedian Ricky Gervais explained to WSJ readers why belief in God is silly and we should just be nice. As of last count, replies to the article have approached 5,000.

His claim against belief in God? In short, “I believe in science.”

Hey, Ricky, you too?

But I don’t recognize Gervais’ notion of “science,” which he intends as a contrast to “faith”--

“Science seeks the truth. And it does not discriminate. For better or worse it finds things out. Science is humble. It knows what it knows and it knows what it doesn’t know. It bases its conclusions and beliefs on hard evidence -­- evidence that is constantly updated and upgraded. It doesn’t get offended when new facts come along.”

What fairy tale story has someone been reading to Ricky Gervais? Has he never heard of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, where Thomas Kuhn showed that scientists will go to the mat, even to lengths of irrationality, to defend an accustomed viewpoint? Hasn’t someone let Gervais in on the claims to have discovered cold fusion? Or Climategate?

I’m not suggesting that all scientific claims are to be automatically greeted with suspicion, but his pollyannish view of science makes for a weak foundation for his rejection of theism.

Christians are sometimes accused (and sometimes deservedly) for skipping mental engagement with doubters by the simple appeal to “just believe.” Gervais has supplied an equally simplistic appeal to WSJ readers to “just don’t believe.”

Merry Christmas from the Goodman Gang!

This greeting card generated with Smilebox

Winning Ways: Missing Jesus

Jesus was missing, and for a few days Chicago was in an uproar.

A few years ago, someone nabbed the figurine of the infant Jesus from a life-sized nativity, a hand-carved Italian masterpiece given as a gift to the people of Chicago. For days, local newscasts began their programming with comments from an angry mayor, assurances from a police chief that the case would be solved, and emotional pleas from the Nativity committee to return the irreplaceable artwork.

Then, without explanation, the baby Jesus was found. The fine work of art was found in an unlikely setting: a locker at the bus depot. The infant was returned to the manger and safely strapped down with metal straps and protected by guards.

It sure sounds like there’s a lesson in that news story. As you count down to Christmas, is Jesus missing?

I’m asking this of those who claim Christian convictions. I know that about a third of Americans deliberately celebrate a Christmas without relation to Jesus, according to a new LifeWay Research report. But right now my mind is more on those who will miss Jesus this season not by design but by default.

By default? Sure. We can let the demands of the season crowd out the reason for the season. From crowded malls to noisy office parties to lines at the post office to the gauntlet of TSA screenings standing between us and our flight home—well, in the midst of it all, we may find that Jesus is missing.

So, be sure and turn your thoughts to God’s great gift to us: Immanuel, God with us. In your family gatherings, pause long enough to read the Christmas story from Luke 2. Or defer to Linus by popping in a DVD of A Charlie Brown Christmas if you’re too shy to lead a public Scripture reading. If you’re in town on Christmas Eve, join us at Hillcrest at 6:00 p.m. for a 45-minute kid-friendly service. Tune to some music that honors Christ’s birth. Get ready for some redemptive conversations by reading Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christmas. These are some ways to make much of Jesus this season.

Let’s make sure that the pressures of the holiday don’t rob Jesus from our heart!

___________________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World—Christmas Edition—Tuesday December 21

Why You Never Ask Yoda to Lead Christmas Carols:

 

Wrap Like a Pro: Make gifts look so tantalizing that they wink from under the tree

 

The Digital Story of the Nativity:

 

Bus driver flattens snowman, loses job

 

Ten Questions to Ask at a Christmas Gathering: “Many of us struggle to make conversation at Christmas gatherings…, having to chat with people we rarely see or have never met. We simply don't know what to say to those with whom we feel little in common. Moreover, as Christians we want to take advantage of the special opportunities provided by the Christmas season to share our faith, but are often unsure how to begin. Here's a list of questions designed not only to kindle a conversation in almost any Christmas situation, but also to take the dialogue gradually to a deeper level.” See the list here.

 

“Too many recent Christmas tunes suffer from an embarrassment about being happy, with lyrics that are downright downers. The famine-relief fund-raising song from 1984, ‘Do They Know It's Christmas?’ may be admirable in intent, but it doesn't make for a particularly festive mood. ‘Grown-Up Christmas List,’ sung by Amy Grant, among others, is a pompous killjoy. And the less said about those maudlin ‘Christmas Shoes’ the better.” From a WSJ article on why there was an explosion of new Christmas music mid-century that has lasted—and why that hasn’t been the case since.

 

I’d walk a mile to avoid this camel:

And the Baptist Press story on the camel fail here.

 

LifeWay Survey: For many, Jesus isn't the reason for the season

 

Why do we kiss under the mistletoe?

 

Free Christmas music from Target and from Amazon.

 

Pandora: Another way to have free and commercial-free holiday music.

 

Church's 'iBand' performs Christmas carols entirely on iPads and iPhones 

 

12 Kooky Christmas Album Covers

 

'Hallelujah' Comes to the Food Court: Why one performance of Handel's Messiah has attracted an audience of over 7 million.

 

A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted in December 1965. Half of America tuned in, and it garnered glowing reviews. In a WaPo piece about the experience:

In writing about the “Peanuts” special in “Manhood for Amateurs,” Chabon — a self-described Jewish “liberal agnostic empiricist” — waxed: “I still know that chapter and verse of the Gospel of Luke by heart, and no amount of subsequent disillusionment with the behavior of self-described Christians, or with the ongoing progressive commercialization that in 1965 had already broken Charlie Brown’s heart, has robbed the central miracle of Christianity of its power to move me the way any truly great story can.”  (HT: TMatt at GetReligion)

“The question is whether Christians can become a creative and attractive minority in a different sort of culture”

Ross Douthat:

Believing Christians are no longer what they once were — an overwhelming majority in a self-consciously Christian nation. The question is whether they can become a creative and attractive minority in a different sort of culture, where they’re competing not only with rival faiths but with a host of pseudo-Christian spiritualities, and where the idea of a single religious truth seems increasingly passé.

Or to put it another way, Christians need to find a way to thrive in a society that looks less and less like any sort of Christendom — and more and more like the diverse and complicated Roman Empire where their religion had its beginning, 2,000 years ago this week.

LeaderLines: Ten Questions to Ask at a Christmas Gathering

Print this edition of LeaderLines and review it before your next Christmas gathering. It may help you make conversation—and it may even help you make steps toward redemptive conversation.

The “Ten Questions” post is an annual tradition for Don Whitney. He writes:

Many of us struggle to make conversation at Christmas gatherings, whether church events, work-related parties, neighborhood drop-ins, or annual family occasions. Sometimes our difficulty lies in having to chat with people we rarely see or have never met. At other times we simply don't know what to say to those with whom we feel little in common. Moreover, as Christians we want to take advantage of the special opportunities provided by the Christmas season to share our faith, but are often unsure how to begin. Here's a list of questions designed not only to kindle a conversation in almost any Christmas situation, but also to take the dialogue gradually to a deeper level. Use them in a private conversation or as a group exercise, with believers or unbelievers, with strangers or with family.

Here’s his list:

• What's the best thing that's happened to you since last Christmas?
• What was your best Christmas ever? Why?
• What's the most meaningful Christmas gift you've ever received?
• What was the most appreciated Christmas gift you've ever given?
• What was your favorite Christmas tradition as a child?
• What is your favorite Christmas tradition now?
• What do you do to try to keep Christ in Christmas?
• Why do you think people started celebrating the birth of Jesus?
• Do you think the birth of Jesus deserves such a nearly worldwide celebration?
• Why do you think Jesus came to earth?

He adds:

Of course, remember to pray before your Christmas gatherings. Ask the Lord to grant you “divine appointments,” to guide your conversations, and to open doors for the gospel. May He use you to bring glory to Christ this Christmas.

Whitney has been re-posting this list for 8 years, and he has graciously granted people and churches to republish it for non-profit purposes. You can find the post online here.

Tom

By Don Whitney’s request, those who republish his list should do so with the following information: Copyright © 2003 Donald S. Whitney. All the information contained on the Center for Biblical Spirituality website is copyrighted by Donald S. Whitney. Permission granted to copy this material in its complete text only for not-for-profit use (sharing with a friend, church, school, Bible study, etc.) and including all copyright information. No portion of this website may be sold, distributed, published, edited, altered, changed, broadcast, or commercially exploited without the prior written permission from Donald S. Whitney.

___________________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Service and Salvation

Doing justice is inseparably connected to preaching grace. This is true in two ways. One way is that the gospel produces a concern for the poor. The other is that deeds of justice gain credibility for the preaching of the gospel. In other words, justification by faith leads to doing justice, and doing justice can make many seek to be justified by faith.

Tim Keller, from his new book, Generous Justice

Winning Ways: What if God Was One of Us?

When I was a kid, my friends and I thought we were being clever to choose John 11:35 whenever a teacher at church challenged us to recite a scripture from memory: “Jesus wept.”

Without knowing it we had actually selected one of the most revealing texts about Jesus. John tells us about Jesus’ tears in a setting that’s natural for tears. Jesus’ good friend Lazarus had died, and Jesus did what you and I do at funerals for good friends: He cried.

In her hit song, “One of Us,” Joan Osborne sang, “What if God was one of us... just a slob like one of us?” Some consider the song irreverent, but Osborne was asking an important question: Does God know what we’re dealing with down here?

The answer is in the Christmas story, when the angel told Mary that people would see her child and exclaim, “Immanuel!” which means, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

Jesus was everything it means to be a man, just as he was everything it means to be God. What does his humanness mean for us?

First, it means Jesus is our example. Simon Peter said, “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Of course, Christ was doing much more on the cross than simply setting an example for us: He was bearing away our sins (1 Peter 2:24). Still, the Bible says we should imitate Christ’s faithfulness in our own hardships.

Second, Jesus is our encourager. The Bible says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16). Sometimes we want to pray, “Lord, I’m tempted” or “Jesus, I’m struggling down here,” or “Lord, life just hasn’t been fair to me recently.” It’s good to know that we can bring those things to a Lord who can say, “I know what you mean. Follow my example and stay strong!”

Joan Osborne asked an important question, and Christmas is the answer. God was one of us.

Come celebrate the birth of Christ at Hillcrest this Sunday @ 10, and also on Christmas Eve at 6:00 p.m.

_______________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday December 14

If Dr. Seuss Did Star Wars (HT: 22 Words)

 

And the Most Popular Road-Trip Song Is …

 

Meet Charles Jennens, the librettist who arranged the text that became Handel’s Messiah.

 

Being watched by a photograph of staring eyes can be enough encouragement to behave, follow orders or do the right thing, a study has found.

 

“Can modern science help us to create heroes? That's the lofty question behind the Heroic Imagination Project, a new nonprofit started by Phil Zimbardo, a psychologist at Stanford University. The goal of the project is simple: to put decades of experimental research to use in training the next generation of exemplary Americans, churning out good guys with the same efficiency that gangs and terrorist groups produce bad guys.” (Read the rest at WSJ)

 

95-year-old Calif. woman returns library book overdue 74 years

 

Talk about your filthy lucre: Time reports: “To the long list of household items and other common objects contaminated with bisphenol A (BPA) — an endocrine disruptor linked to infertility, genital abnormalities, cancer and more — add something unexpected: money. The cash in your wallet, it turns out, may be dusted with the dangerous chemical, and that can cause real problems if you do the one thing you absolutely must do if you're going to spend money — which is touch it.”

 

“Married men are more responsible, less aggressive, less likely to do something illegal and more mentally healthy than single ones” (Time). Does this mean these types of men are more likely to marry, or that marriage brings about these qualities?

 

Posts at “Get Anchored” since last Tuesday:

“People loved the Keep Austin Weird house, but they didn’t want to live there”

 

“What shall it profit a city to gain the world and still lose its soul?”

 

Keep Austin Hostile

 

Review of Douglas LeBlanc’s “Tithing: Test Me in This”

 

LeaderLines: Five Commitments of Great Teams

 

A Life Beyond Reason

 

“Our biology shapes our propensities for a wide variety of behaviors”

 

Winning Ways: What It Takes to Teach the World to Sing

 

Communication, Old School

 

“Today, piety increasingly correlates with education: college graduates are America’s most faithful churchgoers”

“People loved the Keep Austin Weird house, but they didn’t want to live there”

Austin’s unofficial motto for the last decade has been “Keep Austin Weird”—a push-back against the forces that would make Austin indistinguishable from any other large and growing city. Joshua Long chronicles this struggle in his book, “Weird City.” He writes--

“Keep Austin Weird” has come to serve as an unofficial “civic motto” of the city of Austin. Publicized in numerous national newspapers, broadcasted on NPR, and televised in news reports and travel shows, “Keep Austin Weird” now serves as a form of boosterism and image promotion that arose from the grassroots, not the Chamber of Commerce or city governance. While many in Austin might be annoyed by the mainstreaming of weirdness, the weird image still pays homage to the city’s creativity, nonconformity, and individuality.

I thought his story on local realtor/artist, Aralyn Hughes, was a parable of the entire struggle—a story either tragic or comic depending on whether you sympathize with the struggle or you think its time Austin grew up. Hughes has long owned the “Keep Austin Weird” house, with the city’s unofficial slogan emblazoned in large letters on the outside, and which she described in the following write-up while trying to sell it:

This famous one-of-a-kind KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD HOUSE can be yours. You have to like COLOR, and I mean LOTS-O-COLOR: Purple Carpet, Gold/Red/Purple Walls, Red/Blue Kitchen. It’s definitely not Grandma’s house. To really appreciate this house you must have an open mind and a FUN personality. You have to see it to believe it! Perfect for an Artist, Musician, or any ‘Way Out There’ fun whimsical person.

Unable to sell it as quickly as she had hoped, she took the letters down from the exterior, and made some more changes amenable to potential buyers. As Long put it, “The response from potential buyers repeated itself over and over. Buyers were attracted to the quirkiness of the house, but couldn’t see themselves living there.” Hughes told Long:

You know, people loved the Keep Austin Weird house. They thought it was great, but they didn’t want to live there. I showed this house to several people, and after a few months of not being able to sell it—in this great market no less—I realized that I was going to have to change things if I wanted to sell it.

Feel free to say a loud “Amen” or a resigned “It figures” in response.

“What shall it profit a city to gain the world and still lose its soul?”

On paper, Austin has been a success story, an urban entity whose economic vitality is only matched by its passion for music and diversity. But as many Austinites plan for the future growth of their city, others wring their hands with worried frustration. It seems many Austinites are asking: what shall it profit a city to gain the world and still lose its soul?

--From Joshua Long’s “Weird City”

Keep Austin Hostile

From Joshua Long’s “Weird City”--

At the corner of 34th and Guadeloupe stands a large man in a tie-dyed shirt. He’s bouncing around, obviously rocking out to whatever tunes are flowing through his headphones. He holds a cardboard sign: BAPTISTS ARE NASTY, MISERABLE PEOPLE. I immediately look for a place to pull over and park. I have to talk to this guy right away. I walk up to the dancing Baptist-hater, camera in hand. There are cars driving by, laying on their horns and yelling shouts of approval. I ask him if I can take his picture, and he obliges, with the condition that I show it to as many people as possible. “Will do,” I say. After I take a couple pictures, we talk for a while. Before I walk away I hand him five dollars, fully expecting this to be part of the usual practice (creativity in panhandling is appreciated more in this city than the usual “hungry, homeless, God bless” stuff). He looks at me, surprised “No man, I work for a living. I just do this on the weekend.”

Review of Douglas LeBlanc’s “Tithing: Test Me in This”

In “Tithing: Test Me In This,” Douglas LeBlanc has applied his skills as a journalist to chronicle the stories of ten people in their decision to tithe and the impact it has made on their lives. The story-telling makes LeBlanc's work unique among the books on the subject, which usually focus exclusively on explaining the scriptures and suggesting contemporary applications. Readers needing a thorough unpacking of texts behind the practice of tithing will need some of these other books: Though most of the scriptures that relate to tithing are explained by the people whose stories are being told, LeBlanc chooses to let his subjects tell their own story without much critical evaluation. But the book will leave its impact on readers, who will identify with the characters and compare their own stewardship decisions with the real people LeBlanc presents to us.

LeaderLines: Five Commitments of Great Teams

In Gene Wilkes’ book, Paul on Leadership (pp. 115-116), he describes the five factors that must be in place for ministry leaders to work well together.  The list of factors is an expansion of Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  Wilkes said, “It has proven to be a valuable resource to help expose those unseen aspects of human behavior that prevent teams from functioning well.” 

Looking at these dysfunctions in unhealthy team relationships can provoke us to make the following commitments.  Each one serves as a basis for the next.  We have a number of leadership teams at Hillcrest.  Lead your own team through the following commitments:

We will trust one another.  Wilkes says, “I have found this to be a difficult step for some team members to take.  Trusting team members can shed tears together, and they can openly share their unguarded feelings with the group.”

We will engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas.  According to Wilkes, “You can get red in the face over an idea if you trust those in the room will still honor you when the debate has ended.”

We will commit to decisions and plans of action.  Wilkes: “Truly cohesive teams have fought through decisions, adopted viable plans, and commit to seeing them completed.”

We will hold one another accountable for delivering against those plans.

We will focus on the achievement of collective results.  The point here is to keep the team’s attention on what they are actually accomplishing.  In the end, sitting around a table making decisions is worthless if it isn’t translated into action and concrete results.

We have many great leadership teams at Hillcrest.  You and your teams are the reason our church is both stable and progressing!  Keep up the great work!

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

A Life Beyond Reason

After his birth, as I entered the intensive-care nursery, I was deeply ambivalent, having been persuaded by the Princeton philosopher Peter Singer's advocacy of expanding reproductive choice to include infanticide. But there was my son, asleep or unconscious, on a ventilator, motionless under a heat lamp, tubes and wires everywhere, monitors alongside his steel and transparent-plastic crib. What most stirred me was the way he resembled me. Nothing had prepared me for this, the shock of recognition, for he was the boy in my own baby pictures, the image of me when I was an infant.

From Dr. Chris Gabbard’s article, “A Life Beyond Reason,” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, about life with his son, born with a severe disability. Karen Swallow Prior turned the spotlight on this article at the Her*meneutics blog. I hope Dr. Gabbard thinks a little more about his sympathies with Rabbi Harold Kushner’s deeply flawed view of God, expressed in the penultimate paragraph, but his article was otherwise a joy to read. Read it here.

“Our biology shapes our propensities for a wide variety of behaviors”

I’m trying to figure out why genetics is the trump card in conversations about homosexuality, but not for other topics.

In discussions on the biblical view of homosexuality, some have claimed that it doesn’t make sense to call on people to resist same-sex attractions if they’re “born that way.” But we don’t use that argument when discussing other behaviors.

I was thinking of this after reading Jeffrey Kluger’s report for Time magazine on a recent study claiming that certain people have a stronger genetic tendency to infidelity than others.

Justin Garcia, a doctoral fellow in evolutionary biology and health at Binghamton University in New York, said, "What we found was that individuals with a certain variant of the DRD4 gene were more likely to have a history of uncommitted sex, including one-night stands and infidelity."

But, Garcia said, “the study doesn't let transgressors off the hook. These relationships are associative, which means not everyone with this genotype will have one-night stands or commit infidelity. [The] genes do not give anyone an excuse, but they do provide a window into how our biology shapes our propensities for a wide variety of behaviors.”

Exactly.

Propensity for a behavior doesn’t grant permission for the behavior.

Old timers used to refer to the Christian life as a struggle against “the world, the flesh, and the devil.” Certainly part of “the flesh” we struggle against is our biological propensities. Prayer, sensitivity, and loving guidance is what we need from each other as we bring ourselves in line with God’s expectations.

Winning Ways: What It Takes to Teach the World to Sing

Coca-Cola is on a mission, and I wonder if we match their passion in our own mission.

Duane Stanford for Businessweek reports that Coke plans to spend $12 billion on the continent in the next 10 years, more than twice as much as the previous decade. It is already the continent’s largest employer, but Stanford says Coke is now in “a street-by-street campaign to win drinkers, trying to increase per-capita annual consumption of its beverages in countries not yet used to guzzling Coke by the gallon.”

Current CEO, Muhtar Kent, said, “There’s nowhere in Africa that we don’t go. Being in a country is very easy, you can go and set up a depot in every capital city. That’s not what we’re about. We go to every town, every village, every community, every township.”

It won’t be easy. The region suffers from poverty, war, and shortages of fresh water. Political instability makes investment in factories risky, and transportation is notoriously unreliable.

But those things are just complications to work through on the way to Coke’s destination, according to Nathan Kalumbu, president of the company's East & Central Africa Business Unit. He keeps a photo of a pride of lions above his desk in Nairobi as a reminder to stay aggressive. “You gotta get hungry,” he says.

Maybe you remember Coke’s most famous commercial, featuring sincere young people on a hillside singing--

I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.

I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.

After reading the Businessweek article, apparently it takes a lot of sweat and coin to teach the world to sing to Coke’s tune.

I wonder how well we Christians match that passion when it comes to our own mission. Jesus commissioned us to make disciples within every nation. So, even as we’re on mission within our own neighborhoods, we send and support missionaries to other parts of the world.

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is one way we do that. The collection is a huge part of the funding for our International Mission Board, which provides for 5,000 missionaries around the world. Join your church family in contributing to this Christmas offering. Let’s teach the world to sing a new song!

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Communication, Old School

Consumer Reports Says AT&T 'Worst-Rated' U.S. Carrier. Indeed, I’m thinking of switching to this method for my phone calls, emails, and SMS:

“Today, piety increasingly correlates with education: college graduates are America’s most faithful churchgoers”

Ross Douthat:

In the 1970s…college-educated Americans overwhelmingly supported liberal divorce laws, while the rest of the country was ambivalent. Likewise, college graduates were much less likely than high school graduates to say that premarital sex was “always wrong.” Flash forward to the 2000s, though, and college graduates have grown more socially conservative on both fronts (50 percent now favor making divorces harder to get, up from 34 percent in the age of key parties), while the least educated Americans have become more permissive.

There has been a similar change in religious practice. In the 1970s, college- educated Americans were slightly less likely to attend church than high school graduates. Today, piety increasingly correlates with education: college graduates are America’s most faithful churchgoers, while religious observance has dropped precipitously among the less-educated….Evangelical Christians, in particular, are now one of America’s best-educated demographics, as likely to enroll their children in an S.A.T. prep course as they are to ship them off to Bible camp.

…

But as religious conservatives have climbed the educational ladder, American churches seem to be having trouble reaching the people left behind. This is bad news for both Christianity and the country.

Links to Your World, Tuesday December 7

Could you live in a 140-square-foot house? These people can.

 

How high would you have to drop a frozen turkey so that it is cooked when it lands?

 

Spanish woman claims ownership of the Sun, says she's going to start charging for use

 

10 Valuable Coins That Could Be In Your Pocket Right Now

 

The Perfect Christmas Gift: Your Own Aircraft Carrier

 

Ed Stetzer is blogging about living in a multi-faith world. Excellent posts! Here is Part 2.

 

Is the Government About to Block Cell Phone Signals in Cars?

 

Africa Can Feed Itself in a Generation

 

A social worker’s perspective on Disney characters.

 

It’s official: The most boring day in history was April 11, 1954. When will we get to see another one?

 

Posts at “Get Anchored” since last Tuesday:

“This was the very reason you were brought into Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you might know me better there."

 

“Is this not an invitation we Christians need to accept anew every morning?”

 

The Emperor’s New Art

 

Flagged for End-Zone Prayer

 

LeaderLines: Your Home Can Be a NOMAP

 

“To know one’s own role in God’s ongoing story of redemption”

 

Winning Ways: What Does Jesus Do During the Offering Time?

 

No App for You

“This was the very reason you were brought into Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you might know me better there."

Liam Neeson, the voice of Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia film series, recently said, “Aslan symbolises a Christlike figure, but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries. That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me.”

Ah yes, I remember when Mohammed offered himself as a sacrifice on the Stone Table to satisfy the Deeper Magic of his Father, the Emperor from Beyond the Sea. No wait, that was Buddha. No wait, that was--

Oh. Never mind.

Aslan told the children in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader that he was known in their own world. “But there I have another name,” he told them. “You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason you were brought into Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you might know me better there."

A child once asked Lewis to identify Aslan’s other name. His reply to her: "As to Aslan's other name, well I want you to guess. Has there never been anyone in /this/ world who (1.) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas. (2.) Said that he was the Son of the Great Emperor. (3.) Gave himself up for someone else's fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people. (4.) Came to life again. (5.) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb (see the end of the Dawn Treader). Don't you really know His name in this world? Think it over and let me know your answer!"

“Is this not an invitation we Christians need to accept anew every morning?”

Mark Galli, on spiritual conversations with those of other faiths:

How do we talk about our faith without making others feel denigrated or angry…? So that everyone—even the Christian—feels addressed by the one who is both Judge and Father. So that everyone—even the Christian—recognizes his or her sinfulness. So that everyone—even the Christian—stands at the foot of the Cross, in desperate need of a savior.

…

We are tempted at this point to wonder, "But haven't we Christians accepted that invitation, and non-Christians have not? Doesn't that make a difference? Aren't we called to invite non-Christians to follow Christ?"

But of course! By grace through faith we have been made aware of God's global reconciling work in Christ, and those who know this reality are commissioned to share the message of Christ's reconciliation work with the whole world (2 Cor. 5:19).

Then again, is this not an invitation we Christians need to accept anew every morning? Is this not a gospel that shakes us to our core daily and yet raises us daily to new life? Is not today, once again, the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2)? Should we not preach this gospel as if we also need to hear and accept it daily? And if so, can we ever preach to others a gospel that does not apply equally to us?

Can we see, then, how if we preach this gospel, it will be nigh impossible for anyone to dodge the message by charging us with self-righteousness? And can we see why the only hope for civil and humble interreligious dialogue hinges, from our side, on our entering it with a firm grasp of this gospel?

Read the whole thing.

The Emperor’s New Art

Using public funds, a Polish artist made an invisible painting, an invisible sculpture and an invisible film. Hans Christian Anderson, call your agent.

Flagged for End-Zone Prayer

 

LeaderLines: Your Home Can Be a NOMAP

If you live within 5 miles of the Hillcrest campus, Herb Ingram wants to turn your home into a NOMAP.

If you didn’t receive his invitation by mail, consider this yours. And if you did receive his invitation, consider this a gentle nudge to reply. Here’s Herb:

God has impressed a need to focus more ministry to people who live within our bulls-eye. If “bulls-eye” is a new concept, think of it like this: our ministry target is everyone within driving distance of HBC, while our bulls-eye is everyone within 3-5 miles of our church.

We are asking you to join us in adopting a missions mindset that our church facility has been strategically placed at the corner of Steck and Greenslope to impact this part of Austin with the gospel. We want to augment current outreach events like Upward, the Pumpkin Party, and Summer Sports Camp (VBS). Recently we started English classes for international adults. In 2011 we want to take other bold steps and I’m asking you to consider being part of one of those steps.

Will you consider volunteering your home as a “NOMAP” in 2011? A NOMAP is a Neighborhood Outreach Mission Action Point. Your home is in our bulls-eye and could become a local branch for the ministry of Hillcrest. Before you “freak out,” I’m not asking you to do the work or even lead the work. I asking you to let a mission team from Hillcrest join with you to minister to your neighbors.

If you agree, other Hillcrest volunteers will join you to form a Mission Action Team. Volunteer enlistment in January will be a major emphasis as we form the teams. Mission projects in 2011 will be like mini-mission trips to our home mission field!

NOMAP teams would select projects to fit the needs they find around them. Perhaps it would be a canned food drive, or a block party; a backyard Bible club or a BBQ. It could be a three on three-basketball tournament at a local park. It might involve live music using a music team from Hillcrest or other talent. It might involve a children’s carnival using games from our pumpkin party. It might involve leading neighbors to do construction, painting, or yard work for a neighbor. As you can see, projects would vary yet convey the common goal of connection and ministry to neighbors.

Sound interesting? Want more info? I want to get everyone remotely interested in this idea together for a brainstorming session. I need your input to make this even more effective. If you would be willing to meet with me, email herb@hbcaustin.org. You aren’t committing your home by coming to this meeting, you are just indicating interest. I believe this has potential to bear kingdom fruit, and I plan to serve on a team myself. Please let me know soon of your interest.

If you want an idea of what a Ministry Action Point could do, here’s a note from Ken and Melanie Clonts about their efforts to build relationships with their neighborhood:

When we moved into our neighborhood in 1992 we had a wonderful group of neighbors who brought us a meal and welcomed us with open arms. We were so excited to find ourselves in such a caring neighborbood.

Several years later when the block organizer moved away, Ken took it upon himself to keep us all connected. He made a neighborhood chart (just our immediate street) and put each family’s name, children’s names, address and phone numbers in the appropriate blocks. As a new family moved in he would take them a chart, get their information and welcome them to the neighborhood. He still does this about every six months just to keep the chart current. Although we don’t get together as a neighborhood very often it’s nice to know who lives two houses down or in the house on the end of the street, just in case we need to contact them.

On a recent National Night Out we decided to put our patio fire pit on our driveway and enjoy the cool evening and just see if any of our neighbors were also participating in this event. Ken did call some of the neighbors and invite them over just to have a “group” for others to join. As we sat there visiting and catching up with each other we saw another couple walking down the street and asked them to join us. They have lived on another street over for 22 years but none of us had ever met them. We had an enjoyable evening getting to know some new “old” neighbors.

Since the first try was such a success and with our neighbors encouragement we set up the fire pit again last Sunday evening. Ken had recently updated our neighborhood chart and had walked around that afternoon inviting anyone who wanted to bring a chair and come sit in our driveway. We ended up with our two couples from next door and two from down the street with their small children (you do have to watch the fire more carefully!!). Everyone seemed to have a great time and we were all cleaned up and back inside by 9:00pm. We have passed the word around that anytime they see the fire pit in the driveway just come on down and join us. Next time we might even break out the marshmallows….or even consider smores because we want s’more of this!

“S’more of this”—I get it. (I think Herb is beginning to rub off on people!)

Now, if you live within our larger ministry target but not within our ministry bulls-eye, stay tuned. Herb will be asking you to partner with a Ministry Action Point in the future. For now, though, we want to hear from those of you within 5 miles of the Hillcrest campus: will you be a NOMAP?

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

“To know one’s own role in God’s ongoing story of redemption”

You can now listen, view, and download all 14 parts of Don Carson’s seminar on which he based his new book, “The God Who Is There.” From the website:

This series will serve the church well because it simultaneously evangelizes non-Christians and edifies Christians by explaining the Bible’s storyline in a non-reductionistic way. The series is geared toward “seekers” and articulates Christianity in a way that causes hearers either to reject or embrace the gospel. It’s one thing to know the Bible’s storyline, but it’s another to know one’s role in God’s ongoing story of redemption. “The God Who Is There” engages people at the worldview-level.

Check it out here.

Winning Ways: What Does Jesus Do During the Offering Time?

What do you do during the offering time?

Every Sunday we have a time in our service where offering plates are passed. During that time, some of us pray. Some of us write out a last-minute check before the plate gets to us. Some of us listen carefully to the music being performed during the offering time. Some of us doodle artwork on the bulletin or send texts on our phones.

But what does Jesus do during the offering time. In Mark 12, we find a story that can help us understand that. There we find him carefully observing the giving habits of worshippers. In the end, only one impressed him, and he honored her.

God says he will honor us as we honor him (1 Samuel 2:30), and one way we honor him is through our offerings. This Sunday, we’ll see what the Scriptures have to say about that.

A client once wrote a company for information about their product. In the letter he specifically stated that he did not want a salesman to call on him. However, since the information he had requested was rather technical and could not be adequately communicated in a letter, the company sent a salesman.

When the representative showed up at the man's office, he received a very cold reception. He repeatedly reminded the salesman that his letter clearly stated, “No salesman!”

The sales rep was a trainee and had very little experience in sales. “Mister,” he said, “I'm about as close to a ‘no-salesman’ as they’ve got.”

When it comes to sermons on giving, I’m about as close to “no salesman” as you can get! If I had to make a living as a fund-raiser, I’d starve.

Thankfully stewardship is a discipleship issue, not a fund-raising issue. I’m not called to be a fund-raiser, but I am called to train disciples. Part of that training involves what we are to do with our money.

In Proverbs 3:9-10 (NIV), the wise man said, “Honor the Lord with your wealth,” and then he added this promise: “Then your barns will be filled to overflowing.” Join us this Sunday at 10 a.m. and let’s discover again how God honors those who honor him!

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.