Two Thousand Verses

I read a story today about a man, Jim Wallis, who went through all sixty-six books of the Bible and underlined every passage and verse that dealt with poverty, wealth, justice and oppression. After the experiment, he took a pair of scissors and cut every one of those verses out of his Bible. The result was a book in tatters that barely held together. His Bible was left in shambles.

Today, Mr.Wallis speaks on issues of poverty and justice while holding his ragged Bible full of holes.

Brothers and sisters, this is our American Bible; it is full of holes. Each one of us might as well take our Bibles, a pair of scissors, and begin cutting out all the scriptures we pay no attention to, all the biblical texts that we just ignore.

According to The Poverty & Justice Bible, there are almost two thousand verses in Scripture that deal with poverty and justice.*

The One Challenge Registration

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"The One" Challenge

There are usually two places where ideas come to me — the shower and on airplanes. In the early part of February, I spoke at a conference in Dallas and probably spent more time in planes and in airports than I did at the conference. But, knowing that ideas come to me on planes, I looked forward to the idle time. So, the following came to me on a flight back from Dallas to Chicago.

In January, I became one of only two pastoral staff members left after some fairly significant changes in personnel (to say the least). At first, I felt OK about the changes, but after a few days I began to ask myself a lot of questions. One, in particular, was how do we begin discipling 600 people between two part-time pastors? The answer was obvious; you don't!

Now that you have some background, let me tell you what happened. On the way to Chicago, I begin to pray and write down the names of 25 people at church that came to my mind. These were people I knew, some well, others not so well. These 25 quickly became the people that I would strategically disciple. I would start with 25 and not get overwhelmed by the 600.

When I got back into the office on Monday, I typed a letter that simply read:

ARE YOU THE ONE?
Please meet with Pastor Jeff on Sunday, February 22 @ 5:00pm
To accept, please visit (website).

I mailed (not emailed) all 25 invitations that day, and by Thursday afternoon all 25 people accepted the invitation via the web (along with questions about what this was about). Basically, I wrapped the invitation in a mystery and that got the buzz I wanted. On Sunday morning, Feb. 22, almost all of the invitees were clamoring for an explanation. I just told them, "You have to show up." And showed up they did. 25 for 25!

This might be the first time in history all invitees have shown up to a meeting. It was amazing, there was an electricity in the air. Seventeen men and eight women.

The meeting started with a question: Will you be the one who will introduce The One to the one person with whom you have influence? I paused for a response, and then it happened. I saw the light come on as I shared the discipleship experiment we called "The One."* By the end of the meeting we decided to not only find one person to intentionally disciple, but we would also find an encouragement partner within the group, kind of a two-by-two thing. I also introduced the group to Erwin McManus's The Barbarian Way and asked everyone to read it as a group. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes and all us were extremely fired up to go and find our "one."

Over the last 30 days or so, God has done some cool stuff. Everyone found their "one" and is meeting regularly. People are posting testimonies and encouragements to The One Blog and one guy even decided to use his gifts to start a video blog called LifeWalkTV.com. People are experiencing personal revival. One of our ladies is so captivated, she has started a small Bible study for single moms.

The main purpose in this post is to encourage pastors to start their own discipleship experiment. What if you chose a small group of people to share your heart with? What would happen to your church if a small group of people decided to intentionally give their lives to another over the next 30 days? Would your group of 20 people turn into 40 people? Would that group turn into 80 people? Imagine if your group of 20 turned into over 5000 people who were intentionally discipled by the end of this year alone?

This is what is happening at LHC, where I am a pastor. If every person we discipled in March were to disciple another in April, and then those would disciple just one more person in May, and so on...by the end of the year "The One" would end up touching more than 25,000 people!

So, today I am throwing out "The One" Challenge to pastors everywhere. Will you, pastor, find 10 to 20 people and share "The One" concept with them? Please download the notes for "The One" here. If you want to know more about what I did in my church, please contact me here. I would be more than happy to talk with you about the experience and how I can help you.

Also, I would love to know if you have taken the challenge. Please click here to register your experiment so I can provide you with some encouragement. I would also like to start a list of pastor who have taken the challenge so I can post them to this blog for prayer and support.

*Download my thoughts on "The One" concept here.

Here is the online " Accept My Invitation" form example.

Determination

I have a friend that speaks into my life that I respect very much. He often says that what we are missing in our lives is what he calls "the intensity of desire." Whether it is prayer, serving or being a witness for Christ, we lack the desire or determination to seek hard after God. It takes effort, and most of the time we put EVERYTHING first and God last. Then we're too tired; too worn out to give Him the attention He desires. We shouldn't expect more of God's presence, maybe He should expect more of ours.

After reading today's (2/23) My Utmost for His Highest, I realized that the greatest way to be like Jesus is to SERVE. Read the first line of Chambers's journal entry, "Jesus also said, 'Yet I am among you as the One who serves' (Luke 22:27)." Jesus had a quiet strength about him. He was intense about serving others and driven to seek and save the lost. In His "lost" parables in Luke 15, Jesus seems to put the subject of the stories as the "seeker of the lost", and their intense desire to restore what was lost at the risk of losing everything else. Is this who we are to model ourselves after? Maybe we are afraid to have an "intensity of desire" because we are too afraid to risk something. Maybe we that's why we have such a difficult time with our image of God. Is God's intensity of desire so high that He is willing to risk it all?

What is the level of your desire today? Can you say that you desire God more than ANYTHING else? Are you serving your sphere of influence today? Are you leaving your fingerprints on everything you touch today? Someone is waiting for you to be The One who serves. Maybe, it's just someone in your family. Often times, we think of our family members least. Familiarity has left us insensitive to those who are closest. What would happen if we stopped and asked our spouse, son or daughter how we could serve them? What could God do in the heart of the person who has a blazing fire of desire to serve another?

Paul said to Timothy, "...fan into flame the gift of God." This speaks of sparking your intensity and working toward using your gifts for others. May your intensity for God's will be hot! May the fire of God be present in your prayers today! May the intensity of desire overtake your spirit today and make you more like Christ who came to serve.

Click here for the February 23 reading of My Utmost for His Highest.

Are You The One?

To quote Dallas Willard, the foremost expert on biblical discipleship, "Christians have responded to the Great Commission by making 'Christians', not 'disciples'." Willard writes, "The word disciple occurs 269 times in the New Testament...Christian is found only three." As Willard points out in his book The Great Omission, the church is full of undiscipled disciples. We have replaced biblical discipleship with canned Bible studies, small group fellowships and slick programs. While these are good tools to grow in our knowledge of God's Word, they cannot and should not replace one-on-one discipleship. The One is a call to return.

Learning To Be

Learning to be a disciple is difficult these days with all the quick fix books on spirituality. Discipleship today is more of "what do I get", rather than "what can I give." I was reminded of this today when I received an email on Facebook from a person I haven't seen in 18 years. She writes:

"Please pray for my husband. He is at crossroads right now. He wants a personal relationship with God but has many questions. We have come this far before and he retreats with doubt so the more prayer warriors the better. I am very thankful he is asking questions, praying God places the right people in his life..."

What struck me most about this "prayer request" was her prayer that God would place the "right" people in his life. If this is not a call to discipleship, I don't know what is. Not a call to her husband, but a call to...me! Will I be The One? Will I be the "right" person God sends into his life?

Being the Right Person

This week, you will pass by all kinds of people. People you work with. People you go to church with. People you see everyday and think nothing about. Maybe, this is the week you don't pass by. Maybe, this is the week you stop and start asking questions. Maybe, this week you will be the "right" person God places in the life of another. Isn't this real discipleship?

Living Wide Awake

Here is a great resource that can motivate and encourage you to be the "right" person in another's life. This is the trailer to a DVD that accompanies Erwin McManus's book Wide Awake. I want to encourage you to get a copy of the DVD and watch the first short film "Beauty." It's an elegant story about a lonely girl who experiences a simple act of kindness that changes the way she sees the world.

On the transparency thing...

This weekend, a friend of mine tried to prove to me that the "christian transparency thing is a bunch of #$&%" because he got burned while pouring his life into another on the journey. "So much for that experiment," he said. Since then, I've been reflecting...

There are NO SHORTCUTS to this "christian transparency thing!" I look at Galatians 2:20 and I read the words of the Apostle Paul, "I am crucified..." and I think — there is no shortcut given as an option. Crucifixion is a long, excruciating death. But, once I identify with Christ in His death, I can be real — transparent. It is at this point, I can be like Francis of Assisi — the life of Jesus can become transparent in my personality.

Transparency is clear-headed thinking (wisdom).
Transparency is clear-eyed vision (knowing the will of God).
Transparency is the simple joy in gratitude (humility).

"Being real" is not the attitude of "just deal with it, I'm just keepin' it real." Some of us need to watch Chappelle's When Keepin' It Real Goes Wrong and take some notes. The true heart of transparency is compassion, humility and wisdom. This can only come from the life that Christ lives in and through us.

I've heard of this "two-kinds-of-christians" rhetoric before — carnal v. spirit-filled; faithful v. backsliders; aware v. unaware; soul-winners v. pew-sitters, etc. But recently, I read Søren Kierkegaard's view of it. He was said to believe that there are two kinds of Christians: imitators of Jesus and those who are content to admire Him. Any questions? Merton called this a "convenient spirituality." We keep God close for those moments to which He fits. We are Zacchaeus — we want to get out on a limb for Jesus, but we also want to keep our distance.

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." These are the wise words from Harper Lee's timeless character, Atticus Finch. Is this transparency? Jesus has already climbed into our skin, maybe we should climb into His? Is this transparency? A simple disappearance of ourselves and the sudden appearance of Jesus?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. What does "being real" mean for a Christ-follower? Is "transparency" healthy and should this be such a hot topic in our christian rhetoric today? Please feed back...

Experiencing God Like Jesus Did

Last night I started a new teaching on personal revival. I think it went well, but as you know I am my own worst critic. However, I thought I would share a story with you I thought was really cool.

I was adding some finishing touches to my notes yesterday, January 7th and thought I would start the talk with a devotional from OC (Oswald Chambers). I went to myutmost.org and searched the word "revival" and it returned two results. One of them was for the reading for January 7th, the same day! Funny, huh? You can read it here.

Anyway, if you're interested in the notes for the study, I'll be posting them to the blog every week under the "Seeking Him" label. You can download the Introduction notes below:

Introduction | Experiencing God Like Jesus Did
Download here.

New Teaching Series

Beginning this Sunday, January 11, 2009 I will began a new teaching series. My friend, Alan Oliver, and I sat down one day before Christmas and came up with 20 marks of the true disciple from the 21 verses in Romans 12. I am very excited about the study and can't wait to start. I haven't really come up with a title for the series, but here are the 20 topics we will cover:

Intro to Romans 12 and its context
Acceptable Worship (1)
Conformed/Transformed (2)
Knowing the Will of God (2)
Humility & The Affirmation of Others (3)
What is the Body of Christ? (4-5)
Service in the Body of Christ (6-8)
Genuine Love (9a)
Evil vs. Good (9b)
Loving Others (10)
Spiritual Fervency (11)
Trials, Prayer & Hope (12)
Christian Hospitality (13)
Blessing Others (14)
Transparency (15)
Lowly Associations (16)
Honorable Actions (17)
Living at Peace with Others (18)
Godly Revenge (19)
Overcoming Evil (20)

Some of these titles may change as creativity tends to hit me at 3 in the morning, however, the topics above will generally be followed in this order. I plan to post my outlines from week to week and certainly invite your comments.