1. 1 month ago 

   Pentecost

   Let’s play word association: what comes to mind when you see the word Pentecost? Pentecostals? A feast of the Jewish people? The number 5? The birth of the church? Galloping yellow elephants?

   Pentecost is the feast of Israel that was being celebrated in Jerusalem when the 120 disciples were gathered & waiting in the upper room (Acts 1-2). At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descending and filled the followers of Jesus, empowering them to boldly proclaim the Gospel on the streets of their city.

   Historically the Church turns its attention to Pentecost immediately following Easter. This 50 day season invites us back to the period in which Jesus lived among His disciples in His resurrected body, teaching them and giving them firm evidence that He had risen.

   This Pentecost season at New Life Lakeview we will be walking through the book of 1 John in a series called Contrasts. John’s first letter is passionate about knowing the living, breathing, en-fleshed, resurrected Jesus. He calls us know God, love others and walk in obedient fellowship in contrast to the world.

   I’m looking forward to preparing for Pentecost with you over the next 50 days. And avoiding those galloping yellow elephants.

2. 8 months ago 
   "

   Transformation. This is the only reason worth starting a church. If this is your reason, you’ll get the other seven reasons — but you will also get so much more. When I first started our church, I challenged myself to dream as big as I could, and when it was so big that I couldn’t wrap my dream around it, then I knew that God was in it because only he could do that! The only unfortunate thing in terms of my dream (and, I fear, the dreams of other young guys as well) was that I defined “big” in terms of attendance.

   What if instead of dreaming about hosting 20,000 people in one Sunday worship service, I had dreamed of 1,000,000 people in worship in the first ten years because we had started a church planting movement out of our local church? How would that have shaped and changed our ministry?

   What if instead of dreaming of a 7,000-seat worship center, I dreamed of clinics, schools, and community centers in the inner city? What if instead of envisioning a 150-acre campus, I saw orphanages around the world and microenterprises? What if instead of longing for about 100 full-time ministerial staff, we had 1,000 staff located all over the world? What if instead of wishing for half the community to attend our local church, the community threw parties to thank our church for all the things it was doing in the community?

   There is absolutely nothing wrong with dreaming any of those things. But the question is, Where do you start in your dreaming — the church or the world outside the church? That determines everything. It determines how you organize, where you engage, and how you prioritize. The reality is that we’ve been starting with the “church” stuff and have done very little to engage the community and society as we always say we plan to do. What if someone started with transformation first?

   "
   - Roberts Jr., Bob (2009). The Multiplying Church: The New Math for Starting New Churches (Kindle Locations 1275-1287). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
3. 10 months ago 
   

   Just me and my ladies tonight (Taken with instagram)

    
4. 10 months ago 
   

   My boy and his boys getting their camp on. (Taken with instagram)

    
5. 10 months ago 
   

   Loved this 1969 Camaro!

    
6. 10 months ago 
   

   This Mustang was made the year I was born. Loved the color and the swept back.

    
7. 11 months ago 
   "

   Dear Pastor: Among my artist friends I feel so defensive about my life—I mean about going to church. They have no idea what I am doing and act bewildered. So I try to be unobtrusive about it. But as my church life takes on more and more importance—it is essential now to my survival—it is hard to shield it from my friends. I feel protective of it, not wanting it to be dismissed or minimized or trivialized. It is like I am trying to protect it from profanation or sacrilege. But it is strong. It is increasingly difficult to keep it quiet. It is not as if I am ashamed or embarrassed—I just don’t want it belittled.

   A longtime secular friend, and a superb artist, just the other day was appalled: “What is this I hear about you going to church?” Another found out that I was going on a three-week mission trip to Haiti and was incredulous: “You, Judith, you going to Haiti with a church group! What has gotten into you?” I don’t feel strong enough to defend my actions. My friends would accept me far more readily if they found that I was in some bizarre cult involving exotic and strange activities like black magic or experiments with levitation. But going to church is branded with a terrible ordinariness.

   But that is what endears it to me, both the church and the twelve-step programs, this façade of ordinariness. When you pull back the veil of ordinariness, you find the most extraordinary life behind it. But I feel isolated and inadequate to explain to my husband and close friends—even myself!—what it is. It’s as if I would have to undress myself before them. Maybe if I was willing to do that, they would not dare disdain me. More likely they would just pity me. As it is, they just adjust their neckties a little tighter.

   I am feeling raw and cold and vulnerable and something of a fool. I guess I don’t feel too badly about being a fool within the context of the secular world. From the way they look at me, I don’t have much to show for my new life. I can’t point to a life mended. Many of the sorrows and difficulties seem mended for a time, only to bust open again. But to tell you the truth I haven’t been on medication since June and for that I feel grateful.

   When I try to explain myself to these friends I feel as if I am suspended in a hang glider between the material and immaterial, casting a shadow down far below, and they say, “See—it’s nothing but shadow work.” Perhaps it takes a fool to savor the joy of shadow work, the shadow cast as I’m attending to the unknown, the unpaid for, the freely given.

   "
   - The Pastor: A Memoir (Eugene H. Peterson), Page 271
8. 1 year ago 

   A long conversation about God and other stuff…

   One of my first bosses in Chicago is also one of my oldest friends in Chicago. Bob and I have an on-again, off-again engagement of our friendship. It had been a while since we’d talked but recently he emailed me with a question about Rob Bell. I know Bob won’t mind me saying that he is not a follower of Christ.  We’ve had many conversations about spiritual things over the years. We’ve also had many laughs. And he’s seen all my children go from glint to present form so we’ve got history together.

   I think long-term friendships provide great ground for honest conversation about God, the Bible and ultimate questions. I’ve always been grateful to have that kind of relationship with Bob dating back to 1995 when I first arrived in Chicago.

   Here was Bob’s latest volley in our ongoing dialogue:

   I saw this article about a guy close to your home town who is using the exact words I used to use in our conversations. I thought that you might want to see it.

   http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/01/what-is-a-heretic-exactly-in-the-evangelical-church/?hpt=C2

   Of course the book is not available yet so we can’t really discuss it properly, but it seems like it might be interesting. At least it gives you a chance to explain to me why the author and I will both be going to Hell when you and I get together at Starbucks.

   Here was my reply:

   I’m very familiar with Rob Bell. His church meets in a former mall in the next town from where I grew up. Gil used to work in that mall.
   
   Rob is a provocateur. Its his thing. He’s also a very talented creative thinker. His new book’s promo has caused quite a stir and I’m sure he and his publishers are pretty ecstatic about that.
   
   One person who has actually read his book (an Advanced Reader Copy) has begun to post reviews. The reviewer and I would probably be in the same broad theological tent (though I’m not sure since he keeps his identity anonymous). You can read what he’s said here: http://thetenthleper.com/2011/03/01/review-love-wins-by-rob-bell-part-i-some-introductory-thoughts
   
   At the end of the day, for me, there’s a difference between what I’d like the Bible to say and what it actually says. I’m not sure Rob wants to submit himself fully to the latter and spends a lot of time trying to massage it until the two—his desired message and the Bible’s actual message—agree. Hell and judgment are offensive concepts. There isn’t a way to get rid of that and still believe the Bible, the words of Jesus and the Christian Gospel.
   
   I know this has been a big stumbling point for you Bob. Unfortunately, I don’t think Rob’s work solves the offense. He’s not the first to try. However, he might just succeed in making you a happier not-Christian who expects to get to heaven eventually because God will say “uncle” or “just kidding”. But you wouldn’t be responding to the message of the Bible with that view.
   
   The Gospel, as Christ preached it, offends before it heals. Its bad news before its good news. I hope one day you become convinced of your own sin, God’s justified wrath and judgment toward you because of your sin, Christ’s absorption of your judgment in your place as your substitute on the Cross and Christ’s resurrection which can give you forgiveness and Life if you will repent and receive His cleansing and forgiveness. (Geez, seems like we’re right back in the office and its 1995;-) In the meantime, I’m glad to keep wrestling with you about these things as your longtime friend.

   A couple things I appreciate about Bob: he doesn’t ask me to stay away from God-talk in our conversations and he makes great Hell jokes. Thanks, Bob.

9. Notes: 1 / 1 year ago 

   Candid reflections on how I’ve been mentored

   I was recently asked by a growing younger leader to share the ways that I’ve been mentored in leadership by Mark Jobe at New Life over the last 10 years.  It gave me a valuable opportunity to reflect on the highlights of how I got from “there to here”. 

   What I shared is certainly not The Path but I think aspects of what I walked through can provide young leaders with hints about how to be mentored.  So often young men who are hungry to be church leaders don’t want to submit themselves to the kind of mentoring process that can adequately shape them.

   These are the things that God has used to mentor and shape me as a leader over the last decade:

   • Pain:  When I landed at New Life Lakeview I was in pain.  Pain from failure.  Pain from betrayal.  Pain from a quiet conviction that I wasn’t cut out for this work of vocational ministry.  I think because I was in pain, I was ready to shut up and listen.  And the pain had also clarified what I wanted and needed.  I’m convinced that pain is like a heart-rototiller for a leader’s life.  It makes the ground ready for what needs to be planted there.
   • Being wanted:  What helped me move from pain to serving was that I was wanted.  I tried to quit when things failed in my previous work but Pastors Mark and Mike wouldn’t let me.  They told me that my work was wanted at New Life—that they’d find a place for me.  Essentially, they believed in me just enough.  That gave me the courage to try again and not to let failure keep me from risk.
   • Challenging/risky opportunities:  When I stepped into New Life Lakeview I was given 3 big challenges at the same time:  take over and strengthen the internship (which ended up being a rebuild from the ground up), move people from merely attending this new church location to discovering and using their God-given gifts in ministry and plug any gaps that existed at New Life Lakeview (and there were many.)  The stretch was huge but I loved it.  I had to create from just about nothing.  I had to deliver.  I had to manufacture resources from nothing and it all had to be done at once.  Being challenged shocked me out of self-pity and demanded that I rise up and trust God to use me again.  
   • Initiative:  Once the opportunities were in front of me I had a clear conviction—the only thing that would keep me from moving the ball down the field was me.  If I would go for it, things would come together.  I unconsciously decided that all my errors would be errors of action and movement not caution and safety.  Failing a couple of times in very painful ways had convinced me that I could survive my failures, especially in an environment where failure was viewed as a teacher and guide rather than an enemy.  I did not wait for ideal conditions.  I created workable conditions, moved forward and then I took my lumps (and there were many lumps.)
   • Aggressive shadowing:  As I was going along I found many (many) gaps in my knowledge and skills.  There were things I wasn’t sure how to do or how to do well.  I knew that Pastor Mark did a lot of things the way I wanted to do them.  I trusted his heart, his way with people, his priorities and his leadership practices/skills.  So I quietly determined that I would learn everything I could from him whether he liked it or not.  When he led, I analyzed it.  When he preached, I went beyond listening to trying to figure out why I wanted to listen to him.  When he did a funeral, I literally jumped in the front seat to ride with him so that I could observe (funerals scared me big time).  While at funerals I wrote down what he did and said.  I observed the key things he emphasized how he talked to grieving people.  When he counseled individuals or couples I asked to be present and I listened.  I debriefed myself afterward to be sure I learned something.  When he led the Lakeview leadership team meetings, I paid attention to how he did it, what he talked about, what he didn’t worry about.  I listened for how he managed his time and how he disengaged from ministry and pursued his family.  We never had a formal mentoring arrangement and I don’t remember almost any preplanned lessons or instructions where he would formally train me but I felt like I was constantly gleaning and learning.  He granted me enough access to his life that I was able to learn.
   • Collaborative environments:  Having the resource of experienced leaders at New Life was a big part of my growth.  I viewed collaboration as “a must” so I chased people into collaborating with me—I didn’t wait for them to pursue me.  Because New Life was such a collaborative environment, I always felt empowered to be helped as needed by people with better skills and experience than me.  People like Vilma, Mike, Dan and Linda were always generous with their time and input as I wrestled with things.  Many times I helped them with projects that weren’t mine—collaboration is always two-way.  And it wasn’t just about what I could get for “my projects”, either.  It was about how we could advance the mission of the church.  We learned to trust and rely on each other for different things the more we worked together.  Because we were able to deliver for each other, we developed trust with each other and trust empowers leadership.
   • Coaching and push-back:   Periodically Pastor Mark would sit me down and check on in what I was doing.  Other times we would have a 5 minute conversation as he was walking out the door to somewhere else.  When he would review things with me he always seemed to know what I was doing as well or better than me.  He would ask me hard questions that would frustrate me because I hadn’t thought of them ahead and answered them first.  He would nudge me back into the fray and expect me to clean things up and do better.  He would usually also remind me of the value of what I was doing related to the larger picture of New Life.  When he would confront mistakes or bad decisions I had made he would do it gently but firmly.  He would unwaveringly expect me to clean up the messes myself since I had made them.  Making me correct my own mistakes taught me that leaders don’t get to pass the buck—they get to own the problems and find solutions for the messes that happen under their care and their watch.  I’ve had to do that more times than I can count.   
   • Pain:  Just as pain brought me to a place of humility and teachability as I came on board at New Life Lakeview, pain has constantly brought me back to that teachable place.  Pain has come in many forms:  not getting what I wanted when I felt I needed it, wondering where I stood at times, my competitive tendencies, being financially broke, being financially stupid, being told “no” or “wait”, being left out of some leadership environments, and dealing with difficult people were just a few of the things that have brought me leadership pain.  Pastor Mark didn’t spend his days trying to alleviate my pain.  He trusted the pain to be a good companion to my growth.  He wouldn’t let me bleed out but he also didn’t coddle me. 
   • Restrained release of autonomy:  When it came to church leadership and pastoral responsibility, Pastor Mark went slower than I wanted.  He didn’t keep me from shepherding and loving people but he was slow to release autonomy to me or to remove himself from the leadership picture.   I was ordained in May of 2004.  I began preaching consistently in January of 2005.  His last Sunday at New Life Lakeview wasn’t until the Spring of 2008.  We crossed swords a lot of times.  There were many times that I wanted more freedom and autonomy.  I often thought I was ready to lead by myself before he let me lead by myself.  But he was cautious about releasing pastoral leadership and moving out of the picture because he knew that once he did, it would be nearly impossible to undo.  I’m grateful for this.  Being made to wait and working with a certain amount of ambiguity was a valuable shaping tool in my life.
   • Perseverance:  Through these things I learned the value of perseverance.  Remaining heart-engaged and joyful in serving “no matter what” has been vital to my leadership development.  Leadership is hard.  You get hurt by circumstances and people—disappointment is never far away from a leader’s life.   When you’re the leader there’s no one else around to blame which means you feel it more acutely.  When things don’t go right or when people leave or when things aren’t what they should be you can’t hide under the possibility that it wasn’t you. For those moments you need a strong, God-enabled, tested capacity to persevere through the heavy artillery fire, the pain of people’s lives, the short-comings of your faith, your heart and your leadership capacity.  Simple perseverance is the most powerful leadership development tool I know of.

   My final words to young leaders who want to be mentored and grow: 

   • Be aggressive—don’t be safe. 
   • Don’t spend your time trying to impress other leaders—spend yourself loving the people God has given you.
10. 1 year ago 

    How He loves Her so that you can love her

    Ephesians 5:22-33
    

    Love your wives as Christ loved the church…

    How did Christ love the church?
    

    1.     He loved her by giving up his life to save hers—this is sacrificial love.

    John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

    Real love isn’t just found in the big moments—its found in the easily overlooked, everyday moments.
    

    2.     He loved her by offering his life to the Father before offering himself to her—this is worship-driven love.

    Hebrews 10:5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

    “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
    but a body have you prepared for me;
    6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
    you have taken no pleasure.
    7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
    as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

    Jesus’ first aim was not to love the church—it was to obey the Father. 

    • Jesus’ love for the Father is primary.
    • His love for you is an overflow.
    • Because He is complete in the Father’s love (and vice versa), He is free to love you without strings attached.

    Love that detaches the strings:

    When the 1st recipient of loving acts is God, love arrives without “strings attached”.  
    

    Take the trash out as an act of worship.  “God, I take this trash to the can in subzero temps because I want to love you by loving my wife.”

    3.     He loved her by leaving “His world” to enter her world—this is incarnational love.

    Philippians 2:5-7 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

    God does not love us from a distance.  He enmeshes Himself in our world.
    

    Husbands love your wife by getting out of the “manzone” in your head and emotionally as well as physically engaging. 

    Your emotional or physical distance will be an insurmountable barrier to communicating love. 
    

    Break the “manzone” mindset:

    • Hand over your cell phone when you walk in the door and/or leave your computer at work.
    • Instead of sitting down when you come home, go find her and follow her around to see her world.
    • Play a game with your kids.
    • Ask your wife an open-ended question and then actually listen.  Example: “What do you look forward to most in a typical week?
    • Go grocery shopping with her.  (Don’t worry—it won’t become a habit.  She’ll never want you to go again.)
    • Take an unscheduled half-day and tell her you are at her disposal.

    4.     He loved her by doing work for her that no self-respecting man would do—this is self-effacing love.

    John 13:2-5, 12-15  During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

    12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.

    When there is work that is “beneath you”—work that you won’t do—it’s a small step to let people be beneath you too. 

    5:23 The husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the church

    “Head” means:   first to serve

    • If “head” means: first to benefit, first to demand, first to receive, first to be waited on, first to be cared for, then you are denying part of the Gospel.
      

    5.     He loved her by keeping his best for only her as a reward for her devotion—this is exclusive love.

    Matthew 13:10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

    6.     He loved her by identifying with her worst without explanation or defense—this is shameless love.

    Matthew 3:1-2, 13  In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

    13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
    

    This passage never stops amazing me—the identification of Jesus with sinful peoples’ sin without explanation, distance or denial. 

    Sometimes a husband tries to distance himself from his wife because of some aspect of her that he is ashamed of.
    

    Christ loves the church by moving toward her failings, sins and weakness.

    • He does so to beautify her:

    Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

    Shaming people never—NEVER—brings out the good in them.  And it always leave them feeling unloved.

    Identification brings security.  It says, “your shame is not shameful to me and you are not shameful to me.”
    

    7.     He loved her by refusing privacy and making himself an open book to her—this is transparent love.

    John 1:14, 18   And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

    Jesus, in making God known literally “exposed Him” to us.
    

    Jesus does not keep us guessing about who he is, what he loves, what moves him, what he cares about…

    Husbands, Christ loves His church transparently. 

    God calls us to make ourselves known to our wives.  This is an act of love!
    

    8.     He loved her by refusing to use his strength and power to fight for himself—this is humble love

    …they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. 51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

    Defensiveness:  my power for my sake. 

    Humility:  my power for your sake.

Grateful husband, father, and pastor. Big fan of the city of Chicago. I prefer to build my wings while falling.

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