Rob Bell's Book 3

Read Tim Keller's "The Importance of Hell", then read this blog post by Bill Walker. Walker's point is that Keller has already said much of what Bell is saying, yet Keller hasn't come under the attack that Bell has.

Great article from The Huffington Post called "Rob Bell vs. John Piper: Do we have to choose?" One of the best takeaways from this article is this quote: "Bell represents a movement among younger evangelicals that considers theological truth as a secondary concern. they are more about the 'journey' rather than the destination." This is so key. My recommendation with a book like this is to certainly read it, but also read what others are saying about the issue, and of course to read it in context with the Scriptures.

Scot McKnight posted a good article by Jeff Cook on the similarities between Rob Bell and C.S. Lewis. I've never read these Lewis works, but I find this very interesting. A quote: "I suspect Bell intimidates some because he is part of a culture they do not understand and cannot control (that culture is urban, postmodern, and discovers the truth more naturally through questions, sarcasm, and intuition than through the systematic presentations of the top Christian publishing house)."

Finally, a friend just told me about Darrell Bock's chapter-by-chapter review, which can be found here.

Rob Bell's Book 2

Here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions from Mars Hill, the church where Bell pastors.

Rob Bell's Facebook fan page has more videos

Several evangelicals have come to Bell's defense, and believe that what he is writing is not only nothing new about it, but also nothing wrong with it. Two of the more prominent ones areRichard Mouw and Greg Boyd.

Here is the video of Martin Bashir's interview with Bell, as well as video from part of his interview with Sally Quinn of The Washington Post.

Rob Bell's Book 1

I've only read about 1/3 of Rob Bell's latest book, Love Wins, but I've read a lot of what others think about the book. I promised some resources over a week ago, so here goes (there will be three posts since there are so many):

First off is a blog post from The Resurgence with links to the initial promo video for the book that set off a social media firestorm, along with some of the more anti-Rob Bell articles and book reviews.

Next up is a link to the video from a panel discussion moderated by Al Mohler of Southern Seminary. A synopsis of that discussion can be found here.

Ben Witherington has a chapter-by-chapter review here. Witherington is a New Testament scholar who falls in the middle on a lot of issues. He affirms much of what Bell writes, but also feels that he falls short in a lot of areas.

Mark Galli's review in Christianity Today.

Scot McKnight's post right before the book came out. In this post he defines words like universalism, pluralism, and annihilationism, all key words in this debate.

Scot McKnight is now going through the book on his blog. So far there are five posts.

Some Links

Here are some good articles and blog posts I've read over the last few weeks.

Trade as One founder Nathan George writes about our spending habits here. Great quote: "The gospel calls us to live simply, to give generously and to buy ethically. When the church begins to see the other 98% of its people's incomes as capable of being engaged in the gospel, things get really exciting."

Mark Batterson writes about the importance of job satisfaction for team morale. He writes, "If the job satisfaction number is high (on their annual survey), then just about everything else will take care of itself because the motivation is there. If you love what you do, then you're going to have a 95% better chance of doing it well. If your satisfaction level is low, then your performance will inevitably suffer."

There is a 20-part series going on at The Simple Dollar on David Allen's latest book, Making It All Work. In the 14th entry he deals with the need to determine primary areas of focus. These could deal with work, family, hobbies, spirituality, health, etc. These are the things that are most important to you. At the end of the week, then, you can see how you've spent your time (and I would add money), and you will quickly determine what areas are being neglected and where balance is needed.

Seth Godin on where ideas come from. My favorite: "Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them."

You Can Change 1

I just started reading Tim Chester's You Can Change. So far an excellent read, one that I'm going to recommend everyone at NC read. Here's what Tim Keller says about the book: "A book about Christian growth that is neither quietistic nor moralistic is rare. A book that is truly practical is even rarer. Tim Chester's new volume falls into both categories."

In this post I want to give some observations from chapter 1, which is titled "What Would You Like to Change?" Chester starts out by saying that most of our answers to this question (our appearance, new job, less anger, etc) are not ambitious enough. The reason? Because we were created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Remember, at the end of each of the six days of creation God said, "It is good," but at the end of the seventh day, after creating humanity, He said, "It is very good." Anything less than God's ideal for us is settling.

Yet we have a problem, and it's the same thing I posted about in the review of week 1 of Fight Club. It's that humanity is broken because of our rebellion against God. We've fallen short of reflecting God's glory, which was the creation intent (Romans 3:23). Because of that brokenness, we're no longer able to be the people we were created to be.

I love the beginning of the next paragraph: "Enter Jesus." He is the true image, the One who did live as we were meant to live, the One who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4) and radiates the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus not only shows us how to live the life we were meant to live, but through the Cross He provides the means for us to do it. Hence, we call this good news!

Here's my favorite quote of the chapter: "Jesus isn't just good for us - he is good itself. He defines good. The secret of gospel change is being convinced that Jesus is the good life and the fountain of all joy. Any alternative we might choose would be the letdown" (15).

So the key to change is first understanding that we, as Switchfoot says, "were meant to live for so much more." Second, we have to understand that because of sin's reign in the world, we're incapable of doing this on our own (bad news). Third, we have a Redeemer who has conquered sin and death and provided a way to live as we were meant to live (good news). Finally, the key to embracing this is to turn to Jesus, the author of our salvation and the perfecter of our faith.

The True Prosperity Gospel

Ben Witherington: If there is to be a prosperity gospel worthy of its name, it should be all about the great blessing of giving and living self-sacrificially and how freeing it is to be trusting God day to day for live and all its necessities.

Weekly Links

The 100 Most Read Bible Verses at BibleGateway.com

Before we can be something, we have to first dream something. Seth Godin says it well here.

Great read about churches in Austin partnering with schools in Austin

Ben Witherington on a theology of work (or lack thereof in our culture)

The TED Commandments (rules every speaker needs to know) - see here for more

Tony Morgan on the difference between Leading and Managing

Tim Chester's review of Sticky Church, by Larry Osborne

Batching

One of the greatest takeaways I've gotten from The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss, is the idea of batching.  Batching asks the question, "What activities can I allot to a specific day, week, month, quarter, or year so that I don't squander time repeating them more often than is absolutely necessary? (108).

Before beginning this book, Mandy and I had decided to do this with our grocery shopping.  We had read this book, and decided that we would attempt to go to the grocery store three times during the month of May.  The goal was to free up time and to not spend as much money.  These two goals go hand in hand.  By planning our meals and shopping, we have avoided the ever-so-often last minute trip to Schnucks to pick up croutons.  And we all know what happens when we run to the store to pick up croutons (especially when it's right before dinner).  We end up picking up several other items as well.  This cuts into the monthly budget.  I'm happy to report that we have done really well, and our goal is to cut it to two trips this month.

As I wrote in my first post on this book, my next step was to go from checking emails every time one arrived in my Outlook mailbox to only opening Outlook to read and respond to emails five times per day.  Ferriss suggests only doing this twice a day, and I may get there soon, but as I said, baby steps are needed here.

Yesterday I was waiting on a tow truck to pick up our Saturn (it's been in the parking lot at Union Ave. Baptist Church since Sunday night).  I had some time so I read more from the book. A lightbulb came on as I read his section on batching.  On a notecard I listed all of my monthly, weekly and daily tasks, and put the numbers of hours I spend on each.  This includes admin tasks, meetings and study time for church, property management and real estate work, as well as household chores such as laundry, cooking and paying bills. 

This part wasn't new to me.  I've done it before and it's been helpful.  What I had never done, however, was this:  I opened up Outlook (though I didn't check email yet because it wasn't time), and proceeded to put all of these tasks in my calendar.  I always put meetings, events, and deadlines in my calendar, but I haven't always put tasks such as these on it:

• Prep for sermon
• Upload sermon to website
• Pay bills
• Update rental spreadsheet 

I never forget to do tasks such as these, so I figure there's no need to write them down.  However, by having them in my calendar, I see how my day fills up.  I see the things that have to get done.  There's plenty of flexibility to move things around, but on Sunday night I know that I can get a quick overview of my upcoming week in about a minute.

This may not seem like a big deal to some, but as one who has complete control over my schedule (not always a good thing for some), this helps me gauge my productivity.

The Laws of Pareto & Parkinson

Here's part 2 of my review on Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek.  Pareto's Law, named for an economist named Vilfredo Pareto and often referred to as the "80/20" Principle, states that 80% of the wealth is possessed by 20% of the population.  You've also no doubt heard this principle when dealing with volunteers (it's used in the church world quite often).  Here we say that 80% of the work is performed by 20% of the volunteers.  

Ferriss applies this principle to our outputs and inputs.  In other words, he says that 80% of our results (outputs) come from 20% of our effort and time (inputs).  If this is the case, then we need to figure out how to not only guard that 20%, but to purge as much of the wasted time so that we can do more that truly produces results, as well as do more of the things that bring joy and fulfillment to our lives.  This speaks into the myth that business = productivity. 

 

The second law he mentions is Parkinson's Law.  This law speaks to the need to shorten deadlines so that focus and quality are the result.  If you have two days to finish a project because you are going on vacation, you finish the project in two days, even when the project normally takes a week to accomplish.  If we have 8 hours to fill, we will fill it, but it doesn't guarantee that we will accomplish anything.  He refers to this as the "9-5 Illusion."    

In bringing these two laws together, Ferriss states:

If you haven't identified the mission-critical tasks and set aggressive start and end times for their completion, the unimportant becomes the important. Even if you know what's critical, without deadlines that create focus, the minor tasks forced upon you (or invented, in the case of the entrepreneur) will swell to consume time until another bit of minutiae jumps in to replace it, leaving you at the end of the day with nothing accomplished.

The 4-Hour Workweek

This weekend I started reading The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss.  I remember looking at this book when I came out, but was decided not to pick it up after reading some negative reviews on Amazon.  However, a few weeks ago I read a great review of it, and decided to check it out at the library.  I'm glad I did.  Though I can understand where the negative reviews come from, it has already been extremely helpful to me.  Over the next few weeks I'm going to try to make some small changes in the way I work that I believe will make big differences.

Here are a few thoughts from the first few chapters that have been meaningful to me:

He shares in the Introduction how he hates being asked the "cocktail" questions, "So, what do you do?"  He says that it "reflects an epidemic I was long part of:  job descriptions as self-descriptions (6)."  He goes on to say, "How can I possibly explain that what I do with my time and what I do for money are compltely different things?"  As I said in a previous post, I've just started a real estate investing business, and although I really like this work, it's not what defines me.  And even though I am doing this so that it will allow me to do the work that God has called me to (pastoring a church), that's not entirely what defines me either.

Doing less meaningful work, so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance, is NOT laziness.  This is hard for most to accept, because our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity.  Few people choose to (or are able to) measure the results of their actions and thus measure their contribution in time.  More time equals more self-worth and more reinforcement from those above and around them (32-33).

Boy, do I struggle with this!  I think it has something to do with the fact that most of my work life has been entrepreneurial in nature, and most of it has been without punching a clock. Though this is great for me, it's often been difficult to know when I've done enough.  There are two reasons for this:  (1) I love my work, and (2) the work is never complete.  I despise laziness, so I work hard.  However, is my work always productive?  That's the big question.  

In chapter 5 he talks about the difference between being effective and being efficient.  He states, "Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals.  Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible.  Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe" (67).  He goes on to give the example of the person who checks email 30 times per day.  I have a habit of keeping Outlook open, and, if I receive an email, I often "tackle" it immediately.  So my first plan of action is to open up Outlook and respond to email only five times per day during this week.  He recommends doing this only twice a day.  I'll hopefully get there, but we've got to start with baby steps!  I'm also thinking the same way with tasks such as paying bills.  

Ferriss next gives two truisms that I felt were worth giving thought to:

1. Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.
   
2. Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.

I'll try to write more tomorrow on Pareto's Law and Parkinson's Law. 

Depending on God Pt. 2

I mentioned in my last post that I've been up reading tonight. The book I've been reading (actually, re-reading), is Brennan Manning's, Ruthless Trust. Below are some quotes from the book.

Childlike surrender in trust is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship (4).

Against insurmountable obstacles and without a clue as to the outcome, the trusting heart says, "Abba, I surrender my will and my life to you without any reservation and with boundless confidence, for you are my loving Father (7).

The decisive (or what I call the second) conversion from mistrust to trust – a conversion that must be renewed daily – is the moment of sovereign deliverance from the warehouse of worry (7).

The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future (12).

The reality of naked trust is the life of a pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without any rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it his presence and his promise (12-13).

Culture-Making

A few days ago I started reading Culture Making, by Andy Crouch. I've been looking forward to this book ever since I heard him speak on this topic at Q 2007. It's actually better than I thought it would be. I was a little bogged down reading chapter 1, so I skipped over to chapter 4 (Cultivation and Creation). That's where it really starts to get good. Today I'm going to start Pt. 2: The Gospel. You should definitely check out Andy's site. You can download a few sample chapters there, as well as pretty much every article that he's written.

I ordered it here.

The Divine Conspiracy

As I wrote in my last post, our church is spending a few weeks discussing Discipleship. Today I've been rereading chapter 8 of The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard. I don't think there's any book (other than the Bible) that I've wanted to internalize more than this one. As I was reading today, I typed a few quotes. Enjoy!

The assumption of Jesus’ program for his people on earth was that they would live their lives as his students and co-laborers. They would find him so admirable in every respect – wise, beautiful, powerful, and good – that they would constantly seek to be in his presence and be guided, instructed, and helped by him in every aspect of their lives (273).

The narrow gate is not, as so often assumed, doctrinal correctness. The narrow gate is obedience – and the confidence in Jesus necessary to it. The broad gate, by contrast, is simply doing whatever I want to do (275).

A disciple, or apprentice, is simply someone who has decided to be with another person, under appropriate conditions, in order to become capable of doing what that person does or to become what that person is (282).

And as a disciple of Jesus I am with him, by choice and by grace, learning from him how to live in the kingdom of God. This is the crucial idea. That means, we recall, how to live within the range of God’s effective will, his life flowing through mine. Another important way of putting this is to say that I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner that he did all that he did (283).

Only with such images (pearl & hidden field) before us can we correctly assess the famous “cost of discipleship” of which so much is made. Do you think the businessman who found the pearl was sweating over its cost? An obviously ridiculous question! The only thing these people were sweating about was whether they would “get the deal.” Now that is the soul of the disciple (292).

The entire point of this passage (Luke 14:25-33) is that as long as one thinks anything may really be more valuable than fellowship with Jesus in his kingdom, one cannot learn from him (293).

The counting of the cost is to bring us to the point of clarity and decisiveness. It is to help us to see. Counting the cost is precisely what the man with the pearl and the hidden treasure did. Out of it came their decisiveness and joy. It is decisiveness and joy that are the outcomes of the counting (293).

Weekly Links

I read a lot of blogs each week, so I decided to highlight some of what I read on my blog. I'm hoping to make this a weekly habit...


Bob Roberts writes about Missional Families

Southern Baptist Pastors think differently than the rest of America (no, this isn't a joke; very eye-opening; make sure to click on the photo gallery)

Alan Hirsch reviews Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath (I'm currently reading this book)

Helpful definition of Missional Community

Philip Yancey writes about brokenness. Check out the subtitle: "Why I Sometimes Wish I Was an Alcoholic."

David Fitch says that it takes 5-10 years "to nourish a missional community into a sustainable church."

Brother Lawrence

This past Sunday Jason led us through John 15. The question we discussed was, "What does it mean to abide in Christ?" At the end of the discussion he passed out excerpts from Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God. I first read this book about ten years ago, and it had a profound effect on me. It was really good to come back to it today. Next Sunday we'll share how our "abiding" has been different in light of this.

Here's a quote from Brother Lawrence:

...when we are faithful in keeping ourselves in his holy presence, keeping him always before us, this not only prevents our offending him or doing something displeasing in his sight (at least willfully), but it also brings to us a holy freedom, and if I may say so, a familiarity with God wherein we may ask and receive the graces we are so desperately in need of.

The Importance of Posture

The following is from The Tangible Kingdom. It's one of the best parts of the book. (Click on the title of this post for the direct link).

Posture is important because it can either obscure the message of truth or it can enhance and pave the way for a clear rendering of the truth. In North America, people don't have any sense of the true Christian message anymore because the face of that message looks so unlike the founder. Christianity is now almost impossible to explain, not because the concepts aren't intelligible, but because the living, moving, speaking examples of our faith don't line up with the message. Our poor posture overshadows the most beautiful story and reality the world has ever known.

Sometimes I wonder how we got to this point. Why did pagan onlookers hold the early church in such high respect, but today's non-Christians view the modern day church with such disdain? I think one of the main culprits has been our paradigm of evangelism. In the name of "getting someone saved," we have primarily focused on communicating a message of truth to the world. There's nothing wrong with that, except that we've prioritized the verbals over the non-verbals, the message over the method or the proclamation over the posture.

We assume that if we can just get the idea across, then it will be up to the person to respond, whether we do it correctly or not. Maybe we also think that in order to get God's approving glance, it's our duty share "truth" even if our modus operandi is "Obnoxious for Jesus . . . and loving it."

Focusing on what we say without regard to how we say it doesn't work in marriage, with our kids, in politics, or in any other social arrangement. So why do we think it would work with God? Do we actually think he is happy with us for alienating his world?

The idea of posture helps us realize that truth is important, but according to scripture, truth is not the only thing, or the most important thing. The most important thing is whether or not people are attracted to the truth; drawn into the truth, and able to understand and receive the truth.

Consider God's instruction to us through the book of Proverbs "A gentle answer turns away wrath" (Proverbs 15:1). That must mean that God cares quite a bit that we be concerned with the "how" of what we say, not just the "what."

Paul shares his insights on posture in 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8: with those who were coming to faith "But we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We love you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us." An expanded paraphrase might be, "because we found ourselves emotionally attached to you all, we couldn't just preach at you. We knew you needed time to process your faith and the only way to help you understand the big picture was to stay with you longer. We knew the message would make more sense if you saw it lived out in our lives."

When we focus on the message only, what are we saying to people? Maybe, that they really aren't dear to us? Is it possible that to share four great truths about God without giving them a part of our lives might actually communicate the wrong thing? Paul knew that a message without an attractive tangible person embodying and delivering it would fall on deaf ears or be lost amid all the other faiths of that time. What makes the Gospel good news isn't the concept, but the real life person in front of them that have been changed by it.

Peter also speaks of posture when in 1 Peter 3:15 he says, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." These early Christians actually expected that if they embodied the message, they wouldn't have to target people or go after them. They enjoyed the alternative of waiting for people to approach them with curiosity and interest because of what they saw these early Christians being and doing.

In our Adullam Network, we specifically ask people not to try to be "evangelistic." We suggest to them that if people aren't asking about their lives, then we haven't postured our faith well enough or long enough. We're observing that every story of conversion and transformation happened without anyone being approached with a message. The message certainly has gotten out, not as our main priority but as our gentle response to their curiosity.

When posture is wrong, you'll always be perceived to be an enemy or judge. When your posture is correct, you'll actually be perceived to be an advocate, a person who supports and speaks in favor of or pleads for another.

The Church of Irresistible Influence 1

I just started reading The Church of Irresistible Influence, by Robert Lewis. Here's a quote from the book.

In my quest to discern how my pastoral ministry could be more effective, I saw that more preaching is not the answer to today's spiritual hunger. Neither is the writing of more books, the hosting of more conferences, better technology, or special effects. For the most part, we are simply talking to ourselves. Meanwhile, the church grows increasingly isolated from its community and the culture, glorying in a biblical "witness" it often does not really possess.

Then I looked at some of the early attempts by our church at serving and caring for our community.

• I noticed the changed lives that resulted from members investing their lives in helping families in a low-income area known as Eastgate.
• I observed the impact of doctors from our church who set up a medical clinic at a home for unwed mothers.
• I felt a sense of God's pleasure as I joined hundreds of our members as we went out into the community one Saturday to clean up neighborhoods, repair homes, and complete other projects.
• I noted that city leaders were beginning to view Fellowship Bible Church as a force for good in the community.
• And wonderfully, I saw people who were formerly hardened to, and skeptical of, the gospel soften and embrace Christ (47).

The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits

Here's another great article from Fast Company's annual issue on Social Capitalists. The article is taken from a book called Forces for Good, by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather Grant.

First, an excerpt...

The secret to success lies in how great organizations mobilize every sector of society -- government, business, nonprofits, and the public -- to be a force for good. In other words, greatness has more to do with how nonprofits work outside the boundaries of their organizations than how they manage their own internal operations. Textbook strategies like relentless fundraising, well-connected boards, and effective management are necessary, of course, but they are hardly sufficient. The high-impact nonprofits we studied are satisfied with building a "good enough" organization and then spending their time and energy focused externally on catalyzing large-scale systemic change. Great organizations work with and through others to create more impact than they could ever achieve alone.

I feel the same way about Neighborhood Church. Systemic change is the goal. So often we spend so much of our time trying to build an excellent organization, when sometimes a "good enough" organization is all that we need, so long as that "good enough" organization influences society.

Risky Business

I'm in a book group on Thursday nights with two other guys, and we've been reading In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, by Mark Batterson. Last night we discussed chapter 6: "Playing It Safe is Risky." A few quotes...

The more you're willing to risk, the more God can use you. And if you're willing to risk everything, then there is nothing God can't do in you and through you (102).

Sometimes taking a calculated risk means giving up something that is good so you can experience something that is great. In a sense, sin is short-changing ourselves and short-changing God. It is settling for anything less than God's best. Faith is the exact opposite. Faith is renouncing lesser goods for something greater. and it always involves calculated risk (106).

Obedience is a willingness to do whatever, whenever, wherever God calls us (109).

Maybe righteousness has less to do with not doing anything wrong and more to do with doing things right (109).

If you were to always act in your greatest self-interest, you would always obey God (111).

(quoting Johann Wolfgang von Goethe): Hell begins the day God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do (114).

This chapter had a profound impact on me. It wasn't so much that I read anything new. It was more that I received a renewed permission to take risks for God. My heart beats for stuff like this. I've grown most in my life when I was completely dependent on God to do what only He could do. I feel like I'm in this place right now, especially with the church.

Yesterday our little church had a good day. One of our core group members had been emailing Wendi Thomas, a writer for the Commercial Appeal, about the Advent Conspiracy. Yesterday she received an email from Wendi saying that she was planning on writing about it in Sunday's paper. Shelley forwarded the email to Jason and I, and five minutes later I was being interviewed by Wendi on the phone.

Wendi is a great writer, and I'm very excited that she has decided to write about the Advent Conspiracy. The fact that it is going to be in Sunday's edition is icing on the cake. God is up to something here!

So what does that have to do with the book? Well, last night I was reminded of an incident that took place one year ago. That's when I first heard about the Q conference. I immediately wanted to go, but I knew that Jason and Barb were going to be having their baby around that same time, plus it was pretty expensive. I eventually decided that I probably shouldn't go.

A couple of days later, I felt that God was telling me that I should go, and that He would provide the funds. The trick, though, was that I was going to have to ask for the funds...not from Him, but from people. I'm like most people in that I do not like asking people for money, but I felt like God wanted me to do this. So I took a risk and asked two people. One gave and the other didn't. Then a couple of days later we received the rest of what was needed.

Here's what hit me last night. The Q conference was where I first heard about the Advent Conspiracy. That was my big takeaway. I knew when I first heard Rick McKinley talk about it that this was something that our church should take part in.

The step that God was asking me to take was pretty small compared to others' steps of obedience, but look at what it led to. I continue to be amazed by the creativity of God!

The Lord's Prayer

I've started reading Scot McKnight's The Jesus Creed. Chapter 2 is on the Lord's Prayer. McKnight says, "we learn at least four things when we permit the Lord's Prayer to mentor our prayer life" (19).

1. We learn to approach God as Abba.
2. We learn waht God really wants.
God's love plan is for his glorious Name to be honored and his will to become concrete reality on earth. In pondering God's name, Kingdom, and will, we are prompted (daily) to yearn for what God yearns for.
3. We learn to think of others.
4. We learn what everyone needs.
Our concern is with God's breaking into history to make this world right for all of us. And that means praying for others so that they will have adequate provisions, spiritual purity, and moral stability.


McKnight points out that Jesus knew the dangers of prayer becoming nothing more than ritual. The Lord's Prayer can often become this. He says, "Jesus knows that his liturgical prayer will provide a framework for prayer, some hooks on which his disciples can hang their own praises and requests, their own complaints and queries" (18).


The following is a paraphrase of this passage by Dallas Willard (The Divine Conspiracy, p.269).

Dear Father always near us,
may your name be treasured and loved,
may your rule be completed in us -
may your will be done here on earth
in just the way it is done in heaven.
Give us today the things we need today,
and forgive us our sins and impositions on you
as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.
Please don't put us through trials,
but deliver us from everything bad.
Because you are the one in charge,
and you have all the power,
and the glory too is all yours - forever -
which is just the way we want it!