I always get excited about what our church might encounter when we get together, and last night was no different. We had 4 new people make their way out to our little gathering and the discussion was impacted by their attendance. What I am beginning to enjoy more than anything else is the authenticity of the group. People are asking real life questions and not rhetorical ones that lead us to simply patting each other on the back and naval gazing.

Last night, after enjoying more great soup from chef Cato, we read through Luke 13 & 14 and the topic that generated the most discussion was the topic of money. I found it quite humorous that a not so traditional church would be talking about money, and I found it even more funny when I thought about the people who came because they were sick of the local church talking about money so much. But money wasn’t the topic because we needed to begin a new building project; no, money came up because of the passage we read.

Luke 14:7-11

When he [Jesus] noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

There doesn’t seem to be any money in that verse, do you see it anywhere? We began talking about what it meant to be a servant, take a lesser seat, put others above yourself, and how the first shall be last and the last shall be first. This brought on a great discussion about what it meant to serve others and be humble and it brought up the topic of money. So many in our world value money as their personal worth, and so it can appear very countercultural for Christians to give a lot of their money away with out getting any financial incentive back. This led to a talk on whether it is okay to be rich as a Christian, or if we should be poor. Although we never came to an definitive answer on that, we did discuss this verse:

Matthew 19:24

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Besides many of the literal aspects of this verse (feel free to comment below and I can clarify), the truth remained that having a lot of money makes it a lot harder to walk the way of Jesus when there is so much opportunity for it to affect you. Money itself is not inherently evil, but the love of it is. So what does it mean to live generously, what does it mean to humble yourself, and what does it mean to put others above yourself?

Usually at the end of the discussion before we pray for each other we discuss what it means to live this topic out each week, and two people piped up and said they wanted to get baptized! Money, humility, service…baptism…weird I thought, but then it dawned on me. What we had been talking about is obedience to God in all aspects of our life. Obedience to God in service to others, obedience to God in how we treat others, and obedience in how we use our resources. These two people got excited about being obedient to God in baptism…quite remarkable and quite unexpected…quite cool.

I am reading Good to Great by Jim Collins, and I am almost finished but this quote labelled so many pastors and church planters to a “T.”

Indeed, the point of this entire book is not that we should “add” these findings to what we are already doing and make ourselves even more overworked. No, the point is to realize that much of what we’re doing is at best a waste of energy. If we organized the majority of our work time around applying these principles, and pretty much ignored or stopped doing everything else, our lives would be simpler and our results vastly improved.

Great point indeed

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck in central Java, Indonesia, killing more than 5,700 people, seriously wounding over 6,500, and leaving an estimated 100,000 people homeless. The powerful earthquake, which struck close to Yogyakarta, on the main island of Java, is the third major tremor to strike Indonesia in 18 months, with the worst being the quake on December 26, 2004 and the resulting tsunami. Especially hard-hit was the town of Bantul and the surrounding area, accounting for many of the deaths.

We are called to engage with the suffering of the world, and there are organizations in Canada who are already acting on the scene. Two examples of active, trusted NGOs that you can support now are Canadian Food for the Hungry and Worldvision.

via

The open house is pleased to announce that we have raised all the money needed to support our interns for the summer. Many thanks go out to Givemeaning.com who put the page together for us.

We are extremely shocked how quickly the money was raised and blessed to receive calls from some of you who contacted me recently to share how you hadn’t had an opportunity to support us, and yet would like to.

With that in mind, we recently received word that we will now have 4 interns joining us this summer instead of 3 and so if you are still interested in supporting us in this cause, you can make a cheque payable to CSBA (the open house) and mail it to 1071 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5T 2B4.

Thanks again for all your incredible generosity and we look forward to updating you with the developments and progress of our group this summer on our website.

I am at home now after my trip to LA where I attended the Origins Project/ethos with Mosaic, featuring Erwin McManus.

Overall I have to say i was truly impacted and changed and feel incredibly free in my role as a church pastor/planter with the open house. The conference helped me find my true passions, and desires in life and how that expresses itself itself in my work. It released the creativity in me and allowed me to release the creativity in others.

I know myself better from this experience and will remember it for a long time. I only hope I am able to communicate it and unpack it for others.

By far the best session so far (and only one more to go). Erwin unwrapped leadership styles in such a way that i realized why i struggle in my role, why i try to make people like myself, and how we can begin to unleash different leadership styles in our people.

He talked about Passion, Mission and Vision and then helped us understand what two of those characterize ourselves.

they are broken down like this (but the diagram they have is better):

mission – Specialist –>focus + organize = logistical
vision – Theorist –>strategize+innovate = strategic
passion – Activist –>inspire+mobilize = tactical

mission + vision = corporate
vision + passion = catalytic
passion + mission = causal

I am a corporate leader through and through. Kristin is a causal leader to a tee. Now the million dollar question: who at the open house is or are our Catalytic leader(s)? I have an idea, but we’ll have to see…i feel so free’d up!

one more session to go…

Erwin was back this session sharing how their church creates leadership through character, rather than talent. Talent is harnessed through a revealing of character.

the matrix is set up like this:

courage wisdom generosity

integrity perseverance wholeness

humility faithfulness gratitude

it goes up the scale…

good stuff for sure, but i want to share was his point that the ten commandments are the bare minimum for someone to live…not the highest point on the bar…good thoughts.

session back on…be back soon…

Ok i wasn;t too impressed with this one. Alex McManus led it and basically it was an advertisment for his blogging program of which i will not mention for the simple reason i didn’t come here to be sold something.

However he did share 3 points about the future that we can determine it by:

- studying human nature
- studying macro trends
- creating it

good thought, but enough with the self plug…

This morning I am attending the last day of the conference, which is specific to church leaders and church planters, which they called Ethos.

I took this talent finder to determine my strengths of which i think we are going to go over them in the session today.

My strengths were:

Maximizer
Arranger
Achiever
Self-Assurance
Competition

more to come…