The Last and the Next 10 years

When I look back over the last 10 years I am astonished at how much has changed.

-  Ten years ago none, or few of us, were e-mailing, had mobile phones, or had surfed on the web.

    -  Ten years ago we had neither heard of Google (1998), nor Wikipedia (2001), nor podcasts (2003), nor Facebook (2004), nor BLOGs (2004), nor Twitter (2006).

    -   Ten years ago the iPods (2002), Wii (2006), iPhones (2007) and Netbooks (2009) hadn’t been invented.

    -   And how many of us, even a year ago had even heard of eBooks (Dez. 1999)

or eReaders (2007 – the Kindle)

All these “Social Networks” and tools could be used to further relationships and to do good, inspiring us to action. The danger of them is that they can physically isolate us, changing us into passive consumers rather than catalytic actionaries.
To those of you worried about your privacy, I can only quote the following:-
“For all practical purposes, privacy is dead: get over it.”
Michael Hyatt

……………What did we do with our time then these last 10 years?  Or, more pertinently, what are we doing with our time now?

Books
For example, what books did we read in the last year?
It is said, that when we see what books are on a person’s bookshelf, we can know what he’s thinking. So here’s a look into my mind if you dare!

Some books I have consumed in the last year, re-read, or am at present reading are:-

• ·       “Not For Sale” by David Batstone. This is the first book which awakened me to the problem of modern day slavery in our world.
• ·       Close on its heels were “Terrify No More", Just Courage” and “Good News about Injustice” from Gary Haugen, a freedom fighter for slaves all over the world and founder of the amazing organization, the International Justice Mission.
• ·       My favorite book – such a wakeup call – of the last year was “The Hole in Our Gospel, what does God expect of us” by Richard Stearns, the President of World Vision. A most challenging book.
• ·       Along this vein is “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. Should come with a health warning – or should I say a wealth warning!
• ·       “Under the Overpass” by Mike Yankoski – again a wakeup call - to the problems faced by vagabonds and homeless people and the Christian churches answer to them. Horrifying at times.
• ·      “Total Church” by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis questions what we understand church to be and clears out the cobwebs of traditionalism in faith living.
• ·      “30 Days to Live” by Kerry and Chris Shook is a must for prioritizing life and moving important things higher up the To-Do List.
• ·      “Outliers” by Malcom Gladwell (Author of “Tipping Point”and “Blink” ) are all modern  classics and a call to a new way of looking at things
• ·      “Id:True You”, “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” and “Wild Goose Chase” from Mark Batterson are all books which challenge thinking processes and move to action.
• ·      “Captivating” by John and Stasi Eldredge – a wonderful book on being a woman.
• ·      “The Traveller’s Gift” and “The Noticer” from Andy Andrews were heartwarming but thought provoking books with so much wisdom in them that I find myself using quotes or stories from them all the time.
• ·      ANYTHING by Seth Godin (author of “Purple Cow”, “Tribes” and “The Dip”). Innovative is all I can say.
• ·      Over the last 2 years I’ve also enjoy historical novels like the Claire and Jamie series by Diane Gabaldon; Nikolas Sparks books, everything  and anything by Francis Rivers, from my daughter, the “Twilight” Series by Stephenie Myer, a riveting adventure true story of Surf, Ski and aeroplanes  “Crazy for the Storm” from Norman Ollestad- Starbucks sold it!
• ·      Last but definitely not least was probably one of the best fiction books ever written, “The Shack” by William P. Young – that kept us all up into the wee small hours.

Podcasts
If you need some more input, then listen to

• ·        “Catalyst” podcasts on http://www.catalystspace.com/
• ·        Erwin McManus podcasts on http://mosaic.org/podcast/
• ·        Francis Chan at http://www.cornerstonesimi.com/
• ·        Or Brad Baker http://www.saddleback.com/blogs/crave/index.html

BLOGs
BLOGs are on-line log books. A chronological writing on any subject imagineable which happens to grab the writer’s interest. I’ve found some gems this year and would recommend two whole heartedly. They are:-

      Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian Publishers in the World. Any questions you might have about Twitter, eBooks, Kindle, BLOGs, how to write a book etc. are all here to be dug up.
http://michaelhyatt.com/

      Seth Godin, known as “America’s greatest Marketer” is  author of “The Dip”, “Tribes”, “Purple Cow” the free e-book “unleashing the Ideavirus” and other best sellers

http://sethgodin.typepad.com

Twitter
Still relatively little used in Germany. But I love the quick messages (just 140 characters) about what is going on around the world.

Here are some of my favourites:-

      @ MichaelHyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers,

      @hardlynormal an ex-homeless person who battles daily to help the homeless in his city

      @NotForSale Not For Sale is a campaign of students, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, people
           of faith, and all justice seekers, united to fight human trafficking

      @charitywater  a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people
            developing nations. 

      @sex_money  working to make America the first slave free nation!

      @IJMHQ  Official Twitter of theInternational Justice Mission.

      @AmazingPics only the best photos - handpicked by me, not a machine - filtered for you -
      from pro and amateur photogs - out of a love for photography.

There is so much out there, that we now have to choose WHAT we read / listen to and HOW we do that.

Take a few moments to analyse your week.

      Is it better for your input, to read books, eBooks or web/ BLOG Sites?

      Is it better for you to listen to books or to read them?

      How about listening to podcasts of talks, radio programmes or reviews?

Conferences
Go to a conference which will inspire you.
Examples are

• Mosaic conferences such as “The Origins Project” in Eimeldingen in S. Germany next week
  http://www.theoriginsproject.de/
• The Catalyst Conferences 6-8 Oktober 2010 in Atlanta Georgia http://www.catalystspace.com/events/atlanta
• or West Coast Orange County, 21-23 April 2010
  http://www.catalystwestcoast.com/

    If you can’t attend a conference, load down the podcasts and videos from it!

For some of you this last year, or even the last 10 has been a time of unemployment and upheaval. What you trained to do has changed, been replaced or become no longer attractive in the new Global Village. In the words of Bob Dylan: “Times they are a-changing” and quicker than ever before. We change and jump ship,or we go down with the ship. As one modern prophet wrote:
“If your ship is sinking, get out now. By the time the rats start packing, it's way too late.”
Seth Godin

Think about this though, we were designed not just with a head, but with hands and feet too.

So use your ears to listen, your eyes to read, your brain to process it all and think up some new, creative ways of doing life.
Then get out there, embrace the changes and use your hands and your feet to make this world a better place for us all to live in.

Been Sick

Sorry. I've been in hospital with Viral Pneumonia. Back in a few days!

New Life, new character, new family, new priorities

Quote from "Total Church" from Tim Chester & Steve Timmis. p.41
“By becoming a Christian I belong to God and I belong to my brothers and sisters. It is not that I belong to God and then make a decision to join a local church. My being in Christ means my being in Christ with others who are in Christ. This is my identity. This is our identity. To fail to live out our corporate identity in Christ is analogous to adultery: we can be Christians and do it, but it is not what we as Christians should do. The loyalties of the new community supersede even the loyalties of biology… If the church is the body of Christ, then we should not live as disembodied Christians.”

Where did we ever get this idea that we can become Christians and not change. We are new creatures, the old is gone, see it has all become new. So much help in the Bible about Character pitfalls, how to treat each other, how to be a good neighbor, a good servant. We, as Christians are born into a new family and that family has other priorities and standards to the old. Let us ask God to complete the good work he has begun in us. Let us submit to his authority, take on his desires, be broken by what breaks him, love his family and our neighbor as ourselves.

Be a 7 day Christian

Quote from "Total Church" from Tim Chester & Steve Timmis.
"We need non-full-time leaders who can model whole-life, gospel-centred, missional living. It means thinking of our workplaces, homes and neighborhoods as the location of mission, we need to plan and pray for gospel relationships. This means creating church cultures in which we see normal, celebrating day-to-day gospel living in the secular world and discussions of how we can use our daily routines for the gospel.”

What more can one say? Let’s be intentionally missional and live the gospel message everywhere we are. “You are the only Bible, the only Jesus many people will see” is an old quote, but has something! Who else is challenging, or is in a position to challenge colleagues at the work place to question their morals and seek God? Meet up with other Christians in your firm / in your neighbourhood and pray for opportunities to befriend unchurched people. Let us play our part in enlarging the Kingdom of God, by life style and by word.

Social Justice

Quote from "Total Church" from Tim Chester & Steve Timmis. P. 59
“We need to be communities of love. And we need to be seen to be communities of love. People need to encounter the church as a community of relationships rather than a meeting you attend or a place you enter.”

In response to Isaiah 58, Isaiah 61, Mathew 25 and Hebrews 13, Joachim and I will be helping set up a platform where members of our church (primarily) can get more involved in social issues in Aschaffenburg, Germany, Europe and the rest of the world. We feel that there are 4 main areas where we as a community of believers can do this.
- Sharing what we have ("Teilen" = Sharing))
- Caring for widows and orphans ("Herz" = (Heart))
- Anti-Trafficking is loosening the "Chains That Bind" = ("Ketten" (Chains))
· Strangers - being their friend ("Auslaender" = (Foreigners))
- Celebration is a fifth group whereby we want to throw parties or Church in eg the Cinema to celebrate what God is doing.

We had our first meeting last night and 36 fired up (mainly) young people were there. Amazing.

We are the Church

Quote from "Total Church" from Tim Chester & Steve Timmis.
p.37 "The challenge for us is to make the gospel the centre of our lives not just on Sunday mornings but on Monday mornings. This means ending distinctions between “full timers”, “part timers” and people with secular employment in our teams and leadership structures."

We are the church. Not just the leaders are led by the Holy Spirit, but all believers are. Every part of the body plays its part in keeping the body healthy and on track. I love it when this unity of purpose becomes apparent as on last Sunday. I was going around the women and inviting them to our next women’s event. As I invited Jenny, a new lady, she asked what the theme was and I said “Thank God I’m a Woman”.
"Oh look" she said.
- What was written over the front of her T-Shirt?

“Thank God I’m a Woman”!
How cool is that.

Becoming Intentionally Missional

Quote from "Total Church" from Tim Chester & Steve Timmis.
p.33 "We find it easier to be radical in our thinking when we transplant ourselves outside our current situation. But we are as much missionaries here and now as we would be if we were part of a cross cultural team in another part of the world. Mission is central to us whoever we are."

When I became a Christian 25 years ago, I remember saying – why should I go into full time missionary work? As a Physiotherapist there is no better way to meet new people. I am in a 1 to 1 relationship with my patients for 20 to 40 minutes and am serving them. Talk flows naturally to “deeper” things and if my eyes are focused on Jesus, my patients will often ask me about my faith. However, though this is still my conviction, I need to much more INTENTIONAL in this – not in my words, but in my heart.

Church Without Walls

Further quote from "The Monkey and the Fish" from Dave Gibbons.

"What’s adding urgency to being a church without walls is that all around the world we’re seeing a dramatic flattening of hierarchies and loosening of structures in significant domains and institutions, and moves toward decentralization that are common during seasons of innovation.

Because of the internet and peer-to-peer platforms like Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and others, ordinary people around the world are participating and collaborating in ways and in spaces they never did before. And they are demonstrating there’s a vast expertise and talent out there that just didn’t have a voice or vehicle before. A new collaboration in the world is eradicating fences and removing age-old barriers, bullies, budgets, biases and bottlenecks."

Have we truly understood this? The world is changing and that at breakneck speed. Are we tagging along, reluctantly, or are we leading the fray. How is it at your work place, at your church, in your club, or amongst your friends. Be a welcomer of change, embrace change and use it to yours and everyone alses benefit. It WILL be worth it. Jump out of the rut!

Church Without Walls

It's been a while.
Here are some questions which bother me at present.

They are from "The Monkey and the Fish" from Dave Gibbons.

"What are the bottlenecks of our church? What are the barriers? What squeezes the life out of what is intended to be a sanctuary of strength and a source of life, hope, and intimacy?
[What is the] structure, organization, and philiosophy that discourages and hinders, if not prevents, the involvement and collaboration of everyday people in the most important parts of church and ministry?
We’re seeing that every time we make church not about a place or form but instead a home where everyone plays – a church without walls – we end up with something liberating, empowering, and engaging."

So let me ask specifically, are YOU a bottleneck, barrier or life-extinguisher. Do you help to create an atmosphere where creativity can be creative? Are you encouraging everyone you influence, to achieve their full God-given potential in every area of their lives?