the simplicity of despair

I'm not proud of this, but the emotion that I've struggled with the most since I entered my foxhole has been despair. (Newer emergesque readers won't know about the "In the Foxhole" Series.) The whole point of the foxhole series was that such despair is unwarranted in the clear and more certain light of revealed truth, but my common addiction to mere temporalities has meant that I've had to fight against this debilitating emotion.

But some time ago, I began asking God if perhaps I had learned all that I was going to learn through this pain (not that I claim full insight into whatever He may be doing by allowing my circumstances) and perhaps He would be pleased to just fix the situation!

Amazingly, one week ago today it seemed that God was pleased to grant me my request in a major breakthrough in my situation. I still don't completely trust it, but so far, so good.

And I feel kind of lost.

I've mentioned this before, but this past week I've definitely experienced it: when you are in the midst of a very troubling situation, it's easy to define your happiness around the resolution of that situation. It is, of course, a fiction that our deepest happiness will result from any financial, relational, medical, vocational, etc. breakthrough, but when you spend so much time focusing on these kinds of problems , it can be easy to have faith that their resolution will bring true happiness. It's lead to my thinking about Paul's remark:

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)

Paul's point, of course, is that Christ must be our sufficiency in plenty or in want.

And so I am sobered and encouraged to renew my efforts to find my sufficiency in Him. He must be my all in loss and in gain. I must be reliant on Him when things are going great and when they're not. A poet has written,"my place is of the light; this place is of the dark." We must hold this place lightly and keep our eyes ever fixed on things above (Col. 3:1). As Malcolm Muggeridge has written in his wonderful Chronicles of Wasted Time, "It is misers and Don Juans who moan; spendthrifts and saints are always laughing."

I preach, of course, to myself as I try to learn that life is not finally defined by whether I am in or out of the foxhole.

- the complete "In the Foxhole" series

LifeChurch.tv in Second Life

lifechurch.tv's Second Life auditorium

Bobby Gruenewald, LifeChurch.tv's Innovation Leader, posts about the joys and challenges of launching a new church site within the Second Life environment.

The recent article I wrote for Leadership Network focused on LifeChurch.tv's Second Life and Internet Campuses (though they technically consider their Second Life Island to be a part of their Internet Campus) if you're interested in learning more about how they did this and what LifeChurch.tv is doing online.

your opinion please

thanks for your thoughts when I asked earlier about going to Wordpress or Typepad. I'm probably going to use the former.

Question: do you think that I should retain the name "emergesque" or just use "faithmaps blog?"

I've always had the faithmaps.blogspot.com url for emergesque which has understandably confused people. Some folks deal with this by just googling emergesque or my name. So whatever name I end up choosing, I'll correct that by using the same url.

Your thoughts are welcome!

"Missio Dei: In the Crisis of Christianity"

Fred Peatross, an editor with New Wineskins, has just released Missio Dei: in the crisis of christianity, which can be purchased here.

The book is already receiving significant praise.

Alan Hirsch, co-author of The Shaping of Things To Come writes:

"Articulating the contours of the church that will thrive in the 21st century with lucidity and simplicity would be a very difficult assignment, but to enounce it with the clarity that assures every reader an accurate understanding takes a rare talent. Fred Peatross does just that.

Many writers resort to simply rehashing outmoded and outworn paradigms. Fred proves to be a trustworthy guide laying out a clear and practical framework around which to contrast (or reconstruct) an authentically missional church. In doing so he manages to be both fresh and inventive. This work is a welcome contribution to the literature exploring practical approaches to missional church."

The book should be more widely available in traditional online outlets in a few days.

Fred's a friend and I'm happy to see his influence widen with this book!

churchreport.com: America's 50 Most Influential Churches

from churchreport.com:

"The 2007 survey was emailed to leaders of more than 2,000 of the largest non-Catholic congregations in the nation in April-June. Participants were asked to recommend up to 10 churches they considered to be among the nation’s most influential. A total of 77 churches were recommended. A total of 53 percent of all church leader recommendations named the five churches. The top 10 churches received a total of 65 percent of all recommendations."

Here are the top 10.

1. Willow Creek Community Church - South Barrington, IL - Bill Hybels
2. Saddleback Church - Lake Forest, CA - Rick Warren
   
3. Fellowship Church - Grapevine, TX - Ed Young
4. North Point Community Church - Alpharetta, GA - Andy Stanley
5. LifeChurch.tv - Edmund, OK - Craig Groeschel
6. Granger Community Church - Granger, IN - Mark Beeson
7. Lakewood Church - Houston, TX - Joel Osteen
8. Mars Hill Church - Seattle, WA - Mark Driscoll
9. The Potter's House - Dallas, TX - TD Jakes
10. Seacoast Church - Mt. Pleasant, SC - Greg Surratt

Also looks like our friend Mark Batterson's church - National Community Church in Washington, DC - made the list for the first time at #39!

You can see the rest of the list here.

And here's last year's list.


I've posted previously about how lighthouse churches seem to replacing denominations in some circles. Someone recently posted in comments on that post:

"Doesn't the list of 'Lighthouse Churches' emphasize sheer numerical growth? Is this really the way in which Jesus intends the Church to impact the world?

I know this is an old topic of conversation..."

Yes, it's old but I think that it's a legitimate question. My response is that numbers don't intrinsically indicate anything. However, numbers can be one evidence of spiritual fruit. One must dig more deeply behind the numbers to determine if genuine spiritual stuff is going on. So I would simply say that here are 50 organizations that warrant our investigation to determine if they have anything to teach us. I know I have learned from some of the churches listed here.

It's also important to stress that the absence of large numbers in a local church also isn't a necessary indicator of a lack of real spiritual stuff going on within that community.

Scot McKnight on Peterson's Eat this Book

The Best Book Ever on the Bible is Eat this Book by Eugene Peterson.

...

Any view of the Bible that doesn’t lead to formation isn’t reading the Bible for what it is intended to do.

...

I sat out to read this book in an evening. After all, it is only about 180 pages. Was I in for a surprise. Captiving prose, elegant imagery, and a fire that starts burning as you open its pages and increases in flame as you turn from page to page. I poised myself over its pages for two days — often looking up in thanks and gazing into my back yard lost in pondering over the richness of this book. Marvelous. I’ve read books on the Bible ever since I was in college when Harold Lindsell through the first pitch to begin the battle for the Bible, but I’ve not read one book that I thought got the job done as well as Peterson. If you read this book it will lead you to Eat the Book of all Books.

Scot McKnight on Eugene Peterson's recent Eat this Book in this post.

John La Grou on Marriage

Later today, John's speaking at a friend's wedding. Here's part of what he's going to say:

In tough times, you will remember how you waited a good third of your life to find each other: this memory will be a constant catalyst for healing and reconciliation

Know that sometimes marriage can be like a series of earthquakes. There’s a rule I want you always to remember – let’s call it the earthquake rule: when you find a fault, don’t dwell on it.

Marriage is a continual stream of ripples and waves, just like little earthquakes. But the reality of marriage is that you may not always be on each other’s wavelength. Tolstoy said it well: What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.

See, marriage isn’t about thinking alike, but thinking together. This means that rather than always being on the same wavelength, you’ll simply need to ride along with each others’ waves. When those magnitude 7.5 earthquakes rock your world, the marriage commitment keeps you together until the dust settles....

Jonathan Livingston Seagull author Eric Segal said love means never having to say you’re sorry. When I first heard that, I thought.. that’s nonsense! Married people do stupid things all the time – we always need to forgive each other. But as I thought more about it, I realized the truth in this saying. Forgiveness in a healthy marriage becomes more than words –more than an occasional conversation. Forgiveness becomes a state of being. The words forgiveness and marriage become almost interchangeable.

Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu said “marriage is three parts love and seven parts forgiveness.” The late Ruth Graham said “a happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.”

Marriage means you are no longer in control. You now belong to each other – you are connected in a mysterious, spiritual manner where two beings become united into one body and one heart. You, Ian, now belong to Kristin, and Kristin you now belong to Ian.

pls pray for Molly McCoy

Many of us know and read Steve McCoy. This morning his wife, Molly, is undergoing neurosurgery to correct Chiari Malformation.

Would you please pray for them as you think of it?

Updates will be posted here (Steve's live blogging during this brain surgery).

UPDATE: You can read the history of Molly and Steve's discovery and struggle with this condition here.

The Narrow Chamber of Suffering

Steve McCoy has chosen to share with us his thoughts via liveblogging as he waits for his wife Molly to come out of brain surgery. He's doing that here (2 sections - the top section is what's going on with Molly and the bottom section is Steve's thoughts) and just posted this wonderful quote:

The keys of men’s hearts hang up in the narrow chamber of suffering. And he who has not been there can scarcely know the art of opening the recesses of the soul.

Charles Spurgeon

More pics from the Buzz Conference...

...have been posted here.

- Metapost on the 2007 Buzz Conference (Session Notes, Audio, Video, etc)

Bob Hyatt's "Why I'm not Done with the Church"

Quite a bit of serious conversation is erupting around Next-Wave Editor Bob Hyatt's July Cover Article "Why I'm not Done with the Church" in comments.

Late to the Party: White Stripes

I think I first noted that the single Icky Thump was selling pretty high on iTunes, gave it a listen and liked it. I then bought it and ended up buying the entire album.

I had no idea the White Stripes were this good. I've liked every single song I've heard on the album and I can't remember the last time that was true.

image from wikipedia

Must See Videos from the Buzz Conference

Washington, DC's National Community Church's Mark Batterson has just announced that they've posted the winning videos from the June 2007 Buzz Conference File Festival which can be viewed here.

They are hilarious. Trust me.

- Metapost on the 2007 Buzz Conference (Notes from all Sessions, etc)

Buzz Conference Audio: Craig Groeschel's Friday 29 June 2007 Talk

Audio from most of the main sessions of the Buzz Conference can be downloaded online here.

However, because of his conference schedule, the Friday 29 June 2007 talk by Craig Groeschel, which has received high praise, will not be posted until October 2007. Notes from that session can be viewed here.

Nevertheless, National Community Church in Washington, DC - who sponsored the Conference - has just informed me that the CD of this session can be ordered by either snail mail or phone for $12, which includes shipping and handling. You can either send a check to

National Community Church
205 F St NE
Washington, DC 20002
attn: Amanda Norwich

or if you'd prefer to use a Visa or Mastercard over the phone, you can call Amanda Norwich at NCC at 202-544-0414.

I just ordered my copy; this talk was a great challenge to personal holiness and accountability that I'm still processing.

- Metapost on the 2007 Buzz Conference (Notes from all Sessions, etc)

- image courtesy of snaptography

Metapost on the 2007 Buzz Conference

UPDATED: 7/11/07

This post aggregates all the separate posts by date and speaker on the 2007 Buzz Conference sponsored by National Community Church in Washington, DC (and others) on Wednesday 27 June through Friday 29 June.

• Wednesday 27 June 2007
  
  
• The NCC Undercover Pre-Conference Session
  
  
• Mark Batterson
  
  
• Joel Schmidgall on Outreach
  
  
• Heather Zempel on Small Groups
  
  
• Thursday 28 June 2007
  
  
• Mark Batterson
  
  
• Tim Stevens
  
  
• Craig Groeschel
  
  
• Friday 29 June 2007
  
  
• Bloggers' Breakfast with Tony Morgan
  
  
• Craig Groeschel
  
  
• Q&A with Craig Groeschel
  
  
• Mark Batterson
  
  
• My reflections on the conference
  
  
• Online Social Networking Tools for the Church: New Horizons for Kingdom Impact - this paper was handed out to conference attendees on Wednesday.
  
  
  Also

• See what other bloggers are saying
  
  
• Track what the media is saying
  
  
• Great Pictures from the Buzz Conference
  
  
• "This is the Truth" Video
  
  
• UPDATE: Download Audio from most of the Main Sessions here.
  
  
• UPDATE: More great pictures here.
  
  
• UPDATE: The winning videos from the Buzz Film Festival.
  

Voices of the Virtual World

The Wikiklesia Project has announced the 23 July 2007 publication of Book One in their projected series.

Contributors include

• Scot McKnight
• Andrew Jones
• Brother Maynard
• Rex Miller
• Peter Rollins
  
• and many others listed here.
  

I was also asked to contribute a chapter which will be entitled "The Legitimacy and Limits of Online Relationships."

Specific chapter titles can be found here.

An audio version of the book will also be released with each chapter being read by the author.

Here is the full press release:

PRESS RELEASE (Download PDF HERE)
Publication Date: 23 July 2007
Distributed by: Lulu.com
Wikiklesia Press, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9796856-0-6

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 9 July 2007

Voices of the Virtual World explores the growing influence of technology on the global Christian church. In this premier volume, we hear from more than forty voices, including technologists and theologians, entrepreneurs and pastors… from a progressive Episcopalian techno-monk to a leading Mennonite professor… from a tech-savvy mobile missionary to a corporate anthropologist whom Worth Magazine calls "one of Wall Street's 25 Smartest Players." Voices is a far reaching exploration of spiritual journey contextualized within a culture of increasingly immersive technology.

ABOUT WIKIKLESIA: Conceived and established in May 2007, the Wikiklesia Project is an experiment in on-line collaborative publishing. The format is virtual, self-organizing, participatory - from purpose to publication in just a few weeks. All proceeds from the Wikiklesia Project will be contributed to the Not For Sale campaign.

Wikiklesia values sustainability with minimal structure. We long to see a church saturated with decentralized cooperation. The improbable notion of books that effectively publish themselves is one of many ways that can help move us closer to this global-ecclesial connectedness. Can a publishing organization thrive without centralized leadership? Is perpetual, self-organizing book publishing possible? Can literary quality be maintained in a distributed publishing paradigm? Wikiklesia was created to answer these kinds of questions.

Wikiklesia may be the world’s first self-perpetuating nomadic business model - raising money for charities - giving voice to emerging writers and artists - generating a continuous stream of new books covering all manner of relevant topics. Nobody remains in control. There is no board of directors. The franchise changes hands as quickly as new projects are created.
tags: collaborative ecclesial nomadic participatory publishing wikiklesia

Media Enquiries:
Len Hjalmarson, lenhjal@telus.net
John La Grou, jl@jps.net
(530) 647-0750

Sprint gets Bad Buzz

"Sprint ditches customers who complain too much"

oops.

I predict this policy will change within the next 48 hours as the hue and cry ascends to new heights.

Beth and I happily ditched Sprint some time ago because of dropped calls and one reason I'm not terribly anxious to get an iPhone is because we are very, very happy with Verizon Wireless. They truly do have great network.

The Emergence of the Missional Reformed

Reformed blogger David Wayne posts regarding recent Reformed moves towards missionality.

I consider myself Reformed (though many if not most would not remotely consider me TR because I haven't yet affirmed Particular Redemption, aka "Limited Atonement"), but I'll say this: While I'm not saying that the Reformed Doctrinal System is intrinsically propositional (and I'm using that word as a technical term as it's used here), my years of theological study and reading would lead me to say that if there ever were a modern theological system that through its internal coherency and vast reach could lead one to become a propositionalist, it would be the Reformed System. And some of us might say that we've met a Reformed Propositionalist or two. :)

So that being said, I am very happy to hear about the recent transpropositional moves of many within the Reformed sphere.

The Growth of the English Standard Version

"Growth of the ESV Bible continues to accelerate, as worldwide sales and distribution increased more than four-fold over the past two years and the ESV moved up to the number three position on the CBA bestseller list in June. [The July list shows the ESV in the 5th position.]

...

With more than 100 creative editions and formats in print, the ESV Bible has also experienced more than 100% annual growth in the Christian retail market for four years in a row" [links added]

Crossway has announced a major restructuring in light of the sales growth of the ESV.

As a Public Service: Google 411

Just learned about this cool service from Tony Morgan.

It's basically a free information service to find and connect to local businesses provided by Google. You can use it like the traditional 411 service when you know the name of the business or you can also have it look up businesses by category - all over the phone.

I've added the number to my Contacts list on my mobile phone and have used it several times.

Very, very nice and very, very free!