Sunrise

June 13, 2008
Study Break

It’s our final day at the beach as we wrap up summer study break ’08. It’s been good. Our family time has been great (although we competed rigorously to decide what to do on our last night in Myrtle Beach), our kids did well, and my time to think, pray, study, reflect, and worship has been great as always. Intense, intentional time away like this has become such a family tradition, and personal necessity for me.

The entire family rolled extremely sleepily out of overwhelmingly comfy beds this morning at 6 a.m. Part of anyone’s last day at the beach routine is to catch the sunrise, and then proceed to do everything possible within the confines of a 24-hour day.

Soaking in a beautiful sunrise became a great pictorial metaphor for what I wanted to accomplish today. I wanted to soak in the past two weeks and process what the Son was rising up within me. Let me see if I can put some of my thoughts together…

First of all, to say there is significant problems the Church MUST deal with becomes the obvious understatement of my past two weeks. Gabe Lyons, in “Unchristian” writes: “To outsiders the word “Christian” has more in common with a brand than a faith. This shift of meaning in recent decades has been magnified by an increasing use of the term “Christian” to label music, clothes, schools, political action groups, and more. And sadly, it is a bad brand in the minds of tens of millions of people. In the middle of a culture where Christianity has come to represent hypocrisy, judgmentalism, anti-intellectualism, insensitivity, and bigotry, it’s easy to see why the next generation wants nothing to do with it. These perceptions are based on real experiences that outsiders have had with their Christian friends. They are an accurate reflection of the kind of Christians many of us have become. It’s embarrassing and shameful, but it’s reality.”

It’s noteworthy to underscore how nothing I’ve read is anti-church… nor am I. In fact, nothing I’ve read attacks the church. In “Unchristian,” Mike Foster explains, “Lobbing hand grenades on the bride of Christ takes zero talent or effort. I also think this really ticks God off. My five-year-old child complains and whines when things aren't the way she wants them, but courageous men and women roll up their sleeves and get busy. I want to be an active participant in putting back together the broken pieces.”

It is time to get busy. Our faith, in many ways, has become unchristian. “Modern-day Christianity no longer seems Christian,” says David Kinnaman. While this is a very tough pill to swallow, we must wake up and get busy. Will we wake up to the idea that our faith may have evolved into something incomplete or inaccurate? I’m beyond ready, but also certain the answer will not be found in a new church growth model. Solutions won’t rise up from fresh marketing campaigns or clever strategies to paint a better face on the Church and Christianity. No longer can we be blindly content and righteously proud that we’ve somehow become more culturally relevant; we must create and build a new culture. I’m convinced we must be radically counterculture.

How do we do this? Teaching with an awareness to propagate a Biblical worldview will be important. Encouraging Christians to develop their own Biblical worldview… beginning with our kids ministries… will become vital. A good starting place will be a keen awareness of Barna’s seven salient questions: 1. Does God Exist? 2. What is the character and nature of God? 3. How and why was he world created? 4. What is the nature and purpose of humanity? 5. What happens after we die on earth? 6. What spiritual authorities exist? 7. What is truth?

Currently 91% of adult Christians and 98% of teen Christians do not have a Biblical worldview, and consequently do not stand out as culture-impacting Jesus followers. Simply put, we are no different than those outside of Christ. These statistics must dramatically change if the Church has any chance of regaining lost ground and bringing lost people back to Christ.

It will be critically important for Biblical worldviews to be organic, diverse, and unique to each individual within the freeing constraints of God’s absolute truth. Biblical worldviews must be lived out (as seen in the book of Acts) more than they are written out. Christians must guard against turning these culture savvy tools into isolating and burdensome rules.

While creativity, relevance, and imitating culture has been viewed as the fastest path to filling up seats and getting people saved, superficiality inside the church is now equal to superficiality outside the church. We must go deeper while still striving for creativity, relevance, and excellence. As Dallas Willard said, “Jesus didn’t call us to be Christians, he called us to be disciples.”

The Church is waking up to how we’ve reduced the gospel to accepting Jesus and having a personal relationship with Him. Without a lived-out Biblical worldview attached to our salvation, this has amounted to notches on our evangelism belts and people who are OK with merely being saved while not living as a culture-shaping disciple.

We have settled for people being saved while at the same time being less than fully human. We must dig deeper. Being fully human is to be creative, spiritual, intelligent, relational, and moral as a mirror image of our Creator. Dick Staub says, “Any hope of restoring culture starts with restoring the individuals who make culture, and any hope of restoring individuals starts with rediscovering the origin of our capacities in the One who made us.”

Again, Gabe Lyons writes: “No strategy, tactics, or clever marketing campaign could ever clear away the smokescreen that surrounds Christianity in today’s culture. The perceptions of outsiders will change only when Christians strive to represent the heart of God in very relationship and situation. This kind of Christian will attract instead of repel. He is provoked to engage instead of being offended by a decadent culture. She lives with the tension of remaining pure without being isolated from this broken world. When outsiders begin to have fresh experiences and interactions with this new kind of Christian, perceptions will change, one person at a time.”

Putting our faith in action, listening, loving without being judgmental, thinking, digging our wells deeper, building meaningful relationships, embracing compassion while rejecting self-preservation, and becoming Christ-like is a good start at digging deeper. These kinds of Biblical, deeper wells must be dug in order to combat current perceptions that Christians are: very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, antichoice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders, wanting to convert everyone, and can’t live peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.

Loving, feeding, connecting, and motivating (Acts 2) can be digging deeper if these are tools to help us live out our Biblical worldview. Focusing on our Sunday mornings, kids & family, Faith In Action, and Community Groups can be our unique, God-directed vehicles and tools if these are being passionately lived out as a part of Biblical worldview… and not just rules and superficial strategies to fill up our seats.

I think this can be the Church’s finest hour. I see the hopeful challenge of a grand opportunity. We can erase perceptions that following Jesus is boring. The Church of Jesus can be appealing once again. We can be so incredibly real and authentic that the world’s brand of superficiality becomes painfully obvious and disgusting for those who suffer for more.

This is a time we can be courageous. We can be far-sweeping and drastic grace dispensers. Instead of church success, we can boast in the Lord about being transformational. The Church can be bold. As Rick Warren says, “We can be known more by what we’re for than what we’re against.” We can be Jesus… again.

Early morning sunrises can be a pain in the bed-ridden rear, or they can be wonderful opportunities to live out the challenges of a new and full day. We… the Scotts… all arose at 6 a.m. today. Our goal was to seek out and live out the opportunities of our last day on study break. It’s now 11:07 p.m. We’re all worn out, but it has been a great day.

I choose to view the struggles, difficulties, and current state of Church affairs as similar to the opportunities of a new and full day. I’m sure, when all is said and done, I might be worn out trying to figure things out. I’m hopeful God will use me to help put some of the broken pieces back together. I’m hopeful… optimistic… of a new day.

I’m hopeful because churches and leaders are waking up. I’m waking up. There's a new sunrise.

I’m hopeful because it’s Jesus’ church. The Church is still His wonderful bride. I still believe the gates of Hell can’t stop it, nor the seismic shifts of a skeptical and critical culture.

Let the sun rise, and let’s get at it.

Dig A Little Deeper

June 12, 2008
Study Break

God is so good. Over three-fourths of our blue earth is covered in the substance that is precisely needed to sustain life. It points us to a loving God… taste (drink) and see that He is good! God, in his amazing grace and mercy, gave us a way to be pointed to him in the slightest of details… such as quenching our thirst with life-giving H2O. Let the painstaking and unremitting pursuit of His love sink into your soul a bit. Take a drink. Dig a little deeper…

I saw a burly, well-rounded, glowing red, bald-headed father wildly playing with his three sons on the beach. This man’s three sons all looked amazingly like him. I speculated about his connection with God. Did he know the love of a heavenly Father? Couldn’t his raucous beach rousing with his trifecta of DNA give him clues of not just a Grand Designer, but an obvious Grand Lover? Does this dad get it? Does he need to dig a little deeper? I thought about how often God gives us gifts that relentlessly point to him and his love.

All this week through text messages and voicemails, good friends of Sherry and mine from Indiana have been keeping us posted on the last minute and dramatic details of their adoption. All the finer points worked out in beautiful fashion. God is good. It all pointed to a very loving God, and a little girl being saved by these wonderful new parents is more proof of divine love.

I’m confident someone’s difficult journey would pose the question of God’s lack of love. Dig a little deeper…

God is good and loving in giving us the keys to His kingdom. As Blackaby pointed out today, If you are a Christian you, too, have the keys to the kingdom of heaven. You have unobstructed access to God. With that access come all the resources you need to face any circumstance.

The Church needs that access and those keys of the Kingdom now more than ever. There is an ever-increasing population who is cynical and weary of the Church. Listen to how many people describe their perceptions of the church (from “Unchristian”):
- The Titanic --- a ship about to sink but unaware of its fate.
- A powerful amplifier being undermined by poor wiring and weak speakers.
- A pack of domesticated cats that look like they are thinking deep thoughts but are just waiting for their next meal.
- An ostrich with its head in the sand.
- A hobby that diverts people’s attention.

These are hard words for this pastor to absorb. I love the church. I have worked hard to pursue relevance and Kingdom advancement. It’s frustrating that millions upon growing millions of people disconnected from Church believe Christians live in their own world, but not too well in the real one.

David Kinnaman writes: “(People) thrive on unexpected experiences and enjoy searching for new sources of input. Their lives consist of an eclectic patchwork of diversity, perspectives, friendships, and passions. A vast portion of their typical day is spent consuming media and exploring the burgeoning realms of the Internet. Movies, magazines, music, and television transport the into alternate realities with greater frequency and poignancy than any previous generation has experienced. They are exposed to and access more philosophies and ideas about life --- and can get them at a faster pace --- than any generation in history. They are a “pinch of t his pinch of that” generation, always willing to try a little of anything. This is why Christianity, in its sheltered, clueless, non-intellectual form, makes no sense to them. Trained to believe they have control over just about everything and expecting to participate in reality, young adults don’t resonate with a vision of cloistered Christianity. A faith that sidelines them is not tenable. Their existence is anything but bubble-bound.”

I read such forceful words, and there is a part of this 48-year-old that wonders what needs to be done within the Church. What model needs to prevail? What strategies need employed? What books need to be read, and what conferences will unlock the keys to elevate the Church of Jesus once again? In what ways will I dig a little deeper…

As I am coming to the end of this study break, my mind and heart starts trying to tie things together. I find myself capping my highlighter and placing a book I’m reading on my lap --- so I can think, and process and stare at the pounding waves. The waves of water… billions of gallons of H2O (with a little saline added)… proof of God’s love. The answer to the Church rising once again would come from digging a little deeper.

At some point between final chapters of “Unchristian” and staring at the shoreline, I noticed my daughter, Morgan, digging a rather deep hole into the sand. She was probably two feet under when her red, plastic shovel hit something hard. I remarked, “You’ve hit a treasure chest!” She just smiled and kept digging. Within minutes however, Morgan pulled up a wonderful, complete conk shell. She HAD hit a treasure chest. She had dug a little deeper than usual and found something worthwhile and lasting.
She had dug a little deeper…

Although there are some serious challenges the Church is facing, the answers seem to be pointing to digging a little deeper. God and a frustrated, searching culture is pushing US down below the surface for answers. We have the keys to the Kingdom. We have available resources, but we will have to dig a little deeper for God’s answers. My burden and heaviness towards the depravity of the Church shifted from the problem to solutions. Dig a little deeper…

Tomorrow I’ll try to write what I think this entails. It’s coming together. Thanks God.

On a side note: My kids are always great on our annual study breaks. Sherry and I give them each assignments and then pay them big bucks to do so. This probably breaks all the rules of most parenting manuals, but our kids seems to be turning out OK so far.
We told Brooklynn (16) and Lauren (13) they each had to read “The Shack” and memorize twenty verses. They not only had to recite twenty verses and the references, but they were required by parental law to give the “so what” --- the application of each verse. Amount paid to each teenager for assignments: $50 bucks… cold, hard cash.

With Morgan (9), we also gave her twenty verses (including the “so what”) and assigned her to read through the book of James --- including a one-page report on what she learned. Amount paid: $50 bucks… cold, hard cash.

With Michael, our six-year-old… we handed out two verses that he needed to recite and tell what they meant. One verse was Colossians 3:23, and the other (which he acted out with great drama) was Ephesians 6:16-17. Amount paid: $15.

Total payout: $165. Actual cost: Priceless!

Is this horrible parenting? Is it right to use extrinsic motivations to bolster spiritual character? Should this be so forced and rigid? What will be the long-term effects on my kids… these poor pastor kids?

I’m more than glad to pay money for the laughter, conversations, memories, and life we attach to learning these boatloads of spiritual truths. Truth be known, I’d probably even pay more for the chance I get to sit on the beach and go over verses and books and spiritual applications with my kids. How cool is this?

Additionally, and for the record, I’m offering our three oldest kids a bonus of $25 each if they will dig a little deeper and write their own personal, Biblical worldview using Barna's seven suggested questions as a template. (This assignment can be done anytime this summer)
Total payout: $240. Actual cost: you guessed it… eternally priceless.

tired

June 11, 2008
Study Break

If I am honest with myself and God … which I hope I am … I would admit my tiredness. It’s not exactly a physical thing as much as it is emotional, mental, and unquestionably spiritual.

My goal with this study excursion was to read one book every two days (along with journal entries from Blackaby, McManus and Dr. Luke from Acts). I had five books I wanted to absorb into my soul and psyche. Today, however, I barely dragged my weary behind out on the beach for an early morning run. And then I didn’t… run. I could only walk, and not far at that. What was up with this? I sat in the sand and prayed for a while, then for a break in routine, I decided to take my bride to breakfast on a pier.

I didn’t feel like hitting the books hard again today because I had hit a bit of a wall. My study break intake these past couple weeks seems to be mounting up on wings like a buzzard within me. It’s been hard stuff to process and begin to think of routes for implementation. Only one chapter of “Unchristian” was scaled on this somewhat heavy June day. I read out of Acts 18 and thought slowly about my past year and a half at Cumberland (vs. 11). Have I creatively taught the Word for depth, or have I so prioritized relevance and filled seats only to gain cursory success? Do I lead and teach to transform lifestyles and consequently culture? Do I cave to the superficiality of culture and thereby discredit the heart and purpose of Jesus? If my tombstone were put in place today, what would I have really been remembered for? These were difficult conversations bouncing around in my head. Heavy. Weird. Maybe just way too much sun. Maybe I'm staying up too late writing these blogs...

Mike Foster writes (in “Unchristian”), “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. May you and I today begin to plant a new way of living, loving, and serving…”

I’ve taken in a lot through “Think Like Jesus,” “A Contrarians Guide to Knowing God,” “The Culturally Savvy Christian,”… and halfway through “Unchristian.” The Church is at a crux… an intersection… nothing short of an emergency. Does this make me an alarmist or realist?

There’s much to be done, dealt with, and relentlessly refused denial. I’m challenged and want to keep going. I think I planted some trees along the way in my first twenty years of ministry. I anxiously want to plant a new tree, but I just need to catch my breath so I can endure my final twenty.

I’ll hit it hard again tomorrow… I'm sure.

Coming of Age with Frozen Lemonade

June 10, 2008
Study Break

My third child, Morgan, is nine years old. This July she turns 10. Incredibly, this means we only have one child left in the single digits. While this may not seem like a big deal to you, for a parent of four this has the same magnitude of finally being out of Pampers.

Morgan is at that tender age where she needs some occasional kickin’ out of the nest activities. Part of our parental strategy is to begin making her pay for things. I know this borders on child abuse (or at least Morgan’s reactions might lead you to believe such), but having an exchange with someone across the counter is a good, growing up thing to do.

Late this morning, Morgan and I headed off to the beach. I went to read, and Morgan went to… well, just kick back with dad. That was cool. As we were both sitting quietly under our UV deflecting umbrella, a landmark event unfolded. Suddenly my red-headed, almost-ten-year-old popped up from her beach chair like a burnt waffle and said, “I’m going to get a frozen lemonade.” She didn’t ask for money, and she didn’t assume I would hold her hand.

I put my book down and watched the whole thing unfurl. As my maturing daughter walked up to the portable frozen lemonade kiosk, I was so overwhelmed with weird fatherly emotions that I had to do something. I did. I snapped a photo. I needed to capture my feelings of being the proud father of the buyer. This moment of adolescent development was another scrapbook page of my old age progression. Morgan just smiled from ear to ear with her newly acquired frozen lemonade. I smiled inwardly with the thought of Morgan growing up.

Getting half way through David Kinnaman’s “Unchristian,” I wondered about the church growing up. In my lifetime, thus far, I’ve seen some growing, maturing, and changing in the Church. Growing up in a mostly traditional church there was an unwavering push for truth where, without a sufficient amount of grace, legalism was found lurking. Later, the pendulum seemed to swing to the other extremes which allowed huge doses of creative grace to be doled out. Sometimes (if not all the time) a boatload of grace without the truth of a holistic gospel created shallow superficiality and compromise.

In a culture filled with superficiality and compromise, Christianity was reduced to accepting Jesus. Kinnaman calls this the “ultimate reduction --- “renounce your sins and place your hope in Jesus.” --- reduced to feed the consumer’s mindset of finding spiritual comfort. Gone was the challenge to live full out for Jesus… a practical, lived-out, Biblical worldview.

Interestingly, it’s a younger generation pushing some kickin’ out of the nest activities to their elders. Instead of the older parents prodding the children, it seems to be the children leading the parents to changes of maturity where people are DOING the gospel.

Like working on a frozen lemonade in the shade of 95 degrees, I was smiling ear to ear as I thought about how God is using a younger generation to help bring the Church to a desperately needed maturity and depth. By the way, this same younger generation that I believe is actually pushing the Church to go deeper and grow up … is paradoxically leaving the current Church in droves at the same time.

Check out a few “Kinnaman-isms:” (Enjoy!)
“Your job is not to anesthetize yourself with congratulatory prose about the state of the world or the church, but to deal with reality, even when it is embarrassing or hurtful.”

“The church desperately needs more people who facilitate a deeper, more authentic vision of the Christian faith in our pluralistic, sophisticated culture.”

“Most people I meet assume that “Christian” means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, antichoice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.”

“It is clear that Christians are primarily perceived for what they stand against. We have become famous for what we oppose than who we are for.”

“Young adults worry that the unchristian message has become one of self-preservation rather than one of world restoration.”

“The nation’s population is increasingly resistant to Christianity, especially to the theologically conservative expressions of that faith. Of course we have always had detractors, but now the critics of the faith are becoming bolder and more vocal. And the aversion and hostility are, for the first time, crystallizing in the attitudes of millions of young Americans. A huge chunk of a new generation has concluded they want nothing to do with us. As Christians, we are widely mistrusted by a skeptical generation.”

“In virtually every study we conduct, representing thousands of interviews every year, born-again Christians fail to display much attitudinal or behavioral evidence of transformed lives.”

“Among young outsiders, 84 percent say the personally know at least one committed Christian. Yet just 15 percent thought the lifestyles of those Christ followers were significantly different from the norm.”

“Transparency disarms an image-is-everything generation.”

“What if culture’s accusations of hypocrisy are God’s way of waking us up to the overwhelming needs of others?”

“Christian rhetoric without tangible acts of love is hypocrisy. Churches on every corner with hurting people outside is hypocrisy. A large building with little connection to the streets is essentially empty.”

“A generation reared in a marketing-drenched world is quick to sniff out what they believe to be the underlying motivations and superficialities.”

“Outsiders expressed particular disdain for methods that “trick” people into paying attention. One respondent called this “the con of conversion.” She said, “Christians want you to pay attention to their message about Jesus, yet somehow I don’t’ think Jesus would be happy about being turned into a gimmick.”

“When we have experienced the presence of a living God, outsiders are wary of feeling brainwashed or manipulated.”

“In a get-saved culture, too many of the conversions become either “aborted” believers or casual Christians.”

“What difference does transformation make? It changes our ideas of spiritual effectiveness. We should measure success not merely by the size of our church or the number of baptisms or decisions, but also by the depth and quality of spiritual growth in people’s lives.”

Smokin' Church Ladies

June 9, 2008
Study Break


Why do I like to smell the occasional waft of cigarette smoke at the beach? Weird. It has become one of those distinct smells defining an ocean side summer vacation. Like the mesmerizing scent of a funnel cake at a county fair or the allure of charcoal on an outdoor grill --- the bouquet of burning tobacco says, “Welcome to and enjoy God’s great creation!” What?

Anyone sitting under a beach umbrella with a Camel to their lips is simultaneously painting the canvas of their lungs a Megadeath black. That can’t be a good thing. Isn’t the aromatic second hand smoke killing me as well? That can’t be a good thing. Perhaps the miraculous healing properties of salt air somehow acts as an organic filter, and I can actually enjoy the smell of someone else dying… worry free.

Sherry questioned how a cigarette on a 95-degree-in-the-shade, sweltering summer’s day could be enjoyable. Maybe a combination of sun and nicotine just plain makes people crazy.

Today I thought about crazy people from my past. I finished “The Culturally Savvy Christian” by Dick Staub, and was wonderfully transported back to my personal church history which included some real characters. For instance…

There was Wilbur. He was a trumpet-playin’, toupee wearing song leader. Sometimes he’d wear the fascinating hair piece, and sometimes he wouldn’t. He was a good looking man with hair. He was a good looking man without it. I’m sure that’s why he was comfortable with living a very alternative hair lifestyle. It always made for some interesting conversation, bulletin artwork, and worship service bets for me and my third-grade friends nailing down the second pew.

I recalled the thought provoking qualities of Ward. He was a giant of a man who carried a Bible and a big brief case to church. He was an elder. The elder in charge of those elusive church finances. With Ward, everything was very straight-laced and business like. He would conduct church business meetings after a Sunday service with great precision. (Guests were always given permission to leave, but members were held captive by frowning ushers at the back doors.) I will never forget how the very first thing elder Ward did in leading church business meetings was to prominently throw his brief case onto the pulpit, flip the latches, and pop open the top with great and animated authority. Sometimes Ward scared me, so I would make sure dad put some money in the offering plate.

Margaret was always a wonder to behold. She was 98 years old my whole way through high school. She walked hunched over like the witch on The Wizard of Oz… and she had a matching, long, gray hair on her chin to boot. Mom always wanted me to hug Miss Margaret, but I was too afraid she might throw a curse on me or something. Margaret was a bit eccentric in her style of living. She had 20+ cats who roamed her abode with full dominion. Everyone politely avoided Margaret’s mysterious casserole dish at the annual church reunion pot luck. There were always cat hairs (presumed) to be found in her untouched recipe. I could count on mom predictably saying they were JUST cat hairs and I should “put some of Margaret's casserole on my plate.” I didn’t see her eat any of that stuff!

There are so many wild and wonderful people who were an intricate part of my home church I was privileged to grow up in. Consider a few more: Shirley… the soprano choir belter. Helen… the crazy VBS director. Tommy… the mumbling door greeter (I never could figure out what he said). Jimmy… Tommy’s brother who also greeted and liked to pass out hugs and kisses (Jimmy’s renowned bad breath pushed most women to go in Tommy’s door.) Stanley … the hierarchical oldest elder who guardedly and sometimes angrily presided over the communion table. Peggy … the pant-suit-wearing, scandalous preacher’s wife. Bus… the preacher who would fight at church softball games. Terry… the comedian Sunday School superintendent who gave announcements each week like a nightclub stand up. Steve… the youth worker who encouraged and endorsed farting, belching, and pranks on the stiff-necked youth ministers. Gwen …the sweeter than molasses church lady with the three great looking teenage daughters way too old for me to consider, but I did anyway --- especially during boring sermons. The strangely reserved Peters family… who always sat together (left side, tenth pew from the front)… and there were about 15 million of them. And what about Shirley and Harvey? Harvey never said a word, but Shirley would belly laugh out loud with any and every joke a hard-working preacher would attempt. How about all the smokin' church men and ladies whose investments in breath mints were sure to keep them on the roll and out of hell. (Was that a waft of smoke in the church foyer? Nah.) I could go on and on and on with a profoundly thankful smile on my face as I fondly remember.

After considering his childhood church characters, Dick Staub (“The Culturally Savvy Christian”) writes, “Only later in life have I come to realize that I inherited the richest of families in the people I once mocked as “peculiar” and “strange.” The people I knew as a child were characters, but they also had character. Though many of these folks were odd, there was never a shadow of doubt in my mind that they loved God and loved me. Although as a child, I grew weary of spending so much time with people in our church, oddly, what I experienced then is what culturally savvy Christians need today, when our busy, isolated, disconnected lives prevent us from breaking bread together. In our media-saturated, virtual world, we need relationships that go deep and a place where we can pursue God in the company of friends. We need fellowship that is intergenerational, incarnational, and multi-ethnic. We need to create a place where God can draw people together across demographic lines: rich and poor; blue-collar and professional; country, hip-hop, and classical.”

Today I thought about love. Love stemming from my past, love of my family, and elusive love. In “Soul Cravings,” Erwin McManus preports “we are never meant to be…

alone.”

McManus continues… “God made us for relationships. We are created by a relational God for relationships. We are all tribal. We only begin to experience life fully when we move toward healthy relationships and healthy community. Your soul will never be satisfied with anything less. The further we move from love, the more distant God becomes.”

Much of what I read and thought about today centered on love. Sometimes, I must admit, when someone writes or talks about love, I tend to hear, “Blah, blah, blah.” It’s a bit of a hazard from hearing pundits of love one too many times. It’s not a good thing.

Buy why were Paul and Barnabas such great and effective communicators that great numbers of people believed in Jesus (Acts 14-15)? Was the key love? Could their love for people have been greater than their desire to build big churches and selected to be the next big Jerusalem conference speakers?

LOVE… Like a waft of cigarette smoke, it’s intriguing to smell a little at a distance, but I certainly don’t think inhaling deeply is the way to go. Are those really my true feelings about true love? Blah, blah, blah.

Staub writes: “Despite all the talk about love in today’s movies, books, and songs, religious and irreligious people alike suffer from a sever love deficit. The popularity of a TV show like “Friends” signals a culturewide hunger for friendship. Christians, on a quest for absolute knowledge ever-increasing ecstatic experiences, faith that moves mountains, political and economic power, bigger churches, and relevant, hip messages, seem to have forgotten that “if we have all these and don’t have love, we are nothing” (I Cor. 13:1-3) Community has become a hollow buzzword in Christian circles; every church offers it, but almost nobody experiences it.”

I'm a huge proponent of community, and I’m personally hungry for it. Everyone around me loves and offers love, but I’ve not been able to fully dive in. Living out of boxes for the past year and a half has certainly not helped. Trying to keep my family in tact during our “homelessness” has been a driving priority, but a community hindrance. Am I whining? Sounds like it. I love teaching and leading, but I too want belonging, home, community, and love. This week, I've been remembering so many faces that I miss. Faces that represent wonderful seaons of doing life together... in community and love. I feel like I'm a little bit on relational overload, and I'm not even quite sure what that means. Too much focus on the past means the present isn't what it should be, right?

I'm confident my past baggage is factored into some of my current reality. McManus quips, "We're all like that. Jesus knew this. When others hurt us, it becomes a reflection on God. If we risk entering a community that claims access to God and we find ourselves betrayed in the process, it becomes the fastest way to become a practical atheist."

Whining again... I know.

Without the basic necessity of love and community, my effectiveness in ministry is limited. I'm not fully human. I’m not quite sure why this has been so hard. God, we’ve gotta fix all of this.

Thanks for showing me these things, God. Thanks for a few love prompters today. Thanks for the memories. Give me new ones. Forgive me when who you are, what you give, and what you want is blah, blah, blah to me. Maybe tomorrow when I smell the hint of a Marlboro, I’ll breathe deeply and somehow metaphorically suck in your love. Well that’s just crazy. Crazy like a smokin' church lady!

Tomorrow I start "Unchristian."

A No Post... Post

June 8, 2008
Study Break

It's Sunday... no study break post today. Even God rested. I'm playing with my family all day today!

However, I am attaching a graphic that I've been working on. If you're reading this, would you please send a comment on what you think? This would be very helpful.

Double click on the graphic so you can really see it. What do you think the graphic is trying to communicate? What does it mean? What is confusing? What makes sense? What do you like? What don't you like?

Thanks.

See you tomorrow.
- alan

Missing: Goslings and Boom Boxes

June 7, 2008
Study Break

This morning, in the blurry after wake and hangover from midnight breakfast, Henry Blackaby’s June 7th entry challenged me to pray in an obviously extended way. I will reap what I sow in my own personal prayer life. I decided at the end of my morning reading, I would go for a long walk and talk… and listen to… my Creator.

Acts 12 became a source of great, personal prayer encouragement I have needed. I have friends who pray once with great faith, and believe what was communicated through prayer would be done. Amen! It IS done. I’m always in awe an amazed at my spiritually confident friends. In fact, often times I get extremely inquisitive of my faith-certain friends and how they can teach and help me with my sorely lacking attempts.

When I pray, I tend to doubt. I’m not sure I’m supposed to do this, but my human tendencies seem to overpower my spiritual deficiencies --- producing sincere prayers sincerely laced with doubt.

In Acts 12, Peter is in prison. I’m confident he was probably praying to get out, but fell asleep. If you think God will open up the jail doors as a result of prayer, do you fall asleep out of assurance or because of a little “not sure it’s gonna happen” doubt? What makes the whole story more intriguingly steeped in doubt is how other Christians were meeting to also pray for Peter’s release. God did spring the jail bird Peter. When Peter showed up at his friend’s house, the girl who opened the door freaked… and the other praying friends claimed the wide-eyed girl was nuts when she told them Peter was at their door!

I'm assuming they were praying sincerely for their friend Peter's release, but those prayers were sincerely laced with doubt. Wonderful doubt. Their story was my story. The Kingdom does work for a screw up like me. I still want to pray, “God help my unbelief,” but it felt better to know BIBLICALLY I can still pray effectively with the onslaught of inevitable doubt. My prayers can still be heard. They can still work.

Another few chapters of McManus’ “Soul Cravings proved to be very beneficial for my prayer walk. McManus’ musings jolted memories of the recent goslings birthed at our place back in Georgia. Our two momma and poppa Canadian Geese had blessed our ranch with five little, fuzzy look-a-likes. All the Scotts exuded parental joy as mom and pop goose nudged their five kids around our yard and back into the lake. After a few days, mom and pop goose were trekking around our lawn with only two small geesers (not a word, but I like it). We rightfully assumed a hawk, raccoon, or crow probably was controlling the burgeoning goose population. We continued on, un-phased, with the remaining members of our guest Canadian family. Without notice, mom and pop were alone… again… naturally. All geese children were gone. Killed. A tasty lunch for a wild carnivore. Oh well… Again, my lackadaisical attitude dismissed it all because mother nature can be so obviously cruel. Life goes on, right? My pulse was uninterrupted.

How does my heart beat for people? Lost people? Like it did for missing goslings? Eternal destinies are decided each day… every hour…, am I bothered? The people I walk by on the beach… are they saved or lost? Is haphazardly walking by a living metaphor for how I really feel about others? How many will not be walking the planet one year from now? God’s pulse beats wildly for each and every soul. How much of my very heartbeat is affected and being transformed into his likeness?

With much to think about, I headed off for a long walk with God. It was good. I wrestled with my doubt. Somewhere along the way I gave permission for God to prompt and check my heartbeat for those around me. When I was done, I had a sense of never being so committed to ministry, the Church, leading, and teaching than I was in this moment. After 22 years of ministry highs and lows, I’m still committed to endure until God's finished with me. There are definite challenges the Church and our culture is facing, but I want to keep figuring it all out. I’m not content to ride weak sauce waves of yesterday’s success. I’m ready for 20+ more years of giving it my best. Now I’m sure, eventually, the emotional bottom will drop out of such a rededication… but revival and renewal does feel good right now. Thanks God.

A few other thoughts became nagging after spending the afternoon on the beach reading Dick Staub’s “The Culturally Savvy Christian.” For instance…

What’s missing on the beach today that was so prevalent 20 years ago? If you answer “modest swim suits and skinnier swimmers” you’d be right, but that’s not where I’m going with this. I glanced at my two teenage daughters to my left and right. They were with me, but simultaneously transported somewhere else. They both had their iPods on. I could say something to them like, “Hey… do you mind if I cut your allowance in half and raise the acceptable dating age to 23?” and they would never know. If Sherry hadn’t been there WITHOUT an iPod, I might have succumbed to such evil.

I took a quick scan of my sandy surroundings and my hunch was confirmed… boom boxes were missing. You remember boom boxes, don’t you? Carried on your shoulder like a bag of cement, these technological boat anchors used about 25 “D” batteries and could be turned up to eleven --- but began distorting at about three. Remember?

The sound of radio stations blaring and competing for dominance between rock and country had disappeared from the beach. A quieter… less engaging… beach had emerged. Pop culture had affected the way we relate with each other. It shut us up and turned us decidedly inward.

Check out a few direct and compelling quotes from Dick Staub: (WARNING: Danger Ahead!)

“Technology connects us like never before, but it also isolates us when we choose to be absorbed in entertainment or to interact with people who are not in our physical presence rather than those who are. A child listens to an iPod on the way to soccer practice while mom or dad drives and talks on the cell phone. Families sit passively in front of a TV instead of talking with each other.”

“The thoughtful person knows that superficial pop culture is the cultural equivalent of junk food; it looks, feels, and tastes good but is often utterly lacking in nutrients. Sorokin argued that sensate cultures eventually collapse because humans are designed for intellectual stimulation, not just sensory manipulation. What are the implications of being commanded to love God with our mind in a mindless entertainment age?”

“Profit motives drive marketers to create and exploit youth markets in particular because of youth’s disposable income. It doesn’t take a genius to see the devastating consequences of transforming teens from creative producers to consumers.”

“Humans are called to produce, not just consume. When the mall becomes the center of social life, and young and old alike regulate their emotions through purchasing new stuff, we are looking at serious signs of dehumanization.”

“Sociologist Christian Smith concludes that America now practices a shared religion that he calls “moralistic therapeutic deism,” in which people are promised that therapeutic benefits, such as a happy life, can be achieved through good, moral, kind, nice, pleasant behavior. Teens believe in an uninvolved, undemanding God who is watching everything from above and is drawn into their lives rarely and only if necessary. In such a world, religion is inclusive yet peripheral, beliefs are held inarticulately and loosely, and each individual is the arbiter of what is true for them; there is no right answer. “Who am I to judge?” they might ask.”

“In an episode of “The Simpsons,” Bart asks his father, Homer, what his religious beliefs are. Homer replies, “You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don’t work in real life. Uh, Christianity.”

“Unfortunately, it seems that in stylistically mirroring popular culture, evangelicalism was becoming increasingly like popular culture. A large segment of evangelicalism evolved into what might be called “pop Christianity,” characterized by the broader culture’s breezy superficiality and anti-intellectualism; it too was becoming a celebrity culture sustained by marketing and technology.”

“Bonhoeffer had said, “We have gathered like eagles around the carcass of cheap grace, and there we have drunk of the poison, which has killed the life of following Christ. But do we realize that this cheap grace has turned back upon us like a boomerang? The price we pay today in the shape of the collapse of the organized church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available to all at too low a cost.”

“By almost every measurement, in the evangelical quest for cultural relevance, it appears that the influence of culture on evangelicals has been far greater than evangelicals’ influence on culture.”

“We are witnessing the marketing of a Christianity-Lite that produces conversions instead of disciples. Dallas Willard reminds us of something anyone who reads the New Testament knows, Jesus never called anyone to be a Christian; he only called people to be disciples… Today’s consumer-oriented, commoditized Christianity offers heaven in the future and fulfillment of the American dream now.”

“Our apparent success has been accomplished by conforming to American culture rather than transforming it, point out, as Alan Wolfe observed, that instead of theological, it is therapeutic; instead of intellectual, it is emotional and revivalist; instead of emphasizing a serving community, it is consumeristic and individualistic; instead of producing spiritual growth and depth, it is satisfied with entrepreneurialism and numeric growth. Instead of being a moral and spiritual beacon, evangelicalism is viewed as an important political and economic niche.”

“New York Times columnist, Walter Kim puts the final nail in the proverbial coffin: “Christianity doesn’t compete with pop culture. It is pop culture.”

A View From The First Floor

June 6, 2008
Study Break

Look closely at the attached blog pix. What do you see? Are you able to use the zoom button on your computer to get even closer to the details? Are you struggling with beach envy because of those gorgeous palm trees? Can you see the romance of the Atlantic in the far distance? Notice the crisp blue sky and the absence of white caps riding the surface of the water (okay... the sky is a washed-out white because I'm a horrible photographer)? All of this means there is a perfect, only slight breeze that enables a great beach day to unfold. See the bars up close? Those are what I peer through in the early morning when I sit on our first floor balcony to read out of Acts, Blackaby, and McManus. With a slice of peanut butter and honey toast, a large cup of coffee with some hazelnut creamer, and a deep sense of listening to the Creator of it all… I taste and see that He is good to get my study break work underway. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

Look at the picture one more time. Do you see the sad, lonely, empty car spaces? This morning, our condo neighbors to our left wrapped up their time away and headed back to reality. It’s always hard leaving the beach. I could see and feel their pain. Soon we will be leaving our study break paradise, but I don’t want to dwell on that grief just yet. God is still dealing with me on so many levels.

Just before our Ohio-bound fellow beach bums loaded up, they walked over a few Arbys coupons for us to enjoy. Apparently they picked up these valuable, local gems the night before, but now their treasure was becoming worthless as they ventured back to their land locked kingdom once again. Accepting these coupons was really my only interaction with these people heralded from my home state, and yet they left me a unique blessing of roast beef on a bun. That was pretty cool. I said, “Thank you,” and within minutes stared at the empty parking spaces. The spaces seemed to stare back at me with a bit of regret. Coupon yielding vacationers had made an impact on me, but had I on them?

As Blackaby pushed me to think about “what kind of life I ought to be living,” and McManus took shots at thinking about a God who loves enough to pursue… I doubted whether anything I am (or am learning) significantly impacted my brief and limited friendship with a couple families from Ohio. Should I have made an impact? Is it ever OK not to? If I’ve grasped a good Biblical worldview, and validated it by the way I live (or ought to live), can I help but make an impact? Is it me that really makes an impact, or merely God using me as I simply live out my Biblical worldview? I think you and I really do know the answer to this last question.

So … let me begin writing my personal, Biblical worldview. That is, after I divert my attention to my family for a bit. They want to go see the new box office Indiana Jones smash-hit movie. OK. Great! I can go for this. Maybe it will even help me somehow. Why separate the spiritual from the secular? Jesus didn’t. In fact, Rob bell recently taught how Jesus would have given but a cursory raised eyebrow with the term “spiritual life.” All of life was spiritual for the Christ. With that… all was properly justified and rationalized, and it was off to the movies.

Towards the beginning of the movie, Indiana Jones gets fired from his college teaching job. In this latest cinematic effort, Indiana is being overtly portrayed as an aging professor whose past seems brighter than his graying future. A college colleague poignantly bemoans, “We’ve reached the age where life stops giving, and starts taking away.”

And there you have it. Most of our lives, especially under the banner of Christianity, are spent trying to receive and take in as much as humanly possible. I’ve been taught and raised well, but if I’m honest, most of my Godness centered on blessings, answered prayers, and fulfilling my fullest potential. I would dare guess that 90% of touted books in a Christian bookstore follow such individualistic themes --- which makes the sign “Christian Bookstore” somewhat of a flashing neon oxymoron.

With this sort of me-prototype, it doesn’t significantly matter how good my Biblical worldview really is. Such a perspective is rarely shared, lived-out, or world impacting. It’s personal, private, between me and God… and most often hidden from a longing world.

What if I can succinctly state my worldview, and then live it out in ways that point to God and others more than to myself? What if whole families did this? Churches? Now we’re onto something. Would strangers from Ohio be impacted? Here goes my attempt…

My Biblical Worldview

By Alan Scott (age 48)
June 6, 2008
(first draft of an organic document)

God, as the ultimate creator, brought life and creation into being, and remained a vitally attached, interested entity. He is a hands-on God. His creative and meticulous design reflects character, goodness, and his unending pursuit of the humanity he loves. Science, then, becomes a great way for us to appreciate God’s design and therefore his character and love. As an active part of creation, God speaks and reveals himself through history, special words, his presence (best seen through His Son coming to earth), and the Bible. My character should reflect God’s. I was made in his image, and therefore should increase in things like goodness, greatness (Biblically defined as serving), and creativity. My becoming is a direct result and reflection of who God is. God created out of a keen sense of creativity and purpose. He wanted to love unconditionally and be loved, and gave us an unbelievably designed world to live in --- which points to Him and his relentless love. My purpose is to give God his due respect, honor, worship, service, and love. My purpose, in short form, is to love and obey a God who personally pursues me. My desire to love God is not to earn his love in return, but rather recognize and celebrate that he loved me first in ways I cannot comprehend this side of heaven. While God is constantly pursuing me, there are other evil forces doing the same. There is a very real battle over my soul. God has already won this battle through Jesus, the cross and my accepted gift of grace, but the fight wages on. This means that there are no coincidences. God is sovereign and Satan tries to derail that very sovereignty. Every incident in life is related back to the grand scheme (and battle) that is unfolding 24/7. Understanding my purpose in all of this helps me wrestle with priorities and keep, as best I can, Jesus at the center of my life. Prayer and Bible application become vital tools. I realize everything I have is actually given to me by an extremely loving God. Therefore, I must be a giver and not a taker. I must evaluate my motivations for everything I do. All is spiritual. God is the God of the universe who holds the keys to heaven and hell. He is the anxious and ready Rewarder of eternal life NOW and in heaven after living an obedient and grace-accepted life on earth. God’s great love also allows people to choose to walk away, and thus a reality of hell becomes another demonstration of love. This fact keeps my awareness of sin and it’s devastating effects very real in my life. My heart for others and their eternal destinies becomes enlarged as well. As I live this worldview out, I recognize many spiritual authorities. There are those who help me like angels, the Holy Spirit, and the Living Word. There are those like Satan and demons who try to derail my relationship with Jesus. I’m in a spiritual battle, so the stakes, players, and their positions become extremely motivating. My worldview is based on the authority of the Bible, which is the source for absolute truth. Every decision I make is either validated or convicted by God’s truth. I obey His truth because of love… His love for me, and mine for Him. This Biblical worldview, I would hope, will affect all areas of my life (habits, time, character, fruit), as I refuse to segregate secular from sacred. All of life is spiritual, and points back to God the Creator.

Now… what if all of THAT was lived and not merely written? Whoa…
What if this didn’t become a rule but remained a life tool? What if it wasn’t so much about my theology or application of doctrine, but was rather my unique life goal or mission statement which organically breathed and was shared on a daily basis?

What would your Biblical worldview state… but better still… how would it be lived out?

It makes me wish I could have another shot at those Ohio freakazoids!

Tonight is midnight breakfast. This is an annual Scott, study break tradition. There's a Grand Slam out there with my name on it. Better still, there are memories to be made that I'm banking will last beyond my life time.

I Want To Be A TV Evangelist

June 5, 2008
Study Break

Brooklynn DID get up with me this morning to run. It was a gorgeous sunrise. She ran really well and long… until she stopped. This wasn’t for a mere breather. She wasn’t feeling good. She plopped down on the sand like a wet towel, and it wasn’t a particularly proud moment for Brooklynn as she just laid there in the soggy sand. I immediately started preparing my parental psyche for some classic beach throw up. There’s nothing worse… but the clean up is as easy as the rising tide. I was really hoping she wasn’t going to lose her Cheerios. How would I explain my flawed fathering techniques to a inquisitive wife? Brooklynn finally came around, and we decided to walk our way to the pier. We made it, so I took Brooklynn to my providential boardwalk at the state park. I blundered on about the sights, smells, and my partiality of it all. I told her glory stories of youth group trips long ago that ended up at this same exact spot. She listened --- really listened. We stopped, sat, and both listened to a worship song on our iPods while soaking in the sun and ocean. This was a very good morning talking and walking with my almost 17-year-old daughter. She’ll be a junior this fall. I couldn’t help but wonder how many more of these special study break walks the future would hold.

After a little Henry Blackaby and Erwin McManus warm up, I did some diving into Acts 9. It’s so interesting to follow people like Saul and Peter and try to discern the impact and development of their worldviews. It makes for some good thought provoking. I love it when my thoughts are easily provoked and challenged by scripture. With a hurried omelet, another power smoothie, and an overdue shower, I headed back to the beach to finish “A Contrarian’s Guide To Knowing God.” I was anxious to do so.

Somewhere between chapter 13, “Best Practices Overload” and chapter 14, “Gift Projection,” I made a huge honkin’ decision. I going to become a high-powered TV evangelist. Yep, and I’m picking up a little southern drawl (or maybe British) just to help pave the way.

I want widely-broadcasted communication skills. I want a charisma and zeal to erase all doubt about my spirituality. I want white-hot-spotlight gifts that can heal, predict, and amaze people with how the Holy Spirit pulses through my veins. I want to have all the answers for church leaders and members at the flick of the remote. I’m tired of not measuring up to spiritual expectations. I want to have big hair and a bank of phones for people to call when my “on air” light is lit. Why do I want it all? Larry Osborne (“A Contrarian’s Guide”) answers: “I realized that most of my motivation to emulate all the strengths and traits I admired in others didn’t come from listening to the voice of God. It came form trying to please friends and mentors who all assumed that their calling must be my calling. God’s calling comes from God not from everyone who claims to love us and have a wonderful plan for our life. God-pleasing spirituality is found in pleasing Him --- not everyone else.”

It’s such a trap for pastors… for me… to try and please everyone else. To prove my zeal, my love, my power, my quotient of Holy Spirit, and my worth… I can easily take on all the best practices admired or pushed, but miss my unique calling to teach and lead.

Larry Osborne’s “A Contrarian’s Guide To Knowing God” is a exceptional book. It’s very challenging and paradigm threatening. I like that. I think all our small groups should study and read through this book --- especially groups with new believers or the almost convinced. It would be good for such people to avoid the dark baggage most crusty, rusty, dusty Christians unfortunately carry.

I love Osborne’s questioning of accountability groups and our idea of putting God first. His candor on how we make spiritual tools into rules is great. This paragraph caught me: “When family devotions bored my kids, we put it (and them) to bed. Better to have a few friends think I’m a terrible father for not reading the Bible to my children than to have them grow up thinking of God as terminally boring.” Wow. How honest is that?

Immediately my boxy parenting and Christianity began to inquire, “We’ll what’s the alternative to family devotions… MR. SMARTY OSBORNE?” And then beautifully and quite embarrassingly I answered my own snotty question: “Maybe the Osborne’s talk about God and scripture in real time. Maybe, ALAN RAY, they simply live it out with their Biblical worldview!”

Oh.

I didn’t write my flowing, story-feeling, Biblical worldview today. Perhaps I’ll find time to do this tomorrow. I want to do this. If not tomorrow, then it will become my weekend project. Sounds like I’m putting it off. I think it’s still bubbling up and percolating.

I’ve been a bit tired today. It’s a good tired though.
I fried up some green tomatoes for supper tonight. In attempting to get this task done, I called a couple guys back in Atlanta for a few cooking tips on fried green tomatoes. One guy called me back and said, “Just because we’re southerners doesn’t mean frying green tomatoes is bred into us!” After we ate, the family watched “Enchanted." Nice flick to watch with the kids. It was a good diversion and needed break. Thanks, God, for the day. Thanks for teaching me. Thanks for loving me... an obvious contrarian.

Tomorrow I start reading “The Culturally Savvy Christian” by Dick Staub. It looks good.

Comparing Brooklynn and Lauren

June 4, 2008
Study Break

My two teenage daughters seem to have way more differences than shared similarities. They do, however, share a common relationship with me... their incredible father. Brooklynn loves reading and school work. Lauren likes funky hair and cooking. Brooklynn is taking vocal lessons; Lauren gets instruction on the violin. Brooklynn is book smart while Lauren has some definite street savvy. Brooklynn couldn’t get her seat belt figured out so Lauren buckled it. Lauren needed help spelling a word. Brooklynn blurted out the correct spelling and even muttered the definition under her breath. Brooklynn likes to lay out in the sun. Lauren goes plunging headfirst into the crashing waves.

Both of these wonderful pieces of work have one significant thing in common. They share a relationship with me… their incredible father. Oh, there are a few other commonalities the girls share… like various house rules. Allowances actually are attached to some level of work. There will be no car dates until 17, and family meals are non-negotiable. Still it seems the wonderful differences far outweigh the parallels. Because of this, how I approach my relationship with each girl is as unique as their hair styles. To connect with Brooklynn, usually some sort of mental stimulation or music pop quiz can work. To have some memorable quality time with Lauren, a bit of out-of-the-norm challenge and daring goes a long way.

Wouldn’t it be a horrific thing to force, pressure, teach, or even suggest they both have to do the same rigid things to build their relationship with me? What an awful thought. I’m sure they would quickly go the route of most stereotypical pastor kids. Ahhhhrgh!

Larry Osborne, in his book “A Contrarians Guide To Knowing God,” beguiles popular church speak when it comes to championing a personal relationship with Jesus compared to the stale wine of religion. If, as Osborne suggests, we really do have personal, individual relationships with Jesus, than why do we force, pressure, teach, and suggest people follow the same rigid paths to foster that relationship? Sure we all have some of the same house rules, but doesn’t our incredible heavenly Father recognize individuality and unique paths in relating to Him? Does the Church get this? Do I?

Osborne writes, “Our one-size-fits-all discipleship and spirituality recipes have to go. We must recognize them for what they are --- mere religion in the guise of relationship.” Wow.

From a safe and anonymous distance, I watched a couple walk hand-in-hand into the ocean waters this afternoon. Sometimes you can just tell when a young, romantic couple wants to venture off into deep waters and hold each other beneath the water's veil. There’s something about romance with salt water and stinging jelly fish that really brings couples together. This particular couple was funny to watch. The man with the obviously alluring cowboy hat burst through the pummeling waves with no problem. He was holding (more like dragging) the hand of his vacation love… anxious for her to make it into deeper, calmer waters with him. She tried to keep her dignity and swimsuit in place as the cruelty of God’s marvelous creation did unspeakable things to her hair and formerly-perfect posture. They both finally made it to deeper waters, but they had completely different ways, styles, and approaches of getting there. They both made it, and I guess that’s all that matters. Right? By the way… once the young female catch finally did meet up with her hero cowboy, she was so exhausted and spent that she made a fairly quick exit back to her towel where she sat defiantly with a bit of an attitude. (I just love to watch people!)

In “A Contrarian’s Guide To Knowing God.” Larry Osborne says, “The most important thing in pleasing God is not a particular approach to spirituality or style of ministry; it’s the fruit that matters. Could the patterns, disciplines, and paths of spirituality we hold so dear be far less important than the fruit they produce? This should forever put to bed our attempts to create a one-size-fits-all spirituality. It should silence much of our criticism of one another. And if properly understood, it should lead to a genuine celebration of our diversity and calling in our expressions of faith.”

This is a really interesting read. In keeping with my study break goal of reading half a book every day, “A Contrarian’s Guide” had me highlighting and reading with fun anticipation. In trying to wrestle with how to foster bona fide relationships with God, Osborne makes several against-the-grain comments. For instance: “So why do we place such a great emphasis on sequential steps and an orderly progression in our discipleship programs and models? I believe its primarily because linear models and programs are much easier to design and administrate (as opposed to helping unique individuals).”

One of Osborne’s answers is small groups (Joe has to read this book). However, Osborne’s view of small groups is refreshingly honest and different than most churches. He writes, “The primary reason to be in a small group setting is not to learn more biblical information. It’s not to develop great friends. It’s not even accountability. It’s connectedness. Belonging to a small group, small church, or any other form of close and transparent relationships velcroes me to the people and information I’ll need when a need-to-grow or need-to-know crisis shows up (assuming that most traditional church classes or discipleship models don’t accomplish this).

I’m anxious to read the rest of this book tomorrow…

One other thought, and then I’ve got to get to bed. God doesn’t seem to be letting me go on the whole Biblical worldview thing. Blackaby challenged me today with the condition of my soil or heart. Am I open to a new word the Lord may have for me? I had to stop and sit on the boardwalk and formally give permission for my soil to be cultivated.

I’m going to write my Biblical worldview in story form tomorrow. I think this is important. God has something here for me. Something new. I think putting my Biblical worldview down in a flowing, written style will help move a concept into motivation and lifestyle. I’m going to give it a try.

It’s incredibly convicting to note that in Acts 9, Saul categorically had a religious worldview, but missed the God of the Bible. With his worldview, Jesus spoke and Saul answered, “Who are you?” Ananias (Acts 9:10) also had a worldview. When Jesus spoke, he answered, “Yes, Lord?” What a difference.

How does my worldview help me or hinder me to hear and answer Jesus?

Saul had a religious worldview which Jesus said was persecuting the church and Jesus himself. I had to take this personally. Have I hurt the church with my worldview? For years my worldview just wanted to save people, and then my job was done. Perhaps it was a little myopic. But doesn’t a Biblical worldview go beyond Jesus as Savior to Jesus as Lord? A Biblical worldview is God lived out 24/7 in ways that reflect God’s character, creativity, and authority. Isn’t that what a church and a pastor should be centered on? I’m certainly not negating creativity, relevance, or effective methodologies, but I’m convinced way more can be taught and applied than most churches (or I) have accomplished in the past. Somehow... someway... the Church, in order to really make a difference, has got to start being different than our counterparts in world.

A Biblical worldview…I’m going to work on this a bit more tomorrow.

Time for bed. Brooklynn wants to get up and run with me. She’s not a runner, nor a big morning person. Lauren on the other hand… But wait, I don’t want to box them in. Being the incredible father that I am, I want to develop our relationships with whatever unique ways are required. So… let’s see what unfolds in the morning. I’ll let you know.

God thanks for a good day. I’m reminded how important it is to read. These times of super-charged reading and learning are so life-giving. My time spent with You, I hope, will be life changing.

Under the boardwalk... Down by the sea filled with sharks

June 3, 2008
Study Break

Lauren, my delightfully funky thirteen-year-old, wanted to go running with me this morning. I was a bit skeptical, but excited that she might suddenly gain the disciplines and benefits of long distance running. We walked out to the beach, did some serious stretching, and then took off for my distant pier. I dutifully explained how the northern fishing pier was my visible goal. I wouldn’t quit until I got there.

We ran for about 3 minutes and Lauren needed to stop. We walked for another few minutes, and then took off again. We stopped approximately 3 minutes later. I tried hard not to reflect frustration as this wasn’t my usual running routine, but had instead decided to encourage my young daughter's running aspirations. We went into another jog. Three minutes later… you guessed it… we stopped and Lauren said, "I think I'm going to walk back to the condo." "Are you sure?" I cautiously asked. "We can make it. We'll just take our time. You've gotta try," I chided. Nothing doing. Lauren walked back to where the rest of the sleeping Scotts lay unbothered by sweat, pain, and weird distant goals.

I managed to reclaim my usual morning run, but a nagging thought hit me as sweat started to sting my eyes... "Why didn't I just walk to the pier with Lauren and spend some good beach relational time with a daughter I’m crazy about?” I turned around to see her short, skinny frame, but she was out of sight and probably back in bed.

My early morning routine this year seems to be running two miles to the pier, taking a walk through Myrtle Beach State Park, and then running two miles back to the condo. It’s a bit further route than in years past, but I think it’s a good niche to get into for a couple weeks.

When I exit the beach to take an introspective stroll through the state park, I wind up walking on an extended, winding, calming boardwalk. I love the smell of newer wood the boardwalk was boasting. The sea oats off to one side and the wild flowers on the other gave intriguing aromas to mix with the intoxicating sea breeze so many poets and musicians have drawn from. I could hear the distinctiveness of each step I took on the board walk. It almost sounded as if there was someone else walking with me. Indeed there was. Jesus seemed to be prodding me with, “Now this is nice. I just wanted to walk with you. What you should have done with your daughter, I want to do with you.” Ouch…

As I slowed my pace on the boardwalk, I let my thoughts go adrift (or maybe be guided). What if all the streets in heaven weren’t made of gold? After all, gold streets would require a lot of maintenance, and I’m quite certain would smell of Super Walmart gold cleaner. What if there were streets in Zion that weren’t streets at all… but rather boardwalks. What if heavenly streets weren’t so much about the quality and kind of pavement, but rather quality of experience… and smells, and emotions, and who you get to walk with to make it all feel like home? McManus writes (“Soul Cravings”), “Home is ultimately not about a place to live but about the people with whom you are most fully alive. Home is about love, relationship, community, and belonging, and we are all searching for home. Sherry is anxious for both a home and home.

I’m finding myself still mulling over the whole Biblical worldview thing. I really like Barna’s book, “Think Like Jesus.” It is, however, more than just the ability to answer the 7 questions espoused in the book. It’s living them out in the small and large moments of life. It’s believing that Jesus talks and walks with you on a boardwalk. What kind of shape was my Biblical worldview in? How would I put my Biblical worldview into story form? Stephen did this in spectacular fashion in Acts chapter 7. His world view was evident in his story.

I finished George Barna’s “Think Like Jesus,” and I’ve slowly decided I really like this book. It came to me as a bit of a literary sleeper, but I think it SHOULD have profound impact on my own Biblical worldview… and that will undoubtedly affect my teaching and trying to help people with their Biblical worldviews. I’m also sure that if I’m not careful, the words “Biblical worldview” will get very tiresome for many if it’s not an authentic, transformational, and a culture-shaping paradigm shift.

Barna writes about putting Biblical worldviews into practice… “Realize that if you simply engage the culture but do not transcend it, you have become just another option for is consideration, failing to give it good reason to take the Christian alternative seriously. If you transcend the culture without truly engaging it in the process, you become a self-absorbed, arrogant, isolationist, abdicating key kingdom responsibilities and privileges in favor of personal enhancement.

Around 5 p.m., the beach umbrellas and chairs magically start disappearing as supper draws its beneficiaries home. Feeling my own hunger pains, I decided to draw my day of reading, thinking, praying, and just being to a close.

But wait… something in the waters began to stir. It’s why I love the ocean. There’s a never two days exactly alike! Two bald, tattooed, burly guys came barreling loudly out of the water’s fury yelling, “Shark!” I put everything down and went to check out the salty hubbub. With eyes as wide as a non-anesthetized dentist patient, these two manly men had barely survived a vicious attack and were now making their way down the beach to warn other unsuspecting shark bait bathers.

Family after family were bolting out of the water with shrieks of horror. Mom’s were grabbing kids. Dad’s were keeping watch for deflated and shredded rubber rafts. Dogs once barking were mysteriously gone. Just kidding. Actually someone finally identified the two brown, flat, just-beneath-the-surface creatures as a couple of sting rays. The gathering crowd promptly went from horror back to curious tourists. (Side note: After the sharks turned into sting rays, I had to laugh at how funny people’s faces were when they thought they were boogie boardin’ with death! I know, I know… I have a long way to go on living out my Biblical worldview towards others…)

What intrigued me was how fast a couple bald guys could influence an entire stretch of beach. With a few simple words, opinions, and quickly-expressed beliefs, immediate lifestyles were altered. Worldviews and oceanviews alike were quite easily influenced and changed.

How easily is my worldview changed? How many of culture’s popular worldviews have already invaded my thinking and life (naturalism, nihilism, existentialism, or postmodernism), and have become dangerous sharks circling to steal, kill, and destroy? I can only hope that tomorrow morning, back on the boardwalk, Jesus and I can keep working out my story… my practical and working Biblical worldview.

At Water's Edge

June 2, 2008
Study Break

It was a cloudy and somewhat chilly beach morning, so I broke my hard slumber with an a.m. power smoothie. I'm not exactly sure what constitutes a power smoothie, but it does have a powerful ring to it, doesn't it? There's something about a plain smoothie that just doesn't communicate my real and proper place in the world. Riiight.

I took said smoothie and meandered outside to the balcony to begin my first morning of reading. I'm studying through the book of Acts, and was struck with the awesome onslaught of God's power visibly demonstrated in the first few chapters. In chapter 5, more power is on display as Ananias and Sapphira were decidedly struck down for lying to God, and the first century Jesus followers were struck with fear. God's hand was active with the supernatural and miraculous, and a complimentary, unmistakable, and healthy fear of God became a normal part of a disciple's life.

To what level do I fear God ... or take him for granted? What factors in my life detract from a healthy and Biblical fear of God? Good questions, but I was in my study break zone. Onto a little Henry Blackaby... Blackaby's June 2nd reading was entitled: "The Terror of the Lord." Hmmm... here we go again. Was this my focus for today? Have we lost a fear of God? Have I? "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God and I also trust are well now in your consciences." (II Cor. 6:11)

Something was bugging me as I fastened on my iPod earbuds, and headed off for a run. How could the Lord be whispering to me as a friend just yesterday, and now throwing the concept of fear in my face? Erwin McManus only stirred the pot with musings about my extreme need for love in the first five chapters of “Soul Cravings.” However, it was a poignant line from "Experiencing God Day-By-Day" that helped push me down the beach: "We are God's adopted children... even friends with Jesus, but we are not His equals. He is God and we are not!"

Fear and friendship. Can they coexist? I pondered and sweated along to The Afters tune of "Beautiful Love." Two miles down to the pier, and I took a break. A diversion walk through the Myrtle Beach state park, I hoped, would clear some of the fear and fog.

It was around camping site 184 when thoughts of an old friend popped into my head. A few years ago I had a good friend whom I enjoyed hanging out with. This guy was a big dog business leader. In fact, he mentored, counseled, and consulted with major, Fortune-500 corporations around the world. In the process of our grabbing some early-morning breakfasts, taking in a few football games, and getting our families together, I was being mentored, counseled, and consulted with as well.

While my big dog business friend and I were enjoying a solid friendship, I distinctively remember a healthy fear being put into place. When it came to leadership and management insights, this guy was just flat out scary. I learned to simply nod and bite my tongue when Curt would ask his unique brand of rhetorical, confidence-melting questions. We enjoyed a budding friendship, but in terms of leadership expertise... a sense of fear on my part became necessary for sanity and survival. Friendship and fear were coexisting.

Jesus calls me a friend, AND the Bible says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Friendship and fear together. Fear of God, according to the Bible, is attached to nothing less than life itself. Have we let go of life? George Barna seemed to know the answer with his shocking data in "Think Like Jesus." 91% of born-again adults do not have a Biblical worldview (98% for teens). There is no spiritual cause and effect because there is no Biblical worldview. Is it any wonder the American Church has lost it's influence in society? So few of us actually think like Jesus. Could this be symptomatic of a fear-lacking epidemic which effectively blocks our wisdom to think like Jesus? (Biblical worldview)

Barna writes, "It seems that Christians are more affected by society than society is affected by Christians. Why is that? Perhaps because more than nine out of every ten born-again Christians fail to think like Jesus; they think like the rest of the world, so they naturally behave like the citizens of this world, too."

As of 5 p.m., I had made my way through half of "Think Like Jesus." Forming a Biblical worldview, according to Barna, necessitates answers to the following 7 questions:
1. Does God Exist?
2. What is the character and nature of God?
3. How and why was he world created?
4. What is the nature and purpose of humanity?
5. What happens after we die on earth?
6. What spiritual authorities exist?
7. What is truth?

Yikes ...just a few tiny questions to wrestle with! I do like these questions though. I can see how authentic, lived-out answers could influence your lifestyle (a Biblical worldview), and bring friendship, fear, and God all into an eternal alignment.

After lunch, my short-legged beach chair was sinking deep into the hot South Carolina sand. I watched my son and wondered... "Do I only play at water's edge?"

My six-year-old son, Michael, will kick at the ocean, yell at it, run along the edges, but he doesn't seem interested about going in. I don't blame him. That's one big swimming pool, and it's full of blonde-haired-boy-eating sharks! I still can't wait for Michael, however, to experience the jolt of a crashing wave, body surfing, jellyfish dodging, and wiping stinging salt water from his eyes. As I watched Michael flirt on the edge of God’s awesomeness, I wanted him to actually experience HIM and get in. Instead, he was content with playin’ at water’s edge.

How often do I settle for only needing God as a Savior and not as Lord (with an incomplete Biblical worldview)? Am I content with playin’ at water’s edge? There’s so much more for me to experience, but it all starts with a Godly fear that can supernaturally coexist within a grandiose friendship.

So much was running through my mind, and I began to feel an irrepressible, pastoral need to sort it all out verbally. My compliant family became my captive audience around the dinner table. Somewhere after a sneaky, “Pass the salad,” I tried to explain the importance of a Biblical worldview. I think I was a bit preachy. I got mostly blank stares… especially from my red-headed nine-year-old. My point was made, I think, as we worked on our study break scripture memory, talked about God, and prayed. Somewhere just before we cleared the table, I think maybe… miraculously… there was a merging of our friendships with God to a motivating and healthy fear of Him. Thanks God. I always appreciate it when you pull some things together.

Beach Church

June 1, 2008
Study Break

After rolling into South Carolina last night, I rolled out of bed at about 7:30 this morning and hit the beach for a run. It was a couple miles down to the nearest pier. Not even one lonely cloud was marring the spectacular blue sky I ran beneath. The warm sun began to smile on my face and transform my pale, winter-stained legs. Good thing there weren't too many others out on the beach. Like a Green Tea Frappacino boldly ordered at a NASCAR race, I was creating a few stares from the glare!

It's an amazing thing to experience the warming love of a heavenly Father in specially created moments. That's precisely what I felt on this run. I wasn't a pastor getting psyched-up for another Sunday morning. I wasn't a servant working feverishly to please my task master. I was a son... a child... a friend of an awe-inspiring creation's Creator.

I could hear the whispers of an Almighty friend saying, "Listen. I want to speak to you. Let's reconnect. Let's run together." Does this sound wierd? Was it all just an emotional sidebar that sand, ocean, and sky are fairly good at manufacturing with just about anyone? Maybe... according to Dr. Phil or Oprah, but I am choosing to believe the SON was smiling down on me. I'm confident He was calling me "friend" all day today. I wondered why the message of "friend" felt so strong and deep? Had I been on task mode and in my leadership gears so dangerously long that I had skimmed over my relationship with Jesus? Had I spent too much time praying and bldindly working for God to move, that I had actually missed God?

After making my way back to the condo, I found the Scott clan making breakfast, getting ready for church... and some still desperately denying the onslaught of 9 a.m. This was a rare morning for a pastor to make his family banana-strawberry smoothies, wake up slumbering kids slowly, and all walk out the door at the same time --- on a Sunday morning!

We made our way back to Myrtle Beach Community Church. This is our favorite church to visit while we are on study break. I feel like we've watched this church struggle, transform, and grow over the many years we've been coming here. MBCC used to be a very strict, Willow Creek model of a church. It was one-hour long, with usually a drama, just a couple, short worship songs, and a topical message. For years we watched this struggling church try to replicate the Chicago-based Willow Creek in South Carolina. We saw the founding pastor come and go. We saw staff people leave. We saw the theater-style building and desperate parking lot beg for people to come. Most of the time it was to no visible avail. However, in the past 2-3 years, something different has been taking shape. A new pastor from California has come in with a whole new vision. Instead of Myrtle Beach Community Church, a large sign outside simply says "Beach Church." I like that. Today the parking lot was full for the second, 11:15 service (did I mention the kids sleeping in?). Over 1,200 people are coming in and out the doors. Things were quite a bit different on the inside as well. The service was about an hour and twenty minutes long. There was extended worship. I had never seen as many hands raised in this church than on this morning. Creatively, they featured a creative scripture reading and some video clips. It almost seemed as if the people of Beach Church went running this morning too, and were hungry to corporately meet up with their Friend... Jesus.

I did make it back to the beach for a little family time, Sunday afternoon nap, and a bit of reading. Henry Blackaby's (Experiencing God Day-By-Day) entry for this first day of June focused on our friendship with Jesus. Wierd, huh? Blackaby expounded on John 15:15... "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things tha tI have heard from MY Father I have made known to you."

And then... just to drive a daily theme's nail right into my heart, I finished reading the last two chapters of "The Gospel According To Starbucks" by Leonard Sweet. Sweet reflects on Jesus' final words before he makes his way to Calvary. "Jesus final directive is not a work assignment: "Serve." Jesus' final directive is a renaming embrace: "Friends." Think of it: the Savior of the world wants me not to be his servant but to be his friend, even his child."

Message recieved loud and clear... and it's a good one. I'm anxious to get started on this study break, and spend more time with my Friend. I will fully dive in with the sun's rising tomorrow morning. My book list includes:
"Soul Cravings" by Erwin McManus
"Unchristian" by David Kinnaman
"The Culurally Savvy Christian" by Dick Staub
"Contrarians's Guide To Knowing God" by Larry Osborne
"The Creative Leader" by Ed Young

And I will start with...
"Think Like Jesus" by George Barna
Looking forward to more themes and messages. God never let's me down on study break. Thanks to everyone at Cumberland for making this study break possible.