The Draft is alive and well…not the draft for the military, but for the NFL, NBA, MLB, or MLS. This past week in the NFL there were 253 players ‘drafted’ by the 32 teams. My favorite team, the Indianapolis Colts, had both the first and the last picks of this draft.

As sort of an ‘honor’ the last player picked of the 253 picks is dubbed ‘Mr. Irrelevant’. How much impact is this player really supposed to have in the NFL? If they were really wildly successful in college, they would have been picked higher. This year the Indianapolis Colts picked Chandler Harnish, a quarterback from Northern Illinois, with their last pick…Chandler Harnish is Mr Irrelevant.

But he gets to go to Disneyland. He gets a parade in his honor. He still gets to play in the NFL. He gets to play a game for his job. He was good enough to be picked. The Colts saw something in him that made it worth their pick, even their last pick, on this guy. In reality, if the Colts’ first pick Andrew Luck gets hurt, we could have Mr. Irrelevant as our starting QB. He has the chance to make a difference as some level. And he’s elated to have been picked at all. (You can read for yourself in the above linked article)

This post has the potential to turn into a sports post…which isn’t my aim here.

As I was reading the above article from ESPN.com I was hit with this reality: In the Christian world, there are far more ‘Mr/Ms/Mrs Irrelevants’ than there are ‘#1 picks’. There are a lot of people writing books, speaking, blogging, or whatever that some would say are the all stars, or the super-Christians. But there are far more ‘normal’ Christians out there than those who gain notoriety for their thoughts about Christianity, Church, Mission, or whatever faddish topic is trending.

What I’m getting at is this: This world won’t get any better, won’t ever change, won’t ever become the creation or place God intended it to be, if ‘irrelevant’ Christians don’t get in the game somehow. Often times they/we are too content to just read about topics or listen to sermons instead of live them. Or we think our voice doesn’t matter because it’s not being published. But it’s just not true. While we may think that our voice is irrelevant, or that our actions don’t matter, or that our decisions don’t make an impact on our world, or that we would really make a difference if we wrote a book…we’re just wrong.

Truth is, we live in the neighborhoods we live in, have the friends we have, make the connections we make, all for a reason…for real relationship. Podcasts don’t have friends. Books don’t have ‘besties’ (I can’t believe I had that word even in my head). Often times even speakers on stages feel out of touch with people and live outside of real relationship. There is unspeakable power in the ‘irrelevant’ lives of Christians living out the love of God in tangible flesh and bone.

You or I may never record a podcast. Give a sermon. Write a book. But your voice and life matter. Your voice, my voice, may be the closest thing to the voice of God our neighbors ever hear. God may have something beyond what we could ever ask for, or imagine, planned for us. But if we only ‘leave it to the pro’s’ the ‘#1 picks’, then we’ll never know.

At one point during Rob’s talk, he asked us to discuss a question: What are the biggest inhibiting factors to greater mission impact in the Western world? (or something like that)

This question really stirred something in me…a fire in my belly, so to speak…and I’m going to attempt to put into type what was on my mind in and in my heart. (And it should be clear that this post is just as much towards me as it written by me.)

One of the resounding answers to this question from our group was a lack of leaders who are willing to give up the comforts of their known lives to jump into to something risky (complacency). I see this as the first issue. It’s not easy or safe to leave behind ministry roles where one is clearly using their gifts, has consistent pay, a crowd to influence, access to resources, clear ‘success’ metrics, etc. Why would one want to do that?

The second layer of this issue is that it’s also not easy for a person who is not in a ‘professional ministry’ role (I hate that wordage by the way), to imagine themselves as a leader within the Church when they don’t have the experience or credentials that one may imagine would be necessary. (side note: in all of Scripture, it never says that formal education is required for leaders…it’s about faithfulness, love, and obedience. Education is often to augment these things…not replace them.) We’ve come to a place where many people within and without of the Church think that leadership comes with a stage and a microphone….there were many leaders in the first century Church that we don’t know about from Scripture who never got any ‘press’, but who were essential in how the Church came to be.

A second issue is that there may not be enough churches developing leaders from within their communities to send out of their communities. The prevailing system in the western Church is basically one where a handful of professional clergy lead the many. Things have been like this for a long time and people have clearly defined roles in the structure. There are people who prepare talks, music, ministries, and other church services; and then there are the people who listen, receive (maybe consume would be an appropriate word), enjoy what the other set of people are providing. It’s been long observed in churches that often 20% of the people do 80% of the work. The issue is that our current leaders are often so spent just doing what they are required to do for their community’s needs, that getting around to training leaders to be sent out is often left by the wayside. A second level to this is that many leaders don’t want to send out their most influential leaders because they may be difficult to replace. I would argue that creating voids in leadership requires new leaders to arise and while at the same also keeps us on our toes in regards to continually developing leaders.

The third issue I see is that many people see themselves as ‘normal Christians’ i.e: not leaders and aren’t given a greater vision for their lives in the Church. People only learn what they are being given. When the only vision that people have for their spirituality/faith/religion is that they receive services, then it’s not hard to figure out why more people aren’t growing into leadership: they aren’t taught that they should be. I could name 10 incredibly gifted friends of mine that have leadership potential but don’t step into it because their pastor doesn’t tell them they should. Beyond active leadership training in church communities, another issue I’ve experienced is that character development, lifelong discipleship and learning, and internal disciplines are not actively taught. When our ideas of discipleship only treat symptoms, we still leave the root sickness in there somewhere. Our practices of discipleship must go deeper to treating the inner-life so that when we do end up leadership positions we have the character to sustain ourselves there.

The fourth thing I see is that people think that ‘they could never do what we are doing.’ I’ve heard this so many times over the 8 years that we’ve been a part of church-planting work. “I wish I could just up and move overseas, but I can’t because…” The truth is (and this isn’t any attempt to sugar coat it) they really don’t wish that they could do what we do. If they did, they would make it happen just like many of my colleagues in CA. Many of my friends in Christian Associates not only left pastor-type jobs, but they also left the corporate world as well. They made a decision, accepted the challenge, took the step of faith, that building God’s Church around the world was worth the sacrifice and effort. If you are reading this and you’ve ever had the thought, “I wish we could move overseas to help build the Church but ______”, then I would challenge you to look at all of the obstacles God’s people faced in Scripture. Do we really believe that God is not able to remove obstacles when we choose to sacrifice for Him? Why do we so easily accept that suffering, trials, challenges were a clear part of Jesus’ ministry, then us want nothing to do with those things? And what’s worse…some of us even think that we’re doing a better job of following Jesus when we don’t experience suffering, trials, and challenges.

So we have a void…a huge need for leaders who embrace courage, risk, creativity and have a love for the Church, while our pervasive culture points us to safety, predictability, and passivity.

I guess the reason that I’m writing is because I have hope that there are people out there that are willing to step in the void. Maybe it’s you…Maybe you’ve been feeling like there is something different out there for your pursuit of God, your learning from Jesus, your place in serving the Church. I would hope that there maybe a few of my list of friends that would read this recognize their potential to do something great for the Church, the earthly presence of King Jesus.

I am also writing this because I have hope for the Church. I believe that God’s spirit is actively moving in our world and in the Church and that there is great potential in our times. While I’ve been a bit on the hard-nose side of things in this post, the reality is that I can also think of examples of church communities who are sending leaders out to harvest beyond their walls.

To end this…I hope the void disappears. We can do it. God can do it.

A few years ago, while on one of our longer stays in the US I bought a mug from Ikea that I really liked. I used it every morning for over a year and it became a part of my routine. I packed it in my suitcase when we moved to Barcelona in 2009. Shortly after our move, one fateful morning, I dropped the mug whilst trying to escape the fog that follows me around before coffee (yes, a real addict). I was without this trusty companion for the first time in years.

So I did what any normal human being would do when they break an inanimate, replaceable object: I bought another one.

This one was a big beautiful, more artsy looking, mug from Starbucks. It was also a huge mug and only made my coffee intake in the morning more intense. (With a downside of the coffee at the bottom of the mug ending up cold.) During our first 2 years in Barcelona I used this mug every morning. In truth most mornings during our first two years were pretty tough. It saw me through some tough times for sure…It’s dark blue tones were maybe a bit too appropriate for my emotional state though.

But just like two years before, one fateful morning this mug too took the plunge to the tile floor and ended it’s reign over my delicious morning coffee. It seemed like things were happening in slow motion as the mug slipped from my wet hands to the dry floor. This mug represented more to me than just an inanimate object…this mug was an icon of a chapter of my life; the most challenging and difficult chapter of my life.

So Jen and Maisie went out and bought me a new mug…a cheery yellow mug. Maybe it’s a prophetic sign of the good to come, or in the way that we’ve found the sun through the intense shaded of blue. But regardless, I really like it. It’s smaller…so that will maybe help me cut back on my problem.

But through this reflection I’ve realized that I’ve had one mug for each of the past three chapters of life:

Preparing for Barcelona -> Settling in Barcelona -> ???? in Barcelona

I am hopeful that the chapter marked by my yellow mug will be about:

New Beginnings, Further Growth, Living well in Community, Strong Faith and Love, and Stepping into Giftedness.

Am I the only one with distinct chapters in life? Anyone else have obscure, random, inanimate markers of these times?

I originally wrote this post a couple of days ago, but it got deleted for nerd reasons I won’t go into. But here’s my second try…

I just read the article above and a line in it hit me,

“If you can’t suffer,” Johan says, “what good are you?”

We just got back from our annual Christian Associates conference called connect. This year, our main sessions were taught by other church-planters within CA. The main text we were being taught was Hebrews 11. As each of my friends taught through this, one theme resounded from the lives of the people of faith in Hebrews: their faith lead each of them to some sort of significant suffering that resulted in their character being developed. Because of who they became through their suffering they were able to live lives of faith that made a difference in the world around them…and subsequently be considered by the writer of Hebrews some of the most noteworthy followers of God in history.

I like to ride my bikes. I like to work on my bikes. I use my bikes to get around town faster or take my daughter to school on. Basically, I use them for convenience. But I really don’t set out on my bike to suffer because I’m not competing for anything like the Columbian young men in the story, or like the riders in the Tour de France.

I watched the Tour de France a lot this year…mostly because of my newfound passion for bikes (which is evident in my last three posts). In the stages in the mountains I couldn’t get over the effort that there were exerting. They were riding 100′s of miles within a few days in incredible heat, altitude, and mental strain. For a rider in the Tour, winning a leg is pretty remarkable. Winning the whole thing is incredible. But the agony on their faces proves that they must suffer to get there. They are suffering for a prize.

In the story of Johan above, it’s not just him suffering on a bike. His mom has opened a new business, his parents sold their home, his dad is working construction as an older man. They are suffering together…but not just for the sake of suffering or riding a bike. They are suffering and sacrificing because they hope that cycling will take them out of the poverty they were living in.

This reminds me of a line in the Bible: (Hebrews 12:2)

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

It’s clear to me that there is something significant with suffering in the Christian journey. I think that there is a transformation that takes place within in us that enables us to become the type of people that God can use to join him in his good intentions on earth.

I think that the quote rings true:

“If you can’t suffer, what good are you?”

I think that I need to come to terms with something spiritually. Am I a casual bike rider when it comes to suffering? Do I just want faith for convenience? Or do I want to ride like I’m competing for a prize? (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) Do I want to push on in the face of difficulty? (2 Corinthians 4:7-10) Do I believe that partnership and relationship with God is worth it? (Philippians 3:7-14)

I think I do…

I also think that it’s worth receiving the criticism that praying for things that only benefit ourselves or our desires is selfish…I don’t think this because I don’t believe that God answers small prayers. I say this because I think that it’s worth us really being thoughtful about what we pray for. I would hope that my prayers more reflect what God desires on earth, not the way that they may reflect my desires on earth…

Enjoy…(tongue in cheek)

Without a prayer | Psychology Today

I want to write in part because I don’t want to start on the 80+ emails in my inbox and party because I just want to prove to all 3 of you out there that I can still write on my blog.

Last week we had got the chance to go to Madrid and to a conference just outside of the city for 4 days. Along with another CA friend, we drove the 6-7 hours through the north of Spain to get there. I was happy to take the long way because in the 2.5 years we lived in France, we barely saw anything outside of Paris. And, to my delight, the drive was beautiful: mountains, mesas, castles, villages, snow, cherry trees, fields, canyons, Montserrat…Spain is a diverse place.

While in Madrid I went out with a few CA guys to a burger place (obsession) in Malasaña (a really cool neighborhood where our friends the Krulls live). That night we got into a pretty significant and lengthy conversation with two girls about Jesus, the church, and their experience growing up in a catholic environment. While Spain might be diverse geographically, the story of a control, shame, and guilt heavy religion is all too common. There is a lot more to the story, but in the end we were able to communicate that following Jesus isn’t about following a tradition or a set of laws that put you either in or out of the group going to heaven. It was an honor to being able to say to them that following Jesus is about waking up everyday, doing our best to hear God’s voice, to follow Jesus, and to live the way He would if he were alive today (aka Jesus living through us). I hope a light bulb went on for them…I hope that in some way the shame, guilt, and oppression of their past experience with Church went away and they could be freed to see Jesus for who He is…and to no longer see him as a dying man hanging on a crucifix who started a religion that made them feel bad about themselves.

I had another conversation a couple of weeks ago with a Catalan guy and after I told him what I am doing here, he immediately said, “You have a very hard job.”

He’s right. We do have a hard job, but it’s not an impossible one. There is a hunger for spirituality here and there are people that are open to Jesus when we free Him from stereotypes, painful religion, oppressive human control, and the non-relevant traditions of men. It is the Jesus who has been resurrected into life, defeating sin and shame, empowering us with wisdom, grace, and truth that I want to follow. I want to follow a man who has been freed so that I can be free. I think many others in Spain want the same thing….

- St. Augustine of Hippo

Thanks to my friend Tim Bower for posting this earlier.

The early followers of Jesus called Him Lord in light of the Roman emperor’s command that he himself was Lord. In a sense, saying Jesus was Lord, was telling Caesar, “You are not Lord.” Saying that Jesus is Lord is not a phrase that we use to give Jesus another title. The phrase is a movement from ‘the competing Lords of our culture’ to a faith in Jesus as Lord. I believe that it is in this movement from one thing of ‘lordship’ to following Jesus as Lord that we find our meaning, hope, grace, and redemption.

I just got done finished reading excerpts for Chris Wright’s final address at the Third Lausanne Congress on world evangelisation. You can read it here if you want to.** I am both convicted and encouraged by what his points were. He said ‘Christians had lost their integrity and succumbed to the idolatry of power and pride, popularity and success, and wealth and greed.’ His last part on unity is also a crucial point.

Here are some quotes I ‘liked’:

“To be obsessed, or even concerned at all, about status, office, power, in the Christian Church and in Christian work, is in sheer disobedience to Christ and the Bible. And it destroys the very thing that we seek to accomplished. We are called back, in repentance, to humility.”

“The tragedy is that so many Christian leaders, including mission leaders, fail these tests [of power, popularity and wealth] at precisely the point Jesus overcame them.”

“The whole church pays the cost of their failure in the lost integrity and credibility. And so when we even dare to point the finger of criticism at the sin of the world we are told bluntly and rightly ‘clean up your own backyard’.”

I felt like this was the same message that I left the Thinklings event with. What leg do we have to stand on when we tell the world around us they need to follow Jesus when we don’t ourselves? I have a feeling that we’re living in a time where it is communicated that it is more important to be good Christian (go to church, read your Bible, be moral, tithe, etc) than it is to actually follow Jesus (redeem people, reject power, enter into suffering, etc). I think it is time that we as a collective Church start taking more seriously the reality that majority of the Bible was written to God’s own people who were not appropriately following Him. Personally, I would rather have Jesus tell me, “I know you followed me with your whole heart.” than to have say, “I know you worked hard to be a good Christian.”

Ok…off to get started cleaning my own backyard…or terrace seeing as I don’t have a backyard.

***You can also watch the talk online here: Integrity – Confronting Idols | A Conversa Global Lausanne

A Different Kind of Christian Demonstration at Gay Pride | TimSchraeder.com

Reconciliation is at the heart of the Gospel. Reconciliation between once-opposed enemies is truly good news for all people. (What the angels spoke of to the shepherds in Luke’s gospel)

Even as a kid we are taught to say we are sorry. Even if we believe that we are 100% right, we were taught to learn that there must be something that we need to apologize for. That we at least have 1% of the problem to own…but honestly only arrogant people would claim a measly 1%!

Being able to say sorry first is a humble expression to move towards the issue or the people. I think that what our brothers in Chicago did is a great example of moving toward an issue that needs reconciliation.

May God give us all the courage to reconcile the ‘wars’ that wage in our lives. When we do, we model His movement towards us as humanity. When we don’t, we miss out…We miss out on the Gospel coming alive in our lives.

When you think of reconciling an issue in your life, what comes to mind? What issues might have you been too afraid of to move towards?

May God’s grace be with you as move towards these things…