To be honest I was pretty nervous again this year speaking on this topic in the LIFE series in the main service. This year I had to also setup for Pastor Jer at the end of the service to launch the Rwanda Clean Water Project in the church.

I started by talking about how it has been grassroots movements of people that have provoked change throughout history. From those that fought for independence to the civil rights movement. Then how there are still many social injustices in the world today: poverty, war, genocide, water, sex trafficking etc. I listed some current statistics from worldmeters.info

• Current population of the world is 6.65 billion people
• 18.45 million births this year
• 7.5 million deaths this year
• 1,333 deaths in 15 minutes on Saturday
• 2000 absolute population growth (births minus deaths)
• 28,000 people died of hunger on Thursday
• 887.24 million malnourished people in the world right now
• 718,000 deaths due to water this year
• 1.324 billion people with no access to clean drinking water
• 2.4 million deaths by communicable diseases this year
• over 30 million HIV infected people in the world
• 6.6 million deaths of HIV people
• 898,000 deaths by cancer
• 143,000 deaths by malaria
• 449,000 deaths by smoking
• 2,000 deaths by pesticides

I then listed some information from the book, "Faith Works" by Jim Wallis. Every though the statistics are older data, they served the purpose.

• The income of the top 1% has increased by more the 150% in the late 90’s
• 30 years ago, CEOs made 30 times more then the avg worker, by the end of the 90’s it has grown to over 530:1
• Those that live on less then $1 dollar a day globally is growing into the billions.
• The 3 richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined gross domestic products of the world’s poorest 48 countries
• The world consumed more then $24 trillion in goods and services in 1997, six times the figure of 1995.
• Basic education for all people without would cost $6 billon a year – while $8 billion is spent annually on cosmetics in the US alone.
• Installation of water and basic sanitation for all would cost $9 billion – $11 billion is spent annually for ice cream in Europe.
• Basic health care and nutrition would cost $13 billion - $17 billion a year is spent on pet food in Europe and the United States.
• $35 billion is spent on business entertainment in Japan, $50 billion on cigarettes in Europe
• $105 billion on alcoholic drinks in Europe
• $400 billion on narcotic drugs around the world
• 1997 the UN Development Program Report claimed that poverty could have conquered in a decade and it would only have costed $80 billion a year until 2007.
• Is a CEO worth $97,000 an hour, which is what Disney was paying Michael Eisner and his workers in Haiti were being paid 28 cents an hour.

I listed those stats and information because I believe that there are many people that are looking for ways to translate their faith into a way of life that makes a positive difference in the world, a world with sobering stats such as those.

I then went to talk about the least of these

Matthew 25- 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’37 "Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 "The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

I talk about how it was time to focus on the message of the kingdom of God, not just salvation but also personal, social and global transformation. Which then led me to talk about how the world has become flat, the global world and the local world have come together, becoming glocal.

In our church we have over 20 nations or cultures. Had people give a nice shout to represent theirs as I listed them. We have a great glocal church.

We have welcomed all these nations and cultures into our church, we are blessed by being together as one. We are blessed as a church so we can help those that have come into our church, and we are also blessed to help those in our local communities and global communities.

Being in a glocal world, it is about impact and credibility. People care about where they are hurting and if we can help them.

Connecting with the global communities exists to serve our local community’s involvement in the brokenness of our world. It’s glocal, because the scope of Jesus’ vision is for all creation. And it’s outreach, because he meant his followers to be his hands and feet, moving in love beyond ourselves toward the most forgotten and neglected.

It is Community Home Groups being mobilized.

At the end to bridge into Jeremy coming back to intro the new project, we showed this video.

Yesterday when I was done speaking in the Sunday morning session, Pastor Jer came up and launched the new initiative to the church. The Rwanda Clean Water Project.  We are looking to build some wells in the nation of Rwanda. 

Tonight on CBC Newsworld, the documentary on the Rwanda genocide was shown.  It is based on the book by Romeo Dallaire, "Shake Hands with the Devil". Near the end of the film the scene where Dallaire enters into a memorial, was extremely moving (see picture below - that is just a portion of what was on the tables) .

I will post a summary of my speaking notes tomorrow hopefully. Tomorrow night is Small Group Leadership training again, so I might opt for a smaller post or just post on Wednesday.

As mentioned in the previous post, we wrapped up the Small Group Leadership Weekend for 2008 this past weekend. Saturday morning I spoke on a topic I titled "glocal." The premise was to set the table for the two sessions that followed. I have not spoke in a continuim of sessions before, especially setting the table. It was a little different, but I think the flow of the three sessions went very well.

I connected the parable of the Good Samaritan with glocalization. Defined what being a neighbor was, and how it is not enough to have compassionate thoughts about the "least of these" but there needs to be action that comes out of the compassion.

Then I defined what glocalization is from a Kingdom of God standpoint, "is the culmination of God’s plan to connect all of humanity to redeem this world. It is not the result of technology and economics, but God’s plan all along of connecting people to see this world radically transformed by the power of Jesus Christ." (Dr Bob Roberts, Glocalization, Fermi Shorts)

I went from there to discuss how Christians engage this glocal world. It is about impact and credibility. In being missionial in this glocal world it is not about "religion" but the question becomes do we care that they are hurting and can we help them where they hurt?

We need to put ourselves in positions to help or we can be waiting a long time to serve.

After my session, one of our group leaders got up and shared about their groups project to help a Rwandan family. This just blows me away. They took it upon themselves to help a lady in their group that had to flee the country because the military was chasing her, to unite her with her three kids that had fled to Uganda. The kids had to flee once this lady did, because the military went after them after she arrived in Canada. So the leader of this group started a process through World Vision to sponsor the children to come to Canada ($20,000). She decided she would not get a new car, and the money would go towards their sponsorship. Then a whole pile of things just started happening that are nothing short of "God things". The lady is getting landed immigrant status, and this moves things in the sponsorship to new levels and opens doors incredibly. During this time, the children were going to be sent back to Rwanda because of an agreement between the governments of Rwanda and Uganda. However, because this group started this process of sponsorship, these three children were granted a special paper to stay in Uganda. Then because she might receive the landed immigrant status, the $20,000 might not have to paid by the group. Simply amazing, a blog post doesn’t do it justice, mind blowing.Â

Our third session was a announcement of a special project that our Small Groups are launching in 2008. We are going to be raising money to build some clean water wells in the country of Rwanda.

2008 looks to be a interesting year within our small groups.

Tags: Rwanda, Small_Groups, Leadership, glocalization, missional, clean_water

Tomorrow morning I will be speaking at our annual Small Groups weekend.  My topic is simply titled "glocal".  This year it is a little different as I am specifically table setting for the 2 speakers to follow.  It will be a good morning, because I believe what I am speaking on will set it up nicely. 

Glocal is becoming groups that are missionally engaging society locally and globally in a flat world…if I can sum it up in one small sentence.  I will post a summary hopefully sometime this weekend. 

I have a few upcoming speaking sessions, this Sunday morning in Catalyst, and then next weekend both Catalyst and our annual Small Groups Leadership weekend. 

For the Small Groups weekend I am speaking in one session, the first one on the Saturday morning.  I am speaking on a subject as a lead in to an announcement/project being presented in the second session.  So that means I have to present in a way that does not overload. My title right now might be called, "A Flat World".  A play off the book by Thomas Friedman, "The World is Flat"….I have not read the book, but might reference its premise in my session. I have been asked not to go into specifics on my site yet about the project being presented to the leaders….so what I can say is that it has global aspects and I need to connect the local small group to the global action.  Interesting.

For Catalyst this weeked, I am continuing the "God is Green" series on a topic called, "Moving from Faith to Works".  This will be an interesting session as well. Here is a quote that I will be using….

"Energy — electricity, wood, coal, gasoline, propane, and oil — is like food. It is a blessing, and it sustains us. Our relationship to God’s gifts can be one of entitlement, ignorance, and gluttony or one praise, thanks, and temperance." (pg 75. "Serve God Save the Planet", Matthew Sleeth)

The next weekend the topic will be on "Too Much Stuff".

I have registered the following domain name radiantvillage.ca. The site is up, and is a work in progress.  I will be adding some content to the site over time.  I have also added a blog on the site, and  is being hosted over on Wordpress. The blog portion of the site will not be a daily blog, but will be more of a event related blog for the time being, and also to track and update on the progress of this initiative.

Tonight before our general leadership meeting, I had the opportunity to meet with a small group leader over some coffee. I asked to speak with this leader to get some feedback on their thoughts and opinions from last week’s small groups leadership meeting; the meeting that I taught. It was a good meeting, and I was able to take a lot away from our conversation. I really appreciate leaders like this that can speak very honestly about how they feel things are going with our small groups. He gave me his views on how he sees things, not just on what I taught on, but how it fits within the context of our local church. The best comment I took away, was something that I really believe and taught in Catalyst before, he said to the affect, "we can sometimes always say that we need to pray about things, but there are times when we get to the place where we just have to go out and do it." (not the exact words).  Knowing this man’s prayer life, it was said with added weight. 

Comments like that really make think more and more about Radiant Village.

I should have a work-in-progress website up and running in the next couple of days.  I have purchased a domain name and will be putting some content on the website.  Not sure if I will implement an ongoing blog on it or not, possibly.  Right now, it will be a means to communicate what Radiant Village is about.  It will grow in content over time, as questions are answered etc.  I do not want to use too much print material at this time, rather direct people to the website.

We are also looking into getting involved with the local Community Business Leaders Breakfast here in Rockland.  Need to find the contact information, and times etc….I think it is an hour every Wednesday, right after the kids leave for school.

Tags: Rockland, Ontario, Community_Breakfast, Small_Grooups, Leaership, Radiant_Village

This past weekend was a pretty busy one around here. My parents came up this past weekend, as on Saturday, my wife had planned for another birthday party for me. My sister-in-law and mother-in-law came up the highway for Saturday afternoon. My sister and brother-in-law came over for a BBQ in the evening, and my friend Michel came over as well. Some others could not make it. But it was a good time by all. Michel and my brother-in-law talked about water for houses, drainage etc.

I received a few books from everyone, some gift cards, and a toaster oven. Thanks, wasn’t expecting anything.

The books I received were:

Catalyst this past Sunday morning was again, I good session. I spoke on Creation. I started by reading the summary of God’s Creation, Genesis 1, and a few scriptures into Chapter 2. Then we I just went with the flow of things, and had some questions as we went along, and answered those, about evolution, 24-days, gap theories, etc. Not being a scientist, I could answer only to my depth of knowledge. We talked about the term "race" and what that really means, I rather use the term "people groups". Used examples of different oppressions in history and why views like that tie into theories we talked about, one example was South Africa and apartheid.

I think it was a very good session to set the next few weeks up for "God is Green". I have not deciding what each session will cover right now…but next week will go into how as Christian we are responsible for caring for creation. Should be another good session.

This past Friday for Radiant Village, we were able to have an opportunity open up for us to setup a table to raise money for the Rwanda Clean Water Project. So this coming Saturday, we will be at the local Home Hardware in Rockland. The owner of the local Home Hardware thought this was a very good idea, and had no problems with our new Christian community setting up in his entrance way.

I am also staring to work on a website for Radiant Village, so people will be able to track what Radiant Village is and what we are up to. Stay tuned.

This week is pretty busy as well, General Leadership meeting tomorrow night, and I am meeting with one of the cell leaders for coffee prior. Then I am filling in for the Sr Pastor on Wednesday night for his mid-week Bible study.

Tags: Rockland, Books, Philip_Yancey, Birthday_Party, Catalyst, God_Is_Green, Leadership_Meeting, Rwanda_Clean_Water_Project, Creation

This past Tuesday evening, I spoke in our Tuesday night leadership meeting. This was a lengthy meeting, a few weeks ago when Jeremy asked me to speak I knew what I would speak on, Small Group Principles. I have posted about them before.  These principles are for the style of small groups we have implemented at Calvary Church, based on the cell-church.

I spoke for approx an hour and a half. Then when I finished we had a discussion for about 45 minutes. There were times, I thought things went really well.  Then there were other times that I was kind of discouraged with some of the comments made by different people. It seems at some times, some people have a totally different understanding of what our small groups are about. That is why I believe we have hit a barrier with our small groups.  Until the principles are fully grasped then this barrier I do not think can be crossed. We will have some measured success, but not the full potential.  For some I guess that is ok.

I was asked how I would rate our groups to the principles I presented, and in some ways I couldn’t give us a high rating on some principles. I didn’t say which ones, but on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being "Great", some principles I would rate a 2 or a 3…some others would be a 7 to a 9. I also said that these ratings were from my perspective, and others in small group leadership or the pastors could have different ratings.

The principles were previously posted on here….

This meeting also really continues to drive my desire to see the Radiant Village project get off the ground. We are been doing some more preliminary work on that this week. I have a phone call to make tomorrow, and if all goes well we will have our first task to tackle. 

Tags: Small_Groups, Cell_Commas, leadership, Radiant_Village

Right now I am looking into the first community project that Radiant Village can lead in our community.  We need to start with something that we can handle with the resources we have.  This means my family will be getting into the community to lead our community in raising money to provide clean water in Africa.

We have been discussing it somewhat today with what will be required. Now we got to put some plans together on how we can manage this. 

Looks like this coming weekend, Catalyst will be taking a short road trip Sunday morning. We will be leaving at 10am and returning at 11:45.  We are going to go to Mer Bleu Forest.  This will kick off the series, "God is Green". We will go through the trails, and at the end I will speak to intro this portion of the series.

Tags: Catalyst, God_is_Green, Mer_Bleue_Forest, Radiant_Village, Rwanda, clean_water, Africa

Last night we went out to Rockland for some prep’ing for what we are wanting to start in that community. We are looking at moving into that community, and are starting things from scratch there…so we went out and parked the car with the kids, and did a prayer walk down the street we are looking at a house on, and up the main street and down into the town park area. We are believing that by faith God is going to open the doors in this community….the village shall grow up organically as God waters it.

The thing that needs to happen, and its a big hurdle, is we need to sell our house, and purchase one in Rockland. I really believe that in order for something to be started in this community, we need to live there. It is not a big move, but a necessary one. Please pray in the next few days that things will be opened up for us to step into that community and continue to chase the lion that Christ has placed before us!

Technorati Tags: Radiant Village, Small Groups, Rockland

Changes for our small group this week. I am no longer going to be attending the same small group. I emailed the leader of the group, and let him know. I am taking the big step on my journey to start some things from scratch.  This means taking everything in what I have been speaking on from the Chase the Lion series to teaching on small groups and essentially chase the lion right in front of me. Starting from scratch is something that will take some time in building, but it is time to get out of the
talking points stage. 

Tonight was the first night we (my family and I) were on our own. So, it may seem totally foreign to some on what we are doing, but we have to cultivate right now. So, we hopped into the car took a drive down the road and stepped out into the community for about an hour. This small group will not be modeled after our existing groups, so comparisons are off the table.

I will be posting as we go along, maybe not each and every week, but as things progress.

Technorati Tags: Radiant Village, rockland, Small Groups

This past weekend at Catalyst we finished the discussion on Jesus Camp.  Well we based the questions from different scenes in the film. for instance we talked about abortion, politics, and mega-churches.  It was a very good class, and everyone was comfortable with the format of the open discussion, which took some time in the first series to get used to.  Now it has become natural.  The next couple of weeks for this series I will be speaking on a couple of topics.  It looks like
this weekend I will be speaking on the “Sanctity of Life” and the following week on Faith and Politics Canadian style. I hope to incorporate the open dialog when speaking and that can be a challenge on my part. 

The one thing I have noticed in recent weeks is the difference in speaking to different generations in our local church. I have spoke at our Small Groups leadership meeting (older generation of leaders mainly) and in Catalyst - 19-30 Singles. Catalyst is engaging. The older generation lately puzzled, not sure if they are connecting with the vision being presented, time will tell….but you can notice a big difference, and that translates into a difference in the approach / choice of words in speaking
in the different settings.

Technorati Tags: @ the Movies, Catalyst Class, Small Groups

Over the past couple of months, the Ottawa Senators captured the hearts of many in the city of Ottawa. People that normally do not follow the team or the sport, were cheering for the Senators and their run to the finals of the Stanley Cup.  The Senators lost in Game 5 of the finals to the Anaheim Ducks, but along the way there were things that I think we can learn from this run for small groups.

First of all, the Senators had a clear mission, win the Stanley Cup.  People joined them on their mission, they understood what the mission was, and were captured up and it became their mission.  When you have a clear mission that people can connect with, they support the mission, the mission becomes their mission, they own the mission. 

As part of this mission, the enthusiasm for the mission spread throughout the city. It was not only in the Scotiabank Place building that people were gathering and cheering and rooting for the team. There were gatherings put together throughout the city, Festival Plaza in front of City Hall had 20,000-30,000 fans. Elgin Street created the Sens Mile, and thousands of fans swarmed the streets after each game.  Byward Market had big screens, Place D’Orleans had a couple thousand people in the parking lot
in the East End watching on the big screen. The Red Zone outside the Scotiabank Place was another popular place for gathering to watch the game

When we went to the Red Zone the day the Senators eliminated the Buffalo Sabres to reach the finals, hundreds of people between periods gathered around their cars/trucks/vans and had a tailgate party. 

This past Wednesday night we headed down to Place D’Orleans mall for the first period. There was face painting, free give aways and a couple thousand people watching the game.  It was quite impressive to see.

Through all this, I noticed that a tremendous amount of community was developing with the people of Ottawa, because the city identified with the team’s mission. The Stanley Cup.  People gathered together, and came together in community and built stronger community due to this mission. People were talking to each other about the mission, they gathered together in common areas to be with each other to get behind the mission. People were wearing the colors of the team to support the mission.
Community was an easy by-product of the mission.  People that normally do not talk with each other began to ask if the team had a chance to win the game that night, or do you think we can take the cup. Community formed.

How does this relate to small groups.  Well, it is common for groups to say that before they can develop their vision, or get behind and support the vision of the church, they need to work on the community of the group.  That once they have this strong sense of community, then they can get behind the mission of the church. I believe that if we can get behind a vision, a mission, which needs to be ultimately the mission of Jesus Christ, a natural by-product with be community.  When we are living
out our lives missionally, community is naturally built. We should not focus on community, but on the mission. 

One of the things that I have heard a few times from small groups, is the busyiness of people, what I noticed in this run to the cup, is that when there is a clear mission, and people are living the mission, it is no longer how busy we are. Things that once made us busy, take a back seat to support the mission. Our lives become uncluttered with things, because living missionally is more important. It didn’t matter what people would normally do on a Wednesday night, the game was on, they were getting out
to watch the game some where. It was the mission.

Another, thing I noticed, is that many times small groups do not know how to get together with other people from outside their immediate circle of people. This run to the cup, made so many opportunies to join in community with other people. To get together with others that may not want to join a small group meeting. It would have been a great opportunity for a small group to host a tailgate at one of these events and invite some neighbors and friends to get together with their group.  It would not have been
a formal meeting, but a great way to get out and meet people, and build relationships.  It is a matter of looking for community events and participating.

This past Small Group leadership meeting Jer and I spoke on vision and the importance of the vision of the groups. I talked about how we need to focus on the mission of Jesus Christ within the vision of the group, and the many values and principles that entails. I got some different reactions to some of the statements I made, but it needed to be said.

Just some random thoughts after a run that ended, not the way we expected in the finals….but what a run and a learning experience.

Technorati Tags: community, our_community, Small Groups

Watch this YouTube video, hat tip Eric Bryant, assistant pastor @ Mosaic in LA (Erwin McManus). Brian also talks at the end of the importance of small groups.

Tonight, being the 5th Sunday this month, we had no church service at Calvary Church. The purpose of having no service is to connect with someone in the community for a meal or something.  Small groups were encouraged to have a get together to invite people over to a social event etc. We thought our group was going to have a BBQ, but that did not materialize. So we decided that since we are very actively looking at a purchasing a home in Rockland, to head out and have dinner in Rockland, and take a walk through the neighborhood.  We thought that we would go into the neighborhood where the homes are being built and meet someone with the same model of home on the same street.  We went to Friendly’s Restaurant for pizza, and then for the walk. On the way back, everyone seemed to be gone with that model of home we are looking at, however, we met a lady from the neighborhood that has been living a street over for 51 years. And also, I talked with a man that just bought another model on the street about the homes, and builder etc.  So for a initial journey into the 20,000 + town it was successful.  Now to just sell our house, and get one of these models.  Please pray that we move this house soon, so we can continue to connect with the community of Rockland.  My initial thoughts are to establish a small group in Rockland, and go from there (more on that as we go).

Technorati Tags: community, Radiant Village, Small Groups, rockland

Well tonight, for whatever reason, the small groups leaders didn’t show up for the meeting.  Just the Small Group coaches did, there was no reminder in the church bulletin on Sunday, so everyone must have thought the meeting was not happening. Truth be told I am not sure how this could happen, the meeting has been a mainstay for 6 years, with approx only 1 meeting canceled. I guess, a communication note needs to be sent each month, to make sure the meeting gets well attended. I was a little
disappointed by the lack attendance, and not just because I was to speak.

It did allow me to get home, and watch the rest of American Idol with the kids, maybe everyone was at home watching, “Idol Gives Back”. Then I watched what it quickly becoming a favorite show of mine, the medical drama, “3 lbs”. 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Small Groups

Tomorrow night I am on deck to speak in the small groups leadership meeting.  Pastor Jeremy taught the last one on the local vision of the group.  I am picking up on this topic tomorrow night. At least this is the plan now at this point.  I want to speak on taking the vision of our local church that is contained with the LIFE statement and deconstruct that into the local groups vision. I am thinking of having more of a conversation style meeting tomorrow night.

Here is a quote that I may use tomorrow that I came across on Ben Arment’s Blog, which he quoted “Derek Webster, a mass movement specialist to Zurich, Switzerland, recently posted a challenge to this theory on his blog. He wrote:

‘I would submit that it is mission that provides the motion from which community is created… In this scenario, community isn’t the key for reaching the lost, but CAUSE is the key.’”

 Interesting, I am going to read this other blog post now, and put some things together for tomorrow night.

Oh, by the way any of you guests to this blog know someone that wants to buy a house, we are still on the market in Orleans, please pray that we are able to sell our home.  We have an eye to one in a town 20 minutes from here, huge potentials for the kingdom if we can get into it.

Technorati Tags: Family, Leadership, Small Groups

I read this post from Jay Hardwick and asked him if I could repost here in it’s entirety….

Technorati Tags: Faith, Family, Radiant Village, Small Groups

Just got back from the Amazing Grace preview showing tonight, from the tickets I won from the Ottawa Citizen.  Here is a review on the movie.

Considering I love to read and study about history, I almost went to a couple of universities and studied History as a major, this movie was something I was interested in seeing and learning more about the life of the William Wilberforce and how he provided the leadership in Great Britain for the antislavery movement.

It was very interesting to see how a young man struggled within himself as to whether to take up entering into the work of God or to enter public life as a politician. During this process that Wilberforce is wrestling with, he comes to the conclusion that by taking on the British Empire through politics to end the slave trade, he was was in fact performing the work of God, that very work that God set before him. 

I also like how the movie portrayed the struggles that Wilberforce endured to the end; political, physical, emotional, and spiritual.  They showed the very realness of what it takes in leadership.

I kept thinking throughout the movie of the current series we are going through for the Catalyst Class on the “Chase the Lion” book.  So many of the topics are applied throughout this movie.  It made me think of the things God has placed before me as my lion to chase. 

It also made me think of the social injustices that are going on in our world today, and how in one scene Wilberforce says to his friend Pitt something to the affect, “How can we live in houses like this over here, when they are living like that over there.”  I think that rings true today, just as it did then. 

The movie production was very good, I really like how the main actors were not superstars (or at least they weren’t for me) such as Russell Crowe or someone of that nature.  That helped this movie, as the message was central and you were not distracted by star presence overshadowing the message.  The story line was engaging and delivered very effective.  My son asked me in the car when we were driving the babysitter home, if it was for kids….I told him….most definitely this movie should
be watched by everyone.  This movie would be an excellent discussion in small groups and in other settings, such as the class we have in Catalyst, in fact on the movie website, there is a discussion booklet and other resources.

If you saw the movie, what are your thoughts, send me a email [ reg@radiantjourney.ca ] or post a comment I would like to hear your thoughts and opinions.

Technorati Tags: Catalyst Class, Chase the Lion, Faith, Leadership, media, movies, Small Groups

This Tuesday we had the monthly leadership meeting for small groups.  I spoke on how our small groups need to reach into the gutter.

Here is the definition of the gutter, from Craig Gross’ book “The Gutter”.

“The gutter is the place I am least likely or inclined to go because it is a place where people are not like me or you; they are not Christians.”

We hear a lot of about evangelism and the great commission, we read about it, teach about, discuss it, and preach about it.  However, one of the things that sometimes escapes us is to actually doing the “go”. 

However, I really believe that people are genuine and want to reach people for the kingdom.  But they  struggle with the thinking that they can’t, that they do not have what it takes. So they play it safe and stay in the protected Christian environment.  

As small group leaders we need to step it up, and challenge those in our groups to get out into the gutter. 

Sometimes when we begin to engage the gutters, the communities, the cultures (whatever term you want to use). we look for the “results”.  We can feel if there is not an instant results response, we have failed, we have wasted our time.  There is something wrong with this picture.  We have to be willing to stay, it will take time, it is a process. 

Have we started to engage their spiritual questions yet? That is not a failure…it just may take time, we have to be willing to stay the course.

Our groups need to be looking to connect with our community.  After all, the community is not hanging out in our church, we have to “go” where they are to connect with them.  That may take breaking out of the familiar, we have to be creative, don’t do what we have always done.

When we do engage those in the gutter. we need to be honest and real about who you are and why you’re there, and people will respond.

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Small Groups

This past weekend, Catalyst class was canceled, Sr. Pastor had the class stay in the main service.  So no summary updates this week, I had photocopied the Lent books to have for the class for scripture readings etc, as described in the last post….some in the class before had asked about how I journal, and I think this would be a good thing to go through as a class; as a time of reflection leading to Easter.

My wife and kids are also doing this with me.  My kids were have decided on fasting pop till Easter.

Tomorrow night is the monthly small groups leadership meeting.  In the past month I have had to speak in the focus weekend for small groups to the leaders and last weekend to the general assembly on the purpose statement inclusion of small groups.  I have decided to continue with some of the same theme tomorrow night.  I will be posting some summary notes later this week.

I had to check into some WIFI access again, as these houses outside the city are not all within the same tower ranges as others.  Same options as posted here, one house looks like Xplornet is the only option, needs an on-site survey done, and if the line of sight technology doesn’t work because of the tree line, then Satellite service is the only other option, high cost up front.  That being said, hopefully my Bell Unplugged WIMAX can
get the signal when we go out there to test, it is right on the border of the suggested signal range, and it is not an exact science so it is a possibility.

Technorati Tags: Catalyst Class, Small Groups, Technology

Yesterday I spoke in the evening service, the final session of the four part series, “LIFE”.  Which is the annual series on the purpose statement of Calvary Church.  I was suppose to speak in the morning service, the spirit moved in the morning service took up much of the time, and Pastor Jer asked me to speak in the evening instead. 

Here are some points from what I spoke on:

There was a small technical glitch in my media presentation, the sound booth click in Powerpoint and it stopped the automation I had, no worries, the sound guy rescued it and got it back going.  The media presentation was called, “Faces and Places”, and was to the song “The Real Jesus” by Downhere.

I started off by saying that having small groups in the purpose statement, “Evangelizing through Community Home Groups”, this creates some risk.  That it would be easier to have the statement more generic, something like “evangelizing the community” or “evangelizing out city”.  This wouldn’t be as risky, but having it as we do, this is challenge, and a good challenge to have.

I went on to talk about how in general Christianity has created, this protected, parallel environment that has removed Christians from the communities and cultures we are located in.  We could, if we wanted, go weekend to weekend going to conference after conference, church service/function one after another…completely isolated from the communities that we are to go and reach, into the highways and byways of our cities.

I used the term that Craig Gross used in his book, “The Gutter” to speak on the how Jesus was willing to take risks by loving all the outcasts - the people others avoided.

The gutter means, “the gutter is the place I am least likely or inclined to go because it is a place where people are not like me or you; they are not Christians.”(Craig Gross)

After speaking on this, I introduced the term, “missional” and how that term should pertain to our small groups.  Missional can describe what happens when we replace the “come to us” invitation with a “go to them” lifestyle.  A lifestyle that “the way of Jesus” transforms who we are, to be focused on living sacrifically for Jesus Christ and the communities we are located in.

With small groups we are taking the larger church body, and multiplying the body into smaller mobilized units or groups, that can exponentially impact the community.  These groups are located in various communities around our city.  It needs to become more about being local missionaries into our communities, then a particular model we are following.

In order to have our groups move into being more missional, it requires us to shift our thinking and really look at what it means to be missional small groups.  What is and what is not a missional small group.  That may make us to think outside of our traditional way of doing church. 

I read the following scripture as a word image, to picture what it means to be missional

I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink I was homeless and you gave me a room I was shivering and you gave me clothes I was sick and you stopped to visit I was in prison and you came to me (The Message)

I described what it meant to be Missional and what Missional small groups are not, what we can expect from Missional groups.

I ended my speaking with saying that it would be amazing to be a community that is open to learning, growing and change.

Yes, is it a commercial holiday…of course….but I like this one….should I only express my love for my wife and family on February 14, no but why not make a celebration day of it, like today, it is all good.  I have read some people boycott the holiday because things are over priced.  Yes, I spent some time in a flower fridge today and looked at the price and thought twice….but I walked away with two bouquets (one for my wife and one from my daughter). An older gentlemen was not to pleased
the prices were higher today.  But he seemed to be a regular flower buyer as well.

Is today the only day I buy roses or flowers for my wife or daughter….no, I get them flowers a lot, something I like to do, I love seeing their faces when they open up and smell the flowers, and have them sitting out on the tables in vases. 

Today, is a holiday that would be perfect for small groups to get involved in….we went to a family dinner at Boston Pizza and the place was packed.  We met up with our group later at the bowling alley.  Tons of people out all over the place, even though the roads were snow covered and slippery.

I took a small project on the last couple of days, to make a Valentine CD for my wife.  She was wondering what I was doing listening to all the tracks for the last couple of days in my office. I found just as many “lists” for favorite music for Valentine’s Day as there were for anti-valentine’s day “lists”. 

Here is the Yahoo Music Playlist I compiled (click picture to see full playlist), some songs I wanted to put on were not available on Yahoo Music Engine.  If you don’t like some of these that is fine…not your CD 8.)

Technorati Tags: Family, Small Groups

This coming Sunday I am speaking on the “E” part of the LIFE series @ Calvary Church

I have started putting things from an outline into a formatted message.  I was trying to determine how to move from the opening of using the song from Downhere, “The Real Jesus” (posted here). 

So I decided on…I am going to start from there and move into talking about the Christian parallel culture, the protected “separate” culture of the church, and move into that there is a different Jesus that we can know.  Then move into how this translates in having missional small groups.

Technorati Tags: Small Groups