Six Four Three

I have three reviews to write this week and it's already Thursday, this is bad. So I am going to start with the easiest one so i can get one done at least. I read Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung and it was brilliant. It's a very simple read, not weighty at all and super practical. In the preface, Joshua Harris says that the highest praise that he could give this book was to say that he would recommend it to anyone in his church who was seeking to "know the will of God". I would second this sentiment. This is the best book on God's will, and our place in it, that I have ever read.

I probably liked this book more than most because this particular issue has caused me great consternation over the years, but maybe not in the way you are thinking. As a pastor to young people for most of my ministry life, questions of the will of God have been numerous. Young people, understandably, want to know who they should marry, what job they should take, what they should study and where they should live. These are pressing questions that require wise answers. The problem that I have seen, and that DeYoung describes and deals with brilliantly, is when young people expect God do deliver his will to them in some magical and mysterious way. This hope has a paralyzing effect on these people because when the burning bush doesn't come, they don't move. The truth is, God rarely works through mystical means and if we spend our lives waiting for the perfect jobwifehusbandhomemajor, we will find ourselves at the end of our lives with none of the above.

The second thing this book addressed which was hilarious and heartbreaking was the use of God's name for decision making. For instance DeYoung tells the story of his college roommate who tells a girl that he likes her only to be told by the girl that "God told me no." DeYoung feels bad for his buddy who has just been rejected by a nice girl and the Holy Spirit. This is mostly just funny but it also has a serious side to it. When people invoke God's name by saying "God told me..." they have effectively stopped all conversation and insulated themselves from any common sense wisdom that a friend or pastor may have. This is a bad idea for other reasons as well, including the fact that if God didn't actually tell them that, they are essentially lying about God, a bad idea. As a general rule, unless you hear an audible voice, see a burning bush or have an ass (that could be confusing, I mean a donkey) speak to you, maybe don't claim divine authority for your decision.

All in all, I give this book 5 stars for relevance, 5 for insight, and hearty recommendation to all of you who are looking for God's will.

Since my review of The Shack sparked such great conversation, I thought I would continue to post reviews of books as I read them. While I was out of town I read the first Harry Potter book (I can explain), a book called Just Do Something and finished one called Unfashionable. All were good, which might make for boring reviews but I should get to all of them this week. I am currently reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy which is brilliant and I should finish it this week. Looking forward to your patient and insightful comments!

This is going to be tough. I write this while feeling a real tension. There are obvious problems with the theology found in this book, but I don't want to sound like an angry Calvinistic theological nitpick. There are some insightful parts of this book but I'm not sure I would feel comfortable recommending the book to more than a select group of people. So as I type these words, I still don't know how this thing is going to shake out.

There has already been some good writing on this from a theological perspective here, here, and here. Also the first one has a good rundown of the plot if you haven't read the book. There is a lot out there that points out Biblical problems with the book and most of the counter arguments (even from the author himself) are something like, "yeah but it's fiction, its not supposed to be theological". This is where I have to disagree, the whole book is centered around conversations between the main character and the various persons of the Trinity. They are teaching him about the nature of human will, the way the trinity interacts with each other, the grand purpose behind life, the heart of God for the oppressed and so on. If that isn't theology I don't know what it is. That's like Dan Brown claiming that the DaVinci Code wasn't supposed to be historical (we still don't believe you). Also, the author is making claims about the nature of the trinity, this is not only theological but its gutsy. This would be like some insane person trying to write a series of books to describe the end times, wait a minute....

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On Sunday I talked about being intentional about each and every decision that we have to make throughout the day. The scripture challenged us to consider whether we were setting our minds on the things of God or the things of Man. The application for this is endless because it applies to every single aspect of our daily lives, from the clothes we wear to the food we eat and the jobs that we work. Each of us stand before our closet every morning to decide what to wear for the day. We are all driven by different things and our decisions are shaped by those things. The challenge of the passage was to be intentionally formed by the Gospel in all of those decisions, starting with asking the question, "what decision best reflects the values of the Kingdom"?

The next step is the hardest, finding the answer. We can all look at our closets, ask the same questions, and come up with radically different answers. We could all come out of our houses and look at each other and totally disagree with each other decisions. So what do we do with that? Nothing. Well, not nothing, but very little. I am convinced that the most important part of this process is simply asking the question. The process of stopping throughout your day to consider what action would most reflect the values of our King is potentially the most transformative step in the process. I think that this act alone will change us beyond what we could even imagine. I think that one of the most dangerous parts of our society is how little intentionality we actually live with. We go throughout our day making thousands of decisions and we don't give most of them more than a passing thought. My hope is that we can slow our lives down enough to start asking the question and allowing God's grace in that process to change us. I think what we will find is that by continually asking the question, our answers will change over time. We will look back 6 months or a year and see that we have asked the same questions and arrived at radically different answers as God has formed us through simply taking the time to ask the question.

Hey everyone, tomorrow night is our first Vision Meeting for the new Arcadia Mission. We will meet at the church at 7PM to talk about the future, sing and pray together and take a tour of the facility. Child care will be provided for children under 2 years old and the night will last no more than an hour. The address is 4141 E Thomas Road in Phoenix and the sign says Memorial Presbyterian Church. We hope to see you all there!

I think I might start writing a bit on Monday afternoons about the previous Sunday's sermon. It happens, from time to time, that I think of something brilliant (at least relatively) on Sunday nights lying in bed that I wish I could have put in my message. Or sometimes I forget an illustration or application that I was planning to use that might be helpful to you. When these things happen I am going to write about them on Mondays and I think it could also be a good way to interact about the message a little bit with you all.

So yesterday we talked about how our real problem in life is that we suffer from a broken heart. I don't mean this in the sentimental sense but rather that there is something fundamentally wrong with our hearts. Our hearts produce, Jesus tells us in mark 7:21, 22, "evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness." The point of last night's message was that we can read or listen to all of the self-help stuff we want to but in the end, unless we deal with our hearts we will ultimately fail to see any real change in our lives.

I stopped at this point and gave you some instruction on how to see real heart change but I should have gone one step further. While it is true that we need to start with our heart, it certainly doesn't end there. Change, according to Jesus, is an "inside-out" process that starts with the heart but then quickly moves out to the rest of the body and life. I don't want to give the impression that it isn't important to take real practical steps to eliminate temptation and/or bad influences from your life. It would be stupid to simply focus on heart change but go on living in and around the same sinful influences. I think I understated the value of some real practical steps to eliminating those "sin triggers" around us.

The point is that if we skip the heart and move immediately to the practical stuff we will never be successful in eradicating sin from our lives. BUT if we only focus on our hearts and never take simple steps to help us along in the process we will constantly experience the frustration of falling to sin.

I hope that helps.

Yesterday at all three of our services I had the privilege to announce the great news that we are launching a new mission in Arcadia (44th St. and Thomas). I am sure that many of you have questions about how this will affect our church going forward and what role you can play in making this happen. I hope to answer all of those questions at an upcoming informational meeting at the new building. Until then, I am going to use the blog to share some thoughts and hopes for this new opportunity.

First of all, you may have noticed that we are calling this new venture the "Arcadia Mission". As we talked about our strategy for reaching the valley, we had been calling our approach "multi-site" or "multi-campus" as these are common terms used to describe a church that is spread out over several locations. But I never really liked these terms because they give the wrong impression about what these different locations exist for. To me, a site is a place where you do construction and a campus is primarily a place of learning, both of which will be happening for us in Arcadia, but neither of which are the main focus. Then I watched an old movie called The Mission (with Robert DeNiro and Liam Neeson) in which Jesuit missionaries travel to a remote village in Brazil to teach the natives about Christianity. When they reach their destination they immediately build a mission. The mission that they build is a kind of fortress or respite for the people but also a strategic launching pad for the missionaries to share the Gospel. I absolutely loved the idea and immediately adopted it for our church. So from now on we will have an Arcadia Mission and a Tempe Mission, two places that embody the rest that we find in Jesus and the call to be his missionaries in our world.

Join the Mission!

Hey everyone, this Sunday is going to be a very important one for Praxis Church. I would encourage all of you, especially if you consider Praxis your home church, to be there on Sunday. This announcement will significantly affect our future as a church and our continued mission in the valley. Please spread the word, very exciting!!

On Sunday I mentioned (pretty vaguely) that there was a big meeting going down on Thursday night that you all could be praying for. I know that many of you did and I am happy to report that the meeting went very well. Here is what this means: pray for my meeting today! Today's meeting is the big one now that Thursday's meeting accomplished its purpose. I hope to have great news for you on Sunday.

Every Summer we take some time to catch our breath and make plans for the Fall and subsequent Spring. We have found that the natural rhythm of our church is that we are really slow in the summer months and busy during spring and fall. This is due in part to the large number of students at the church and in part because its hot as Satan's home in the summer and everyone bails. So as we look forward to this summer, we are asking ourselves a series of questions to help us define our future. I thought it might be smart to ask all of you to help us answer these questions because you all see Praxis more clearly than we do sometimes. So here they are...

1. What words do people use to describe Praxis?

2. What attributes or characteristics is Praxis known for?

3. Whom has God best equipped Praxis to reach?

4. What positive traits does Praxis have?

5. What negative traits does Praxis have?

6. What are some of the reasons that you wouldn't feel comfortable inviting an unchurched friend to Praxis?