Tag Archive - community

You Make Beautiful Things

May 14, 2010 in Community, Faith, Music, Service with 8 Comments

Last Saturday, Cross Point Church organized and mobilized 1,600+ volunteers into flood-ravaged Nashville communities to serve and help families affected by the flood begin the clean-up process.  Yesterday I shared one of my take-aways from that day, and today I want to share another.

All during last week immediately following the flood, my heart was so heavy for what was happening in my city.  As such, I fully expected to be an emotional wreck last Saturday as I got the opportunity to help hands-on and be in the middle of so much of the destruction.  The first few sights I saw were overwhelming, as huge piles of debris lined the sidewalks in front of every single home.  Once we got to the neighborhood our team was assigned, we got into groups and dispersed to serve.

With each home, homeowner and volunteer we encountered, I could not escape the overwhelming sense of hope that was everywhere.  Sure there was a lot of loss, and there were plenty of questions, but there was also community and humanity.  Sprouts of hope were pressing their way through the soil of confusion that otherwise blanketed entire communities. You couldn’t necessarily see it with your eyes, you had to see it with your heart.

See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. – Isaiah 43:19

Throughout much of the day last Saturday, Gungor’s “Beautiful Things” song was running through my head. The song paints a perfect picture of the collision of loss and hope that so many are experiencing in the wake of the flood, and that I saw first-hand last week.  So, imagine my surprise (and explosion of emotions) when the worship team at Cross Point sang “Beautiful Things” the very next morning (which had been planned for WEEKS)!

Below is a video with images of Cross Point volunteers serving the flooded communities of Nashville, set to Gungor’s “Beautiful Things.” It’s a powerful video and depiction of hope in the midst of loss, hurt and confusion.

This Saturday, Cross Point is partnering with WAY-FM to once again dispatch volunteers out to serve flooded communities of our city.  If you’re interested in joining us, you can meet everyone Saturday morning at the Cross Point Bellevue campus at 9am (more information here). We’d love to have groups from your church, your office, your neighborhood, etc, come join us in being the hands and feet of Christ and serving our city.   If you can’t go, you can still give.

You make me new, You are making me new…

 

God Of This City

May 3, 2010 in Culture, Faith, Life with 12 Comments

ON TWITTER? CLICK to send a Tweet about how your followers can help!

I live in Nashville, where we are experiencing a natural disaster of historic proportions.  We received  more rain in 2 days than Nashville historically has seen in all of May… which produced massive widespread flooding unlike anything this town has ever seen. Homes by the hundreds (if not thousands), popular attractions and landmarks and entire parts of the city are buried under water.  Historic downtown Franklin… the Gaylord Opryland hotel… scenic Bellevue… downtown Nashville… the Grand Ole Opry…  entire interstates… completely flooded. (photo courtesy of Kelsey Wynn)

The steady stream of live news, Twitpics, videos, images and media over the past 48 hours have been almost numbing.  But there is no time to be numb, because there is loss, devastation and people who need help just about everywhere you look.  I am grateful that I did not experience any personal loss, but my heart is just broken for the many who lost so much.

You can really never explain away the pain caused by this kind of destruction.  It is a sobering reminder that we are not really in control as much as we like to think we are.  In his new book, “Plan B”, Pete Wilson talks about the illusion of control, saying “the greatest of all illusions is the illusion of control.” I don’t know if I have ever personally witnessed a greater example of that in my life than right now.

Stories of complete destruction are being written all over Nashville.  But in the midst of the chaos and hopelessness, other stories are also being written… stories of redemption and restoration… stories of community… stories of survival… stories of hope.

All day today, the song “God Of This City” has been running through my head.  As I watch the constant twitter stream of images and damage reports, I find my heart singing…

You’re the God of this City
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are

As I watch the news reports that the Cumberland river is continuing to rise even at this very moment, and people all over this city grasp for hope and ask “what now?” while others ask “how can I help?”, I’m singing…

You’re the Light in this darkness
You’re the Hope to the hopeless
You’re the Peace to the restless
You are

But as the waters continue to rise, they do not rise alone.  I cannot escape an overwhelming sense of hope that is also rising, as this city reaches out to each other, becoming the hands and feet of Jesus to the broken.  I do not pretend to know or understand what God is doing or how He is working.  But I’ll tell you what I do know… a song is also rising…

Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this city

There is no one like our God.

ON TWITTER? CLICK to send a Tweet about how your followers can help!

 

Pastor Barbie & Pulpit Culture

April 13, 2010 in Faith, Leadership, My Story with 55 Comments

Pastor Barbie

I was asked by Wes to share my story with our community group Sunday night.  It’s been awhile since I’ve done any sort of public speaking and although I think I stumbled through it a little, I feel it went pretty well.

After leaving, I sent a tweet saying “Blogging about my story is one thing, sharing it in front of 40 people in my community group is another. Grateful for this journey”. I got a reply from Makeda saying “you sharing your story so courageously is giving others permission to be courageous too so keep telling it.”

Have you ever been around someone who is always full of fear, and before you knew it you find yourself just feeling fearful out of the blue?  What about someone who is just bursting at the seams with faith?  I don’t care how discouraged you may be, you can’t be around that kind of person long without your faith being built.  And what about courage?  If you spend much time in the company of a courageous person it makes you feel brave and courageous.

Fear begets fear.
Faith begets faith.
Courage begets courage.

I’d like to introduce you to Pastor Barbie, however I have a feeling she needs no introduction.  In fact, if you’re like me you have been well acquainted with Pastor Barbie for a very, very long time. I’m really not interested in discussing the theology of the Biblical justification or legitimacy of Barbie’s pastorate or whether or not she should wear make-up, cover her head when she prays or speak in tongues when non-believers are present in the service.  :)   Just flow with the metaphor here…

Pastor Barbie doesn’t cuss, gossip and covets neither her neighbor’s livestock nor flat-screen HD television.  Pastor Barbie doesn’t speed, listen to secular music and never leaves home without her Bible.  Pastor Barbie doesn’t struggle with porn, has never had an abortion and her husband, Co-Pastor Ken, is the first and only man she kissed, but not until they said “I do,” of course.  Pastor Barbie doesn’t drink, chew or run with those who do. Pastor Barbie has never doubted, always trusted and rarely wondered.

In fact, she’s kind of… perfect. You know Pastor Barbie.

Pastor Barbie has never done ANYTHING wrong, let alone thought about it.  She walks right, spits white and is a pristine model of salvation and shining beacon of the light of Jesus to every one of the perfect plastic people in her church.  Except… *GASP*… the perfect plastic people in her church aren’t really perfect or plastic.  In fact, they are very real, have very real struggles, fight very real battles each and every day and have doubts and questions.  And there, ladies and gentlemen, is where we have a conflict.

You see, when Pastor Barbie’s congregation looks at her, they believe they see what faith should look like.  But they are conflicted, so they struggle, wrestle and feel defeated, confident that something must be wrong with them because, after all, “if Pastor Barbie isn’t struggling, why am I?”  There is a disconnect between what they see and what they feel, so they ignore what they feel and the great masquerade deepens in their quest to one day be as “spiritual” as Pastor Barbie.

I grew up in a “Pastor Barbie” setting where no one ever confessed or admitted to struggling with ANYTHING, especially anyone in any kind of leadership role.  Never. Ever.  This created an environment where we would jump through all kinds of religious hoops and be really good at “church”, but really suck at life.

“Pastor Barbie” churches present a pretense-soaked, dysfunctional and unrealistic PULPIT CULTURE that, in turn, creates and nurtures an equally, if not more so, pretense-soaked, dysfunctional and unrealistic PEW CULTURE.

I’ve been thinking about the whole pulpit culture/pew culture concept lately, and observing the huge difference between what I have spent much of my life accustomed to compared with what I am experiencing at Cross Point Church, where I now attend.

Prior to coming to Cross Point, I had never been part of a church where such a radical and courageous transparency was the norm and so much a part of that church’s DNA.  Earlier this year, when speaking about Freedom From Sexual Sin, Pete Wilson stood in the pulpit and said “there is no other sin in my life that has made me feel more more shameful, more beat up and more destroyed than sexual sin. Nothing.”… and I about fell out of my seat.  Are you kidding me?!?!  I can count on one finger the times when I have heard a pastor be so real and vulnerable, and this was it.  It really struck me and I couldn’t help but wonder, “why is this the exception?!?!”

In dramatic contrast to “Pastor Barbie” churches, Cross Point has created an honest, real-life and transformational PULPIT CULTURE which, in turn, creates and nurtures an equally, if not more so, honest, real-life and transformational PEW CULTURE.

The people you lead are a mirror and the PEW CULTURE at your church or organization is quite often a direct reflection of the PULPIT CULTURE shaped by the leadership.

There is something wildly contagious about the humbly transparent yet courageous spirit of a Pete Wilson… or a Justin Davis to so openly share the testimony about his affair and God’s redemption and restoration of his family… or a Blake Bergstrom being so boldly, unpredictably, uniquely and unashamedly “Blake”… that empowers people to embrace that same courage, step forward and say “here’s my story.” I’m not sure that Sheila, the former crackhead prostitute, would feel welcome at Pastor Barbie’s church.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, they have created a PULPIT CULTURE that does not claim to be perfect, but is as close a reflection of what I believe to be the heart of the Father than anything I’ve ever encountered.

There is something about giving people permission to be broken that brings healing.

That. Rocks. Me.

…and it scares the hell out of the enemy of our souls!

I am so grateful to God for leading me to Cross Point and for the genuine community I have discovered there.  I am encouraged by each limp that I see and seeing the scars is showing me hope.  It is the fellowship of the redeemed, restored and redefined… and it is healing my heart.  Cross Point truly is a place where “everybody’s welcome, nobody’s perfect and anything is possible”… and for the first time in my life, I truly believe that.

If you are a leader, what kind of PULPIT CULTURE are you creating and how do you see that reflected in the PEW CULTURE at your church?

If you’re not a leader, what kind of PEW CULTURE do you feel has been created as a result of the PULPIT CULTURE at your church?

 
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