You Wish Lukas Naugle Was Your Friend
Lukas Naugle and I met 14 years ago during our freshman year of college at Whitworth University. The first thing I noticed about Lukas was that he wore Teva sandals, and so I wasn’t sure I could trust him at first. But things with Lukas only went up from there. Though I soon transferred to Westmont College because I missed the California sun, Lukas has remained a good friend.
After 8 years of working for Desiring God, Lukas is leaving Minneapolis to start his own business and to help me plant a new church in downtown Phoenix. Today the Desiring God blog recounts the pivotal innovation Lukas brought to DG/the ministry of John Piper and explains more of what’s next for Lukas. Read that post. Then, check out Lukas’ new venture, CHANGEGOAT CREATIVE, and make use of his services. Lukas does great work.
I’m thankful God has given me an old friend like Lukas to partner with in planting this church.
Live FROM Feedback, Not FOR Feedback
We live in a feedback culture. Move your eyes to the right or the left and you’ll spot someone looking for feedback. There’s nothing wrong with feedback. The problem is most people are living FOR feedback, rather than FROM feedback.
We live FOR feedback when we base our identity/happiness on the evaluation others give of us.
This is the plot line of every reality TV show. A group of contestants have a job to perform (sing well, dance well, woo a woman’s heart, etc.). At the end of each show the contestants stand before the judges panel, anxiously awaiting the evaluation, their identity hanging in the balance (will I get a rose, or will I be rejected and sent home?).
I fear that many of us live the Christian life this way. We live FOR feedback. The deep feedback of the gospel hasn’t invaded our hearts, so we spend each day following the plotline of reality TV, anxiously unsure of what the people we’ve placed on the judgment panel of our lives really think about us. We feel the same lack of assurance with God.
Jesus creates a paradigm shift in our relationship to feedback. Jesus shows us a new way: living FROM feedback, not FOR feedback.
On that day that Jesus got a hold of your life, he gave you a rose that will never wilt or be taken back. He gave you feedback that transformed your identity and remains true with each ongoing day of your Christian life. And what God wants from us, what gives him so much glory, is for us to be a people who live FROM his deep feedback, rather than FOR feedback.
As the good news evaluation of the Father seeps deeper into the caverns of our feedback craving hearts, the Spirit empowers us to live radically confident lives, lives that look very different from a feedback-starved world. If we could only begin each day remembering the feedback we’ve already received from the Father.
Today, live FROM feedback, not FOR feedback. Begin your day remembering that your name is already written in the book of life! You don’t have to go out and make a name for yourself today. When you’re tempted today to base your joy and identity on how others evaluate you/your performance, catch yourself, stop yourself–make a decision to live FROM feedback (the feedback of your Father), not FOR feedback.
Don’t Do This!
I have one brother, a younger brother named Mark. He and I are very close. We grew up cliff jumping the rivers and lakes of Northern California.
Though all cliff jumping involves risk, most of our jumps were relatively sane.
I was always the one who took the bigger risks. But when I returned home for summer after my first year of college I quickly discovered that my brother had become the bigger risk taker. Our adventures together (cliff jumping, downhill mountain biking, snowboarding, etc.) now included regular warnings from me to “be careful” and “tone it down.”
The craziest jumps I ever did happened one day, 13 years ago, at China Wall. After doing both the sprint cliff jump (you have to jump at a full sprint in order to clear the cliff slope) and the tree jump that day, I decided never to jump China Wall again. The next summer a guy from our high school died from jumping China Wall. Ever since (and since getting married and having kids) I’ve decided to not jump anything higher/riskier than the Big T in Folsom.
Last Wednesday my brother jumped Red Rock during vacation in Santa Barbara. In the picture above you can see Mark standing at the top of Red Rock right before he jumped. Notice how small Mark looks and how big the cliff looks. Red Rock is 80 feet high, twice the height of the Big T.
My brother admits that he finally learned his lesson. This jump didn’t go well for him. The force of impact (and landing at a slight angle) gave Mark a compression fracture on his T-12, thoracic spine vertebrae. After 3 months of rest he’ll be back to normal. Things could’ve been much worse. When I lived in Santa Barbara I heard stories of people being paralyzed, or killed, from jumping Red Rock. I’m thankful for God’s grace on my brother’s life.
Below is the video that was taken of Mark’s jump. I asked Mark if I could post this video/story.
Here’s the whole point of this post: Don’t Do This! Look before you leap. Be a good steward of the body and the loved ones God has entrusted to you.
Piper Productivity
John Piper on the productivity practices of a leader:
A leader does not like clutter. He likes to know where and when things are for quick access and use. His favorite shape is the straight line, not the circle. He groans in meetings that do not move from premises to conclusions but rather go in irrelevant circles. When something must be done he sees a three-step plan for getting it done and lays it out. A leader sees the links between a board decision and its implementation. He sees ways to use time to the full and shapes his schedule to maximize his usefulness. He saves himself large blocks of time for his major productive activities. He uses little pieces of time lest they go to waste. (For example, what do you do while you are brushing your teeth? Could you set a magazine on the towel rack and read an article?) A leader takes time to plan his days and weeks and months and years. Even though it is God who ultimately directs the steps of the leader, he should plan his path. A leader is not a jellyfish that gets tossed around by the waves, nor is he an oyster that is immovable. The leader is the dolphin of the sea and can swim against the stream or with the stream as he plans.
HT: Matt Perman
The 4 Books That Shaped Tim Keller
During our Skype conversation with Tim Keller (Tim in his home study; us in Phoenix here at the One Institute), Tim shared with us the 4 books that have formed the foundation of his Christian walk and ministry:
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections
Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life
J.I. Packer, Knowing God
How to Read The Bible
In order to understand the Bible, one must read it. One must read it like any other book. That is not to say that the Bible is only another book, but that the Bible is a book and should be read the way all books are read. The biblical authors expected their books to be read and understood in that way. They used the language and literary forms common in their day. Their books make sense and reward the patient reader with genuine understanding and insight. The meaning of the Bible is straightforward and unmysterious. Many miracles are recorded in the Bible, but what is most remarkable about the Bible is the Bible itself. In it God speaks through the miracle of human language. Through language, modern readers can understand the thoughts of biblical authors who lived thousands of years ago in a culture very different from our own.
-John Sailhamer, The Meaning of the Pentateuch
The 2010 One Institute
Tomorrow I fly to Phoenix to attend the 3rd annual One Institute. Each year hundreds of business leaders from around the world apply to attend the One Institute. About thirty people filter through the application process to take part in the week long institute. I’m honored to have been given a seat at the table. I’ll be the one pastor there in attendance with a great group of business leaders.
There’s a tremendous line up of instructors & speakers for this year’s Institute, including: Tim Keller, Wayne Grudem, Anthony Bradley, Joseph Stowell, Barry Asmus, Jeff Ventrella, Darryl DelHousaye, John Coors, and many others. It’s going to be a great week.
I suspect that over the next couple of years the One Institute (which is hosted by Marketplace One) will be recognized as one of the most strategic, influential organizations in shaping emerging Christian leaders.
Take a minute to view the video for this year’s Institute.
5 Areas a Pastor Must Be Competent In
Kevin DeYoung list and comments on five areas a pastor must be competent in:
1. A pastor must be able to teach.
2. A pastor must be able to relate to people.
3. A pastor must be able to lead.
4. A pastor must stay relatively organized or surround himself with those who can do this for him.
5. A pastor must pray.
Read the whole thing.
Building A Messy Church
This is a guest blog post from my good friend, Toby Kurth. Last year Toby planted ChristChurch in San Francisco. Toby is a great pastor, writer, and thinker. Enjoy his post.
“Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” Proverbs 14:14
We are about a year into our church plant and have become increasingly convinced that a healthy church should be messy. If we really believe what the Bible teaches us about ourselves and others, how can it be any other way? Church is not just a meeting or an event; church is real people. Real people that have been saved by Christ and that are being transformed into his image. We all know that we have sin and struggles, but so many of us have gotten really good at hiding it.
The reality is that life comes with mess, mess that is produced by the work that God is doing in our lives. Work that can be painful and hard, but it is good. I think we are more or less resolved to accept that mess comes with our physical life, but what about spiritual life? Are you as quick to accept that? Do you believe that spiritual life is supposed to be messy?
God wants us to embrace the mess and work that comes with spiritual life because He wants to do real work in our lives. God calls us to acknowledge the mess of our own lives and the lives of those around us. He meets us in the mess. We grow in the mess. Christ redeems the mess.
We all face the temptation to present ourselves better than we are, to deny our sin and failure. We are often driven more by what people might think of us than reality. We slant stories to make ourselves look better. We hide our weaknesses from our friends and spend a lot of time reinforcing pretense. The more we do that, the more we drift from an active awareness of our dependence on Christ.
That is why we need the gospel. The gospel tells us the truth about ourselves and gives us the grace to embrace reality. The gospel tells us that left to ourselves we rebel against a good God and His ways, but that despite our rebellion God pursues us through Christ. The gospel is not a sales pitch. It is not a promise that everything will be neat and clean, that you can have your best life now. The gospel is grounded in reality. We all struggle to varying degrees and we are all desperately dependent upon the grace of Christ every moment of every day. God gives grace to us as we humble ourselves before Him and each other.
Living honestly is also a far better representation of the gospel to an unbelieving world. When we pretend that we are entirely with it and have no struggles, we make the gospel appear inaccessible to those that are not. When we live honestly we demonstrate that the gospel provides real hope for real people. If you are a follower of Christ you are not the way you are merely because you try to be a good person. It is because the Almighty Creator of the Universe is at work in your life to help you grow in the midst of the mess that is your life. A life without mess is a life without work. God is more interested in the fruit of your life than your comfort and reputation.
Tim Keller: The Future of American Cities, Part 2
Tim Keller continues his series of the future of American cities. A excerpt from the post:
There is no complete consensus of experts about the future of cities. Some of the most troubled, such as Detroit, are going to have to make drastic changes, essentially shrinking their urban footprint deliberately and redesigning themselves as a smaller municipality. But that will not be the norm in the U.S. I believe that immigration and broader cultural factors still make cities highly desirable destinations for the most ambitious and innovative people, and that will be crucial in continuing the rise of cities.
