I have been way too busy since getting back from DC. Things have a way of piling up around here. Tomorrow I speak in Anaheim at the national convention of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development on “Sexual Orientation and Public Schools.” This is similar to what I did last week in DC, but without the panel. I deal with how schools can take sexual orientation harassment and discrimination seriously without undermining people of faith. It’s always a fun bit!

My wife, daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter are coming too! We’re hitting some of the Disney theme parks here on after my presentation and all day Monday. My family loves that place and it will be fun experiencing it through the eyes of a two year old.

Someone sent me an article last week that was written by Floyd Watson. I don’t know Floyd, I haven’t read his writings before, but I appreciated the last words of his last article. He actually finished two days before died. So the last paragraph he ever wrote was this:

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

Can you imagine summing up any better or more succinctly how Father asks us to live in this age?

What a way to go!

This feels like one of the longest trips of my life, just because of the ever-changing nature of the meetings I am into. I started over the weekend with some brothers and sisters from the Nashville area (and some that came in from further distances) sharing the life of Jesus together. Then it was off to Vanderbilt University for three days of sorting through church/state issues with a host of civil liberty groups, advocacy groups, lawyers and academics attempting to sort out such things as the Bible in public schools and evolution and intelligent design. I had some wonderful personal conversations as part of those days that were incredibly enriching.

Now I’ve moved on to Washington, DC and yesterday toured the Holocaust Museum (pictured at left) for a gut-wrenching, moving and eye-opening experience. We came away overwhelmed by what had happened, how easily an entire society was manipulated into such atrocity and the absolute devastation of so many lost lives. Unbelievable! And the exhibit touches some of your deepest emotions. Everyone on the planet would do well to live through that unspeakable time of our planet’s history and the reality of how one group of people could be so systematically targeted for torture and death.

Then last night we met with some networks of believers in the DC area that were most fascinating to say the least. I wish I could speak more about it here, but I just don’t have any idea what to say or how to process it yet. We went from one of the high-end office/restaurant areas of DC to a smoke-filled basement with half a dozen young men who were sharing a hookah as they were asking real questions about life in Jesus and how they could live it more authentically.

I’ll finish here this weekend with Friday night, Saturday and Sunday meetings with friends of Lifestream and The God Journey, and friends of those friends. I’m looking forward to seeing some folks I’ve met before and meeting new ones. And then on Saturday afternoon I’m doing a presentation as part of my BridgeBuilders portfolio to the leaders of 17 of the most influential government lobbying groups on public education about how we can deal with sexual orientation discrimination and harassment without undermining people of faith.

You just never know the places God will ask you to go. I treasure each of those environments and what he is doing in the midst of them, though so many coming at me in rapid succession, has worn me down pretty well. Today has afforded more rest and a chance to catch up on the office stuff that has built up.

As I spent some time in Matthew this morning, however, one phrase put perspective to so much of what I’m involved with during these days. I read the story of Jesus coming to the disciples in the midst of the storm as their boat is being swamped on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus has just endured the news of his cousin’s beheading by Herod, dealt wiht 5,000 people who wanted to hear from him and spent an all night session alone with his Father. The disciples saw Jesus coming to them over the waves and their hearts are struck with fear.

“It is I!” Jesus spoke to them, though they hardly believed it in their fear. I love that simple expression. Honestly it doesn’t matter to me where God asks me to go or who I might be asked to touch on any given day, as long as I can identify him and the work he is doing in those things. I may only have a hint of it, but when I hear, “This is I,” my heart comes to rest. It doesn’t matter if I’m stretched way beyond my comfort zone, or if the waves are crashing over the bow. It only matters that he is there and his purpose is unfolding in the way I live alongside him. Then, I really don’t mind being anywhere he wants me to be!

Thanks to all of you who have commented on our Shack covers. That’s still a work in progress and as you can see perspectives and tastes really differ on such things. That’s why they call it art, not science. Tomorrow I’m off to Nashville for the weekend and then will arrive in the DC area by midweek. This is a combination trip of some household gatherings to encourage brothers and sisters on this journey and some high-level BridgeBuilders work with some of the leading advocates of the civil liberties of public education. I’m also meeting with some people who may help us expose The Shack to some people who can help us find its audience. This will be a crazy trip! I’m really not sure I’ll have much time to post here, so I hope you’ll understand and if you think of it, please be in prayer for me and the folks I’ll be near over the next few days. I’d appreciate it very much.

And I thought I’d leave you with this incredibly encouraging email in seeing how Father works. I got this a few of weeks ago and thought you’d be encouraged by God’s work in this man’s life:

I’m presently re-reading your book He Loves Me and and listening to your Transition CDs on moving beyond religious thinking to relational living. The timing of these has come in the course of a journey that I would not wish on anyone but would not trade for the world. Four years ago I was given 3-9 months to live by the oncologist with a crippling form of bone cancer called multiple myeloma. As a pastor for 20+ years with many of the same issues that you’ve revealed in your material I’m finding your addressing the subject of shame, in the way that you are, to be the solvent that is untangling all the newly found truth I’m learning and experiencing together. Judging from something that is literally melting inside me, this is truly powerful. The reality and magnitude of things even now given our current circumstances for both my wife and I, (her deteriorating health I believe due to stress and deficient thinking regarding His love) is in a category that only the Lord can mange. But we both, through a better understanding of Him are realizing more of the life and rest He would have us to have.

I could go on and on about the pivotal moments when the Lord did exactly as you highlight—exceedingly abundantly—but I know you know these kinds of things. But I will share one. The best story being that at the age 45 and 44 for my wife, He brought our only child into our lives through adoption six months before I was diagnosed. I laid there almost completely bedridden for nearly another six months weeping trying to figure why a God would take a fatherless child and transfer him to another fatherless home. Little did I realize how a child would inspire, influence, motivate, encourage, us both in the desire to live. He truly is the God of love, life and hope.

Thanks again from the bottom of our hearts and beyond!

Over Christmas we attended a Sunday service where my parents worship. What could go wrong on a Christmas Eve service Right? Man it was ugly. The title of the service the, and I’m not kidding you here, “The Dark Side of Christmas”. I’ve never heard a hell fire and brimstone message on Christmas Eve before but I guess there is always a first time for everything. It was really sad to see that there was such a need to convince everyone that we were in the “wrath box” before extending grace. I couldn’t help but keep thinking about the quote from the youtube video on aids about extending grace before trashing with the condemning sin talk, yah I’m there. It was even replete with the famous Spurgeon quote “We are all standing on a plank over hell and the plank is rotten”, and I think he was thinking that it was a hot molten snowball free one at that. I couldn’t help think that I don’t think that I could serve a God like that and in fact I found my mind wandering down the thought line of if that is what God is like then I don’t want to be a part of it. I think that God has been doing some cool stuff in my life over the last 20 years or so, but those kind of sermons are trigger points for someone like myself who has been brought up in the more Fundamentalist fire breathing side of the God Camp,

There is quite a predominant movement afoot that is actually teaching pastors and others that we cannot extend grace to people until they feel the full weight of the law, their guilt and God’s wrath. How truly sad—as if sin isn’t its own worse punishment! What’s saddest to me is that these people have not yet found the treasure of life in Christ to be some compelling that God is worth loving for himself. He’s not just the better alternative to hell. He is the most incredible Father we could ever know, and he rescues us from sin, not bashes us with it. But they have no idea.

I honestly think we’ll see more of this as religion implodes from within. Not knowing how else to motivate people or keep the faithful contained, there will be more of this people-bashing with hell and wrath to try to keep what’s left in line. All of it breaks my heart.

For those following our development of a cover for The Shack, we have another incarnation to show you. If you’d care to comment, we’d sure appreciate your input.

I spent the weekend in the Sierras with a group of men sharing about the transformation afforded to us through the power of the cross. We had talked about performance based living, versus affection based, and how the law is fulfilled in us as we live a life of love, not as we try to fulfill the law. Live loved, and love! It IS as simple as that.

At the end of the session one of the men sat down next to me. “You know what I’m hearing you say about the law?” he asked.

“I think the law tells us how to treat people we don’t love.”

Isn’t that a great statement? And I think it’s truth goes beyond people. Here’s what to do if you don’t love God enough to walk with him as Father. Here’s what to do if you don’t love yourself enough to live in God’s truth and instead want to indulge our free appetites. Here’s what to do if you don’t love others enough to treat them fairly, respectfully, and kindly.

But if you discover the power of God’s kind of love the law is a cheap substitute indeed. It only shows you what MUST be done, not what you CAN do to love as we have been loved by God. I really like that definition of the law.

The problem is, until you discover the power of love, you’ll never be able to keep the law. It is not in us to do by our own self-effort! Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ and his work in us!

A friend of mine attended two days of the recent National Religious Broadcaster’s Convention in Orlando, Florida. This brings together all the media people who seek to address the Christian audience. I guess they are as religious as their name portends. This was my friends report after walking around at the exhibits and listening to all the sales chatter.

Christianity in America is totally lost—so shame-based and twisted as evidenced by the books being peddled and the TV programs they were pushing.”

I’ve been in places like that in times past. If you ever go you’ll understand better Jesus’ frame of mind when he saw all the moneychangers and commerce going on in his Father’s temple. There is much many of those folks wouldn’t do for a dollar or a chance to expand their ‘market share.’

As bleak as his assessment was, however, he surrounded his comments with a few interesting asides.

Amazing how the whole environment did not bother me as much as it did the last time I was there….

and

At some point it is going to change… I think another generation is coming.

I was surprised that he saw it as far worse than before, but also that it didn’t bother him as much and had hope even beyond it. I asked about that and here’s his reply:

(I think I) less identified with it, is the phrase that fits best with my perception at this point. I also felt a tremendous freedom not to convince anyone there of anything. And I had a real sense that everyone is on their own journey, yet comforted by the fact that it is the same God that loves us. So, the word that comes to mind is “trust.” Trusting him with my journey and the journey of those around me.

You’ve got to love grace. Besides, this wasn’t Father’s temple, it was just a convention center built by people to host such activities.

On an unrelated note, I’m off to Central California today to a mountain retreat to help some men understand the cross and the implication of God’s love for them. You can pray for us all if you like!

I’m reading a fascinating book that someone recently recommended to me. It is NOT a Christian book. It’s a book about an emerging business model written by a couple of Stanford grads, which makes it all the more frustrating. Why is it that the world sometimes recognizes what God is up to far sooner than most believers do? Our religious institution were consistently on the wrong side of creation of democracy, the fight to abolish slavery, the struggle for civil rights and respecting the rights of women, and here’s just another example of how they are caught in older forms the world is even reconsidering.

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations describes almost exactly (with one major flaw to be discussed later) how I understand the nature of the early church and what I see to be true in the body of Christ as it functions today in the world. Now, I’m not talking about organized religion here, but people who really have a heart for God and his work in the world.

The spider represents traditional organizations with CEO’s, hierarchical structures and heavy top-down management. If you cut off the head of a spider it dies. The starfish, however, represents decentralized communities that are far more effective and resilient. If you cut off the leg of a starfish, it will just grow a new one, and the leg itself will grow into another starfish. The starfish has no centralized brain, it is a system of neural networks that work together.

Granted the subtitle is a bit misleading. The authors aren’t really talking about leaderless organizations, but decentralized ones. Citing examples like Alcoholics Anonymous, Craigslist, Wikipedia, eMule, and others, they describe the power of individuals working together in ways that create incredible resources with surprising results:

This book is about what happens when on one is in charge. It’s about what happens when there’s no hierarchy. You’d think there would be disorder, even chaos. But in many arenas, alack of traditional leadership is giving rise to powerful groups that are turning industry and society upside down. (p. 5)

These starfish communities have tremendous power because they are not bogged down by the needs of an institution that compromise the values of the community itself. The contributions of the individuals who share a common passion are having far more impact than conventional institutional models. These communities prize relationship, engender trust, and pursue a purpose that transcends financial reward. One of the best discussions in this book is how leadership functions in these communities. They are not managers, but catalysts to ignite a passion in others and help them live it out. What the authors describe for a catalyst comes a close to the teachings of Jesus and the examples of the apostles in the New Testament as anything I’ve read before. They work behind the scenes, empower others, help people connect in circles of relationships, and never try to ensure that everything is orderly and certain. And what’s best, they never want to be in charge themselves, knowing how to work themselves out of the picture as others flourish.

They are much better at being agents of change than guardians of tradition. Catalysts do well in situations that call for radical change and creative thinking. They bring innovation, but they are likely to create a certain amount of chaos and ambiguity. Put them in a structured environment and they might suffocate. But let them dream, and they will thrive. (p. 131)

The Starfish and the Spider discusses the unique power of the Internet to allow these kinds of starfish communities to flourish. And, yes, these people are motivated by their self-interest. Imagine these decentralized communities, however, where people are functioning in the interest of Jesus himself. What this business model leaves out, of course, is the place of Jesus as the sole Head of his church that can never be destroyed. Imagine how the body of Christ could arise in our day if we experienced the power of these decentralized communities as people who are all listening and responding to him.

The world is now discovering the power of decentralized organizations in a way that we could have been living for 2000 years. I’m sure many believers did in those past generations, but unfortunately the powers of religion have always gravitated toward heavily authoritarian, centralized models as a means to amass riches and power. I love that so many of us are now discovering a different approach to life as the body of Christ that liberates us from the repressive institutions that destroy people to the freedom to demonstrate who he truly is in the world.

If that’s your passion, this book will show you just how powerfully it can happen. And if the business world can do it without Jesus, how much more powerful would it be for a community of people to live and work together like that who have surrendered their lives to Someone far greater than themselves. Maybe it’s time more of us embraced a new way of seeing the community of believers and how they can function in the world.

I know not everyone appreciates this kind of humor, but I enjoyed it. This was sent to me by a creative bloke, Joe in Montana—The Law-Man: The Monthly Newsletter of Those Protecting God’s Law.

Heretic of the Year: Wayne Jacobsen
By Horace Nitpickle, staff writer

Hailing from the liberal bastion of Southern California, Wayne Jacobsen at first glance seems every inch the affable fifty-something everyman-next-door. He casually talks of sports, weather or the stock market. And God. Especially God.

And there lies the problem, according to Pastor Joe Ironwill, Senior Pastor of Church of the Law, a God-fearing congregation of true believers dedicated to protecting God’s Holy Law
from the wolves among us. For Jacobsen, with all of his cheerful talk of the love of God, harbors a dark secret. Jacobsen doesn’t believe in God’s Law.

“This guy’s a real piece of work,†says Ironwill. “When it comes to subversive, he makes Ted Kennedy look like a John Bircher.†According to Ironwill, Jacobsen consistently rants against the very foundations of the faith. “The Tithe, the Five-Fold Ministry, Church
Attendance, you name it – he’s against them all. If he had his way, we’d all be running around unorganized and unproductive. There have been a lot guys out there yakking about ‘grace’ and ‘freedom,’ but this guy is even more whacko. He actually believes it.â€

What’s especially disturbing, says Ironwill, is that people are listening. Like many of Satan’s minions, this fallen-away ex- pastor has embraced the curse of our age – technology. “In the old days, a nutcase like this would have a few groupies in robes following him around, buying him a Mercedes now and then. Now we’ve got people all over the world listening to this garbage. We can all thank Al Gore and the Internet for that.â€

Asked why Jacobsen’s perspective seems to touch a cord in so many believers, Ironwill turns vehement. “This guy’s a genius – an evil genius, but a genius nonetheless. He goes after one of the largest segments of believers – the unsubmitted. These are the guys who are too lazy to volunteer for our programs, too cheap to tithe, too rebellious to follow God’s Anointed. They whine about wanting more of God, but won’t even spend a few hours in prayer each day. They’ll come home and watch the news and not even open their Bibles before supper. This Jacobsen character gives them an excuse to be unsubmitted – he tells them that it’s okay. He’s a real bottom-feeder.â€

Asked what can be done about people like Jacobsen, Ironwill replied… (continued on page 2)

Also In This Edition

With all the sin in the world, could a holy God really smile? Learn more about the myth of a “happy†God and why this dangerous teaching is spreading. Pg. 4

10% Tithe “Not Enough,†says Pastor. We’ve all done it – attended our Sunday morning worship, written our tithe check for ten percent (of our gross, we hope!), and then at brunch after church left a tip for…15%. “This just isn’t right,†fumes Pastor Joe Ironwill of the Church of the Law. “Are we going to give God only 10% while some teenage waitress at the Cracker Barrel gets 15%? What does that say about our commitment to God?†Touting the phenomena of “Tithe Inflation,†Pastor Ironwill believes that 15% should be the new minimum standard. “Serving God is not as cheap as it used to be,†says Ironwill. “Anyone involved in a Church building project knows that the costs involved for architects, insurance, triple-pane glass, Youth Pastor salaries, etc., add up real fast. God’s Kingdom is powerful, but it does not come cheap.â€
Continued on pg. 5

Yes, this is a spoof. No, there weren’t really any page 2, 4 or 5, so that’s all that was written. And I don’t know where they got some of that stuff. I do believe in the Ephesians 4 gifts to the body, but I see them applied very differently than the institutional way many people think of them. Humor makes some powerful points! Can you believe, ‘the myth of a happy God’? Unfortunately that’s how some people see it.

Over at The God Journey, Brad and I did a podcast on The Blame Game. We have been amazed at how various ones have processed and responded to this podcast.

Today someone sent me to a link to the Live With Desire blog that has some extended comments on that podcast. I think you’ll be blessed by Heidi’s reflections and what God is doing in her life to set her free from the paralyzing shame that impacts many. It really encouraged me. Good on you, Heidi!