Notes, June 2009, Part 4

"What a huge harvest! And how few the harvest hands. So on your knees; ask the God of the Harvest to send harvest hands. On your way! But be careful—this is hazardous work. You're like lambs in a wolf pack. Travel light. Comb and toothbrush and no extra luggage Don't loiter and make small talk with everyone you meet along the way." -- Luke 10:2-4 (The Message)

Last of my notes from the "Living the Mission" conference I attended in June. These are notes from a track I took called "Luke 10 Strategy," which was led by John White at LK10.com. My comments are in parentheses.

(Meanwhile, Here's an article on the "micro church" movement. The term includes organic church, simple church and house church, although the author points out that not all "micro churches" are house churches. I've met some people who do micro church in conventional church buildings, coffee shop or offices. It offers a very concise explanation of the two main motivations for this movement.)

Sessions 4 and 5, "10:2b" and "Person of Peace"

• Some explanation. "10:2b" refers to Luke 10 above, in which Jesus commands his disciples to continuously beg God to send out more laborers into the harvest. The Greek word for "send out" is ekkballo, which is the same word used for casting out demons. It literally means a violent throwing out. Neil Cole suggests setting your cell phone alarm at 10:02 every day to remind you to pray this prayer, which I do.


• White called this passage Jesus' "macro-evangelism" strategy. He paired them up, he assigned them where to go, he sent them (apostolo) out.


• God will supply the workers so ask him to do so.


• The verb "beseech" is used in the sense of beginning something and continuing to do so indefinitely. Wear God out, as the widow did in Luke 18:1-8.


• There are two kinds of harvest workers -- an apostle who is called and gifted by God to plant more than one church, and a person of peace who is prepared to start a church tonight.


• A person of peace, or POP, has a "plot of ground" on which to plant the church. Cornelius, in Acts 10, is the poster child of a biblical person of peace. (I first became interested in this topic of the POP when I asked the question, how was Paul able to plant churches in Asia and Macedonia so quickly? The answer is that his definition of "church" was different than ours, since we tend to equate church with the institution, even though we say we don't. The word ekklesia, which is translated "church" merely means gathering or assembly. And secondly, he found persons of peace, like Lydia and Jason, who were ready, willing and able to host a gathering.)
  


• Before you can have a church planting movement, you have to have a prayer movement.


• "Savior, while others calling, do not pass me by." God wants each of us working in the harvest (where the lost are), not necessarily the barn (in a church building, doing "ministry").


• When God guides, he provides.


• From John Eldredge: Things are not as they seem. We are at war. We have a role to play.


• A Person of Peace discipleship program -- Listen. Obey. Teach others to do the same.


• "House of Peace" = shalom beit. A house where the peace of God is present. A place where God is already working -- healthy relationships in the family, with neighbors.


• (White and Cole differ on one point regarding a POP. Cole believes the POP is any person of influence or reputation, good or bad. White believes a POP is a "fully-formed" adult, like Cornelius, who is ready to host a church in his "household" or oikos, even though they may not be saved at the point of first contact.)


• (Re: White's POP) God will do the heavy lifting. Pray he would bring a fully formed adult, someone whom he has prepared to plant a church today.


• Paul's definition of a POP is 1 Timothy 3.
  

Our sessions with White were compressed because we actually "did church" over these two days by practicing SASHET/THEOSS. In one of these sessions, one of the group members revealed some things about his childhood that ended up taking up most of our time in prayer and confession. It was very good, but cut into what White would have shared.

Notes, June 2009, Part 3

"These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart ..." -- Deuteronomy 6:6

More notes from a conference I attended in June titled "Living the Mission." These are notes from a track I took called "Luke 10 Strategy," which was led by John White at LK10.com. This is the latest in what's turning into quite a series of posts for me. The previous posts, all stemming from drinking at the fire hose of this conference, are:

• Letters



• THEOSS



• H2O Groups, Part 1



• H2O Groups, Part 2



• Notes, June 2009, Part 1



• Notes, June 2009, Part 2

Lots of words. Feel I have to apologize. This is sort of my diary from this conference. I can easily access these scribblings for future reference and perhaps there's some throught provokers in here for others.

Today are more notes from the Luke 10 Strategy.

Sessions 2 and 3-- "Pair Power" and "Church as Family"

• A "Church of 2" (as White puts it; aka H2O, STG or DNA or TIE group, as this article suggests.) is the foundation for a church. It is an "embryonic" church.



• Scriptural basis for this concept: Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Matthew 10, Luke 10. In fact, the Trinity itself is a model.



• Like a parakaleo, we are to do for each other what the Holy Spirit does for us. Hebrews 3:13.



• The mark of a healthy, vibrant family is that it is encouraging.



• Two are better than one because: 1. They are more productive. 2. They keep each other accountable, especially when it comes to battling sin. 3. They help keep each other warm, spiritually hot. 4. They help each other wage spiritual warfare.



• Jesus progressively demonstrated this concept for his disciples: Stage 1, in the home of Peter, Mary and Martha, Matthew and Zacheus. Stage 2, he then sent out the 12 in twos (6 churches of two). Stage 3, he sent the 72 (36 churches of 2 + the 12 = 42 churches of 2).



• Jesus sent churches to plant churches.



• These churches are committed to doing three things -- heart listening, listening to God and asking for laborers.



• The historian Josephus said there were 204 villages in Judea. Jesus' "macro" evangelism strategy was sending out the 84 to those villages.



• The family is a model of the church. The marriage (Ephesians 5:25-32) and the family (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) are the first and most foundational expressions of church.



• The home is a miniature Temple.



• "Why are there no Hittites on the Streets of New York?" (Because the family was not their foundational element, as it is in Jewish culture.)



• The "overseer" mentioned in 1 Timothy 3 is a parent/leader who notices what's good, celebrates it and encourages others to do the same.



• God is easy to please, but difficult to satisfy.



• Leading a group of believers requires you to think like a parent.



• The overseer is one who "sees over," that is sees the big picture.



• Recommended reading: "House Church and Mission" by Roger Gehring and "Fierce Conversations" by Susan Scott.



• Definition of church: Two or more people called together by Jesus and living life under his leadership.



• That which is complex breaks down. That which is simple multiplies.

That's all for today.

Notes, June 2009, Part 2

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. -- John 16:13

As promised, here is part 2 of my notes from a conference I attended in June in Mineapolis, titled "Living the Mission." I attended two tracks -- applying house church principles to conventional church settings, and Luke 10 Strategy. I posted my notes on the first track in a previous post. Today, I'm posting notes from the second. The shorthand title for this conference was that it was an "Organic Church" conference or a "house church" conference. I attended it to learn things about how to make our small group ministry more missional and a more effective tool for multiplying Kingdom laborers and reaching our communities with the Gospel.

The speaker for the Luke 10 session was John White, who lives in Denver. You can find more about him at LK10.com. His track lasted two days. There were four sessions. I'm actually approximating how the sessions were divided because we got off track in the third and fourth sessions as we were practicing SASHET(aka THEOSS).

As a summary, here are the 7 practices of the Luke 10 strategy:

1. Center on Jesus. Learn to listen to His voice. John 5:19, 1 Timothy 4:7.
   
2. CO2, or Pair Power. This refers to what I've been calling H2O groups HERE and HERE. Hebrews 3:13
   
3. Church = Family. Church is not a school.
   
4. 10:2b, referring to Luke 10:2.
   
5. Person of Peace, who is found in Luke 10:5-6.
   
6. Leaders = Parents.
   
7. Networking.
   

Here are my notes from the four sessions to flesh out those points. I'm probably not going to get this all in one post. My comments are in parentheses.:

Session 1 -- Center on Jesus

• John Eldrege, in "Waking the Dead," calls church a "fellowship of the heart." To be a church, a gathering of Jesus followers, we must learn to connect with one another at a heart level. "Rejoice with those who rejoice ...."(Romans 12:15)
  
• Church = family
  
• In church, as those responsible for leading a group, we begin to reparent. Many of the issues we face with people are the result of poor, inadequate or damaged parenting. A major part of that reparenting is introducing people to our Abba, Daddy, Papa God.
  
• Intimacy is the result of mutual self-disclosure. That's how it is with the Father and us.
  
• The Great Commission restated: "To see a vibrant family of Jesus (i.e., a church) within easy access of every person in a given region, city, people group or community." (John here is speaking of house churches. His goal is to have a house church on every block in the city of Denver. The same thought could apply to small groups in a traditional church setting, so that every small group is easily accessible to every person in our community.)
  
• We want to give everyone a chance to see and experience Jesus.
  
• When the church, the body of Christ, shows up, Jesus shows up.
  
• What does Jesus look like? Ideally, when you look at the church, you ought to be able to see Jesus.
  
• The Church = A vibrant and viral family of Jesus. Vibrant means (according to classmates) alive, active, loving, everyone involved, healthy, transparent, transformational, heart and head, 24/7. Being healthy, by the way, means it deals with problems in healthy ways and functions the way a body is supposed to. Viral means (according to classmates) contagious, fast-spreading and spontaneous, which means something that occurs without outside influence.
  
• Regarding being spontaneous. White recommended reading "The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: And the Causes that Hinder It" by Roland Allen. The premise is that church was created to spontaneously expand by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what is evident in Acts. The church today is too program-centric and not centered on the leading of the Holy Spirit.
  
• Of the seven practices of the Luke 10 Strategy listed above, the first four are vibrant, the last three are viral.
  
• Re: being centered on Jesus, John 5:19 is the "prime directive." Listen to Jesus, as he listens to the Father. "Jesus is the only man who never had an original thought," because he only did what the Father showed him.
  
• Find out what God is doing and do that.
  
• In John 16, Jesus promises "another" comforter, like the first. A parakaleo, or one called alongside to help. A coach, some might say. The disciples dialogued with Jesus for 3 years. In the same way, we are to dialogue with the Holy Spirit.
  
• Recommended reading: "How to Hear God's Voice" by Mark Virkler.
  
• The four keys to hearing God's voice, according to Virkler, are: Quiet yourself; Fix your eyes on Jesus; Listen for spontaneous thoughts; Write it down in a journal.
• "Lord be kind to me for my boat is very small and the ocean is very large."
  
• Recommended reading: "God Guides" by Mary Geegh and "Walking with God" by John Eldredge.
  
• Church emerges out listening -- to God and to others.
  
• Church is sometimes messy, but never boring.
• The New Testament church was participatory -- 1 Corinthians 14:26. "Everyone" participated in the "spiritual potluck."
• Information only (as in lectures or sermons) does not lead to transformation.
• The better the preaching and the better the worship music, the less discipleship takes place. (The point is that if the focus is on preaching or on music, the less interaction takes places between believers; the less time for listening; the more focus on being "entertained".)
• In the New Testament church, Jesus brought the agenda.
• Jesus has no interest in being the honored guest. He wants to be the master of ceremonies. (This is why we shouldn't get too caught up in controlling the order of the worship. As we learned last year at a conference, you have to allow the Holy Spirit room to work.)
• The one rule is that Jesus is present. And therefore the one thing you have to do is listen.
• If you listen, you will never again read the Bible, sing a worship song or invite someone to church, unless Jesus tells you to.
• The purpose of the church is not to be missional. Its purpose is to listen to Jesus and do what he says.
• Recommended men's ministry material: "Heart of a Warrior"
  

That's enough for today.

H2O Groups, Part 2

For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
-- Isaiah 44:3

Just hammering out some thoughts that I hope make sense.

I wrote about H2O in a previous post, explaining in probably too much details for some and not enough for others how what I'm calling H2O is the basic element for "doing church," which I'm defining for now as connecting in three directions -- Up, In and Out. Disclaimer: I'm not advocating eradicating conventional church as it now exists so nobody needs to worry. I'm only looking for ways to help achieve what God intends for us -- transformation. And I think not too many people would disagree that some of our conventional church methods and biases get in the way of that happening.

So, I described in the above-mentioned previous post that an H2O group is a group of 2, or 3 people at most, that essentially does church together by developing relationships in three directions -- up, in and out. Up would be toward Him, that is God. The "2" stands for the 2 people in the group who are working inward to develop heart connections with each other. And the "O" stands for an outward focus on others and thereby working at becoming missionally minded. These three directions determine the "practice" of the H2O group. I won't restate here what I wrote in the previous post, so please check it out before reading this.

A person could be a member of more than one H2O group. A guy like myself, for instance, could be in one or two H2O groups with another guy or two. I also could be a mentor to a younger man, like a teenager. And one natural and essential H2O group would be my family, especially my wife.

The H2O practices are a framework for what is usually referred to as "family devotions" and helps the husband and father become the first pastor of his family, as Paul describes in Ephesians 5:25-33. I have a theory that one reason it's difficult to get men to lead their family in "devotions" is because the emphasis always has been too heavily weighted toward teaching Scripture. This discourages men because they don't feel qualified to teach. And they aren't in most cases. Instead, the emphasis should be placed on connecting heart-to-heart with each other in the family and connecting heart-to-heart with God, both individually and corporately as a family unit.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 states that the words of the Law shall be upon the father's "heart," "impress" (or literally "sharpen") them upon his children and that he should talk of them with his children as they go about their daily business together, in and outside of the home. The emphasis there isn't "teaching," as we think of teaching, but more conversing and taking it to heart together, almost like partners on the journey. It's similar in sentiment to Exodus 12:26 when the son is to ask his father during the Passover, "What does this mean to you?" The emphasis again isn't so much on teaching knowledge as connecting our hearts to one another and to God.

Again this is theoretical, but perhaps you can see that when as a church we apply this approach to our relationships, our small groups, our youth groups and, especially, our couples and families, we are, in effect, creating a network of "churches of two," as John White calls them, that builds up one another, multiplies and expands the Kingdom by making disciples.

H2O Groups, Part 1

"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." -- Matthew 18:20

This is the second of my little scribblings on some new acronyms. This one is on "H20." H2O, of course, is the chemical formula for water. Water, of course, is important as a biblical symbol, signifying life, creation and purity.

The acronym H2O also is important because it represents three directions of relationship, as in the shape of a cross: Him (upward), 2 together (inward), Others (outward). These three directions coincide with what Brian Williamson shared at the recent "Living the Mission" conference I attended, and to which I referred in a previous post. His comments were based on principles shared at http://www.lifeshapes.com/ and in the book, "The Passionate Church." H2O also coincides with the concept of Life Transformation Groups championed by Neil Cole and of DNA groups. DNA stands for "Divine Truth" (upward), "Nurturning Relationships" (inward) and "Apostolic Mission" (outward).

The idea is to form groups of 2, no more than 3, people, where prayer and devotion takes place, relationships are built, and multiplication occurs. Many people would refer to these as accountability groups. And they are except there is an intentionality to this idea that I think is missed when we talk about accountability groups. John White, at http://www.lk10.com/, likes to call these groups CO2 groups, standing for "Church of 2." That's because these H2O groups, as I am calling them, function as mini-churches, ala Matthew 18:20. That doesn't mean replacing large group gatherings. It means church at its most elemental -- relationship with each other, with God and developing a missional mindest.

These H2O groups should get together as often as possible. Even daily and at least weekly. By phone or any other means possible. This would be in obedience to the various "one another" commands, especially Hebrews 3:13, which commands us to "encourage one another daily." The idea is to be family, not a school. When you think of it that way, it changes your view of discipleship. Most discipleship programs, like the one that was attempted in our church in recent years, are basically schools. But little or no life transformation takes place. Our heads just get filled, not our hearts. The two in H2O groups do not have a teacher-student relationship, but are fellow travelers seeking to follow the leading of Christ in their lives together.

I haven't read Cole or the Lifeshapes site to see how they suggest these groups should operate, but White is very specific in what he thinks a CO2/H2O group should do when they get together. He suggests three practices:

• First, they should practice THEOSS/SASHET, which I describe in a previous post, to help them in making heart connections with each other.
• Secondly, they should focus upward and pray. They should especially practice listening prayer. White highly recommends Virkler, which I haven't had a chance to check out yet. White considers this key to following Jesus and points to John 5:19, in that Jesus did nothing without direction from the Father. In the previous post referenced just a moment ago, I suggest ALiCTS (alley cats) as another acronym to use to help guide us in prayer. A = Adoration, Li = Listening, C = Confession, T = Thanksgiving and S = Supplication. One might wonder where the Bible study occurs. But, White pointed out, if you are listening for God to speak to you, you will obey Him when he does. And if he tells you to study a book of the Bible, you will.
• The third practice is the Luke 10:2b prayer: "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." This is the outward-focused, missional prayer for the H2O group, asking God to literally "cast out" people into the harvest field. This is the same Greek word -- exballo -- used for when Jesus casts out demons. When you pray this prayer, you are asking God to grab people by the scruff of their neck and throw them out into the harvest field. I set my cell phone at 10:02 a.m. every day, as Neil Cole suggests, and pray this prayer. One can't help become missional in their outlook if they pray this prayer. This is a dangerous prayer. I'll have more to say in an upcoming post on how I've seen God use this prayer in my life.

The implications of this in a conventional church setting are that it can be used as a guide for accountability groups, especially with men, and in small groups, where members would pair up. It also can work in families. (More on that in part 2.) As you can see, it's not about Bible study and acquiring knowledge. It's about digging into our hearts together, looking upward to God and hearing Him and looking at the harvest. Imagine in a church of 200 Sunday attendance, having 50 to 75 or more H2O groups in operation where real relationships are being built, real connections with God are taking place and multiplication is occurring. It's easier moving a group of 2 in the direction God wants, then a whole church, a ministry group or even a small group of 6 to 12 people. A group of two can more easily follow their God-given passion than a small group. A person of course could be in multiple H2O groups. This kind of thing in a conventional church requires leadership to let go a little bit and give up control, however. As someone said, if you want people to listen to God, you have to free them up so they can do what God tells them to do.

All very nice, in a theoretical sense. So my main challenge is actually practicing these things with my wife and/or another guy and seeing how they work, before passing them on, following the pattern in Ezra 7:10.

Next, I'll share some thoughts on how the H2O idea applies to husbands and families.

Comments?

THEOSS

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. -- James 5:16

So, I promised to talk about acronyms. Today I'm writing about THEOSS. THEOSS is my own invention, but adapted from SASHET, which I learned from John White, of Luke 10 fame, which you can learn more about at http://www.lk10.com/. The psychological basis for SASHET you can find HERE.

For our purposes, THEOSS/SASHET is a way of helping people in small groups and accountability groups reveal their hearts quickly and in an authentic way. THEOSS stands for Tender, Happy, Excited, Out of Sorts, Sad and Scared. "Out of sorts" basically applies to the emotion of anger and includes feelings of rejection and inadequacy. These are the six primal human emotions, according to the SASHET article referenced above.

The idea is that at the beginning of a small group gathering, each member briefly shares which of the six emotions they are feeling -- they can feel more than one -- and why they are feeling that way. For instance, I might say that I am feeling (and I really am as I write this) that I am both excited and scared and a little tender. I'm excited about using THEOSS to help people be more open ("confess") with one another, thus creating deeper community. I'm also a little scared that I'm sticking my neck out a little bit and that this won't be taken seriously or will be considered a little gimmicky. I'm also tender because I see all the people who want authentic community but are afraid to reveal their hearts to one another, probably because they've been judged in the past.

You can see where this would help people get to the heart more quickly than the normal ice breaker used in small group settings, which are primarily designed to just help people get acquainted.

By the way, I prefer THEOSS over SASHET because I felt, maybe wrongly, that it would be even more difficult to get men to buy into sharing their feelings. THEOSS at least resembles "theos," which is the Greek word for god. And that's important because it reminds us that God is an emotional being and we are created in his image. Therefore, we are emotional beings.

A little biblical underpinning to support this: The Greek word for "confess" used in James 5:16 is exomologeo, which according to Strongs means "to confess, to profess, acknowledge openly and joyfully to one's honour: to celebrate, give praise to, to profess that one will do something, to promise, agree, engage." It sometimes is translated praise. According to Vine's, this is stronger than homolegeo, another word usually translated "confess" because exomolegeo has to do with doing so publicly and freely, even in a celebratory way and containing elements of giving praise.

As we discussed in our Peacemaker group the other night, we better able to reveal our hearts to one another when we have a closer walk with Christ.

Notes, June 2009, Part 1

All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;
And His song will be with me in the night,
A prayer to the God of my life.
-- Psalm 42:7-8

OK, I know I promised to blog about my acronyms and I know my legions of blog readers are waiting to get all the details on that topic, but I thought that it actually would make more sense if I shared my notes from a really interesting conference I went to in June that was titled "Living the Mission" since a couple of my new favorite acronyms resulted from that conference. It was held in Minneapolis (Bloomington, to be exact) in shorthand was known as the organic church conference, simple church conference or house church conference. It lasted four days and I took two tracks -- "Applying Organic Church Principles to Conventional Church Settings" and "Luke 10 Strategy."

So here are some notes from the first track (with my comments in parentheses).

Session 1, "A Standout Tool Kit for the Missional Church," from Brian Williamson, pastor of The Bridge Bible Church in Somerset, Wis.:

• There are three dimensions of relationship -- up (to the Father), in (toward fellow disciples) and out (to the world).
• Church typically tends to be transactional instead of transformational. People show up to get something. They attend, give money and maybe volunteer for ministry in exchange for being entertained, made to feel good, even inspired or to have their problems solved. To be transformed requires an encounter with the living Creator of the universe.
• "Duh-sciples." We just have trouble getting it sometimes.
• Invest in the societal fringe people because they will be excited to serve.
  
• Stop critiquing other believers' work. Persevere in your work.
• Discipleship produces church, not the other way around.
• The body of Christ is the blob of Christ without the skeleton of discipleship.
• In computer terms, discipleship is the operating system of Christ, Scripture is the programming system, church is the "killer app".
• When you lower the bar of discipleship, the church becomes the world.
• Our call is to create a culture, not change the culture.

Session 2, "The Mystery of the Transforming Church" by Ed Waken:

• Transition is something you do. Transformation is something you become. Transformation only happens when you die.
• You have to be willing to act (in obedience, by faith) and not know. (Reminds me of Proverbs 3 admonition to not lean on our own understanging.)
• Discipleship is job No. 1. God will build his church. If you focus on making disciples, churches will follow.
• Micro grows to macro. Not the other way around.
• I don't want disciples of mine. I want to see disciples of Jesus. We need to get out of the way and let Jesus work.
• Discipleship is taking a long walk with someone in the same direction. Col. 2:6-7
• Sound doctrine is not just about what you know, but how to live. Discipleship means helping people learn how to walk the walk. Titus 1:16-2:2
• Consumeristic Christianity leads to individualism which leads to isolation. We want to help people become content in Christ, which leads to community, which leads to communitas. Communitas is true, intense fellowship = trials shared together.
• We will not become like Christ in isolation. 2 Timothy 2:20-22
  
• The DNA of believers should be identical since we form the body of Christ. DNA stands for: Divine Truth (living and written Word, John 1:1; "love the Lord your God ..."); Nurturing relationships ("love your neighbor...); Apostolic mission (John 17:17-20, Matt. 28:19-20)
• Strong disciples make a strong church. DNA is the responsibility of every disciple. (DNA groups are groups of 2 to 4 people who focus together on the three DNA aspects, which also translate into Scott Williams Up, In and Out concept.)
• Church is a family, not a school. Conventional church tends to be more school-oriented. Family is relationship based. John 13:34-35.
• Paul loved a crappy church. 2 Corinthians 7:2-4 (Was Paul lying? I've often wondered.)
• See church as a "who," not a "what."
• Transfer from an event mindset to a relational one.
• You have to die to your vision to see transformation happen. And you will lose people. (Because they are more interested in being in control or seeking transaction -- like children's programs -- than transformation.)
• If you teach people to listen to Jesus, then you have free them up to do what Jesus is telling them to do.
• Some recommended reading and other resources: "A Theology of Church Leadership" by Larry Richards; www.3Dministries.com; "The American Church in Crisis" by David Olson.

I'll post notes from the second track in a couple of days.

The Shack

I know I said I was going to blog about my new favorite acronyms next, but first I have to do this. I haven't finished "The Shack" yet, but I went Sunday night to hear the author, William P. Young, known as Paul. I'm through about 6 chapters of the book and really want to find out what happens next, but real life has intruded. I'm also afraid that if I wait to read it in bed, I'll never get to sleep because I'll be up all night finishing it.

Anyway, like I said, I went to hear the author speak at Elmbrook Church on Sunday night. I went with my son and some of his friends from his church. To say it was "good" doesn't do it justice. There was too much heart shared to say it was good. Young talked some about the controversies surrounding the book but mostly talked about himself and the real story behind The Shack. He talked about his being a missionary child, being sexually molested by New Guinea tribesman and at a denominational boarding school, and his affair that almost destroyed his marriage. (When he mentioned that his wife "beat the hell" out of him for two years, there was applause, mostly from the women in the audience, which numbered about 1,500, I think.) His essential point is that we all have a "shack" in which we hide our fears and shame. God is in the shack and we don't find God until we meet him in our personal shack. Regarding the controversy of the book, I don't want to be put in the position of defending the book, other than to say that those focusing on fighting over this are missing the point of the book and the opportunity to do some good for some hurting people. And apparently being "right" is more important for them than relationships.

You can read more about him HERE.

Here are some quotes from the evening. I've put my comments in parentheses:

• "Jesus is still healing people on the Sabbath." (And ticking off the hyper religious.)
• "He ticks off the religious people because he loves them. How else will they break out of their boxes?"
• (Regarding the controversies surrounding the book, such as God being a black woman and his alleged universalist tendencies.) "We're having a conversation about God in this culture (and around the world) right now because of this book. How cool is that?"
  
• "We don't go to church. We either ARE the church or we're not."
• "Religion is the enemy."
• "The only 'normal' people are the ones you don't know very well."
• "I was raised by a generation that didn't know they had any baggage."
• "I will never again ask God to bless anything I'm doing. I just want to be involved in something He's doing."
• (Religious people, like his parents, are) "addicted to the work of God. They (his missionary parents) were told that if yo do the work of God, God will take care of the details. And kids are details."
• "'The Shack' is a metaphor for the heart of people. A place to hide your shame and secrets. We don't let anyone inside The Shack because we're terrified. ... If people knew the secrets, we'd be rejected."
• "I thought spirituality was how can I please God. Religion is about pleasing God." (God is already pleased with us through the work of Jesus Christ.)
• "I grew up in a church that didn't care about hiding. Every time somebody's crap came up, we kicked them out, which made the rest of us hide."
• "We are as sick as the secrets we keep."
• "If you like someone, you give them your time and money. If you love someone, you give them your friends."
• "There is no extreme soul makeover." (Referring to the TV shows, meaning there is no quick fix for what afflicts our soul. Instead, it's a process. 1 Peter 1:6-9)
• "Papa (God) lives in the middle of my 'stuff.'"
• "(God) doesn't care what road you're on. He cares about you."
• "He lives inside you not to eradicate you." (Instead, he's there to help you be the you he created you to be.
  

Letters

I've had acronyms bouncing around in my head lately as I digest things I've learned recently at conferences and in my reading. I thought I'd write them down here because they're just so darn interesting and it would be a way, possibly, of introducing what I'm pondering. I'll list them here with a general definitions. In coming days, I'll write one post on each acronmym and how I am using them or see them being used. So here they are:

• THEOSS: The letters of this acronym stand for Tender, Happy, Excited, Out of Sorts, Sad and Scared. This is my adaptation of SASHET, which I learned from John White at the Living the Mission Conference in June in Minneapolis. You can find out more about John at http://www.lk10.com/
• ALiCTS: (Alley Cats?) This is an adaptation of the tried and true prayer guide, ACTS, which stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. The letters "Li" stand for listening. This also is inspired by John White, who talked a lot about listening prayer.
• H2O: This is the name I'm thinking of giving groups of 2 or 3 (at most 4). These would be accountability groups and the basic building blocks for church/kingdom multiplication. An H20 group would be comparable to White's CO2 (Church Of 2) group, Neil Cole's Life Transformation Groups, or DNA (Divine Focus, Nurturing Relationships, Apostolic Mission) groups. H2O stand for "Him" (upward focus), "2" ( focus on relationship, "Wherever 2 are gathered..."), "Others" (Luke 10:2b focus on mission, ala White and Cole).
• THRPL GREWP: (Thirple Grewp) I invented this acronym to help me memorize Philippians 4:8 and to help direct my thinking. "Finally brothers, whatever True, whatever is Honorable, whatever is Right, whatever is Pure, whatever is Lovely, whatever is of Good Repute, if there is any Excellence, or anything of Good Repute, think on those things."