Here is what I know…

… I am NOT the smartest man on the planet.  In fact, 32 year old Jon looks back at 22 year old Jon and thinks, “that guy was a moron!”

But, I know some things then that I still know now and I want to take some time to share them with you, and though structures and strategies will change over the course of my life these things will never change, it’s what I go back to every time I am tempted to throw in the towel.  I know…

1. About 10 years ago I was lost as the day is long.
2. Someone invited me to church.
3. I [clearly] heard the Gospel there.
4. It changed my heart,
5. and, until this day it continues to change my thinking!
6. I want everyone on the planet to have this experience!!!
7. The majority of the planet is NOT having this experience, including some of the people we are in relationship with, and this bothers me daily
8. I believe the local church has been commissioned to IMPACT, not ISOLATE from, the world!!!  (Acts 1:8)
9. I believe if “Christians” would shut the heck up about the HOW (the methods) and focus on the PERSON who needs Christ and be willing to do WHATEVER it takes to reach them then we would accomplish so much more than we could ever imagine.  Please stop trying to clean the fish before they get into the boat.
10. I believe (as Charles Spurgeon said) that the local church IS the hope of the world.  Jesus established her, died for her and spent a lot of time in the Bible speaking to her. If Jesus says the church is important, then it’s important   (regardless of what Andrew Sullivan says in Newsweek).

I don’t know what our church I will look like in 5-10 years from now, I have no idea what will change; however, I do know that the 10 convictions I have listed above WILL be the same and we will still be doing everything we can to reach as many people as we can for Christ!

What about you?

Black Genocide

Unlike last year I have chosen to largely avoid the subject of Black History month (for many reasons), but if you would like to read those post please click here.  I did want to talk a subject that I did not have the opportunity to address last year and I feel is truly important to the Black community at-large.  The subject is abortion.  So let me put all of my cards on the table.  I am pro-life, anti-abortion, anti-choice or however you would like to frame it.  My view on this subject is shaped mainly by the Bible but also by my experience with family, friends, pastors, and professors that have had or have been the target of an abortion.  I am not sure that I can change your mind, or if that is even my purpose but my intent is to inform people of the realities of this issue.

Last February (Black History Month) this billboard was erected in the SoHo district of New York near one of Planned Parenthoods (PP) 3 located in the city.  Immediately there was a great outcry not only from PP but also the Black community.  To be completely honest I was taken back by the back lash. So here is some history.

We do not want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious [church] members.

This quote is from Margaret Sanger who was a “reproductive rights advocate” and eventual founder of PP and was aware of concerns that birth control would pose a threat to the Black community.  Consequently, she was determined to alleviate these concerns by involving the African American community (specifically civic leaders, pastors) in the formation of birth control clinics in the South.  The quote above comes from a letter that Sanger wrote to Dr. Clarence J. Gamble, one of the financial backers of the birth control movement.  In the letter, Sanger argued that African American doctors needed to be employed at birth control clinics.  She felt that it was important to employ black doctors and social workers in order for patients to feel that the clinics represented their community.  When the Birth Control Federation of America became Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942, Sanger established the Division of Negro Service [context] to oversee outreach to the African American community nationally.  These seem nominal until you find that Sanger aligned herself with the eugenicists whose ideology prevailed in the early 20th century.  Eugenicists strongly espoused racial supremacy and “purity,” particularly of the “Aryan” race.  Eugenicists hoped to purify the bloodlines and improve the race by encouraging the “fit” to reproduce and the “unfit” to restrict their reproduction. They sought to contain the “inferior” races through segregation, sterilization, birth control and abortion.  Sanger embraced a certain type of eugenics called Malthusian eugenics. Thomas Robert Malthus, a 19th-century cleric and professor of political economy, believed a population time bomb threatened the existence of the human race.  He viewed social problems such as poverty, deprivation and hunger as evidence of this “population crisis.”  Malthus’ disciples believed if Western civilization were to survive, the physically unfit, the materially poor, the spiritually diseased, the racially inferior, and the mentally incompetent had to be suppressed and isolated—or even, perhaps, eliminated. His disciples felt the subtler and more “scientific” approaches of education,contraception, sterilization and abortion were more “practical and acceptable ways” to ease the pressures of the alleged overpopulation.

Why do I bring all of this old stuff up you may ask?  What does this have to do with PP today?

History can give us a great view of the trajectory of any person or organization.  Can a person or organization change?  Yes, I have, by God’s grace repented (implying a 180 degree change) and I am being remade through the grace of God.  Though PP has tried to distance themselves from Sanger the truth is that her mission seems to be alive ad well.  Whether on purpose or not I do not claim to know.

The Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case of 1857 held that Black slaves were property without rights as free persons, yet today we view that as unthinkable; so also even though the Supreme Court in the Roe v. Wade case of 1973 did not give the unborn the rights of free persons, nevertheless the day may come when that too is viewed as unthinkable. Racism might—and often did—result in the killing of innocent humans; in our history, it often did. But abortion always results in the killing of innocent humans. Between 1882 and 1968, 3,446 [known] Black people were lynched in America. Today more Black babies are killed by abortionists every three days than all who were lynched in those years (Life Education and Resource Network).

Today 78% of Planned Parenthood clinics are in minority communities. John Ensor takes this as the crucial challenge of the pro-life, crisis pregnancy center movement: Go to the urban centers. Here is what he says:

To date, the pregnancy center movement has grown mostly in rural and suburban areas. The great challenge now facing us is to respond to the abortion industry’s dominant business strategy of abandoning rural and suburban abortion facilities and targeting urban neighborhoods. For example, Planned Parenthood closed 17 abortion facilities in 2004. But they sold 20% more abortions. How did they do this? By targeting minority neighborhoods in major cites. Currently, 94% of America’s abortion facilities are in cities. And African-American women, who make up 13% of the female population account for 36% of all abortions.  Latino-American women makeup another 13% of the female population, but account for another 20% of all abortions. (See Susan Enouen, “Planned Parenthood Abortion Facilities Target African American Communities.”)

In other words, the de facto effect (I won’t call it the main cause, but net effect) of putting abortion clinics in the urban centers is that the abortion of Hispanic and Black babies is more than double their percentage of the population. Every day 1,300 black babies are killed in America. Seven hundred Hispanic babies die every day from abortion. Call this what you will—when the slaughter has an ethnic face and the percentages are double that of the white community, something is going on here that ought to make the lovers of racial equality and racial harmony wake up.

I simply want you to know where I am going, so that no one will say I made this association between abortion and racism in a sly or subtle way. It is not subtle. It is open and intentional and, I hope to show, justified. May God make the support of abortion in America and around the world as unthinkable as support for racism.

I don’t expect to escape misunderstanding or criticism for this message. But  few attacks might be avoided by quoting Randy Alcorn whose view I share:

I do not believe that most people who support abortion rights are racists, any more than I believe there are no racists among pro-lifers. I am simply suggesting that regardless of motives, a closer look at both the history and present strategies of the pro-choice movement suggests that “abortion for the minorities” may not serve the cause of equality as much as the cause of supremacy for the healthy, wealthy and white. (Eternal Perspectives, Sept.-Oct. 1993, p. 9)

Again my aim is to associate abortion and racism, not to equate them. Whether the association is justified, you will decide. It’s not a biblical declaration; it’s a cultural observation.

Listen, I know that abortion is a very touchy subject, and talking about it can result in anger and accusations.  Therefore, I pray that in this article I did not offend anyone needlessly or carelessly.  As a Christian, I believe abortion is wrong, but I will not point an angry condemning finger at anyone who has had an abortion.  The choice to have an abortion is not an easy or flippant decision.  It also is a decision that has been made by many of my friends and family, and had in no way diminish my love for any of them.

Others, I suspect, may be tempted to dismiss my comments because I am a Christian as well as a man.  I can only hope that if this is you that you will not do that and listen to the facts presented here.  Others may assume that I will try to condemn them and then use the Bible to bash and ridicule.  This was not my intent in any way, shape or form.  I reference the Bible, not as a club, but as a source of forgiveness and encouragement.  No one is cut off from Christ because of past sin – any past sin. What cuts a person off from Christ and the fellowship of his people is the endorsement of past sin. For the repentant there is forgiveness and cleansing and hope.” 2 Corinthians 7:9,10 says:

I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, in order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

Reconciliation to God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, is the only way to overcome the tragedy of abortion, and though the sorrow of past sins can linger, the penalty will be forever lifted. If you have received this forgiveness, let the world know, and be a voice of warning to those thinking of talking the same path as you.

Man UP!!!

There’s an ongoing war within [our] culture.  It’s the war for manhood.  The older I become the harder it becomes to see a proper example of Biblical manhood.  Much like the culture the chairs and pews are overwhelmingly filled with ‘boys who can shave’. Let me give you an example actually taken from the people I interact with daily.

What is the difference between a 16 year old that lives at home with his parents, plays Xbox 360 all day, doesn’t have a job, dates around without any form of commitment, and has little or no responsibility outside of which fast food joint he wants to take his date for dinner and a 25 year old that bunks with dudes, pays $100 in rent a month, works part-time, and doesn’t shower very often?

You’re exactly right; the answer:  age.

I know what you’re thinking.  The aforementioned descriptions might be a little extreme and probably not ‘completely’ accurate in most cases, but the picture painted here should be pretty clear.

Adolescence is often seen as the stages between puberty and legal adulthood.  In our culture, this would be about 18 years old.  When a young man turns 18 he can buy tobacco, vote, and purchase rated R movie tickets.  Pretty sweet huh?  Yep.  Well, it seems that way.

In today’s culture, boys can become men without any ‘rite of passage,’ so to speak.  All it takes is… well… age.  I am seeing ‘men’ who are in their 20′s and 30′s reflect the lifestyle of 18 and 19 year olds.  And we call it manhood.  This is pathetic!

Confusion over what manhood is has plagued our cities, families and lives. The concept of a biblical man has been lost in our generation. Unfortunately, many churches struggle to provide for its members, much less those beyond their walls, with a tangible definition of a real man.

Mark Discoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church, gives some pretty good insight into this.

Historically, a guy would go through two life phases: boy, then man. The transition from boy to man was comprised of five sociological variables that happened almost simultaneously or in very close succession:

1. Leave your parents’ home (Gen. 2:24);
2. Finish your education or vocational training;
3. Start a career-track job, not a dead-end-Joe job;
4. Meet a woman, love her, honor her, court her, and marry her;
5. Have children with her.

But here’s what’s happened. Rather than moving from boy to man by this succession of sociological transitions, we’ve created something called adolescence. It’s a third life stage in the middle between boy and man. We don’t know what to call them so we just call them guys. These are boys who can shave.

Today, adolescence starts somewhere in the teen years and continues indefinitely. There is no foreseeable end. The problem with adolescence is guys don’t know when they’re ever going to grow up and be men, and no pressure is exerted on them to do so.

Lyrics below…

[Lecrae]
Momma want some more Obama in me the hood want PAC hip hop wanna see the
Common in me. And since this a senseless contradiction I end up a misfit tryina fit In. This ends when I stand up and see the hands of the standard: holy is
The lamb huh(holy is the lamb) Now we holding you to man up cause we were made
In his image start looking at what you came from.[KB]
Right after Adam every atom in our anatomy had to make adamant after what
Adonai is against. Let me take you back to the tree in Eden, if you read it you’ll see that eve was deceived but Adam is the one who let it in.(Man up) Standing Leading no, we ain’t leading we (Bump that) Basically little boys with
Muscles and a mustache! The femininity, we need a remedy, the God-Man, a
100 percent (strength) masculinity

[Trip Lee]
Where the men at, seems like they all lost, none of them are on the scene,
Seems like they died off. They extinct but my dream is to rise up, we
Chasing the prize of the King the divine boss, but we fell away, now we
UnGodly  we lose and we really got the blues like Navi, I wanna celebrate the dudes that’s beside me fellas lets elevate we through with the lobby

[Tedashii]
Go ahead I say boy Get your shine on. and if a sucker try to block you get your 9 home and
What I heard you gotta do to be a man now, stand up for yourself so I took
It in my hands now. And that’s the problem man we busy trying to solve it
All the while we walking dead man somebody bring the coffin, boy drop
Peach fuzz now you think that your a man cause you feeling yourself you
Need to man up!

[Sho Baraka]
Sex and models, and tipping bottles back a pile of excuses right next to
Your bottle caps. A rolodex filled with names that you aim to
Please next to the stack of money, building up a heart of greed. Ice on his
Neck give the jokers a cold shoulder, you drunk off pride plus you loving
The hangover. You gotta whole lotta stuff that won’t amount to gain life
Will never make sense cause you never made change

[PRo]
You got it Twisted sick like a fever, little man live to stack doe
Keebler. Man up! Get up out of the treehouse leave the cookies alone it’s
Time to eat meat now. Trying to show you a new way to live now, no charge
You can call it a freestyle. without Christ you know how your man is, was
A boy in a mans body like Tom Hanks in BIG.

[Andy Mineo]
Being a man got nothing to do with age. You can be a boy till the day you
Lay in your grave. None of us behave in the image of who were made, cause
We’ve fallen away it’s better known as depraved. Running from
Responsibility really we crave the easy way out of places that call us to
Pull our weight. Man there going through everyday decisions are made,
Responding to the call God’s giving em from the…

[All]
Man Up! 
[Andy]
Let the process begin, separate the boys from the men
[All]
Man Up! 
[Andy]
Doesn’t matter how you started, partner, it’s about how you end
[All]
Man Up! 
[Andy]
Jesus is the model follow us we gon’ follow him
[All]
Man Up!  
[Andy]
We-we the last of a dying breed it’s time that we

[All]
MAN UP!  

I’m not crazy, you are…

Recently, my family and I went through an experience that many people told us to run from.  To be completely honest, they were absolutely right (from the world’s point of view), we should have taken the very next bus out of town and never looked back, but our Father was calling us to something different.  As a friend of mine said recently, you “either can be defined by your surroundings, or let the Father REFINE you in the fire for His glory.”

Don’t expect God’s next step to make sense.

In my short time as a pastor I’ve seen so many people who have HUGE dreams but back off because it will not work out on paper and they are afraid people will think they are crazy…

I think we need more crazy people…

• People thought Noah was crazy when he built the ark.
• People thought Abraham was crazy when climbed a mountain to sacrifice his son.
• People thought Joseph was crazy when he shared his dreams!
• People thought Moses was crazy when he announced God’s relocation project!
• People thought Joshua was crazy when he announced the battle plan for Jericho!
• People thought Gideon was crazy when the army got reduced to 300.
• People thought David was crazy when he walked out to meet Goliath.
• People thought Elijah was crazy when he faced the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel
• People thought Nehemiah was crazy when he had a dream to build something incredible for the Kingdom.
• People thought John the Baptist was crazy when he preached a radical message. (He might of actually been a little crazy)
• People thought the woman who poured out perfume on Jesus’ feet was crazy…and yet He honored her in front of all of them. (Listen)
• People thought the Apostles were crazy in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit showed up!
• People thought Paul was crazy for planting churches and taking the Gospel to the Gentiles!

These were crazy people, insane, but ALL of them were used by God to do GREAT THINGS because they refused to be “normal” when our Father called them to be something so much more.

I do not want to be the guy who never attempts anything great and plays if safe.  “Taking up my cross” SCREAMS, “be willing to give up everything, including YOUR REPUTATION!”

The world needs more people who will die to the idea of being crazy and live in complete obedience, those are the people who make the difference.

So which one are you?  Are you sitting on the sidelines hearing the Father calling you to engage?  Are you still refusing because of (you fill in the blank)?

Is this true???

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am a nerd in many different ways and one of my absolute favorite is reading research, journals, and studies.  On December 13, 2010 The Barna Group (which includes its research division, the Barna Research Group) published research that was not a surprise to me, but the extent and depth of the opinion was.  The Barna Group is a private, non-partisan, for-profit organization that conducts primary research pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries.  In other words this is right within my wheelhouse.  I would love for you to read this and give me your opinion below:

Change usually happens slowly in the Church. But a review of the past year’s research conducted by the Barna Group provides a time-lapse portrayal of how the religious environment in the U.S. is morphing into something new.

Analyzing insights drawn from more than 5,000 non-proprietary interviews conducted over the past 11 months, George Barna indicated that the following patterns were evident in the survey findings.

1. The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate.
What used to be basic, universally-known truths about Christianity are now unknown mysteries to a large and growing share of Americans–especially young adults. For instance, Barna Group studies in 2010 showed that while most people regard Easter as a religious holiday, only a minority of adults associate Easter with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Other examples include the finding that few adults believe that their faith is meant to be the focal point of their life or to be integrated into every aspect of their existence. Further, a growing majority believe the Holy Spirit is a symbol of God’s presence or power, but not a living entity. As the two younger generations (Busters and Mosaics) ascend to numerical and positional supremacy in churches across the nation, the data suggest that biblical literacy is likely to decline significantly. The theological free-for-all that is encroaching in Protestant churches nationwide suggests the coming decade will be a time of unparalleled theological diversity and inconsistency.

2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented.
Despite technological advances that make communications instant and far-reaching, Christians are becoming more spiritually isolated from non-Christians than was true a decade ago. Examples of this tendency include the fact that less than one-third of born again Christians planned to invite anyone to join them at a church event during the Easter season; teenagers are less inclined to discuss Christianity with their friends than was true in the past; most of the people who become Christians these days do so in response to a personal crisis or the fear of death (particularly among older Americans); and most Americans are unimpressed with the contributions Christians and churches have made to society over the past few years. As young adults have children, the prospect of them seeking a Christian church is diminishing–especially given the absence of faith talk in their conversations with the people they most trust. With atheists becoming more strategic in championing their godless worldview, as well as the increased religious plurality driven by education and immigration, the increasing reticence of Christians to engage in faith-oriented conversations assumes heightened significance.

3. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life.
When asked what matters most, teenagers prioritize education, career development, friendships, and travel. Faith is significant to them, but it takes a back seat to life accomplishments and is not necessarily perceived to affect their ability to achieve their dreams. Among adults the areas of growing importance are lifestyle comfort, success, and personal achievements. Those dimensions have risen at the expense of investment in both faith and family. The turbo-charged pace of society leaves people with little time for reflection. The deeper thinking that occurs typically relates to economic concerns or relational pressures. Spiritual practices like contemplation, solitude, silence, and simplicity are rare. (It is ironic that more than four out of five adults claim to live a simple life.) Practical to a fault, Americans consider survival in the present to be much more significant than eternal security and spiritual possibilities. Because we continue to separate our spirituality from other dimensions of life through compartmentalization, a relatively superficial approach to faith has become a central means of optimizing our life experience.

4. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating.
Largely driven by the passion and energy of young adults, Christians are more open to and more involved in community service activities than has been true in the recent past. While we remain more self-indulgent than self-sacrificing, the expanded focus on justice and service has struck a chord with many. However, despite the increased emphasis, churches run the risk of watching congregants’ engagement wane unless they embrace a strong spiritual basis for such service. Simply doing good works because it’s the socially esteemed choice of the moment will not produce much staying power.

To facilitate service as a long-term way of living and to provide people with the intrinsic joy of blessing others, churches have a window of opportunity to support such action with biblical perspective. And the more that churches and believers can be recognized as people doing good deeds out of genuine love and compassion, the more appealing the Christian life will be to those who are on the sidelines watching. Showing that community action as a viable alternative to government programs is another means of introducing the value of the Christian faith in society.

5. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian Church.
Our biblical illiteracy and lack of spiritual confidence has caused Americans to avoid making discerning choices for fear of being labeled judgmental. The result is a Church that has become tolerant of a vast array of morally and spiritually dubious behaviors and philosophies. This increased leniency is made possible by the very limited accountability that occurs within the body of Christ. There are fewer and fewer issues that Christians believe churches should be dogmatic about. The idea of love has been redefined to mean the absence of conflict and confrontation, as if there are no moral absolutes that are worth fighting for. That may not be surprising in a Church in which a minority believes there are moral absolutes dictated by the scriptures.

The challenge today is for Christian leaders to achieve the delicate balance between representing truth and acting in love. The challenge for every Christian in the U.S. is to know his/her faith well enough to understand which fights are worth fighting, and which stands are non-negotiable. There is a place for tolerance in Christianity; knowing when and where to draw the line appears to perplex a growing proportion of Christians in this age of tolerance.

6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.
Christianity has arguably added more value to American culture than any other religion, philosophy, ideology or community. Yet, contemporary Americans are hard pressed to identify any specific value added. Partly due to the nature of today’s media, they have no problem identifying the faults of the churches and Christian people.

In a period of history where image is reality, and life-changing decisions are made on the basis of such images, the Christian Church is in desperate need of a more positive and accessible image. The primary obstacle is not the substance of the principles on which Christianity is based, and therefore the solution is not solely providing an increase in preaching or public relations. The most influential aspect of Christianity in America is how believers do–or do not–implement their faith in public and private. American culture is driven by the snap judgments and decisions that people make amidst busy schedules and incomplete information. With little time or energy available for or devoted to research and reflection, it is people’s observations of the integration of a believer’s faith into how he/she responds to life’s opportunities and challenges that most substantially shape people’s impressions of and interest in Christianity. Jesus frequently spoke about the importance of the fruit that emerges from a Christian life; these days the pace of life and avalanche of competing ideas underscores the significance of visible spiritual fruit as a source of cultural influence.

With the likelihood of an accelerating pace of life and increasingly incomplete cues being given to the population, Christian leaders would do well to revisit their criteria for “success” and the measures used to assess it. In a society in which choice is king, there are no absolutes, every individual is a free agent, we are taught to be self-reliant and independent, and Christianity is no longer the automatic, default faith of young adults, new ways of relating to Americans and exposing the heart and soul of the Christian faith are required.

A few quick questions:

1. Do you believe that this research is true and accurate?
2. Do you agree with all six themes or is there something different?
3. What do you think about them?
4. Does this reflect your church?
5. What can [Christ-followers] do?