Would Jesus Twitter?

OK, so my youth guy convinced me to join the Twitter nation a couple of weeks ago. It's not that I resist new technologies, I was just not convinced that that many people cared what I was doing every minute of every day. Do I really want to know when Aaron Rodgers (NOT the football player) blows his nose or changes his kid's diaper?! But alas, I caved and began Tweeting on Nov. 5^th.

I know have 37 Tweets, I am following 13 people, and I have 39 followers of my own. Not really stellar numbers, but hey, we're only 13 days into this thing, right?

But this Twitter business got me to thinking? If Jesus were among us today, would he Tweet? (I know, it almost sounds blasphemous:)

The whole idea behind Twitter is social connection. It is the next link in the evolutionary change of > email > texting >MySpace >Facebook >Twitter.

Here's the thing… you only follow the people you really care about or that you think will have something significant to say into your life.

We've been doing a lot of work at Grand with Discipleship in recent weeks. In fact, it has become a major focus of everything we are doing. So what is a disciple? Isn't a disciple, by definition, a follower?

Jesus had 12 followers, 12 disciples. The idea of followership is that you walk as closely as you can with your leader. You eat, sleep, literally walk with, listen to, the one who disciples you.

So, yes, I do believe that if Jesus had chosen to come during our generation, that he would have indeed joined the Twitter nation too. Twitter would have been ONE tool that Jesus would have used to disciple those who followed him. I think you might be able to say that Jesus even originated the concept of Twitter!

So who do you follow? Who have you given permission to speak into your life? Who do you disciple? Are you a follower of Jesus?

Tweeted Blessings,

Jeff

I just finished a great book called The Long Snapper by Jeffrey Marx. I was first introduced to Marx when I read his other book, Season of Life. That first book is one of my all time favorite books, especially for men and especially for fathers. I give Season of Life away more than any other book I’ve read except for the Bible.

In The Long Snapper, Jeffrey Marx has given us another wonderful, and true, story. The subtitle is, A Second Chance, A Super Bowl, A Lesson for Life, and it chronicles the career and “second” career of Brian Kinchen, the LSU standout whose time in the NFL was cut shorter than he planned. Brian was left with a bad case of the “what if’s.” The book caught my attention immediately on the first page when the story begins in a Bible classroom at Parkview Baptist School, a ministry of Parkview Baptist Church, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parkview was the church where I began my ministry career after graduating from college. My wife and I know many people in that church and school and have wonderful memories from our time there. I was struck at how small our world really is.

I won’t spoil the book for you BUT if you are looking for a great holiday read or if you know someone who struggles with the “what if’s” of life, this would be a nice giveaway.

Blessings,
Jeff

Today Is Veteran’s Day

Today is Veteran's Day. Today I am thinking of the countless men and women who have given of their lives, and some, given their lives, so that we can be free in the United States of America. May God bless our veterans.

This particular Veterans Day has been touched by the shadow of the attack on Fort Hood, when last week, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, walked onto this military installation, on American soil, and opened fire killing 13 people and wounding another 29.

Many have asked the question, "Why did he do it?" In many cases of seemingly random shootings, we are left to wonder "why" such a tragedy. But that is not the case with the Fort Hood shooting. We KNOW why Major Hasan killed. He declared with his own words his motivation when he shouted the words, "Allahu Akbar!" while opening fire.

"Allahu Akbar means literally, "Allah is the Greatest." It is the Islamic declaration said before every prayer that a Muslim utters. It has also been a phrase used by terrorists in the act of killing themselves and others.

So it is clear. Major Hassan was an Islamic extremist, acting as a terrorist, on American soil, in the name of his religion.

I blogged six months ago in May about three cultural shifts that every Christian in America needs to watch. The first of those three cultural shifts is the growth of Islam in our country. As Islam grows, so will these kinds of terrorist attacks. Not because the majority of Muslims are jihadists, but because there is a potent and radical element within Islam that calls for the destruction of the infidel. As Islam in America grows overall, so too will this radical element grow in our country.

In light of the attack on Fort Hood, I now amend the title of my blog post in May. The growth of Islam is not a cultural shift that ever Christian in America needs to watch, but one that every American period, needs to watch.

May God bless our veterans,
Jeff

It’s About Making Disciples

Passage for Reflection: Matthew 28:19-20

Why has discipleship become optional? I think it's because it has become too easy to be a "Christian" in USAmerica. When Christianity began, you had to really want it. I am mean you had to want it so bad that you were willing to lay your life on the line. Prospective church members were screened for fear of a spy who might lead them all to the arena for slaughter. Church services were hardly "seeker sensitive." In fact, the term Christian and disciple were synonymous. Point of fact: the word disciple occurs 269 times in the New Testament. The word Christian appears three times – and all three times it appears, it is was used to refer to the disciples of Christ. But that seems to have all changed now. I wonder how many disciples are really coming to my church. In our efforts to get bigger, so many churches fall into the trap of methodology that leads to quantity but not quality. Volunteers but not disciples. There is a BIG difference between a volunteer and a disciple. Jesus never commanded us to go and make volunteers, he told us to go and make disciples. In the book Reclaiming God's Original Intent for the Church, a disciple is defined in three ways:

1. One who lives in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. One who obeys all that Jesus commanded.

3. One who seeks to imitate the life of Jesus.

Hardly sounds like a volunteer, huh? Dallas Willard reminds us in his book, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, that, "The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, and for disciples of Jesus Christ."

Would all the disciples of Jesus Christ please stand up?

"Lord, make me a disciple. Amen."

Blessings,

Jeff

Convention Time

I spent two days this week at the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. It's so hard to leave town because there are always so many plates spinning and I don't want any to hit the ground. Of course, that's probably my inflated ego speaking, in my heart I know that the earth will continue to spin on its axis even while I am away.

It's hard to leave but it was a nice change of pace. I saw lots of good friends I haven't seen in a while and I got to be encouraged by some great preaching. I love to hear new voices and it causes me to take notes and think in new and fresh ways. I came back energized.

There were two highlights for me personally from this year's convention:

1. On Tuesday, J.D. Greear preached the afternoon session. J.D. is the pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh / Durham, North Carolina. He represents the "now" generation of pastors. He's probably my age or younger (Mid to late 30's). In just a few years, J.D. has led a turnaround church growing from 350 to 3000+ on three campuses.

J.D.'s message was powerful. He spoke to the centrality of the Gospel and called for a turning away from any and all distractions to that Gospel. The quote of the sermon for me:

"Any gospel that talks about what we need to go do for God rather than what God has done for us is a false gospel."

The Gospel is an announcement, not an invitation. It proclaims what God has done. It is EXACTLY what the world needs and longs to hear. We must be about the business of proclaiming what God has done.

2. Following the afternoon session on Tuesday, J.D. joined Dr. Ronnie Floyd for a 2 hour+ listening session on the Great Commission Resurgence. Dr. Floyd chairs this task force and J.D. serves on the task for as well. In a "standing room" only room, there was honest and frank discussion about the state of Southern Baptists as a denomination. We are in a desperate situation. We are declining. Fewer people are coming to Christ today because of Southern Baptist efforts than in 1950. The discussion was pointed but healthy and the spirit was good. The Great Commission Task Force has an enormous job ahead of them to weed through all the voices they are hearing and to deliver a report this summer in Orlando to the Convention. I believe thier report could be the most important document for us as a denomination in a generation. It has the potential to redefine and refocus us. If we fail on the Great Commission, we will have failed as a denomination and thus we will truly be irrelevant. As Dr. Floyd reminded us all, "God will fulfill His Great Commission and we need to realize that He does not need us (Southern Baptists) to do it." Well said. We need to get on board or get left behind. It is a privilege to be used by God, not a right.

Blessings,

Jeff

Tzitzit

I've spent the last two months preaching on the life of Moses. It has been a fascinating study, looking deep into the life of one of the greatest leaders in all of human history. The story of Moses is found primarily in the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These books also chronicle the activity of God as he formed the religion that we know today as Judaism. This formation took place as God and Moses had many, many conversations. These conversations happened on Mount Sinai and in a place called the Tent of Meeting. All that Jews do that makes them "Jewish" flows out of these conversations God had with Moses. All the feasts and laws and ceremonies and instruments of worship and sacrifices came from God, through Moses, to the Jews.

Part of the Jewish faith includes the wearing of a special prayer shawl called a Talit. The Talit is not just any piece of cloth, but it is made of special material, with special colors and Scripture on it. There is another curious feature of the Talit.

Passage for Reflection: Numbers 15:37-40

I want to focus on the "tassels" that are mentioned in this passage about the Talit. These tassels are called Tzitzit (pronounced "zseet-zseet"). Notice that God is very intentional that the prayer shawl must have one Tzitzit at each corner. In addition, and this is very important, the Tzitzit should also have a cord of blue thread in it. So what's the big deal with "blue" thread? Just this: blue was the most difficult color to obtain in the ancient world. You could only get it from extracting the gland of a specific type of snail. That's right, a snail. It would take 12,000 snails to fill up a thimble with blue ink. A pound of blue ink would go on the market for the equivalent of $36,000. That makes blue very special and rare.

God wanted something that would pop, something that would get the people's attention. Something that required sacrifice to obtain and would thus have immediate and continuous impact. You see, the Tzitzit in general, and the blue chord in particular, were to be seen and to remind the people of God and his law. Specifically, God wanted people to see the blue chord and remember that they should "not follow after your own heart and your own eyes…."

Isn't it true that we are forgetful people? Even leaders forget. Especially leaders forget. We forget that we are never as great as we think we are. We forget that we only lead at the pleasure of God. We forget that we lead in order to point people to God and not our own ambitions. We forget…

But God wants us to remember. And so he commanded the Talit and He commanded the Tzitzit.

We don't use Talits and Tzitzit today. Oh, Jews do but "we" don't. But the principle remains. When we place something in our lives, something that is tangible that we can't help but seeing, it serves to remind us of our place before God.

Go find a Tzitzit to carry with you as you go…

"Lord, may I remember who you are and what you expect of me. Amen."

Blessings,

Jeff

Homosexuality and Junior High Civics

My oldest son is a student at one of the junior highs here in Fort Smith. A week ago he came home and told me that his civics teacher shared her views on homosexuality in class. The gist of her comments were that it's okay for people to be gay and that there is nothing wrong with it. She also made another comment that later in the year they would be discussing this more in class. My son took it that it would be a part of the class material in the future. Apparently the comments of my son's teacher not only caught his attention but also the attention of others as it was a topic of discussion among my son's peers over lunch that same day. A very good friend of my son's (who is also a member of our church) commented over lunch, "Doesn't the Bible say that homosexuality is wrong?"

My son came home telling me all this and several thoughts went through my mind and have been running through my mind over the course of the last week.

First, I am thrilled that my son feels free to come home and share all these kinds of details with me. It could very easily not be this way.

Second, I was struck that, even though he is only in junior high, he has officially joined the "big leagues" of the adult world. It doesn't get more cutting edge, culturally, than a discussion on the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality.

Third, I was reminded of the tremendous influence teachers have over students. I have no problem at all with teachers, through the course of a school year, letting students see who they are as people. Even if they do not represent the values we teach in my home. This is all a part of life and I know that I can't keep my children in a bubble. At some point they need to learn how to interact with the world and I would rather them learn this while under my roof and under my guidance than later in life when they go to college.

Fourth, I am very concerned that there would be an extended discussion on homosexuality in the future as part of any class unit. This is a civics course. My brother who teaches civics in an adjacent town served on the task force that wrote the course standards for civics for the State of Arkansas. I checked with him and he assured me there is NO unit on homosexuality as part of the civics curriculum. They will not be tested on it at year end and it is not a bench mark. I am further concerned because any discussion or education on homosexuality in a civics class would prohibit including the Bible and its teachings on the basis of church/state separation, thus it would be an incomplete discussion or education.

Fifth, I was struck by a desire that my son expressed that he really wants to see his teacher bring the topic up again because he wants to debate her from his biblical worldview. This makes me very proud as a father. This whole thing has caused my son and I to talk a lot about homosexuality, why some people think the behavior is okay and why we as Christians do not based on the clear teaching of God's Word. We've talked about how people become gay, are they created that way or is it learned. We've talked about why God prohibits the behavior. And we've talked about God's best for all people, even people who are oriented toward same sex attraction. It's not necessarily the kind of thing I was looking forward to him bringing home from civics, but overall it's been a healthy experience…for my child. Obviously this may not be the case for others in the class.

Sixth, I am reminded that I have to watch very carefully to see what is really going on in my children's classroom(s). I am their parent and I am charged to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

My son's civics teacher is a wonderful woman. My son just loves her as a teacher (he had her last year as well), and he says that she claims to be a Christian. All the interaction I have had with her these last couple of years through conferences and open houses has been positive and professional. In no way is this blog post an attack on a very good teacher.

But, I also want my son's civics teacher to, first and foremost, teach him CIVICS. I have no doubt she is, and the personal social commentary, while appropriate at certain times in the course of a school year, should not make its way into the curriculum of the course.

My wife and I pray for all our children's teachers.

And we will continue to do so…and watch as well.

Blessings,

Jeff