Protecting The Crown

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 08-04-2010

Category : Formation, Lessons, Lifestyle, Uncategorized, example, how ya' livin', witness

There is a show that I watch called Human Target, which is a pretty good show by the way. The recent episode was about the Princess of Wales. There was a negative twist in the plot, but one of the lines said was, “I am protecting the crown.” There was anger over some things the princess was doing and the thought was that she was disgracing the crown. The premise behind protecting the crown is that there is a reputation there that must be maintained at all costs. This is an idea that does not just stay in the monarchy, but makes its way into several sectors. In the mafia or La Cosa Nostra there is an ideology that no one is above the family. What each person has to do us uphold the family. In New Jack City it was said that “No man is above the crew.” This is what it is all about. It is the responsibility of each person to do whatever possible to uphold, uplift and maintain the rep of the crew, gang, mafia, monarchy or family.

As beleivers we have the exact same responsiblity. Everyday and in everything we need to do what is withn our powers to porect the crown. The crown that was worn as Jesus died on the cross and the crown that He wears as king. If we wake up every morning with it on our minds that we are protecting the crown I wonder how our actions, thoughts and words would vary and change. There has to be an understanding that we are representing a kingdom. With this in mind we understand that it is not about us as individuals. Most time our decisions are all about us rather than the crown that we are protecting. This needs to change. This is something I remind myself of everyday because I want to do a good job for the crown.

The Untouchables!

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 08-02-2010

Category : At the movies, Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Formation, Lessons, Lifestyle, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized, evangelism, example, how ya' livin', witness

Okay, show of hands. Who likes The Untouchables? I love that movie. It talks about a great era, which I love. I love the 20′s era gangster stuff. This movie detailed a group of lawmen called the Untouchables. They were tasked with the mission to stop Al Capone in prohibition eta Chicago. As usual for me I find something in a movie that works as a ministry point. I think it may be a preacher thing where lots of things can be illustrations. At any rate, there is a scene in the beginning of the movie where Ness is selecting officers and law enforcement to be a part of the Untouchables. As he looks through the classroom type space where the officers are he says, “I know many of you take a drink now and then, but since that is what we are fighting against let’s not do that anymore” (paraphrase).   His whole point in saying this was to say that the Untouchables had to cease participating in the things they were supposed to be rallying against. This speaks volumes to believers.

How many believers have done or do the things that their code (the bible) says that they are supposed to be against. I know many people criticize the church because they say they are always against something. The truth of the matter is that there are things that believers are against and are supposed to be against as well as things that believers are for. In order for the witness to be the most effective believers need to make it a point to not participate in the things they are going to have to stand against. Elliot Ness wanted there to be a moral authority to their crusade against prohibition. How do we live that out in our everyday lives? Sometimes it seems that we want so much to be a part of the crowd that we put down what the original instructions were. Elliot Ness said to stop doing what they were doing if there were going to do what they needed to do. We need to live right lives and be an example. The question for us needs to be what are we wanting to be an example of? Elliot Ness has an important message for us from the 1987 movie that should work its wat into our 2010 lives.

No Quitters Allowed

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 28-01-2010

Category : Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Formation, Lessons, Lifestyle, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized, example, how ya' livin', witness

My family joined the vast group of wii owners during this past Christmas season. Everyone has their favorite game on the wii or better yet, the game they each excel at. However, my son is still trying to find the game he likes the best. While he searches for what suits him best he went and played a few of the games. After a while since it took so long and produced a little frustration he said, “I QUIT”… Duh, duh, duh (dramatic movie danger sound track). Things got a little hard and required more effort, determination and work and my little man said, “I QUIT”. My son is not a quitter, but in this instance he was. I had a quick thought when that happened. I asked myself, “What am I?” In addition to that I asked, “What are you?” Are you a quitter?

Once thing I have seen with people is as soon as things get a little hard and a little inconvenient we bail out and quit. It seems easier to quit and throw in the towel than it is to scratch and fight to finish what we started. When we look at many marriages we see it all of the time. Either spouse will stand before a preacher and invited guests and declare their undying love for each other. They will share endless and heartfelt vows. About a year later the spouse finds out some not so good things about the other spouse and the spouse bails. What? What happened to, “Till death do us part?” Somehow the commitment had become inconvenient to keep so we bailed. Life requires that we fight and fight hard. Life will throw things at you that make you want to quit, but that is not what we do. We fight! Look at those in Haiti and all they are experiencing and fighting through. So many of them have hope and are still fighting. Which of you reading this blog is going through anything even close to what is happening in Haiti? My thoughts exactly.

So, the next time life gut punches you and you experience trying times do not back out and quit. I know it is an old school cliche’ saying, but “winners never quit and quitters never quit.” Do you want to win?

A Hero for TODAY!

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 22-01-2010

Category : Amazing things, Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Formation, Lessons, Lifestyle, Uncategorized, evangelism, example, how ya' livin', random acts of kindness, witness

What can I say? Everyone loves a hero. Would you agree? I hope so. The heroes that we have today are not the ones we see featured on the image above. No tights, capes, superhuman strength or underground caves with bats as friends. No, the heroes we have today deal with larger hurts and crisis situations and their response is no less awesome. It is even more awesome. The help they gives does not come by way of super power, but they come by way of love, a concern for people and relationships. If I had to point to a hero for the here and now (totally subjective, you may choose someone else) it would be my buddy Pastor Shaun King. He is the lead pastor of Courageous Churchin downtown Atlanta. They recently celebrated their one year anniversary. In that one year they did far more than several churches that I know of with more members and bigger budgets. There is a heart that beats within Pastor Shaun that aches and breaks for God’s people.  Here is a quick rundown of some of the major things Pastor Shaun and Courageous Church have done within the year.

  • Supplied toys and school uniforms for the children of Stanton Elementary School (2 Christmases in a row)
  • Started Hope ATL to assist with supplies, money, shelter, demolition and etc for the 2009 Atlanta flood
  • Positioned Courageous Church and those within his reach to respond huge to the Haiti Earthquake
    This has shown itself by way of money, sending neurosurgeons, coordinating rescues and numerous other   things.

Do not  get me wrong. I am not necessarily promoting a man or doing any kind of idol worship. However, I do recognize the calling on his life and appreciate his heart for God’s creation. Truth be told when we see things on television happening in other countries or even on our own street corners we get very apathetic. Sometimes we shed a tear and sometimes we do not even do that. In the final analysis we do not do anything. There should be something in us that jumps when we see tragedy whether it is over the seas or across the street. God created us to have a concern and a desire to help people who are in need. I so admire this hunger, thirst and yearning to help “the least of these.” If you were to ask Pastor Shaun he would not make a big deal of it because these heroics (and this is what they are) are commonplace to him. This is who he is. What he does, how he leads and how he loves inspires me. It calls be to be a better church planter, pastor and believer.

If you want more info on Pastor Shaun and Courageous Church, check out the following;

www.courageous.tv
www.shauninthecity.com
www.hopeatl.com
www.theywilldie.org

How A Glowstick Works

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 21-12-2009

Category : Amazing things, Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Daily Babble, Formation, Lessons, Lifestyle, Smart Stuff, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized, example, how ya' livin', witness

glowstickMy kids always get little things that they hold onto even more so than their major toys. One of these things are some glow sticks. They found some in their room the other day. I am not sure when they first got them, but it had to be a little while ago. They found them and immediately they wanted to use them, but did not know how. My wife says to them, “you need to break them.” So, both of the glow sticks have been broken. At this point the kids are slap happy. My son rushes to the light switch to turn off the lights. Why? He wanted to be able to play with his glow stick in the right condition. Where is that you might ask? In the dark. There are two major facets to glow stick operation.

  • Glow sticks must be broken before they can work.
  • Glow sticks work best in the dark.

My son wanted to get the whole house as dark as possible so he and his sister could fully enjoy their glow sticks. As people God created us to be glow sticks. We are supposed to go into the places where our light is most effective in order for it to be seen. We do not so much have a problem with glowing as much as we have with being broken. That is a whole different and scary issue. Circumstances that we have experience often break us and take us to a place of pain. However, more than these being stains they are things that cause our light to shine. If you have experience poverty that is a brokenness that can be used as a light once you get to a place of financial peace. If you have experienced domestic abuse and the brokenness from that we are able to show a light once healing has taken place there.

When my kids were playing with these glow sticks this whole thing hit me that we break first and then are effective. What is in us that has been broken that God can use as His own personal glow stick?

This Is How WE Do It!

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 04-11-2009

Category : Community, Cultural Relevance, Daily Babble, Family Matters, Purpose Church, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized, example, how ya' livin', witness

Anybody remember the 90′s? Me and one of my buddies from back home reminisce on the 90′s quite often. We talk about the music that was out back then. You know, hip-hop, R&B, etc., etc. That decade spawned some classic music. One of the bangers that came out then and still plays well even today is called This Is How We Do It!This was a song penned and sung by Montell Jordan. He is a West Coast guy as am I (Los Angeles in the house…) The song talked about the way Los Angeles people did things and how we do them in Los Angeles. The song talks about the phenomena of driving a black SUV or a 64 Impala low rider. The songs displayed several things that are native to Los Angeles. I think as Christians we also need to have that same king of song. There needs to be a This Is How We Do It kind of mentality.

There are several Christ followers that are in the marketplace. All Christians do not work in the church. There are Christians in politics, advertising, sports, network media, corporate America and the like. They are everywhere. When Christians are in this arena there is a lot of observation going on where we are concerned. Let me rephrase that. There are a lot of people watching what Christians do. Surprisingly this line often gets blurred. It gets blurred because what other people do they see Christians do the exactsame thing when it hits us. That messes up our witness to people who do not follow Christ. Answer the question; Why would a non-believer want to follow the Christ we talk about when they see us trippin’ the same way they do when life hits. We need to be the guy who does not give the fleeting glance and make the comment about the beautiful woman passing by. We need to be ones who do not laugh at the inappropriate joke when other people think it is funny. When frustration hits we do not need to be the ones cussing and going crazy like others may do. Why? People are watching what is being done by us who name the name of Jesus. The truth of the matter is people are way more moved by what they see than what they hear. The words of what we say are infused with power by what we have let people see. The song This Is How We Do It said regardless of how people in other cities do it, in Los Angeles we do it like this. I think that is awesome! How many times are we able to validly tell non-believers This Is How We Do It? I know it is not politically correct to say us and them, but there is an us and them in every arena. That is just how it is. There are executives and there are entry level. There are starters and there is the bench. Can you see what I am saying here? So, if there is an us and them that mean them are watching us to see if it being us even matters. Let’s have our conduct, lives, thoughts, decision and words line up with what Christ says and what the bible teaches. It is when we roll this way that we can say This Is How We Do It…..

There is NO Alternative

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 16-10-2009

Category : Community, Cultural Relevance, Daily Babble, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized, evangelism, witness

Do you remember Alternative Music back in the 90′s? Alternative music was what all the people who thought regular Rock N’ Roll had gotten soft listened to. Millions of people became converts to what was an equal or better alternative (option) to get what they wanted. Musical enjoyment! To accomplish this several music adherents flocked to Alice in Chains, Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Did you like any of those bands? You know you did. Everyone and I mean everyone loved Smells like Teen Spirit!Alternative was the other side of mainstream rock that quenched the thirst of music lovers. Gone were the leopard print right pants, long hair and glam of rock and now it went to grungy hair, t-shirts, tattoos and tattered cargo pants. Notice the fact that both types of music got you to the same place. So, in many ways these were very viable options for the music lover of the 90′s

We have erred in applying that same notion to spirituality. We have put Christianity in the long line of other religions in the spirituality smorgasbord. We have said all of these different expression are equally viable. We have said that Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Hare-Krishna and all others are just as valid as those crazy people who follow that Jesus. So, we are believers have been relegated to the sidelines as an option. Our churches have become alternative, our music has been alternative and all that we do has been allowed to become alternative. The truth of the matter is that we are in no way alternative and ought not allow ourselves to be seen that way. The only way the church of Jesus Christ will cease to be alternative is if we begin to be authentic. We as a church and as representatives of Christ have left the authenticity and realness that characterized the biblical church. The relational theme that went throughout is missing now in large part. It is not entirely missing, but it is missing enough to where we have become just another alternative. Remember, the reason why Nirvana and other alternative groups made it so big and gained so many followers was because they believe main stream rock had gone soft and left its roots. People remembered when first fell in love with rock n’ roll and they compared it to what it had become and were sorely disappointed. This is what has happened to us in some instances as a church we are a shadow of our former selves. Before we were hated, but irresistible. We were feared, but irresistible. We were despised, but irresistible. That is no longer the case. This is not a harsh criticism of the church and Christianity. I love all of this. What it is, is an observation and call to authenticity. People need to know and the world needs to know that we are not an alternative. We are not just a nice option among others. This thing that we represent is the one and only. Everyone wants to make everything else equally valid, but it is not so. I will repeat what Jesus said about Himself… He said I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me. Christianity is not alternative and there is no other alternative.

He Loves The Dark!

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 11-08-2009

Category : Amazing things, Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Family Matters, Purpose Church, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized, evangelism, example, witness

flashlightBoth of my kids have different things they love and like to collect. Does your child have a favorite thing they like? My son loves flashlights. Let me say that again in case you did not hear it. He lovesflashlights. He likes to play with the big flashlights around the house, but more than that he loves when he has his own flashlights. He has gone through Spider-man and Transformers flashlights. Just recently I got him a Pirates of the Caribbean flashlight. He loved it! Whenever he gets a flash light he likes to play around with it for a while. He says daddy, “Let’s go to where it’s dark.” I know you are asking yourselves, huh? Whenever he gets a light he wants to go to the dark places. He has me go with him to the closet, the bathroom , bedroom etc. Wherever we go we turn the light out and make sure it’s dark.  Guess what? As soon as he walks into the dark place he switches on his light. If you are reading this and are tracking with me you already know where I am going. :-)

He loves to go into the dark places no matter how dark because he knows already that he is bringing light with him. He reminds me of we are supposed to be as believers. Many of us are afraid to go into dark places and use the excuse of holiness and sanctification to avoid them. If we are bringing light with us then we should be okay going to dark places because they will get lit up once we arrive. The assessment many times is that we may be missing some light and are afraid we won’t do much lighting up if we go to a dark place. Usually, my son does not want to be in a dark place, but all of that changes when he has his flashlight. The bible says that Jesus is the light of the world and we are a candle that should not be hidden. If there is all of this light emanating from us then what is the problem? We need to let the light in us begin to shine and take it to the dark place. There are dark places in ghettos, slums, corporate towers, mansions, alleys, cubicles at work, everywhere. There are several places longing to get some light in them and an introduction to the light gives. Let’s be like my son and no longer fear the dark places because we have our light with us.