These last two weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions as I’ve announced that I’m leaving Park. Thanks to everyone who has emailed, commented, sent a DM [direct message on Twitter for those who haven't seen the light] or texted. It’s been overwhelming to see the amount of love, support, encouragement, and affirmation I’ve received as I’ve taken this step of faith into the unknown.
A really good friend took me out for an amazing lunch at NoMI on Friday to celebrate this new chapter and to celebrate [in advance] whatever God has in store. And on Friday evening I was able to grab dinner with Ben Arment, Sarah Cunningham, and Nathan & Becky Ykema. While there was talk and planning for STORY 2011, it was just great to connect, catch up, and share life. Having people in your life, especially in seasons of change and transition, is absolutely vital and I’m so thankful for the people God has put in my life.
I’m excited to report that in the next couple of weeks I’ll be able to share exactly where I’m headed next. The best part… I’m staying in Chicago!
Some of you have asked, so I’ll answer… for the first time in my adult life I will be looking for a church home when I leave Park staff. I’ve been working in churches since I was 18 and have always gone to the church I worked for by default. In this next season as I won’t be working for a church, I will be looking for a church community to call home. Park is one of many incredible churches in the city and I look forward to wherever God will plant me! “Blessed are those who are planted in the house of the Lord for they shall flourish!”
In other news… Oprah’s Favorite Things episode [part 1] was incredible. My favorite part of the entire episode isn’t all of the gifts she gives away but the audience’s reactions. These people are going absolutely bonkers. Thanks to my friend Josh for finding this mashup… classic.
Confession: I had a beer at 11 AM on Sunday morning. But it wasn’t at a bar, it was at a movie theater. One of my friends and I went to see an afternoon matinee at the Gold Class Cinemas. Oh my word. I felt like I was walking into the lobby of an upscale hotel. Our seats were reserved in advance online. We were escorted by the staff to our oversized reclining chairs by the staff and offered pillows and blankets… they had a full menu and bar and we had a buzzer to get refills whenever you wanted them during the movie. I’m officially ruined.
Sooooo excited to see Brooke Fraser in Chicago on Wednesday night.
On Thursday, which is also Thanksgiving, I’ll be turning 28. I’m becoming an old man.
I think it’s interesting how Thanksgiving is becoming less and less of a family event [at least in urban centers] and more and more of a holiday being spent with friends. I will be headed home for Thanksgiving but turning right around to make it back for a Thanksgiving leftovers party with some friends here in the city. When you’re living in the city your friends really do become your family.
Speaking of, this weekend I was reminded of the fact that we were all created for relationships and community. We were created from relationship for relationship… life is hard but we don’t have to do it alone.
Fall has officially hit Chicago. LOVE the cooler days and leaves turning colors. Only downside is that it means winter is on its way soon!
I spent the weekend with both of my moms. No, it’s not like that. I’m adopted but know my biological family and this weekend both of my moms came to visit. It was an amazing time and one I’m so thankful for.
Tomorrow I’ll be doing a webinar with M2LIVE at 11:30 AM EST on texting! Be sure to come and join the conversation if you’re curious about how we use texting at Park and how you can figure out if it’s a good fit for your church. Learn more here.
I completed my home office space this week… LOVE having a place to work, read and reflect that’s my own.
I’m officially over STORY hangover. It was such a phenomenal event. If you missed it, be sure and check out my STORY Appendix that includes links to all of speakers, sessions and everything else STORY related.
Personal highlight for me at STORY was being able to interview Jason Fried from 37signals. I’ve had the chance to get to know him over the past couple of years and think so much of what he has to say can apply to our context in the church. It was a blast to get to welcome him to STORY and have the chance to interview him on some of the ideas that he has that apply to our world as church creatives. One of the statements he said that impacted me the most was: “It’s always more about the message you are communicating and less about the technology that’s wrapped around it.” Brilliant.
I’m headed to Catalyst on Wednesday this week. If your’e going to be there, definitely try to make it to the Bloggers Meetup. Brad Ruggles does an amazing job putting on this event and it’s a great way to meet some of your favorite online personalities offline!
I’ll be an official blogger for Catalyst this year, so stay tuned for notes and updates from what’s happening in ATL.
I’ll turn around from ATL and head to San Francisco next week. My sister is getting married and it’s going to be like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” Assyrian style. Can’t wait to celebrate with her and the rest of my family.
I haven’t seen the The Social Network yet. I feel so behind.
I’m a little floored/stunned/humbled that Ken Shaffer added the +41 to his Top 100 Church Blogs list. That made room for yours truly at #140! Pretty crazy and scary all at the same time. Thanks to all of you who read and follow.
Last week we had our first planning session for Cultivate11. More details are coming soon!
All time is redeemed, by the singular person who remembers and resurrects. I remember. I keep the winter count.
Every one of us is a keeper of the winter count.
American Indians kept track of their history in an odd way; they kept track of the year from winter to winter. From the first snowfall to the next snowfall.
They called their years winters.
Elders of the tribe would review the past year and come up with the most significant events that would define the year for them and distilled those events to singular image that they would release to the keeper of the winter count.
The job of the keeper was to present the narrative of their life together in an image of a buffalo hide.
He would create a spiral of images that would encapsulate their year… this was their annual report.
We do our annual report with an accounting mentality; they portrayed theirs with a story.
The storyteller would preserve the memory by remembering.
The function of the storyteller was to remember and resurrect the life of that community and to conserve the memories of the past in story form.
We have been chosen and called by God to be storytellers in a very different world than the one most of our churches are used to.
Len was born in a Gutenberg world; many of us were born in a Google world.
TGIF = Twitter, Google, iPhone, Facebook.
Most of our churches are stuck in a Gutenberg culture.
Born after 1973 you are a native; before you are an immigrant.
Immigrants ry to preserve the old country.
Most church fights are about preserving tradition.
The first job of a missionary is to learn the language of the culture.
The language of a TGIF world is a very different language than Gutenberg.
We communicate the Gospel in word and verse; we need to communicate it in image and story.
There’s a war going on in the world and it will be won by whoever tells the best story, whoever out narrates the opposition.
The future belongs to the storytellers, the artists.
“In the medieval world the church saved the arts; in the future the artist will save the Church.”
The future belongs to the artists.
We have a huge mission.
We are short-order chefs, kitchen cooks.
We cook stories up that people who are starving need to hear.
We are enabling the soul to grow.
Jesus was the greatest storyteller of all time… that’s how we communicated.
Jesus’ message wasn’t pointed.. it was a narrative.
Warning: they kill the storytellers first.
Jesus’ was killed because His stories created a threat that would have undermined the establishment.
Jesus was an artist.
Jesus used a lot of paradox, crowd-sourcing, etc.
He used a lot of sugar and salt.
When no one is looking sneak into your cooking the story teller’s secret ingredient.
Heighten the sense of what’s coming next.
Leave people wanting to come back for more.
Sugar and salt keep people wanting to turn the page.
Use the right utensils.
Regardless of how you’re cooking, you need the right utensils.
Biblical storytellers need to pay attention… in a Google world we need to carve out images and story.
The only place that doesn’t understand the cultural currency of image, not words, is the Church.
Every church has a mission statement… but is it an image?
We all have versitas… we think the Bible is about Bible verses, what about Bible stories?
Carve out stories, don’t cut them up.
Cayenne Pepper
Jesus always spied up His story with passion… He made them exciting.
We tell too many stories without passion.
A world without passion is a world without beauty, truth or goodness.
You tell stories by becoming what you tell.
Get so involved in the story that you become the central character in the story.
When you tell the story of Jesus, tell it until you become a “little Christ,” a Christian.
What kind of stories are we going to tell?
We all have stories to tell… which one do you love to tell?
What is your favorite story?
Our favorite story should be, “I love to tell the Story of Jesus and His love…”
When this is no longer the favorite story of the Church, we are in trouble.
It’s about time we started lifting up the Jesus story, telling the greatest story ever told.
We need to go beyond telling the story on Sunday and start singing it.
The greatest sermons ever told are the ones preached on Sunday and sung on Wednesday.
What gets settled down deep is not what you say but what you sing.
A keeper of the winter count learns the story of our community to the point where we can take the stories, turn them into songs and sing them in a way that people can write their own songs and verses.
Closing
That was the cry of a TGIF generation.
When I get older then I’ll be stronger, they’ll call me freedom… just like a waving flag.
It’s a cry of hope.
This a culture looking for waving flags.
We are flying a lot of flags… leadership, justice, causes… of the Kingdom?
We don’t know what a Kingdom is because a kingdom has to have a king. We don’t understand that in America.
You know where the king is because they fly the flag of the king where he is present.
We need to start flying the right flag.
Jesus is the King.
Our storytellers need to start flying the flag of Jesus and His Kingdom.
We’ve been waving “Six Flags” over Jesus… we need to wave the flag of Jesus for a world desperate and searching for Him.
The central image of the Christian faith is death and rebirth.
When you haven’t yet had your heart really broken the Gospel isn’t about death and rebirth; it’s about hope and possibility.
When you experience death and loss, you begin to understand the central metaphor.
When your life is easy the crucial parts of the Gospel aren’t necessary.
Rebirth and new life are very important when death is staring at you in the face.
Death is real but rebirth is real, too.
Telling our stories is crucial.
We tell what we know and what we’ve learned the hard way.
Your story can be a bridge to helping someone else in their own journey.
People need more than ideas or principles, they need pieces of wisdom earned the hard way.
My life is not a story about me and your life is not a story about you.
Chesterton: All of life is a story and if there is a story, there is a storyteller. The storyteller is the God of creation.
The story is the story you’re living right now, today.
We believe two myths about our story: that they are about us and because they are about us they don’t matter.
When we tell our story we tell them about the story of God in us.
Pastors aren’t the only ones that tell the story about God.
You story gives life, breath, arms, and legs, to the Gospel just as much as preaching.
Preaching cannot be the only way we allow our story to be told in our midst.
I’m less interested by the ruminations of the scholars and more compelled by the stories of everyday people.
People aren’t compelled by abstractions; they are compelled by real life.
The biggest and best story isn’t told by the same voice the same ways, it’s told by whispers, paintings, blogs and around dinner tables around the world.
Rip up the form, rip up the script.
Speak the extraordinary story of God in your own way.
The big story is being told by our little stories.
We turn our sacred stories into cliches and quips.
Resist the temptation to hide behind theology.
Stop acting as if pastors are the only ones who have the right or responsibility to tell God’s Story.
It’s all of our responsibilities to tell God’s Story.
Consider your own silence may be part of the problem.
If you have been longing to hear a new language for faith, start speaking it.
Pastors, preachers and leaders cannot tell your story.
Only you can tell your story.
Don’t allow the story of God to become flat and lifeless.
It’s been dulled by a predictable format… reduced to 3 points and Hebrew word or two.
If we only allow the Gospel to be proclaimed on Sundays the life-changing story will lose its power to change lives.
Christ entrusted the Gospel to people who were not religious professionals.
They didn’t know the right words, they had been transformed.
If you’ve been transformed, it’s your responsibility to share your story.
