[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6]

Time for another installment of YGBKM, or What the Crap?, or Seriously?

Not sure about this one - but it is hilarious. What I'm trying to figure out is why they thought a correlation between breakfast and God coming back made any sense? And I'm not sure who to feel bad for, that lady or him or you?

So I read this post by Eugene Cho yesterday, engaging the first speech given by the first African American Attorney General, Eric Holder. In his speech, Attorney General Holder said 3 things that really challenged me:

1st - Our country remains "voluntarily socially segregated."

2nd - “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,”

3rd - "On Saturdays and Sundays, America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed some 50 years ago. This is truly sad."

I hate that he is right. Had I still lived in CO and heard this, it would not have resonated with me. I would say that "there is still some segregation, but not to the extent Mr. Holder is accusing." I would probably even accuse him of playing the victim of the past and be frustrated by his pessimism of the present. But, I didn't think that or accuse him. It resonated with deep convictions in my soul.

I've lived in the Motor City metro area for 3 years now and have seen and heard things I thought to be archaic - things we all learned were ignorant and empty in our American History classes of our high school years. Areas where white people aren't wanted, areas where black people aren't welcome, subdivisions being 'infiltrated' by Indians who don't maintain the same standards of landscaping, the feeling that I should be afraid and suspicious of every black person I pass on my walk 3 blocks from my secure parking garage to my secure work building. I honestly hate the suspicion I feel when I gas up at the station across from my work, the one thought to be 'dangerous' - but then a white guy was car jacked at gun point by a black guy and all suspicions are validated - and then everyone was right. I have never seen an American city that looks so war torn, destroyed by the air raids of white flight and neighborhoods ghosted by ghetto indifference. I have never felt so far from living in America as I do in the Motor City, because it is not the America I want.

I want to believe in the dream and something that transcends all this racial history - a history I didn't help to write, but a future I long to be a part of. I never enslaved anyone, but I know my ancestors did. I've never hated someone for the color of their skin, but I know family members who do. Yet, perhaps I am a coward because I have not fashioned my life, or positioned my home or diversified my circle of friends to embody that which does resonate deeply within me. I work with mostly white corporate people, I live in a mostly white neighborhood and I have mostly white friends. Perhaps I am a coward. Too harsh? Maybe. I know I didn't move 60 miles outside of Detroit to get away from the African Americans that make up the majority of it's populations. We had family out there, found a great house (at a then great price - since lived to regret that) and it was far cheaper than where we were living. But, I could have moved to Detroit for those same reasons, not as close to family but far closer to work, far cheaper to live.

So now I feel like part of the problem - and I'm left challenged by Mr. Holder's speech and must work to be the change I want to see. I am not satisfied by the status quo in our culture and churches.

Related posts, "The King had a Dream," "The Down Side To Freedom of Speech [Part 1]," "A Church without a Box?"

I finally finished The Forgotten Ways yesterday, and not 'finally' because it was horrible, but 'finally' because it was so good I had to read it slow. I spent just over a month plowing my way through it, interacting with it and taking what ended up being pages of notes.

I blogged several posts about it over on the Tomorrow's Church site, but I was really challenged by the book. I actually got to meet Alan Hirsch over this past weekend and had the chance to talk with him a little bit about the book. He said that he feels he was 'born to write this book' and that the #1 thing he hears as feedback, is that readers already feel like they knew it, but just hadn't put it all together yet. That was true for me, most of what the book is about you seemingly already know - there is this profound simplicity about it. It's like God has been stirring this inside so many and He's using Alan as the mouthpiece to package it and to be a catalyst toward change.

What I love most about the book is that it is not about some new 'church model' to subscribe to in a hope to grow a church. What he builds toward in the book is far more open ended and is more of a 'recommissioning' of the Great Commission. I highly recommend this book if you are a lover of the church, a church leader or if you are stimulated by all that is theological - it'll frustrate, challenge and inspire you.

This is not a slam on Pentecostals - not in the slightest. In fact I did a lot of spiritual 'growing up' in a Pentecostal/Charismatic church - and I think we all have our experiences for a reason. So though this is not a slam, it is critique and an honest confession of why I haven't missed my charismatic past.

Depending on which side of the fence you are on the above video is either offensive or embodies the exact reason you think the charismatic types are crazy. For some it is too much, seems too contrived - but for others, it's what excites you about God, that He acts and moves beyond our comfort zone and understanding.

Here's the truth. I've had some crazy charismatic experiences. Some crazy because I know God showed me something through it. Others, crazy because I know that well intentioned and honest people can try to force a God experience on their own. What I love about Pentecostal people is that they are open to God and looking for Him - they are in pursuit of real experiences. They say, if God is a real God, then He can really show up and move in our lives. What I do not like about the Pentecostal environment is the tendency to abuse it in what I call hyper-emotionalism.

I have seen not just awkward, but flat out crazy things in the name of 'God moving.' I will not pretend to be able to speak for God on this one and I can not, nor do I want to, legitimize Benny Hinn and the like. Those people in that crowd are searching and seeking for something real - and that is between them and God. My point is simply that I have not missed the hyper spiritual sensitivity that I experienced. The constant 'I believe God is speaking to me' and 'I've got a word for you.' It got old - it got abused - it rarely spoke on behalf of God for me.

But what I won't do is shut out the mystery that is God - that He is way beyond me and what I'm 'comfortable' with in this life. I thank God for my experiences - both the good and the bad. I hope you can say the same. I hope you can see the good in the bad and the bad in the good of your life and your experiences with God.

Those are just my thoughts, what are yours?

I know I talk about the Flobots a lot, but I love them (see what I mean here, here and here). But I don't just love their music, I wholeheartedly respect who they are trying to be as a band. If you've never checked out their non-profit you should over at the Flobots.org.

Anyway, they have a few phrases and ideas in their album that I think the church and followers of the Way can learn from.

Fight With Tools: That's not just the title of their album, but the message they are spreading. They encourage people to not just complain about what they see wrong in the world around them, but to fight with the tools they have within themselves.

I love that message. If change is what we want to see, then we also have to be willing to work towards it - to actually do something. I can't even count the amount of times I've listened to people criticize and judge people and churches for the way they are doing something - but at least they are doing something. Right?

Passivist Guerrillas: This is along the same lines, but I love the image that comes to mind. And is explains the American flag bandanna's they wear around their faces, like American terrorist (which is also one of their criticisms of who we have become in the world). Echoing MLK, they urge people to take part in passivist guerrilla warfare and fight all that is wrong in our world. The resonates with me.

Homemade Heroes: This is a phrase in one of their songs that always sticks out to me. What the world doesn't need is more PR Heroes, who do good as long as it aides their celebrity status or their sponsors. The world needs more homemade heroes, average Joes who are working for something better because it is the right thing to do.

For too long we have become people who attend chruch and lay claim to the good the church is doing, while doing very little ourselves. That is neither the message nor the Way - we are all called to action and to serve the 'least of these' in our world and context. Who are you currently walking besides on their journey towards Jesus and salvation? How much are you doing or not doing?

Thoughts?

Following all the discussion about the last two days posts, it reminded me of the huge statue I saw of Jesus this summer. This sweet piece of art and monumental tribute to our Lord and Savior is brought to you by Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio. This was designed and built by the same guy who sculpted the huge Neptune at Ceasar's Palace in Vegas (top notch). It is some 65 ft in the air and right off the highway as you head in or out of Cincinnati.

I get that they mean well and had only genuine intentions in constructing this, but...

...isn't this a lot of money that could have been spent doing something a little more productive? Is it me, or does this seem ridiculous to those outside our faith? How many people have come to know the Way of Jesus because of this freaking huge sculpture of him? I'm all for art and expression and creating things that make the world say, 'Wow!' but I don't think this is it.

Thoughts...

I could only handle 30 seconds of this - again I submit, this is not a way to bridge the gap between church and culture. It's a lot like Napoleon Dynamite meets Joel Olsteen live on stage in Branson, Missouri.

I'm all for bridging the gap between church and culture - I submit this is not the way.

After hearing about the 'Letter from 2012 in Obama's America' from my #1 commenter Ryan Billings, I'm joining Jim Wallis and other bloggers of faith asking Dr Dobson to apologize for the ridiculousness of this letter.

Even though Ryan and I don't see eye to eye on issues of faith and politics, we have been friends since Jr. High and he has a way of keeping me grounded (and as a side note, he has yet to actually post something of his own, his blog is mad boring).

Anyway, let me be clear that I'm not a hater on Dr Dobson or Focus On The Family. I grew up in Colorado Springs and have many friends who worked there and have heard him speak numerous times.

However, this is the exact reason I hate Christians excersizing their voice in our Democracy. We have an unfortunate tendency to be just as polarizing and demonizing as those who don't share our faith. And the unfortunate part of doing it in the name of religion is that we further the divide between ourselves and the 'others' who don't agree with us. This letter comes across ignorant and offensive, and I'm a Christ follower. This letter paints us exactly how so many 'others' see us, as irrational, un-intelligent and blind fools following a religion.

That is not me, that is not my faith and this letter is wrong. So on behalf of Christians who seek a higher ground in America and political involvement, I'm sorry - we're not all this way.

This is a great follow-on to the 'Judged' video I posted earlier this week and is (at least for me) a captivating thought.

So right, we're wrong is the title of a chapter in 'Out of the Question, Into the Mystery' by Leonard Sweet and the thought has never left me. I read it about 3 years ago and it has changed the way I think about the world and my faith. If you've never read it, it is awesome. In a nutshell, Leonard challenges us to stop trying to have all the 'answers' about God and start enjoying the mystery of who He is - I mean think about, if we had all the answers then He wouldn't be God - mystery is a part of faith.

Anyway in the chapter Leonard shares a story about how his neighbor's basketball hoop fell over and hit his car and scratched the door. Naturally, Leonard held the neighbor responsible and asked him to pay for the cost to fix it. The neighbor refused - Leonard [naturally] was frustrated and felt justified.

Then it hit him, what is more important here; the relationship or being right? What's more important getting the scratch fixed, getting legal involvement if necessary and destroying the relationship with a guy who knows he is a Christian, or forgiving and being willing to be wronged for the sake of what is Right?

I think we do this a lot. We forget what is most important, forgetting others and the greater purpose of our lives and seek justification for ourselves and our needs. I think we Christians have spent a lot of time defending how right we are on matters both small and large, that we've become wrong. Our faith calls us to do what does not come naturally, it is unnatural to love like Jesus, forgive like Jesus and be the peacemakers in a world of full of tension.

I'm not saying we are wrong on our stance for protecting life, but we have become so right, so elitist, so righteous that we wrong the name of Jesus, we wrong the greater cause. We have been too willing to sacrifice the life of the one aborting to try and protect the aborted life. They both need our love. We have been too willing to divide, fight and justify on the grounds of 'rightness' - that we've become the wrong voice in our culture.

I was hanging out with the students of our student community or Stuco (check 'em out here) at 242 this past weekend and met two interesting young men.

Both of these gentlemen are seniors in high school and were helping set up our portable church, as mandated by court order. From time to time people do community service through our church and it is always a cool opportunity to connect them with the 2-4-2. Anyway - who knows what they did that landed them there, but after introducing myself to Kevin and Chad, I inquired about their future and the conversation went like this:

Me: Kevin, what are you going to do when you graduate?
Kevin: Whatever God wants.
Me: What's that mean?
Kevin: [blank stare]
Chad: I'm going to college and then going to open my own landscaping business.
Me: Cool.
Chad: Yeah, my uncle gave me ten hundred thousand dollars to start a business.
Me: [smirking] Really, that's cool.

It was funny, kinda cute and also sad all at the same time. Kevin thought a 'Sunday School' answer would make me happy. I wasn't asking an empty question and an empty answer never suffices - I really wanted to know. And what made Chad feel like he has to lie to me? A million dollars Chad, I mean ten hundred thousand dollars Chad? Why couldn't you just say you wanted to get into landscaping? Or why didn't they both just say an honest, 'I don't know.'

It was one of those 'that's cute kid' moments - but it got me thinking.

What is it about church, people and religion that creates pressure for people to not be themselves, stretch the truth and pretend to be someone they're not? Why do we, I, you feel this pressure to say things we don't mean and ever so slightly stretch the truth in regards to our dreams, our families, our jobs, our blogs, our twitter following, our Facebook friends or anything else? I wonder how many times God listens in our conversations and vain thoughts and [smirking] thinks, 'that's cute kid' ?

Judged from David Tate on Vimeo.

I was thinking about the bailout this week, as I assume you were too, and then I began to think about my life, my faith and my hope. Where do I put my faith? Where or in who do I hope for a better tomorrow?

And as I was trying to wrap my mind around 700 billion dollars (...thinking of Dr. Evil) and the inevitable pork-barrel funds that are tucked away in that big number, I got so frustrated by the situation. To think that people got rich off the circumstances that brought need for a bailout and then to think that others will get rich off of the bailout itself - it is so aggravating.

But then it raised a question in my own life - if you could quantify your lifetime, the years you lived, the energy you spent, the people you loved and those you didn't - how pork-barrel would your faith had seem? Did it make a difference? Was it squandered?

Does my faith have an impact in my day-to-day life?

Did me having faith make me different than those without?

And then I started thinking about how even among our 'believing' selves, how pork-barrel our faith is. We denominationally and doctrinally divide ourselves over what? Pork-barrel faith? How much of what you believe is really worth fighting or even dieing for? I believe there are some, but the list is really short.

So yeah, I went from bailout to unity in Christiandom - but thought I'd share. What do you think?

I caught wind of this documentary and it plays into a lot of the discussion I've been having lately about the Christian voice in democracy and the need for change - I'm excited to see it.

You can get more info here.

Thoughts...

I mean really. Do I have to say any more.

I was recently going through my 'childhood box,' not sure if you have one of those, but it is full of hospital bracelets and other memorabilia from your younger days. Well mine was full of wrestling medals and pictures, elementary school assignments and I found a picture of the 'Power Team' (mullets and all) who I saw when I was a kid. First I couldn't stop laughing, then I laughed some more - and then I thought I have to post this.

Seriously, what could better show the strength of God's love than a man ripping phone books, bending metal and breaking bricks? Seriously?

So I received a pre-release copy of Mark Batterson's new book, Wild Goose Chase and here's my review.

It was epic!

Where I've been in the past 3 years of my life and the dreaming I’ve been doing about tomorrow's church (click here) - it was the voice of a mentor calling me to do more and be more.

I don't want to ruin much of the book and Mark has several excerpts of the book on his blog at evolution.com and you can go to the book's site (here) for Mark’s 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals. It is good stuff and I recommend getting a copy.

I also received a 2nd copy to give away on my blog - but after some thinking I decided that everyone who reads my blog can probably afford the 10 or 11 bucks for the book, except my still-raising-funds-home-missionary buddy - Mike McGarvey. So, I'm sending the book to him and encouraging you to read and responded to this!

I love this project that Mike Foster is under taking. Mike is the man who brought porn awareness to light in the church with xxxchurch.com. He has a knack for raising awareness of things the Church needs to address and respond to.

People of a Second Chance (learn more here) is awesome - advocating radical grace and forgiveness.

In light of John Edwards and other leaders moral failures in our world - we need radical grace and forgiveness.
When thinking about great church leaders like Ted Haggard - we need radical grace and forgiveness.
In light of the failures in my life - I need radical grace and forgiveness.

If we all think about it, we are probably the byproduct of Second Chances, our marriages, our lives, our very relationship with God - all Second Chances.

I’d love to hear stories of your Second Chances – you can read about mine here.

Tomorrow's Church is almost fully operational.

It is a new blog I have started with the several other contributors to discuss the Church of tomorrow. I can't wait for the thought sharing and discussions to really take off, but I wanted to make sure all who give 'a crap about my thoughts, come join us at Tomorrow's Church.

The contributors are:

- A dude and his wife in Pennsylvania who work for a church, but just quit to pursue something else.
- A dude who got fired from his church job, now works professionally and lives in Michigan.
- A girl who recently graduated college, feels called to plant a church and is trying to figure it out - she's lives in Portland, Oregon.
- A gentlemen who sells tires and might move to Georgia but lives in Kansas City.
- Another dude whose a youth pastor and trying to change the churches ways in Atlanta.
- A married couple who are fulltime missionaries and part-time baristas and want to open a coffee house church – they live in Columbus, Georgia.

Check it out - Tomorrow's Church

Alright - so I polished off 'Pagan Christianity?' today and let me just say it wasn't as epic as I had hoped. The opening had me, but as I got further into the book it became too repetitious for me.

In the end I disagree with his basic premise in the book, which is that if it is not biblical we shouldn't be doing it. By biblically Frank Viola means that the early church did it. But that is like saying it is not biblical to go to the doctor's office, since it is not specifically referenced in the bible. While it was never referenced in the bible, the bible isn't a book of all the to-do's and not to-do's of life. It is the story of God's people and His pursuit to redeem them.

It did challenge my thoughts on church and add to the discussion. Wasn't a waste, just wasn't epic.