George Carlin once said:

Honestly... I think that's how most people look at Christians. At least those of us who say, "Jesus is the way the truth and the life"... and have our life choices reflect it. And Christians are often kept at an arm's length because of it. We're seen to have just enough of the "touch o' crazy" in us to not be completely trusted with the keys to the city. Kinda makes the whole "be in the world but not of it" a bit easier since we're never really welcomed anyway. But that's OK... I seem to remember a similar thing happening to Jesus (and it turned out OK for him).

But we ARE called to be people of influence. In the 70's both Loren Cunningham and Bill Bright talked at great length about what have become known as the "7 mountains of influence". The areas that they believed that the church needs to be influential in.

And I'm quite sure they didn't have in mind just creating insular counter culture, bizarro world Christian alternatives... they meant being integral parts of, and influential members of these "mountains" in the world we all live in.

So how are we doing? I think most of the world is OK with the letting the church be influential in the church. But anytime Christians venture into the other realms... it's Katie bar the door.



Influence comes from relationship. It does. Many get up in arms with the "it's not what you know but who you know" thing. Maybe we should just get to know more people! Salt and light man. All it is... is someone in a relationship with another person. It's someone who has EARNED another's trust. As a Christian... I think there are 2 tools that we have that are fool proof when it comes to communicating God's love to our society.


Doing something kind for someone? Who can refute that? Helping a family with yard work? Baking a pie for a neighbor? Folks don't say no to pie. And all of a sudden... you've made a friend. You've introduced yourself as a genuine caring person and established a basis for trust.

The principle is the same for the other larger scale mountains. Serving builds trust which leads to influence.

Prayer is another thing that people rarely say no to. They may not come to Holy Ghost Hoe-down night... but ask someone if you can pray for them about their felt needs? Almost everyone will accept whether they believe in who you're praying to or not!

Here's where it gets fun. You remember the "it's not what you know, it's who you know" thing? Prayer is the ULTIMATE "it's not what you know but WHO you know". Because when you pray... things happen. God IS God! When you'd layed down your life and surrendered it to God... you've become his friend. You've got RELATIONSHIP with him and because of it... you've got his ear. You know Him and you've got access to his riches to share with others.

I have no desire to be looked at like a nut job. It's not something WANT. But Paul DELIGHTED when he was persecuted for his faith... and he lived a life of influence that was laced with love for the truth and those who are called to share it.

OK, I've mentioned him before... but you've gotta read Pete Wilson's blog. He's the pastor of a church in Nashville called Cross Point...

You should check out the whole post here... it includes video footage of the meeting.

How wild is that?

I love it when God drops us in places of influence. Like SURPRISING places of influence where we just have to acknowledge that there is no good reason why we should be in this place… except that God SO wants to have HIS name known...

I can't remember the last time I watched an entire round of golf. But I can assure you that Tiger won whatever Major it was. Know how I know?

1) Because he wins lots of them
2) Pro Golf only keeps my interest when Tiger is playing

But I watched the US Open yesterday. All of it. Minus the snarfing of a pizza and wings F's Day dinner and a quick scoot to the ice cream shop with the fam.

Golf at it's finest is riveting story with heart wrenching ebbs and flows. When it's good, it can keep me from slipping into my usual cycle of...

"Man it's so beautiful there. I wish I was there. I wish I was playing golf today. I never get to play golf anymore... and I'm annoyed now."

But yesterday was good. In our age, Tiger IS the story of golf. What Tiger does IS the storyline. He's the axis of the plot. Everyone is subplot. Bit players in Tiger's opus.

Some find this fact distasteful. They'll reminisce about the days where there was competition and legitimate rivalries. Oh yeah... that's right... the days nobody watched or remembers. People remember Palmer, because he annihilated people. They remember Nicklaus (I do), because he destroyed the pack. People KNOW Tiger... because he is something larger than life again and again.

Business Week alongside ESPN recently compiled a comprehensive list of the most powerful people in "Sport". Not best athlete... but most "powerful". Tiger was #2 behind NFL Commish Roger Goodell. But he was the only actual athlete in the top 10. In fact there were only 4 athletes in the top 18. One is retired (Michael Jordan)... one's not that good anymore (David Beckham), and one isn't even the best at his position (Peyton Manning).

I cheer for Tiger. I'll be watching him beat Rocco Mediate today online at TSN.ca (while working of course). He does everything he does excellent. I get giddy seeing the Tiger "I just made a ridiculous putt" hand pumping...

Check THIS out...

A massive storm-bomb dropped on Brantford last night. And with it, dropped a 200 year old Oak Tree... right into our back yard. It's an unreal sight. This tree is filling 2 backyards and it's root system was pushed backwards, uprooting the fence of another neighbor.

Yet no houses were damaged. It fell in the only, exact, perfect place a 200 year old tree could fall in our neighborhood and not squash a house. It was pin point. This is what we see out of our kitchen window.

Yesterday at church, I preached about influencing families. You can download the Podcast and follow with the slide show at Freedom House's Blog. I talked about how easy it is to use your family and your family situations to make a connection to other families. Sounded logical.

Then a tree crashed into our house.

We were actually driving through town when it happened. When we arrived home, the entire neighborhood was standing outside of our house gawking at our yard. Krissy jumped out of the van and started shouting... "that's awesome!" Ha ha ha... have I mentioned how amazing my wife is?

We met easily 8-10 people we'd never met before who live around us... connected further with a family we've befriended from the kid's elementary school AND I discovered a guy who I went to elementary school with for 9 years... lives 3 doors down from me.

We layed in bed last night discussing what had happened. If it was a God thing or just a nature fluke. This tree was going to come down one day. It was inevitable. Where it fell... HAD to be a God thing. We weren't at home and the kids didn't get freaked by it... maybe a God thing? Meeting the neighbors on the day I preached about meeting neighbors... coincidence? God? Fate? Human nature?

Man I don't know. What I do know is that what I spoke about IS true. It's easy to meet people when you open your doors. Open your yard. Go outside more and start talking. My neighborhood is a bit of an oddity these days in the manner that people DO know each other. They knew each other's names and stories. I discovered that I didn't.

The 200 year old Oak Tree filling my backyard hopefully has opened a door to building relationship with the families in my neighborhood. And whether or not it was God who knocked down my tree, good things will come out of it. It's true with any situation you know. We get altogether too freaked out about our stuff. Trees, and yards, and insurance companies.

Moth and rust.

Everything we are, have and do... belongs to God. We're clay. He loves shaking things up. Knockin' down a few trees here and there to open new doors... showing us again what's real life... and what's not.

My Pastor is away in Lakeland at the revival meetings this week (picking up some spiritual souvenirs) so I'm speaking this morning at Freedom House.

We've been talking about the "Mountains of Influence" that are vital areas that the church needs to impact

Arts and Entertainment

Business

Education

Family

Government

Media

Religion

I'm talking about the family this morning. I learned a valuable lesson about "the family" after spending a week with a Ghanaian elementary school teacher and these kids...


I'll tell you more this morning at Freedom House. 10:30.

Unless of course God goes all Acts 2 on us... then ummm... then we'll likely do something different. Either way... why would you miss it?

The Church Factory in it's status quo state simply does not churn out the kind of Christians that can truly influence this earth in their Christ-called role. Salty Christians.

I want share a bit of a recent interview between Tony Campolo and Kara Powell who is the director of Youth Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary. It's context is the unbalanced nationalistic leanings of the American Church... but listen to what a Christian Big Thinker who desperately wants to see the Church function in an influential social capacity has to say about what we do:

Campolo: I find most youth workers haven't a clue as to what macro economics is all about and how macro economic factors influence the poverty, and create the poverty in third world countries. They don't understand why third world peoples are angry with America...They hate a powerful country that is able to control international trade in such a way as to increase poverty in third world while it aggrandizes itself. Those insights into how things operate on the macro level and how macro factors in politics and in economics in third world countries and in our own country foster poverty are totally beyond the comprehension of most youth workers and that's a very sad thing indeed...

That means that in reality what is generated is pity, instead of anger. They should be angry at what is being done to these people by forces that are beyond their control...

I think [youth workers] need to know that young people don't know what's going on in the world...They [teenagers] have become so overly nationalistic under the auspices of the religious right that they cannot see anything wrong with America...The reality is that of the twenty two industrialized nations the United States is dead last in the proportion of it's national budget it assigns to helping the poor and the third world...

Kara Powell: What would you say to the youth worker, who isn't just dealing with kids who are nationalistic but parents who are [nationalistic][Campolo interrupts]...

Campolo: Point blank, I am not impressed with youth workers. I find that they don't know what's going on in the world. That youth work becomes a matter of fun and games. When I go the National Youth Workers Convention I get more depressed every year. Because what I find is what the youth workers are really interested in is techniques. They don't want to deal with issues. They don't want to deal with the hard nosed facts of what is going on in the world.

And when anything is said that causes questions to be raised about the role of the United States in fostering third world poverty, literally, this is literal, they get up and walk out. And when youth workers are that way I don't see much hope for kids. As a matter of fact I think that MTV may do more to help kids be sensitive to the needs of what is going on in the world than youth workers. If you are asking me, who is turning more people onto poverty, it's Bono of U2, rather than youth workers. Youth workers are pressured into maximizing big turn outs at the youth gatherings at their churches. That doesn't usually come by making them sensitive to the needs of the poor and the oppressed.


Campolo: I am very fascinated by is how much mystical experiences with Christ transform young people into ardent social activists and into evangelists. We have to recognize that we need More than just a social conscience youth worker who has a program. We need for young people to be invaded by the Holy Spirit and inwardly motivated. I really do believe that the Holy Spirit is a transforming force in peoples lives, and that when the Spirit of Christ is alive in people, they become very aware of injustices. They become very sensitive to the needs of the poor and oppressed.

And I don't want the church to simply become another social activist group. I want it to be filled with people who are imbued with the Holy Spirit that has sensitized them to the injustices in the system and to the sufferings of the poor. Increasingly we are finding that as we nurture intimate spirituality, that one of the consequences is not this 'me and Jesus' thing where Jesus becomes my boyfriend. But a process where by Christ becomes a motivating force within people that drives them into ministry to needy people."

End

On Sunday at Freedom House, we talked about Revival vs Social Influence. Embarrassingly often, churches draw a line in the sand and choose which side they will work towards. We're kinda afraid that the "skin" of either side is so repulsive to the other that both are not achievable.

We're either knockin 'em down with Todd Bentley or we're hugging the homeless with Shane Claiborne. Why choose? I want it ALL. That's my dream! But what Tony Campolo is saying is such truth that I'm stunned churches haven't had the marbles to really live it out.

Live life in the FULL ON presence of God... and let the goodness of God living in us birth not only dreams... but the strategy to be people of influence in our age. Go be the "salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth."

Oh yeah... and BTW... this goes for youth too. As our kids Pastor Nicki says;

If you've been in the church for enough years, you've likely heard Pastors say the same things over, and over, and over, and over. Like...

Many times, Pastors with try to get you "involved in your community". I don't know about you, but the first thing that pops into my head is the coming suggestion of, "let's do a car wash", or "we'll pick up trash and sing hymns to the elderly!". But this is not the only way to serve your community. Check this story out in Luke 5: 27-32

What I like about this story is that Jesus is "influencing the influencer". He may not have been a WELL LIKED member of the community, but people knew him. When Levi was impacted by the love of God... MANY others were too.

There is a theory of Economics called "Trickle Down Economics". The theory is that you take care of the companies, businesses and organizations at the top and they will (in theory) take care of those in need. This theory doesn't always work because we're dealing with selfish people in the Economic context.

When you're dealing with Jesus and the light of Salvation... it works different. When the leader changes, so do those who follow If the mayor got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit... what would happen? This is why you should pray for your community leaders. Serve those in authority. "Influence the Influencer's".

A youth devotion for "Portico" in Mississauga

Honestly, sometimes I wonder about time. Most of my life, I've wondered why it moves so slowly. But now, at 30 (which is awesome by the way) I'm busier than I've ever been. And it's not even close in the busy contest. Even when I was in college... getting married... playing baseball every waking hour... have I ever felt this busy.

Days can come and go and I'll think, "Did today even happen?", it can be such a blur. I really enjoy it more than ever too. There are people I know, who's life is extraordinarily boring. I sometimes wonder what it's like not to be involved in anything and at the end of the day have your life be about nothing but work.

It's one of the plethora of reason's why I love God. He gives you a reason to move... a fuel for joy... and a grand destination to arrive at. I love that He puts us in positions of INFLUENCE when we're willing to be put there.

I realized the last couple of mornings as my kids have decided to wake up pre-6am and come into bed with us and stick their feet in my face to wake me up... that like never before... time is not mine. God's walked me into a new season of releasing my own selfish desires to Him... for His Name and His Renown... (I love that scripture BTW... I'd get it tattooed on me... if tattoos didn't look stupid!) Ha

BTW... you can check out my new Podcast if you're interested linked on the right. You can follow along with the teaching on my other young adult ministry blog brantfordrevolution.blogspot.com