Diastolic - from my friend Ed Chinn

“So, how have you been?”

It’s a question I often ask friends and acquaintances when I’ve not talked to them for a while. And, increasingly, the inevitable answer is some variation of: “Real busy.” Last night, at a social gathering, I asked the question 3 times. Honest to God, I got that answer 3 times.

Here’s what is surprising: when I probe that answer, I rarely hear about tangible achievements – no stories about building a bridge, climbing a mountain, learning to play piano, fighting a disease, or repainting the barn. Rather, the busyness seems to consist of catching planes, working long hours, answering email, or running the kids through a marathon of activities.

Are we busy being busy? Has activity morphed into a confirmation of our human value? Does the economy drive us to say things like that so people will know our “market position” is secure/rising?

As Joanne and I drove to this event, listening to NPR, a doctor talked about his house or boat or cabin in the woods or something (I didn’t catch the beginning). He had named it “Diastole.” His explanation: “diastolic” is the heart beat’s resting state (“systolic” is the contraction state…the highest pressure point of the beat). The root word, Diastole (die – es – tall – eee), is a Greek noun meaning “drawing apart.”

Driving home last night, I wondered…are we afraid to say anything which would reveal “diastole” in our life? Can we only admit to life’s “systolic” moments?

Have we come down to… “I am exhausted; therefore, I am?”

I wonder if much of our “real busy” is perhaps rooted in fear. Are we are afraid of silence, our own thoughts, and intimacy?

Just wondering…

Please have a diastolic weekend.

Alice Cooper and the Kingdom of God?

What is a great trivia question that would probably stump anyone you would ask?

By David Schwartz

PHOENIX (Reuters Life!) - Shock-rocker Alice Cooper has a surprise for those who only see him as the man in haunting black makeup with a stage show featuring mock hangings, real snakes and plenty of fake blood.

The self-styled "Prince of Darkness" is throwing his energy into building a Christian teen center in Phoenix for at-risk youths from the area, hoping to break ground by November.

To read more link to: Alice Cooper's investment in the Kingdom of God

Translating the Kingdom of God

I want to thank Joseph Holbrook for these observations and Brian McLaren for forging new language to reach the iGeneration and the unchurched world.

Here is a link to the full article click here.

Here are a few quotes:

The first step in understanding a culture is learning the language. The language is more than just words: it conveys the richness of meanings and symbols, values and worldview.

For example, I have found the best way to translate what we used to say in evangelicalism as “getting saved” into something like, “learning how to love God with all of your heart,” or “developing an interactive friendship with Jesus.”

I had started using the unwieldy phrase “moment-by-moment surrender to God’s leading” as my current translation based on my own recent experiences. My friend Michael Cook sometimes uses the phrase, “the eternal purpose” (Eph. 3:11) to describe God’s master plan for the universe. Another possibility was suggested to me recently in a conversation with Bob Mumford: “The Agape government of God”. Even better might be the “Agape Conspiracy” or Bob’s own phrase, the “Agape Road”. Scot McKnight, in The Jesus Creed, suggests the “movement for good.”

Brian McLaren, in his recent book, The Secret Message of Jesus (2006), devotes an entire chapter to this issue of how to contextualize the concepts of the kingdom of God for the current generation. (click on the article to get a good overview of Brian's chapter.)

What Race Are we In?

I heard a clear word at our Return of the Tentmaker event - this is not your parent's church anymore, it's not even the church I'm comfortable with. Carl Raschke shared about the perfect storm - the collision of 4 Mega Trends:

1. Generation
2. Economics
3. Demographics
4. Organizational Structures

You can download Carl's presentation Church 2.0 (and the others) by Clicking Here.

Stephen Shields provides a great analysis on at his blog last month - Click Here.

Return of the Tentmaker - Final Call

We're only a day away.

This Friday registration starts at 9AM and we kick off with a "hold on to your seats" exercise from Jim Carroll.

I spoke to one of the executives today who is flying in from out of state. He has a great message titled "Solid Men." He'll build on the revelation that Jesus gave to Peter - "you are a rock" - and share the real life path of revelation, reality and redemption. Something we must all face if we're going to become God's servant.

If you haven't seen the show "My Name is Earl" here is a teaser for his presentation.

Check these links before you come Friday:
Event Details
What are the Topic?
What to bring
Promote your ministry or cause
Submit your questions
Chatter and Buzz

Return of the Tentmaker - Church 2.0 - Carl Raschke

The Return of the Tentmaker gathers this Friday from 10AM - 5PM. Click here for full details.

In addition to the phenomenal sessions (click here for a list), you'll have plenty of opportunity to network with others and find people you can help or who can help you put your vision into action. When you register you'll have an additional opportunity to post your vision or ministry on the website and offer and request help. This is a Web 2.0 creation.

We're also posting some of the interesting comments and feedback on the Chatter and Buzz page - Click Here.

Here is an interview with one of the speakers - Dr. Carl Raschke

Carl shared some of his desires and frustration looking for community within the current church paradigm. During breakfast last week, in Sherman Texas, I asked Carl to unpack his ideas that we called Church 2.0.

"I attend a small church in North Texas. We recently lost our senior pastor and we’re now finding out what holds us together. We are not a traditional church as I see it. Many of those churches focus on serving families with small kids. These churches understand that many parents still feel a need to expose their kids to a positive environment so if the church provides program kids like then the family will come too. But what about the rest of the people; singles, divorced, career people, retired etc. Some of the very large churches have enough resources to address the different demographics – but the trade-off of size and broad programs is often a lack of community.

I’m interested in finding the living church community, not a Sunday event driven church.

George Barna makes some interesting observations in his book “Revolution.” Many are stepping outside the traditional church to connect spiritually. People are looking for smaller contexts for connection. This probably explains why many of malls are dying – people are looking for more than a big box with a large variety of offerings.

Family is transferable but not easily scalable. Our institutions on the other hand have attempted to make it scalable but what they are doing doesn’t really transfer family. It transfers knowledge – a weak substitute.

This whole phenomenon of Web 2.0 intrigues me because people are rediscovering the power to self-organize as community. They’re now called social networks – but it’s a form of community and its growing within and without institutional structures.

We’re going to look more like the web; nodes that are hubs of interaction, connection and a new reciprocity in relationships.

I’m excited about The Return of the Tentmaker because it represents a social network of people looking to serve the Kingdom and connect with one-another in unplanned ways to discover where it might lead. It’s a living thing, not a program or an organization. This experiment will be interesting to watch."

Return of the Tentmaker - Interview with Stu Johnson

We started a church plant by renting space in a forgotten strip mall. We had our core members but also began attracting the disenfranchised. That made sense because of where we were located. In time about half of our congregation was made up of people living on the fringes.

They were looking for family but traditional churches didn’t offer that. They needed stability but that kind of care also falls outside traditional churches. Many had become disillusioned.

We saw God calling us to serve the disenfranchised; the poor, widows, prisoners and single moms.

We began serving them and considering those who came family. In the process it became clear that they needed discipleship, including basic life skills and financial stability.

What emerged was a vision for our church community. We saw that in many ways work functioned more like family to people than their churches. Working side-by-side with others for eight hours a day provides a wonderful context for family – if approached properly. The “aha” lead us to begin creating businesses that provided financial stability and a context for discipleship.

When we started I was still head of real estate and manufacturing for a large medical equipment company. I cashed in some of my investment portfolio to buy a more suitable church facility in order to begin our journey creating community and creating Kingdom oriented businesses. The business umbrella is called Jesus Fishook.

Jesus’ model was clear and simple; take outcasts and invest in them 24-7 for three years. We believe in this pattern and have taken several steps to move in that direction. My passion for woodworking led me often to my favorite shop. One day the owner asked if I’d be interested in buying it. I didn’t have to think twice. We took over Wood World in Richardson, Texas and expanded it from supplies to fabrication. Then we came across an opportunity to buy another business, window tinting. The owner needed to exit due to health reasons and things worked out for us to acquire the business at very favorable terms. Last year we generated $1,200,000 in revenue. More importantly, these businesses provide a context to build financial stability and receive daily discipleship. We recently bought housing so we can offer a complete stable environment.

Classrooms rarely provide transformation but the OTJ discipleship we’re experiencing offers incredible life changes for everyone involved.

We work with some of the local prisons and provide a transition point for some of those released. Part of this effort included orientation to better understand the backgrounds for the people we will be serving. Part of this orientation is to sit in on some of the group counseling. This includes listening to each person’s story. I was amazed and saddened by the similarity in each person’s story. I was also surprised about the consistent common denominator. It wasn’t poor family backgrounds or economic class. The common element was a crisis that spun them out of control and isolation from any community network. In many cases the tipping point was a bad choice, but it was also a job loss or a family crisis. Once they fell out of their stable world what followed was a pendulum that never stabilized.

I recently retired and now spend my time working with our church community and in the local prisons. News of our efforts made it to the producers of the “Heartbeat of America.” They came in to film our businesses and interview several of our employees. We are excited because we feel God has led us to a personal understanding of his heart for the disenfranchised and provided us with practical ways to walk this out. I’m also excited and support The Return of the Tentmaker because I know there are other “me’s” out there; people who have a passion to find God’s heart through serving others.