Come Up And Breathe

I will never forget seeing Crystal’s body at the bottom of the swimming pool. She was one of the many kids attending the children’s portion of the Iowa Christian Convention, which I was helping out with. One of my jobs that day was to watch the kids as they swam in the pool. There were a lot of kids swimming, but between myself and another adult, I felt like we had the situation under control.

Then in a kind of surreal moment one of the kids said that there was someone at the bottom of the swimming pool. I immediately thought that the youngster was joking, but upon further inspection, at the deepest part of the pool right over the drain, was a little body. As I dove into the water, I feared that it was too late. I had no idea how long Crystal had been down there, had it been seconds or minutes? I pulled her limp body to the surface and with the help of others was able to get her onto the deck. Immediately prayers were prayed and CPR was performed. Crystal’s body had been deprived of oxygen long enough that her lips had turned purple…I was extremely worried. But then she began to cough and out came water and in flowed air…air filled with oxygen. So after minutes of being deprived of life giving oxygen Crystal breathed in all she could—in deep long breathes. That was so good to see.

When things calmed down, we tried to figure out how this could have happened. What did we do wrong to allow this little girl to be put in such a life threatening situation. As it turned out, Crystal had no idea how to swim. In fact she had hardly ever been around water for most of her 11 years on earth. When she saw all the other kids swimming and having a good time she jumped right in…she wanted to have fun too. But she didn’t know how to swim.

We all know that our bodies cannot survive without oxygen, but what about your spirits? How does your spirit “breathe”? Most of us dive right into the busyness of life everyday. We plunge head long into our to-do-lists without even thinking. To make matters worse now that the holiday season is upon us the busyness is going to go up a notch or three: shopping, parties, concerts, shopping, decorating, and shopping. There is so much to do and so little time. So with all this activity going on how does your spirit “breathe”?

You do know that you are spirit right? You are part physical and part spiritual. We all know how to take care of our physical bodies, but what about our spiritual bodies. Maybe what your spirit needs this holiday season is to come up from the depths of all your busyness and breathe…breathe in God. Over the next few weeks make it a priority to stop what you are doing and be still. Talk to God, read his word, or just admire his handiwork. Take time to breathe…your spirit is desperate for it.

"Be still, and know that I am God!” ~ Psalm 46:10

Drive Conference: Repairing the Transmission

Day 2 at DRIVE CONFERENCE from down here in Atlanta. It was cold and rainy...not what I expected. I actually heard that it was nicer in Iowa then down here. Oh well.

I just have to say that I have never had so much fun at a conference, or laughed so hard. I know, I know, I am supposed to be doing spiritual things, but who says conferences can't be fun?

THE MAIN THING THAT KEEPS COMING UP: CREATIVITY

I am just blown over by the creativity of this church. Here is the thing: every church can be like North Point, not in copying them but in the fact that each church has creative people in it and when they are unleashed to be who they are it just energizes the church. And it attracts the creativity of the community. Just today we saw a musical number taken from The Music Man (There's Trouble Right Here In River City) that had been re done. It was just awesome. There are many other examples, but this place just oozes creativity. Anyway, let me throw this out for kicks: what if the 2nd greatest sin of the church (I will talk about the number 1 sin later) has been in stifling the creativty of people?

Repairing The Trany

The overarching theme about this morning's session really looked at the system of the church. Churches are notorious for changing pastors or adding in new programs. Some work some don't, and so the churches assume that it was the pastor or the program when in reality it probably was the church system. Here are a few bullet points about church systems.

• There are organizational systems that are conducive to ministry and organizational systems that impede ministry.
• Systems Create behaviors. ( For example the preacher can preach on evangelism and people can even agree that they should do it, but they won't because the overall system hasn't changed.)
• Anytime you hear, "Well, our people just won't..." you are listening to someone who doesn't understand the influence of systems."
• Systems have a greater impact on organizational culture than do mission statements.
• In the NT we discover what the early church did. The NT does not lay out a comprehensive plan instructing church leaders what to do. (I may have to blog more on this sometime. Very interesting.)

Bottom line: if you want to change or improve your church you need to change the system. More tomorrow.

Drive Conference: Changing the Filters

I am down here in Atlanta, Georgia for Drive at North Point Community Church. The conference began last night with a session from 7:30 to 9:30. Andy Stanley talked last night about "Replacing the Filters". Here are a few talking points from the session:

• Non-Christians think that church is for church people.
• In communities around the world there is an incredible hunger for God...but the church gets in the way. The church is an obstacle not a conduit.
• Stanley examined Acts 15 as an example of how first century church tried to "get in the way" with people becoming Christians through circumcision.
• Here is a verse to put to memory and have your church live out: "It is my judgement, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God" Act 15:19
• The Gospel (Good News) has to be easy and accesible.
• The natural gravitational pull in churches is to become "insiders". Meaning that we make it difficult for the "Gentiles who are turning to God" How is your church keeping outsiders from coming in?
• We need to be more committed to reaching then to keeping. (Why? The ones who will be leaving are going to go to heaven any way.)

Just a few thoughts from last night. I will give you more later.