Word Up to My Urban Bible

Last week I came across the newest version of an Urban Bible.

The concept is simple :: Biblical Truth in Contemporary Language.  I love and support the desire to get the Bible into as many hands as possible.

In fact, I’ve been honored to be a part of shaping and speaking into several different versions of the TNIV Bible.  Just this last week, Jeanne was a part of a Round Table Forum around how to help people engage with the Bible more.

All Good (as they say)…I just wonder if we haven’t swung the pendulum too far.

There’s currently 3,456,334,075 versions of the Bible. 40 years ago there were 3…

• The kind in church // hotels
• The kind they made people swear by in court
• The kind your parents hit you over the head with

Now, there’s a Bible for every Age, Stage, and Walk of Life.  Whatever you’re into…we’ve got a Bible for that.  While I can appreciate Jesus calling his disciples by asking “Yo, you down with my posse, or what?”,  or when he ascended to Heaven, saying, “Peace Out!”

I wonder if the millions and millions of dollars spent in research, and design and marketing couldn’t be redirected to get “basic // boring“ Bibles

• Into the hands of the MILLIONS of Christians that are a part of the Underground Church in China (a job easier said than done).
• Or into the hands of Pastors in the overflowing churches of Latin America.
• Or into the hands of young mothers to read to their sick children in the forgotten villages of Zambia.

I think, I might be “down” to “floss” a plain old boring bible knowing that the money NOT spent on me was being spent on them…the ones who really need another A Bible.

Peace Out, Homies (Luke 24:50-51 NUV)

How Do You Connect With God (or) Are You There God, it’s me Jarrett

Throughout this week, we’ll be be exploring the idea of Spiritual Pathways – The Unique Ways we Encounter and Experience God.

For anyone who’s ever sat through Worship Music at Church and just wasn’t feeling it like everyone else seemed to…

For anyone who’s felt Deeply Alive and Connected to God when you are sitting outside surrounded by nature…

For anyone who struggles with Quiet Times but senses the presence of God in Conversation and Relationship with others…

This is for you.

We’ll be exploring a few of the most common Spiritual Pathways (Nature // Enthusiast //Activist // Contemplative) to help determine how YOU best connect to God as well as trying several different experiences together this week.

My Pathway is ACTIVISM - I draw near to God through bringing about social change.

What’s Yours?

• If you know your Spiritual Pathway, Quickly COMMENT with it below
• If you’re not sure you can take 3:48 to fill THIS QUICK SURVEY out, then COMMENT below

YOUR TURN :: Comment with your Pathway to get the Conversation going.

An Open Letter To Christian Leadership Conferences…

Last week I was talking to a friend about Life, Leadership, Faith and Culture.  He mentioned in passing that his wife has put the Kibosh on them spending any more of their family budget on Christian Leadership Conferences.

Her words – “You’re just NOT going to learn anything new there.”  She may be right.  Something seems a little broken these days.

It seems that the more and more Leadership Conferences pop up, the more and more they seem pretty much the same (despite some really cool and catchy titles).

So.  I would like to offer to all those Conference Makers out there a few ideas that might help us drop our $250 hard earned (or tithe earned) dollars on Their Leadership Conference Thing.

1. Don’t charge $250.  There are way too many Christian Companies / Publishing Houses / Camps / Resources that would pay a good chunk of change to have presence at your thing.  You are Way Too Smart and there are Way Too Many Ways to be Free or Cheap and still turn a Profit.  InStyle magazine doesn’t charge me $20 to fill my magazine full of Ads.  They charge me $1 and fill it full of ads.  (and by me – I mean my wife…I swear)
2. Bring us FRESH voices.  The Strategy of getting “Those Big Name Speakers” that everyone else wants to hear is a flawed platform rooted in diminishing returns.  It’s great for those first couple of conference that “land” them, but past that, I can see them anywhere – you are no longer Unique by having them.
3. Your FRESH VOICES need to be more than Successful White Males.  I understand that you are not trying to have ONLY White Male voices, but for someone who’s not trying – You’re Really Good At It! I know you’re not trying to make a a STAEMENT…but you are.  And we pay you too much of our hard earned / tithed dollars for you to make the excuse that you just don’t know where to find THOSE OTHER VOICES.  Try harder.  We believe you can.
4. Decentralize.  It’s seems ODD that you can host a conference on Multi-Site Churches, but YOU still make everyone come to One Location.  Remember – we are not just paying for YOUR DEAL :: We pay for Airfare, Hotel, Meals, and a night of Team Building at Dave and Busters.  You could cut our costs significantly by doing Smaller Regional Events.
5. Ditch The Old Format.  We don’t HAVE to have the Big Opener, the Give Away, the Hypeman Host, and the Big Speaker.  There are several cats taking ground in this area.  But the Old Format of Session / Break / Session / Lunch / Breakout / Break / Session is a little played out.  Maybe you could try Breakout / Break / Session / Lunch / Session / Break / Breakout...I don’t know, I’m just Spitballing here…
6. Define YOUR UNIQUE Thing.  Speak to THE THING that ONLY YOU can Speak To and YOU WILL have an Audience.  What is Your Deal?  What is your Unique Niche?  What is your Holy Discontent.  Find that.  Say that.  Stick to that.  And people WILL come.  Kevin Kelly’s Long Tail makes that clear.  The Buck Shot of Speakers and Topics is entertaining, but there’s very little that’s Sticky about that, and even less that is Transformational.

So.  There it is.  For the 0.0081% of you that read this and are Responsible for planning Conferences – Maybe this will help.  But for the rest of us :: we’ll keep holding out, shopping around, expecting more, and filling our closets with this year’s Swag Filled, Conflict Free, Hemp Messenger Bag (which my MacBook fits perefectly into, btw.  Thanks again for that!).

Your Turn :: Thoughts?  Who’s doing well when it comes to this stuff and WHY?

A Glimpse at Galveston

I have been floored to see such Beauty and Brokenness occupy the same space.

I shot this following video just 1 mile from each other.

It’s been seven months since Hurricane Ike hit Galveston.  And while there has been a good amount of work done here, you’d think from walking through the under resourced parts of Galveston that it hit yesterday.

While the Restaurants and Resorts here are in high gear to get things ready for summer, there are whole parts of town that have been largely forgotten and neglected.  The projects you saw in this video are where residents were evacuated and while they were gone, the city came through and fenced up the property to keep them from going back in.

While it can seem like a horrible juxtaposition, somehow… God is in both.  He is the waters that rhythmically continue make their way to shore.  He is in the hood, where it seems that hope was washed away with the flood waters.

Somehow…He is big enough and faithful enough to be in both.

Somehow…He makes the Broken things Beautiful in a way that only He can.

That’s so Gay…You’re so Retarded

A couple weeks ago I was watching an Online Video Interview with a fairly well known Pastor of a Really Big Church.  He had a ton of great ideas and experiences around leadership and doing church differently. 

The problem wasn’t what he was talking about, but rather how he was saying it.  After several references to Viagra and leaders needing to “growing a pair”, he said that a worship song they had done a few weeks back was “So GAY”.  Then to top it off he referenced some story about a staff member recently acting  ”RETARDED“.

Really?  We can’t do better than this…In the world we live in…as followers of Jesus Christ…when I have so many friends who are gay…and know several families who are raising children with very real physical and mental limitations…we can’t do better than this?

How have we created a Christian Culture where we can call something bad or dumb – GAY or RETARDED, but we won’t call someone an asshole – cause that’s swearing…and we don’t do that.  (btw – I am the first to admit that I swear wayyy too much…as you can see from that last sentence)

Every time I hear someone call something Gay or Retarded, the not-so-loving side of me wants to go grab my friend Steven and say, “Oh you mean like this?  Gay like him?” Or drive our friends over who are raising a 9 year old autistic child and say, “Oh you mean retarded like this right?  That outfit you’re making fun of is just like this child, right?”

I know that’s not the right response.  And I know there are a ton of 2×12’s in my own eye…but when it comes to these two words… I just think we can do better.

Your Turn :: This week – Anytime you catch yourself saying Gay or Retarded in a condescending or derogatory way this week – Stop and publicly ask for forgiveness.  Do that for this week, and I guarantee next week will be different.

 honestly, if Wanda Sykes has to educate us on this one…we can do better…

Compassionism :: The New aWEARness (extended dance mix)

People are waking up to the new / old idea of Justice and Compassion. The more Globally Connected we get, the more Globally Aware we seem to become. Compassion Based Organizations are popping up at an accelerated rate. People are wanting to get “involved” more and more. It’s suddenly officially COOL to CARE.

Kids don’t start bands anymore, they start 501C3’s.

Read more…

Spending the day with Andy and Craig (part.two)

Spending the day at Catalyst One Day.

This morning Craig Groeschel shared some great thoughts on thinking differently about Church and Leadership.  Here are a few of his thoughts.  I’d love to hear yours in the comments.

:: Think Differently about why people aren’t doing what you want them to do // Are you you asking or expecting people to do what YOU are unwilling to do yourself

:: Think differently about What you DO // True Spiritual Impact tends to DECREASE as programs INCREASE // What do you need to STOP doing (that probably died 5 years ago anyway)

:: Think differently about the MISSION // We can’t allow SOMEONE to hold back the mission of the church

:: Think differently about people LEAVING the Church // The church becomes INSECURE, and when it is INSECURE it has no AUTHORITY

:: Think differently about LIMITATIONS // Limitations are often the breeding ground for Innovation

((HOWEWORK on this one)) Find someone 2 or 3 steps ahead and find out what they are THINKING

YOUR TURN :: Which one of these is most challenging with YOU // WHY?

Spending the day with Andy and Craig (part.one)

I’m spending the day at Catalyst One Day in Atlanta (which is where I live…which is convenient).

Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel and the communicators.  I’m the listener.

The event costs $4,500 to attend.  I’m going to be giving you the best thoughts throughout the day for FREE!  I’m cutting out the crap and giving you Cream of the Crop.

Your Turn :: What’s one Leadership Lesson you’re chewing on lately.

((by the way…you can’t win the Kindle from me.  But I bet Andy will give you his if you ask.)

Compassionism :: The New aWEARness (part.three)

(read / comment on THIS, then read / comment on THAT, to better understand this)

An Open Invitation to all the New / Hip Non-Profits desiring to do Good in the world ::  

We like what you’re trying to do.  We see where you are going.  We give you permission to appeal to our deep desire to belong. You can play off of our obsession with fashion all you want. We want you to feel the freedom to keep it cool.

Just make it mean something more to us than another t-shirt. We have enough t-shirts. Give us the opportunity to move from aWEARness to ENGAGEMENT. Lead us past ourselves into a world that is more broken and beautiful than we could ever see from where we stand.  Give us a vision bigger than our wallets and beyond our closets.  

We will keep giving you our money.

You need to start asking for our time.

You need to start expecting our hearts.

You need to start affecting our lives.

And if you do, I promise you that together…

…we will see God bring change to our hearts and change to our world.

Your Turn :: What are some Great Organizations doing some really Good Work in the world that you are personally connected to?

Compassionism :: The New aWEARness (part.two)

(read THIS first to better get this)

In an age of Compassionism, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to belong, to fit in.  There’s nothing wrong with Shirts, Shoes, and Bags.  What I’m suggesting is that maybe instead of settling for Compassionism, we can raise the stakes for what it means to wear one of these Shirts, Shoes, or Bags.  In so doing, we raise the value of what those goods mean.  

Here are a few thoughts on how ::

• Only give away shirts to people who GO to wherever it is the shirt is supposed to draw our attention to.  Seriously.  Have the best designers in the world make a limited run of 100 shirts, or hats, or fanny packs that you get for FREE when you GO.  Whether it means going to Uganda or to volunteer at suicide prevention center.  Turn my $10 into 10 hours or even better, 10 days and that shirt will mean a world of difference more to me.

• To get a Bag or Earings or a Bracelet, you have to GO and spend a day MAKING them.  Go and give that rescued sex slave a day off and YOU make the conflict free jewelry that day.  Then you would REALLY have a story!  “Merry Christmas, Mom.  I worked for four days with former sex slaves to make your Gift.  Enjoy” Priceless.

• Make Micro Lending sexy.  Make it hip.  Something that all the kids are into.  Kiva has been killing it here.  They raised 4 x more money than the United Way last year without spending a single dollar on Traditional Marketing or Advertising.  Heifer International have been plugging away at this for years at this.  But my hunch is that you don’t have a Heifer T-Shirt.  I’m pretty sure they make t-shirts.  But if they did, they would be made out of Yak Hair.

• To get a pair of shoes, you have to give a pair (at least one pair…and not your crappy old pumas) not just buy a pair.  Double and Triple my Return on Investment by getting me to give more than I get.

These are just a few thoughts.  Not cynical nay saying but sincere and heart felt desire to see my Compassion transcend my Consumerism.  To actually join with what God is actually doing in the world, beyond of my closet.

Your Turn :: What are some NEW ideas to help us move from COMPASSIONISM to Transformational Engagement?