Had the chance recently to have an iChat conversation with my friend Jon Acuff. Jon is a blogger and the author of the new book, Stuff Christians Like.
Honestly, Jon is one of the funniest guys I know and God is using him in some pretty extraordinary ways. Go buy his book and start reading his blog today. You can also follow him on Twitter.
In his book, The Holy Longing, Fr Ronald Rolheiser shares the writings of an Italian spiritual writer - Carlo Carretto. Rolhesier says (in reference to the church) that Carretto "captures well both its scandal and its grace." I think I agree.
How much I must criticize you, my church and yet how much I love you!
You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe more to you than to anyone.
I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.
You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness.
Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised, more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous or more beautiful.
Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face - and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms!
No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely you.
Then too - where would I go?
To build another church?
But I could not build one without the same defects, for they are my defects. And again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ's church.
I’ve gotta be honest... I am blown away at the caliber of people God has surrounded my life with. I'm serious. The leaders, pastors, entrepreneurs, creatives, artists, etc... who I've had the opportunity to get to know and become friends with over the years is something that I am so grateful for!
One of those people is a very new friend of mine by the name of Dave Gibbons. Dave is....umm...let's
see. Well let me just paste in what Zondervan says about him:
Last weekend I had the opportunity to meet and spend some time with Dave while at The Idea Camp in Irvine, CA. In fact, not only did I have the
privilege of spending some time learning from Dave, but SOMEHOW......I also found myself sitting between him and Eugene Cho during a Leadership Q&A
session at Idea Camp! That was quite an honor... (even though he made me eat this.)
SO ANYWAY....with all that said, there’s two things I want to tell you about:
First...
DAVE'S BOOK.The Monkey and the Fish. I read a lot of books, but seldom do I read one twice. I'm already half way through my second reading...
It’s hard to describe how much I have found myself resonating with Dave’s heart through his book. Plus, watching how God is using him, not just in SoCal, but also in places like Bangkok, India, London, Mexico City, and multiple other cities, is stretching and challenging me in some unbelievable ways. (You can read about my visit to NewSong Bangkok here.)
Second...
THE VIDEO. The other thing I want you to know about is this video interview recorded last weekend by Eugune Cho (who you also need to get to know...).
The old proverb, "The eyes are the windows of the soul," contains a powerful truth. Our eyes reveal whether our souls are spacious or cramped, hospitable or critical, compassionate or judgmental. The way we see other people is usually the way we see ourselves. If we have made peace with our flawed humanity and embraced our ragamuffin identity, we are able to tolerate in others what was previously unacceptable in ourselves.
Anne just wrote a new book. It’s called Mad Church Disease. And it’s one that I seriously predict is going to be one of the most influential books for church leaders this year and beyond.
I’ve gotten to know Anne personally over the past couple of years and here’s the bottom line:
Anne is willing to step out on a limb and talk about the **** that very few have the guts to talk about.
It’s that way when you hang out with her. It’s that way on her blog. It’s the same way when she speaks.
And NOW...it’s most definitely the same with her new book as she writes very openly about a topic that most of us are familiar with (even if you don’t know it yet):
BURNOUT
Folks....burnout is a serious issue. Especially in church work, where the lines between “work” and “personal
life” are constantly blurred.
In chapter 5, Anne shares one of the most helpful tools I’ve seen on how to distinguish between “stress” and “burnout”. She has also included some interviews on this topic with some great church leaders like Bill Hybels, Perry Noble, Mike Foster, Wayne Cordeiro, and others.
But the best part of the book is where Anne offers hope for health - spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational health.
My teaching mind map for this weekend looks like some super analytical thinker just thew up all over it. Now I have to figure out how to interpret it all.
Neue is the latest offering from the gang over at Relevant. It's a resource focused "specifically on the
issues, challenges and opportunities facing emerging ministry leaders."
Brian Orme, Neue's editor (and a guy whose blogging I really miss), recently asked me to do some writing and blog sharing for their site. Today (Tuesday), they featured an article of mine based on a recent blog post that their editors cleaned up and made into a pretty nice article if I might say so myself! :) Thanks guys!
I'm using new mind mapping software called MindManager 7 that Chris introduced me to, and so far I'm loving it! Saves me tons of writing and re-writing and crossing out in what usually results in an entire legal pad FILLED with handwritten mumbo-jumbo that not even the most committed Pentecostal could translate.
