Crushed: Part 2, Pride

April 3, 2010 in Blog, Christianity with 0 Comments

… In humility count others more significant than yourselves. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God … made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant … by becoming obedient to the point of death.

Selections from Philippians 2:3-9 (ESV)

Yesterday, I focused in on the crushing suffering that Christ endured on the day we now know as Good Friday. Thankfully we know today that that’s not all that was crushed Easter weekend. Today I’m going to focus in on crushed pride.

You see, Christ set an example of humility. He set up a standard so high that few men could ever reach it. The Creator God of the universe made himself nothing. He served. He was obedient. Even to the death. The words of Paul’s Christ-hymn that I’ve quoted above are some, I believe, of the most beautiful words in the entire New Testament. They’re words of humility. Words that speak volumes about what Christ has done for us.

I think some of the greatest messages about humility from the Easter story are the ones that we frequently skip over. They’re the ones that happened on Saturday. It’s a day we kind of ignore in the Easter schedule. But it’s one of the most important when it comes to showing how Christ’s example drove others to humility.

Many of us have heard the Roman centurion’s declaration given post-Christ’s death: “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39, NIV) It’s a beautiful, simple confession. But we don’t always really grasp what a big deal it was for that centurion to make that confession. It required an incredible dose of humility. This man was supposed to be one of the world’s toughest soldiers. He was dedicated to Rome and all things Roman. One of the core Roman beliefs held that the Caesar, the land’s ultimate ruler, was God’s son. He was to be worshipped. For this centurion to say that Christ was the Son of God could quite nearly be considered treason. He was, however, so incredibly moved by the things he had witnessed, so moved by the declaration of humility, that he could do nothing but cry out his adoration for Christ.

The centurion wasn’t the only one who had his pride crushed as part of Christ’s death. So did Joseph of Arimithea, the man who buried Christ. See, Joseph was an incredibly rich man. He was a leader in Jerusalem. He was one of the leaders of the Jewish Council. He wasn’t exactly the kind of man you’d picture playing undertaker. But he was. He humbled himself to apply spices and burial clothes to Christ’s body. He even went so far as to have a new tomb made just for Him. Joseph could have easily hired someone to do this if he wanted it done. He could have ignored it and said “someone else will handle it.” Instead, he chose to humble himself from his high position and prepare Christ for burial. He put his pride behind him and focused instead on what his Savior needed.

So what pride in your life needs crushed? Is it your finances? Your position? Your “poor me” attitude? Something else? Let the power of the Cross crush it this Easter weekend.

Crushed: Part 1, Savior

April 2, 2010 in Blog, Ministry with 0 Comments

Today, as you probably know, is Good Friday, the day when we remember the death and suffering of Christ. For me, “Good” Friday has always felt like a bit of a misnomer. It’s always felt like there wasn’t too much “good” about it. Our Savior was bruised and crushed. What good could come of that?

It’s overwhelming to think what our Savior endured. It all began that Thursday evening when Christ returned from his passionate, pleading prayer with his Father. Someone Christ had placed into his inner circle, one of only 12 in the world, had betrayed him. Turned his back for money. The guards seized him violently and dragged him back into town to appear before the Sanhedrin. Right as He’s entering this, the most difficult period of his earthly existence, the 11 disciples that were left ran away and denied Him. They hid away in locked rooms while their Lord endured a beating at the hands of his fellow countrymen. He was spat upon. Mocked. Beaten. Lied about. All leading to a false conviction. Crushed.

So He was led before the Roman leaders. Again abused and beaten. After some legal wranglings, He was brought before a tribunal of the Roman leader, Pilate, and an angry mob of Jewish people. Pilate’s wife tried to warn him about Christ’s innocence. Pilate tried to get the people to release Jesus. Instead they stood below and screamed “CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!” Pilate, so distraught at what he was about to do, washed his hands to declare his innocence. Then, subjecting himself to the will of the people, sent Christ away for punishment and crucifixion. Christ’s innocence was crushed.

He was led to a whipping yard. Blindfolded and forced to lean over a post, He could see nothing. Suddenly, the area was filled with the CRACK! of the whip coming down. Shards of glass and stone wallowed their way deep into His flesh. Suddenly, the whip was ripped out of his back, snapping connective sinews clean off. Again the yard was filled with the crack of the soldier’s whip. Each successive time hunks of flesh, muscle, and blood came flying off Christ’s back and into the crowd. He was in such suffering and so dismembered he was barely recognizable as human. His body was crushed.

But that wasn’t all that was in store for Christ this day. The soldiers led him away and shoved a crown made of inches-long thorns into Christ’s skull. He cried out in wails of pain as the thorns drove themselves through flesh and bone alike. They mocked him. They cast lots for his clothing. His spirit was crushed.

Appearing as nothing more than a heap of blood and disemboweled flesh, the guards cast a cross over his back and screamed at him to stand up. He carried it oh so short a distance before he collapsed, weakened and exhausted from the grueling punishment he had received. A bystander named Simon was asked to take up that cross and carry it the rest of the way. They soon found themselves atop a hill just outside of the city, known as Golgotha. Here it was that Christ would breathe His last. Simon lay the cross down, and the soldiers threw Christ’s body upon it. They took massive hammers and nails longer than anyone can imagine and drove them through what was left of his hands and feet. Much like the nail pierced Christ’s muscle and bone, Christ’s cries of pain pierced the area nearby. Christ’s life was crushed.

Even in His suffering, the love of Christ was brilliantly displayed through his actions. A thief being crucified next to him asked, and received, Christ’s forgiveness. He wouldn’t save himself. He loved us too much. He even cried out to his Father, that He might forgive those who had done such horrific things to him. Christ’s human body could be crushed, but His love could never be.

Suddenly a wave of darkness swept over the land. For 3 straight hours this enveloping darkness covered all, leaving just the agonized screams of those being crucified to fill the air. At the strike of 3, he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The people whispered and wondered if maybe he was calling Elijah. Suddenly Christ spoke the words, “It is finished,” and breathed his last. All around the city the earth began to quiver and rip open. The curtain in the Temple, the great curtain that separated us from God, ripped in two. Tombs opened up and out walked dead ancestors who entered Jerusalem and spoke with many. Something big had happened. The divide between us and God had been crushed.

Many other things occurred after this. Christ’s Godhood was affirmed. His death was assured. His burial was completed. He had been crushed. So what makes this Friday so “good?” It wasn’t the crushing of Christ. It was the crushing of the divide. It was the crushing of pride. It was the crushing of sin. Our Savior was crushed, out of His mighty love, for you and I. That’s good news.

Toyota and Children’s Ministry: Part 1

April 1, 2010 in Blog, Ministry with 1 Comment

Unless you’ve been living in a hole for the last few months, you know that Toyota has had to recall millions of vehicles around the world due to mechanical problems. As you may also know, Toyota’s CEO, Akio Toyoda, gave a testimony before the US Congress several weeks ago about the situation. This series is going to feature some quotes from that testimony, and what we, as children’s ministers, can learn from what he had to say. So let’s begin.

I fear the pace at which we have grown may have been too quick.

-Akio Toyoda

In some Christian circles making this statement about any kind of ministry would be condemned as outright sacrilege. Surely if we’re growing it’s a good thing, so let’s just keep doing it! Unfortunately, this can’t always be true.

Businesses know this quite well. Take MySpace for example. They experienced explosive growth and hired a ton of people, but hadn’t planned for long-term success and stability. Now, they’re just a speck on the social media radar. Take Toyota as another example. They rapidly expanded their dealer base across the country and built plants and hired people to support this growth. As a result, they had massively increased sales of their products. However while they may have had more customers and more money rolling in, the company’s structure simply wasn’t ready for such a massive influx.

Churches are especially vulnerable to this. We may suddenly see huge growth in numbers and be simply overjoyed. Growth is good, and a sign of a healthy church. It really is a great thing. The trouble comes when suddenly our children’s ministry, already underfunded and understaffed, has suddenly swollen from 50 kids to 250 kids. What do we do now? We can recruit more volunteers, hire more staff, and throw more money into it, absolutely, but all of those things take time. If we need 50 volunteers next Sunday and we’ve only got 20 right now, you can’t train 30 more people in a week. Money and buildings and staff and volunteers and all of these other things can help, but they don’t get at the root of the problem.

The root is structure. Small churches tend to run like, well, small churches. They are set up structurally to be small for the rest of their existence. Ask any strategic planner and they’ll tell you: that just doesn’t work. You don’t buy a house with 1 bedroom if you’re planning to have 15 kids. Yes, you can remodel and add on, but it’s a messy thing trying to rebuild the proverbial “house” while we’re living inside of it. It may work, but your chances of getting frustrated are so much higher.  Yet ministries who want, someday, to have 5000 members still set up like a ministry with 50 members.

Your church, and especially your children’s ministry, must be structured to grow. Always be prepared for an influx of 25 more kids suddenly. Structure things so that as you grow, you’re simply filling in the structure, not rebuilding it.

Movies, Websites, WordPress, and Yancy. Links of the day.

March 1, 2010 in Blog, Ministry with 0 Comments

I’ve started realizing there are a lot of sites that I come across that I find super cool. But I never tell you about them. So here are four awesome websites I’ve visited today that I think you should know about.

MagntizeMagntize- No, it’s not misspelled. But it is awesome. Magntize is a free service that allows you to set up a free personal online profile. Everything about you goes here–websites, pictures, and more. It’s a bit like an online business card.

Movieclips- This one’s rather self explanatory: they have movie clips. The sweet part is that they have movie clips from movies made in this decade unlike a lot of other sites. Finally, a place to show your friends the movie clip you keep quoting. Every 5 seconds.

Standard Theme- Standard Theme is the theme that’s been powering this blog for about the last month. (I was a beta tester.) I must tell you, it is the most powerful, flexible theme I have ever used. Period. And it just launched today.

Yancy Devotional- Preteen music sensation and all around awesome person Yancy launched the companion devotional to her “Rock-N-Happy Heart” CD today. I think you need to check it out.

O Book Review/Giveaway: Hear No Evil by @jesusneedsnewpr

February 19, 2010 in Blog, O Book Reviews with 1 Comment

Hear No Evil by Matthew Paul TurnerOverview:
If you don’t read Matthew Paul Turner’s blog or follow him on Twitter, your Christianity is only half-complete. He’s one of the funniest Christian authors today, and probably ever. Funny and Christian just don’t go together all that often. A few months ago I had the opportunity to review MPT’s book Churched, and was really looking forward to reading Hear No Evil. Thankfully, “Thew” (as he attempted to refer to himself in college) didn’t let me down. Hear No Evil is the story of Matthew trying to get into the CCM industry despite his fundamentalist background, along with all of the bumps, confusion, and general insanity that happened along the way.

Originality:
Answering this one was tough for me. Matthew is a very unique writer, and everything that he writes is original simply by nature. However, I don’t really feel like Hear No Evil brought anything “new” to the table as far as his writing goes. It was an awesome book, don’t get me wrong, I just think Matthew could have done more as far as his own personal originality.

Overall Readablity:
Do you like to laugh while you read? Then you’ll love Hear No Evil. It’s a great comedy/satire book. It helps to know a little bit about Christian music going into the book, but Matthew’s style of writing is very engaging and makes you want to keep reading.

Outstanding Quotation:

My knowing the difference between a rocker and a Christian rocker is similar to the ability most people possess to distinguish a female from a drag queen. It’s usually obvious, like the plot of a romantic comedy starring Matthew McConaughey.

- p. 6

Observations:
Hear No Evil is yet another awesome effort from Matthew Paul Turner. He never ceases to reveal things about Christianity and the Christian life to you while still doing it in his own biting humor sort of way. It’s a bit like Mary Poppins: “A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down…” You’ll learn things about yourself without even trying. That’s what makes MPT’s writing so powerful. He does a great job of pointing out the little quirks and some downright angering things of the “Christian” music industry- from our faux rockers to our hyper-conservative magazine editors. (Make sure you don’t miss the part near the end regarding CCM and Amy Grant…)

I also feel, on the other hand, that Hear No Evil is more of a sequel to MPT’s book Churched than it’s own book. It’s not marketed as such, but I think it should be. A lot of the humor is a lot funnier if you’ve read Churched. It’s a bit like Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2: the first was amazingly fantastic and one of a kind. The second one had perhaps lost a little bit of it’s “luster” over the first, but it was still great.

Own It:
I think you should- after you buy Churched. Read Churched first, then Hear No Evil. You’ll be laughing for weeks.

O Book Reviews Rating:
4/5 stars

Drumroll please…. I am hereby pleased to announce another EvanDoyle.com GIVEA-YAY! No, I didn’t misspell that. This giveaway is so exciting that I’ve turned it into a givea-yay. Here’s the lowdown:

  1. How to enter: Simple. Just leave a comment on this post. Make sure to include your email address so I can get it touch with you if you win!
  2. Extra entries: There are three ways to get an extra entry:
    a. Follow me on Twitter. My username is kidzmatter2me. Once you’ve done that, come back here and leave another comment!
    b. Tweet the following: “I’m entering to win a copy of @jesusneedsnewpr’s Hear No Evil from @kidzmatter2me. Enter yourself at http://bit.ly/brrnBn.” Once you’ve done that, come back here and leave another  comment.
    c. Post a link to this page on your Facebook account. Then leave another comment.
  3. Rules: You must be at least 18 years old. (Sorry kids.) You must be a resident of the United States. (Sorry Canada.) You must not be a family member. (Sorry Mom.) You must really, really want a copy of Hear No Evil. (Sorry boring people.)

That’s it! Now get commenting, tweeting, Facebooking, and whatever else it is you young-ins do!

If you don’t win the giveaway, you can o-cquire your copy at:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Random House

Extremely Boring Yet Legally Required Disclosure:
This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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