Glocalnet Blog

Bob Speaking at the LCEF Confernce

2010-02-08T23:52:06Z

A few months back, Bob spoke at the LCEF conference about his new book “Real Time Connections” - Now available!

“A Christian Woman’s Experience at Multifaith Weekend”

2010-02-07T08:00:15Z

A great interview of one of NorthWood’s members about the Multifaith Weekend. What a great explanation she gave!

HOW TO HANDLE ATTACK IN THE MINISTRY

2010-02-05T13:13:40Z

This has been a wild 24 hours for me - I’m busy working on my sermon - for 2 Sundays away. Last night I was working and listening to the Verge Conference online in Austin - so proud of Matt Carter and his crew and where I see them headed. There are several conferences going on right now with lots of people from Verge, to Radicalis, to an ACTS 29 event, and several more on the way this month. I was asked to speak at 2 of them but couldn’t - I’m going to West Africa on a fast trip to speak at a little church of 200,000 and then speaking to their 1500 new church planters for this year. Now that’s a church! February must be conference month! We just had a group of our planters with us.

As I was listening last night and the camera panned the crowd I thought of all those young pastors - aspiring to be the next Francis Chan or Mark Driscoll or whoever they admire speaking at whatever conference they go to.

When I started in ministry - I assumed you worked hard, prayed hard, and God moved powerfully and a church or ministry grew. When that happened everyone got along and was happy. NOT.
You can’t aggressively serve God and not face attack and testing. The two are regular companions but come from 2 different sources, but when handled properly have the same effect. Yesterday I prayed for my friend Matt Chandler and later I heard of another friend in the ministry accused of things that are unsubstantiated. Jesus faced both of those. Then I got an email from a friend who crashed in ministry but is doing something else now. I went to bed with a heavy heart thinking of those 3 incidents. I couldn’t help but think of all you young church planters from NorthWood and I wanted to challenge you. How do you handle stuff like this?

1. Keep your heart pure. This is why I passionately teach our church and you young men and women going into the ministry to start your day off on your knees in the word of God. I’m not talking about sermon prep - I’m talking about heart prep. Pray until your heart is broken, soft, and open.

2. Don’t let offenses pile up. People are going to sin against you - it’s not fun. People will accuse you falsely; judge your motives, gossip to 30 people in the guise of asking for prayer. See it for what it is - the flesh of man. If you don’t, you’re going to be the ultimate pleaser of men or worse you’ll be one tough, angry, cuss of a preacher.

3. Listen to people who love you. You’re not perfect. Your wife, your kids, your parents, your close friends, your staff, your leadership - don’t make yourself Jesus. God has called you to a mission, but that mission doesn’t make you right in everything. Every preacher who has ever fallen - had people warning him along the way, but he refused to listen.

4. Have a group you entrust yourself to. One of the greatest things I thank God for is our elders at NorthWood - they are not staff, they are church members - but their focus is not just on church issues - they aren’t afraid to challenge me and love me. I wish I would have understood the concept of elders 25 years ago - I would have done it a lot sooner. I also have 3 pastors that I listen to as they speak into my life and ministry. One is black- he’s my pastor, one is Chinese, one is Korean/Irish, and a couple of whities! You’d better have someone you can be honest and open with.

5. Stay true to your calling. The last time you’ll do something unanimous is when you have more than 100 people. Everyone will have a word, a direction, an instruction, a vision - and if you don’t know what God has called you to, you’ll get off track - when that happens, you lose God’s anointing on your life. Conferences, speakers, and books can help you - but they can’t call you or direct you - only God can do that. His will is not found in the latest thing, but in his heart.

6. Glorify God in all you do. How do you do that? When you sin, admit it and repent. When Satan is attacking you - rebuke him and have people praying for you sharing it with those that are closest to you. When God is testing you - like Matt Chandler - glorify God like Matt, knowing he’s in control and he loves you and is making you more in his image.

Not long ago, I was somewhere very unsafe in the world with some very “feared” people of the world. I had taken a list of things that I needed to get done back home. I had my tablet and was working waiting for someone to take me somewhere. I had traveled and was tired - someone once told me when I’m in places like that “sleep with one eye open.”(One day I’m taking Stetzer with me on one of those trips to shut him up!) I was sleeping but would keep waking up checking my surroundings. I finally thought, “What can I do here if something happens?” The answer was a simple “NOTHING AT ALL.” Here’s the reality, whether you like it or not, even as a leader, you have far less control over things that you might like. You have two options - Rest - as in Hebrews - or stress. Stress will drive you to lots of unhealthy things. Rest, puts you in the arms of Jesus to hold you and keep all that is his. I challenge you - REST.

The Holy Spirit Poured Out on Artist

2010-02-03T12:09:22Z

A few months ago, I was studying the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. I think sometimes we don’t have a clear picture of how the Holy Spirit worked in the Old Testament and it leads us to some conclusions that were not necessarily true. There is no doubt about it, after the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came upon the believers in the upper room, and today fills every believer at conversion - which must continue on a daily and moment by moment basis. Because of that, we can get the idea the Spirit wasn’t that active in the Old Testament - but the Spirit was. The Spirit was present in creation, The Spirit was put upon people for special tasks, and the Spirit was present in their worship as well. I always wanted to be careful we don’t undermine who the Triune God is in the Bible in any and all roles. It might be a fun study for you to study the Spirit in the Old Testament using your concordance - you’ll be amazed, encouraged, and enlightened at all you see - I was.

One of the most fascinating passages for me Is Exodus 31:1-12. It’s where Moses is on Mt. Sinai with God and he is being given the directions for building the tabernacle and he says, “See, I have called Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge, and all craftmanship to devise artistic designs. . . ” That is an interesting passage to me - God’s Spirit comes upon someone for the purpose of creating art.

In my new book Real-Time Connections - I write about a painter Minh Song - who I know and has sold his art in the US. You can’t go to Hanoi to any art gallery and not see his paintings all over the place - he’s simply incredible. Our church has many of his paintings and many of our members - me included - have his art in our homes. I asked him once what it’s like to paint, he told me “When I paint I feel God all through me and in my hands.”

Have you ever thought how you are moved when you see art, hear a beautiful piece of music, watch a powerful play - - - - I believe art is a gift from God. John Adams viewed it as the highest form of man’s existence. How many times have you experienced something in art and you think “how in the world did they do this?” I believe God’s Spirit is moving at all times in all ways in tragedy and suffering, and in beauty and form.

Art and beauty always leads me into worship of who God is. Whether admiring nature on the side of a mountain while hiking, or sitting at the Apricot Gallery in Hanoi - I can sense beauty that only God can create and give ability to do. I believe this is why worship is even more powerful, connecting in music, singing to God, all the artists - and then the promise of the Spirit upon everyone - should always be a profound experience, be it reflective or enthusiastic.

REALTIME CONNECTIONS RELEASED!!!

2010-02-01T13:54:18Z

I’m excited my new book! It has now been released and there are many things that really excite me about it. This is very different from any book I’ve ever written:

First, it’s written for everyday ordinary disciples - not preachers or just church leaders. It’s a “missional” book for everyone and what a missional disciple looks like.

Second, it’s real live stories of our people and what they are doing in the inner-city all the way to Vietnam and beyond. So it isn’t theory, ideas, or challenges of what could be - it is what is and what people are actually doing.

Third, it tells the whole story both from my angle and the angle of our people at NorthWood how we all became involved and how our church became highly missional.

Fourth, it ties the Great Commission to the Great Disciple - Abraham! It also explains how local congregations internationally are connecting to see it’s fulfillment.

Fifth, it gives steps at the end of each chapter - so that by the time you finish reading the book, if you follow all the steps at the end of the chapter each person can have their own action plan of how to use their jobs and/or interest to impact the world.

Sixth, it explains how your job is your primary ministry tool - and how to use it.

Seventh, it goes to the core of what it means to be a disciple - which is to hear and obey and what that looks like.

Eighth, it deals with the difference between living in society in covenant versus contract.

Ninth, it helps to explain the concept of religious freedom beyond religion to freedom of thought and why that matters as the first of human rights.

Tenth, it deals with Islam and other religions and how to engage in a radically different way than the church has the past 200 years.

The book basically looks at the 21st century and projects forward from practical action that’s being done right now in a local church and what it will look like to see the Great Commission fulfilled.

Some people are telling me this is my best book yet - simple, clear, with practical steps and stories that anyone can use. Grab one!

JOON I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!

2010-01-31T08:39:07Z

This is Joon, he’s a kickin church planter. This is his first cell group and he called it his “mustard seed” - this guy is going to see some stuff happen. I walked into my study when all the planters were at my home the other night, and he was looking around. I wanted to give him my study - but it can’t be shipped to San Francisco. Some people thought my desk actually belonged to Jonathan Edwards - it was made in that area and in the style of that furniture but it’s a reproduction! I didn’t understand at first, but all of these young planters would walk in my office and be kind of quiet! I didn’t understand why until I was told they all thought my office furniture had been Jonathan Edwards. I think that’s good - Father give us lots of modern Jonathan Edwards’, who love you and will see this nation awakened - and let it begin in this cell in San Francisco.

Apostalic Leadership & Crop 1 of Church Planters for 2010

2010-01-30T13:13:04Z

We’ve changed the way we are training interns and planting churches. You don’t have to move here to be trained, mentored and sponsored. You can still move here - and some do, but that’s not possible for everyone. So if you want, come on and join us. You can click on “Turbo” above and find out more information. We are doing two cohorts a year, and this is the first. Now is the time to begin to sign up for the second cohort.
As I was observing the church planters, I was so proud of Kevin Cox - he has planted his church, planted other churches, is working in the inner-city and overseas as well. There are some other guys following suit. I saw several guys that will be doing the same thing - they remind me of myself, in many ways, a few years ago. I decided to give an impromptu lecture on Apostolic leadership because they are all going to do some great things and church planters are more prone in this leadership mode than most. I believe this is crucial to young church planters because it is in the DNA of multiplication. Here are some things I shared with them:
Apostolic is not:
The original 12
A Spiritual gift
A position in the church
Not necessarily a large church pastor
Not necessarily a high profile pastor or church leader
Apostolic is:
Big Picture Perspective
Future Oriented
Entrepreneurial leadership
Pioneering
Multiplying
Connecting
Releasing
Leadership that calls to action and inspires
Modeling
A Leadership model & role in the church, recognized or not
Apostolic Challenges:
Communicating what you sense and where you see God leading - Because it’s fresh and intuitive and you’re not even sure where all it will take you, getting words and vocabulary around it can be hard, BUT, you must communicate immediately the stories. Stories communicate and drive more than processes and systems. To keep your people with you and moving forward - tell the story again and again and again. You can move forward without a system - albeit slowly - you cannot move forward without the story of God calling and working. The Old Testament is living proof of that.
Keeping people up to speed with you. You’re not an engineer, a programmer, a systems person - which is really easy for people to follow, but not necessarily as impactful. Apostolic leaders tend to submerge themselves in what they begin to see and learn so books, relationships, ideas all start flowing really fast. There will always be tension at moving forward and keeping people up to speed with you. Visionary leadership at its core is calling people to a future.
Building a staff and partners that see the direction, are excited about it, then can build the systems and processes to help you move forward. I’m convinced, for an apostolic pastor - not only is that pastor uniquely gifted - but the staff surrounding them must also be uniquely gifted. If not, they’ll grind things to a halt because they have to have all the answers - and that’s simply not the way an apostolic leader operates and sees, neither is it the way movements happen. Apostolic leaders are not driven by a book, concept, or process - but a vision, an idea, an impression with a sense this is going somewhere.
Keeping the big idea in front of and not traveling down all the different streams of a big undiscovered area. Stay in the main stream of this uncharted river you’ve found. There’s time to come back later and hit some of the tributaries, or send others back to discover. Some of the best stuff is down those tributaries, but if you don’t map the main thing first, along with where the tributaries are, you’ll never get to the core of the idea.

Ed Stetzer Interviews Bob & Real-Time Connections Out Today!

2010-01-28T13:33:04Z

Ed Stetzer interviews Bob. Click here.

Real-Time Connections is out today and can be ordered. Click here.

New Links from Our Multi-Faith Weekend

2010-01-27T15:00:26Z

Video Sermon from Sunday.

After each service at each stop during the weekend, there was a time of Q&A. Here is the Q&A time from NorthWood.

Leave your comments and questions you may have for Bob about this weekend below.

Live Web Event Tomorrow, January 28th

2010-01-27T13:44:40Z

Taken from the www.whydoyoufearme.com website:

What are your first thoughts when you hear words like ‘The Middle East’, ‘Arab’, or ‘Muslim’?

If you are like many Americans, the word that first comes to mind is “terrorism.” FEAR is the natural and assumed emotional reaction. So then….what ARE the political, religious, and societal realities of the Middle East? What impact do these have on America? And most importantly, what should our response be to these challenges?

On January 28th, Governor David Beasley, Ted Dekker, and Carl Medearis will host an honest, unscripted conversation about America and the Middle East. They will not only discuss the vital issues, but provide real-life answers.

The event will be held in conjunction with the release of Ted and Carl’s new book, Tea with Hezbollah — Sitting at the Enemy’s Table, a powerful narrative which draws the West into a completely fresh understanding of those we call our enemies and the teaching that dares us to love them — a must-read for all who see the looming threat rising in the Middle East. David, Carl, and Ted each have a wealth of experience in the Middle East and will provide captivating insights into this confusing part of the world.

Your imagination will be stirred, your heart moved, and your mind filled with new ways to positively interact with the Middle East.

To register for the event, you may click HERE.

Necessary Shifts for faith in the 21st Century and Multi-faith Weekend

2010-01-25T13:32:58Z

Follow these links to see more about this amazing multi-faith weekend!

My sermon

“On Faith” article by Eboo Patel

Multi-Faith Weekend Has Been Incredible!

2010-01-24T00:52:11Z

So far, the multi-faith weekend has been incredible! Were were the feature story on our local CBS station tonight. You can watch the story HERE.

NORTHWOOD CHURCH AT TEMPLE SHALOM IN DALLAS LAST NIGHT!

2010-01-23T13:47:11Z

I’ve had people email me, twitter, and even call asking me to blog about the experience last night at Temple Shalom in Dallas where we had our first stop of the trialogue for this weekend gathering of Christians, Muslims, and Jews. You can read 2 blogs back and the story in the Dallas paper for more information and if you want to be a part - it’s not too late - you can go to the northwoodchurch.org web-site and get the details and come.

First, it wasn’t an interfaith worship service. Last night was the Jewish worship service and we Christians and Muslims watched – and, where we were comfortable, participated. If we wanted that, we would have one service - but that would not be honest to who we each were. I LOVED the music, the recitations - keep in mind they use, for us Christians, the Old Testament - so obviously I was OK with that. So whether I read Psalms in my church or in their synagogue - it touched me. I’ve never been to a synagogue - so watching people worship in the faith of my ancient roots and history was very moving to me. I did feel a connection.

Second, the people were so gracious at Temple Shalom. They went out of their way to welcome us - I felt like they probably felt overrun by us - we had a few hundred there - not sure how many - but lots. They kept coming up to our members and introducing themselves to us. They had a huge spread of food. They even had a religious bookstore - I think our members cleaned a lot of it out buying different Jewish items. They thanked us for coming - I was told again and again they never dreamed an evangelical pastor from Dallas would ever enter a synagogue let alone with his congregation. It made me sad - what impression have we given these people?

Third, this was about our 3 congregations members - not religious leaders, theologians, etc., so the conversation was so different from what I’ve experienced when we bring together religious leaders of different faiths. Everyone wanted to get to know one another. No one was positioning for anything - they’d probably never see one another again - they simply wanted to talk. And talk they did - asking every conceivable question possible before the service and then during the Q & A.

Fourth, we positioned it as multi-faith. So it was not impolite to disagree and anything was up for grabs. They started with me - the first question was do I believe in eternity and how do you get there? My answer: yes - and Jesus. The Imam - yes - heaven or hell - and you believe in one God, and follow the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. The rabbi - only 1% in the Bible talks about life after death - if you were living in the past you offer sacrifices. We all disagreed and no one got upset or uptight. They asked about the Bible, the Trinity, why do think we can’t get along. It was more of a “relational” conversation than a “theological” conversation - I believe that’s what’s been missing and is exactly why religious leaders on interfaith can’t make much headway. We need to live with the differences and be OK with them.

One of the last questions asked was why is it we can’t get along? I told them I’d just returned from Gaza and to me - the fact that we, the 3 monotheistic faiths, at a minimum can’t treat one another with respect is a sham to all of us. Rabbi Schneider said the majority of it was misunderstanding. I told them because we all value truth - our truth has made us arrogant instead of humble. The sign of truth is how it humbles us - not how it makes us superior and arrogant to others.

Fifth, the imam, the rabbi and I tried to model what we wanted for our people by: treating each other with respect and disagreeing honestly because of the truth we hold on to with our faith. It was like nothing I’ve ever been a part of in public. Much of it was just like what I experience around the world in closed doors with leaders - this was public and with congregants, which says to me the time for this is now. The world is longing for leadership and intelligent response that goes beyond positioning all our doctrinal statements. I cannot ignore the words of Jesus. I cannot deny the Bible, the cross, Jesus Christ as revealed in the New Testament and in my life. Neither can I ignore another human being that God has created to live here on the earth together.

The conversation has been in the wrong arena - religious leaders - it needs to break out to the laymen. The platform has been interfaith - it needs to move to multi-faith. Truth isn’t truth if it can be changed just so we all agree. Truth is truth regardless.

Jesus was with us there. The Holy Spirit didn’t stop as we entered the temple - but stayed right within us. Jesus was magnified and glorified in that we didn’t compromise who we know him to be - but also were willing to reach out in love to those we disagree with.

I feel like I’ve met some friends - and I’m excited about it. It helped me even understand Jerusalem and some of what I experience when I’m there.

THANK YOU TEMPLE SHALOM - Rabbi Paley and Rabbi Schneider - you were incredibly gracious, hospitable, and warm. Thank you Imam Zia - you were honest, direct, and not afraid to state the differences yet be friends. I think God is smiling.

Now - on to the mosque . . . . . 1:15 today . . . . Everyone dress modestly, conservatively, and women if you have a scarf it would be good, but not required.

Religious Perceptions in America

2010-01-23T08:00:39Z

I received this and throught some of you might like reading it.

The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies today released a new report, Religious Perceptions in America: With an In-Depth Analysis of U.S. Attitudes Toward Muslims and Islam. The major conclusions of the study were:
- Of the four faith groups asked about, Americans express the most prejudice toward Muslims
- Self-reported prejudice toward Jews is the variable most strongly associated with expressed prejudice toward Muslims
- Frequent religious service attendance is associated with reports of “no prejudice.”
- A favorable opinion of Islam is associated with “no prejudice”, whereas personally knowing a Muslim is not.
To read the full report, including an executive summary, please visit:
http://www.muslimwestfacts.com/mwf/125318/Religious-Perceptions-America.aspx

Our Multifaith event in Dallas Morning News and USA Today

2010-01-22T11:36:13Z

We made the news. Here’s the link and the story has been linked to by USA Today and other newspapers.
For all the details go to NorthWood’s website.