As a follower of Christ, I sense it all the time in conversations with others who a) are not a follower of Christ or b) are only a nominal Christian. It gets easier to detect the more contact you have with the person.

I usually notice it in the eyes. It’s a far-off look. A shift, a blink, a quick glance away. Sometimes I hear it in their voice or in their polite avoidance of topics of significance.

I’ve been marginalized.

You know what I’m talking about. It’s that feeling of being “labeled.” It can happen in any area of life for which you’re passionate. It’s how people deal with you. Heck, you do it to others. Typically, it’s how we relate with people that we may be a little uncomfortable with.

“He’s an Amway rep.” (or insert any other MLM company)

“She is a dog freak.”

“Uh-oh, here comes Mr. Granola. Don’t let him see the milk carton in your trash can.”

We label and compartmentalize people so that we can deal with them better. When we put them into a category, we marginalize them. When they’re marginalized, then their particular passion or interest has no effect on us. It’s been relegated to a file somewhere – to only be examined if we’re truly interested… later… if ever.

The problem with what we all do is that we miss out on truly relating with another person. And even if we’re not passionate about cloth diapers or homeschooling or pet adoption or the like, we can still relate and enjoy their part in the Grand Drama.

If everyone played the role I play, it would be a fantastic gig, but pretty short-lived, right? We desperately need to wide swath of colors, hues and views that other people’s passions paint on life’s canvas.

When we marginalize people, we force ourselves to see life in monotone.

Another danger in marginalization is that we may actually miss truth.

You see, when I sense that I’m being marginalized, it most often comes as a result of my joy in Jesus.

“Here comes the preacher…”

“He thinks he’s a real Christian…”

If Jeff Noble is being marginalized, that’s one thing. If the Gospel of Jesus Christ is marginalized, that’s an entirely other thing.

If you push truth to the side, if you relegate it to a mental file somewhere, if you stick it in a compartment… you essentially begin living half-life.

Even Jesus faced marginalization:

He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6.65-68)

That’s the danger of marginalization. If you relegate an important/truthful message to some mental or digital graveyard, your world suddenly becomes only what you make it to be. You will suddenly begin living a life and reality that only you define. If you push the magnificent to the margins, you’ll discover at some point that your life page is bland – or even worse, blank. And if you choose to live in the margins, you’ll be ignoring the content that lies between them.

And for your viewing entertainment…

Yes, Virginia, there is a Halloween.

Not that we thought it was an exclusively Arkansas entertainment event…

We spent a relaxing, overcast day with college football, a neighborhood parade and activities for kids in costume and of course, trick or treating. Adelyn was a clown this year – and she dressed as one too. She borrowed one of our church member’s orange clown hair that he uses only for Clemson games. It was a quite an honor, we were informed.

This was the first year that Sam purposefully chose NOT to go trick or treating. He did buy a scary mask and sat on the front porch with the candy bowl in his hands, unmoving. It was rather entertaining to watch the kids hesitantly approach and anxiously attempt to peer through his eye-holes to determine whether he was a real person or not.

On occasion, he would yell, and a couple of times (one being when Adelyn and friends came to the door), he hid in the garage and then burst out to chase the screaming menagerie down the driveway. All in all, it was a pretty successful event. I define “successful” as whether the kids raked in enough candy for the parents to have some as well.

We carved four pumpkins this year – VT, Boo, a Razorback and a traditional jack o’lantern. Carolyn was pretty proud of them.

And speaking of proud, Caro was pretty proud of this shot. The colors this past week hit their peak. It’s been pretty breathtaking. You know we’ve pointed it out excessively when Adelyn said in the car once last week, “Don’t say anything or mom will start talking about the T-R-E-E-S.”

A new local news site – The NRVHub – is sponsoring a great competition. The local church that registers 100 users for their site by October 31 will receive $500! I’d like to humbly ask you to consider registering to help Northstar Church (or another local church if you’re a member there). You don’t have to be a member of Northstar to register. They made this clear in the following instructions:

Just go to the Hub (http://www.nrvhub.com) and go to the upper right hand column, where it says sign in or create log in; from here the user will be sent to a new page to create their profile. This is where they can type in the church affiliation. So far not one Church has reached 100 names. Gotta get there to get the $500!
Remember the user does not have to be a member of your church. It can be anybody that you ask to help you earn the $500………..

So spread the word. The $500 will be a great boost, and we’ll present to you some ways that it can be used specifically for kingdom purposes if Northstar should win it. Remember to put “Northstar Church” in the affiliation spot.

Thanks!

Ok… so I can’t come up with something special and fru-fru like “Gladituesday.” Amy is one of our favorite friends from OBU, and she’s surpassed my blog in Carolyn’s Safari bookmarks. Although she blogs about estrogenized topics a lot, I do enjoy lurking and will even admit to a beaucoup of belly laughs as a result. (Not that I’m laughing at women… I’m laughing with them; let’s get that straight!)

Her recent entry about gratitude nudged me out of my blogger’s block. I have so much to be thankful for, and our recent transition to Virginia has provoked moments of heightened gladness – both in looking back and in looking forward. So here goes…

• I’m grateful that there’s a Taco Bell right across the street from our church office and that Chicken Ranch Gorditos (sounds like a maffia investment in Texas) are only 89 cents. On long meeting days, I can dash across the street and eat for $3.73, which includes a medium Diet Pepsi!
• I’m glad today that I am a Mac User. I know that’s corny and you poor PC users are rolling your eyes. But go defrag your hard drive or something. Click here and get a virus. Really, these are good days to be a Mac fan, and I’ve been one since 1988.
• I am excessively delighted to be married to my wife. We had a “date” at Starbucks this morning – she is not a coffee shop frequenter, but she’s gorgeous and makes me look good when I’m out in public. We laugh hard and play well together. We are able to share our spiritual highs and lows, and I am eternally grateful to the Lord for His introduction of me to her.
• On that note, my most supreme gratitude is always reserved for my eternal rescue. Jesus Christ is my Savior, Lord, Redeemer, Rock and Strong Guide. I unashamedly profess my devotion and obedience to Him. I hope you release your life in faith to Him as well. It He is what you’ve been searching for.
• Another gift of God to me is my children. Sam and Adelyn are fun-loving, joyful kids that are growing up way too fast. I’m so glad that I’m a dad – even an imperfect one. It’s a humbling privilege to be a home hero. However, they are experts at making sure I’m not aware of any hero status. Why is it the duty of every preteen son to gloat over his father’s male pattern baldness?
• I’m grateful and glad for life friends in Arkansas. See more here.
• I’m glad and humbled for quick acceptance and respect granted here in Virginia. We are amazed at what God is doing in the lives of the people of Northstar Church, and we’re humbled by their eagerness to serve and learn and press into the future together.
• I am giddy about wonderful brain-candy shows like Heroes, Smallville, Fringe, Lost and now Community. I am thankful that I can sit down and enjoy such fare after long days of counseling and ministry. In addition, I love how Amy said, “I’m glad for fiction. That may sound crazy, but I’m so glad that people make up stories and write them down so that I can have a place to escape from time to time.  Right now, I’m especially grateful for Jan Karon and her little town of Mitford.  My brain’s default mode is very thinky. I’ve discovered that if I spend a few minutes in another story before I go to sleep, I can usually turn off some of the thoughts that try to keep me awake. The Mitford series has been wonderful for me.  The characters are sweet and quirky and I can relax in Mitford. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I finish the series.”
  I completely agree… not about Mitford, but about fiction. I too love great stories and epics. I’m thankful for the creative and the amazing gift of imagination.
• I’m grateful for ministry. It’s an arduous calling (The apostle Paul told his young ministry protege Timothy to “endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2.3) Some days it feels like war, and some days it feels like a party. Yet, it is a “fine work.” (1 Timothy 3.1; See here for a great article on The Call to Church Leadership)
• I’m thankful for my scooter. Kevin Wieser gave me my first scooter, which was subsequently stolen. Then the people of Journey Church took up a collection to replace it. Having the Batmoped has been a huge blessing in Blacksburg.

What are you grateful for?

Rather than regurgitating my own notes from some of the other speakers at Catalyst, here are some links to their talks that have already been written about on other blogs. Just click on the image for the link.

Andy also opened up Catalyst with a great message which you can see summarized here.

One of the highlights of Catalyst for me was Chuck Swindoll’s message on Friday. I have been an appreciate follower of his as a pastor, author, leader at Dallas Theological Seminary and speaker on his radio show Insight for Living. One of my favorite, all-time books is his Grace Awakening.

He is one of those “elder statesmen” of the church that makes me pause and listen to what he says. He is consistently faithful to the biblical text while at the same time remaining eminently practical to applying its truth to life.

At Catalyst, he was presented with their Lifetime Achievement Award. It was a fitting honor for a humble leader.

The following are notes from his message to the crowd of 12K energetic, young (at heart) church planters, leaders and supposed innovators.

He began with a quote from Alan Redpath: “If God wants to do an impossible task, he will take an impossible person and crush them.” Swindoll echoed this by saying, “In all your dreams and enthusiasm, just leave room in your life for the crushing.”

This certainly hit home with me, and for the rest of his presentation, I was glued on his every word. He spoke with gracious humility mixed with apostolic authority.

10 things you need to know about leadership

1. It’s lonely to lead. Leadership involves tough decisions.
2. It’s dangerous to succeed – especially young in life. He said, “It’s rare for God to bring young men into vast areas of leadership.” If you’re under 30 and have experienced success in the church or ministry leadership, beware.
3. It’s hardest at home. That’s where the real you lives. No pretending there. Are you at your best at home, or does your family get leftovers? No one is applauding you at home saying, “Wow, Dad, you’re incredible!”
4. It’s essential to be real.
5. It’s painful to obey.
6. Brokenness and failure are necessary.
   Malcom Muggeridge says, “I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained. In other words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo, as Aldous Huxley envisaged in Brave New World, the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable. This, of course, is what the Cross signifies. And it is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.”
7. My attitude is more important then my actions. Swindoll said, “Some of you are getting hard to be around!”
8. Integrity eclipses image. What you’re doing is not a show!
9. God’s way is always better then my way. Our problem is that we’re too capable and can accomplish so much in the flesh. God cannot pour all of His riches into hands that are already full.
10. Christ-likeness begins and ends with humility.

Swindoll’s text was 2 Corinthians 4:5-7:

“For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

The foundational principle he drew from this was: We should be willing to leave the familiar methods without disturbing the biblical message.

He went on to describe the difference between traditionalism and tradition:

• Traditionalism: the dead faith of those still living
• Tradition: living faith of those now dead

He made three important observations about the text:

1. With every ministry, a special mercy is needed.
2. In every ministry the same things must be renounced and rejected

• Hiding shameful things
• Doing deceitful things
• Corrupting truthful things

3. Through every ministry, a unique style should be pursued.

• We don’t need to promote ourselves.
• We declare Christ Jesus as Lord.
• We see ourselves as bondservants of Jesus Christ.
• We never forget what we are… And who He is.

He concluded his ministry to us at Catalyst with “5 statements for your next 50 years in ministry:”

1. Whatever you do, do more with others and less alone.
2. Emphasize quality not quantity.
3. Wherever you go, do it the same as if you were among those who know you. (It will keep you from exaggerating.)
4. Whoever may respond, keep a level head (whether you’re worshiped or crucified).
5. However long you lead, keep on dripping with gratitude and grace.

Note: Thanks to Tim Schraeder for allowing me to use the above graphic.

I returned from Catalyst 2009 late Friday-early Saturday with my church staff, and I wanted to post some quick reflections on the experience. I’ve been wanting to attend for 9 years, and finally made it this year to celebrate its 10th birthday.

I know of no other event that seeks to honor Christ and elevate joy as much as Catalyst. There were incredible moments of tear-jerking spirituality – such as when one man was brought on stage to promote Compassion International. He had been supporting kids through CI for 12 years. The Catalyst staff then surprised him by bringing up on stage a young man from Africa – one of the kids he had been supporting for years. It was the first time they’d ever met in person. The two fell to their knees in a sobbing, joyful embrace of love and overwhelming emotion.

On the other hand, another Guiness Book record was broken as Professor Splash jumped from a 35′9″ platform into a foot of water in a kiddie pool.

There was a impact-laden lineup of Christ-centered speakers and ministers that included the likes of Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, Dave Ramsey, Matt Chandler, Chuck Swindoll and Priscilla Schirer. These gracious leaders urged us to turn from sin, consumerism and shallow thinking.

Then there was the 10-minute football fight that literally looked like snow as the 12,000 participants launched mini inflatable footballs at each other and a group of kids wearing football uniforms on the stage. This preceded the introduction of Tony Dungy and his clear, unequivocal and humble talk that demonstrated how one can walk with Christ and ego-addicts at the same time.

We were challenged and exposed to the depth of need for ministry and intercession as we learned about the 143 million orphans in our world (check out 143million.org) and alternatively, we laughed our heads off at the inane videos of theme interpretation of “On Your Mark.” Two of the Catalyst staffers created some of the most Jackass-like videos with the tagline “That’s gonna leave a mark.”

Catalyst 2009 was both a circus and a sanctuary.

It was the best of times and the worst of times.

Considering that Dave Ramsey’s group co-sponsored the event and then gave out 6000 free t-shirts promoting Financial Peace also left one wondering about the mixed message.

While thousands drank the Catalyst Koolaid without question, thousands also whispered in private conversations over Rwandan coffee about the confusing message of Christ, sheer entertainment, consumerism and selfless service.

One was left wondering at times, should we be more focused and less fun? Is it sinful to have a great time – especially considering the suffering of other saints? Are we magnifying the frivolous at the altar of edgy?

Yet… the moments of worship that transcended frivolity were plentiful. The humility evidenced by most of the speakers was tangible. The name of Christ was consistently magnified, and some of His most unnoticed servants – adoptive parents – were given honor and attention. Andy Stanley spoke on areas of leadership so desperately needed by the younger generation of Christian wanna-be’s.

In these hours of near-reflection, I am both grateful and embarrassed that I was able to participate. I am not critical of Catalyst. Rather, I’m challenged by it. Truly, its name is appropriate.

I’ll be posting some thoughts later on some of the messages I heard. Three of them deeply ministered to me. Stay tuned…

We had a fantastic day at Catalyst today, and I post it thoughts about it later. For now, here’s some video I shot from my iPhone, and if you want to see more, check out the media page at Cat09.