Brian Jones

I’m Not Being Fed (and other stupid things Christians say)

Two Things Really Inspiring Me Right Now

Brian Jones — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:03:39 +0000

Here are two things that have really been inspiring me lately:

1. “January Wedding” by the Avett Brothers.

Love their sound, and especially love this particular song. It talks about the winding road a couple takes to get to the point where they “know that they know that they know” they were meant to be together. I find the final lines particularly poignant:

No longer does it matter what circumstances we were born in
She knows which birds are singin’
And the names of the trees where they’re performin’ in the mornin
And in January we’re gettin’ married
Come January let’s get married

I’ll never forget that one indescribable moment when I knew Lisa was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. While it was different from that moment in this song where he looked over and realized that she “can pick out a blue warbler high up in sycamore tree,” it was equally simple yet transcendent. We’re getting married, I thought to myself.

So I guess, like all great love songs, its not the lyrics themselves that inspire us; its the way they enable us to look back and remember why we love the person we’re married to so much.

2. Frederick Buechner’s Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC.

Buechner’s writing always inspires me, but what has brought me back to this particular book again (reading it now for maybe the fifth time) is the way he breathes fresh life into well-worn concepts. In Wishful Thinking he takes common theological terms like envy, love, and sin and invites us to look at them in new and enlightening ways.

“There are only two kinds of fools in the world: damned fools and what St. Paul calls ‘Fools for Christ’s sake’ (1 Corinthians 4:10).”

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

“Envy is the consuming desire to have everybody else as unsuccessful as you are.”

“Lust is the craving for salt of a person who is dying of thirst.”

“Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back–in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

Wishful Thinking is inspiring me again in a really dry patch. If you’re looking for a fresh take on faith I think it will speak to you too.

What’s inspired you lately?

Should We Start A Saturday Night Service?

Brian Jones — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:36:14 +0000

Years ago a good friend of mine emailed me and asked my advice concerning whether or not I thought his church should start a Saturday night service. Lots of pastors are weighing whether or not this is a good move, and rightly so. I get this question a lot, so I thought I’d share what I told him years ago:

Vince,

If you call me on my cell I can talk a lot faster than I can type, but in a nutshell here was our experience:

1. I surveyed pastors for one full year about Sat. night services and decided to launch one in December of 2005. We killed it in April of 06, four months later.

2. The service was reaching 150-200 people (we ran 800+ in the other three), but 95% of them were CCV transfers from Sunday morning to Saturday night. Of those people who switched services well over 1/3 of them STILL came to Sunday morning.

3. We cast vision for one year, recruited a massive team of volunteers to pull it off, and sunk $ into direct-mail & signs to advertise it. We gave it EVERYTHING WE HAD.

4. Everyone told us that if you are going to be successful you had to offer the IDENTICAL programs you offer on Sunday mornings, so we offered a full kid’s and teen program identical to our Sunday service. Everything was the same.

5. I hated life more during the four months we did Saturday night than any other time during our church’s six year history. It robbed a day from my work week because we made Monday a mandatory day off. Saturdays with my family were gone. Over. Outta here. I had to cut out of everything at noon. My kids weren’t thrilled because I started missing all their sports activities. My wife was great about it (since that became the service she attended and served at) but over time she began to notice how that one service began to trap our family even more to the internal orbit of the church. My personal evangelism began to suffer. We gave staff weekends off to compensate for their weekends being completely ripped off from them, but then we noticed a severe lack of continuity between programming and the overall quality of the services and kids’ programs. Everything suffered: The quality of our programs; the morale of our staff; my overall attitude toward the church.

6. If I had seen measurable data that showed the Sat. service was a killer outreach venue I would have given it much, much longer to play out, but we couldn’t see any progress toward that goal, so it became a HUGE relief to our staff when one day I stood up before everyone and said, “Guys, does anyone else besides me think this Saturday night service was a really stupid idea?” Two hours later we killed it. That was on a Wednesday at our staff lunch. We sent letters to the church and made phone calls to our volunteers and didn’t even have a service that Saturday. Our entire church was elated.

7. That decision to launch a Saturday night service was one of my worst decisions made here at CCV. My decision to kill it was one of my best.

8. We have adopted Andy Stanley’s philosophy here: Never, under any circumstances, will we ever have a Saturday night service, even if we thought it could be a great outreach venue. The value we have on caring for our staff and volunteers and enjoying life together takes precedence over adding 1/7 more unchurched people to our aggregate worship attendance.

Brian

What do you think? Does your church have a Saturday night service? Has it been a positive experience? For staff? For volunteers? For attenders? Did you kill one?

What to do when you have nothing to say

Brian Jones — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:50:13 +0000

Maybe you’ve been where I am now – a bit of a funk. Not like a depression funk, but an “I don’t have anything to say” funk.

In a real sense I make my living with words – as a preacher of words, a writer of words, and a speaker of words to those who are discouraged and broken-hearted. So it’s a bit unnerving when I hit patches when I can’t find the words, any words, to speak

Some 2,700 years ago the prophet Isaiah wrote,

They came to you in their distress…they could barely whisper a prayer. As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so we were in your presence, LORD. We were with child, we writhed in labor, but we gave birth to wind. (Isaiah 26:16-18).

Maybe that describes you right now. If so, what should you do?

Here’s my two cents: Don’t say anything.

If you can’t pray, don’t. If you can’t speak, have someone else speak for you. Trust that God can accomplish more through your silence than your speech. Poet David Whyte writes,

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There’s years of godly wisdom there worth listening to.

Ideas worth hearing need time to gestate, as do prophetic words that will eventually cut to the heart. As do parental comments that need to be saved up, mulled over, and delivered many years later.

Nothing is more painful to watch, or listen to, than someone giving birth to the wind.

Pretty Much Sums Up My Life Right Now…

Brian Jones — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:49:53 +0000

I get up in the evening
and I ain’t got nothing to say
I come home in the morning
I go to bed feeling the same way
I ain’t nothing but tired
Man I’m just tired and bored with myself

- Dancing In The Dark, Bruce Springsteen

What’s The Deal With All The Idols Everywhere?

Brian Jones — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:14:53 +0000

After a 14 hour flight from Newark to Delhi, then another 4 hour flight from there to north India, we met our friend Avia and hopped into his jeep for a 6 hour trek to the middle of nowhere at the base of the Himalayas.

The first thing I noticed were the Hindu idols and Buddhist shrines EVERYWHERE.

On the sides of the roads…

Under trees…

They even placed idols on their dashboards…

Because Banyan trees are considered sacred (and even inhabited by spirits by animists) just about every large Banyan tree we saw had a shrine placed under it…

I know this is a common sight throughout Asia, but I had never see this before. But rather than getting creeped out by it all, I was struck by two things.

First, I live in a highly Catholicized region of Philadelphia. Catholics place shrines and statues everywhere, just like Hindus, Buddhists and Animists – Angels on the sides of roads – Mary shrines in their yards – Saints on their dashboards. Same practice, just different objects. Seeing these idols underscored how similar we are, not how different.

Second, I was reminded how deep inside all of us is an insatiable craving for worship, regardless of our culture and geographical location. We yearn for it. We all share, regardless of skin color, what C.S. Lewis called “The secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want.”

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting a village to see a newly planted two-year old church with 80+ newly baptized believers.

All came from Animism or a syncretistic form of Buddhism. As we sang with them in the dark (no electricity for miles) their excitement and passion for their new-found God was uncontrollable.

The experience reminded me of the new believers converted under Paul’s preaching: “…You welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering…and turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thess 1:9).

The smiles.

The testimonies of how God was changing their lives and their village.

The powerful sense of community.

I simply could not hold back the tears.

Two years ago these people were worshipping rocks, cobras, and trees. Now because of the tireless work of Avia, they worship the creator of the rocks, cobras and trees they used to worship.

And they’re happy. Truly happy.

Driving away in his jeep that night our friend Avia said out loud to no-one in particular, “Those who labor in the Lord do not labor in vain.”

Thank You India

Brian Jones — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:22:33 +0000

The reason I took a break from blogging a couple weeks ago is because a small team of us left on a covert exploratory trip to an unreached part of Northern India (where evangelism is illegal). As a part of our partnership with Team Expansion, we have adopted an unreached region there and are working with an amazing pastor named Avia to bring the gospel to a 1,000,000+ people who have never heard the name of Jesus.

To protect his identity and work we did everything possible to conceal the whereabouts of our trip (telling only the CCV staff and Leadership Team about our trip’s location, geographical references, etc.).

The trip was amazing.

Pastors walked a 5 day’s journey through the mountains and jungle to meet us and dream about what a church-planting partnership could look like.

We saw thousands and thousands of beautiful, gentle and loving people for whom we were the only Western faces they had ever seen in their entire lives. Not a single Christian walked among them.

Our hearts were broken by the need, and we left compelled to come back home and assemble a small army of partners to come alongside the amazingly courageous Christians there to help them share the gospel in the face of extreme ostracization and persecution.

Taking my cue from Alanis Morissette’s song, “Thank You India,” I’m going to share some things I learned about the people there, how my experiences spoke to my own life, and a bit about the opportunity God has presented before our church and our partners.

I would have blogged about it last week, but the combo of the virus I brought home (which made my entire family sick as well) and the jet lag just wiped me out.

(If you can’t view the video in your reader click HERE)

Feel Like Your Prayers Are Bouncing Off The Ceiling? They Could Be!

Brian Jones — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:50:10 +0000

Feeling like God isn’t listening to your prayers?

He may not be, for good reason. Here’s why…

(for those using a reader you can access the video HERE)

The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson

Brian Jones — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:30:06 +0000

I am taking a break from blogging until February 1st.

Until then can I suggest an AMAZING new book on prayer that you MUST read?

It’s called The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson.

From the first page until the last its packed with profound insights and practical tips to take your prayer life to places its never gone before.

Buy a copy and share it with those you love.

It will change the way you pray.

I promise.

I Need To Stay Intellectually Hungry (so I gave away 3/4 of the books in my library)

Brian Jones — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:50:47 +0000

Here’s a picture of what REMAINS of my personal pastoral library…

A few months ago I gave away of 3/4 of the books in my personal library. Books are the lifeblood of any spiritual leader, so I was pretty surprised during a recent prayer time when I felt the spirit’s nudge to “clean this place out.” And yes, this is what was LEFT.

I believe the nudge to clean my library out was more than an effort on God’s part to simply create more shelf space. I’m pretty sure it was the spirit’s prompting to take stock of the ideas that had influenced me up to this point in my journey and, to begin, both literally and metaphorically, to make room for new ideas.

I approached each book in my library with one simple question: “Has this book so profoundly influenced me that I can see myself reading it 2-3 more times and sharing it with other people?” If the answer was no, it went into the “give away” pile.

Here were a few things that crossed my mind as I did this:

1. Besides biblical study and language resources, I quickly learned that I had purchased two kinds of books over the years: timeless books and quick-fix how-to books. Books I’d throw in the timeless category were books like Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald and Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration by Warren Bennis; both books that continue to speak into my life years after they were written. Quick-fix how-to books all focused on the latest church fad to come down the pike.

2. The empty shelves have become symbolic for me. When Lisa came to my office at the end of the day she looked around and said, “What happened here?” I said, “Time for something new.”

I love looking at the empty spaces on the shelves around me. Unlike the days when books were shoved on top of one another into every available space, the empty spaces give off this fresh smell of intellectual and spiritual hunger, the kind of aroma I first sensed when I started out in ministry.

I needed this.

I always want to stay intellectually hungry and presume that there’s so much more for me to learn. In fact, I truly believe that I will learn more in the last 40 years of my life than in the first 40 years. The empty spaces symbolize that for me.

How about you?

What could you do in your life and area of passion that would symbolize the need to keep growing?

Recent Posts You Might Find Interesting:

7 Ways We Keep Church Hoppers From Staying At Our Church

I’m Not Being Fed (and other stupid things Christians say)

Rejecting The “You’re Not Committed Enough” Guilt Trip

You Can’t Medicate Your Way Out Of Not Giving A Crap

I’m Not Being Fed (and other stupid things Christians say)

7 Ways We Keep Church Hoppers From Staying At Our Church

Brian Jones — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:07:20 +0000

I think two of the most dangerous influences any church faces are: (1) Spiritual leaders who have lost their first love and (2) the onslaught of church hoppers.

Having wavered before in my faith and flirted with losing my first love with God, I know firsthand how dangerous the first one can be. But that’s something we spiritual leaders have control over. The second one…not so much.

I call church hoppers “connoisseurs of fine churches” because they’re continually on a quest to find the church that is spiritual enough for them, will endlessly engorge themselves on the “services” of the churches they attend, and always have a critical word to say afterwards whenever “church” doesn’t meet their standards.

Here are seven things we try to do to change their mindset (or keep their butts from staying in the seats of our church for very long):

1. Ask church hoppers to commit to tithing and serving
That usually takes care of it right there. Because church hoppers are consumers by nature, anything that strikes them as sacrificial will surely turn them off. As a ministry friend of mine used to tell me, “At the first sign of trouble, raise the bar.”

2. Tell your people to stop inviting their Christian friends to church
Right before Christmas I may have been one of the only pastors out there that stood up and said, “Please DO NOT invite your Christian friends to our Christmas services. We want other churches in the area to know we have their back. Also, we want to grow this church through conversion growth, not transfer growth. Let’s pack this place out with people who are keeping God up at night because they are living far from him.” I strategically do that 3-4 times a year.

3. Preach short sermons
Howard Hendricks used to say, “Keep them longing, not loathing.” I buy into that philosophy. I try to speak anywhere between 24 and 28 minutes max (my staff will read this and say PLEASE …okay, I TRY to preach 24-28 minutes!). Shorter sermons drive church hoppers nuts because they want to “be fed” (i.e. long expository sermons). I’m not interested in “feeding people” unless they are in the early stages of their spiritual journey. Church hoppers as well as Christians further along their spiritual journey need to be feeding themselves. Anything I provide on Sunday morning is in addition to their own self-directed spiritual nourishment. One point, one scripture, 24-28 minutes, that’s it.

4. Don’t sing 9,345 worship songs
Church hoppers, 9 times out of 10, came from a church background where they were taught to need 5-6 worship songs to really connect with God. That needs to be re-taught. Where did we get the idea that worship = singing anyway? That’s part of it, but only a small part of it. Every part of the service is worship. Every part of my life is worship. Limiting your worship songs except for occasions when you are led by God to expand the repertoire forces people to recognize this or leave.

5. Keep your services short
We keep our services to 55 minutes, period. That’s it. That’s because we believe “church” is more than the official service that happens on a Sunday morning. It’s what happens before, during and afterwards. It’s what happens during the week when 2-3 gather. Experiencing a well-conceived 55 minute service to the church hopper is like spending your whole life overeating and then sitting down for a healthy, well-proportioned meal that someone else serves you (“Hey, I’m used to eating 16 pieces of fried chicken! Why do I only get two?”).

6. Eliminate Christian “insider” language
The fact that I say “Leader” and “forgiver” from the stage drives church hoppers nuts. “You meant to say ‘Savior and Lord,’ didn’t you?” At issue is an old mission’s word called “contextualization,” which basically means we need to speak in the language and culture of the hearer, not the speaker. The Greek word “kurios” doesn’t mean “Lord” in 21st century American idiom. Your old Bible translation from 50 years ago may read that way, but people aren’t talking that way today. Challenge your “insider” language and watch how church hoppers and their friends file right out of your services.

7. Sing Non-Christian songs in your services
Trust me, that will weed them out. A few years ago we opened a church service with Jet’s “Are you Gonna Be My Girl?” The theme of the song perfectly set up what I was going to teach on later in the service.

On Monday I promptly received an email about it…

This past weekend, I could not believe my ears. When worship opened up, I heard the opening chords for Jet’s- “Are you going to be my girl?” I was expecting the Apologetix parody version, “Are you gonna be Ike’s girl?”

But in listening to the lyrics it sounded like they were covering the actual Jet Song – a song about figuring out how to get a one night stand, for a girl who came to some club or party with another guy.

I am hoping that I was mistaken and they were playing the Christian Parody version because I am having a real issue with wrapping my head around why it would be remotely ‘OK’ to play this content in a worship service.

There is a line between having a light fun service to reach the new/non-believer and cheapening the value and truth that the gospel can stand alone to reach out to someone. This may have crossed it.

Frustrated…

Name Withheld

Here was my response…

Frustrated,

I got your email and appreciate you taking the time to shoot me your thoughts.

I must say that while I appreciate your concern, this is certainly not the first nor will it be the last time we sing non-Christian music in our worship services.

We do this because we are trying to reach both non-Christians as well as Christians in the same service, and playing a non-Christian song up front in the service, we have learned, puts people far from God at ease and can powerfully illustrate a teaching point.

Our philosophy has always been that Christians should be the ones that should be made the most uncomfortable in church, not the non-Christians. The way I put it is this — we will always choose to offend the Christians before the non-Christians.

Seeing that you are frustrated, and given the fact that I talked with a bunch of people far from God on Sunday who loved the energy of the song and felt connected to the service because of it, it appears that we have achieved our goal.

My suggestion is this — weigh carefully whether or not you want to be a part of a church that sings music like this, and plays difficult to watch video clips, and a host of other things to reach people far from God. If not, then now would be the time to look for another church before you put down roots too deep.

If on the other hand this is the kind of church you want to be a part of, I would welcome you to join in with everything you have and start reaching out to people far from God.

I hope this helps.

Thanks!

Brian

Church hoppers can be a lethal bunch, so don’t make them too cozy. However, and I’ll blog about this at another time – please remember that God can also be leading some of those people to your church too. But that’s a post for another day.

What do you think of our approach?

Recent Posts You Might Find Interesting:

Why Some People Are Self-Controlled And Others Aren’t

Rejecting The “You’re Not Committed Enough” Guilt Trip

You Can’t Medicate Your Way Out Of Not Giving A Crap

Why Some People Are Self-Controlled And Others Aren’t

I’m Not Being Fed (and other stupid things Christians say)

Brian Jones — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:16:42 +0000

If forced to make the decision, our church from day one has decided that we will offend the self-seeking Christian before the spiritually seeking non-Christian.

I personally believe you can only strategically choose to offend one of those groups.

Some churches are purposely designed to offend the spiritually seeking non-Christian, whether they describe it that way or not. The music they sing, the way they dress, the decorum of their buildings, the vibe they create on Sunday morning, and most important – what they define as a “win” missionally – all combine to create an atmosphere that repels the very people Jesus came to die for.

Other churches believe it’s absolutely critical to nurture the believers in the church into radically sold-out world-changing followers of Jesus, but also believe Christ-followers are called to serve. Jesus taught in Mark 10:43-44,

“Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”

Christians always define those verses as being willing to do crappy stuff for other Christians without getting any accolades. I’m sure that’s part of it, but I think what Jesus was driving at was that he wanted his followers to purposely choose to not get their own way, to put their own wishes and interests and needs aside in the desire to further his kingdom. Therein lays the motivation to offend the Christian before the non-Christian: Christians are supposed to be willing to be offended.

Show me someone who keeps whining about not singing enough worship songs, or “being fed,” or doesn’t want the church to focus on evangelism, or missions, or feeding the poor, or singing secular music on Sunday, and I’ll show you a freakishly immature Christian. The sad, and sometimes scary thing, is that 99 times out of 100 they simply don’t realize it.

It’s one thing for a Christian to say, “Hey, I’m giving my life away for the lost and poor, but I’ve got a lot of growing to do. Can you help me?”

It’s an entirely different thing for a Christian to live in the most Christianized culture on the planet, replete with an endless supply of Christian churches, books, TV programs, radio shows, websites, conferences, 501© non-profits, blogs, Tweets, Bibles in 67 gagillion translations, etc., and say, “I’m not being fed.” That’s like a morbidly obese person setting down their 11th plate at an all-you-can-eat buffet and screaming at the waitress, “Bring me more food NOW!”

Given the choice of offending this type of Christian or someone far from God, it’s easy to know which choice Jesus would make.

How about you?

Recent Posts You Might Find Interesting:

Rejecting The “You’re Not Committed Enough” Guilt Trip

You Can’t Medicate Your Way Out Of Not Giving A Crap

Intimidation Letter Sent By FBI to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why Are Some People Self-Controlled And Others Aren’t?

Brian Jones — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:26:42 +0000

A question that’s been bugging me lately is, “What precedes temperance?”

Our church just finished the second week of a series called, “Do This, Not That.” It’s a series on the seven deadly sins – a collection of sins that have proved to be the most troublesome for Christians to eradicate from their lives.

The solution, Galatians 5 and other scriptures exhort us, is to focus on cultivating a corresponding virtue that ultimately supplants the vice we struggle with.

This past Sunday we discussed the deadly sin of gluttony, and how focusing on temperance (i.e. “tempering our impulses to spend, eat, speak rashly, whatever) cultivates the spiritual strength to withstand all forms of gluttony.

But what precedes temperance? When you see someone who oozes self-control, what causes them to be so? What gives them the inner drive to control themselves?

The answer: vision.

They have a clear picture of what’s possible in their lives, and that vision consumes them.

I talk more about this in my message, but ultimately the real sin of gluttony is not food, but a staggering failure to stay inspired.

You keep God’s vision for financial freedom burning red hot in your life and you’ll end up avoiding debt and disciplining yourself to save. You keep God’s vision for your marriage before your eyes and you’ll control your tongue. Those who are the most self-controlled are not those who have a supernaturally empowered character ethic. They’re just regular people like you and me who possess (or, more accurately, “have been possessed by”) a clear picture of what God wants them to become.

Vision drives temperance.

My question for you is: “If vision motivates you to temper your lifestyle to achieve God’s best for you, how do you stay inspired?”

Recent Posts You Might Find Interesting:

Five Reasons You MUST Add This To Your Bucket List NOW

Rejecting The “You’re Not Committed Enough” Guilt Trip

You Can’t Medicate Your Way Out Of Not Giving A Crap

Five Reasons You MUST Add This To Your Bucket List NOW

Intimidation Letter Sent By FBI To Martin Luther King Jr.

Brian Jones — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:30:16 +0000

The fantastic website Letters of Note recently shared the following post:

“In November of 1964, fearful of his connection to the Communist Party through Stanley Levison, the FBI anonymously sent Martin Luther King the following threatening letter, along with a cassette that contained the fruits of a 9 month surveillance project — allegedly incriminating audio recordings of King with women in various hotel rooms — headed by William C. Sullivan. A decade later, Sullivan told investigators that they had simply wanted King to resign from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King, on the other hand, had seen the letter as an invitation to take his own life.”

Read the letter and let me know what you think.

Despite his foibles (like King David, Soloman, and the multitudes of women and men in the Bible that blew it sexually yet still made an incredible impact on the lives of those around them), MLK was a prophet, reformer, preacher, and devoted man of God worth honoring today.

Especially when you consider what he endured to help so many…

Image courtesy of Paul Wolf.

Transcript

KING,

In view of your low grade… I will not dignify your name with either a Mr. or a Reverend or a Dr. And, your last name calls to mind only the type of King such as King Henry the VIII…

King, look into your heart. You know you are a complete fraud and a great liability to all of us Negroes. White people in this country have enough frauds of their own but I am sure they don’t have one at this time anywhere near your equal. You are no clergyman and you know it. I repeat you are a colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that. You could not believe in God… Clearly you don’t believe in any personal moral principles.

King, like all frauds your end is approaching. You could have been our greatest leader. You, even at an early age have turned out to be not a leader but a dissolute, abnormal moral imbecile. We will now have to depend on our older leaders like Wilkins, a man of character and thank God we have others like him. But you are done. Your “honorary” degrees, your Nobel Prize (what a grim farce) and other awards will not save you. King, I repeat you are done.

No person can overcome facts, not even a fraud like yourself… I repeat — no person can argue successfully against facts… Satan could not do more. What incredible evilness… King you are done.

The American public, the church organizations that have been helping — Protestant, Catholic and Jews will know you for what you are — an evil, abnormal beast. So will others who have backed you. You are done.

King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days in which to do it (this exact number has been selected for a specific reason, it has definite practical significant. You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.

Transcript follows (Source: David J. Garrow, ‘The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.’ (New York, 1981), pp. 125‑ 126).

What’s your thoughts after reading the things written in this letter?

Most Recent Posts:

Rejecting The “You’re Not Committed Enough” Guilt Trip

You Can’t Medicate Your Way Out Of Not Giving A Crap

Rejecting The “You’re Not Committed Enough” Guilt Trip

5 Reasons You MUST Add This To Your Bucket List NOW

Brian Jones — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:30:43 +0000

I found this video while doing research for an upcoming mission trip to India. Our church is adopting an unreached people group through our partnership with Team Expansion, so I’ve been cruising the net trying to get a better feel for Indian culture.

Here are 5 reasons I’m adding this to my bucket list:

Out of all the head massages in the world, this is reportedly the greatest one, like that coffee shop in the movie Elf. I can’t pass this up.
This guy’s name is Baba. LOVE that name. If I had a son I was going to name him Nathan, but Baba was like 4th on the list.
From Philly it’s only an 18hr flight to Delhi and then an 11hr train ride to Pushkar. That’s like driving from Philly into New York City at rush hour.
Massaging your scalp is supposed to increase blood circulation and re-grow hair. I have a bald spot. Enough said.
I need more cosmic energy! (note the application of cosmic energy!)

Enjoy!

(if you can’t view the video in your reader click HERE)

Have you ever gotten a head massage? (with an application of cosmic energy, of course!)

Most Recent Posts:

You Can’t Medicate Your Way Out Of Not Giving A Crap

You Can’t Medicate Your Way Out Of Not Giving A Crap

Rejecting The “You’re Not Committed Enough” Guilt-Trip

Brian Jones — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:30:44 +0000

Every time we turn around there’s a new book/pastor/church/sermon/bible study/seminar or conference telling us that we are wholly inadequate in our commitment to Christ.

The formula is always the same:

Talk about how Jesus was this insanely committed guy who lived his life on the brink of starvation and death to help others.
Highlight how we American Christians are fat, lazy, shallowly committed and innately self-centered.
Heighten awareness by finding stories about Christians (usually in third world or persecuted countries) that are not fat, lazy and shallowly committed and who live insanely committed lives on 3 cents a day and risk death to help others.
Round out your thoughts by implying that “If you were really committed to Christ you would…” __________ (give more money), ___________ (serve more), __________ (live more radically), _____________ (believe more fervently), and ___________ (visit dangerous places) just like Jesus and these other people around the world.

Who wouldn’t feel fat, lazy, shallowly committed and innately self-centered after being bludgeoned by that?

The problem is American Christians eat this stuff up, and it has nothing to do with Jesus; it’s all about the formula.

Imagine you became a little league baseball coach and were tasked with taking over a team of fourth-graders and turning them into MLB superstars. What would you say to them to motivate them?

My hunch is you’d be tempted to…

Talk about how A-Rod and Derek Jeter are these insanely committed guys who live their lives totally devoted to baseball.
Highlight how American fourth graders are fat, lazy, shallowly committed and innately self-centered.
Heighten awareness by finding stories about fourth-graders (usually in Cuba) who eat, drink and breath baseball 24/7.
Round out your thoughts by implying that “If you were really committed to baseball you would…” ______________ (throw the ball more), ______________ (go to the batting cage 3x’s as often), and ______________ (bug your parents to hire a personal trainer), just like A-Rod and Derek Jeter and all those kids in Cuba who would love to trade places with you.

And the fourth graders would eat it up.

But would they actually get any better because of it?

Of course not.

Why?

Because growth, any growth, is always incremental – the proverbial three steps forward, one step back.

The only thing the “You’re Not Committed Enough” Guilt-Trip does is, well, exactly that – produce guilt. Expose yourself to churches/pastors/books that give this speech too much and eventually you’ll discover that the only thing you’ve excelled at is the time-honored Christian art of feeling like crap.

And that’s about it.

Spiritual improvement comes in spite of speeches like these, not because of them.

The problem is whether you’re coaching baseball or coaching new believers, giving people the “You’re Not Committed Enough” guilt-trip as a way to motivate them to become better has the exact opposite effect.

Constantly exposed to such guilt-trip formulas, Christians (or fourth grade wanna-be all-stars) don’t become more radical, they become more defeated.

Looking for proof?

Look in the mirror.

How many formulaic guilt-trip sermons/pastors/churches/Bible studies/books have you been exposed to over the years? My guess is more than you’d care to admit?

Are you any more of an insanely committed Christ follower having been exposed to them?

Of course not.

The reality is the most radical thing you can do today is obey Jesus in the next five minutes. That’s it.

I’m not sure what that will be.

I’m not sure how that will feel.

But I am quite positive that it will be small and no-one will notice.

And I’m pretty sure that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Have your come across the “You’re Not Committed Enough” Guilt-Trip before? Did it work?

Most Recent Posts:

You Can’t Medicate Your Way Out Of Not Caring About Anything

Brian Jones — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:30:23 +0000

“Acedia is like morphine. You know the pain is there, yet can’t rouse yourself to give a damn.” – Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me

Throughout church history, those tasked with leading men and women in personal transformation quickly realized there were seven persistent sins that continually set traps for Christ followers.

Over time those sins became known as “the seven deadly sins.”

The key to overcoming each deadly sin is not by focusing on the sin itself, but by practicing a corresponding virtue which over time supplants the vice we each struggle with.

In short, spiritual growth comes by “doing this, not that.”

This past Sunday we kicked off DO THIS, NOT THAT by talking about spiritual apathy, or what the ancients called “Acedia,” which in Greek literally meant “not caring.”

Acedia is truly a lethal sin.

The 4th century monk Evagrius of Pontus said that acedia was the worst of all the deadly sins because, if you become comfortable with where you are spiritually, you’ll eventually lose all urgency whatsoever to eradicate the other sins in your life. But acedia is not the same as depression, and you can’t medicate your way out of it. You can’t overcome it by transferring to another church, finding a new Bible translation, or joining another small group. Acedia is willful. It’s a choice. You have to fight it in order to overcome it.

Do you struggle with acedia? How so? How do you overcome it when it strikes?

Most Recent Posts: