999 – 9.09.09 – 9/9/09 and the Nines

Yesterday was a unique numerical day.  If I were inclined to love zany Zeitgeist theories and Van Impe fantasy tales, I would have taken out my binoculars and searched the horizon for an upside down Antichrist leaping from Harpo’s latest infomercial broadcast.  Instead, I tuned into a virtual leadership conference called The Nines.

I confess that at first, it seemed really nerdy and just another attempt at being ‘cool’ and some of the names I saw in the lineup were folks that I do not believe have a firm grasp of either the gospel or church.   Then I thought about it from a technological standpoint.  I looked at it as a unique use of a great time in history where how we communicate with each other changes so fast, that by the time you learn one niche, it seems to be obsolete. Every advance in technology is met with both awe and criticism. I remember when I was in college and cell phones looked like those huge GI Joe battle radios and people thought it was absolutely ridiculous to have one.  Only the wealthy had them and very few saw what was coming down the pike re: tiny hand-held flip phones and text message mania.

So now we’re here in multi-platformed communique where if you can’t use a browser you’re considered ‘out the loop’. Only dinosaurs can’t type on keyboards.  So why not use these great advancements for the Kingdom? Why not embrace technology as God’s providential means of connecting us more easily to education and encouragement?

I tuned in at nine minutes to nine just to have my own little geeky fun since the conference was supposed to start at nine after nine.  I watched about an hour of the conference and have assembled, in continued geek fun, a list of nine observations about The Nines.

1. The technology involved in the video stream and connectivity amazed me.

The video was seamless and the sense of being right with the speaker was attractive even though one particular speaker was so close to the cam that I felt like I was in a Seinfeld skit about close talkers.

2. The technology still needs to improve.

I have only recently entered into the Twitter zone and have been pleasantly surprised with Facebook after boycotting it for many years.  While some nitwits feel compelled to broadcast every inane and boring detail of their lives through social media, I have found a great benefit in being edified by good posts and keeping up with friends and the world.

That being said, there needs to be more real time text applications. Instant messaging isn’t always very instant and the delays in postings create an un-dialogue.  For this reason, I’m very much looking forward to Google Wave’s launch.

3. I kept thinking some speakers were trying too hard to be cool.

I’m not judging hearts, I’m speaking about my own perception.  A danger in newness is that it tends to lead us into trendiness. Trendiness is hip at the time but can lack genuineness. If authenticity is replaced with ‘fitting in’ the smell of plasticity will overpower the message. So, if you are already hip, stay hip. If you’re a nerd, be one.

4. Having over nine thousand participants logged in is encouraging.

As the apostolic prayer requested that the gospel run rapidly through the cities (2 Thess. 3:1), what better way to spread truth than through such incredible technologies.

5. We still equate church growth with numbers and virtually  ignore internal growth.

God builds His church and while we should always rejoice in more and more people coming into the Kingdom, it does not happen because of our strategy. While we should be focused on functioning well in our labors, we should be more focused on whether or not we are making true disciples.

6. I think sometimes I’m too critical of honest attempts at doing things better and in the process lose focus on what is good.

Just because someone may be overboard in their approach doesn’t mean that they have nothing good at all to say. Just because they miss the mark in one are doesn’t mean that I can’t grow from something else they may have right. Just because I agree with this doesn’t mean I won’t stop criticizing. May I do it in the right spirit.

7. Leadership is best taught by the art of do

Show them. Teach them. Identify them. Let them. Help them. Lead them. Duplication.

8. There is so much to learn.

Wherever I hear so much from so many I feel overwhelmed and it reminds me that I will be a student my entire life while at the same time teaching. We transfer from one baton to the next what has been given to us to learn and pass on. Mentoring facilitates discipling.

9. Nine really is a good number.

Short, simple and clear means more effectiveness especially in front of the backdrop of busyness. We spend far too much time being distracted and much less time staying focused. The Nines helped me remember to focus more precisely.

Bringing Glory to God in the Workplace

Many believers are under the misconception that they must be teaching Greek in a seminary class or pastoring a flock of sheeple in order to be a significance in the kingdom.  “If only I were a missionary in Thailand or Bangladesh, THEN I would be reeeeally serving God fully!” This would be true if only God had not called each of us to varied and diverse callings.  Not only does the Body of Christ function together as a cohesive organic community of multi-purposed parts it also functions outside of its corporate gathering in the same way.

By doing all that we do for Him alone, the common work of an ordinary occupation can radiate His glory as a reflection of the work of redeeming grace.  Through us, as willingly obedient and joyful vessels, the beauty of the Lord’s work in the gospel penetrates normally dismal cubicles and office complexes into vibrant places of salt and light living.  Here is a story written by Calvin Seerveld about his father’s work.  It demonstrates the point quite well.

My father is a seller of fish. We children know the business too having worked from childhood in the Great South Bay Fish Market, Patchogue, Long Island, New York, helping our father like a quiver full of arrows. It is a small store, and it smells like fish.

I remember a Thursday noon long ago when my Dad was selling a large carp to a prosperous woman and it was a battle to convince her. “Is it fresh?”

It fairly bristled with freshness, had just come in, but the game was part of the sale. They had gone over it anatomically together: the eyes were bright, the gills were a good color, the flesh was firm, the belly was even spare and solid, the tail showed not much waste, the price was right–Finally my Dad held up the fish behind the counter, ?Beautiful, beautiful! Shall I clean it up??

And as she grudgingly assented, ruefully admiring the way the bargain had been struck, she said, “My, you certainly didn’t miss your calling.”

Unwittingly, she spoke the truth. My father is in full-time service for the Lord, prophet, priest and king in the fish business. And customers who come in the store sense it. Not that we always have the cheapest fish in town! Not that there are no mistakes on a busy Friday morning! Not that there is no sin! But this: that little Great South Bay Fish Market, my father and two employees, is not only a clean, honest place where you can buy quality fish at a reasonable price with a smile, but there is a spirit in the store, a spirit of laugher, of fun, of joy inside the buying and selling that strikes an observer pleasantly; and the strenuous week-long preparations in the back rooms for Friday fish-day are not a routine drudgery interrupted by rest periods but again, a spirit seems to hallow the lowly work into a rich service, in which it is good to officiate.

When I watch my Dad’s hands, big beefy hands with broad stubby fingers each twice the thickness of mine, they could never play a piano; when I watch those hands delicately split the back of a mackerel or with a swift, true stroke fillet a flounder close to the bone, leaving all the meat together; when I know those hands dressed and peddled fish from the handlebars of a bicycle in the grim 1930’s, cut and sold fish year after year with never a vacation through fire and sickness, thieves and disasters, weariness, winter cold and hot muggy summers, twinkling at work without complaint, past temptations, struggling day in and day out to fix a just price, in weakness often but always in faith consecratedly cutting up fish before the face of the Lord: when I see that, I know God’s Grace can come down to a man’s hand and the flash of a scabby fish knife.

In his book, The Other Six Days,  R. Paul Stevens writes, “…the biblical doctrine of vocation proposes that the whole of our lives finds meaning in relation to the sweet summons of a good God.”(p. 72)  We are called BY someone before we are called the do something. We musn’t allow a poor understanding of vocation in occupation rob us of our Ephesians 2:10 exercise of faith. Surely, mere living ‘right’ and ‘purposed’ before men will never convert them for faith comes by hearing the Word of God; however, He has called us to live differently in all that we pursue.

I pray that we would meditate more on the role of work and occupation and instruct our children well before we find ourselves into an irreversible clench of time, resource and wasted gifts.

Come Join Us

Katrina rocked our cottages to the core. It’s almost three years now since destruction, flooding, and governmental intrusion were all the rage. Many horrid things resulted from that disaster but there were also incredible benefits and blessings that would never have seen the light of day if not for tribulation’s heat.

One of those blessings has been the establishing of Sovereign Grace Homeland Missions. Through faithful responding to tremendous community need, our church has been able to form a generational urban outreach mission. We are still developing our homebase of operations and seeking those who want to join our replant and work.

Pray for us as we continue to move forward into the fields for we know that the adversary roams with us and if your heart is so inclined drop us a line or come visit us and be encouraged by His charge.

Up the bayonets!

F.I.R.E. – Fellowship Connections

Several years ago we attended a local meeting of FIRE (Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals) and met some great like-minded brothers in the Lord.

As a small church recently coming out of our misunderstandings about Reformational thought and anything Calvinistic, FIRE was instrumental in our growth as pastors and as a church in general. Since then, we have been blessed with FIRE friends and a whole host of pastors and ministers who have helped to encourage, edify, and educate us as we move onward in our call to serve God’s people.

What we like most about FIRE is the irenic tone and flavor that the organization thrives upon while maintaining a solid commit to the Doctrines of Grace. For us the group has been a great fellowship and extension of our faith community. We pray that the Lord continues to help our network grow and prosper as an example of true ecumenical alliance.

Take a minute to view the video below taken at our recent 2008 National Conference on Kingdom Apologetics.

John Crotts, Bruce Ray, James White, Jerry Marcellino, and James Grier brought us the Word of God at this year’s Conference and focused on how we as believers and leaders are to minister and defend the hope that is within us as we live out our faith in fear and trembling. It was a great time of refreshing.