We want and need all of the Gospel. When we first started coming together, we came together in the Gospel.

From a Dilbert comic: "That came so dangerously close to being interesting."

The haunting fear is that we will come dangerously close to preaching the Gospel. We're fulfilling what Paul said to Timothy when he said maintain that pattern of sound doctrine. Be not ashamed of the Gospel.

We're here because we know the power of the Gospel, because we know it's power to save, and we want to be Gospel preachers wanting to live Gospel lives leading Gospel churches in a world transformed by the Gospel.

And yet we can still underestimate the Gospel.

And there are very urgent issues of debate. The issues we sought to address in our affirmations and denials still exist, and a couple have been intensified.

First the Gospel has to be heard, and in order to be heard, it has to be articulated.

in Romans 10, Paul is clearly writing to his people who have not accepted Christ.

Paul writes the whole machinery of salvation.

The Word is Brought Near
How did any one of us come to faith? The Word was brought near to us.
First, it was brought near to Israel. God chose them from among the nations.
The Gospel was brought near to us, and now it is near to us.
Paul is writing to Gentiles who have come to know Jesus Christ as savior because the Gospel was brought near to them. It is now our responsibility to bring the Word of God near to others.
For our salvation it was brought near to us in the incarnation. It is now brought near to sinners in the preaching of the Gospel.
Proximity to the Gospel is not the point, hearing the Gospel is the point. Proximity requires articulation. If one who knows the Gospel is near one who does not and never proclaims the Gospel, there is no salvation.
Our task is to bring the word near to others even as it was brought near to us. Paul commissioned preachers. His goal was for all Christians to be evangelists

The Power of the Gospel to Save
We believe that we are to preach the Gospel to all persons everywhere in the firm and unshakable belief that anyone who believes will be saved.
What does it mean to call upon the name of the Lord? To confess with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he is raised from the dead.

The Gospel is not Brought Near Without Words
There is more to the Gospel than just words, but words are most fundamental. These days it is becoming increasingly popular to quote St. Francis of Assisi: "Preach the Gospel always, use words when necessary." That's probably not an actual quote, although it does sound like Francis. And it does sound like those who think we can bring the Gospel near just by being there or being kind, or just, or loving. But the Gospel requires articulation. For salvation to take place, the Gospel has to be told, taught, explained.
There's a certain enticing ring of authenticity to the supposed quote by St. Francis. We certainly don't want to turn it on its head and think we don't need to live out the Gospel, but we really can't do much of importance without words. It's not just the preaching of the Gospel. Most important experiences require words. A proposal in marriage. You might be able to insinuate this without words, but let me give you single men a suggestion. Use words. We are made in the image of God. God is a speaking God, and we are a speaking people.
Walter Ong, a 20th century scholar of orality, said that most language begins with speech. It only later takes written form. Meaning, it turns out, requires orality.
Duane Litfin writs about the priority of the word over the limitations of gesture.
Gestures can be very effective in two ways, in the basic communication of affirmation and denial. In virtually every culture, there is a basic gesture for yes and no.
Gestures are very useful for communicating emotional states.
But beyond that they aren't that useful.
The Gospel requires words.
The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2 "You received the word of God, which you heard from us, which you received not as the words of men but as what it really is, the words of God."
In 1 Cor 15:1-11 - Now I would remind you, brothers, of the Gospel that I have preached to you..."
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. Faith comes by hearing and not by any other means. It's not just auditory. There's an internal call of the Spirit, but we must kae the external call.
Our sovereign God did not present the Gospel of Jesus Christ and end up frustrated that it needed to be communicated in words.
We are then to tell, to teach, to preach, but also to persuade.
I am unapologetically a conversionist. The Gospel brings us from one state and status to another that is radically different.
The Spirit gives life. The flesh profits nothing.
How will they believe if they have never heard?
How do we expect that anyone will be saved if they do not hear? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will the preaching take place if no one is sent?
In its context, that passage is not first and foremost about commissioning missionaries.
Evangelicals are Gospel people. Only recently have we turned from the idea that we need to speak the Gospel and begun saying, "Stop talking and show me the Gospel."
The Laussane Congress said, "Evangelism itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as Savior and Lord, with an view toward persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God."
The only means of reaching people is articulating the Gospel in words.
Faith without works is dead. We long to see more evidence of the Gospel in our churches in our lives. I know our faith is to be demonstrated and not merely said, but salvation will not come until the Gospel is articulated. We must use words to tell of the sacrificial and substitutionary death on the cross. We have to be willing to die for sentences, for words.
A pattern of right words reminds us of our responsibility to get the Gospel right. We want never to underestimate the power of the Gospel. We never want to underestimate the power of the articulated Gospel.
How is it that you came to believe? How is it that the Gospel came to you?
We should not be surprised that someone is saved even by the Gospel preached by a preacher on the Internet or TV or by a Gideon Bible. Sometimes it is when you are sitting next to someone and have an opportunity to share the hope that is in you. And we're surprised. How can we be surprised?
We heard those three testimonies, and maybe really just one testimony. At some point the Gospel had to be heard. There were words that somehow produced belief in us.
We have confidence in our words when we preach because they are the words of the Gospel.

My apologies for my hiatus from blogging. My planned hiatus was followed by an unplanned one. You know how it is when you have a discipline that you stay out of for a while. It's tough to start the discipline again.

Anyway, this week, Andy Backus and I are at the Together for the Gospel Conference. This year's theme is Together for the Underestimated Gospel. I'll be blogging my notes for the sessions, so stay tuned for updates!

I've had many conversations with people who complain that they're bored at work because they don't have enough to do.

When I tell them they should find something to do, they respond by saying they've asked for more work but aren't given anything.

In essence, they're telling their boss that their position isn't needed and should be downsized.

If you don't have enough to do, it's time to start taking some initiative.

• Write a best practices document.
• Clean your workplace.
• Volunteer for another project in your organization.
• Research the latest trends in your field.
• Provide unbelievable customer service.
• Learn more about your organization.
• Assist a busy coworker.

If you have lots of free time at work and aren't looking for productive ways to fill it, you're not worth your paycheck.

The first professional job I got after college was as a Data Entry Specialist* for a Senator.  I have a $100k education, and I'm doing data entry.  Not exactly my dream job.

But before long I started helping my boss manage our database, and I did much of the work of a flaky coworker who was never in the office.  I began assisting staff in another department that I wanted to join, and I did my own work with excellence so that other peoples' jobs would be easier.

I once got a mild reprimand for taking too much initiative after making a slight error in a project.  I was told that maybe I should cool my jets for a little while until the dust settled.

But you know what, my supervisor got management to give me a $3000 bonus that wasn't normally given to first year employees, and when I left the job, that same boss said I had brought a new level of professionalism to the position.

If you don't have enough to do, it's time to start taking some initiative. The rest of us are busy and could really use a hand.

Photo by sunshinecity

*Yes, the title really included the words "Data Entry" followed by the word "Specialist."  I couldn't make that up.

Four years ago I joined Twitter.

Three-and-a-half years ago I started a blog.

Three years ago God taught me a big lesson in humility.

Sometime in the last 18 months I forgot it.

I began to focus on my own personal success. I wanted to be one of the cool pastors, speaking at conferences and writing books.  I've been using Twitter and this blog and twitter to grow my platform and increase my influence.  I've wanted to meet people simply because they were influential and could help me further my career.

At some point I became more focused on the number of people following me than the number of people following Christ

Five weeks ago God began convicting me of my pride.

Rachel and I were on vacation in Seattle, and we visited Mars Hill Church.  The sermon that week was based on Luke 22:24-30, wherein the disciples begin arguing about which of them is the greatest.

Mars Hill is preaching through the book of Luke over the course of two years, and I just happen to be on vacation in Seattle the weekend they preach on pride?  I guess you could chalk it up to coincidence.

The previous weekend we began a sermon series at NCC called "The Three Headed Dragon" in which the first sermon addressed—you guessed it—the sin of pride.

So two weekends in a row I hear two sermons on pride from two different pastors on opposite sides of the country?

God was trying to tell me something, something I really didn't want to hear.

In his sermon at Mars Hill Mark Driscoll posed seven questions that we can ask ourselves to help us determine if we're pursuing Godly greatness or worldly greatness.  I think the last one was the most convicting.

Would you rather achieve a status or make a difference?

Would you rather have a real impact or just get noticed, have the title, the promotion, the recognition?

I realized that I wasn't sure I could honestly answer that question the way it should be answered.

What a fun thing to think about on the first day of vacation, huh?

As our vacation continued I began to question if maybe I needed to give up blogging for a while, but thought "I can't do it now. The Catalyst conference is coming up, and I need to be able to make connections and get more blog readers and Twitter followers while I'm there."

And so I didn't do it, and I went into Catalyst more focused on making connections than listening for what God wants to do in my ministry.

But these thoughts, this idea of fasting from my blog, stuck with me, and God has a way of breaking through.

The first day at Catalyst I went to a session by Michael Hyatt on the heart of a leader, and God went to work on my heart.

Suddenly Catalyst became not primarily about making connections and not even primarily about my ministry.  It became about the condition of my own heart.  And as I listened to speaker after speaker God continued to show me not how I could use their messages to change my ministry but rather how I could use them to change my heart.

Tied in with all of this is an awareness that over the past few months I have become more judgmental, hypercritical, and less happy.  I've been getting angry far to easily and far too often.  It's hard to explain exactly how this is related to my pride and desire for self-promotion, but it is.

At the end of Catalyst they asked us to write down two things that we needed to take away from the conference.  I wrote:

• Lead and pastor out of overflow of my relationship with Christ.
• Seek to make God's name famous, not my own.

And so in an effort to combat my pride and soften my calloused heart, I have made the decision to take a step back from Twitter and blogging for a while, as they have been two of the biggest outlets for my pride.

Deciding to give them up started as a very difficult decision but after being made became a very obvious one.  Even though I haven't actually begun the fast, just making the decision is already changing my heart.  I've started having all of these ideas for new blog posts, but rather than my primary motivation to write them being to draw attention to myself, I genuinely want them to to help others learn and grow.

Alas, those posts will have to wait for another time, as I'll be off of Twitter and blogging for about a month.  At that point I plan to re-evaluate the condition of my heart and see if I need to continue the fast.

During these weeks I'll be putting a renewed emphasis on growing my relationship with Christ, and I'll probably write some stuff that you guys won't see for a little while.  I might even tackle a couple of projects that have been rolling around in my head.  I'd covet your prayers during this period.

If you typically talk with me on Twitter and want to get in touch with me, just drop a comment here, and I'll shoot you an e-mail.  I'll also still be on Facebook, so you can hit me up there.

While this is the story of my struggle with pride, I'd encourage you to use it as an opportunity to examine your own heart and motivations.  Ask yourself those seven questions I mentioned, and if my story sounds like your story, fight the battle with pride now.  The longer you wait the more damage it will do.

In our staff meeting this week, the National Community Church team reviewed some of our personal highlights from Catalyst 2011: Be Present. There's some good stuff in here that I thought was worth sharing. Most of these are my paraphrase of someone else's paraphrase of a speaker.

• Being present often means being broken before God with and for people.
• Coupling “Jesus is sufficient” with fear.
• Are you welcoming people into your church the way you would welcome them into your home?
• Confidence in who God has created me to be and what He has created me to do.
• It’s okay not to be typical. -Bob Goff
• Are we really seeking God’s presence or are we seeking his hand? -Francis Chan
• The best I’m going to be is a redeemed sinner. -Cornel West
• Jesus’ prayers were heard because of his reverence for God. -Francis Chan
• Katie Davis is a child herself but is a mother of fourteen. Her faith is simple yet so profound. She loves her Jesus and follows as she goes.
• Being present means dwelling with Him. -Francis Chan
• Opportunity is attracted to excellence. -Dave Ramsey
• Nothing is moved unless it’s shoved. -Dave Ramsey
• Pay attention to the people who are willing to pour out what they have. -Andy Stanley
• The never-ending line of people in need is not a problem to solve but a tension to manage. -Andy Stanley
• You can’t be there for everyone, but go long with the people the Lord puts on your heart.  -Andy Stanley
• It’s almost like there’s a thin place every year at Catalyst where the Holy Spirit is present and at work.
• Inconsistency yields mediocrity. -Jim Collins
• Define your 20 miles. -Jim Collins
• Don’t be alone when you’re doing anything. -Andy Stanley
• When is the last time you’ve wept for the people in your life who are hurting?
• Know when to stop and when to push forward. -Jim Collins
• Even though some mercy ministries aren’t completely merciful, sometimes it’s more convenient to do them anyway. Be truly merciful even when it’s inconvenient. -Robert Lupton
• Interruptions are divine interventions. -Priscilla Shirer
• Call out of people what you want to see in them. Call out of your ministry what you want to see in it. -Priscilla Shirer
• Innovation and creativity are nothing without discipline. God created the world in all of its facets over a period of time. -Jim Collins
• We have the fullness of God’s glory revealed to us through Christ, and we still don’t think it’s enough.  Moses did so much, and he only got to see the backside of God. -Judah Smith
• If brokenness and humility don’t have a place in our worship, God won’t have a place in our worship. -David Platt

Thanks to Mike, Steph, Chris, Juliet, Jennifer, Sarah, Matt, Andy, Heather, Christina, Jeremy, Joel, Dave, Maegan, Amanda, Amanda, Emily, Jason, and Kurtis for sharing their hearts and to Pastor Mark for opening up the dialogue.

Hope you found these helpful.  If you want to take a look at what the speakers said, I've got notes from the main sessions and labs.

Just had a post featured on Pastors.com:

It was a rainy day in Los Angeles, as it often is that time of year, and as I sped along in the left lane I hit a pool of standing water and began to hydroplane. I let up off the gas, but it was too late. I spun backwards across four lanes of traffic before slamming into the concrete barrier along the right shoulder.

Continue Reading »

This morning I came across this passage in Lamentations:

Your prophets have seen for you
     false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
     to restore your fortunes,
but have seen for you oracles
     that are false and misleading.
                                            -Lamentations 2:14

As a pastor I'm sometimes called upon to have difficult conversations about the sin in someone's life.  I know the Church has taken a lot of flack for being too judgmental, but I really don't like this part of my job.

So sometimes I avoid doing it.

But Lamentations 2 is all about how destruction has come to Jerusalem, and it lays the blame squarely on the shoulders of the prophets of Israel.

Which then made me wonder if I too often avoid dealing with the sin of those under my care.  Will the people I pastor be destroyed because I have failed to expose their iniquity?

And then we remember that when Christ came he ushered in a new priesthood, a priesthood of all believers.

And if we truly believe that, we realize that it is not only the pastor's responsibility to confront sin—although a pastor certainly bears an extra responsibility—but rather it is the charge of all mature believers to confront sin and walk with those who are struggling.

But we cannot end before looking at the next line, or else we'll miss the whole point.

Why do we need to expose inquity?

"[T]o restore your fortunes."

We don't confront sin with a judgmental attitude, with a holier-than-thou attitude, with an air of superiority.  We confront sin out of love in an effort to help bring them closer to the loving Father.

Who do you need to have a difficult conversation with?

If you're already confronting sin, are you doing it out of love to bring restoration?

Photo by Amanda Govaert

Andy Stanley is a pastor, communicator, and the founder of North Point Ministries (NPM). Since its inception in 1995, North Point Ministries has grown from one campus to five in the Atlanta area and has helped plant over twenty strategic partner churches throughout the United States. Each Sunday, more than 25,000 adults attend services at one of NPM’s three campuses: North Point Community Church, Browns Bridge Community Church, and Buckhead Church.

Andy's books include the newly released The Grace of God, as well as Communicating for a Change, Making Vision Stick, Next Generation Leader, The Principle of the Path, and How Good is Good Enough? Andy lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with his wife, Sandra, and their three children.

I think this is one of the most important things as it relates to leadership, especially as it relates to church leadership. And it’s overlooked because it’s intimidating. And the younger you are the more intimidating it is to you.

It’s something that the last generation of Church leaders and maybe the current generation of Church leader hasn’t done very well./Je

The Church is the hope of the world.

Pop Quiz

Luke 5 – How did Matthew get to be one of Jesus’ disciples? Jesus selected him.

Luke 6 – Jesus calls his disciples to him and chooses the apostles. So how did the rest of them get to be apostles? Jesus selected them.

Some of you would be tempted to say, “That’s not fair.” But I think Jesus would have said, “That’s not fair.”

If we’re not careful, we’re going to make the same mistake the previous generation did.

I want to talk about the word apprenticing.

We started North Point Church several years ago, and we spent hours and hours and hours talking about what the values of our church would be. We asked what our strategy would be for developing leaders.

The single focused strategy for developing leaders in our congregation is “intentional apprenticing.”

You can be an accidental apprentice, but our whole leadership strategy was going to be intentional apprenticing.

1. Defining terms.
   1. Apprenticing: Selecting, modeling, and coaching for the purpose of replacing yourself.
      It is that first word we have the most problem with.

   It seems unfair. And even among the 12 there were the three, and there had to be times when they said, that’s not fair.

   2. The New Testament Term is discipleship.
2. Jesus’ Approach
   1. He began with succession in mind.
      We wait too long. We think “I’m 25, I can’t think about apprenticing.” And then we’re 35 then 45, then 65, and we’re tired.
   2. He handpicked those to whom he would entrust his ministry. He didn’t ask for volunteers.
      We think in terms of classes and training. He didn’t think in terms of volunteers at this level. Obviously there’s a place for that, but there has to come a point where we decide there are people we will spend more time with.
   3. He rarely did ministry alone. But…
   4. He gave his disciples opportunities to do ministry alone while he was still around to debrief.

      Jesus decided he wanted to be around to see it work without him. Even if you started the church, you’re not going to be around forever. Someday, someone is going to take your place, your job. Most people say, “No, I’m not going to be around.”

      That’s a perfectly good answer in the marketplace, but not in the church. If Jesus did it, I think that’s something we should pay attention to.

      Churches almost always ignore this principle. W’ere too busy to apprentice. We’re too insecure to apprentice. And when you’re young, you think the people who are younger than you are too young to do what you do.

      And we completely miss the idea of handing off what was handed to us in better shape than it was handed to us.

      We do lots of training. We do lots of leadership training, but this is different. This is, “I want you, and you and you, and I don’t want the rest of you.”

      This is not a talk about succession planning. Jesus picked his successors. He only had three years, and he was the son of God. I’m not finding the next person to have your actual job. I’m talking about being intentional about pouring into the leaders coming along behind you.

      At every point along the way, if you are a professional church person, your responsibility and my responsibility is to look behind us and point to specific people and pour into them, not because some day they will have my job but because at some point they will be in a similar place.

3. But Removal
   1. But I’m not an expert.

      This is what kills apprenticing. If you wait until you feel like you’re an expert, you will never, ever do this.

      If you ever get to a point you feel thoroughly equipped, you’re arrogant. Leaders are constantly learning, and if you’re constantly learning, you’re always aware of what you don’t know. There’s something on the inside of you that says you are not ready.

      1. You will never, never, never feel like you are adequately prepared to apprentice another leader.

         Which means if you are in this room and feel that way, you are prepared. If you wait until you feel like you’re ready, you will never, ever do it.

      2. You are not responsible for the following
         1. Knowing everything there is to know about your field.
         2. Knowing more than everybody else in your field.

         This is where we get hung up.

         This is what the current generation hasn’t done for some of you.

      3. You are responsible for passing along what you know to somebody else.

         Your responsibility is to empty your cup. We think our responsibility is to fill someone else’s cup. You’re not that good.

   2. But what will I do?

      If they become as good as I am or better than I am (which is actually the goal), what am I going to do?

      1. In a healthy organization, if you replace yourself, you will always have a place.

         Do you know how it lights me up as a leader and pastor when someone pours themselves out to the point that their apprentices can replace them.

      2. In an unhealthy organization… Why would you stay in an unhealthy organization?

         If you’re worried about being kicked out if you pour into someone who replaces you, put your resume out.

4. Two Outcomes
   1. You’ll be a multi-site leader.

      Suddenly your impact will be felt in new places.

      We started group crazy. We spent tons of money on it.

      People are always volunteering to be in my small group. I handpicked people and said, “This is what a small group is supposed to be like.”

      And then after 8-12 months we helped them form their own groups.

      It’s amazing to see how many of those leaders that we apprenticed are now leaders in community groups at our church.

      The same with our communicators. I love meeting with our communicators. I love pouring into them. When they’re preaching, it’s like I’m preaching at 3-4 locations without the use of video screens.

   2. You become a multi-generational leader.

      You know why our churches are so full of old people? Nothing against old people. I want to be one. Old people complain there are no young people. The problem is they wouldn’t let young people do anything. You know why? Because they’re not ready. Well whose supposed to make them ready.

      Anytime someone blames the next generation, they’ve abdicated leadership.

      We have three teenagers. The best thing we’ve ever done in our church is a program called Student Impact. It allows 6th graders to volunteer in a children’s small group. The great thing about 6th graders is that no one has told them they can’t do it. No one has told them they’re not an expert. When you put them in a circle with children, they don’t know any better but to show up and lead a small group. When the little kids are promoted, we just promote the middle schoolers with them, and suddenly they have a relationship with those kids. And our high school students help lead the middle school groups. And they haven’t been told they’re not mature enough. Last year 101 students in high school left our student ministry who had been with their kids in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade because no one told them they couldn’t do it. And now the first thing they do is go off to college, find a church, and want a group.

      You know what we’re teaching high school kids in our church, it doesn’t matter how old, mature, or smart you are, if you are one step ahead, you have something to offer.

      I am overwhelmed.

      My mom is over for dinner one Saturday, and she has a medical emergency, and I’m not preaching the next day. So we decided I’m not going to church the next day. So my kids get dressed for church and tell us they’re going because they have to lead their small groups. I looked at Sandra, and said, I love my church. Don’t tell them they’re not ready.

      I don’t have to be an expert, and I don’t have to know everything.

5. Application

   There is no curriculum. If there’s a curriculum, it’s not apprenticing. It’s a class.

   You don’t even have to tell someone you’re apprenticing them, it’s often a bad idea.

   1. Hire for the future

      hire young, and hire smart. You need to hire people who are smarter than you, who might intimidate you a little bit, who will blow past you in no time, because the Church is worth it.

   2. Don’t work alone.

      This is almost the whole thing. This is incredibly important.

      Invite people to participate with you in tasks that are part of your job description even if they don’t work in your department or don’t share your job description. Just make sure whenever possible you don’t work alone.

      If you’re interviewing someone, don’t interview them alone. Invite someone younger. It doesn’t matter if you’re not good at it. You don’t want to expose your weakness and insecurity.

      This generation is afraid of engaging in the local church, because we’ve made it big and spooky.

      Don’t budget alone. Invite someone into that. Find the brightest person.

      Don’t produce alone, plan alone, design alone, create alone. Do things alone as little as possible. Invite people in.

      This is where preferential treatment is preferred. You can’t do this with the whole church.

      I have a friend Tim who is a federal judge. A federal judge is like a mini-God. I went to lunch with him the other day and walked into his office. There are these three twenty-somethings in his office sitting on the couch with notepads. He’s talking to these attorneys who are about to bring a case before him. And there’s a stenographer taking notes. So he finishes up, spins around, and asks the kids on the couch what they learned. They’re interns.

      In the church, here’s how we do it. We send them outside and whisper to each other.

      I bet there are opportunities to pour into the lives of your staff and the people around you because we work alone.

   3. Remember your MEDs
      1. Model – Here’s what I do.

         Show them what you do. It may not be the best way. They may have a thousand other ideas.

      2. Explain – Here’s why I do it.
      3. Demonstrate – Here’s how I do it.

   Here’s your assignment, it’s simple: Replace yourself.

   Who’s the sharpest young leader on your staff? What could you begin doing to empty your cup into theirs? You look at them and know they’re sharp. What can you begin to do now? You don’t need to set up any formal relationship. What can you begin to do now to pour into their lives.

   Success is not measured by how capable you are at handling your responsibilities. Success is measured by whether or not you leave your responsibilities in capable hands.

   Someday, somebody is going to be doing what you’re doing. Wouldn’t it be fun to be around to see it?

   Leave the next generation more equipped than you are.

Priscilla Shirer is a wife and mom first, but put a Bible in her hand and a message in her heart and you’ll see why thousands meet God in powerful, personal ways through her conferences and books. Through the expository teaching of the Word of God, she desires to see people not only know the uncompromising truths of Scripture intellectually but experience them practically by the power of the Holy Spirit.

A couple of Decembers ago my mom and dad called myself and my three siblings and said, “None of you live here any more, but your stuff is still all over the place. And you need to do it by December 9, because on December 10 we have someone coming over to get your stuff.”

Being the kind of kid I’ve always been I waited until December 9 to do it. I expected it to be a chore, but it was quite engaging and amazing because I was going through my life in boxes.

There was a box full of old journals. I am not a serious journal keeper. People who do are especially holy. I buy one every year, but I don’t journal every year, but it might only be 3 or 4 times a year when something significant happens.

But I found this box of journals and sat down and read them all.

There was something that happened when I was 14. I shared a room with my sister Crystal. Mine was underneath a picture window that looked out into a quiet cul-de-sac. One evening a small home where no one lived that caught fire. No one knew why, but 6 or 7 fire trucks raced in. The entire neighborhood was awakened and went outside in their robes. My sister got up and came to the window by my bed and looked out the window. My mother did the same thing. Both of them were hanging over me looking at the entire thing.

I slept through the whole thing. The told me about it in the morning.

It occurred to me that it wasn’t just that night I slept through. As I read those journals I realized as a pre-teen I was just waiting to be a teen. And as a teen I couldn’t wait to get out of the house. And as I was in college and a young single woman I couldn’t wait to get married. And then I got married, and that was a lot of work, but I hurried through it because I couldn’t wait to have kids.

And if I’m not careful I’ll hurry through this to because I’ll hurry through wanting to change dirty diapers and finding another way to cook chicken for dinner.

It occurred to me that I’d not just been sleeping through that one event but through whole seasons of my life.

I wonder how many of us are there but not there, not fully present.

As I sat in that attic, the Holy Spirit began to work on me and tell me that if I didn’t shape up I was going to miss out on gifts that God had for me in the present.

There are several places in Scripture where people were with Jesus, and they were completely unaware of the presence of God in their life.

In Genesis 28, Jacob wakes up having conversation with God and says, “Surely the Lord was here, and I missed it.”

Mary Magdalene can’t make out that the guy she’s talking to is Jesus and not the gardener.

Their life has been what I like to call interrupted. They’re discouraged and disillusioned, and so they’re missing out on the fact that God is right where they are. You had a plan for life or marriage or ministry or this kid.

How do we stay fully present so that we can be fully aware of God’s activity right in the middle of this interrupted life, because I don’t want to wake up one morning and say, “God was there.”

Luke 24 – A couple of guys are pretty distraught because their plans have been interrupted. The Jesus they were hanging their hopes on has been crucified on the Cross of Calvary. When we meet these two gentlemen, they are completely discouraged because life has been interrupted.

“And behold…”

That word behold is an important marker that was used by an author when they wanted to call attention to a specific point. It was like saying, “Look!” because they wanted to call attention to a specific detail. It was far more significant in the Hebrew than in English.

All of the disappointment, delusion, and hardship you have faced… God is getting ready to invade in spite of that. It doesn’t mean that the circumstances will change.

They were in the midst of a behold moment even though they were frustrated with their circumstances. They didn’t know everything was about to change.

There is a secret to beholding. The secret is in knowing that our eyes can be opened to God’s activity even in the midst of discouragement.

There was a turn in the circumstances, and they couldn’t see it. Often we can’t either.

God may want to reveal himself in the midst of the circumstances. We’re so distracted we don’t realize we’re in the midst of a behold moment.

The only reason why the Lord would gather you here over the course of these days is if you and I must be on the precipice of a behold moment in our lives. When you go home would you not think that everything is exactly the same. Yeah, everything might be the same, but you won’t be.

I have three boys. Jackson is a giant. He is 8 years old, and he wears a size 9 shoe. We have a 7 year old, and a surprise 3 year old. One of the things my boys like to do is swim. So we got them goggles. My husband noticed that they would put their goggles on and go underneath the water and swim, but they would keep their eyes closed. So my husband told them you can open your eyes underwater with the goggles.

For all this time they had the right equipment to see when their head was underwater, but they didn’t use the equipment. We have been equipped to see hope and peace when were in over our heads. Even in the midst of this discouragement we have the ability to see hope.

I don’t know how people without this hope make it without it.

It is the secret of beholding, keeping your spiritual eyes open even when you may prefer to shut them.

There is a second secret for us in verse thirteen. These guys are headed from Jerusalem because they had been at the Passover. They are now travelling the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

They’re unaware that the third person in their party was Jesus. There is not only a secret in beholding. There is a secret in going home. Some of us believe the pinnacle of our Christian experience is supposed to be in rooms like this one, and while this is important,

The pinnacle of your Christian experience is supposed to be when the things you learned in the pew of your church becomes real on the pavement of your every day experience.

Jesus is the glory of God. Everything we need has been clearly shown to us in Scripture.

Anything you are going back to, He is everything you need to deal with it. You take what you learned and apply it in your everyday circumstances.

He is something to us in every book of Scripture.

Can I challenge you with just one more secret.

They were conversing about everything that had transpired surrounding Jesus, but they don’t recognize him. The first thing Jesus says to them is, “What are these words that are coming out of your mouth?”

There is a secret of silence. There are about 7-8 verses where these guys are doing all of the talking. They actually say to Jesus, “Are you the only one in town who doesn’t know what’s going on?”

If I’m with God, I want to be quiet because I want to hear everything He has to say.

Don’t keep going over old history when you’re talking to God.

There is power in our words. What is coming out of your mouth about your ministry, your family?

These guys missed out on Jesus’ presence because they were focused on their circumstances.

God has gone before you to prepare a path, regardless of the struggles you are facing on it. And if the path is not prepared for you, maybe it’s because you’re not actually headed to the place God has for you.

David Kinnaman is the President of Barna Group. He is the author of the best-selling book, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity, and his new book, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church...and Rethinking Faith.

Q (Reggie Joiner): We've been talking about people drifting away from the church for almost a decade. How is this research going to make any difference?

A: I really wanted to understand the why and the way behind their leaving.

Q: Give us an example of what that means.

A: I went into this assuming people all leave for the same reason. But they don't There are three types of young people leaving the church.

1. Prodigal - Someone who leaves the faith
2. Nomad - Still calls themself a Christian but leave the Church

   This would be someone like Katy Perry. She still believes in Jesus but is not active in church.

3. Exile - Person who feels lost from the safe, cultural Christianity

   This is someone who works at Abercrombie & Fitch, or media or politics, and feels lost from the faith they grew up in.

Q: Tell us why people are leaving the church

A: There are six reasons.

1. Overprotective

   When I grew up we didn't even have seatbelts, but this generation is sheltered. But the world is small. Everything is closer now. They want to engage the world but feel they take too many risks for their faith. People are leaving the church because it's too safe. They don't see people in their churches taking the risks they see people in scripture taking.

2. Anti-science

   More than half of all church-going teenagers are interested in scientific careers, and they feel that many churches are either silent or antagonistic about science.

Q: You are technically saying there are people groups we are losing based on those six reasons.

We're losing young artists, designers, and musicians because the Church is overprotective.

Q: How does this help us change things?

A: It gives us handles, opportunities to think about and understand the real spiritual journies young people are undertaking. I think we can start conversations about the real things that separate us as generations.

Q: This is personal, some of the people in this room have sons and daughters who will walk away if we don't figure this out.

A: My challenge to us as the church is how do we respond to this? How do we mentor and disciple this generation? What can we do to show them what is in the Scripture and how it is relevant to our lives.

Q: This is why it's important to continue having these conversations. We don't just want to talk about it. We want to do something about it.