Hard to keep this one a secret…
The new 711 Session is up, and it features three of the greatest influences, teachers, co-laborers I have ever had in my life. You won’t be sorry!
Dave Gibbons asks GREAT questions @ Story 2009
Before I dive into the questions and observations that Dave makes let me say that we need to pay very close attention to him if for only that he gave his talk from something he felt the Lord gave him about 8-12 hours before he was to speak at this conference. When someone is willing to scrap a message to people that you desperately desire to impress after being awakened in the middle of their sleep I LISTEN. That’s what happened with Dave, and I was most impressed and not in the worldly sense where I think, “Boy I want to be like Dave Gibbons.” That kind of impression is a very selfish kind of impression. Instead I must say that I was impressionable, as a child is impressionable, and because that is where God had me then Dave, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, branded me…impressed me, and all at once it was painful, beautiful, disturbing, and encouraging.
I pray that my small attempt at making notes does the same for you. First, I would encourage you to read Isaiah 6, and while we usually stop at verse 8 I urge you to press on and focus on what happens after verse 8. Because Isaiah is given a disturbing message to communicate, with verse 13 being Dave’s focus.
“13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”
NOTES…
Why can’t we measure success in churches by:
1. Eradicating the foster care need in our community
2. Eradicating poverty in our community
3. Caring for the elderly in our community
Instead of…
1. Church attendance
2. Baptisms
3. $
Dave is not suggesting ignoring what we typically measure in the Church, but it needs to be tempered with “Are we making a difference in our communities?” kinds of questions. If we cannot answer these kinds of questions affirmatively then it makes the typical measurements of success irrelevant.
What if 80% of our budget was spent on outreach instead of our venue?
What is missing in spiritual formation in churches?
1. There is no one size fits all. We need to customize a path based upon collaborative resources
2. We miss the intersection between a person’s story and the Holy Spirit by trying to immediately funnel them through a series of steps with the false promise that at the end of the funnel they will move from broken to whole and from newborn to fully devoted follower of Christ.
Churches need to start asking, “What do we NEED to feel uncomfortable about?”
Churches need to develop a theology of suffering because walking people through suffering can birth a HOLY seed.
Blood cried out for vengence
Today I stumbled upon a verse in Hebrews that while obviously profound it had escaped my investigation. It references the blood of Abel, in Genesis 4. The similarity and contrast between Abel’s death and Jesus’ death are striking. Both are murdered, the murderers are driven by jealousy, Abel makes a sacrifice pleasing to God and Jesus, through His death, makes the perfect sacrifice. The blood of Jesus should have cried out for venegence. The blood of Jesus infinitely more than the blood of Abel had the right to be avenged. He was the Son of God who had lived a life without sin, so how much more should His blood be avenged?
But the blood of Jesus is different.
It doesn’t cry out for vengence.
It forgives.
His blood was shed at the hands of men, but in reality it was God who killed His Son by pouring upon Him the wrath that was meant for us because of our sin.
Shane and Shane had a song on their first album called simply “The Blood.” I am once again deeply humbled that His blood cries “Forgive them Father!”