depraved indifference

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

I don’t normally post midweek…or post very many videos for that matter, and this may break all of the “blogging rules.” But after seeing this today, it wrecked me…and I was compelled to share it with you, so this is just a quick rant that I had to get off my chest. After recently reading books like Crazy Love, by Francis Chan and Radical, by David Platt. After leading hundreds of people on mission trips, all over the world. After seeing the faces of the least of these in places like Indonesia, Singapore, the Czech Republic, Kenya, South Africa, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, and Mexico…not to mention my neighborhood. After hearing the Words of Christ. I feel completely overwhelmed by the daunting task of leading a suburban mega-church to missionally live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In a culture that craves comfort, that lusts after self-indulgence, that seems to have been inoculated to the Gospel through commonplace familiarity. I’m haunted by the fact that the hands and feet of Jesus Christ are preoccupied with themselves. And I desperately long to see the day when the high potential sleeping giant, called the Church of America wakes up, rises up, and takes her place among those who have laid their lives down for the sake of the Gospel. For the least of these.

Posted in Spiritual Formation

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A shot worth taking

Monday, April 5, 2010

A couple of weeks ago Lisa and I went on a date to a fundraising dinner for an organization called Hoops of Hope, I was grossly outbid on a mission trip to Africa that Lisa desperately wanted to go on. I hung in there until 5k, but couldn’t come up with the 10k or so that I think it ended up going for. But we did walk away with a soccer ball that a boy in Uganda made by hand from some banana leaves. More than that, we walked away inspired by the courage and faith of a young man that is literally changing the world. The following is his story.

Posted in Spiritual Formation

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9 practical steps you can take to teach your children that life is not all about them

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

This past Sunday in the middle of almost 3,000 people from Cornerstone serving all over our community, my family made their way over to a hangar with about 500 other people to be a part of packing over 140,000 meals that are shipping to Haiti right now. We tossed Lincoln (our 2 year old) on my back in one of those hiking back deals for kids and Lisa, Kennedy, Mia, and I started cranking out the meals. The moment absolutely melted my heart as a dad, because it provided a brief snapshot of what could be. I mean just think, my kids might actually grow up thinking that it is normal to serve God and put other people first in life. That’s something I can get a little excited about.

If you’re a parent you know that teaching your children that life is not all about them and building a culture of servanthood in your family is no easy task. Kids naturally think that life is all about them, and by the way, most adults that I’ve met do too. This innate idea gets reinforced by the messages they receive in our culture through media, advertising, sports, and education among other things. Not to mention that most of us lead our families in a child centric fashion.

So in an effort to change the trajectory of our families, below are a handful of ideas and practical steps that we can take to integrate an attitude of service into our families. And who knows, we might be surprised by what could happen if we simply live an others oriented life and invite our children into that.