Guest Voices

5 Questions for Tullian Tchividjian

Guest Voices — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:45:58 -0800

William Graham Tullian Tchividjian is the Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. A Florida native, he is a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary and a grandson of Billy Graham. Tullian was the founding pastor of the former New City Church, which merged with Coral Ridge in April of 2009. Jesus + Nothing = Everything (Crossway 2011) is his first book since his devastating year of losing his father and being called for a congregational vote of confidence at Coral Ridge.

Sometimes you have to go through hard times to discover what, or who, you are anchored to. Sounds like this is what this book came out of.

God has helped me rediscover the power of the gospel in the cricible of excruciating pain. Late in 2008, discussions began about the merger of the church I founded, New City Church in Ft. Lauderdale, with Coral Ridge Presbyterian, a church my family had attended for part of my chilhood. When January 2009 came around, the public announcement was made about the potential merger, a plan that would install me as senior pastor of the new combined church. In the weeks ahead, there were plenty of people inside and outside both churches who wondered whether such a merger could ever really succeed. Blogs were posted, notes and letters were circulated with false accusations about me. Battle lines were drawn, rumors, raced, and the spirits of those who supported me sagged. I was being challenged by God to more fully understand exactly what I already had in Christ. For far longer than I recognized, I had been depending on the endorsement of others to validate me--to make me feel that I mattered. God began rescuing me from that slavery by forcing me to redicsover the gospel.

You admit that you are "addicted" to the gospel. What does that mean?

It burns inside of me. And it seems to get hotter every day. I can't stop thinking about it, talking about it, writing about it, reading about it, wrestling with it, reveling in it, standing on it, and thanking God for it. For better of for worse, my focus has become myopic. Lesser things don't distract me as easily. What others think of me (either good or bad) doesn't matter as much as it used to. I'm enjoying life more. The pressure is off. I'm beginning to realize that the gospel is way more radical, offensive, liberating, shocking, and counterintuitive than any of us realize. And that's beginning to be okay with me.

What drew you to the book of Colossians, which your book is based on?

On our first morning away on vacation in June 2009, I woke up still saturated with the misery that had been intensifying for so many weeks. I opened up my Bible; in the reading plan I was following, it so happened that the day's passages included the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians. As I read those verses my eyes were opened. God's Holy Spirit helped me see the incredible sufficiency of Christ and the gospel. I could see it with greater clarity and deeper personal application than I'd ever experienced. I sensed my miserable chains falling away. My true situation came into focus. I'd never realized before how dependent I'd become on human approval and acceptance until so much of it was taken away. Before, in every church I'd been a part of, I was widely accepted and approved and appreciated. I'd always felt loved in church. Now, for the first time, I found myself in the uncomfortable position of being deeply disliked and distrusted, and by more than a few people. Now I realized just how much I'd been relying on something other than--something more than--the approval and acceptance and love that were already mine in Jesus.

What do you believe was Paul's goal in writing the book of Colossians?

Paul knew that the diminishing of Christ, this depreciation of God's Son, was the most dangerous and destructive heresy the Colossian believers could possibly encounter. So he wrote them this epistle to show the superiority of Christ over all human philosophies and traditions, all human opinions and preferences and personalities and accomplishments. It was a superiority so overwhelming, so vastly devastating, so infinite.

So you came up with the simple equation, Jesus + Nothing = Everything.

Yes. God had stripped me down--wrecked me afresh! And when he does that to a person--when you actually feel like you have nothing--Jesus becomes more to you than you ever could have hoped or imagined. That June morning was when Jesus plus nothing equals everything--the gospel--became for me more than a theological passion, more than a cognitive catch-phrase. It became my functional lifeline. Rediscovering the gospel enabled me to see: that because Jesus was strong for me, I was free to be weak; because Jesus won for me, I was free to lose; because Jesus was someone, I was free to be no one; because Jesus was extraordinary, I was free to be ordinary; because Jesus succeeded for me, I was free to fail. This began to define my life anew in bright and liberating ways.

5 Questions for Chuck Bomar

Guest Voices — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 23:34:35 -0700

After serving as pastor of Student Ministries at Cornerstone in Simi Valley, CA, Chuck Bomar planted Colossae Church in Portland, Oregon. He is the founder of CollegeLeader and has created numerous resources for college ministry leaders. Chuck speaks frequently and has a tremendous heart for youth workers, especially those in college-age ministry. Chuck is married to Barbara, and together they have two daughters; Karis and Hope. Oh, and lest we forget, Chuck is a regular ConversantLife.com blogger. His latest book is Worlds Apart (Zondervan 2011).

We've heard rumors that you drink more coffee than anyone else in Portland, and that's saying something. Talk about your strategy of frequenting cafes as the pastor of a growing church in Portland.

Well, yes, I definitely have my share of coffee. Besides checking new shops out and seeing their unique way of brewing a cup of coffee, the truth is it's simply a natural way of meeting people. I have zero chance of meeting someone new in a church "office." So, I frequent specific places, get to know the employees and owners and I am constantly building relationships with the regular's at these places. It's fun and proving to be fruitful.

After serving with Francis Chan at Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley as the pastor of student ministries, you moved to Portland to start and pastor Colossae Church, where you continue to minister to 18-25 year-olds in a big way. Why is it so important for pastors and parents alike to understand this life stage?

The bottom line for me is people in this age stage are "people," so they matter. But this generation of 18-25 year olds is like no other generation that preceded them. It's actually become a new age stage that's formed in our culture and in many ways the world. Those that find themselves in it quickly discover they are, for the most part, worlds apart from anyone else that has gone before them. And parents particularly are trying to figure out how to bridge their world with their child's. But as a leader I have a heart for discipleship, and those between the ages of 18-25 desperately need someone to walk alongside them as they navigate these years. So I wrote this book to help both parents as well as leaders.

In your new book, Worlds Apart, you write about a "shift" that has occurred in the life stage of 18-25 year-olds that is unlike anything we seen before. Talk about this shift and what's different about it.

There has been shifts in both the mindset and values between this generation and the previous ones. That's no surprise, each generation looks at ones that follow and find differences. But today these seem to be a bit more drastic. For example, I have seen a big shift in the view of having a job. Previous generations viewed a job as a career and it was meaningful simply if it provided for their monetary needs and desires. Today, this couldn't be more different. College aged people don't want a career that simply pays for their needs. They do want that, but they also want a vocation, not a career. The word vocation stems from the idea a calling (Latin word is vocare). The bottom line is people today are looking for "that thing" they are "supposed" to be doing. There is much to this issue, which I describe in the book, but the bottom line is understanding the nuances of these types of distinctions is critical to bringing our world together with theirs. That's what brought me to write this book.

How has the development of higher education impacted the separation between what you call "generational worlds"?

The biggest thing is it has changed how and when people think about independent adulthood. Which again, has caused generational worlds to move apart. The need for higher education has clearly changed the landscape of this age stage. Graduating high school is now the rite of passage to begin thinking about adult life. This is clearly different than any other generation prior and tends to frustrate those in previous generations. Many leaders are frustrated because "these kids never seem to grow up," and parents often give up trying to understand their child. I walk through the development of higher education in the book and I also describe some irreversible affects it's had on this age stage. I begin the book with this because it's a critical piece to understand if we are going to bridge the relational gaps between generations - in homes and in churches.

What are the top issues that college-age people face these days? What influences their decisions?

Identity is really the issue. Everything from their developing of personal convictions, to their pursuit of a mate or life direction is ultimately an identity formulation issue. I have tried to simplify this in the book so that parents (and leaders) can better understand the world that these 18-25 year olds have grown up in because it drastically affects the way they process the world they live in today. The fact is their world is and has been different than ours. This means they have been molded and shaped by different things. And it's one thing to understand this in our minds, but it's another to keep these in mind as we approach a relationship with them. That's precisely why I wrote the book.

5 Questions for Phil Cooke

Guest Voices — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 08:07:32 -0700

Phil Cooke has produced media programming in more than forty countries around the world, and in the process was shot at, survived two military coups, fell out of a helicopter, and in Africa was threatened with prison. Meanwhile, he's helped some of the largest nonprofit organizations in the world navigate periods of dramatic disruption and change. His newest book, Jolt! (Thomas Nelson), will show you how it is possible to change your life while still maintaining your integrity and creativity. ConversantLife.com asked Phil 5 Questions about Jolt! and the messsage he wants to convey.

You use the concept of “jolt” in two different contexts—passive and active. Talk about these and why it’s crucial to be a person who is pro-actively changing.

Change comes at us in two different ways. Sometimes, we initiate change - we want to lose weight, go back to college, change jobs, start a new business - whatever. But other times, change is thrust upon us. Think about the horrible situation in Japan where people lost entire towns because of the earthquake and tsunami. They didn't ask for it and didn't have a vote - but they still had to deal with the consequences. Either way - change is coming whether we like it or not, and whether we're ready or not. The question that drove me to write Jolt! was - do you know how to see change coming and navigate that change in a positive way? My book will help prepare people to answer that question.

You have a short section on email in Jolt! #6 that is brilliant. What can we do to better manage the torrent of messages that come to us everyday? What happens to us when we don’t?

It's about perspective. Email simply is not the incredibly vital thing we believe it is. Yes it's important, but is it important enough to neglect your children, ignore your wife, and stop working on major projects, just to be ready for that potential message? I know people who have let their Blackberry or iPhone literally take over their lives. Here's what I recommend: First, turn off the little counter that alerts you when an email arrives. It's like Pavlov's dog - we stop whatever we're doing, no matter how important, just to answer a trivial email message. Second, don't feel obligated to return the message. Many messages are just information to update us, and we don't have to actually respond. Too often, responding starts an entire chain of messages that have nothing to do with the reason it started. Finally - Train your co-workers and friends to understand that you don't respond immediately to email. Tell them if it's important to call. That will really help take the pressure off feeling so guilty about responding.

What advice would you give to someone who is in a position to spark creative thinking in an organization content with copying ideas and trends rather than originating them?

Sometimes, the most creative thing you can do is to inspire the people around you. Too many people have "settled" in their lives and taken the easy way out. Inspire your co-workers to raise the bar, try original solutions, and see what happens. If you're in management, stop accepting derivative work and take the lead in demanding original thinking. I've actually fired people because they had just settled into copying other projects. I'm that serious about it. Technology is great, but it's original ideas that change the world. We need to remind ourselves of that from time to time.

The phrase “perception is reality” has been around for a while, but you put an interesting spin on it. How should someone go about improving their image without trying to be someone they’re not?

In a hyper-competitive, distracted culture, it's not enough anymore just to be good at your profession or calling. Today, you have to cut through the clutter of other voices just to get heard. I produce TV programs, and have to recognize that on DirectTV alone, there are more than 500 channels. In that competitive world, it doesn't matter how great my program is - if no one's watching, then I've failed. My premise about perception is that in today's distracted culture, that first impression is all most people will ever give you. Writing a great book won't matter if your title and cover design doesn't leap out at buyers at the bookstore. Like it or not, perception matters, and we all need to spend more time on making that initial impression. It's not about becoming someone you're not - real branding is about discovering who you really are and leading with that.

“Failure is the key to success” is a common concept, but you come at this in a refreshing way. Briefly explain the four reasons people and organizations fail, and how these can be turned into successes.

The first is what I call "situational failure." This is working in an organization that refuses to let you achieve, working for an idiot boss, a single mom trying to start a career while raising kids, and many others. In this case you need to decide what situations in your life you can change and which ones you can't. Then act. I love the advice: "Go where you are celebrated, not just tolerated."

The second is "emotional failure." Too many people today are led by their emotions. Certainly from time to time we get frustrated and depressed or don't feel like working. But turning your life over to your emotions leads to catastrophe. Understand where you emotions come from, and what they're saying about your situation, but don't let them control your life.

The third is motivation. Many organizations fail today because they don't have a leader who can inspire and motivate people. I'm always amazed at what some people can accomplish simply through motivation. I believe that if you can inspire and motivate people, you'll never go long without a job, because those people are always in demand.

Finally, the fourth area is the lack of knowledge. Every day someone gets promoted out of their area of competence. I heard a news report the other day that in the middle of this financial crisis in America, there are more than 800,000 jobs waiting to be filled - but they can't find qualified people. When was the last time you read a book about your career, attended a conference, or talked to a potential mentor? Perhaps the single greatest obstacle keeping you from advancing or making more money is simply a lack of knowledge. Statistics indicate that 83% of employees have been passed over for a promotion because they couldn't make the changes necessary to reach the next level in their career. How about you? What's holding you back?

5 Questions for Brian McLaren

Guest Voices — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:45:46 -0700

Brian McLaren, heralded as one of America's 25 most influential evangelicals by Time magazine, is an author, speaker, social justice activist, and pastor. His work has been covered in the New York Times, and Christianity Today. In his newest book, Naked Spirituality, McLaren shares practical wisdom for living a truly spiritual life as he presents 12 exercises for beginning and sustaining a meaningful relationship with God. Brian was kind enough to answer 5 Questions posed by ConversantLife.com.

In Naked Spirituality, you list four typical answers to the question, “What do you mean by spiritual?” Since these are all generic answers to some degree, how do you nudge people from a general desire to be spiritual to Christianity, or more specifically, to Christ?

I'm so glad you distinguish between Christianity and Christ. The longer I live, the less interested I am in adding adherents to a religion called Christianity, and the more passionate I am about helping people to discover what it means to live, move, and have our being "in Christ." My hunch is that there are people in the Christian religion who aren't living "in Christ," and there are people "in Christ" who are nervous about affiliating with the Christian religion because of what it seems to stand for in too many cases - things that, in their perception at least, are contrary to Christ. Speaking personally, I am a committed Christian and also, I trust, a follower of Christ - imperfect, unfinished, full of imperfections, and need of grace, to be sure, but I think that's true for all of us.

I can't speak of spirituality without speaking of my own experience, and all of my experience centers in Christ and is rooted in the Scriptures. So in the book, you'll notice I'm constantly connecting what I'm talking about with stories from the gospels, episodes from the Bible, insights from other followers of Christ, and so on. I find that the more I talk about Jesus and the Bible, the more people are interested. By the way, I also find that the more Christians attack other religions, the less people are interested in Jesus. It may be that they sense something sinister in any form of Christianity that can only lift itself up by putting others down.

Your 12 “spiritual practices” upon which Naked Spirituality is based, are very practical, yet very different from the classic spiritual practices, or disciplines (prayer, solitude, worship, etc.). What are the advantages of your practices over the traditional ones in the life of the Christian?

I'm a little surprised you'd think they are different. Really, you could say that all twelve of the practices I consider in the book are classical forms of prayer - invocation, thanksgiving, worship, confession, petition, intercession, aspiration, agony, lament, meditation, surrender, and contemplation. Sadly, many of us haven't thought much about prayer beyond the first five or six kinds, so I try to explore a wider range of spiritual practices than contemporary people may be used to. But if you go back in our tradition, you find that this full range was celebrated and cherished.

I also try to use fresh language to explore these classic practices, and I do so for at least two reasons. First, for us Christians, familiar words sometimes create a kind of false security: the words feel familiar, so we assume we're also familiar with the full depth of meaning to which the point. Second, for folks who aren't Christians, some of these words carry baggage that actually gets in the way of encountering the meaning to which they point. I'm not against the traditional words in any way, but I try to augment or complement those words as I am able.

In your chapter on “O” (as in O God, O Lord) you talk about the importance of living in the tension between God’s accessibility (immanence) and God’s otherness (transcendence). Why is it so difficult to live this tension? It seems as though we pick one or the other and live there, or we vacillate back and forth depending on what we think of God at any given time.

Yes, I think this really is a struggle. We face it in all our relationships, I think. For example, I can wake up day after day with my wife and think, "I know her." This familiarity can breed complacency. But even after almost 32 years of marriage, I keep discovering that there are new mysteries to explore in my wife's personality, and she discovers the same in me. And if we can keep this in mind, our marriage is wonderfully enriched. We have the depth of experience and shared memories to share, and we also have the continual discovery of newness and surprise.

I think one of the reasons contemporary Christians struggle so much with the beautiful integration of knowability and mystery is that we are contentious people. As Isaiah said, we are people of unclean lips. So much of our speaking of God is polemic - intended to persuade others that they're wrong and we're right in our understanding of God. Now I'm all for honest disagreement and spirited debate, but if we spend more time and energy arguing about God than in communion with God, I think our hands will begin to clench. And real worship, real adoration, real communion with God require open hands. I don't think it's accidental that the Psalmists invite us to raise our hands - not our fists - to God.

You divide your 12 spiritual practices into four seasons. Given that we are quickly approaching Easter, how do you see the seasons following the path of Jesus in his birth, growth, death, and resurrection?

Maybe I could offer this brief quote from the book (p. 185). This is from a chapter where I talk about those deepest, darkest valleys of the shadow of death that we sometimes pass through.

When you practice lament, when you are stretched and suspended on the cross of abandonment, you do not feel heroic. you do not feel like a runner about to cross the finish line. You do not feel that a hopeful Sunday is coming after a nightmarish Friday and a blank, lifeless Saturday. You feel exhausted and finished. You feel as though you're fading, dying, letting go. And so you do. Having kept the question [Why have you forsaken me?] open as long as you can, you let go. Dare you do so now? Dare you drop, crying why, falling not from the God above you, but into the G-d below you?

You might say that of the four stages I explore in the book—Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity, and Harmony—simplicity is like birth, complexity is like growth, perplexity is like death, and harmony is like resurrection. Of course, we all want to get to resurrection as soon as possible, but each stage is essential. Each has much to teach, and we are formed by each.

You get a lot of criticism from evangelicals, yet you seem to always maintain a very winsome and open spirit. What keeps you in such a positive and calm frame of mind when just about everybody else seems agitated for one reason or another?

I grew up in an extremely conservative and contentious fundamentalist movement or sect. It was filled with wonderful people who loved God, but the sociology of the group depended on exclusion and exclusiveness. When I "emerged" from that exclusive fundamentalism into a broader evangelicalism, I was hoping to find less contention. And I think I did. But in recent years, I think a contentious form of fundamentalism has been making a comeback and is in the process of a takeover attempt in evangelicalism. (I think similar movements are afoot in Catholicism and Mainline Protestantism too.) When I see this, I am not impressed by it, because I grew up with it and saw what it does to people.

I've learned in my own experience that it's way easier to think oneself right than to be loving. So Paul had it dead right when he said that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up, and that without love, no matter how right you are, you gain nothing but produce a lot of noise.

So really, I'm grateful for my religious heritage in fundamentalism. It taught me many things including that if you live by contention - theological swordplay, if you will - you will die by it. If you seek to argue and fight against an argumentative and combative spirit, you become what you are against. (Paul said that if you bite and devour each other, you'll consume each other, which describes our situation pretty well.) So my background forced me to seek a better way—what Paul calls the most excellent way, the way of love, the way of the Sermon on the Mount that transcends the way of the scribes and Pharisees.

Of course, I often trip up and slip back into things I am trying to grow beyond, but even that experience of failure humbles a person and makes it harder to try to put oneself in the position of an equal, much less a superior, in relation to one's fellow Christians. I guess so much comes back to Paul's words in Philippians 2, where he urges us to consider others as better than ourselves and to follow Jesus downward into servanthood. I suppose that to whatever degree I am, albeit imperfectly, able to maintain a winsome, calm, open, or positive spirit, it's because God has used the practices I explore in Naked Spirituality to form me. I still have a long, long way to go, so even though I wrote this book, I need its message as much as anyone else.

Thanks for the interesting questions! I hope these replies will be helpful.

Head-to-Soul Makeover

Guest Voices — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 08:32:52 -0700

Shelley Leith is the author of the new book, Head-to-Soul Makeover, Helping Teenage Girls Become Real in a Fake World, and co-author of Character Makeover: 40 Days with a Life Coach to Become Your Best You. She lives in Southern California with her husband and their five children, who have been the targets of Shelley’s early attempts at character development exercises.

Head-to-Soul Makeover. The name sounds like another study for teen girls on self-esteem.

My daughter Heather came up with that name. This study is based on my book for women called Character Makeover, but Heather told me that teenagers would not show up for a study with the word “character” in the title, so she gave it this clever twist. It’s actually a ten-week study on how to develop eight different Christlike character qualities, and I use television reality shows as metaphors for the different qualities.

Television reality shows? How does that work?

It’s really quite fun. If you think about a character quality such as courage, for instance, a reality show that definitely requires courage is Fear Factor. When you get to self-control, the obvious choice is the weight-loss show, Biggest Loser. How about perseverance? That one uses The Amazing Race. The other lessons (I call them “episodes”) are humility (American Idol), patience (WifeSwap), contentment (My Super Sweet 16), generosity (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition), and confidence (Don’t Forget the Lyrics).

Most teens would definitely be familiar with those shows. What do they actually do with the shows during an “episode”?

We start off the episode with a fun icebreaker where the girls think about being a participant in the show of the week, and they choose from actual scenarios that were featured on the show to decide things like which WifeSwap family would be the hardest to live with, or which Fear Factor challenge would be the scariest, or what kind of extravagant party they would throw if they were on My Super Sweet 16.

Then, you know how teens love to take those self-quizzes in magazines? Well, every week there is a self-quiz based on the reality show. For instance, during the Self-Control episode, the quiz is called the Total Loser Weigh-In, and the girls give themselves “pounds” in three different areas where they may have difficulty exercising self-control . Their score tells them where they need to lose the most: they may have to lose the mouth (control their speech), lose the attitude (control their emotions), or lose the appetite (control their habits).

So, DO you ever address self-esteem in this study?

I know girls need self-esteem! But in reality (get it?), most girls are trying to solve the wrong problems in their lives. For instance, many girls feel like they need to be more popular, or they want a boyfriend, or they aren’t pretty enough, or they don’t know how to fit in. So, they identify those things as their problem, and then set about solving those problems by doing things like wearing a particular style of clothing, or dating/sleeping around, or going on a diet, or putting on some kind of mask. But even if these strategies seem to solve the problem for a while, it inevitably doesn’t stay solved, and girls find themselves stuck on the same issues, over and over again.

What’s happening here is that there is a stronghold in her life – one or more character flaws that are at the root of the perceived problem. The perceived problem is actually just a symptom of a deeper character issue. Until that character flaw is addressed, she will continue to deal with the symptoms. At the beginning of Head-to-Soul Makeover, the girls take a What Not to BE self-assessment to figure out which character flaws they will need to deal with during the study. They may have root issues of fear, or pride, or anger, or envy, or impatience, or anxiety, or insecurity, or impulsiveness, or failure. Once they figure out their real problem, they study the solutions from the Bible, and partner with the Holy Spirit to work on developing the character quality that overcomes that issue.

How do you coach the girls to develop character? That’s hard for grown-ups to do – how do you get girls to do it?

I believe that becoming Christlike is a matter of proactively determining where you’re not like Him, and asking for the power of the Holy Spirit to do something about it. The homework for every episode is to choose an action step to practice. The action step the girls choose relates to the area of the character quality where they scored the lowest on their self-assessment. By practicing the practices of a person with that character quality, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the accountability of their Makeover Team, the girls build the character muscles to eventually arrive at a head-to-soul makeover. The last meeting is called the Big Reveal Party, where through games and exercises the girls affirm the growth they have seen in each other since the beginning of the study.

5 Questions for Francis Chan

Guest Voices — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:38:34 -0700

You opened your best-selling book Crazy Love by saying “something is wrong with the American church.” More than a million copies have sold to date, so do you think American church members agree.

At first I thought it was just me. Then I stood before twenty thousand Christian college students and asked, “How many of you have read the New Testament and wondered if we in the Church are missing it?” When almost every hand went up, I felt comforted. At least I’m not crazy. And I think those reading Crazy Love find this message resonating.

I think it’s far too easy to blame the American church without acknowledging that we are each part of the church and therefore responsible. But I think we all feel deeply, even if we haven’t voiced it, that the church in many ways is not doing well.

I get nervous when I think of how we’ve missed who we are supposed to be, and sad when I think about how we’re missing out on all that God wants for the people He loved enough to die for.

So how do we begin to address the church’s problems?

We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God. You’ve probably heard the expression “I believe in God, just not organized religion.” I don’t think people would say that if the church truly lived like we are called to. The expression would change to “I can’t deny what the church does, but I don’t believe in their God.” At least then they’d address their rejection of God rather than use the church as a scapegoat.

We must begin by looking at how the Bible calls us to live our lives. It is important that we not measure our spiritual health by the people around us, who are pretty much like us. To begin this journey, we must first address our inaccurate view of God and, consequently, of ourselves.

But before we look at what is wrong and address it, we need to understand something. The core problem isn’t the fact that we’re half-hearted Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God. We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis. He knows that He’s great and deserves to be the center of our lives.

Then the change begins with an understanding of who God is?

Yes, that is square one. The very fact that a holy, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, merciful, fair, and just God loves you and me should be nothing short of astonishing.

The wildest part is that Jesus doesn’t have to love us. His being is utterly complete and perfect, apart from humanity. He doesn’t need me or you. Yet He wants us, chooses us, even considers us His inheritance (Ephesians 1:18). The greatest knowledge we can ever have is knowing we’re treasured by God.

That really is astounding beyond description. The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time. He treasures us and anticipates our departure from this earth to be with Him—and we wonder, indifferently, how much we have to do for Him to get by.

Our love for Him always comes out of His love for us.

If we truly grasp the implications of the “crazy love” our God has for us, we would live life differently.

How does the Holy Spirit fit into our understanding of God?

There is a big gap between what we read in Scripture about the Holy Spirit and how most believers and churches operate today. In many modern churches, you would be stunned by the apparent absence of the Spirit in any manifest way.

The fact is, I need God to help me love God. And if I need His help to love Him, a perfect being, I definitely need His help to love other, fault-filled humans. Something mysterious, even supernatural must happen in order for genuine love for God to grow in our hearts. The Holy Spirit has to move in our lives.

It is a remarkable cycle: Our prayers for more love result in love, which naturally causes us to pray more, which results in more love…

What is next for you Francis?

It’s simple. Listen to God, wait for the Holy Spirit, love those around me well. And stay humble.

31 Days to a Younger You

Guest Voices — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 09:09:46 -0800

An energetic speaker and writer, Arlene Pellicane has been featured on The Hour of Power, The 700 Club, and Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah. Her new book, 31 Days to a Younger You: No Surgery, No Diets, No Kidding, has just been published by Harvest House. In it Arlene offers practical solutions to look and feel younger, especially if you want to have more energy, be happier and healthier, and prevent illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.

"All this and more is possible when you take an honest look in the mirror, both at your body and your soul, and allow God to touch your life," writes Arlene. Many women have already found value in Arlene's beauty and health tips, along with her biblical encouragement to "grow more beautiful from the inside out."

Arlene took time to answer Five Questions about her book, her life, and the greatest obstacle women must overcome when it comes to eating right.

Tell us a bit about what prompted you to write this new book.

I love to be a cheerleader to others. I was meeting so many women who were discouraged about their looks, health, relationships, job etc. I wanted to write a book to say “The best isn’t behind you. There’s more livin’ to do!” When we are healthy physically and emotionally, we have more to give to others. I remember talking to a mom friend who decided to exercise and lose weight because she simply didn’t have the energy to keep up with her young kids. Now she’s got plenty of energy to play baseball and run around the park with her children. Physical health enables us to do so much more with our families and with the dreams God has given us. When we have a sound mind and body, we’re not limited to sitting on the sidelines. We get to play in the game of life!

Why do you feel women today don't take time to better themselves physically, emotionally, mentally & spiritually?

It’s hard to change our behaviors which become our habits. For instance, if we’re not used to exercising, it’s really hard to take out the tennis shoes and hit the gym or do a workout DVD. It’s easier to say “I’m too busy taking care of everyone else.” Many women don’t give themselves permission to set aside time for themselves whether it’s reading a novel, joining a volleyball team, or attending a spiritual retreat. Truth is, we need to take time to care for ourselves so we can care for others with renewed love, strength, and creativity.

In the book, you write, "One battle for your body's health is won at the grocery store." What do you mean by that?

“Will I put this bag of Oreos in my shopping cart? After all, they are on sale!” Once the food goes in the cart, it is inevitable that it will go on our hips! If we can be the gatekeeper at the grocery store, our families will have healthier options at home. When you are hungry, you just go for what looks best / is the easiest to eat. Will that food be grapes or Doritos? The decision is really made the grocery store. What did we buy?

What do you think is the biggest obstacle that women must overcome when it comes to eating right? What's keeping us from getting serious about it, for ourselves and our children?

I would have to say unhealthy self talk. Too many women believe “I can’t really lose weight. Even if I eat right, I’ll just slip back to my old ways so what’s the use of trying?” If we don’t believe we can do it, we won’t.

What is your greatest desire for women who read your book?

I want women to finish my book and feel hopeful about their future. Maybe for the first time in a long time, a woman will think “I believe I can lose weight” or “I’m going to go for that job I’ve been dreaming about for years.” I want my readers to experience life change as God works in their lives. And I want my readers to feel YOUNG, after all we are KIDS of the King!

Good News in Bad Times

Guest Voices — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:38:52 -0800

During this tragic time in surfing community, with the loss of World Champion Andy Irons, our souls cry out that something is wrong. Not only is something wrong in the world around us but it feels as though something is wrong inside each of us. This is what many have called the God shaped hole in each of us. Saint Augustine said that our souls will always be restless until they find their rest in God.

I would ask you to commit to pray for the Irons family during this extremely painful time. Pray that God's comfort would be very real in their lives. Also, pray that God would recycle the pain in the surfing community and draw people to Himself. Pray, too, that God would give the members of Christian Surfers great wisdom as they live as the Light of the world and bring grace and truth to the surfing communities of our world.

As a member of CS I want to challenge you to be prepared at all times to give an answer for the hope that is within you (1 Peter 3:15). Remind those in our lineups that, "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:17). Why? Because, "God so loved the world that HE gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in HIM shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Surfers need to know that they can KNOW - " I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). In fact "Whoever believes in the Son (Jesus) has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him" (John 3:36).

People need to hear the Good News that, though our souls intuitively know we are separated from God and our consciences condemn us because we are not good enough to measure up to a perfect God—that GOD loves us. HE loves us so much that HE provided a way for us to be good enough by offering us the free gift of the perfect righteousness or rightness of Jesus.

There on the cross Jesus died as a substitute for everything wrong that I've thought, said, and done and rose from the dead to prove it. Now HE holds out to us forgiveness. The catch? We must believe. Which means we must stop believing other stuff. Stuff like, "I'm a good person" or "if I try harder it will be OK" or "if my good outweighs the bad I'll be fine" or "if I'm a highly spiritual person God will respect me."

Nope, God is God and as such HE sets the rules. And His rules are that we must believe on Jesus alone and fully for any hope of rescue from this broken life. Oh, and that is Great news - there is hope, there is a rescue, there is a person - Jesus - that loves us and died to fix our brokenness.

"EVERYONE who calls on the name of the Lord (Jesus) will be saved" (Romans 10:13).

--Dean Plumlee, National Director, Christian Surfers United

Dispatches from Lausanne

Guest Voices — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:09:07 -0700

Dr. Barry Corey, president of Biola University, is in Cape Town, South Africa, as one of just 400 American delegates at the Third Lausanne World Congress on Evangelism. This is the first in a series of dispatches Dr. Corey is sending about his experience at this historic event.

This has been another powerful morning here at Lausanne, Cape Town. The format in the convention center is setup around 800 tables of six. We are assigned tables for the morning sessions. More than four thousand fill the room with another 1,200 stewards and guests filling the seats and sitting and standing around the arena. It is perhaps the most representative gathering of the Christian church in history.

John Piper's talk on Ephesians 3 this morning drew our attention to the obvious tensions in gatherings like these of multinational, multicultural Christian leaders. How much do we give ourselves to the living out of the Gospel through eradicating human suffering, and how much do we give of ourselves to the awakening of the lost to the eternal suffering and the reality of hell?

Two truths in tension:

1. The Gospel impels us outward to right the injustices of this age.

2. The Gospel awakens us to the eternal reality of hell and impels us to rescue the perishing.

Some love the one truth over theother. Truly, both truths are inseparably intertwined. The global church should say for Christ's sake that we care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering. Christ is calling us to pull these two together. If we favor one over the other, we either have a defective view of hell or a defective heart.

Then, in a clear indictment against the gospel of prosperity that is still seducing believers around the world and increasingly in the Global South, we heard stories of those who have and are suffering for the cause of the Gospel. It is this suffering that is the aroma of Christ, as Paul writes, that draws the skeptic and the unbeliever to the cross. Our suffering and not our prosperity becomes the glory of the nations in that it attracts the lost, and that's how God has made it to be.

We discussed among ourselves how we must live the Gospel so that Christ is seen in us in a way that we cannot be silent even though we know it will ask a great cost of us, so that the name ofJesus Christ is glorified.

When our conversations around the tables subdued and John Piper concluded his exposition of Ephesians 3, Libby Little walked to the bamboo-covered pulpit. Libby, as you may remember, was one of our keynote speakers at last year's Student Missionary Union Missions Conference at Biola. She and her husband Tom raised their children in Kabul. Two months ago her husband Tom was one of ten compassionate Christians being that very aroma of the Gospel who were martyred in Afghanistan returning from the clinic where they had been serving the medial needs of a poor, remote Afghan village.

As our tears dropped onto the cloths across those 800 tables, Libby firmly and calmly told the story of Tom's final days in August. She pulled the notes the FBI had taken from the pants Tom had been wearing his final day—notes smudged with sand and stained with blood—and she read them to us.

The notes contained the words he shared with those in the village who may have asked him why he was doing what he was doing. He answered with bold words of the Gospel. Not in some defensive way or with an argumentative or combative edge, but with the Gospel as an aroma of Jesus for those who believe and to those who are perishing.

More to come...

Ernie Becker V: Live a More Fulfilling Life

Guest Voices — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:30:55 -0700

Ernie Becker V has lived five lifetimes in one. Or at least that's the way it seems. Born and raised in Las Vegas as a fifth generation contractor/developer, Ernie followed in the footsteps of his family business and was very good at it. He performed all aspects of construction development, buying and selling real estate, raising money and working closely with financial institutions. Then things started to spiral out of control. As Ernie says, "I tried to find anything I could on the outside to make me feel better on the inside."

Then Ernie discovered Christ, put his addictions down and began to work forward with what Jesus had in store for him. For ten years he became both a student and a teacher of Christians life coaching principles. Three years ago he formed E5 Coaching, LLC, as a way to help people find the life purpose he has found.

E5 Coaching is committed to the teachings of Christ by gently guiding people to be wholly and pleasing to God. "We empower you by applying Scripture to everyday life challenges through E5 programs, books, worships and coaching session," says Ernie. "Each product is designed with only one thing in mind: to bring you closer to Christ. Our desire is that you will experience a close relationship with Christ and your life purpose will be to glorify God."

The centerpiece of E5 Coaching is a 30-day program designed to help you live a more fulfilling life. In addition, E5 Coaching provides services for one-on-one coaching, design coaching, books, programs, and merchandise

Ernie and E5 Coaching are excited to offer a free download of an excerpt from his 30-day DVD series and workbook, Conquering Chaos with Love.