I decided to share four photos of my Moleskine from Crash last night. Maxie launched our series, Resurrecting Christmas, with his talked entitled, Living the Story.
You can find the podcast here.

BIG thanks to Danny and Lucas Ortega who helped shoot, edit, and upload this video!

Sunday night was an amazing evening. For so many reasons.
-Probably the biggest community moment I have seen in Crash history. I mean, TONS of people involved in imagining the evening, planning, implementation, promotion, cooking turkeys or hams, set up, room design, technical stuff, tear down, etc.
-I saw VERY FEW people walk into the room empty handed. Everyone brought different kinds and amounts of food, but because (almost) everyone brought something, we had more than enough food.
-There was a massive difference between this dinner and other dinners where the church has provided the food, and asked for donations. This time, everyone was respectful of those who had not eaten yet and restrained themselves. We did not run out of food.
-We had tons of new faces. Friends and family of community members were invited and came.
-We connected communion to Thanksgiving and remembered the fact that communion was part of the biggest meal of the year for Jewish culture – the Passover. Jesus wasn’t making bread and wine special; he was calling all his followers to remember that meals are more than meals when we break bread together in remembrance of all that He did for us.

If Sunday night was my only experience of Thanksgiving, it would be enough. Powerful stories. Mental snapshots of many more moments than could be shared here.

A member of the Crash community, Tony Elliott, took some pictures during the evening. You can see some pictures from the evening by clicking HERE.

We begin a new series at Crash this upcoming Sunday, entitled Resurrecting Christmas. A series about the intersection of our experiences at Christmas and the story of God coming near to us as a baby whose ultimate Resurrection will change everything.

Earlier this week, I promised two stories this week about living a life of generosity. This second story continues with a pretty serious learning curve for Dani and I. As I mentioned in the video blog, we decided to create this special savings account to give us the ability to respond to needs of people we knew.

Well, during our current experience in a Crown Ministries Life Group, we had to track our spending for 30 days. And frankly, we were doing pretty bad at it, so one day I ended up playing catch up with our online banking.
And wow. By the time I was done, I realized that we had spent double our budgeted amount for entertainment and groceries. Reality is a jagged little pill to swallow sometimes. What made it even harder was that during this time period, Dani and I had learned about a very simple need in a friend’s life. A luxury they had been giving up to further their family’s financial health and goals. So, we wanted to make it possible for them to enjoy that luxury, just once. However, because we had overspent these budget areas, we didnt have the cash to deposit in that account. And I realized we hadn’t deposited enough already to cover it either.

Over the weeks that followed, we moved to new system where we get cash out for grocery shopping and we each get a fixed amount in cash for entertainment/eating out.
As a result of this new discipline and a focused goal, we were able to be generous toward the woman Dani works with.
And then later this week, we got a chance to go back to that friend and bless them as well.
I struggle with financial discipline. It is hard work. I have made lots of bad decisions. But when faced with the option of not having the resources to be a blessing like I have been this week, I think I can take a deep breath and make a sacrifice.

Defining experiences have a way of creating burdens and passions. This was one of those for me. I want to live a generous life.
May God bless you with experiences that change you and the way you live your life.

Join us this at Crash, this Sunday night at 6pm in the Lower Chapel. SE Corner of Bethany Home and Central, Phoenix.

Dani and I committed to giving consistently to the ministry of our church during our pre-marital counseling in the spring of 2008. However, we realized that once we set up our automatic payment with our credit union, the discipline became much easier and we felt like the work was not done. We felt that this was a good and important thing to do, but it wasn’t the end-all-be-all of the generosity spoken about in 2 Corinthians 8. So we began to be challenged about what it would mean to ask God to show us ways we could be generous to those we interact with every week (people we meet in the course of our work, the people who live in our apartment complex, the diverse people Dani works with and handles through her job as an attorney, the people I get to minister to and with as a pastor). Tomorrow and Friday, I will share two stories of how this has happened recently (and trust me, both of them involve me learning lessons the hard way – which is my normal pattern).

The following quote comes from a small group study I am doing with the college students I lead at North Phoenix. The study is called “Nehemiah: Repurposed” and you can get more info on it here (along with a host of other great small group bible studies that are written and intended for college students and young adults – but really work for all generations). These words reminded me again today that I need to take RESPONSIBILITY for being generous and not pass the buck to other people or just write a check and clear my conscience.

“Compassion is not a program of the church. It is an act of the church. Now it’s time to move from sympathy to action. Many in the church today notice the needs of others, and feel badly about their condition, but don’t act on their feelings. They respond with sympathy rather than compassion. Sadly, the institutional church is in part to blame for much of this.
Over the years, the church has outsourced its compassion-based ministries. Just as the globalization of corporations has greatly affected the U.S. economy, the outsourcing of compassion-based ministries has devestated the church’s caring economy. It happens as we send missionaries across oceans. It happens as we start parachurch organizations to love college students or those who are incarcerated. It happens as we send money to local food kitchens or neighborhood outreaches. With each of these well-intentioned ministries, the message to the people of God from the institutional church, intentional or not, is this: Caring for those in need is someone else’s job. Compassion is no longer something we look for in our lives; we look for it in someone else’s ministry. Compassion is just another service we pay for.”

Over the next couple of days, I am going to share about how God has been working in mine and Danalyn’s lives to move us toward living generously.  Some personal stories will come out and I hope you will reflect on what it means to live generously, even if you are in the midst of difficult times that are chock full of suffering.

If you missed it, Steve Bass, a personal friend and huge supporter of North Phoenix, shared in the NP’s morning service this past Sunday from the book of 2 Corinthians about this very thing.  Video of the message can be found here later this afternoon.

Steve spoke from the following passage. I hope you will follow the blog this week for some thoughts as we move into a time of year in which we often feel compelled toward selfishness and a version of consumerism that consumes us in the process.

2 Corinthians 8:1-7

1And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. 5And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will. 6So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 7But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us[a]—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

Last night, we wrapped up our Mind the Gap series with the final week of our conversation called, The Death of “They”. It was a fun night. Carol Loveless did a great job with Hosanna by Hillsong. Rob and the band did a great cover of “Us and Them” by Pink Floyd. I mocked Maxie for his insistence that the fog machine makes his voice crack like a 12 year old in puberty. Cider was a big hit in the lobby again. All in all, a great night.

For those of you who missed it or were there and want to review what we discussed, my Scott-isms follow this section. (We are currently having some major challenges with our podcast. We realize this and are doing what we can to remedy the situation. You can try to download via iTunes or our website – the ability to download is frankly inconsistent at best right now. We will let you know when we have been able to remedy the situation).

-”Where’s the bag with our clothes?” (the question Dani asked me when we got to the cabin for our personal retreat. let’s just say I had to drive 4 hours round-trip to make sure we had what we needed for our weekend).
-I can connect so many choices and commitments to certain values to experiences I have had, stories that I have lived. I cannot say the same for principles that I have been taught or pithy quotes I have been given.
-Big Idea: One by one, we can follow Jesus by touching, healing, and eating. (Luke 5:12-39)
-“Jesus reaches out His hand and touches the man, something no one would normally do for fear of being infected or of becoming ritually unclean.”
-Are we afraid to “touch” people who don’t know Jesus out of fear that we will get infected with sin like we can get infected with H1N1?
-Does your theology drive you to spend time with those that Jesus touched? If not, your theology needs to be undermined, shattered, and remade.
-Jesus eats whatever is put in front of him. There is nothing here about him giving evil looks to the guys who are pouring themselves a third glass of wine.
-Then they respond, “why do you party so much? We fast and all you do is party.”
(The following line was in my notes but I glossed over it, much to the chagrin of Maxie who thought it was the best piece in my whole talk)
-If nothing else, the last three Sunday nights should be making a fairly clear point for all of us. We need to be eating and partying with people who we wouldn’t normally. Not so we can join them in drunkenness and then go find all the pictures of our night on Facebook and untag ourselves…
-…But, loving and thinking and serving like Jesus means that we do what he did. And that looks like touching people no one else would. That means making it easy for those who are turning to God – being a conduit of healing in their lives. That looks like eating and partying with notorious sinners and reminding those who would judge and condemn that this is who Jesus came to save.
-It’s easy to be a critic; it’s difficult to actually do something.
-Guilt is a crappy motivator; it’s about as effective at creating lasting change and commitment as drinking a Rock Star is at creating long-term energy.
-The way to bring a death to this idea of “they” is to decide “who” – who is it that you know that you need to touch, heal or eat with? That person is a he, a she, a you. They are not a nameless, faceless person. Decide who and do something.

“Loving and thinking and serving like Jesus means that we do what he did.  And that looks like touching people no one else would. That means making it easy for those who are turning to God – being a conduit of healing in their lives, in response to their faith. That looks like eating and partying with notorious sinners and reminding those who would judge and condemn that this is who Jesus came to save.”

See you Sunday night at 6pm in the Chapel.   For more info, check out www.rhinocrash.org.