I can be pretty slow on the uptake at times.

At certain moments, things seem very cloudy and I am not always good at discerning God’s voice from mine. (Maxie Burch says that’s because I talk too much and never shut up. He’s probably right).

However, there are moments where this is not the case.  Not sure if it is because I run out of words or God decides that I really need to hear something.  Normally, these moments of clarity become clear over time and involve a multi-prong attack, where I am getting it from God on all fronts. For instance, I will read something in the Scriptures and then have someone speak about that passage in a public setting.  Or I will have a friend ask me about something that I was secretly considering.  Or I will look back over the last few months and see a pattern that I had somehow overlooked.

You might say, “Scott, are you blurring the line between coincidence and God speaking?”  No, I don’t think so.  I agree with Dr. Blackaby, when he said in his book, Experiencing God, that God speaks in four ways: through prayer, the Scriptures, other people (the Church), and our circumstances. Sadly, I realize that I talk too much and God has to come at me from multiple sources repeatedly to break through my noise.

Recently, I looked back over my personal reading and time in the Scriptures this fall using B90X and I saw a pattern emerging.  I began to chew on this pattern and started connecting some dots and some experiences that I was having in my personal life. I had been encountering a similar theme from the writers of the Scriptures to modern-day authors.  I had been living in a fairly consistent reality for several months.

So, I put it down on paper and started fleshing it out.  And in a funny and surprising way, it intersected the general Lenten theme that the Think team set for our conversation at Crash beginning on Sunday, February 14th and continuing through Palm Sunday, March 28th.  I will be sharing a lot of what God has been teaching me (“okay, God, I get the point” moments) during these seven weeks.

This will be a personal series in many ways and I am excited for the teaching that will take place from passages across the Scriptures.  Teaching that will relevantly speak into our present context and direct our focus to the experience of Jesus on the way to the Cross.

I hope like me, you will have an experience with God where you can say, “okay, God, I get the point!” and then do something as a result of your newfound understanding.  We know that, in a spiritual context at least, knowledge without action leads to pride.  We won’t be looking for simply more knowledge but a new direction for living and action.  I pray that we can engage the places in our lives where we face suffering (and conflict, resistance, or our “lizard brains”) and allow God to inspire our perspective towards redemption and hope.  We really do serve a God who wastes nothing.

What a Waste: A Series on Suffering
Feb 14-Mar 28

“None get to God but through trouble.” -Catherine of Aragon

What a nice quote…but who wants to live that? Who accepts that trouble, suffering, difficulty, resistance, conflict, or pain are a part of God’s work in us?

As we move through this season of Lent, in preparation for Holy Week, we will consider the role of suffering in our lives. We believe that we worship a God who wastes nothing. A God who joins us in our suffering. A God who suffers. Whose suffering and death and resurrection produced our reconciliation with God and began the renewal of all things.

We are going to suffer, too, and it will shape us. This series is about this suffering and our response to it.

Some things that are going on that I would love to share and give commentary on…

-Met yesterday with Maxie and his talk for Crash on Sunday night is gonna be spot-on.  Talking about “What is Church?”, wrapping up our series “I Don’t Know Where to Start”.

-Working with our graphic designer re: our next Crash series, a Lenten one, that will begin on Valentine’s Day and run through the end of March.  This new series will be about suffering.

-Very excited today for the release of the iSlate from Apple.  I should be ashamed but I will be following Steve Job’s keynote more closely than President Obama’s State of the Union.

-I would watch the State of the Union, but I will be speaking to a group of students in Gilbert tonight.  Excited to spend time with 100-150 jr high and high schoolers tonight, Friday and Saturday nights.

-Trying to put the final pieces together for an Ash Wednesday service on February 17th.   Hoping to have details this Sunday night; it will likely be a gathering of multiple churches.

-Loved the launch of the new mini-season of Burn Notice on USA last Thursday.  Other than NCIS re-runs, I probably watch Burn Notice more consistently than any other show on TV.  Well, Sportscenter doesn’t count.

-Overwhelmed by how many people I am connected to are in the midst of incredible crisis in their lives.  Feeling the weight of our depravity as humans but also our potential to love, encourage, and stand with one another in solidarity.

-Loved the music from the Hope for Haiti Now Telethon over the weekend.  Favorite song has to be Justin Timberlake’s take on Hallelujah.

As a part of Crash’s January series, “I don’t know where to start”, Maxie Burch answered the question, “What is prayer?”. Maxie shared very pointedly and directly that sometimes our approach to prayer looks an awful lot like the way cable infomercials approach fitness and dieting (as presented in this video montage).

Maxie’s brainchild, PrayerWow!, is an example of this.

He went on to share some incredible stuff related to prayer and an anti-formulaic approach to this central discipline of our faith.

-Like the Scriptures, prayer is about transformation, not accumulating more information.
-Prayer is expecting God to be present and engaged with us.
-The most common question is hear is “how do I know God is speaking to me?”
-We ask that question because prayer, for us, is about getting answers.
-If you are always talking, it is going to be impossible to differentiate between your voice and God’s.
-I bring my personal communication skills into my prayer experience. If you aren’t a good listener, prayer doesn’t change that.
-God may not speak for a long time; how long are you willing to wait?
-Silence is prayer in the presence of God.
-Are you looking for answers or God’s presence?
-What kind of relationship do you want with God?
-What kind of relationship does God want with you?

You can download and listen to the podcast on iTunes later this week.

Sunday night was a great evening for our community called Crash.  We worshiped together, with Carol leading us in a new song, “He is Lord” by Hillsong.  You can watch a video of the writers of the song here.

I continued our January series entitled, “I Don’t Know Where to Start”, with a conversation on the Scriptures.  I really enjoyed this talk and it was a very personal message.  As I have shared before, I had a great struggle with my lack of desire to read the Scriptures in seminary and I had a great experience this fall reading the Scriptures as a part of the B90X plan.  Our church took on the challenge of reading the Scriptures in 2010 together.

Some of my thoughts related to this question are listed below:

-God wants to transform us as we read the Scriptures.

-The Scriptures are filled with powerful timeless narratives, with flawed, honest, real characters.

-The Scriptures would be rated R or NC-17 if they were converted into a movie for language, sex, and violence.

-The Scriptures embody the openness of our faith.  Open to all people, regardless of race, culture, language, social or economic background.  There is no privileged language or culture to the Christian faith.  The Scriptures are the most translated book in history.  Unlike other sacred texts, you don’t have to learn a new language to read it.

-Christianity arose in the Ancient Near East.  Its origins are a Middle Eastern faith, not an American one.  Moses spoke Hebrew and Jesus spoke Aramaic.  Paul spoke Greek and Augustine Latin.  Luther spoke German and now we speak English.  And by 2050, the majority of Christians will live below the equator (that one didn’t make the talk, but its the majority projection).

-I encounter God when I read the Scriptures.  And God transforms me, not the Bible.  I don’t worship the Bible, I worship the God who inspired it.  When I read the Scriptures, I realize God can take me at my best and worst, just like Job, the writer of Ecclesiastes, and the many who wrote the Psalms.

-God continues to use the Scriptures to transform, correct and direct me.  If I read the Scriptures for knowledge, I have missed it.  Because “knowledge – action = pride” EVERY TIME.  I must read and respond to what God shows me as I read the Scriptures.

So I would urge you to join us in reading the Scriptures in 2010.  You can use your computer or smart phone by going to www.youversion.com and selecting the Robert Roberts reading plan.  It takes about 15-20 minutes a day.  I think you should read the Scriptures because God can and will use it to transform your life.

Ever feel like you are just spinning your wheels?  Burning daylight?  Wasting your life?  Me too.

This fall included several times where I felt like I was stuck on pause.  I felt as if what I had been doing with my life was not yielding any results.  The feedback loop on what I was doing was either too wide or broken.  I struggled with depression, motivation, focus.

It’s funny.  At the end of the year, I entered a very different season.  Within two weeks, I had five to seven experiences where I realized the invaluable role God was allowing me to play in the lives of other people.  Old friends, new friends. People in Phoenix, people in Texas.  Places where I had been laboring for a LONG TIME.  With people I hadn’t had a serious conversation with in weeks.  People owning up to things that had been unspoken for months.

Relationships offer us a guaranteed return on investment.

Now, that return may be brokenness and pain if things go bad or a dissolution that sends us in different directions permanently.  And I realized my experience was the idealistic type where it was all possible rate of return.  I know the other side of the fence because that’s where I lived all fall – watching friends marriages fall apart, onetime friends go separate ways, transparent sharing result in someone not listening and not being open to change.

However, as we move into the 10′s, I implore you – keep your heart open to people.  You will be hurt and disappointed, and you will enter seasons where you feel that you are stuck on pause, spinning your wheels.  Leave room for God to come in and surprise you.  In those moments, you will realize every relationship that you trust to God offers a guaranteed return on investment.  Our surrender enables the impossible to become possible.

What relationship, which person do you need to surrender to God?

“If a leader wants their followers to bleed, he/she must hemorrhage.” -Steven Furtick

Recently, I was talking to a good friend about the challenge of leading and inspiring others towards a common mission and personal transformation.  I was reminded of this powerful quote from Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Elevation is one of the fastest growing churches in America, going from a core group of less than 50 to over 5,000 in three years.

This quote embodies my understanding of what it means to lead from the front and lead by example.  I believe God is calling his followers to be pace-setters for others.  Not in a legalistic way or a manner that leverages guilt or manipulation as forces for change.  However, I struggle to follow leaders or sacrifice for others when I do not see them living a lifestyle that embodies the messages they evangelize to others.

We don’t need any more workaholics who sacrifice their family on the altar of their job/calling.  We don’t need any more leaders who lay on the guilt trips or manipulate others in passive-aggressive ways.  We don’t need any more leaders who constantly yell at their followers (employees or children) for not being all that they should or could be.

Yet, we do need leaders who leave no doubt in the minds of those watching that they are ALL IN.  All the chips are on the table, they are taking a great risk and discovering great courage in the way they are living and leading.  We need leaders who have come alive within a vision and they are calling others to commit to the point where they bleed it.

Who have you seen lead and inspire others in this way?  Who has led or inspired YOU in this manner?

10. Apparently, my zoology needs work – I described a group of sheep as a “herd” not a “flock”.

9. Apparently, my American Literature knowledge needs development – I intended to refer to the story of Rip Van Winkle and I called him Rumpelstiltskin.

8. I made a slide for my Keynote deck that had “Cardinals = Epic Fail” when the game went tied 38-38.  I also got some crap for changing out of the Cardinals tshirt I was wearing during set-up.  I honestly thought they would blow the game.  But the slide became “Cardinals = Scare the crap out of us with an almost epic fail”.

7.  I got a text message from a FEMALE friend of mine asking, “If this game goes into overtime, are we gonna delay the start of Crash?”  I love that there are some REAL Cardinals fans in Phoenix.  And no, we didn’t delay the start.

6. My friend, Joy, talked with us about her work joining God’s mission in North Africa and the Middle East.  Her last year of seminary was my first year, so we took a few classes together.  She is a great example of someone who was on mission as a high school teacher and chaplain for the Phoenix Mercury.  Now she is on mission, but the geography has changed.

5. The band was back at full strength after the holidays.  I love those guys and girls and the excellence they bring to their craft.

4. Every Sunday night I meet someone who is attending Crash for the first time.  A great reminder that we have to weave our mission and vision into what we do week in and week out.

3. I talked about our mission as SENT people.  That our work happens out THERE, not in HERE.

2. I was stoked to use some photos from the downtown photo shoot that Tony Elliott and I did.  He is brilliant!

1. In preparing for this message, I was challenged regarding several places where I have been abdicating and avoiding my role as a SENT follower of Jesus, using excuses like busyness, fear, uncertainty, the unknown, etc.  And this week, I am taking steps to push back on that resistance.  The “place to start” that I suggested is a great place for all of us to begin.

Tomorrow will be the one month anniversary of the day I gave up my Blackberry.  Seeing a friend play with her new iPhone today caused me to reflect on the last 30 days and the effect this decision has made on my life.

-There are a couple of friends that I do not have contact with as much without IM on my phone.

-I had to wait to make notes to send two emails when I got home this afternoon that I would have normally written from the aisles of Fry’s.

-I leave my phone in my office during meetings now.  I lose it in my small apartment at times.  (I NEVER left my Blackberry out of my sight before)

-My frequency of updating my Twitter has to be 40% of what it was with my BB.

Going back to a “normal phone” that only does phone calls and text messages has been a bit bizarre.  And I still face the challenge of being present with people when I could be conversing with someone else electronically.  I can still lose myself online for far longer than I would like to admit.

But I look back on this first month without my Blackberry and I see change.  Real definitive change.  And for that, I am very thankful.  Whenever you can look at your life and see that from one point to another you made progress, I think that’s a moment for gratitude – to God and yourself.

Looking back, where in your life can you see significant change?  Looking forward, what are you doing to create space for God to doing transforming work?

I recently graduated from seminary.   The seminary I attended recently underwent a significanat transition in leadership.  Dr. Bill Crews was president for over two decades and provided an incredible amount of stability for the school.  However, he saw his time coming to a close in advance and led through a great transition process.  Dr. Jeff Iorg (think Gorge without the first G sound) was selected as the new president and he served alongside Crews for between 6 and 12 mos.  Iorg and Crews traveled together, and Crews offered his relational credibility to Iorg.  As a result, the transition was stable and Golden Gate continued to thrive in the 2000s, launching new initiatives and expanding its presence online.

The funny part came when Crews was offered a job that Iorg held before his transition to Golden Gate.  Recently, Crews has become the Executive Director for the Pacific Northwest network of Southern Baptist churches. And from the reports I hear, this 70-something leader is introducing significant change, calling for increased accountability, innovation, and results in places where mediocrity and the status quo had become normal.  I love the fact that he is still leading innovative and outside-the-box thinking.

When I reflect on this process and the responses of these two men, what I find is that handling change well is very possible.  We just normally encounter a lot of roadblocks in the way.  Pride, arrogance, ego, desire for control, resistance due to fear, inability to redefine ourselves outside of our current job or role.  I look at the example of these two men and I realize that humility, servanthood, patience, courage, risk, and an openness to God’s neverending work in the lives of his children go a long way in navigating change well.

And I remember one large thing.  We speak a great deal about God’s work and interaction with our daily lives.  However, moving from theory to action is a great difficulty for many of us.  And we often fail to live as if the Holy Spirit we believe in so passionately is actually real and engaged with us, accomplishing what we could not do simply on our own.  If the same power that raised Jesus from the dead truly resides in the lives of those who follow Jesus, then we should  not resign ourselves to frustration, brokenness, and dysfunction so easily and treat it as “normal, acceptable, and just the way things are.”

Navigating change well is possible, but it does involve more than simply our own willpower and decisiveness.  If we do not live daily in dependence on the Holy Spirit, then we are nothing more than practical athiests.

New Year. New Decade. More drama!

I have been interested in the last few weeks to watch drama unfold in two very different contexts, related to individual’s refusal to accept change.

First, Bobby Bowden coached his last game at Florida State over the weekend. The Seminoles won and sent him out well. But the journey to that point was rough. His teams had lost stature since they dominated the 90s and early 2000s, and as Bowden moved into his late 70s, they just could not hang with Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators. The school and AD wanted him to retire, and he wanted to coach one more season. Finally, he was basically given a gentle nudge in butt and he acquiesced. But, not the transition anyone was looking for.

Second, James Dobson of Focus on the Family fame has stirred up some trouble in Colorado Springs. He will host his last radio show with Focus in February and is no longer the CEO of Focus. It seems that Dobson, who is in his 70s as well, was frustrated with the kinder gentler Focus being shaped by a new CEO and an evolving board. Dobson always dreamed of handing the reigns to his son Ryan, who is almost 40. But Ryan is divorced, so that just doesn’t fit for an organization that trumpets strong marraiges and families as the solution to society’s ills. Dobson recently sent out an email asking for 2 million dollars in start up funds for a new organization and new radio show he will be launching after he leaves the organization he founded in the 70s.

As I look at these two stories, and hear stories of others like them (such as Bill Hybels returning to lead Willow Creek Community Church), I realize that I have not seen older leaders transition well. Most of them fight it hard and they dont know to trust the next generation with the mission or institution they feel they have built. It almost seems at times as if some older leaders cannot separate the identity and future of the organization from their own identity and future.

Tomorrow, I will share about a transition that I have watched from afar. A transition that happened very well and put two different men in places to influence change.

Until then, how about you? How have you seen these kinds of transitions gone well? Who have you seen do it well? Who have you seen do it poorly?