I’ve been in Nashville for Q Ideas – where the evangelical world, NPR and TED Talks meet for four days of 8 minute talks about “the common good.” About one third of the people are pastors, the rest are academics, pols, journalist, entrepreneurs and other marketplace leaders. This year’s talks have included discussion on: the environment, the effects of nationalism, Heffner’s legacy, the upcoming biological revolution, the rise of US exorcisms, reparations, #MeToo and life in our fake-news-post-truth culture.

Quotes Worth Requoting: 

• The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God’s paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle and not lose it. G.K. Chesterton
• If each spouse says to the other, “I will treat my selfishness as the main problem in the marriage,” you have the prospect for great things. Tim Keller
• To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. Thomas Merton

Caring for our Inner Garden: Shortly after it came out back in 1985, I devoured Ordering Your Private World. At the time there was not much like it in print. Today, books, articles and blogs about our inner life – and how to organize it – are everywhere. This past weekend we had MacDonald – now 79 years old – speak at a variety of Christ Church events. Here is a link to an hour long interview I did with him in front of our staff and the pastors from a few other churches.

Articles Worth Reading: My goal for this section has been to identify articles worth reading that you may not run across. I keep citing faith-related pieces from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc. because I am surprised at what is being printed there. As it turns out, I am overwhelmed by opportunities to do this – such as this week, where National Review has a piece on prayer. Despite the forecasts of those advancing the Secularization Theory, our world grows more religious by the day.

Barna Stats: One of the eight minute talks at Q was given by David Kinnaman, the president of Barna Research. He said many things worth thinking about. I’ll share two:

• Fifty-seven percent of Christians report that they would use violence to defend themselves, although only ten percent think Jesus would approve. (I’m not looking to debate self-defense, I’m simply noting the percentage who describe themselves as Christ-followers but who are not committed to following Christ).
• In this post-truth era: 1) the majority of people now look inward for truth – including truth about news events (as odd as that sounds); and 2) people are more confident in their views than they were in the past.

Thankfulness: Four years ago tomorrow (April 17^th) I suffered the dissection that led to a stroke. This past week I visited the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, which is the new name (that goes along with the new $500M building) for what used to be called RIC (the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago). During my visit I was able to thank four of the doctors, nurses and therapists who cared for me. Most tell me that my recovery is among the most significant they have seen. I remain very thankful.

Prayer Requests:  This weekend we start a new sermon series – Set Free. It is based on Galatians. I believe it may be one of the more important series I have ever preached. (I am certainly praying to that end).

This past week I have been re-reading two writers I need to spend more time with. The first is Paul. (I continue to work through his letter to the Galatians. It is stunning how many ideas he packs into six short chapters). The second is Martin Luther King, Jr. The 50^th anniversary of his assassination has led to many articles and editorials about King. I wish more leaders led from positions of moral authority not positional power.

Ripped from the Headlines:  Last week The Financial Times ran an article called, “The Return of Religion.” The piece – which you can access here – is long, and not the first thing I’d point you to this week. But here is a paragraph worth reading. It notes how the mood, especially in the UK, has changed quite a bit from when Richard Dawkins was most energetically championing atheism:

Dawkins was writing in 2006. That was before the economic crash, the migration crisis and a new wave of Islamist terrorism hatched a singularly un-progressive Zeitgeist that scorns the idea that humanity, though modernising in technological terms, is moving in any hopeful moral or social direction. That the quandaries of a disordered world and the alienation caused by displacement are forcing a reassessment of faith and religion is a reality trickling into the marrow of our secularised bones. Islamic and Hindu revivalisms have become titanic forces. Even Anglicanism, a strain of Christianity so unassuming it was said to have inoculated the English against religion, has a new lease of life. “Congregations are up in London,” a senior bishop told me recently, with something like a chortle, “but our real growth market is China.”

Quotes Worth Requoting.

• Nothing you have not given away will ever really be yours. C.S. Lewis
• In Christ we are offered the possibility of partaking in the reality of God and in the reality of the world, but not in the one without the other. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Our behavior is a product of our decisions not our conditions. Steven Covey

 Articles Worth Reading:

• Along the same lines as the Financial Times, The Federalist ran a piece entitled, Reports Of Christianity’s Death In Europe Have Been Greatly Exaggerated. You can access it here.
• If you have enjoyed reading any of David McCullough’s books – John Adams, The Wright Brothers, etc. – you will not want to miss this article from last week’s WSJ, entitled, What is Keeping David McCullough from Sleeping.

Thanksgiving: We did not manage to get all of the Woodruffs at home at the same time during Easter weekend, but over the course of the weekend we did get time with all three boys and the newest Woodruff, our daughter-in-law, Hannah. And that is a privilege we do not take for granted. (BTW, this is late because my lap top crashed. I am very thankful for IT people who can engineer their own form of resurrection).

Prayer Requests: This weekend we have Gordon MacDonald into town. In addition to preaching, we have him meeting with staff and a dozen staff from other churches. He will also speak on Monday night at The Forum, the monthly outreach we hold in a local sports bar.

A Prayer from Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – 1153): You taught us, Lord, that the greatest love a man can show is to lay down his life for his friends. But your love was greater still, because you laid down your life for your enemies. It was while we were still enemies that you reconciled us to yourself by your death. What other love has ever been, or could ever be, like yours? You suffered unjustly for the sake of the unjust. You died at the hands of sinners for the sake of the sinful. You became a slave to tyrants, to set the oppressed free. Amen.

• Pastors are seldom fired because they cannot do the work. They are let go because they cannot manage interpersonal relationships.

• There is a significant difference between an ally and a confidant. An ally, who typically lives and works inside your organization (or church) is on your side, but if you share “heavy information” with them, they are likely to pass it along – especially if they value the organization more than they value you. A confidant – who almost always resides outside your organization – values you more than the organization and will never pass along what you share. Over the course of our life, most of us will have hundreds of allies and two or three confidants.

• The goal of life isn’t balance, it’s shalom.

• We need to ask ourselves, “Who flourishes when I steward power well?”

• Our life is shaped as much by the patterns we adopt as it is by the significant events we experience.

• All gods who are not the true God become hungry. Annie – a commenter on Rod Dreher’s blog.

• As religion declines in secular societies, the eschatological yearnings for eternal hope, transcendent justice, and cosmic redemption must be heaped upon a temporal nation-state, creating an ever-increasing disillusionment as earthly structures struggle to cope with this overload. Mark Sayers

• Optimism is a force multiplier. Colin Powell

• God sees everything. And we are freaking out over a Facebook data breach? Mike Tanner

• As I write this, I am reeling from the news surrounding Willow Creek, which is hardly isolated from other depressing stories. My prayer is that those who have been hurt in any way turn to Christ and his church and not away.

• Next week is Holy Week, which comes with various services – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Sunrise – and many visitors. My prayer for Easter always includes the prayer that the Good News becomes clear to people, and that those who have dismissed Christianity as the stuff of fairy tales, take a grown up look at Jesus.

• Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me. Jeremiah 9:23f

• Who cares about the Hall of Fame. I’m pursuing the Hall of Faith. Baseball Legend Darryl Strawberry

• Law, in his terrible, cool voice, said…”If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God, in the end it will make no difference what you have chosen instead.” Those are hard words to take. Will it really make no difference whether it was women or patriotism, cocaine or art, whisky or a seat in the Cabinet, money or science? Well, surely no difference that matters. We shall have missed the end for which we are formed and rejected the only thing that satisfies. Does it matter to a man dying in a desert by which choice of route he missed the only well? C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

• Christ Church is off to a strong start for the REACH campaign, with all of the leaders (i.e., elders, deacons and ministry staff) making lead gifts.
• At Monday’s All Staff meeting, we are hosting a discussion about resilience, featuring insights from Lilly’s ten year longitudinal study on the well being of pastors (and others in the helping professions). The staff from a half dozen other churches are joining us.

• Last night was the official start of Commitment Weekend – when we invite people at Christ Church to make pledges towards the REACH Initiative. I would covet prayers for the results (we hope to secure pledges for $19M over the next two years) and also to lead well (whatever that means) in the days and weeks ahead.
• Syler Thomas, the Student Ministries Pastor at LF who also oversees The 01, has been on staff for twenty years, and consequently is up for his second sabbatical. Pray for him as he leaves next week, to rest and work on two books. Pray also for the teams stepping up during his absence.
• Holy Week is around the corner. That not only includes lots of additional services – a Passover Seder, Good Friday events, a sunrise service, programming for children, etc. – but also the gathering of the CEOs (Christmas and Easter Only). Pray that those who know Jesus as the Risen Lord of all, are able to loving and boldly find ways to suggest that those who do not know him take another look

Leviticus 19 records God’s command to the Jews to treat outsiders with justice and compassion. Two reasons were given: this was God’s will; and they knew the pain of being “mistreated outsiders” firsthand. The same call to love the other is given to us, but here’s the rub: a 2013 neuroscience study found that self-centeredness, not empathy, is our brain’s default setting. It also notes that selfishness is kept in check by a section of the brain – the right supramarginal gyrus – that only operates on slow mode. In other words, empathy only kicks in when we slow down. Think: silence, prayer, reflection and listening.

Is this possible? Today?

Many agree that our noisy, hyperactive, digital environment not only pushes us to react (more than reflect), but feel that the whole thing is toxic. Is there a solution?

I’m hardly a posterchild for slow, but I have two thoughts:

• I can survive fast if I also get slow. My early mornings are invaluable. I need the quiet, calm, reflective, prayerful start of the day.
• When I fail to get solitude, I seek isolation.

Three Questions Worth Asking: During my preparation for an upcoming series on Galatians, I ran across three questions worth passing along. View them here.

A Favorite Definition: I love Frederick Buechner’s definition of grace.

After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.

Grace is something you can never get but only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.

A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?

A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do.

The grace of God means something like: ‘Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you.’

There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it.

Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.

On the Night Stand: Speaking of grace, the following Detroit News piece on Lary Sorenson, is a story of grace. It’s also a reminder to keep graciously extending grace to others.

From the Headlines:

• The Francis Effect is Not Working: In recent years many have hoped that Pope Francis was rejuvenating the Catholic church. I will leave debates about how and why alone, and simply note, if the goal was to inspire greater faithfulness or church attendance, a recent Pew poll suggests it is having the opposite effect.
• Cape Town’s Crisis: In the not too distant future, four million people in Cape Town may have to stand in line for drinking water. A combination of population growth and record drought have created a dramatic urban water crisis. One South African expert recently commented, “I’m afraid we are at the 11^th hour. There is no more time for solutions. We need an act of God.” A city web site tracks Cape Town’s march to Day Zero.

Prayer Requests:

• I hate to sound like a broken record, but many of the staff at Christ Church are fighting some challenging battles. Please pray for their protection and strength.
• Tonight is Advance Commitment Night – when leaders gather to make the first pledges to the REACH initiative.

Prayers Worth Praying: Take me to you, imprison me, for I / Except you enthrall me, never shall be free / Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. John Donne

• Speaking of Graham, this Monday’s Wall Street Journal contained an article by George W. Bush entitled, “How Billy Graham Changed My Life.” In the piece, Bush shares his faith in Christ, and credits Graham for helping him understand salvation by grace not works.

• A recent post on BuzzFeed now ranks as one of the more disturbing things I’ve read in a few years – and that is saying something, because when I was working on Futureview, I read some pretty disturbing things. In Infocalpyse Now, Aviv Ovadya, the chief technologist for the University of Michigan’s Center for Social Media Responsibility, explains our new ability to flawlessly modify video. This not only means that some will start splicing celebrities’ faces into pornographic videos, it means people will make it appear as though world leaders are saying things they never actually said. As if it wasn’t already hard enough to know what to believe.

• In an effort not to be written off as Chicken Little 2.0, let me also direct you to R.R. Reno’s piece – End-Times Anxiety – which appears in the most recent edition of First Things. In it, Reno notes that an amazing number of things are going well.

• Be busy learning to pray. C.S. Lewis

• Student often; teacher sometimes; servant always. Roger Berry

• I don’t know what your destiny will be. Some of you will perhaps occupy remarkable positions. Perhaps some of you will become famous by your pens, or as artists. But I know one thing: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. Albert Schweitzer, world-renowned theologian, musician, and missionary doctor, in a 1935 speech to students.

• As I noted above, in his last message, Dr. Graham suggested we start our day on our knees. For many years that was not my practice. I started my day with prayer, but not on my knees. In recent years I have kneeled. I am glad to note that, two months after knee surgery, I am able to kneel again. I find it makes a surprising difference.

• Last weekend’s baptism service was a joyful celebration of faith and rebirth. Ten area churches joined in the party. Lots of people publicly identified with Christ. It was a great time of worship and a fun display of unity.

• As I have noted in earlier Updates – many of our staff are navigating personal and family difficulties. The same is true at several local churches. Please pray that those facing challenges would experience His joy, peace and favor, and that they would face their challenges with faith and courage.

• This week I joined two other Christ Church staff for a 24 hour trip to Kansas City to explore opportunities (and best practices) in pastoral residency programs. Christ Church is positioned near Trinity seminary, a blessing we want to steward well. We make much of that opportunity today, but we could do more. Pray that we make wise next steps.

• Next Friday is Advance Commitment Night, the first opportunity for people to complete financial commitment cards towards the REACH campaign. It is based on I Chronicles 29:6, where David (and other leaders) were the first to donate towards the building of the Temple. Our campaign goal is to help everyone take a next step in faith and service, and to secure commitments of $19M over two years. Given that our budget is just shy of $6M, that means we are hoping to raise three years of funding in two. The ultimate goal for REACH is “to fuel a movement that Reaches People and Renews Communities.” Locally we want: 1) to launch 3 new campuses; 2) expand our work among the under resourced and; 3) help other churches grow and thrive. Globally we want to help our partners in Turkey, Ghana and India start churches that are going to reach people and renew communities. Right now we are working to finish the campaign strong and get things lined up for a fast start assuming we hit our targets.

• The disciples didn’t ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, but to teach them to pray.

• When the Fear of Change > the Fear of Not Changing, change seldom occurs.

• The Book that recently grabbed my attention is, Rejoicing in Christ, by Michael Reeves (IVP Academic, 2015). I picked it up two years ago after it won Christianity Today’s book of the year award, but only recently started reading it. Reeves argues that what he’s written would have been common fare one hundred years ago. But today – because we tend to read about ourselves – many will find it powerfully new. I’m not sure about new, but I find it powerful. (Note: this is not a book read quickly).

• Why Plant Churches: Last week, Leadership Network reported five reasons churches should be planting new churches and starting new campuses: 1) New Works Reach Millennials. The majority of attenders in churches and campuses started in the last five years are 35 years old or younger; 2) They Facilitate Evangelism: People attending a church that is less than five years old are 52 percent more likely to invite their friends to consider faith in Christ; 3) They Grow Engagement. During the first five years of a church, people who attend are 31 percent more likely to volunteer than people across all subsequent years; 4) They Fuel Growth. Churches grow 170% faster in their first five years than across all subsequent years; and 5) They Steward Resources. Churches (and campuses) started in the last five years spend $460 annually per attender, compared with $1,667 annual ongoing cost for each attender in churches older than five years. All of this reminds me of Why Plant Churches, an article by Tim Keller, which came out four or five years ago. Keller’s argument– which is more theologically-shaped than the report by Leadership Network – changed my thinking.

• Two Billy Graham Items: In honor of Dr. Graham, who is no doubt enjoying quite a reception, I have two Billy Graham items. Click here for a joke he told weaving together Einstein and Graham’s own death. Click here for a 1969 interview of Dr. Graham by Woody Allen.

• This Sunday, Christ Church will host eight other churches for a joint baptism. Last year’s event was epic.
• This week is week two of the five-week REACH rollout. I am preaching from Genesis 13. Abraham and Lot. They chose different paths – and it made all the difference. My prayer is that we see that we have options, and we need to zealously pursue the right ones.
• Last week I reported that I was back to running. My surgeon was not happy. Apparently I was not acting my age. I’m sadly back to peddling a stationary bike.

This Wednesday was Ash Wednesday – which means Lent has arrived. By the way, this Wednesday was also Valentine’s Day. Not sure what to make of Ash Wednesday falling on Valentine’s Day and Easter on April 1^st.

Be Encouraged – and Challenged: Years ago, while traveling in troubled parts of Africa with Tim Dearborn – then a senior member of World Vision’s leadership team – I wondered why God allowed so much suffering. Dearborn reframed the question, asking why we allow it. He noted that if Christians gave ten percent of their income away, which he argued was a starting point, we could: 1) Wipe out extreme poverty; 2) Provide a 6^thgrade education to everyone; 3) Provide clean water to everyone; and 4) Double every church budget and double every mission budget in the world and still have hundreds of billions of dollars left over. He argued back then that the question is not: when is God going to provide, or when are we going to be generous, but when are we going to be faithful and obedient?

I called Tim last week to see if he wanted to update his thinking. He said the numbers still hold, and then observed that there were four things that got the Jews in trouble during the Old Testament era: 1) a failure to circumcise; 2) a failure to tithe; 3) a failure to keep the Sabbath; and 4) a failure to welcome the stranger. He argues that these were all issues of trust. In every situation they (we) were being asked to give something up something they did not want to give up. With circumcision – well, there is no desire to give up anything on that front. With the tithe, it’s money. With the Sabbath, it’s time, and with our home, it’s control / privacy. On all four fronts, obedience protects us from idolatry and helps us learn to trust God.

On the Night Stand:

• As I noted in the last Update, Sheri and I recently spent a week in Mexico with our longtime friends who recently moved to China. While we were together, he handed me a copy of Mao’s Little Red Book. I read as much as I could bear. There are moments when Mao seems well-intentioned, compassionate and even insightful. And I am inclined to admire his commitment to “the cause.” (In fact, if things were different – and Mao hadn’t killed more people than Hitler and Stalin combined I would note parallels between his actions and Peter and Paul in the Book of Acts). But I can’t freely go there. Much of The Little Red Book is heavy-handed and misguided nationalistic nonsense. As I said, I read as much as I could bear – and that was less than half.
• Shortly after he graduated from Harvard Law School, David French paid his own way to an Ivy Jungle Conference I was hosting to volunteer his time advising college pastors on their first amendment rights. I have kept an eye on French’s career ever since, which has included: joining the Army (post 9-11); being decorated for his tour in Iraq; writing several books (on ISIS, etc.); and being mentioned as a candidate for President. This week French has an article on football in The National Review. In, Yes, God Cares About Football, he muses over the tendency of NFL players (especially victors) to give credit to God. I found his comments more thoughtful than most discussions on this topic.

Quotes Worth Requoting:

• “The world is too dangerous to live in, not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen.” Albert Einstein
• “Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” James 4:17
  

And Two Olympic Related Quotes:

• “Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best.” Michael Johnson, 4x Olympic Gold Medal sprinter
• “Every Olympian runs, but only one person gets the prize. So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.” Apostle Paul, I Cor. 9

Signs of the Times: We rent Wedding Rings. Seen on a southern CA jewelry store.

Thanks and Praise:

• Sheri and I had a great vacation with our friends.
• I have been very encouraged by what I have seen going on behind the scenes –a small group that mobilized to help save a marriage; people stepping in to care for developmentally disabled adults; a young man stepping in to accompany the daughter of a single Mom to a Daddy-Daughter Dance, and a spike in people wanting to serve.

Prayer Requests:

• This weekend we kick off REACH, our effort to organize, fund and implement a movement that “reaches people and renews communities.” We’ve been working on this for a year. The sermon series – out of Genesis 11-22 – rolled out last night with our Th PM service at HP. Our goal is $19 M over 2 years, most of which ($12M) funds our normal operations during that time, but $7M which allows us to do new some very exciting things.

• We are ramping up for our annual baptism service. This year thirteen churches are participating. It’s common to compare a challenge to “herding cats.” Given a choice between herding cats and organizing an event involving 13 churches I’d opt for the cats.

• Reading Mao has reminded me of how important leadership is. I have mentioned this before, but we need to pray for our leaders.

• Of the twenty or so friends I went to seminary with, only two remain in pastoral ministry. Most are now doing important and interesting things, but they are no longer on staff at a local church. My experience is not unique. Pastors everywhere are stepping down. Some call it an epidemic. The folks at the Eli Lilly Foundation were concerned enough that a while back they pledged $82 million dollars to figure out what is going on and try to stop it.

• As part of Christ Church’s commitment to “fuel a movement that reaches people and renews communities” we are committed to helping other churches. Part of helping other churches means helping those who lead them. In April we will be hosting a workshop for pastors on how to develop survival skills for long-term church-ministry. I will be interviewing Dr. Donald Guthrie, one of the architects of the Lilly study and one of the authors of Resilient Ministry.

• The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer. Terence McKenna. (This echoes Jim Collins admonition that we, “face the brutal facts.”)

• Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am. David, Psalm 39:4. I am struck that David is not making an observation about the brevity of life, he is praying that God grant him an awareness of this fact. Clearly, most of us end up surprised at how short it feels, and we often waste a lot of time.

• I have been able to start jogging again. (I am just over a month removed from arthroscopic knee surgery). Clearly this injury will keep me out of yet another Olympics, but there is always 2022.
• It is great to have long time friends with whom you have shared many highs and lows.

• I remain aware of the many challenges facing the Christ Church staff right now. Pray for strength, energy and protection as we move into REACH.