jeff gibson

Grisham's a heavy read...

I had to do a little carpet repair and this is how I chose to keep it glued down.

Erasing Hell by Francis Chan

I just finished the book by Francis Chan called Erasing Hell.  Here's some of the highlights from my reading:

• If you were on a deserted island and you uncorked an empty bottle containing Philippians 2:9-11, you would probably be a universalist.
• The wrath of Jesus here is retributive and not corrective.
• The “all” who will be “made alive” in Christ refers to believers of all types, not every single person.
• No passage in the Bible says that there will be a second chance after death to turn to Jesus.
• The typical afterlife scenario among Jews in Jesus’ day was that after the wicked die, they go to a place called hades, sometimes called sheol.  It is a place where the wicked wait until judgment day.
• Some Jewish writers believed that the wicked would be annihilated.  Others believed it was a place of unending torment.
• In the Old Testament, the Hinnom Valley was the place where some Israelites engaged in idolatrous worship of the Canaanite gods Molech and Baal.  For first century Jews, the violent image of evildoers being punished in the Hinnom Valley provided a fitting analogy for God punishing the wicked in hell.
• If Jesus rejected the widespread Jewish belief in hell, then He would certainly need to be clear about this.
• For Jesus, hell is a place of punishment after judgement, it is described in imagery of fire and darkness, and is a place of annihilation or never ending punishment.
• The hell that Jesus described here is not a hell-on-earth that accompanies our bad decisions during this life, and it certainly isn’t the never-ending party that AC/DC describes in their song.

 In summary, the book was the counterpoint to Rob Bell's Love Wins, showing on the one hand how some could come to a certain view of hell, but on the other hand, here's how it really is.

Soulprint - Discover Your Divine Destiny

I read the book, Soulprint, by Mark Batterson and enjoyed it thoroughly.  "What is a soulprint?  You possess a uniqueness that is soul deep.  I call it your soulprint."  Here's some of the gems I found:

• You aren’t good enough or gifted enough to get God wants you to go.
• Let this promise soak into your spirit, because it will energize your reading, it’s never too late to be who you might have been.
• Instead of narrating out own lines in the first person, we live second-person lives by allowing others to narrate our lives for us.
• Time may be measured in minutes, but life is measured in moments.  And some moments are larger than life.
• Every past experience is preparation for some future opportunity.
• The key to fulfilling your future destiny is hidden in your past memories.
• The Omniscient One always starts with the end in mind (kind of like Stephen Covey.)
• Like David, we need holy keepsakes to remind us of where we’ve been and where we’re headed.
• I tell every church planter I meet that the first five years don’t count because God has to grow the leader before He can grow whatever that person is leading. (THAT'S GOLD!!)

 

What I didn't necessarily agree with:

“That’s what this book is about-identifying the defining moments that reveal our destinies.”  It seems that throughout the book the defining moments were identified well after the fact and not during, or in time to impact your life trajectory.

 “God is painting a picture of grace on the canvas of your life.  In other words, He strategically positions us in the right place at the right time.”  I have always been more in the camp that although God has the power to providentially place us in certain places, it’s not necessarily true that he orchestrates everything..

 “It’s not until you find yourself facing the biggest challenge of your life that God reveals how and when and where He prepared you.”   I would say that facing the biggest challenge can reveals how he’s prepared you, but that there should be evidence prior to that.

 

Read it.  You'll like it!

Stand For Something #rework

“There’s a world of difference between truly standing for something and having a mission statement that says you stand for something.”

- From the book Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

What are you doing on a daily basis that proves that you stand for something?

Sun Stand Still by @stevenfurtick - My Review

I recently finished the book Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.  It's all about having an audacious faith, and I enjoyed the way biblical stories were entwined with stories of real people at Elevation.  Here's some of the nuggets I pulled out of it:

• If you ever encounter a theology that doesn’t directly connect the greatness of God with your potential to do great things on his behalf, it’s not biblical theology. 
• The Bible throws down the gauntlet in Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”
• In a battle with the Amorites, Joshua delivered one of the most gloriously unorthodox prayers in the entire Bible:  O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.
• Crises of belief don’t have to be the end of faith.  They can become the foundation that a stronger faith is built on.
• The line from Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire that inspired Furtick, “I despaired at the thought that my life might slip by without seeing God show himself mightily on our behalf. “
• If you are going to ask God to do something impossible in your life, you’ve got to have some clarity about what you’re asking for.
• The best way to avoid being duped by a counterfeit is to make sure you’re familiar with the real thing.
• When God speaks, he does not stutter.
• When you examine the lives of people who are called to do great things for God, you’ll usually notice three things: 1. The offer God a long list of excuses. 2.  God doesn’t seem surprised.  3.  God doesn’t change his mind.
• The size of your vision should never be limited to who you are or what you think you can do.

 In short, you need to read it, and check out the small group curriculum here.

(Disclaimer: Elevation Church is a client of MAG, a leader in church outsourcing.  You should be, too)

I Won't Make This Mistake Again

This is the last time I will ask for a book suggestion...

And I'm still looking for that second book...

"Don't throw good time after bad work." #Rework

Every year churches face the task of putting together a budget.  Most will take the previous years giving, decide whether it will be up or down, then take last year's budget, and try to decide what to cut and what to increase.

The hardest thing for a church to do is to discontinue a program.  Invariably any program has supporters who have spent a lot of time and effort, building something up.  When the program begins to decline, they won't see it as something that has run it's course, but will attribute the slippage to a lack of support from the church.  "We need the pastor to say something from the pulpit!"

Because most churches are afraid of losing anyone, they won't kill the program, but will continue to throw good time after bad work.  So they keep the two or three that they are afraid of losing.  But the opportunity cost of keeping those two or three is the resources that could be used to reach ten times as many.

Here at Central there have been a lot of changes in the last few years, as things that have run their course have been eliminated.  I had someone the other day say how sad it was the the library was gone and how we should have kept it because people miss it.  I explained that now that room is used for things that benefit more people, which is the main criteria to consider.  Cal tells the story of how hard it was to eliminate the Classic service, knowing that people would be upset and that some would leave.  But it was done with the knowledge that changing that service to Contemporary would better match one of our core values, which is that Central exists for those who are not yet part of the body of Christ.

So whether you are trying build the bottom line or expand the crowd in Heaven, don't throw good time after bad work.

Plan B

I just finished reading Pete Wilson's Plan B and thought I would pass on some of the things that struck me in it:

• Everyone needs healing.
• The greater struggle for is that God does exist, and so does a lot of pain and suffering.
• What happens when your dreams fall apart, how do you react?  What is your pattern when it looks like your dreams are not going to come true?  What happens on the inside of you when you give in to panic, and start running?  Where has your running brought you, has it ended your pain, or has it made it worse?
• In crossing the Jordan River, the priests had to take the first step and trust God, only then would God act.
• Because here’s what I know, everybody faces a Jordan.  Every one of us faces a barrier that keeps us from the life God has for us.
• Long before Joshua stood at the Jordan, he spent a lot of time face to face with God.
• He’s learned the truth that makes all the difference, constant contact with the creator is essential for transformation living.
• Incidentally, the Greek word that is translated as worry in this passage can be translated as “pulled apart.”
• The question is this, what would you do if you knew that God was absolutely with you?
• Will we ever understand our Plan B dilemmas?  On this side of heaven, probably not.  Does the way we respond to them matter?  More than you will ever know\When life isn’t turning out the way we had hoped, we always default to feeling that God has abandoned us.
  
• When people ask me how they can know God’s will for their lives, I tell them the best first step is to know God, beyond that I don’t have any steps.
• But that’s exactly what a lot of us feel in our Plan B situations, like we’ve done all the right things, and still we’re being punished.
• Paul thinks that he is to go to Asia, but ends up in Troas, wondering what is going on. Even though Paul doesn’t know the what, when, and where, he does know the why.
• If you don’t remember God’s past faithfulness, you’re going to have a hard time trusting him when you’re up against the wall.
• What if we viewed our hardships and challenges as opportunities to be the men or women that God created us to be?

I thought the book was effective at making me think about how I react when things don't go the way I think that they should. 

On my desk...

The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel

I haven't started reading it yet.  I'm afraid of what I'll find.

Samson and the Pirate Monks

I just finished reading Samson and the Pirate Monks by Nate Larkin and recommend it to any guy who is struggling with sin in his life.

Okay, that's all of us.

Nate tells his story of addiction and sin, and how it led him to a group of guys that started calling themselves the Samson Society.  It's based on the premise that we all have some Samson inside of us, meaning we:

• tend toward isolation from other guys.  If they knew the real me, they would think less of me.
• are rovers.  We don't like to be tied down. 
• operate on reflex, rather than reflection.
• depend on the big things to make our lives right, rather than doing the little things faithfully.

The Samson Society gives men a chance to expose the things that we don't want to tell anyone, helping us to bring things to the light and deal with them.  It also lets guys connect with a Silas, a traveling companion, who will listen and give you a perspective outside yourself.

Central had Nate speak at our Men's Challenge, and his story was impressive and definitely a challenge to deal with the crud in our lives.

Great book.  A must read.