Lamentations...

Lam. 1:1 "How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave. Bitterly she weeps..."

The Wiki Encyclopedia of City Reaching

Ok, it's official now -- CityReaching.org has now grown into the "Wiki Encyclopedia of City Reaching".

Make sure you contribute what YOU know about YOUR CITY... as respects the Great Commission there. The goal is to accelerate the mission by being better connected & knowledgeable about what's going on in our cities & neighborhoods.

Vacation: Sail Away

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Photos from the Chesapeake and Baltimore's Inner Harbor

No words are enough.

[Journaling in the wake of the news today that D. James Kennedy has now passed into eternity...]



Twenty years ago my Illinois pastor coerced encouraged me to accompany him to Ft. Lauderdale to a week-long 'evangelism seminar'. When I got there and realized we'd actually be going out into the streets, talking with people about Jesus... I was mortified. But then seeing lives changed in front of my very eyes... my life changed. I came home different. And my life path that week took a hard-right turn... (admittedly with uphills, downhills, and S-curves). What I do today & everyday now is a result of EE helping me learn to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.




[Visit DJamesKennedy.org]

http://DoYouKnowForSure.com

Facebook... Not just a site... It's a PLATFORM

I realize it's perhaps more obvious to some, than to others. But Facebook.com is not just a destination website... it's the Windows of Tomorrow. Web3.0, if you will.



[more later... stay tuned... but not here -- go to Facebook and ADD me as a friend.]

My Church On Trial... The jury's in.

Wondering why I've been so quiet here lately? I've been over trial-blogging at MyChurch.org -- beta-testing it to see if I'd want to recommend throughout our various networks. After all, MyChurch.org is one of the new web2.0 social networking sites specifically for Christians... exactly the sort of new tool which will be helpful in reconnecting the 'Church' here in the 21st Century.



Well.... THE JURY IS IN !!!
It's EVERYTHING I expected and MORE.

Here are the high-level answers why...

• Why social networking for churches will work.
• Why MyChurch for my particular church will work.
  

And here's why I just plain LIKE MyChurch.org...

• You can't help but love the folks that run it. Joe Suh and the whole gang are personable, authentic and truly innovative Christ-followers anxious to make a difference in the way we 'do church'.
  
• It's totally web2.0... and thus the functionality improves as web functionality in general, improves.
• Unlike MySpace, you don't have to put up with a ton of garbage. Or even lots of ads. A number of MyChurch folks also have MySpace sites to be 'salt & light' out there; but much of their real blogging takes place at MyChurch.
  
• And unlike MySpace, you're not just an individual blogger there... you can easily attach your blog to a particular Church of bloggers. [Visit my church's start-up site there, for instance.]
• And they use community-mapping features to identify churches (and the bloggers associated with them) here in your own community. This is more important than most people realize, even!
  
• It's really really easy to blog there.... personally... and also add your post to your church's collaborative set of blogs for the day.
• And because of using RSS feeds, I can also automatically pull in my IndyChristian.com's posts into my blog-posts at MyChurch. Fantastic flexibility!
  

Bottom line...

MyChurch.org is...

"MySpace On A Mission".

Be careful opening items from missionaries !

A missionary friend of ours sent us an email with this in it...



It's now trapped in my LCD screen and I can't get it out !

Help.

*******************
[Nancy... I'm gonna get you for this. LOL. That is, once I figure out how to get it out of there.]

Take a chance. Help me understand... 'random'.

Is 'random' anything like 'magic'?



Somebody please help me understand... 'random'.

I looked it up at Wikipedia...



"The word random is used to express lack of purpose, cause, order, or predictability in non-scientific parlance. A random process is a repeating process whose outcomes follow no describable deterministic pattern, but follow a probability distribution.

The term randomness is often used in statistics to signify well defined statistical properties, such as lack of bias or correlation."

'Random' lacks a cause?

Show me something... ANYTHING.... anything at all in the whole universe that you can absolutely say with confident certainty... "There is NO 'cause' for such & such."

So if I click Wikipedia's 'Random Article' link in the margin... it will somehow generate a page... for which there is no cause or predictability as to the outcome?

Whoa. Dude! Amazing! Presto chango... Page X !!!

How many of you believe that? [I have a little piece of ground in Florida I'd like to interest you in. Email me.]

Might we meet the creator of such a program? Would he agree that there absolutely is no cause nor predictability involved?

A 'random-numbers generator' has a creator. And he knows the cause (and pattern).

There are three possible camps of people who DON'T know the cause or pattern:

• Those who cling to their belief that there absolutely is 'no cause'.
• Those who admit to simply being ignorant of the cause, and don't care to find out.
• And the inquisitive, who see it all as a riddle, and look diligently for the answer.

Oh... and there's one more thing that troubles me...

What does that other thing mean there at the Wikipedia entry...

"Randomness has an important place in science, philosophy and religion." ?

***********************

Author's Notes...

[Much of this sort of thing has driven me to start writing out my own personal 'Science Apologetics' thought-train. That is, document out loud what I believe in this realm, and why. It's been an interesting endeavor -- one I'd advocate. Try writing a cogent apologetic yourself, and let me know what you learn along the way.]

[Subsequent Note: R.C. Sproul has apparently written on this very topic in his little book called "Not A Chance". Click to read the first chapter online. Maybe even watch this video-clip as Sproul interviews Ben Stein. Ht: Tony Kummer, Said At Southern]

What were YOU THINKING !

Ann Coulter


Us.

Podcast: "Why Urban Blogging for Change?"

[Jeremy is a neat young influential pastor in the heart of New York City. Perfectly on-target with TechMission things we're doing in our various cities & locations, to help accelerate communications, and in the end... hopefully... CHANGE.]



Listen in this morning, as Jeremy podcasts a presentation that he & I did with other CCDA folks in Indy, to present/discuss technologies to help change the urban world in the name of Christ

[click to see his site and listen/learn] [Comments anyone?]

Christian Scorecard... 'Scoring For Change'

Ok, Indy... we won the Super Bowl... But what's the score in the LARGER contest?

The Baseball Box Score... innovated... sharpened... and helped baseball rapidly develop into the 'national sport'. Key statistics continue to sharpen the sport... In fact, they have now driven the innovation we call "Fantasy Baseball"... ie, fictional teams, games, and whole seasons of fun enjoyed by millions of baseball enthusiasts across the country.

Henry Chadwick, often called the Father of Baseball, innovated the sport and helped it blossom by the use of statistics... the Batting Average, Earned Run Average... and the publishing of the little 'Box Score' that quickly summarized the game.

What's to be learned about this innovation... and how we might deploy the wisdom contained therein?

Or how similar is it, to Jesus telling the parables of the 10 Talents, the 10 Cities, or the 10 Minas? Wasn't his point, that our goal is to be found being faithful stewards of what we've been given -- ie, EVERYTHING we've been given; not just money, not just physical capabilities, but everything -- and thus maximizing our 'return'... ie, productivity/ROI? On what basis will we expect to stand in front of Him and hear "Well Done, Good & Faithful Servant"... especially if we're getting beat 96-4.

Btw, simply building some statistics is not the most important part of Chadwick's innovation... The real genius of his box score was WHICH STATISTICS... ie, he went on to invent the Batting Average, the Earned Run average, etc. That is, he knew which things would become the real key indicators that would ultimately drive success.

And isn't that our goal here? Find what keys work well, to drive godly change in lives & communities? E.g... Bible, Prayer, Worship, Gifts, Humility, Harmony, Loving Action, Justice, Service, Witnessing, Fellowship, Leadership, etc.

The 'Christian Scorecard' is a scoring model to beg the big questions and help drive accomplishment of an organization's (or individual's) mission. Anyone could adapt it to their situation... in business or ministry.

"You get what you measure... and little else." It's an ageless axiom not unlike "Inspect what you expect."

Pastor/Author Rick Warren says... "You must be able to look at your purpose statement and evaluate whether your church is doing it or not. Will you be able to prove you've accomplished it at the end of each year? You cannot judge the effectiveness of your church unless your mission is measurable. A great purpose statement will provide a specific standard by which you can review, revise, and improve everything your church does. If you can't evaluate your church by your purpose statement, go back to the drawing board. Make it measurable. Otherwise your purpose statement is just a public relations piece."

Or conversely stated... I say... "Show me what your ministry is measuring... and I'll show you what its REAL mission is."

The uniqueness of the 'Christian Scorecard' is the division into 4 Quadrants (perspectives)...

Q1 God's Perspective... The all-important perspective... What is our mission... ie, the mission of the Church? The Church @ Your City, perhaps? How will we know if we really are accomplishing it? What objective statistic(s) might symbolize progress toward our ongoing mission?

• Example: Biblical Worldview... held by less than 4% of American adults. What about our city? Our neighborhood?

Q2 Neighbors' Perspective... If we carry out God's mission in our lives and ministries, will it transform people around us too? Our community? What objective measurements might validate if that's true in our communities or not?

Q3 Internal Process Perspective... What value-chain processes should we excel at, in order to best accomplish God's mission? How will we know we're making progress in sharpening our processes? What could we measure along the way?

Q4 Change Perspective... How can we change... individually & corporately... to accelerate our capabilities to carry out God's mission for the Church? What metric might symbolize our improving ability to CHANGE? After all, isn't sanctification a synonym for 'change'? And isn't it the promise of God that He will sanctify His own... over time?

The Christian Scorecard deployed as part of any Strategic Plan needs to demonstrate the status of your plan succinctly at any month-end or year-end. That is, "What's the score now?"

Here's one application of the Christian Scorecard... as we're developing the "State of the Church at Indianapolis" Report. It has helped as we started talking about the 'Indy 400'... and the fact that here at the beginning as we start, we're getting soundly beaten... 96-4.

So how can we sharpen this concept to be even more helpful in driving CHANGE in our city or community?

*****************

[Subsequent interesting link -- Kirby Anderson Commentary]

'Salt & Light' Award...

This honor was way-undeserved, but nonetheless appreciated.


The 2007 Reclaiming America for Christ (RAC) conference took place this past weekend, motivating and equipping Christians to fulfill Christ’s call to be salt and light in their everyday lives.

[continued at ReclaimAmerica.org]

I only accepted is as a representative of the growing team here in Indy, of driven Christians... each of whom is actively involved day to day in great ministries... urban & suburban... and each of them are deserving of this honor way-ahead of me. I'm just doing the clickity-click easy stuff. They are the real heroes here in Indy.

"10 Things You Could Do Too"

Wish you could help transform a community? You can. With the power of the Holy Spirit, everyone can do something to change the world. And your efforts of faith are multiplied if they help leverage the collective Church impact in your city. We call it 'fishing our city together with a net'.

• Community Prayer: Here's what one pastor wrote... "Living In A Prayed-For Community". You can pray and encourage others to pray for their neighbors and the community, its leaders, teachers, pastors, and other civic heroes. In our community, we spread the word that the local Friday siren was a great time to stop a few minutes especially to pray for the community. And we let our civic leaders know it was also a signal to remind them they're being prayed-for regularly.

As you look for opportunities for change, consider the tech capabilities now being put in the hands of everyday users like yourself, making it easy to create impact in just a few minutes per day. It's as easy as email !

['10 Things'... continued]

Super Colts !

van_snow_colts
Originally uploaded by indycoach.

7 inches of snow... is just icing on the cake... when you're home to the Super Colts Champions !

Will there be an 'Indianapolis' section of heaven?

Commentary, by Neil Cox, Co-Editor, Blews.Network



What a great story. And what an epic clash in the offing.

An epic clash to be sure... between two Christian coaches... with God teetering on the 50-yard line... obviously having to soon choose sides... right?

But how about the epic clash brewing in my own conscience?

After all, we raised our sons in Illinois to be lifelong, die-hard Cub fans, Bears fans, Bulls fans, Blackhawks, Illini... and so on down the line. Yet now our sons are grown and we find ourselves living in Indianapolis and embracing the Colts, Pacers, (BobbyKnightlessPTL) Hoosiers, Boilermakers... and every other Indiana team (well, nearly. Go WPND!).

So what's a father to do in such cases?

Especially now that both these coaches are solid professing believers. What will heaven be like when we're confronted for all eternity with these two dear brothers... having chosen one over the other?

It got me to thinking. We all know that there apparently will be a Baptist section of heaven, a Presbyterian section, a Pentecostal section, and as some might admit it, even a Catholic section. But will there be an Indianapolis section? A Chicago section?

And btw, earlier in my life when I shifted from being quasi-Baptist to being a quasi-Presbyterian, did God put his foot up onto the dugout rail and pencil-in a lineup card change?

Ok, so in the eternal scheme of things, what happens now if I end up rooting for Tony instead of Lovie?



After all, as lifelong Bears fans, we of course have a "SuperBowl Shuffle" album on our shelf... having already won a SuperBowl once. My Indianapolis Colts though, have yet to reach this super-status. And having heard Tony's testimony first-hand as he shared Christ with over 500 of our city leaders here in Indy -- not to mention countless times since -- ya gotta love him. And hoping someday to spend eternity in the Indianapolis section of heaven with all my friends... and Tony... I guess I have no choice, really. [And it appears that God, too, has tipped his hand.]

Go Colts ! [And Go Bears!]

And more importantly... win, lose or draw... As Hoosiers are up there someday celebrating with our Savior in the eternal end-zone...

...will we have regrets about the Indianapolis section of hell?

****************

Visit... BeyondTheUltimate.org -- Tony & Lovie... their thoughts on all this.

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Make a difference in anyone's life for $5... Get your personal copy of the DVD... "Video: Interview with Tony Dungy". The 2006 Athletes in Action Super Bowl Breakfast, featuring the presentation of the Bart Starr Award, was highlighted by keynote speaker Coach Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts. This DVD has Coach Dungy's keynote address in its entirety as he shares how the loss of his oldest son James affected him and his family, and how he and his wife have walked through the tragic situation with the Lord's help.

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Make a difference in a kid's life... Visit AllProDad.com . Watch the video.

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More IndyChristian's 'Dungy' tags.

Blogging -- A Case Study For The Church.

Bloggers... Will we help create positive change... or negative change? Or neither?

The 'Saving Bellevue' issue could be a classic case study, as we consider how technological change offers a potential opportunity for...

• radical improvement in the stereotypical American Church...
• or just opportunities for backbiting or gossip at the speed of light, among some unhappy members.

At the very least, reviewing scripture will be a beneficial study for us all -- especially among Christian bloggers.

But first, read the story about the case at hand.

And here's a shot during the church's virtual tour introducing us to the church.



Here's a summary of Bellevue's history and vision.

On the other side of the aisle... here's the Purpose Statement & Background from the SavingBellevue site.

Purpose Statement:
"The purpose of the website is to provide members of Bellevue Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee with a greater degree of visibility of the government of our church. Our sincere desire is to honor Jesus Christ, Truth Himself, through an improved measure of accountability within His church."

Background:
"Savingbellevue.com was created after numerous unsuccessful attempts to biblically resolve a dispute between a group of members of the church and some of the church's leadership. Principles of Matthew 18 were followed, first going individually to the offender, then by taking one or two witnesses to address the offender. In each case the offender failed to acknowledge the offense, and would not allow the accuser (a deacon of the church) to bring the offense before the deacon body. As a result, the only practical remaining way to complete the instructions of Matthew 18 in taking the issue before the church body was to create this website. It is regrettable that non-members will also have access to the issues as they are brought before the church, but with almost 30,000 members of record, any other means of bringing the issue before them was impractical. By failing to allow the dispute to be directly addressed through the full deacon body of the church, the leadership of Bellevue Baptist Church has caused the dispute to be addressed in a broader public domain. We regret the consequences of their actions."

Now let's hear from scripture... [Matthew 18:15-35, Amplified Version]

Any other bloggers tracking this case?

Comments from any of you who have read the above, and would like to venture your thoughts? What can we learn from this, and what conclusions do we now need to practically apply?

*********************
My Thoughts So Far -- Looking for your feedback...

Underlying Issues in play here:

• The nature of the Church -- why do we exist as a body, what is our character, and what are we supposed to be accomplishing? If we have a firm grasp of our basic existence & mission, it'll give us a model through which to filter the discussion at hand. [Btw, it's the very questions we're posing at ModelChurch.com.] For consideration, let me suggest a few to consider: Glorifying God... together; Enjoying Him as we model among one-another, the comprehensive, mysterious, diverse-yet-harmonious relationship of the triune God-head -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Make God well known as best taught in His inerrant Word and best demonostrated in the divine personage of Jesus Christ; Offer the good news of an eternally-abundant life through accepting Christ as Lord of our lives; Through the power of the Holy Spirit, doing the work He gave us to do from the outset -- tending the world so that it/they feel the impact of God's creative love... and perfect sense of justice. All this requires diversity and teamwork, and the essential attributes necessary in a great team. While we can't readily know all the factors in play at Bellevue in particular, what might the above picture suggest regarding diversity, openness, and team-work? Now multiply that apparently by 30,000. And does it not beg the question... if the 'local church' is neither local nor diverse, who is it exactly to whom one would appeal when scripture says 'tell it to the church'?
• The nature of individuals in the Church -- We are all called to develop Christ-like humility & self-discipline. In fact, we're called to make our leaders job a joy (Heb. 13)... [and doubly-honor those who do a good job]. Perhaps this should lead to a predisposition on our part, to never frivolously address Church matters in the blogosphere.
• The giftedness of individuals in the Church -- The body is comprised of diversely-gifted individuals, who are all to take an active role on the team. According to scripture, seemingly they should all be participating interactively as a form of worship. If that doesn't sound like the American Church today (and notably, any mega spectators churches), then perhaps there's great room for improvement. Positive involvement in Church life on Sunday might take the steam out of (negative) Monday blogs. Just a thought.
• The nature of (servant) leadership in the Church -- they're selected based on biblical standards of merit, and called to be shepherds of the flock... servants... as Jesus himself modeled servant leadership. One might easily believe that, if well done, leadership would preclude such battles as are currently at issue.
• The schemes of the devil -- The apostle Paul says 'we are not unaware of the devil's schemes'. So let's not be unaware. The devil loves to wreak his 'pride & divide' tactic on us. And he's done it to the American Church for centuries. Stop already! Let's not be so unaware. According to Jesus himself, one of the compelling testimonies to the good news is the harmony of the body, in our communities. Or what about isolationism -- does it operate best on behalf of the devil's purposes, or the Church's purpose? Let me suggest that God is a God of Light, not obscurity. Isolationism serves Satan's purposes exquisitely. Thus to date, we see the American Church largely fractured into a million splintered pieces... each consciously or unconsciously competiting with each other based on any number of dimensions. And as long as we can isolate our members we can (effectively) demonize other churches. Again... Stop already!
• Is (servant) leadership a secretive or detached functionality on the team? If not, what are the implications to our Church communications systems? Does it not suggest open communications? How could that look today in the digital age? Think of the analogy of a local church, its building, and its people... The Church is not the building -- the Church is the people. And although they can congregate together inside a building from time to time, they continue being the Church every day of the week. Now let's apply that to the digital representation of the Church. While there might well be a centralized site among the people, it should help teach the scriptural model of the Church... ie, it should link off to its members and point to THEM as 'the Church'. The central site only serves as a convening point. Similar to a building, shouldn't that centralized convening site also have a private functionality... just for the members inside? And in all these things, including potentially-interactive egroups, shouldn't leadership help construct processes for open interaction among the membership? If so, would the case study at hand need to have ever involved public blogging of the topic? In the case at hand, we do not know if Bellevue.org offers a log-in & discussion board that is not only available, but actively promoted among membership, such that the wide diversity of voices would have had ample alternatives. Let's just say that it would be the very rare church today (especially among mega-churches) that promotes active digital interaction among its membership. As we've suggested, isolationism has too often been the norm for churches and their leadership. Thus the open interoperation of the internet suggests a threat to the stereotypical local church leadership. And if you don't believe it, review the recent leadership change in the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention)... which by all accounts was greatly impacted by blogging. [article]

Conclusion? Maybe that the internet has INDEED catalyzed a paradigm shift... just as God seemingly used Gutenberg's press to expedite the Reformation. "Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy" states the ClueTrain Manifesto. Although secular, its truth speaks volumes to inappropriate hierarchy. Muzzling members. Monopolizing microphones.

Alternatively, open the mic to the masses, and truth will rise to the top.

"All Truth is God's Truth.
And Truth at the speed of light,
will prevail at the speed of Light."

Maybe even some frank truths about the American Church.

Feeding Delicious Christians to the...

See our latest announcement, today on the Blews.Network.

Video: "Hyperland"

Worth the watch!

WWJI ?

What Would Jesus Innovate?

Sorry. I couldn't help but laugh (and then post) when I read the following quote from an email I received today...

"If Jesus didn't like technology,
I bet he was an awful carpenter."

[I haven't yet received his permission to credit him by name, but let me just say he's a young guy from among some of the more 'innovative' folks I know. Stay tuned.]

Which Theologian Are You?

"You scored as Anselm. Anselm is the outstanding theologian of the medieval period. He sees man's primary problem as having failed to render unto God what we owe him, so God becomes man in Christ and gives God what he is due. You should read 'Cur Deus Homo?' "

Which theologian are YOU?
Take the quiz.