Frank Viola (author of Pagan Christianity and several other books) interviewed me and posted the interview today here on his web site. I have grown to really love Frank as his heart is for people to truly experience the depth of knowing Jesus. He asked me about what questions I have and two of them were about Frank - one being about believing if you can have an "organic" church but also be a larger church with paid staff - and another one about Frank's hair style. So you can read that here.
This is a full season for me with many things happening, so I just can't blog or Twitter much (or maybe in priorities it isn't at the top so that is why I am not doing it). But some things thinking about or doing:
- had a wonderful meeting last night at the Vintage Faith Church office with someone who just became a Christian 3 weeks ago and is part of our church. It was not an overnight process, but it was through friends, thinking, exploring and it was a thrill to hear his story!
It is Saturday night - I am sitting in a coffeehouse going over my notes for preaching tomorrow at Santa Cruz Bible Church. It's fun to be heading back there for a Sunday. They are the church who planted us (Vintage Faith Church) in 2004.
But as I am sitting here... I just overheard the term "organized religion" used by someone. I am also writing a chapter on organized religion in terms of Christianity. So if you can take a minute - seriously looking for a sentence or two - and let me know how would you define "organized religion"? Christianity is often accused of being organized religion in a negative way (like this t-shirt I found on Google images does). Don't let the way this shirt defines organized religion shape your response, if you have a different way of thinking about it. I'd like to hear your gut reaction to that term as it is used in reference to the church and Christianity.
I would love to read some quick thoughts of some specifics on what people think of with the church when it is accused of being "organized religion". If it is "cultivated ignorance" like this t-shirt says, what does that mean? Ignorance of what? (I would ask the t-shirt designer to help me understand what he/she thinks with how they would respond to the question).
In the book I am writing, I actually show why I believe the church needs to be organized in a healthy way - as hospitals are organized, the One Campaign was organized - and we should be organized to help people. But for the amount of times the church and Christians are accused of being "organized religion" can you post here (or on Facebook) what you believe people mean when they say that about the church?
A quick sentence or two would be great and helpful to me! What comes to your mind the first about the term "organized religion" in reference to church/Christianity?
I am in Atlanta right now speaking at the Youth Specialties Convention. Had a really great day of having an early morning discussion on hell with around 100 youth leaders. Caught up with my friend Jay from Youth Specialties, then lunch with Steve Gerali which was wonderfully mindblowing with the things we discussed about sexuality, ministry and youth. Then I taught a workshop on theological topics which I feel are important in youth ministry - which I thoroughly enjoyed the open discussions and all those there. Wonderful, wonderful conversations with youth leaders which are incredibly refreshing.
Tonight, I also got and email from Michelle over at Santa Cruz Bible Church where I am preaching/speaking next Sunday. She sent me the link to the video they created to promote next Sunday when I am there. I am speaking about mission being all around us every day and not only overseas on "mission trips". It is a silly sort of fun video about missional vs. church attending and normal sort of mission trips. I look forward to being there next Sunday as Santa Cruz Bible Church is the church where I served for 12 years and the church which planted Vintage Faith Church. I spoke there last year and I am always so blessed to be back home there and serve with them. I head back home tomorrow and look forward to being home again and also Thanksgiving Day which will be the 3rd annual Kimball family bowling day. We go bowling after the Thanksgiving meal. Here's the video from Santa Cruz Bible Church:
I am heading to Atlanta tomorrow to speak at the Youth Specialties Convention. I love, love, love being around youth leaders and always am thrilled to get to interact with those serving with youth. It will be odd as this will be the first Youth Specialties Convention in the 8 years I have been part of them that Marko won't be there. I normally hang out each night after in his room with others and chat as part of the ritual of being there at the convention.
In Atlanta, I am teaching one "lab" (is what they are called there) on theology and youth ministry. It will be about theological issues I believe we need to be teaching youth before they graduate. This is based primarly on having been a youth pastor for 8 years and then shifting to young adult ministry and learning what are the questions and theological issues they ask about later after graduation.
And then I will leading another session on the arts and ministry. Looking at ways ministries can discover and incorporate artists. And I am leading a "Fish Bowl" on the topic of hell. Fish Bowls are new and are open discussions more than presentations. Hell is quite a topic, and an important one. So I look forward to that.
And while there, I will be meeting with anyone who is interested in giving input to Origins.
ATLANTA ORIGINS: FRIDAY: NOVEMBER 20 at 5:30 PM - DETAILS HERE: then for anyone in the Atlanta area who wants to meet up and hang out for a little bit to give input to Origins - ask questions, let me ask you questions - we will meet up at 5:30 on Friday, November 20. Read here for place, room and more.
I don't know if anyone has seen the movie, but I got totally sucked into watching ANVIL! The Story of Anvil movie tonight. Quite a story. Makes you think of time and how fast life goes by and pursuing dreams. Got to pack now and get ready for tomorrow.
Yesterday we had the Fair Trade Boutique Fair at Vintage Faith Church. It was a Trade As One gift fair that was set up all day in the church building.
You can read another article from the local newspaper that came out today about what happened yesterday here. It's been cool seeing the local newspaper interested and covering this event two times this past week. They have been wonderful too in covering the opening of our coffeehouse/music/art lounge The Abbey with a couple articles as well.
It was quite an event in terms of there being so many people crammed in the display rooms and people seemed quite enthusiastic about what was happening. It was put together and led by a team in the church and the Fair Trade staff. I was told that we had 70 volunteers from Vintage Faith Church helping out which was cool to hear all the involvement making it happen. So it was a thrill to see what they planned and did as I went to it in the morning with my daughter Claire. I heard it stayed busy all day which was encouraging to hear because it means that all the more lives are impacted and all the more the message goes out to people.
Nathan and Catherine George are the founders of Trade As One and you can read their story here and why they started Trade As One. They are part of Vintage Faith Church and Nathan will be speaking in January in our worship gatherings which I look forward to. So it is an honor having them part of the church and a total joy that our church got to participate in what happened today. If you are a church leader you may want to go to the Trade As One web site and explore what they are doing as many churches are now getting involved in this.
I taught today in all 3 of our gatherings and as part of our worship gatherings we had Nathan George share about Trade As One and Vintage Faith Church hosting a fair trade boutique. The local newspaper here wrote an article on what we are doing that was in today's paper which you can read here and explains what a fair trade boutique is.
Nathan George is part of Vintage Faith Church and leads Trade As One. You can read some of Nathan's story in the newspaper article. It is an honor to have Nathan and his family part of our church and we hope to see this ministry have as much exposure as possible. It's great the local paper picked it up too - and hopefully in our local community this shows Christians are serious about making a difference about injustice in the world in addition to the impact being concerned with fair trade will have in general. Here is a video about what Trade As One is:
I first heard of Ed Dobson back in the early 1990's when he was pastor at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was passionate about people outside of the church and was going against the grain of what normal churches did at the time. I totally was mesmerized with his passion for those who didn't know Jesus. I have got to meet up with him on occasion over the past couple years and yesterday we had the privilege of him speaking at Vintage Faith Church in the morning and evening gatherings. He has a new book out called 'The Year Of Living Like Jesus" which was inspired by AJ Jacobs "The Year Of Living Biblically", and AJ wrote the Foreword to Ed's book.
The book is the story of how Ed decided to live a year as Jesus lived and eat like Jesus, observe the Sabbath as Jesus did, read the Gospels every week etc. Ed's talk at our church was based from some of the book and other aspects of his life. He has tremendous stories and insight from this adventure he went on. He shared some at our church and it was an honor to have him there and I got to have lunch and dinner with him and it was wonderful seeing our church get to hear from him and in the evening gathering have an open Q and A time as well.
I rarely am getting time to blog or post things due to just being so full on this fun adventure of spending time with family, all that is happening with Vintage Faith Church, spending time with people outside of church, writing my dissertation and finishing up my latest book for Zondervan. So blogging and Twittering slip to a lesser priority. I'd love to hear how people (especially church leaders) who blog regularly keep up the time and energy and focus to do it amongst leading a church and everything else happening....
But a quick update - on Wednesday, November 4 - at the Outreach Convention in San Diego we have three of us on the Origins Creative Team from three different churches hosting an all day seminar. It will be myself, Eric Bryant from Mosaic in LA, and Marlon Hall from The Movement in Houston.
The seminar is called "Origins -The Realities of Evangelism in a New World". It runs from 8:30 AM until 4:00. It will be hearing the stories and lessons learned, mistakes made from 3 different churches on mission - and then having a lot of open discussion. We are designing this day to have time for those attending to be exploring and discussing their own churches and how they are on mission or blockades to evangelism there may be.
The hope is that no matter where you are, whether like our three distinct churches in Santa Cruz, CA - Los Angeles, CA, Houston, TX - that the churches may look and feel entirely different but underneath there are common philosophies about evangelism and mission. We will look at those and also have time to be exploring those in attendance and their unique situations. You can read more here and sign up to attend here. I love all-day seminars like this because you really get to have a lot of discussion and get to know the people there, so looking forward to next week! And the Outreach Convention itself, of course - and I am teaching another workshop as well later in the week.
Leadership Network put up the 9 minute video I did for "The Nines" which was shown on 9/9/09. You can watch it here. Mine was very raw, no script or pre-planned outlined message I was looking at. What you will see here is me speaking straight from my heart for a little less than 9 minutes.
I filmed this after midnight in The Abbey, our church coffeehouse that the staff has just left after cleaning up. It was pretty dark so the webcam didn't pick up too well because of the light. But here it is if you care to see it and feel free to leave any comments or questions on their web page or here on this blog. I did make a PC and Mac introductory comment for PC users not to feel bad if they still use PC's. But you can watch it here at this link http://thenines.leadnet.org/kimball.htm
I just got back from another wonderful Youth Specialties Convention- I think I have spoken at them for the past 8 years in a row. They are experimenting with some new formats as part of the convention where they still have presentations in workshops and all that - but they also created space for people to have dialog around topics the people attending determine. There were some discussion groups with predetermined topics like one I led about "hell". But most were created there at the conference itself.
It reminded me of some of the earlier Leadership Network events I was part of where you met with like-minded people in similar leadership situations but form all types of different churches in smaller groups of 15-30 people or so. The conversation then gets so much more intense and depthful as we made up the topics we wanted to discuss with each other. But when we create these spaces, it creates an openness and embracement of diversity and differences. I remember in Leadership Network, you had all types of denominations represented - but we all had the same core historical orthodox theology as our commonality. We had lot of diversity on what I would call non-essential things - but stayed together on core historical doctrines. This is what I believe "evangelical" was originally about - but it got turned into all types of other things. But when you are with others different than you and listening to stories, listening to ideas, and gaining insight from others who we may never hear from otherwise - it is wonderful. It is needed more and more today as it breaks down barriers. And we need to break down all kinds of barriers today for the sake of the gospel being known to future generations. We really don't have time to be bickering, resistant to change or pointing fingers at some of the things we do today - when lives are at stake.
I feel we are in a time period of healthy desperation. By desperation I mean that when Christians and the church get desperate about mission - then denominational barriers break down more, our non-essential theological difference don't matter as much (not core historical orthodox theology which does matter, but the non-essential ones). When we become so desperate for people who don't know Jesus, then our attitude and posture changes towards others. When we are so desperate with the reality that there are people who may be spending eternity apart from God - then as our hearts break thinking of that - then our petty differences seems so incredibly insignificant.
I haven't been blog posting too much as I am working on wrapping up my next Zondervan book - as usual it is taking longer than I thought in the rewriting of a couple very difficult chapters to write about (homosexuality, literalism and the Bible, world religions) but I am happy how it is coming out. It is written more like when I teach in our church - as it is my first "trade" book. A trade book is a book for a general audience, not specifically church leaders like all my other books have been. So I get to include some narratives that I normally haven't been able to in church leadership books.
I am heading out also this week to speak at the Youth Specialties convention in Los Angeles. I love, love, love being around youth leaders. I am doing three things there. One is about theological topics important to be teaching youth prior to graduating. Another on creating a culture for artists in your church. And then I am doing what they are calling a "Fishbowl" discusson about hell. Hell is one of the topics you don't hear a lot about - and when we do it is normally extreme liberal views or a hard literal interpretation. I believe in an eternal hell, not being in God's presence for all eternity - and it is so horrifyingly sad, I have to talk about it. But how we do and when we do is very, very important. So I shall be having a hell discussion in LA.
Then I head to Houston the following week to speak at Presbyterian conference for a day. I will be focusing on tradition not getting in the way of mission. They are asking me to stir things up in the Presbyterian conference to the leaders. So I certainly shall be very happy to do that in a gentle and loving way. Then on Sunday I am preaching at a Presbyterian megachurch (normally you don't see those two words together) and look forward to being there with them as I hear great things about that church.
Home right now after our two morning church gatherings and going back tonight for the evening one. We are baptizing people today and it is one of the highlights of being in ministry. The joy of getting to be part of baptisms and hearing stories of changed lives. The heater thing broke on the tank, so it was cold water today. But even in cold water, it is beautiful hearing stories and seeing people taking that step to be baptized.
I am still working on wrapping up the book, so I will be spending every moment I have writing until it is done. Reworking some chapters right now, one is on organized religion and the other about Christians and judgmentalism. Wrote about the story when I first entered ministry at a church and a pastor gave me ten dollars and told me I had to cut my hair to be effective with youth.
I just saw this Newsweek video spoof on the Apple vs. PC guys ads.
I seriously don't have anything against Macs - they are great. I live in the heart of Apple-world with Apple headquarters in Cupertino about 45 minutes from here. We have people in our church who work at Apple. But I am the only staff person who still has a PC. Everyone around me is now Mac.
Last night just past midnight I recorded my video for "The Nines" that Leadership network is putting on next Wednesday, September 9... 09/09/09 at 9:09 AM. You can go here for more info.
You have 9 minutes to record something you are passionate about sharing with other leaders.
It felt a little like doing Twitter when you want to write 500 words but only can write 140 words, which becomes especially difficult if you are passionate about something. But like Twitter you have only 9 limited minutes to communicate something for The Nines.
So after midnight, down in The Abbey in our church building - I recorded on my Dell laptop webcam 9 minutes of thinking. I won't say what it was, but it included Mac vs. PC, punk rock, and someone who seriously accused us of doing something satanic in our church building.
Got back tonight from 2 fun days in Los Angeles where some of the Origins Project leadership team met together to put some ideas into planning. Over the two days we met with Erwin McManus (and had a wonderful dinner at his house and thank you whom all did the meal prep and Chris Duran!). Also thanks to Octavio and the others for hosting us. I'm posting a few blurry photos (that's Dave Gibbons there to the left in one of the meetings).
Origins is a network/community being birthed for those who are passionate about Jesus, Humanity and Innovation. So this means it is for anyone who desires to join in on the hopeful mission of people experiencing and knowing the love, and saving grace of Jesus. And using our God-given creativity and innovative thinking in this mission. You can read more on the Origins website here. As well as sign up for email updates and ongoing news and join in on the discussions already happening.
You can see who is on the full Origins leadership team here.
(Dave Gibbons left before we took this photo here from one of the meeting times), but in these meetings were with Erwin,and Dave Gibbons and April Diaz and Margaret Feinberg (and Leif and their toy poodle Hershey) and Josh Fox and Amena Brown and Eric Bryant and Marc McCartney and some of the NewSong and Mosaic staff joined us for one of the dinners. I was texting during the meeting with Scot McKnight who couldn't be there because of teaching class and Mark Batterson is over in Germany. Getting this group together is one of the craziest experiences due to everyone's nutty schedules and travel. But we are moving ahead and got a lot done and talked about.
Some basic updates are:
- Origins festival-event - July 2010: We will be doing an event next summer (most likely in July). It will have a festival-like feel to it with lots of break out groups for connecting, music, art creating, poetry and spoken word creating and inspiration of stories and various sized meetings. Part of the event will be actual serving the community - so it will be about the gospel of Jesus being both proclamation and in deeds. We are choosing summer as we most likely will be using a college campus when school is out and there is dorm rooms, lots of open space as well as meeting areas. But as soon as we lock in our actual place we will announce dates and more details. But had such great input and ideas so this will not be just another usual type of "conference" but a festival and taking words to action. And this is not only for church "leaders" but for all those interested in this mission. Because of the nature of this "festival" vs. conference - I can envision many in the community of Vintage Faith Church going down to LA for this.
- "Listening" tour - Fall and Spring 2009-2010: We are taking the development of this seriously as we want to be listening to people who have ideas and how they envision Origins to be. It is already happening in the "community" section of the website. But this Fall we will have meetings all across the country where we will be asking questions and listening. Questions like "What would you envision this network to be like? How can it be beneficial to you? What are the issues you face on mission you would love to hear how others are facing them? We had one already happen in Houston and Eric Bryant said it was great and the input was wonderful people had. We have another Dave Gibbons and Mark Batterson will be leading in Washington DC (see web site for info). And a bunch more. We will post the schedule very soon and all we want is for you to show up, share ideas, and share together. What you share will help give further direction as this network/community develops.
- Origins at Outreach Convention in San Diego - November 3, 2009 Myself, Eric Bryant and Marlon Hall will be leading a one day workshop on evangelism as part of the Outreach Convention. But we will also be doing a "listening" meeting that same night or the next in San Diego. But if you'd like to register for this day long workshop go here. We'll post about the listening meeting soon and time and place.
- Regional Groups: part of this will be forming regional groups around the country who can connect for inspiration, discussion and encouragement and learning from one another. On the Origins Project website there are some regional discussions happening already. But we will be formally establishing point leaders and meeting people this Fall and Spring as we are around the country on the "listening" tour.
- A kick-off book: We discussed some really great ideas for a kick-off book which will hopefully be an inspiring one and a different approach to what a book like this normally would be. So I am writing up a basic outline for this based on our meeting and discussion.
I am tired right now, have to finish prepping the message for Sunday on the New Testament letter to Philemon and continuing plowing ahead on finishing the Zondervan book I am wrapping up. But it is a good tired. Being in meetings like this are so incredibly invigorating and because it is what I believe the church should be about. Serving others in the world. Passionate about seeing emerging generations know the grace of God through Jesus. Not being afraid of risk and change - and so many things. Better stop. My posts are always so incredibly long. But for those that want to know that's an update!
Lastly, it was great to have more time getting to know Amena Brown who is on our Origins team. I have been part of about 6 events with her over the past several years with LeadNow/Fusion. And she is such a gifted spoken word artist and has an incredible heart for people. I shall post one of her spoken word videos here - and she and I will be in Atlanta for a "listening" tour meeting in November. She is someone I think that is going to be an incredible voice for Origins. So here is Amena.
The past couple of weeks have been fun and fulfilling but so full - not too much time to stop and think about what to post on blog. So several quick things....
The latest book: I want to thank Vintage Faith Church for praying for me as I sent the email with a prayer request about it to our church and got so many encouraging responses - I am still working on the book, trying to have it done within the next 2 weeks. It is pretty intense for me as almost every chapter is pretty weighted with heavy/emotional but important topics. 2 weeks to go if I am to make the deadline I am striving for.
Molly leaving Santa Cruz: It was a bittersweet Sunday praying for Molly as she is heading off to Seattle to go to seminary. Molly became a Christian during the second year after we planted Vintage Faith Church. She was a pretty serious Hindu and through relationships, talking about faith issues and getting connectedinto community she put faith in Jesus and was baptized. She became a really big part of our church using her poetry gifts and is desiring to really study and heading off to seminary. So a sad but joyous goodbye and we prayed for her in the gatherings.
Apologetics For a New Generation: live simulcast with Sean McDowell. I wrote the opening chapter in a book on apologetics that Sean McDowell edited. Sean is doing a live seminar on it and you can download the book for free for a certain time after the simulcast. It is tomorrow, Tuesday (August 25) from 10-11 am PST. The link to participate or view is http://www.conversantlife.com/theaword
Sign up on this link for new network/community Erwin McManus, Dave Gibbons, Scot McKnight, Rick McKinley and some others (see link) are in the beginning process of forming a new community/network based around a passion for evangelism, Scripture and innovation for mission. Go to the above link to sign up for updates as it is formed.
