Tag: Rick Warren

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CAPTIVE Movie Review

Captive ReviewCaptive is a great movie that shows anyone HOPE is possible, even in their darkest hours. Here are a few spoiler free things I enjoyed about the movie. After reading my thoughts, make plans to go see #Captive on opening night, Friday, September 18, 2015.

  • Captive is NOT God’s Not Dead and that’s Okay: If you’re looking for a movie with an overtly evangelical, “Go get saved now” message, this is not that movie, and that’s okay. The movie is effective as it shows how two people in seemingly hopeless situations discovered hope was possible, even in their darkest hours. The movie is based on a true story & does a good job, in the limited time available, portraying what took place with the Atlanta court escape by Brian Nichols, the murders he committed, along with his eventual kidnapping of Ashley Smith [Robinson], and how Ashley became a hero in the midst of the crisis.
  • A Powerful Conversion Story: Although there’s not a highlighted moment showing someone place their faith in Jesus for Salvation (Ashley was already a Christian), there is a very powerful conversion that takes place when Ashley decides she’s not using drugs again, even under the threat of death. It was one thing to read about this moment in her book, but even more powerful to see it on screen. Kate Mara did a great job reflecting Ashley’s struggle and eventual resolve.
  • Captive is Not What You Think: Captive, what a great, unoriginal title for a movie about a hostage situation! You may think that before watching the movie, but you’ll find Captive is actually a deeper story than that. The underlying story is about two individuals held captive by their own personal demons, constantly haunted and unable to find freedom, until forced to finally decide how they would find their own freedom, would it be through choosing life or death?
  • God has a Purpose for Everyone: Can God use an addict to get a murderer off the street? Can God use a murderer to get an addict clean? Can God use the sacrifice of a hero to bring peace to a city? Although it may not be overt, the message of the gospel and God choosing to use whom He pleases is weaved into the movie. God has a purpose for everyone, but not everyone sees it. Blinded by personal choices, failures and even successes, people will write off God, even though God hasn’t written them off.  Ashley’s boldness to share the Purpose Driven Life with Brian brings God’s redemption to the forefront of the story.
  • Take the Next Steps: Captive provides a great opportunity for churches to take their congregations to see the movie together and then provide follow up discussions to discuss such topics as substance abuse, mental health issues, God’s purpose for each of our lives, the gospel, second chances, and many of the other themes presented by the movie. It doesn’t have to be churches, it could be small groups, or friends; just don’t miss the opportunity to take the next step by following the movie up with quality dialogue.

Helpful Resources:

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Messy Church

“Everyone has hurts, habits, and hang-ups.” – Rick Warren

If the above statement is true (and it is), it means that every church is messy. I’ve heard the above statement used and abused. For some its a convenient cliche and used as false self-deprivation to give an appearance  that one relates to people in their struggles when the true motivation is to create a personal empire versus the Kingdom of God. For others, this is a part of their church’s DNA. Whether the principle is presented word for word (Everyone has hurts, habits, and hang-ups) or in like meaning but using other terminology like Cross Point Church does with their view that Everyone is Welcome, Nobody is Perfect, and Anything is Possible. I want this principle to be a core principle of our DNA at New Passion, not just words.

Sunday, we showed our last One Prayer message for 2010. It was on the Unstoppable Church by Scott Hodge. Scott focuses on the fact that if we are going to be an unstoppable church we must be willing to embrace the mess. Check the video out if you have 26 minutes and then think on the questions I presented on Sunday to our congregation:

How would you answer these questions?

  1. What do we (you) do with the messy and broken people that God leads our (your) way?
    1 (a). Are we afraid of the mess?
  2. Are you being honest about your messiness & brokenness?
    2 (a). Are you hiding behind a mask pretending like everything is okay, when it’s not?
  3. Are we a church of prayer?
    3 (a). Are we as individuals and as a church praying for each other? For the church & its leaders? For miracles

Join the Conversation…I’d love to know your thoughts!

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Velocity 2010 Session and Breakout Notes

velocity-buttonVelocity 2010 Church Planting Conference

Mountain Lake Church was not able to ramp up their bandwidth for the WIFI network in time for the Velocity 2010 Church Planters Conference. This was like a forced Blogging and Twitter fast for me, but it wasn’t a bad thing. All of my attention was on the speakers and taking old school notes 🙂

Here is a landing page for all of the notes I was able to take (now posted on my blog) for each session, except session 5, and for the Breakouts I attended, some of the notes may not make any sense to you, they probably will not make much sense to me once I go back and review some of them, because several of the speakers had in-depth studies and terms that I couldn’t record before they moved on:

Main Session 1: Shawn Lovejoy
Main Session 2: Alan Hirsch
Main Session 3: Steven Furtick
Breakout Session 2: Pete Wilson
Main Session 4: Dave Gibbons
Breakout Session 3: Tony Morgan
Main Session 6: Rick Warren

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Velocity 2010 – Rick Warren

rickwarren-buttonVelocity 2010 Church Planting Conference

Session 6 Speaker: Rick Warren

If God has called you to be a church planter, do not STEP down to do anything else…not even the President of the United States. This is the greatest calling.

1,000 Years from today, if Jesus does not come back, all Kingdoms will have fallen, but the church will still be standing.

If you can grasp that God created me to love me, I should never struggle with inferiority again.
No need for posing, masks, being cool, etc. Because God chose me.

Nothing matters more than the church.

Do All for the Global Glory of God.

The more important your job, the more humble you must be.

What the church is doing will outlast anything Bill Gates, Any Country Leader, Famous Musicians, or Famous Athlete does.

We need new churches for new generations.

Spread the major mistakes around. Challenge staff to make 1 major mistake a week J

Rick’s Rules for Church Planting:

1.    Don’t take early losses seriously – They don’t determine the outcome of your church.
-Ignore your early losses…Rome was not built in a day, neither is a church.

A mushroom takes 6 hours to build; an oak tree takes 60 years. Do you want a mushroom or an oak tree as a church?

Legitimate growth is conversion growth.

Focus on membership & discipleship, not on the crowd or the numbers.

The measure of a church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity.

It’s not a sin to be a small church, it is disobedient to be a small minded church.

If you want the anointing of God in your life & his blessings; your life must be built on humility, integrity, and generosity.

These are the antidote to the three Greatest Traps of Ministry and Leadership:

The Kingdom of God needs us to FINISH WELL. It does not need us to flame out.

Satan is entirely predictable. His main 3 temptations are:

1.    Lust of the Flesh is the temptation to Feel – Anything that makes you feel good. (Hedonism) (Pleasure) [Sex]

2.    Lust of the Eyes is the temptation to Have –
(Possessions) [Salary]

3.    Pride of Life is the temptation to Be – Desire to be worshipped, envied
(Position) [Status]

(I John 2:16, 18)

Never confuse your self-worth with your net-worth

Jesus was tempted to use what was given for ministry to feed him-self.

Satan wants to tempt us to use our gifts on ourselves, verses for the ministry and what God has called us to.

Jesus was tempted to be spectacular with the gift he was given.

Satan will tempt us to be spectacular.

Glory comes from suffering, not showing off.

You don’t have to be original in everything that you do.

Church planters need to study a lot of the first 1500 years of the church for deep roots.

Jesus was tempted with things.

Satan will tempt us to develop a spirit of expectation that we deserve things because of what we’ve done.

Antidotes to these 3 Temptations:

1.    Integrity – From Integer “A unit of one” – Our life is one, we are not separated into sects, we are one.
“Titanic Trap” – – You cannot compartmentalize your life. If you try, you lack integrity.
A hole in your life is a hole in your life and it will sink
You never sin privately, you are affecting your family, your church, and others you influence.
You don’t have to be perfect to have integrity, you have to be authentic.

2.    Generosity (antidote to the lust of the eyes) –
The way you spend your money shows what you value.
The more I give the more I become like Jesus.
You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.
Every time you give you break the hold of materialism in your life.

3.    Humility – (antidote to
It means you don’t give yourself the title “Apostle”
If you have to have a big title you’re not humble.

Titles mean nothing, what matters is do you love people?

Don’t give in to false humility:

God created you, Jesus died for you, the Holy Spirit lives in you. You are not junk.

Humility is not denying your strengths, but being honest about your weaknesses.

We grow fastest and best through models.

It’s better to have someone following a person who is trying to do right versus someone who isn’t trying at all.

Someone who is not teachable is not humble.

Be humble or you will stumble.

Lesson from the whale – When you get to the top and get ready to blow, that’s when they harpoon you.

How do you bring people through the front door and out the back to get involved in missions? You better have an intentional process.

It’s not about looking cool, it’s about meeting needs.

If you are going to last and make it to the end…you must understand the 6 phases of faith:

When God does any miracle…he takes it through 6 phases of faith:

God…

1.    Gives a Dream

2.    Decision (choose to go after it) – Dreams are unimportant if they are not moved on.

3.    Delay – Always a delay (New Passion 3 years) – God is not a vending machine. God is more interested in the individual than the dream.

4.    Difficulty – You will face all types of problems (Critics, Lack of Resources)

5.    Dead-End – The death of a vision

6.    Deliverance – God likes to turn difficulties into possibilities; He then gets the glory, not us.

Every time we hit a dead-end, God does not want to help us, he wants to do a miracle.

I got to meet Rick Warren, one of my all time Spiritual Influences

Velocity Conference: Main Session 1 Highlights – – Main Session 2 Highlights – – Main Session 3 Highlights – – Breakout Session 2 with Pete Wilson Highlights – – Main Session 4 Highlights – – Breakout Session 3 with Tony Morgan Highlights

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Horizontal Religion

double-arrow-head

I went to a “campmeeting” tonight. I went because my parents were in town and they love the week long revival that a local church puts on every year. I spent several years of my life at this church, made many friends, met my wife there, got saved there, felt the call into full time ministry there; so it has played a large role in my life.

This week they are celebrating their 34th consecutive homecoming and camp meeting. The preacher that preached has done so for 34 straight years. He’s 79 years old and though he has slowed down in his older age, he is still passionately doing what God called him to do, preach.

However, I left a little disappointed tonight. Although this pastor loves Jesus, gives him 100% of his life, and  preaches like there is no tomorow; he often resorts to horizontal religion. Early in the message he ripped Rick Warren because Rick has purposely led his church to be “seeker sensitive” in their worship services, in order to reach the lost. The assumption was made, that the seeker sensitive approach is only to build a large church (basically to put butts in the seats) versus a true motive to preach the Gospel to see those outside the faith get saved. Do I agree with everything Rick Warren says or does? No! Do I agree with everything this pastor who is ripping on him says or does? No! In fact, I want to be very careful not to participate in horizontal religion myself through this post. I do however know many people at Saddleback and with first hand knowledge of their church and how they operate and their hearts for the lost, I can say, this pastor simply does not know what he is talking about.

I believe Horizontal Religion is when we put more focus on earthly things that we do on heavenly things. In this case, the pastor was attacking flesh and blood versus going after the evil in the world that is our true enemy. In another instance, I wanted to say a loud Amen when the pastor said that Al Gore was a ‘one-eyed idiot.’ Now, outside of the pulpit I totally agree! However, from the pulpit, the focus was turned away from Jesus and placed on a man that clearly needs Jesus. I am the first to admit, when I am debating politics on my personal time, I am passionate and to some I may be considered polarizing. However, I would never use my opportunity to preach the Gospel, to grow fellow believers, or to share the truths from God’s word to attack someone I disagree with politically. Its like saying Liberals are all ‘one-eyed idiots and are not Christians.’ Funny a Conservative would defend a liberal 🙂
But, this one statement helps make my case. The Gospel is not “Al Gore is a one-eyed idiot,” that is clearly an opinion. So, what if the biggest Al Gore fan was sitting in the audience, he was lost and needed Jesus? Did we marginalize him and turn him off with the opinionated statement? Or did we draw him closer to Jesus? Being seeker sensitive has nothing to do with changing the Gospel message, but because I am sensitive to the fact that their are lost people in my crowd, I am going to choose not to attack someone I politically disagree with. (My next post will be “Why Al Gore is a One Eyed Idiot!”) I believe issues like these build walls between believers and those outside the faith versus tearing walls down.

By writing this I am sure there will be some who totally shun me. Some may call me a liberal. I really don’t care. I am not ripping on this pastor. In fact, when I am 79 years old, I pray that I am as passionate about Jesus as this pastor is. I pray that the doctors give me an additional outlook of 10-15 years to keep sharing Jesus with everyone that I can. This man has been a spiritual mentor to the pastor who leads the church that hosts this camp meeting. Both pastors have been in the ministry and serving Jesus for over 40 years. I cannot criticize or complain about that, Wow! That is awesome! We need more influences like that in our culture. Like I said in the beginning, it was through this ministry hosting this revival that a lot of my spiritual journey began and a lot of my personal life has been wrapped up in. So, this pastor I am talking about has had an integral part of helping shape a church and a ministry that has molded part of me.

I am however tired of the Horizontal Religion. Christians, we already have a big enough battle on our hands with our enemy, Satan. Ephesians is as clear as can be, “Our enemy is NOT flesh and blood!” What part of that don’t we understand? Apparently, we are not devoured enough by the enemy, because we cannibalize those on our own side. We ravish each other and shred ourselves apart. This pastor should have just taken a knife and cut his own right arm off. There is no difference, 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that we are all the body of Christ. When we attack another Christian, we are attacking our own body. Ephesians 4 says, “There is ONE body and ONE faith.” Whether we all agree or disagree on certain opinions, we are all of the same body and faith. Trust me, I am not ripping on this pastor, he is just a fresh case for my argument. There are hundreds of Christians doing the same thing! We will never be effective for Christ in the way he has called us to be effective when we have a civil war going on within our own faith. One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Philippians 1, where a report gets back to Paul (who is in prison) that some Christians are preaching the Gospel with selfish motives. They were using the Gospel to gain personally from it versus to see people saved. Paul says, “How can I complain? I must rejoice because Jesus is being preached!” Why do we feel like we are above Paul? One of the greatest preachers of all times? I think the issue is, we have control issues. We want everyone to do things our way. Trust me, if I had my way, they would have been playing some Passion and Hillsong music instead of the Gospel group and the choir, but is my way any more effective? No! Paul could not control “How” these preachers delivered the Gospel, but he understood that the Gospel is truth and once it is spoken and delivered, there is no stopping it. So, what if I do something in my church that you do not like because I feel we can reach more lost people? What good does it do you to sit around and criticize me and complain? If I am preaching the Gospel, the Bible says, His Word will not return void. Believe me! I am speaking to myself as much as anyone else. I am as guilty as anyone. I struggle with this too. I have my opinions and sometimes I believe they are better than your opinion. Therefore I believe we need to extend Grace to one another as well, but at the same time we need to wake up! (See THIS story to read about my own struggle with this very topic!)

Jude tells us to defend the Gospel. To protect the faith from false teachers who have wormed their way into the faith. I am all about protecting our faith and if we hear someone preaching in error and leading people astray, we better speak up. However, Horizontal Religion, tearing people down in our own faith will never benefit Christ. I love this pastor who I’ve used as an example. I will not speak an ill word against him. I know God uses him, it is evident, so I praise God! Let’s agree together to quit tearing each other apart and hold each other up, lets decrease so Jesus can increase in our lives and in our influence!

Join the Conversation…What’s Your Thoughts?