Talking About A Great Book: When God is Cool and We are Cheesy

Here is what I've learned about God so far in The Knowledge of The Holy: God is cool. I'm not alone. Many I know are sick of the cheesy church culture trying too hard to make God cool. He already is. He's big and mysterious and transcendent. But he's intimate and knowable and close. He's all of this at the same time. Not in flux, but steady. He is unlike anything or anyone I know. The church has ran from this mysterious almost mystical view of God that Tozer shows us so well. Why? Why do we try and make God cool by preaching a series using TV show titles? I mean if I see another preaching series called "Deal or No Deal" or "American Idols" I think I'll cry. I love creativity in communication, but do people really think that's clever? We live in a culture where people are hungering for a real countercultural God. I think that's why a ton of folks I talk to these days want to discuss Eastern philosophies. They don't try to be like Walmart or Starbucks. God and our understanding of God is deep and hard at times. I love it! Let's teach it and wrestle with it, and even better, let's try and live it. Let's learn of Him, let's relate to Him, and even better, live with Him. Sally Morgenthaler ask a great question: "Can the church escape the happy song silk plant ghetto and minister to a cheese intolerant, spiritually self sufficient culture?" Tozer's answer in chapter 3 is--not only can it, but we're the only one's who can. I love what a fella named Mark Driscoll has said: "I hope for an uprising of cool Calvinists who can preach the Bible, teach the truth, fight the heretics, plant churches, evangelize the lost, comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable, and compel men to be manly." Me too.

A Girl Who Cries Alot, A Professional Basketball Player, and My House

Many of you know this. Some of you don't. But prior to starting Crew we went through a pretty long and involved process of putting together a team. A team that has the same heart and passion to love Christ more than anything else. A team that is committed to having our lives shaped into Christ like lives. A team that desires to engage our community and have a positive influence on it. In a sentence: A team that wants to start a church. We are still putting together that team. We're in the final month or so of that stage, but we are still very much engaged in gathering a team. This is the infamous "core team" you hear about all the time. It's a core group of people that share the same dream and have committed their lives to it. In fact, that's where we get our name: Crew. Crew is defined at dictionary.com as "a group of people working together for a purpose". Once we had this team in place we would launch our new church. This has taken us about 2 years. Slow, I know, but necessary. We're intense about this.

Well, about 3 months in, our core team numbered 8. I was depressed. I had about 40 folks I thought for sure would be jacked to join this team. Not a one did. I was really down. But, as usual, God had something else in mind. Something better. Lesson #1 in God's church planting curriculum: YOUR CORE TEAM IS NOT MY CORE TEAM. Yes sir.

I was really hearing the words "thanks, but no thanks" a lot. Now I'm to the point of this blog.

One hot day in August a couple of college kids named Mark Patton and his girlfriend named Rachel West were coming over to our house to hear about Crew. I met them through Mark's brother Brian, who was on our core team. I had no real expectations other than wanting to communicate our heart to them. On the way to our house Rachel had a car wreck. Nothing too bad. It just rattled her. They still came over, but about an hour later. They walked in and it was obvious Rachel had been crying. Rachel cries. A lot. After the preliminaries we talked about Crew, answered questions, and prayed. I told them to pray about it, talk to folks they trust who are objective, and come to one of our prayer times. I also usually throw out a little two week period where we'll touch base again and see what we're all thinking. Mark and Rachel said right away. We don't need it! We're in! What? We already know this is what God is calling us to be and do. We're in. And they were. For the past 2 years, they have loved God, become more like Christ, and served Crew with reckless abandon. I always say, "I don't want your time. I don't want your money. I want your life. I want your heart. That's the kind of team it's going to take to start this church." Well, we got it from Mark and Rachel.

Last Thursday a guy named Mark Patton and his wife Rachel Patton came over to my house to say "Goodbye". Mark is going to play professional basketball in Germany for at least a year. Rachel apparently wants to go with him. I had no expectations. Rachel came over and cried. So did we. We also hugged, prayed, and said "I love you." I didn't realize until last Thursday that they didn't just give me their heart two years ago, they started stealing mine. Lesson #whatever I'm up to now in God's church planting curriculum: THE PEOPLE YOU LEAD TEACH YOU MORE THAN YOU TEACH THEM. Thanks Mark and Rachel. I love you so much. I'm deeply changed and radically different because of your love for God, Sarah and I, and your committment to the cause. I can't wait to see you again.

Talking About A Great Book: Explaining the Unexplainable

If you've done much talking or teaching or preaching then you know about being misunderstood. I hate it! Well, Josh said.... No I didn't! Josh believes... No I don't! That's why, more times than not, when I give a talk I try to shoot down misconceptions that might pop up. I'll say, "Now, I don't believe ..." or "I'm not saying...". I was even accused of being a socialist once. I was talking about community. I am not a socialist. See what I mean? You get the picture.

Well, that's exactly what Tozer does at the beginning of his book on God. In essence He says, "God is indescribable and unknowable and we can't define Him in outline form. Now, let me describe God in chapter 3." I mean how in the world do you describe God? That's not something you can do in a 25 chapter book or a couple month series or even a lifetime. It's like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. It ain't happening baby! He knows that. So before he starts describing God he clears the air by saying he can't do it. And neither can we. And it isn't Tozer's inadequacy. It's God's size and being. Heck, even when the apostle Paul, the greatest Christian mind to date, was nearing the end of his theological magnum opus he threw up his hands and said, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" Or as one of my mentors has said, "You can't unscrute the unscrutable."

But it's awful awesome to try isn't it? We are on a journey in this life to know God more and have a real living breathing relationship with Him. Not a definition of Him. Not some of His characteristics. See I'm doing what I described earlier aren't I? We can't know what He looks like. (He isn't a blond headed blue eyed Jesus with a blue beauty pagent thing or some 80 year old grandpa with a long beard waiting to hit you). But we are striving to know Him. Really experience who He is in our lives. To think His thoughts. Feel what He feels. Love like He loves. Hate sin like He hates it. Be holy as He is holy. To drop a little more apostle Paul on you, we want to "know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead." As Christians we have the Spirit of God in our lives shaping us and little by little revealing more and more of who He is and making us more and more like Him. My little pet theory is that heaven will be an eternal journey of learning more and more and experiencing more and more of who God is. It will never end. Man that makes me shake my head. Just like this book. Just like God. So, I'll spend my life saying, "Huh? What's that mean?" and spend eternity saying, "Ahhhh, so that's it!" Pretty cool.