-Anthony Trask

The evenings opening speaker was leadership guru John Maxwell who called on those in attendance and the global audience to begin connecting with people because “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect“.

Maxwell gave three simple connecting points:

1. Connection is all about others.

The common misunderstanding is to try to get others to buy into you and to your vision. But as Maxwell put it,” If you help people get what they want they will help you get what you want.” Investing in people and realizing that ‘it’s not about you’ will help you connect. He mentioned how so many leaders say that ‘it’s lonely at the top’. If that’s the case, they haven’t led anyone because they made no connection and there’s no one at the top with them. “They’re not leaders, they’re just hikers.” Leaders will have invested so much in others and connected with them so well, that they’ll bring the people they’re leading to the top with them.

2. Connecting Requires Energy.

Maxwell pointed out that people work much harder at relationships when they are dating than when they get married. Real relationships- real connections require energy and work. If we plan to connect and show personal attention to individuals, a connection can be made.

3. Connectors Find Common Ground.

This was the most powerful part of Maxwell’s message. It was powerful because he spoke of the way he’s connected with the secular business world. Maxwell has done so by teaching them Biblical principles and values, and using Biblical stories in His seminars and books, while taking out the  Biblical book, chapter, and verse references so that his audience will listen to what he has to say without closing their minds due to the concepts being Biblical.

He stated that it is when we find common ground with those we are leading, that we can then lift them to higher ground as opposed to being on higher ground and calling people to join you there. This idea got a loud affirmative ” Mmmmm….!” from the crowd.

A memorable quote from Maxwell’s talk came when he was referring to the traditional  ways of a church he used to pastor. He said,” Their idea of progress is moving backwards slowly.” Whether that was an original Maxwell quote or not, it was awesome and led to a solid laugh from the audience.

In the morning I will post my notes from Brian Houston’s talk of Session One, who challenged believers to spice-up their prayer life.

Television,

During the 2000’s, Survivor started a Reality TV revolution. It spurred on countless other Reality Shows with topics ranging from ‘Home Remodeling’ to’ Talent Shows’, from ‘Normal People Living in a Big House’ to ‘Dating Shows’, and from ‘Plastic Surgery’ to ‘Dumb Celebrities Living in Small Town America’.
The 2000’s saw the complete and total destruction of MTV as it transitioned from being a cool channel that showed music videos all the time, into being a channel that showed trashy Reality TV about teens living very abnormally wealthy lives and grown men hitting each other in the crotch with hockey sticks- on purpose.
But there were some amazing things that happened to television in the 2000’s: flat screen TVs and the DVR.
Big screens became affordable, packed amazing high definition pictures, and could now easily be hung on the wall as their weight radically decreased.
And no longer would you be forced to watch commercials or be a slave to the time slot your show was on. All you now have to do is tell your cable box to record the shows of your choice, watch them on your schedule, and fast forward through all the Snuggie commercials.

Celebrity,

The 2000’s were a decade of celebrity obsession. The masses waited with baited breath to find out the status of Brad and Jennifer, Brad and Angelina, Nick and Jessica, and John and Kate. It was big news when a young starlet thought that ‘Chicken of the Sea’ was chicken, not tuna. And everyone stood in awe whenever a celebrity came out of the closet. But probably the most tragic example of America’s celebrity worship over the past decade was the rise and fall, and rise again of Brittany Spears.

Music,

This past decade saw the total evolution of the music industry as people stopped buying CDs and starting listening to music on the mega successful iPod. The iPod hands-down was THE gadget of the decade. This meant complete acceptance of illegally downloading music instead of paying for it at all. And now instead of relying on millions of dollars in revenue from record sales, artists have to be creative in their money making, heavily relying on concert ticket and merchandise sales in order to make a buck.
And sadly, an overall snapshot of the world of music during the 2000’s cannot be given without mentioning the death of the music biggest superstar Michael Jackson.

Film,

Batman movies are cool again- ‘nough said.

One thing became apparent quickly in the new Millennium; Green was the new Black.
Now saving the environment, once reserved for liberal hemp-wearing hippies in towns like Eugene and Berkley, was hip!
Words like ‘Carbon Footprint’, ‘Global Warming’, Eco-Friendly’, ‘Clean-Energy’, ‘Bio Diesel’, and ‘Hybrid Car’ became as common as reruns of the Fresh Prince of Bell Air on Nick at Nite. And Al Gore, who once was seen as the boring robotic Vice President for Bill Clinton, was now the global superstar for environmentalism.

As the decade and the millennium began, the economy was soaring high off of the last remnants of the dot-com boom. And as people were freely spending money, banks were freely lending it without doing their homework to make sure that it could actually be paid back.
Because people were borrowing so much money so freely, they were investing in real estate like never before- buying big houses that only a decade earlier they would not have been able to buy. And the prices of homes sky-rocketed.
And as the decade drew to a close, people’s interest rates on their loans rose along with the prices of the homes. People, who were barely scraping by with lower interest rates, could no longer afford their mortgages. House were in foreclosure like never before, property values began to take a nose dive, the stock market plummeted, employers laid off record numbers of employees, and before we knew it we were in a full-on recession.

One of the most notable technological and social changes that took place during the past decade was the ways in which we communicate.

Texting,

The decade started with almost every adult in the nation owning a mobile phone, and people talked on them proudly- some even sporting new high tech ‘secret service’ish’ headsets to gloat in their new self-found importance.
But almost overnight text messaging became THE way for young people (specifically) to communicate. No longer would you have to have obligatory small talk with someone when you wanted to tell them what time you would be home for dinner. Now you could simply type a short response and have it sent in no time and get back to playing that critically important video game without ever having to hear the sound of a human voice.
Texting has fundamentally changed the way we talk and type. Abbreviation has become the new grammatical norm; as we regularly use phrases such as, “LOL, WTH?, TTYL, BFF, and OMG” in order to spend even less valuable time actually communicating with someone.

Social Networking,

About midway through the decade a new behemoth of communication broke onto the global scene: Social Networking!
Almost immediately, two websites emerged as THE way to connect with friends old and new on the worldwide web: MySpace and Facebook. You no longer needed to actually communicate with your friends, now all you have to do is check their status updates to see what they’ve been up to. Wanting to meet your best friend’s new girlfriend, but don’t have the time? No worries, all you have to do is send them a friend request and check out a few pics and your good.
Facebook and MySpace make things like keeping up with long-lost high school friends, and annoying relatives, seamless and instantaneous.
Throw in Twitter to the mix, with its on-the-fly microblogging that simultaneously updates your Facebook status, and you have a system that in less than five years has revolutionized the way we connect and communicate with others. And there’s only room for this new medium to grow and evolve.
With all seriousness though, Texting and Social Networking can be used to keep in contact with more people, more often, in less time. My only fear is that, if we are not careful, real face to face intimate relationships will suffer and turn into mere virtual connections.

September 11th:

THE definitive event of the 2000’s was, without question, the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001. This horrific event will forever be seared into the consciousness of the American people who woke up that fateful morning to see the world changing in front of their eyes.
That day has caused a roller coaster of emotional, political, and societal ups and downs ever since: the nation was united in mourning and resolve; the nation became divided as it began to look within its own borders for sources of terrorism seeded from overseas; wars began and many of our young men were sent abroad who would never again come home, our nation agreed and disagreed on the validity of these wars, and security was tightened up in ways never seen before in everything from sporting events to air travel.

For the last several weeks I have been eagerly awaiting the premier of “V” – a new TV series on ABC.

The show highlights how the world would react if a technologically superior race of human-like benevolent aliens suddenly showed up on our front door step asking for water in exchange for advanced technology.

The show’s premiere particularly delved into how Christianity would handle the situation; and it did so quite well. Originally the world turned to the Church to see how it would respond to the situation. But as the aliens began to perform miracles that before only God could preform, people’s devotion starting turning towards the aliens and their promise of hope in a new world and away from the devotion and worship to God. The aliens set themselves up to be saviors in a broken world. It was a fine metaphorical expose on culture, religion, and politics in modern day America.

The Bible said such things would happen (minus the aliens) and to an extent they already have several times throughout history. So, while this is a weird topic, it leads to a good question. How should (and would) the Church respond if a false savior showed up offering breakthrough and hope to us in such a time as this?

 IS GAY OK?

 It was a beautiful, mild Friday evening in the city of Seattle during the month of May. The skies were clear and the city was alive with people coming and going in and out of dance clubs, posh restaurants, and late night coffee shops.

A good childhood friend and I spent the evening touring the city via motor scooter. He had lived in Seattle for several years and wanted to show me parts of the city that could only be seen on a Friday evening under the stars. We went up and down steep city streets, in and out of alleys, and stopped to look at panoramic viewpoints.

Some things, however, were a little unique about this evening: 1] My good friend and I were not touring the city on two individual scooters, but on one; 2] This scooter didn’t have a normal black ‘pleather’ seat like most scooters do, it had a bright flowered one; and 3] My childhood friend who I was closely straddling from behind on a small flowered scooter seat is not straight like me, he is gay.

Now first and foremost I am a Follower of Jesus Christ- a Christian. And I know that because of what I am about to say, that some of you may think that I am a bigot and may even hate me. But GAY, to say it bluntly, IS NOT OK. I can say that, not because my faith is based on my opinions, beliefs, experiences, or the cultural norms of my day, but because it is based on the Word of God- a love letter from God to His people which has not changed since it was penned thousands of years ago. And the Bible is explicitly clear that homosexuality is not God’s will for man (1), thus making it sin.

We live in a world that, for some reason, tries to justify homosexuality- tries to make it seem normal. We live in a world where homosexuals compare themselves to persecuted ethnic minorities in order to gain acceptance. We live in a world where scientists work tirelessly to trace homosexuality to a specific gene within our DNA to show that homosexuals are born homosexuals. And we live in a world where special interest groups fight viciously to insure that homosexual couples have the opportunity to get married just as heterosexual couples have been doing for millennia.

We also live in a world where this same way of thinking has crept into the church as well. We live in a world where churches affirm homosexuality in order to appeal to a broader base of people; thus growing their congregations, limiting their persecution from the world, and increasing their giving…ouch! We live in a world in which churches do away with Scriptures that condemn homosexuality by claiming that certain words have been mistranslated or that those same Scriptures were intended only for a specific time and/or culture. We live in a world where “gay affirming” churches rejoice when a Christian music superstar comes out of the closet and uses him as a tool to further their agenda (2). And sadly, we live in a world where certain churches are so desperate to justify their homosexual lifestyle that they make preposterous claims that King David, Ruth, The Apostle Paul, and even Jesus was gay! (3) 

Something else to consider though, is that we also live in a world with prideful pastors and lying elders. We live in a world with lustful Sunday school teachers and gluttonous worship leaders. We live in a world with revenge obsessed soccer moms and hypocritical grandpas. We live in a world of disobedient teenagers and worry-laden fathers. We live in a world with selfish church custodians and stealing Bible scholars. And we live in a world with unforgiving youth pastors and idolatrous church board members. The list goes on and on.

The point is that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” The point is that all sin- short of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit- is forgivable through the saving power of Jesus Christ. The point is that one’s sin of homosexuality is no worse than one’s sin of using God’s Name in vein. The point is that we are all held accountable for all of the sins we commit against God- even the ones we’re not aware of! (4) The point is that Jesus Christ loves us so much, whether we struggle with homosexuality or hate for our enemies, that He lived a life that we were unable to live, died an agonizing death that we deserved to die, and rose from the grave to give us an abundant-forgiven-eternal life that we do not deserve.

It’s a matter of the heart. You cannot be a Christian (Someone who has put their faith in the saving power of Jesus Christ, loves Him with all of their heart, and follows His example through the power of the Holy Spirit), yet continue to love sin. You cannot be a Christian, yet pick and chose which Scriptures apply to your life. You cannot be a Christian, yet be unrepentant towards the sins that you struggle with. Being a Christian means that you and your sin has been confronted by a Holy God, and your response is to allow that God to change you and conform you into His image.

You see; there is no difference between Johnny and Jane (the fornicating shacked-up “Christian” couple who sit on the front row of your church every Sunday), and Bill and Steve (the gay couple who feel too uncomfortable to even enter the doors of your church for fear of rejection). You see; there is no difference between Doug (the “Christian” husband who sits with his wife on the back row of your church every Sunday while Tina, the young woman he is having an affair with, sits in the balcony in shame), and Lisa and Megan (the lesbian couple who won’t even walk down the same side of the street as your church because of how they have been treated).

For far too long the Church- me included- has been pointing the long narrow finger of judgment at those whose lives have not been transformed by the saving grace of Jesus Christ; and has not been pointing the accountable-finger of judgment and correction back at its own.

When I look at the people who Jesus hung out with when He walked the earth 2,000 years ago- the prostitutes, the lepers, the Samaritans, the poor, the uneducated, the demon afflicted, the dishonest tax collectors, the sick, the disabled, the widows, the children, etc- I am ashamed, not of Jesus, but of myself and the Church. It makes me realize who I need to be spending time with today. I need to make myself available to today’s outcasts so that I can invite them into the Kingdom that Jesus established- one that will never end. 

So back to that night in Seattle: As the night grew later, my friend wanted to show me the city’s “gaybourhoods”. It was at that point, while holding onto my gay friend for dear life as we cruised through Seattle’s gaybourhoods on the flowered seat of a little motor scooter that I thought, just for an instant, “What if the people here think that I am his new boyfriend?” The verse about avoiding the “appearance of evil” sprung into my mind. But those thoughts were quickly replaced when I realized that this is probably right where Jesus wants me- riding on the back of a motor scooter with my gay friend through the neon-lit streets of Seattle’s gaybourhoods.

And it was at that moment when that night became one of my fondest memories, because for an instant everything was balanced and where it should be. Because after all love wins in the end.

 1.  See Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, Romans 1:18-22, and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

2.  See the Washington Blade’s interview with Ray Boltz: www.washingtonblade.com/2008/9-12/arts/feature/13258.cfm

3.  Research the doctrine and articles published by Jesus Metropolitan Community Church, the church where Ray Boltz now attends: http://jesusmcc.org/

4.  See Leviticus 4:13

THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU

So last month I spent an evening with my family at the Oregon State Fair.
Ah the Oregon State Fair! The pentacle of summer-time entertainment for the city of Salem!
There I was walking the promenade with my beautiful wife of nine years, my three and a half year old son, and my six month old daughter. There was so much to do there- so much of Oregon’s goodness to enjoy.
Now I have gone to the Oregon State Fair every year since I can remember. And it may be weird, but I really love it! I love the scones, the elephant ears, the art and photography exhibits, the World’s Largest Pig, Horse, and Alligator, the traveling shows, the free concerts, the Carnies, the 12” tall ice cream cones, the smell of the cow barn, the 4H kids, and the weird people with the Britney Spears’ headset -microphones trying to sell you a knife set. Did I mention the scones?
From the moment we walked through the Yellow Gate, though, my son had two things on his mind: Rides and Games. We were starving and we knew that we had to eat something before we made our way to the ride and game area because once we got there, there would be no turning back.
So we ate our food and tried to distract our son with pop and candy so we could look at, at least at a few of, the cool grown-up exhibits. But that’s when it happened. Somewhere between the Fuzzy Magic Worm and the Obama ’08 booth, my six month old let it rip! The only way I could stop her from being fussy was to have her ride on my shoulders through the exhibits. So with her head directly above mine, she puked all over me. Not just a little bit on my head or my shirt, but ALL over me!
That’s when I realized that this year there would be no hypnotist show, no French bread pizza, no hot-tub clearance sales, no baby pigs, no free hats from Toyota, and possibly even no scones! My wife and I would have to sacrifice all that we love about the Oregon State Fair and B-Line it over to the rides and the games for my son before all parenting control would be lost.
So we did just that. And once my son realized that we were there amongst the over-priced rides and the scandalous games his face shown with glorious joy. This is what he had been waiting for, for so long!
My son enjoyed every second of the canoe ride. He cherished every moment of the Indiana Jones’ish obstacle course. And for him- it was as if his life were complete as he whooshed up and down on the bouncing bus! Every ounce of his three year old life was revealed as he shot water into a clown’s mouth and caught plastic octopuses with a fishing pole. And my six month old daughter beamed from ear to ear as she watched the lights of the promenade flash off and on, and her big brother laughing with excitement as he went from ride to ride.
After all of the previous stress caused by my son’s anticipation for the rides and my daughter’s puking incident, my wife and I were at peace. We were at peace because life, for that moment, was balanced and where it should be.
That’s when I realized that THIS (this life of mine) IS NOT ABOT ME anymore. It’s not about me eating scones or watching two grown men mix comedy and professional juggling. It’s about making sure that my kids are loved, safe, and are enjoying life. It’s about doing what Jesus spoke of: ‘Loving my neighbor as I love myself ‘and ‘loving God with all that I’ve got.’
Sadly, today, in American Culture and equally in Christian Culture; life has become all about ME: What will make ME feel good? What will make ME more money? What will make people like ME more? What ministry will make ME look more important? What will make ME holier than my neighbor? How can I get God to bless ME with more Spiritual Gifts? Etc….
But the Scriptures center us back to where we are supposed to be: Life being all about GOD. Take the Bible’s very first verse for example; “In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth.” This story is about GOD, not about ME.
As the Scriptures culminate in the book of Revelation we see a beautiful picture of all things restored, balanced, and where they should be: “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” * People from all over the world with their focus, not on themselves, but on God!
So, just like my wife and I at the Oregon State Fair, we must come to the realization that life is balanced and where it should be when the focus is not on US, but when the focus is on HIM. And when the focus is on HIM, He sets it on others as well.
What if there were enormous banners lining the walls of your church’s sanctuary that said “THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU”? Would that change the way you worshipped? What if your alarm clock woke you up every morning with the words,” THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU”? Would that make getting ready in the morning any easier? What if every bill board you passed on the street said, “THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU”? Would that change the way you drove? What if the thought, “THIS IS NOT ABOT ME” passed through your brain throughout the day? Would that change the way you lived? Would that help you shift the focus off of YOU and onto HIM? Would that help you pay attention to the needs of those around you?
Think about it. THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU!