What I LOVE about Cool River

Honest conversations--I love that the people at Cool River are not afraid to be honest.

Authentic friendships--I love that I have authentic friends that are there for me no matter what.

People growing--I love that people are growing in their faith.

Mixed spiritual levels--I love that we have the whole specturm of belief in our church from non-believers, to beginners and maturing Christians.

Acceptance of Challenge--I love that Cool River lets God keep pushing us to grow more and more.

Fun--I love that people at Cool River know how to laugh and have a good time.

Thinkers--I love that we have a culture of thinkers that are always challenging the process and thinking beyond where we are.

Activists--I love that Cool River serves and serves well

Community focus--I love that as a church we've made a commitment to our community...to be here no matter what.

Fluidity--I love that we can change and are not bound to our current way of doing things.

Narrow gap between 'clergy' and 'partner'--I love that people at Cool River at all levels of the organization feel like we are all in this together as a team. No one part is more important than another. We all make a difference and we all matter.

Step-up Factor--I love it that when anything big or little comes up where someone needs help that help is there even before we finish making the announcement. The step-up factor is high at CR.

Glocal Factor--I love that Cool River has given so much in time and energy and resources to the least of these in Vietnam.

Great Blog....More Impliactions

I was reading Pete Wilson's blog today which is so stinking good. Pete is a good friend that I've seen turn things to gold since college. He's one of those guys that it was easy to tell things would go well for early, early on. I'm sure the people in his high school and elementary school and his parents said the same things when he was a kid. "Just wait and see what happens with this one!"

In today's blog, Pete talks about criticism which is part of the territory when you are in ministry....or for that matter when you do life here on this earth. Critics are many, adoring fans are few.

Pete reminds us of a quote by Michelangelo. "Criticize by Creating" which reminded me of some stuff I'm reading in Culture Making by Andy Crouch. (Thanks M-Ko for recommending it)

He says the top 4 responses or postures of Christians over the years have been condemning, critiquing, consuming or copying. He goes on to give some good and bad things about each approach...but he also says there are two postures that haven't been utilized nearly enough...maybe even ignored: Creating (making new things) and Cultivating (nurturing the beauty of what already exists). Wow! That's cool....and sad, too, I guess.

How are you creating and cultivating today?


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Question(s) of the Day

If you didn't have any money and no paid pastors would your church still exist?

What would you need to do to make sure it was sustainable beyond those commodities?


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Recent Reads

Here's a look at my most recent reads. Some good, some Ok.

Missional Renaissance by Reggie McNeal
It's an OK book.

I kept getting confused because it seemed that so many times he was trying to program missional and I just don't get that. Then I finally realized who his audience was--churches and denominational leaders who have been stuck in an old paradigm and are looking for some old paradigm tools to get them moving toward what missional is.

So...if you fit into that category it's actually a pretty good book. Actually...there really is some good stuff there for everyone. The scorecard stuff is worth the book...but you can just read all the headings for that.


Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne
I like Claiborne's stuff becasue he's always got a passionate and authetic style and yet covers you up with the Bible. At times I though it was too long. At times I thought it wasn't long enough. I went back and forth on it. Nothing extra challenging about it....just right on! Jesus is already President and we keep wanting something other than Him. Jesus has already given us marching orders and clear cut lines on how to engage politics...yet we want to make our own rules. Good stuff. OH....and layout and art are very cool!


One Month to Live by Kerry Shook
I was skeptical of this one but I was pleasantly surprised. Anyone that's looking to get a jump start or a kick in the pants about really living this life should read it. And it was memorable, too. Here are the 4 big pionts: Live Passionately, Love Completely, Learn Humbly and Leave Boldly....(and I didn't even look them up). Would make a great small group book. Would make a great series.







Culture Making by Andy Crouch and The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns are on tap. Tell you about those soon!





















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The same here and there and everywhere

I got to spend more time this week with Kingdom guys in Boulder County--not your typical church pastor types.

In our meeting we were engaging in a beautiful conversation about some Kingdom opportunities internationally--and not your typical conversation, either.

There was humility, there was flexibility, there was a Kingdom-focus, there was mutual submission, there was no pride or ego, there was learning, there was teaching, there was collaboration, there was excitement, there was confession, there was hope.

It was one of the best meetings I've been to.

Beyond that, this opportunity helped us to see our deficiencies here in our local area as local churches and as the body of Christ. And the conversation shifted and moved and flowed toward a 'glocal' movement. The stuff we were dreaming about doing somewhere else was the same stuff we were convicted of doing right here in this place.

I was reminded again that the Christian life should be a holistic life. We can't be or do something somewhere else that we are not doing right here. We can't be or do something at our churches that we are not doing in our homes, in our work, in our schools, in our lives.

The integrity of the Christian life is predicated on our consistency of thought and action in every area of our lives.

Are you the same everywhere? If not, why not?


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What is bugging you?

I was hanging out with some awesome leaders a couple of weeks ago talking about the Kingdom and church and mission and being disciples, etc. and along the way one of the guys asked, "What frustrates you the most about church?"

"Good question," I thought.

Immediately you could see the wheels turning inside people's heads....and almost as immediately the first answers came.

* It doesn't seem like we're making real disciples.
* I wish people that called themselves Christians actually lived that way
* Our overhead doesn't allow us to help anyone
* I wish I had the freedom to live more missionally.

And I though, "sheeww....I'm glad my church is perfect and nothing is bugging me!" HA!

No...Cool River is not perfect and I'm far from perfect so it's no big surprise that the same kind of frustrations are a part of our community of faith.

It's probably pretty certain that these frustrations will be around forever.
It's probably a for sure that as long as we are people, we'll find ways to screw things up.
It's probably a no-brainer that the sinful nature will keep messing with the beauty of God in the church.

So....HOW do we move through it?

For me it's a balance of challenge and grace.

On one hand I have to keep raising the bar and leading the charge for transformation. It's what leaders do. It's what I'm called to. I don't want to stop growing and I don't want anyone else at Cool River to stop either.

But on the other hand there is grace. I have to know how much to push and how much to lay-off.

This week I was reminded of that as I read Romans 2. Here's the ESV on it:
³Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

There's a piece of this thing we do as leaders that needs to be steeped in kindness, forbearance and patience....allowing God to work and transform hearts.

Does that take the frustration away? Does that bug me any less? Not really. But it does give me God's perspective on it and it helps me work on my hard and impenitent heart. OH...and who really wants to store up wrath for themselves!?

This is just a piece of the overall picture...but it's a crucial piece. Praying for all of you who are out there in the trenches--praying for challenge and grace!

So how about you? What bugs you and what are you doing about it?


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You've got to be kidding me!

I'm speechless! This is ridiculous!



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"IT" Part 4

Recap:
Greatest Joy + Greatest Fruit = Your IT
Sometimes you just know your IT
Many times you have to experiment to find your IT
Once in a while you'll be surprised by your IT

And so...if you find your IT and live in IT then you will be neck-deep in joy and fruit.

Well maybe.

The only thing is that even when you find your IT and you know ITs your IT and you have experienced lots and lots of JOY and lots and lots of FRUIT because of your IT, it doesn't mean that there will be days when your IT won't be as Joyous or as Juicy as you hoped.

What happens then?

Then you have to lean on something else--Faithfulness.

Sometimes the greatest joys come from a long season of struggle and pain AND most every time the greatest fruit come from a long process of planting and feeding and under-ground growth and sprouting and growing and so forth.

And in those days when you know you've got to do your IT but your IT isn't paying off immediately you'll have to remember to be faithful. You'll have to remember the joy that you had the last time your IT blossomed. You'll have to remember the last time there was a harvest of really nice fruit. You'll have to trust God with your IT. Because here's the deal. Even if IT is your IT....God is the one that activates it and makes it work. He's actually the guy in charge of the results.

For me...all my ITs revolve around relationships. And with relationships it's always slow. It always takes time. And so I have to lean on faithfulness more than I honestly want to. BUT....I know that if I stick with it I'll get to experience amazing things. Again, I have to trust God with my IT.

You'll have to learn to trust God with your IT, too.

So here's my prayer for you: I pray that you will find your IT. That you will find great Joy. That you will find great Fruit. And that once you find IT that you would remain faithful to IT as long as God wants you to.


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"IT" Part 3

Yesterday I talked to you about that finding your IT will take a certain amount of experimentation. You've got to try things out and not just spend your time hoping your IT will come to you or taking a test that will show you your IT.

If you are diligently trying to find your IT one of two things will happen.

1. You'll keep eliminating ITs that are not yours--you'll rule out things that you should invest your time. Some of that is great! And some of that is a bummer becasue you really hoped that IT was going to be your IT but it's just NOT.

2. You'll be surprised by an IT that you weren't expecting to be yours. You'll be moving along, trying things out and all of the sudden....what was that? Fruit? Yes. Joy? Yes! COOL!

One of the things that any good church starter does is that they go out and hang out with people. They go 'out there'. For me that meant and still means community events, social events, town meetings, service opportunities. Whatever I can do to get to meet people, talk to them, start building relationships....I'm there.

And now, 6 years into starting Cool River I've been surprised. I have found great fruit and great joy as an ambassador and bridge builder in our community. Those movements of being 'out there' are surprisingly more me than I thought they'd be. I didn't know that was going to be one of my ITs...but it is. I am energized by it and I am good at it. Greatest joy + Greatest fruit = IT.

Same thing is happening as I invest in existing and emerging leaders. For some reason, I keep getting opportunities to build into leaders lives at both a peer level and a mentor level. It's always been something I wanted to do but I thought it would come much later...when I was 50 or 60 or 70. But surprise! It's come much earlier. I find myself over and over again in conversations where I see fruit from what I give to other Kingdom leaders and that gives me great joy. I move into all of these opportunities out of faithfulness and I'm continually surprised by the amount of fruit and joy that emerges. Greatest joy + Greatest fruit = IT.

Life is so much more fun when you get to see fruit and experience joy over and over again. But life is not ALL fruit and joy. What happens then? I'll write more about that later.

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"IT" Part 2

So last time we talked about finding "IT" and I gave you this snappy little formula.
Which is your greatest joy plus your greatest fruit equals your IT, your sweet spot, your thing (whatever you want to call it.)

I also told you that it took me a while to find the IT for me. I knew a general IT, I knew a direction toward IT but I hadn't completely found IT. Some days I would have great joy but not great fruit. Some days I'd have great fruit but not much joy. Some days I'd have a little joy and a little fruit. All of it was just a little bit frustrating.

BUT...that was part of the process. I had to keep trying.

Part of finding my IT was to keep trying to find IT. I kept on putting myself in situations where I thought my IT could be. I put myself around people who I thought had the IT I wanted. I read books about some possible ITs. And all of that kept helping me to hone in on IT.

Again...the process of finding it is frustrating at times. It felt a lot like golf. I would go out and for 17 holes I couldn't find the fairway. But on the 18th...right down the middle. And I would think to myself. I have to come back for more of this. There was enough of something there that gave me a hunger to keep trying to find my stroke....my IT.

I've heard another angle on this, too. When you're trying to find your IT you can's sit and pray about it all day and keep taking tests that will tell you what your IT is. You have to jump in to the pool where you think your IT might be and keep swimming around until you find IT. Getting wet is one of the best ways to find your IT.

So...what have you been trying lately to find your IT? Have you been sitting around hoping IT hits you in the face or are you jumping into some pools and trying out the water?

Experimentation was definitely one of the ways I found my IT but it wasn't the only way. I'll tell you more tomorrow.


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Do you know your 'IT'?

Life is about finding your 'IT' or so it seems.
We grow up and try all the sports and instruments.
We go to school and flex our academic muscles to see where we excel.
We move away to college to find our career.
We move from career to career to find our niche.
We hone our niche to find the 'IT' that will bring us the most success and the most happiness.

But the Kingdom of God recognizes success as material and instead reorients us toward another metric called "fruit" and it stomps on temporal happiness and moves to something longer lasting called "joy." And if you can find where fruit and joy meet then you've found your 'IT'.

Your greatest Joy + Your greatest Fruit = Your IT Or gJ + gF = IT

It took me a long time to find my IT...but after 35 years I know what it it.

My greatest joy and my greatest fruit are found when:
* I'm living the Kingdom life with my family
* I'm living the Kingdom life as an ambassador, bridge builder and spiritual coach in a place called Superior, Colorado.
* I'm living the Kingdom life as a developer and encourager of existing and emerging Kingdom leaders anywhere in the world.

It took me a long time to find my IT (the intersection of my greatest joy and my greatest fruit), but when I finally did and I could see both joy and fruit present.....that was a very cool day!

I'll be talking more about IT in the coming days and walk you through some of the ways I found IT more specifically.

Do you know your IT?


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Incredible NEW resource

In church world there is a crazy tension that not many people can sustain.

One one side there is the idea that the church is an ORGANISM. It's a living thing that should be organic and natural and free.

On the other side there is the idea that the church is an ORGANIZATION. It's about systems and programs and goals and growth charts.

I've always had this crazy notion that the church should be both organism and organization and that a church leaders job is to maintain the balance between the two. It's one of the toughest tensions in a community of faith but I believe it's the most important.

The sad fact is, that it's really tough to find any church that is doing it well. Either they fly off to an amoeba-like existence with nothing that holds them together or drives them forward. They are inward, they are awkward, you can't figure them out. OR...they lean way on the other side and act more Borg-like. They're just a machine and they use people as wheels and cogs and fuel to make the machine go. Once those cogs wear out or they a person runs out of fuel they just replace them. SO....we just don't have any really good examples of how to do this.

That's why when I came across the book The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay I was so amazingly impressed. It's a book that has many organic principles but is supported by an organizational perspective. It's what I had been looking for for such a long time. It doesn't make the work any easier, but it at least helped me to know I wasn't alone. If you haven't read the book....get it now!

But here's where it gets better. The book is not the new resource I wanted to tell you about. It's The Tangible Kingdom Primer that just came out. It's an eight week experience that moves you through the organism and the organization of the Kingdom life and a Kingdom community---the tangible Kingdom that you (and those around you) can touch and feel and experience.

I think the best part of the Primer is that it moves you through all the areas of kingdom life. Each week gives you experiences in exploration, meditation, community, action and sabbath. It's not just a Bible study...it's so much more.

Anyway, this is how much I like this thing: Cool River is doing the 8 week experience as a church in June and July. . We're gearing the summer in such a way that every individual, every group and every worship experience revolves around the experience. I can't wait to see what God does!

If you're looking to work on the tension of organism and organization.....I highly recommend it.


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