What I am Fighting With (Right Now)

Isn't it amazing how much a little experience will change your perspective and uncover idiocy you previously did not know existed? This summer, I had the pleasure of doing two internships in ministry. I feel like I learned and matured as much as I have since I arrived at Southeastern nearly two years ago.

Don't get me wrong. I was born a student, and I am a lover of books. Seminary has been challenging and fruitful, and I have grown immensely in my walk with Christ. After two years, I still don't get the "cemetery" joke everyone tells. I have studied under some of the greatest modern Christian thinkers since I stepped out onto the Magnolia grove. And yet, there is something unique about being in the "real" world. Interacting with actual people and actual problems is inculcating. It is invigorating to flee the theoretical and potential and wrap-up with the experiential and actual.

Which is more important: Education or Experience? Is education superior or does experience truly conquer? When the classroom and the workplace go head-to-head for 12-rounds, who wins? This is something that has been rattling around between my left and right ear the last two weeks, but it reached an apex as I began classes.

This is an ongoing, old question that has infected the minds of men (from John Dewey to Donald Trump) and seems to have many shades of answers. The marketplace initially favors education, but later seems to favor experience. Even within academia, tenure is quite valuable. Each has its benefits.

I think we have to recognize both experience and education have a measure of value, but it is improbable that the scales are exactly balanced. Doesn't one outweigh the other, even slightly? Education or experience... that is what I am fighting with right now. If you have an opinion on this, please share it with me.

Seminoles, Road Trips and Missionality

This weekend, I did something I have never done before: I went on a mission trip without ever leaving the United States. Depending on where you live, you may feel like you leave the United States every time you pull into your own neighborhood, but my trip left me deeply contemplative.

Over the weekend, a group of 12 young adults and I drove down to Tallahassee, FL. to help launch a new church plant, The Well. This is a fast-growing church that is culturally relevant, but preaches the revealed truth of God's word without apology. The pastor, Dean Inserra, has become one of my best friends, and I cannot stress enough the potential he and his young church have.

They are one of the few churches I have been with that "get it." Unlike many "contemporary" churches, they don't believe sitting on a stool and singing "Shout to the Lord" make you culturally-relevant. When I say they "get it," I mean they understand that Americans are now living in - not approaching - a post-Christian culture and if we don't transform our thinking they church will continue to lose it's legitimacy.

This truth is as evident in Tallahassee as it is anywhere in the country. Tallahassee is not only the capital of Florida, it is a college town (FSU, Florida A&M, and TCC). Just take FSU, for example. Among the thousands of incoming freshman seminoles, 77% claim "no religious affiliation." In addition, only about 20% of Tallahassee residents will attend a religious service in a given week. But you wouldn't know this from driving through because the streets are littered with massive churches and massive, empty parking lots. I am convinced that churches must transform their thinking, and not just in Tallahassee.

One of the appealing things about the emergent church movement to me is that they grasp this concepts. They tell us that the United States is a mission field much like other countries in other continents. After all, how many of us even used the word "missional" before the gestation of emergent and emerging leaders?

The difference between evangelism and missions in American gets smaller and smaller. Like Dean and The Well, we must transform our minds and start being the church where we live, eat, work and play.

Does your church "get it?"

Tell me about your own mission field.

Help Wanted!!!

Hey guys, we have had some great dialogue on the issue of alcohol on this forum. What a diverse pool of opinions. I am looking at possibly doing a book on the subject (or at least a follow-up article with RELEVANT), and I need YOUR help. If you are interested in being interviewed for this, let me know by commenting and I will get in contact with you. PLEASE HELP ME.

Authenticity . . . Finally.

Perhaps I am being pretentious when I call Margaret Feinberg my "mentor," much less my "friend." Author of more than 30 life-changing books who has been named "one of the 30 emerging voices" that will lead our church into the next decade, Margaret is a gifted and respected author and speaker. Amazingly, meeting her for the first time is like seeing an old friend or rendezvousing with a former college companion - minus the memories.

I met Margaret over a year ago when she was speaking at Catalyst. My friend Jennifer and I took her and her husband Leif to breakfast. It was the most inspiring, encouraging hour and 1/2 of my professional adult life. Over the next year, she and I began to correspond and God used her to mature me. She has opened doors for me in the professional world that would have been solidly shut otherwise. Even though she did not know me and benefited in no way from our friendship, Margaret took the time to cultivate my inner writer and teach me the ropes. If I live a hundred lifetimes, I will never be able to repay her.

This weekend, I had the pleasure of bringing Margaret down to for a Twentysomethings retreat and introducing her and The Organic God to our church. It was a great for us to relax and refocus, and everyone fell in love with Margaret, Leif, and Hershey (their charming toy poodle).

Relevant. Authentic. Trustworthy. These are just a few of the exhausted words used to describe the values of our generation. Though they are more worn-out that a 10-year old pair of Chuck Taylor's, they are pretty accurate descriptions of what I believe we want most. We want straight-shooters, open books, warm hearts, torn down walls. We want a no-strings-attached shoulder to cry on when things bounce off rock bottom and for people who claim to be Christ-followers to windex the spiritual window through which we see Jesus in them.

*Toothy, disingenuous smiles from politicians

*A firm handshake from an automobile salesman that places a check in your spirit

*Friends who claim they will remain faithful companions until a boyfriend or girlfriend hits the scene and suddenly they forget your name

*Contrived church services intended to produce a "worship texture"

These are things that are not authentic, they are counterfeit. They turn us off and roll our eyes. Worse still, they permeate our culture. They are all around us. That is why we are doubly revived when we encounter a splash of authenticity.

Margaret Feinberg is a refreshing splash of authenticity in a wave-battered world of veritable counterfeits. Her book, The Organic God (Zondervan), is the manifestation of her spirit. If you want a fresh look at God's character that will captivate you from cover to cover, this book is for you. When you finish The Organic God, you too will want to call her your friend.