Personal Devotional Tools

What do you use in your own devotional time?  Last weekend, Dr. Wayne Cordiero spoke to the Orchard community via video (as part of our One Prayer series) and encouraged us to make our One Prayer “God, Make Us Wise” as he dug into the importance of feeding ourselves on God’s word.

As part of his talk, Wayne talked about the importance of a couple of key tools… journaling and Bible reading plans.  These two tools have been invaluable in my own spiritual journey, so I wanted to make sure to share some of the insights I have found useful regarding these great practices and tools!

I had several people ask me this last weekend what journal I use… of course the best answer is “any journal that you WILL use”!  A $.99 spiral binder, if used regularly is a great approach!  But if you want something more than that, I can recommend the Moleskine (as seen here).  Thin, hardback, with just the right amount of pages, it fits well into a bag or briefcase.  I buy mine at local bookstores.  The other question I was asked was, “What should I write in my journal?”.  Write prayers, thoughts, Bible verses… Wayne gave a great guide with his SOAP acronym this last weekend (Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer).  Perosnally, I write everything - all my thoughts, fears, prayers, ideas, and hopes.  I have a cash reward offered in the front of all my journals because if they ever got lost, I’d be lost!

The other really useful tools I have used are Bible reading plans.  Here are several approaches that I have used over the years that all work very well…

Bible Reading Plans

Mobile devices:
Bible Player - For audio learners; it works on the IPod and divides Bible into 365 daily audio readings.
Olive Tree - a version of the NLT Daily Bible for your mobile device, iPhone, Blackberry, or other smartphone

.  Daily readings from the OT, NT, Psalms, and Proverbs.

Bound Books:
The One Year Bible - A devotional Bible with daily readings in OT, NT, Psalms, and Proverbs.
How to Read the Bible Every Day - A small, inexpensive ($3.99 on Amazon) book that lists plans to read through the Bible in one, two, or three years!

Online Plans:
Chronological - Read through the Bible chronologically, in the time order that the events happened.
OT/NT - A daily reading plan to read through the Bible in a year.

What do you use?  I would love to learn from you!  Drop me a line.

Shared Church Leadership

The current issue of Leadership Journal has one of the best articles on shared leadership between staff and eldership in churches I have ever read. Ben Merold, an elder-statesman in the Christian church, writes a succinct-yet-powerful piece that I hope every church leader/pastor/elder could read. As my own journey has led me to experience some of the best and worst that shared leadership has to offer, I wish the following wisdom from Ben’s article could be ingrained into each and every leadership team in churches today.

Ben says beyond governance models, meetings, processes and procedures, the most critical elements that a leadership team (including the roles of pastor and elder) must engage in are:

Prayer - Not only about decisions, but about and for the members of the team. I heard Mark Driscoll say that he prays for God’s guidance to avoid elders/pastors who “care more about the title elder than the title of Christ-follower”. Leaders have to pray for each other and create a loving, prayer-centered community where they lift each other up. Ben relates how the elders in his first church gathered around him before every service… lifting him up in prayer, affirming his role as “quarterback”, and asking how they could help clear the way. That prayer, Ben says, carried him over his thirteen years as pastor there.

Fellowship - “It is a mistake to think that elders and staff can be friends in the decision-making process if they are not friends socially”. The leaders should intentionally plan and budget for times for all leaders to simply hang out as friends. This is not only a legitimate use of church resources, it is critical to harmonious leadership. Leadership boards… take the initiative to become true friends socially with pastors, staff, and other leaders. Social separation isn’t regal, “executive”, or business-like… and it definitely isn’t Christ-like.

Compassion - “Compassionate men will be leaders and not controllers.” Many examples of church leadership create a system where a governing board has authority, but the paid staff is held responsible. Compassion for the church, and the church staff, creates a balanced system of authority and responsibility in a leadership team where love and compassion dominate, instead of the politics and back room deals which are unfortunately still occurring in the local church from time to time.

Vision - Church leaders must know where they are. Culturally, leaders must be in tune with what questions the church is asking, what needs it has, and what the culture around the church is saying. Often times, conflict arises between paid staff and leadership teams because these two entities have differing views of current reality. Every leadership team, taking their cue from the Lead Pastor, must ask “Who are we trying to reach?” and “What do we need to do to reach them most effectively?”. I love Ben’s account of the elders surrounding him - “You are the quarterback, and we are here to run interference and help. Please do not get involved in things that hold you back. Call on us and we will be there.” A common vision allows the team to play together for the benefit of the Kingdom.

Q - Panel Discussion | Faith in a Pluralistic Society

Eric Metaxas, Frank Fredericks, and Dan Cho comprise a panel that discussed what it means to live and work as followers of Jesus in a pluralistic world. How does the Good News find traction in a world where people don’t always see followers of Jesus acting like Jesus? What if we just believed in the idea of loving our neighbor like Jesus did to people who are not only hungry physically, but also spiritually and emotionally. What if we examine life with humility, knowing that just because we have His Truth, none of us really have all the answers.

The humility born of God’s greatness and my limited and finite nature, builds authenticity and an audience in this day. Searching for His Truth in an open, honest, and humble way ushers in opportunities for sharing what we DO know about God and His redemptive plan. It is incredibly freeing to allow the Holy Spirit to work in the cracks of my openness and brokenness.

Q - Eboo Patel | Interfaith Dialog

Eboo is from Chicago, the president of Interfaith Youth Core, and the author of Acts of Faith - The Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. Eboo is a Muslim who is working to create dialog with followers of Jesus.

Jesus spoke and related with Samaritans; who were of course culturally, religiously, and ethnically segregated in his day. How do followers of Jesus today relate to Muslims and others of differing faiths? Antagonistically or conversationally?

In other words, how can we learn, relate, or befriend those of other faiths without real relationships and conversations? To paraphrase Brian McLaren’s book “Everything Must Change” - “The inability to provide a framework where the two largest religious faiths of today can relate, communicate, and inquire is the lynch pin of the world’s conflict today.”

We don’t have to compromise faith in Jesus to dialog. Can we not be friends with those we disagree with? Wasn’t Jesus?

Love and communication, especially when conceding key differences of faith, are the tools of Jesus… who reserved his harshest words for the legalistic religious leaders of his day.

Gmail’s April Fools joke

Gmail has generated a lot of buzz in the blogosphere today, with their announcement of the ability to post-date emails in your receiver’s inbox… quite funny, really!

Check it out here.

About Me Page

About Me

My name is Chris Bell, and I am a Christ-follower, husband, father, pastor, martial artist, biker, learner, and leader.  I am a connoisseur of espresso, international foods, and (occasionally) a good cigar. 

I like tattoos (I only have one), big motorcycles, books, horses, Macs, fountain pens, shooting sports, roadsters (like my Miata!), classic men’s fashion, martial arts, and running.

While I am a pastor, I have been a carpet installer, appliance
salesman, defensive tactics and shooting instructor, police chaplain,
assistant store manager, security consultant, and volunteer fireman.

I listen to jazz, rock, pop, bluegrass, country, blues, and big band.
Some of my favorites are U2, David Crowder, Frank Sinatra, Michael
Buble, Glen Miller, Miles Davis, Chris LeDoux, and Yo-Yo Ma.

You can email me here. 
 

Strengthsfinder

Recently I took the Strengthsfinder 2.0 personal inventory.  This Gallup created inventory suggests your greatest natural strengths, and is the by product of books like Now Discover Your Strengths, and Strengthfinder 2.0.  It encourages you to work in the areas of your stengths, and not try to compensate for your weaknesses.

I had taken the 1.0 version back in 2003.  The results of the two tests are as follows:

        2003                                                        2007
1. Woo- Winning Others Over              1. Activator
2. Strategic                                         2. Strategic
3. Maximizer                                       3. Achiever
4. Activator                                         4. Futuristic
5. Command                                       5. Maximizer

Two of the strengths changed.  They all seem fairly compatible and logical, but I have to wonder - is the change the result of change IN ME, or changes in the inventory.  I would love to hear from any others who took both the 1.0 and 2.0 variants.  Did you see similar results?

DVR Diary

Who would have thought just a few years ago that the DVR (Digital Video Recorder - TiVo) would be the media index of your home? That I could record shows and movies digitally and watch them at my leisure?  What is on my DVR says a lot about my tastes… so here is my DVR Diary!

I don’t watch a lot of TV… but there are a couple of shows that peak my interest.  I DVR these shows regularly:

• Human Weapon - the History Channel documents various martial arts styles
• A&E’s SWAT series - my heart still beats for training these modern-day Praetorian Guardsmen.  On the Dallas Swat series, one of the officers is a key volunteer at Fellowship Church!
• Burn Notice - Pure mind candy… but one of the best written shows on TV now!  (And GREAT fight choreography!)
• House - Clever, witty meidcal show about a cranky doctor.
• The Unit - Based on Eric Haney’s account of life inside Delta.

And some of my favorite movies on my DVR right now:

• Kingdom of Heaven - One of my top five favorite movies…
• Bourne Identity/Supremacy - The Bourne books were favorites of mine forever, and the movies are even better!  Did you see Ultimatum?  Awesome!
• Cinderella Man - Rocky, minus the bad acting… a true life champion
• Shooter - I love the books by Stephen Hunter and have waited over ten years for the movie. 

X’s and Y’s: Shine the Spotlight

I blogged about Lisa Johnson’s book Mind Your X’s and Y’s.  One of the many great insights into reaching today’s culture is the concept of "Shining the Spotlight".  Here is a great quote:

"The Connected Generation is eager for personal recognition.  They want to make a difference.  The marketplace is waking up to a national obsession that sees ordinary citizens making their mark and rising to prominence.  Whether its singing on American Idol, writing a book or blog, or getting their video to national status on You Tube, this generation longs to be recognized for who they are and what they bring to the party. In response, companies are waking up to the power of personalization and highly engaging tools that celebrate individual’s talents and potential.  Personalized license plates, stamps, even M&Ms are just baby steps…"

A great example is the University of Oregon who replaced all of their top-tier recruiting letters in their sports programs with personalized comic books that they mailed to prospective student-athlete’s homes.  These comic books showed the players face in the Oregon uniform scoring touchdowns, shooting hoops, or whatever.  Over 98% of players who received these comic books (the books came as weekly serials - helping the athletes imagine what playing for Oregon would look like) signed with the school.

The age of one size fits all is over.  Especially in churches, where Christ died for individual people on individual journeys, the power of a person’s story is incredible.  Pastors, church leaders… how can we help personalize the mission of our church communities to engage people in the greatest story ever told…to get them to buy in to the greatest adventure-epic ever?!?  Because as I read the Book, they ARE the star.

Googlin’ Starbucks

Attending a meeting of church planters tonight in Hazel Crest, a town I had never been to before. Arrived a little early, so pulled out my Blackberry and googled the closest Starbux. One quick 5 minute drive north, and I am sipping my espresso prepping for my meeting! I love the world we’re living in! CB

Sent from my BlackBerry®

Blog issues

I am having some technical issues with my blog… Hence I haven’t posted in several days. As soon as I am able to solve the login probs, I will be posting shortly.

This post is being emailed in from my blackberry.
CB

Sent from my BlackBerry®

food with dignity

I don’t normally promote organizations, but I am making an exception (click on the logo at left to be redirected to Green Harvest).

Green Harvest is a next gen community group that is a wonderful example of human compassion.  What is it you ask?  Good question… it’s not a food pantry, in that it doesn’t hand out sacks full of food to homeless people.  It is not a soup kitchen, as there is no "gotta sit through a sermon to get a bowl of soup" component.  I don’t know what to call it other than an alternative food source… with dignity.

Jeff Green, a friend of mine for some years, had served as a pastor, in vocational ministry.  And his heart was pulled to the need of working families who suffer from what he calls "Food Insecurity".  In other words, the family/person has food, just not enough.  The amount and quality of food affects the most basic of decisions the family/person makes throughout the week, including if they can buy medicines or gas.  And Jeff saw that a lot of organizations around him help the homeless, the jobless, etc.  But who helps the single mom who works for $9 an hour six days a week and just isn’t making it?  Jeff’s answer was to step up.

So Jeff Green started Green Harvest.  His goal?  To be Part of the Solution… he realizes he can’t solve his clients’ problems (notice how much dignity that term gives the food recipients), but he CAN partner with other community systems.  So he helps hundreds of clients with one week’s worth of groceries a month.  And to help them retain dignity (ever think about how humiliating some food programs are?), clients walk into his facility, grab a shopping cart, and shop his aisles for their needs - a program he calls CLIENT CHOICE.  Their cost?  Zero.  He also helps them with computer training (hard to find a better job if you’re not on the internet), and lends an ear to their hurts.  <pictured: Me, Jeff, and Dave - a key volunteer -  at Green Harvest>

The coolest part of all of this?  Jeff does this BECAUSE of his faith, in order to live out what it means to be Jesus to his community.  There is not the usual trappings of a religious based food pantry.  What there is, is a demonstration of Jesus’ love - no strings attached and with dignity - before any relational conversation about faith.  And Jeff does this full time as a volunteer!  He does not receive a salary from Green Harvest.  He donates a full work week, every week, to the working poor of the Kane, Will, DuPage, and Kendall county area of Chicago.

If you want to help be PART of the solution, you can contact Jeff Green here.  The next time you sit down for a meal, think about Jeff… because he’s thinking about those who can’t.

Rick Warren at Q

Ok - I’m on a break from Q (we are gonna go far into the evening tonight).  Rick Warren was one of the mentors/presenters/discussion leaders today.  Then he hung out, talked, took notes - just one of the guys!

I was talking to Rick about The Star, asking questions, getting some advice and Rick, wanting to pray and stay in touch, asked for my business card.

    "Uh, Rick… I don’t have any cards"

    "You should Chris - so when someone like me asks for one you can give it to him!"

    "Doh!" - Maybe I’ll run to Kinkos and get some cards made up!

Seriously, Rick was very encouraging and gave me some great advice.  The Tabernacle is a great venue, and the discussion leaders are very engaging.  Long hours, lots of thought provoking stuff… I’ll post a bunch of picture later tonight or tomorrow.

Just a few of the topics we are touching on: consumerism, future-culture, church-culture, world population growth, modern human slave trade, the church’s response to a hurting Eco-system…

More from Q later!

Unleash Reflections

Perry Noble and the crew from NewSpring did a fantastic job with their first conference.  If you don’t know the story, check out NewSpring’s website… here are a couple of thoughts about Unleash:

• One of the things that has made both Perry and NewSpring so successful is Perry’s passion.  He brought that in bucketfuls at the conference.  You can’t be here and not get pumped up about ministry!
• The conference was VERY authentic… kind of fresh and raw (in a good way).  The breakout sessions were all Q&A and very valuable.  The staff did a great job of responding to a wide range of questions - which meant each experience was custom tailored to the audience’s needs.
• The volunteers were off the chain!  We were greeted like it was the Oscars (a line of black shirted volunteers applauded the arrival of every Unleash attendee).  Then once inside, I was personally greeted 15 times by name by a NewSpring volunteer in the one-day event.  They were EVERYWHERE and were great at anticipating needs.
• NewSpring has a contagious culture.  It’s all about the culture, and NewSpring just feels good!  Perry has done a GREAT job!
• The worship was fun (and yes - one huge goal of worship is fun!).  The sub-woofers in the room were making my pant legs move!  (I have never used that expression to describe a worship experience before

Here are a few photos of yesterday’s highlights:

Jesus for a Change

I had a conversation this weekend with someone who was espousing Jesus as a great peace-maker.  While I know what they meant, I think they’re flat out wrong - Jesus went around making people mad! I don’t know where we get the idea that he was a man of peace - he told folks plainly "I came not to bring peace, but a sword".  So why did people get mad at him all the time?

1. He changed things.  Jesus was a radical.  Every where he went, he stirred up trouble amongst the leaders of the day, challenging them about how they conducted their business.  And the part that made them the maddest was he didn’t bow to them - didn’t seek their counsel.
2. He didn’t play favorites - he called the big wigs on their issues and made them as accountable as the down and out.  Didn’t matter how much money you had, or who you knew…
3. He told stories that people remembered.  Most preachers/rabbis of the day talked in repetitive circles about the Law.  Jesus used the scriptures (and often out of context!) but he mostly told stories.  But the stories he told met people where they lived, and folks remembered.
4. Every action he did, every point he made, mattered.  He never once got into stupid debates about pointless stuff - he used every minute, every bit of horsepower he had, to impact the people around him.  When you make an impact, people get upset.
5. He was real!  He hung out with the wrong people (the ones the church of his day wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole).  Prostitutes, drunks, thieves - Jesus was often in their company.  And he loved to have fun!  His first miracle was to turn a BUNCH of water into Merlot!  He loved to party, eat, drink… He was fun to be around.
6. Jesus was clear on his goal… he was here to play his part in redeeming mankind and establishing the church, so he didn’t let others put their agenda on him.  He spoke like a prophet - boldly, without pandering to opinion.  And he wasn’t for sale.

Nope - Jesus wouldn’t have won many popularity contests - the "in crowd" of the day killed him as a matter of fact.  But he blazed a GREAT trail for people to follow who want to have an impact.