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So you’ve heard about the rules, give us some good stuff to laugh about!  Please submit your videos to either;

www.vimeo.com or

www.youtube.com and then

send me (doug.gamble AT suncrest.org) the link to the video.

Deadline for submissions is March 19th.

What’s holding you back?

I think that is a great question to ask ourselves everyday.  What’s holding me back from being who God wants me to be? What’s holding me back from accomplishing the dream God has placed in my heart? What’s holding me back from doing what I said I was going to do 5 years ago?

In Tribes, Seth Godin suggests it is one thing: FEAR.

Fear of failure or what he calls a “lack of faith.”

“The only thing holding you back from becoming the kind of person who changes things is this: lack of faith. Faith that you can do it. Faith that it’s worth doing.  Faith that failure wont’ destroy you. (71)”

Another nuance to our fear is blame and criticism.  What will people say?

“We choose not to be remarkable because we’re worried about criticism.” (46)

How do these things hold you back?  How do you let fear drive you?

I’ve blogged before about my fear of criticism.  Yet having been criticized plenty in my life…

…for being a pastor…

…for preaching too loud…

…for being too funny… (okay I made that one up)

…for home educating our children…

…for launching a 2nd campus with video…

…the criticism never hurt more than the pay off of accomplishing the goal.

So what is holding you back? What do you dream about?

Read this book…and then get out there and lead.

It’s no secret I love the show Lost.  I do for lots of reasons…

• great storytelling
• great storyline where the writers are not just making it up a they go
• great actors.

I also love the fact that they bring in Biblical metaphors and numbers.  This past week, the character named Ben retold the story of doubting Thomas.  He ended the story by telling Jack, the skeptic, “Jack, eventually we all believe.”

Now I know the writers do not intend for the message to be about believing in Jesus, yet…

that particular episode was titled “316.”  It was the number of the Flight the crew had to take to get back to the island AND it was a reference to John 3:16.  Again, they are using it loosely as a metaphor for what is going in the show, but it is there nonetheless.

Here’s where it is interesting to me.  There is this whole tribe of people who explore indepth the mythology of Lost.  I dabble here and there as I have time, but many, many people really get into it.  Yes, you will probably call them nerds even though you wouldn’t say the same thing about someone who knows every stat of an MLB player or the intricsies of fashion, but either way it’s what they are interested in.  And there was so much chatter about the Biblical reference.  I was intrigued by the use of this Scripture so I listened to a couple podcasts and I heard John 3:16 quoted more times than at church.

Here’s my point:  Jesus was preached, even though those speaking didn’t know it.   And the Gospel is being revealed even on the show.  How so?  In this way:  Lost is all about the necessity of belief and that everything that really matters requires sacrifice.

Okay, so it is not the full Gospel, but it’s a starting point.  A great starting point in fact to start a conversation about spiritual matters with friends.

If you are lost on Lost, here’s the writer’s top ten episodes to watch in order to know what is going on as suggested by the executive producers and writers:

Season 1

Walkabout

White Rabbit

Deus Ex Machina
Season 2

The 23rd Psalm

Live together die alone
Season 3

Flashes before your eyes

The man behind the curtain

Season 4

The Constant

The shape of things to come

There’s no place like home

“The greatest challenge facing most churches today isn’t getting people through the front door-it’s keeping them from leaving through the back door,” says Larry Osborne in his book Sticky Church.

The Sticky Church conference is all about becoming the church no one wants to leave.  Suncrest is honored to be able to host the conference on March 31st.

Register today by going to www.stickychurch.com.  We are able to offer a super low rate to all Suncrest attenders.  Just email me to grab this special deal and find out more.

(more…)

I have been reflecting recently on our ability to either receive or reject guidance from God based on the condition of our heart.  Sunday, I referenced Matthew 13:39.  It is the story of the sower of seed.  In this passage the determining factor for growth was the condition of the soil.  And then Jesus closed off that passage with a statement he used often, “To him who has ears to hear, let me him hear.” The soil Jesus would later explain is a person’s heart and it matters.

So I have been considering how I cultivate the soil of my heart in such a way that I have ears to hear and how I frankly may harden my heart at times.  Certainly sin, stubbornness and pride harden our hearts.  And Scripture and worship both soften my heart.

One of the things that has cultivated my heart to listen more than anything else has been brokenness.  When I am broken before God…when I recognize my smallness and God’s bigness…when I realize I am not “all that and a box of chocolates” I’m ready to listen.

May we pay attention to Psalm 95:6-9:

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.”

I had the opportunity to preach at West campus yesterday.  It was good to see so many faces I had not seen in sometime.  It was also weird being there.  Even though I’m in the building almost everyday except Sunday, being there to preach was not what I expected.  I thought it would feel kind of like going home.  It didn’t.  Don’t get me wrong.  It was a good experience.  It just wasn’t what I thought.

Two things really contributed to this:

1)  There are a ton of new people at West campus.  That is so awesome!  I love that the seats we left empty by launching EAST have filled up with new people.  That is what it is all about!  I really noticed this in 3rd service that felt about half filled with new people.

2) The other contributing factor to this is that most of the people who I am connected with personally are at EAST.  It really struck me how the people who make up my community helped launch EAST campus.  Certainly not everyone that falls into that category are at EAST but most of them are.  That has created for us a situation where it really is like a party each Sunday.  The challenge of course is that we have to work at not turning inward and keep welcoming guests.

It was great being at WEST, but I really do love EAST campus.  That is so reaffirming that it is exactly where God wants me.

I love reading stories like this.  It’s another story of a life helped through Land of a Thousand Hill’s coffee.

“From your purchases of Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee we have invested significant portions of profits in micro loan opportunities for victims of genocide. Nadine’s loan of just $56 set her up with her own market stand, a healthy supply of tomatoes and the opportunity to leave behind the slums and move into a new home. Nadine is not providing for her own and can even help pay for her siblings to go to school She is living the life God intended for her.

Nadine isn’t the recipient of charity, she is a business woman, selling goods and making her loan repayments on time. What greater wish could we have, than that of watching others less fortunate than us – thrive!”

If you don’t get your coffee from here, why not?  Drink Coffee and do good.

I thought this Andy Stanley podcast was one of the best.  It is on learning to be a student instead of a critic of new ideas.  Strong emphasis on something I think we know instinctively but are afraid to admit:  the best ideas for church tomorrow don’t come from those doing it now, they come from the next generation.  Being a young man of 35 who turns 36 next month (ouch) I recognize I’m not in the aforementioned category anymore.  So the question I have to ask myself is:  Who am I listening to?

Here’s a few random takeways from the podcast:

• The best ideas for tomorrow don’t come from our generation but the next generation;
• Whatever we are saying is “dumb” and has no ministry value but is being utilized by the younger generation is the NEXT thing that WILL BE used for ministry;
• It’s okay to fail, celebrate failures.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes but here is the most recent podcast on the subject of becoming a student.