Carey Nieuwhof

Big, Contentless Void?

So the latest You Tube king is a 14 year old named Fred who has over 45 million views. Robert Scoble and Seth Godin both use Fred to show that in marketing, volume is not king.  Almost nobody will get 45 million viewers.  Nobody.  The problem for them is that Fred isn't making money nor is You Tube. That's not what concerns me.

My observation: Fred has no content.  I mean, he's one part funny, one part entertaining, one part sad (what needs to be true in his life for a 14 year old kid to make endless streams of cynically funny videos?) and one part annoying.  I'd love to meet Fred though...he seems on many levels like a great kid.

It's just weird how you can get 45 million hits with no content.  I mean, Fred really doesn't have anything to say.  There's no message.

And yet those of us who track with a blog like this one believe there is a message that changes the world.  There is ONE who changes the world.  Does He get the kind of attention Fred gets? 

I'm thinking about all the thousands of hours people have spent watching Fred this month.  Nothing wrong with entertainment, but ultimately I want my life to be about something - someONE - who matters.  When I reflect on my own life, how much of my time is spent on things that matter?  I'm going to hit thousands of websites and invest thousands of hours this year on something.  How can I make it better count?

I don't want my life to be about millions of hits that really don't lead anywhere?

How does this make you think about spending your time and energy, especially given the fact that summer is now in full effect?

We Have an Image Problem

I spent yesterday afternoon at home with a crew from Global TV.  They were doing some of their final shooting for a documentary to be broadcast this fall (October is the tentative broadcast month). They're calling the documentary "Hip to be Holy" (quirkily neat title).  They interviewed a bunch of churches doing innovative stuff, but are using Connexus as the focal point.

Spent two hours being interviewed.  They're a great crew so it was a lot of fun, but the questions intrigued me.  A lot of the interview focused on the way we do church v. "normal" which was cool.

But about a third of the interview had to do with hot button issues in the culture.  What was my view on abortion...gay marriage...would I baptize a practicing homosexual...should Canada become a Christian nation...what about a political agenda for new kinds of churches...what do I think of the televangelists (I'm not telling my answers, you'll have to tune in, if they even make the edit).

Yesterday drove home the fact that so many of us Jesus-followers are known for what we are against. They asked me what a stereotypical image of an evangelical Christian might be that a non-Christian would have.  I had two answers:

1. I'm not sure non-churched people think about us that much.
2. When they do, it's not good.  We're seen as judgmental, hypocritical, agenda-driven and even angry.

Even with the progress that we and numerous other churches have made (thank you, God!) in terms of redefining Sundays, ministry and community, we still have this HUGE image problem.  I know if people could just get to Jesus, they'd love Him (or at least many would).  But so often I stand in the way still.  Our image stands in the way.

How do we tackle this?  How can our lives, our communities of Jesus-followers, better show Christ's love?  What can we do?  How can I live differently?

Just some questions as the sinking-realization of the enormity of the task sets in once again.

Maybe this documentary will help reverse some of that stereotype.  Maybe this weekend at Connexus or your church do to turn the tide?  But what can all of us do to turn the tide?

Can You Live in An Antiseptic Christan Bubble?

We've had a lot of conversations at our Service Programming meetings (where we plan the weekend services) about what elements to include in our weekend services. I've also got a dialogue going with several friends who are not nearly as comfortable engaging culture.

Here's the kind of discussions we're having. For our heaven and hell series coming up in August (calling it Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell) we've already scratched doing Highway to Hell live, only because we weren't sure it was appropriate.  This line put us over the edge: Hey satan, payed my dues/playing in a rocking band/Hey momma, look at me/I'm on my way to the promised land.  So even though we titled the sermon that way, we're not going to use the song intact (we may mangle it or play with it a bit somehow). It pushes us out a bit far as Jesus-followers, we thought.  But we are firmly committed to engaging culture to reach the culture.

Some Christians are definitely in the camp of "all culture is bad".  But I just can't live in an antiseptic bubble where everything is filtered out.  The line many of us quote most often in the Bible says God loves the world, but you'd never know it the way many Christ-followers live.

A lot of mainstream music is sugar sweet pop or a blatant celebration of sin, but a lot isn't.  It all tells us something about the longings of the human heart and the issues people are really struggling with.  Take Coldplay's new CD, for example.  The lyrics of a song like Yes or Cemeteries of London.  The fact that artists (musical and novelists and so many more) are asking theological questions should make leaders sit up and take notice.  God is on their agenda.  We're not, but shouldn't we be?

Similarly, with things like doing tattoos during a service and handing out chocolate as an illustration tied to sex before marriage, we're trying to make ties between everyday life and culture. Because God is about making the link between life and culture.

I know most of the people who read this blog engage culture deeply.  I'm sure some are not quite as convinced.  What are your boundaries?  What works for you, doesn't work for you?  What engages you?  What connects?

Should I Get a Motorcycle?

Having two sons means I am being urged on a daily basis to be cooler than I was yesterday. So in a move no parent should make, as we were driving to Barrie Sunday I asked both my boys whether I should get a motorcyle and whether we could it sell it to their mom as an environmentally conscious/money saving move.  (Please do not try this at home).

We had a lot of fun with that idea.  We agreed it should be a speed bike, like a Ninja 500, not a hog. We were pretty pumped about the "this will save a pile of money" and "imagine the carbon footprint" angle we dreamed up in our head. This wasn't really our motivation, but it sounded so good.

Then came dinner and I broached the subject.  My gracious bride, who is used to living with three men, didn't completely choke on her food.  We imagined how long it would take before I was in a serious accident (probably not long) but persisted as we thought about how much money we would save.

Then we did the math.  The Ninja would get 20 mpg more than my car...I could drive it every day for six months of the year (it does snow here)....We pulled out the calculators at the dinner table.  And then we discovered that the Ninja would pay for itself by the gas it saved if I drove it every day for...are you ready....55 years.  We double checked the math.  Yep. 55 years. 

I would have to drive the stupid thing till I was well over 90 to make it pay for itself.

Stupid idea.  Stupid logic. 

Next time, I have to do the math before I raise the subject.  Darn it. 

Persistent Dreaming Can Be Powerful

It's cool that Sunday, June 8th is right around the corner.  That's the night for Irresistible - a special evening about launching a new Connexus campus in Muskoka.  Rich Birch and I are going to cast vision about what a Connexus in Muskoka would be about and the steps we'd have to take in the next few months to get us there.  I am SO stoked!  We have no idea what's going to happen, how many will show up, or what the next 6-12 months will look like.  But we are about to find out.

So much of my life has been impacted by a small group of leaders in Muskoka who first approached me almost four years ago to talk about opening a church in Muskoka for people who aren't into church.  At first I kind of wrote the idea off (we had enough on the go, and I thought multi-site churches were about the ego of their pastors), but as one voice grew to a dozen or more voices, I began to wonder if God was up to something. After all, ultimately, every community needs great environments where people with zero or limited background in Christianity can move into a growing relationship with Jesus.  There's just not enough of them.  By late 2005, myself and our leadership team were into full blown investigation of what an expanded ministry might look like.

The hunger this core team of people have shown for a place to bring their friends has ultimately been irresistible in my life.  That one leader has grown to over 60 people who drive even over an hour to be part of Connexus every weekend. Rumour is that many more have since caught the vision. In so many ways, the founding of Connexus and the vision for more campuses actually ensued because this group of leaders felt a burning in their heart for their friends in Muskoka who didn't yet know the love or power of Jesus. 

Two things as we head into this weekend:

1. Do you know any Christ follower in Muskoka whose vision for church focuses on reaching their friends?  If so, tell them about Irresistible and make sure they don't miss Irresistible on Sunday, June 8th at 7:30 p.m. at the Rene M. Caisse Theatre.  I am so proud of the hard work our team has put into this incredible event!
2. Are you nurturing the dream God has placed on your heart?  Do you know what it is?  Do you still care?  Have you given up? We'll talk more about dreaming on the blog this weekend.  But in the meantime, what has God given you a passion to do and how are you chasing that down - turning that dream into reality?

A Crazy Culture

Back in my days in law school, I was amazed by some of the cases I used to read.  One famous case found a ski resort liable for allowing a thoroughly drunk dude to go tubing.  He drank himself into a bit of a stupour with his buddies and then entered the race.  He injured himself badly (he was paralyzed), and then sued the resort for allowing him to participate.  He won.  I've always found that a bit crazy. Didn't he assume the risk for his actions when he got drunk?

This story caught my attention yesterday.  A man from Windsor sued Culligan water for the emotional pain, trauma and grief caused by finding a fly in his water bottle. He essentially claimed it destroyed his life. He won his lawsuit in Ontario, but the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against him yesterday. I was grateful for the ruling.

We can be a culture that blames everyone else for our problems, or we can assume responsibility for our shortcomings and move on.  I know that it's my natural inclination to blame others when I fall short or something happens.  But I have found that it rarely fixes anything and usually makes things worse, especially relationally.

The kind of community we become is determined by the collective total of our personal character.  More and more these days, I want to own up to my part on everything.  It's amazing how things change when I accept responsibility for my actions and responses.

The Secret To Happiness

I was sick yesterday.  I really don't like being sick at all.  Had to lie down for half the day.  Canceled almost every meeting.  Blech. 

In fact, to be honest, I don't like set backs of any kind.  I like things to roll the way I have had them planned out in my mind.  Can you relate? And in many ways, that just reflects what contemporary pop-Christianity has been reduced to: worshiping a Drive-Thru God. I'll have a little happiness, some affluence, solid health, comfort and a bit of extra leisure thrown in, Jesus.  Make that to go.

While I have been incredibly blessed and in no way want to complain, the truth is that the last three years of my life have brought more tough circumstances and personal challenges than I have ever faced before.  And while some of them have clearly turned out to be blessings, there's a bunch of them I'd rewrite given the opportunity.  I think that's what a lot of us face in life: things just don't go the way they are planned, and often, they are hard to get through.

I was reminded this morning again what the Bible says about tough circumstances and about what this life and our faith is actually all about.

James, Jesus' (half) brother, freaks my beak when he writes:

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

In case we might be tempted to think James was crazy (I mean, read what he says), Peter actually agrees with him and so does Jesus.  For a fourth opinion, check out Paul's secret to happiness.

I just shoot this out today because I think many of us are wondering why the circumstances in our lives don't always roll our way when we believe in Jesus.  I guess we shouldn't be surprised at all.  We should rejoice.

How easy is that for you?  What challenges you about these passages?

Leadership on Fire

So Andy Stanley went a little crazy during the last session of Drive, dumped his planned talk and spoke almost off the cuff (this isn't terribly typical for Andy, who writes his messages three weeks ahead of time).  Man, I'm so glad he did.  Did he bring it. 

Some quotes:

• If we are going to reach people on one else is reaching, we must do things no one else is doing. Andy borrowed this from Craig Groeschel, but man did it resonate.

• Focus on the people you want to reach, not the people you want to keep.  Here, Andy was quoting his long time friend and associate Reggie Joiner, whose heart for the family and for a prodigal generation is enormous. If church leaders could get this, we'd be living in a different reality.

• When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near.  What else do you need to say? Church life sometimes feels like its 90% nostalgia, not 90% vision.

• The next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation.  You can fight the next generation of leaders, or you can fund them.

Hey Connexus - Andy's talk made me so proud to be your pastor.  You are BOLD. 

This journey has only started.  So many of you have sacrificed so much for the next generation.  Meeting where we meet, doing what we do, radically building into other peoples' lives, welcoming people like tattoo artists with open arms. Using the culture to reach the culture.  Praying like crazy.  I love being on this team.  Keep it comin'.

Something Large

Still thinking about that David Crowder line... "I'm so tired of little gods while on the edge of something large."

I love that in several days 4000 church leaders are going to gather north of Atlanta for the Orange Conference.  Think about that - 4000 people who if deployed in their communities with a fresh passion and hunger for Jesus could turn things upside down.

I love having much of my life consumed by a big mission - one too big for me along to carry out.  I love being swept up not only by a HUGELY loving God, but by millions of others who know Him and love Him and want to change the world.  Otherwise, I fear I would retreat into my little selfish cocoon and make my whole 70whatever years about me and my wishes.  Blech.

Where are you today?  On the edge of something large?  Do you sense the hugeness of God's love (were talking about love, baby, at Orange this year)?  Do you sense God is calling you to be part of something HUGE - His plan for the world?

God, let my life get consumed by YOU.  Somehow at Connexus, we get to play our part of that much bigger whole.  Somehow at Orange (and a week from now at Drive), we'll get another glimpse into how LARGE our God really is.

Go Crazy...Go God

Enjoy this incredibly warm weekend. As I write this on Thursday, I have a strong urge to lie out on the back deck on a lawn chair, get suntanned, go biking and rake the yard. Seriously. Weird, isn't it?  It's like spring is out in full bloom and I have cabin fever.

Enjoy the weekend, but also enjoy God.  I don't know whether you are like me, but this is the time of year when a lot of us go south on God.  We get so intoxicated with all the cool things we could do with our time, and God easily gets pushed to the margins.  Then we wonder why we don't feel Him, experience Him, sense Him or know Him much.

But ask this question: what if you invested as much time in your relationship with God as you invest in having fun?  What if you took all that energy and invested in in knowing Him, deeply?

I know, the thought is scary, isn't it?  Most of us wouldn't touch it.

Try it this way:  what if you took a tenth of the energy you were going to devote to _____________ this weekend and devoted it to Jesus.  What if?

Do you think your relationship with Him would grow?  Would your character change?  Would your life change?  Consider it a challenge for this first weekend where it honestly feels like spring.

Enjoy it.  Go crazy.  But I also encourage you to go crazy on God.  That's what I hope to do, not just Sunday morning, but with a chunk of my Friday night, my Saturday and my Sunday as well.  He's worth it.