Carey Nieuwhof

An Open Letter

Dear Hip 2B Holy Viewer,

If you happened to have watched Hip 2B Holy on Global, and you're one of the people who hasn't gone to church for a long time or ever, this letter's for you.

First, I just want to say sorry for keeping you away for so long.  The church has not done a particularly good job of being clear or even being open to people who aren't part of our club.  That needs to change and I hope it is changing.

Second, sorry for any and all anger directed at you by Christians.  I'm always amazed that Jesus rarely had a harsh word for religious "outisders".  Instead, he kept his harsh words for insiders who didn't reflect God's heart (usually religious leaders).  How we got it backwards, I'll never know. So for the times we've held placards denouncing you and whatever your group stands for - sorry.  It's not like Christ to attack the people He died for.

Third, sorry for behaving like Jesus died for the church.  His compassion and affection were actually sent for the world, not just for a small minority of people or peoples.  When Jesus died and rose again, we were all covered by that.  Sometimes we in the church behave like it was for us only.  That's wrong.

Fourth, sorry for making it so hard to understand what God is saying.  If you've tried church, you realize that often we just get "weird" about how we do church and we make it hard for someone with no background to understand what's happening or going on.  That needs to stop.

Finally, while the documentary did a great job in many respects, I felt a bit bad about its portrayal of mainline Christianity.  Yes, it's in decline.  Yes, I was in mainline circles for a decade and left, but there's no bitterness.  There are pockets of life and some fantastic Christ-followers in mainline churches.  Wish that had come out.  

There is a lot more to be said.  But the bottom line is this: Jesus loved this world passionately enough to die for it and offer us new life.  

I hope you can be part of a new dialogue - a new beginning.  Many of us are still getting our heads around what it means to be loved by God.  I don't fully understand it. 

When we gather, we want to create an open, accessible, even irresistible environment in which people of all backgrounds and life-stories can come together to discover grace, forgiveness, transformation and hope.  

We need you.  We need skeptics, doubters, people who think they are beyond the reach of love, people who feel the whole Christianity thing is garbage.  We need you in community - in our community, to be part of the community and part of the dialogue.

Thanks for watching...If we can help in any way, we're in.  Post a comment.  Drop by our website. Send me an email.  Come to one of our services or drop by a church in your neighbourhood.  

There's a powerful message and relationship with God that's really worth exploring.  I hope we can do that together. 

Carey

The Orange Families Podcast

I'm already getting  questions from people about how they can get their hands on the messages for the Orange Families series that started last Sunday at Connexus.

This is a huge series for us, because we built our church around a family ministry strategy.  In Orange Families, we're covering for the first time the parenting strategy that Reggie Joiner and I have been developing over the last year.  I'm so excited to share it with our families and the wider church community (some of you have heard snippets of this on the Orange Tour and at last year's Orange Conference, but this is the first full run at it).

The easiest way to get the messages is via the Connexus Podcast. Just go to iTunes and search "Connexus Community Church" and our audio and video casts will pop up (don't have iTunes? click here.)  Subscribe away.  It's free.

You can also go to our website where we stream the messages.  You can also burn a DVD for yourself off our site.  Click here.

If you are a church leader or volunteer who wants to know more, I'm teaching a breakout at the Orange Conference on how to position your church to maximize a parenting series.  Orange is an awesome conference (you have to get to it) and, if you're interested, the breakout covering this is called "Communicating the Family Ministry Strategy to Your Church". 

Really looking forward to the next five weeks of Orange Families.  Excited by how God might change families because of it!  Looking forward to hearing your feedback and comments!

Life circa 2009

Hope you had a great holiday.  Happy New Year 2009!  I played a lot of Rockband 2, made it to a game of the World Juniors in Ottawa, and got just enough downtime to come back fresh for a new year.

Thought we'd start off the conversation for a new year with some thoughts on life, mission and getting in position to let God leverage our lives and leadership. I don't have a list of specific goals, but here's what I'll be working on in 09.

• I'm refreshing my daily bible reading by switching to YouVersion, an online bible set up last year by the great folks at Lifechurch.tv.  Two days in, I already like it for two reasons:

• I'm reading in community.  The decision to move to YouVersion started December 31st when I twittered about that day's reading from Malachi.  By late that afternoon, six of us decided to read the bible together in a year on line using YouVersion.  If you want to join, just sign up, search for me, and follow me.  Should be fun!
•  Reading on a screen (in this case, my phone) makes me physically read the text differently than off the printed page, which I've read all my life.  It's making words and phrases pop in fresh ways.  Love it!

• I'm reading more intentionally in 09.  Recently, I picked up a dozen or so business/leadership books to sharpen my leadership skills.  Here's a sampling of what's on my list for early 09:

• Tribes, by Seth Godin.  Already done it.  Loved it.
• Planet Google, by Randall Strauss.  Believe in big brother?  Should be fascinating.
• Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell.   Bought one for a friend for Christmas too.  Gladwell always makes me think.
• Love the Work, Hate the Job, by Dave Kusnet.  I'm in leadership.  I want to be the best boss I can be. 
• Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath.  Read their column in Fast Company...gotta read the book.
• I'm fully aware there are no theological books on this list.  That will come.

• I'm joining a gym.  Frankly, for two reasons.

• I need to get in shape.  Doing it on my own has lost me ten pounds in ten years.  Not good enough.  Looking at hiring a personal trainer to keep me accountable and get me moving.
• I need to get out of the Christian bubble.  I need new environments in 09 that get me more deeply into the fabric of the wider culture. A gym is one of those places.

I could say much more (I haven't talked about personal growth or even spiritual growth), but that's enough for now.  I'm deeply pumped about 2009 and excited about all that could happen.  God's faithfulness last year was far beyond any deserving, and I'm confident He's going to stretch and grow me and us more than we can imagine this year.

 How about you?  How is your 2009 starting, and what will be different about 09 than 08?

Plugged Back In...and Thinking

Hey...nice to catch up with you on the blog.  Thanks for the comments you posted while I was so far from a wireless signal it felt like 1981.  After 8 days unplugged with my family, I thought a bit about how life has changed in the last through years because of technology.

Three trends that got me thinking about church and being a wired Jesus-follower in 2008:

• Has the iPod killed commercial radio?  I'm not one of those guys who hates new music (I love a lot of it), but I am flipping through stations quicker than ever and longing to get back to my playlists. And I'm a former radio guy and still have friends in the industry!  What, if anything, will keep me tuned? 
  
  • Unique content I can't or wouldn't normally download.
  • Great personalities (DJs) I like who have something interesting I want to hear.

• Specialty channels continue to erode the market-share of the major tv networks.  Two trends in that one:
  • Broadcasting is giving way to narrow-casting.  We like what we like.
  • Eclectic is becoming mainstream.

• People have been quick to pronounce newspapers dead - and circulation is dropping quickly. But last week, I picked up a couple of Globe and Mails for the first time in ages, and I think I fell in love again.  People don't really read newspapers for news anymore, but the Globe has shifted to honestly intelligent, thoughtful interest stories you just wouldn't find elsewhere and you likely wouldn't search for on line (their print version is better at this than their online version).  Smart.

What's the common trend?  People have been turning away from traditional media in droves over the last 20 years, insisting that get what they want when they want it.

So how does this impact Christ-followers?  I think we went through a period in the 80s and 90s where pretty much all we were about were the preaching and the music, and this decade has made it a lot harder to compete.  Why not just play your favourite worship music in your iPod and download the best preaching podcasts your can find, and call that church?  I used to feel threatened by that thought a few years ago. But now it excites me. Bring it on.  I doubt that will kill the local church.  It might make us more literate and sharper.

But what will keep followers and non-followers of Jesus meeting together as a the church (in person) into the future?  Some thoughts on what keeps me coming back and might keep others:

• Real community.  Human interaction. Dialogue. Conversation. Touch. Genuine caring for each other.  Can't download that...yet.  Sure, we can do that on-line to an extent, but something happens when Jesus-followers and people who don't yet follow meet eyeball to eyeball that is powerful.  It happens in groups and in just about any setting in which people gather.

• A person.  I think we used to think we were introducing people to an Idea (God, Truth), but the heart of the Christian faith is a relationship with a person (Jesus).  Somehow facilitating a personal relationship is easier and more effective in person.

• An experience.  There are times when I'm listening to iTunes when I feel close to God, but being together in community brings a presence that transcends solo experiences of God.

• Surprise.  God is way more creative and interesting that we admit.  In hosting services, preaching, worship and in different environments we host, there is something about a live experience that is creative and engaging that can help people experience Christ in fresh ways that a download can't bring. And then there are the moments you can't script, where God just moves.  Wow.

• Love.  Can you love people fully without being present? Is love complete without presence?

What do you think the "unique" marks of the Christ-followers gathering in person will be in these next few years together?  What keeps you coming back, or what has driven you away?  I'd love to hear from you!

Line of the Week

A lot of great comments on the blog.  This one caught my eye though. It's from someone who simply calls herself K who posted on Heaven, Hell, Who Cares?  Here's what she wrote:

"I have enjoyed all your topics in the 4-5 months that my husband has been bringing me."

Let me tell you why I chose it.  I promise you it's not because she likes the messages.  It's the "4-5 months that my husband has been bringing me" part that made say "yes" deep inside.

One of the most exciting things for me personally in the life of Connexus so far is the number of people who have been inviting their friends and family.  I don't believe I have met K's husband (or K.), but it's so good to see a man investing in his marriage and in his wife's heart in this way.  It's been fantastic to see so many people bring their friends and family (talked to even more people brought by friends again yesterday).  That's just kind of how it went down in the Bible - no mass marketing, just people telling people that there's something about Jesus they need to explore.

K. - I'm looking forward to the series this summer.  Thanks for being open to exploring Jesus together with us.  K's husband - thanks for spiritually investing in the most important relationship in your life.

Have You Seen This?

I was reading my bible this morning (I'm a One Year Bible guy) and ran across yet another verse I'm sure I've missed all these years.

So much ministry energy is wasted trying to figure out why people die. You hear everything from "it must be God's will" to the ridiculous "they must have needed her more in heaven than we did on earth."  I always find those conversations frustrating, disappointing and heartbreaking all at once.  Because I'm not sure the image of God reflected in them bears much semblance to reality.

Enter Psalm 116.15:  "The Lord's loved ones are precious to him. It grieves him when they die". 

That's about a five year old New Living Translation rendition, but I love how it reads.  I think that summarizes the heart of God so well.  And I think if people could understand that the sin that entered the world and pains us so badly also pains the heart of God, our relationship with Him would run so much deeper and be filled with much more mutual love.   

Introducing the Line of the Week

Okay...so here's a new weekend feature I'm calling line of the week (It's a really lame name, so if you can do better, post a suggestion baby.)  You posts lots comments most week and usually, there's a line that someone wrote that I think everyone should see that could get lost in the shuffle.  This will help reverse that.

Here's my pick for this week from M.W. Smith who commented on Preaching Cramp....Help Please:

"I doubt that we are courageous enough to love one another in a way that wakes others from their numbness."

When I read that it hit me so deeply.  How many of us are numb from lack of love?  What might happen if we really loved?  I could spend more than a morning camped out on that thought.

Hope this brings some life and depth into your weekend.

Twitter Twit

A new feature on the blog today...I added Twitter to the sidebar.

Twitter basically keeps you up to date with what people are up to...if anyone actually cares.  If you care, you can sign up, and then you can let your friends know what you're up to or thinking or anything.  Some of the Twitter posts are quite funny.  Some of them aren't.  Mine will be a mixture of both, and more, and less, I'm sure.

Going to watch tv now and see if anything grabs me because i'm not tired because i'm too well rested....

The Deals We Make

We all fall into habits. 

When something new enters my life, I usually have a period of a few days where I establish some learnings on how to use it. And within those first 48 to 72 hours, I form patterns that soon become indicative of how I'll interact with whatever I'm using.  For example, I bought this laptop back in August, and it is my first Mac.  Initially, everything seemed new.  But for the most part, I figured out how to use it in the first 72 hours.  It was like I made little deals on what keystroke shortcuts I'd use, what features I'd open, and what I'd never bother to figure out.

In those first few days, I didn't explore every feature or probably even 90% of what this baby can do.  I just figured out how to use it for what I needed it to do, explored a few bells and whistles, and left it alone.  And what I did in those first few days set the pattern for my use of this thing since then.  Even though I totally love my Mac (I'm a raving fan!), I've explored two raindrops worth of ocean so far.

The same is true of how I'd explore a new cell phone...set patterns in new relationships....even how I'm approaching the new patterns of how to preach at Connexus with video and very steeply raked seating...in the first few days of using something new, I set a pattern that I pretty much follow without much deviation from thereon in.

Think about your own patterns.  Do you see a trend like that?

The pattern may be natural, but what it leaves me with is probably using a small percentage of the power of whatever I'm dealing with, like this laptop.  I think the same thing is true of so much in life, including my spiritual life.  Have I fallen into a place where I'm discovering .1% of God, only because my approach to God was set years ago and hasn't varied much?  What would I do differently if I really explored Him, really got to know Him differently and fully?

What about your relationship with God?  Have you fallen into patterns that you know limit you to exploring a fraction of God?  Just asking.  But I think I'd like to chew on that personally for a few days.

By the way, later this week, I'm going to sit down with a fellow staffer and she's going to teach me how to use some software I've always ignored over all these years of computing.  That should be fun.

And maybe...maybe...I'll even talk to God about exploring Him far more creatively and fully too.