Fasting

By the way, I think I failed to mention with all of this Starving Jesus stuff that I've decided I'm going to fast from food completely for 7 days. I'm going to start August 25th and end the fast after the event on the 31st (well, technically I'll break the fast on Sept 1).

I'm excited about this fast, but also dreading it. My wife's birthday is August 25th (so I better make sure we celebrate early!), I have a conference the 25th and 26th, our staff has a fun activity planned for the 29th... All these great "food" opportunities and I'm going to have to abstain. AAAHHHH! Maybe my food addiction is worse than I thought... ;o)

What will make the fast easier is if I have some other people doing it with me. If you are in CR and want to join me, leave a comment here or email me directly. I'll let you decide what your fast looks like (one day, daylight hours only, TV/media fast, etc.). If you do do a fast for only one day, I strongly recommend you do it on Thursday, August 31, then come to the Starving Jesus event sponsored by Watershed.

-E

Two weeks and counting...

Only two weeks until the Starving Jesus tour rolls into Cedar Rapids. If you haven't read about the tour yet, or even lately for that matter, head over to starvingjesus.com to find out the great God-things happening on the tour.

One surprise, though, that I just read on the Starving Jesus site. One church cancelled on Craig and J.R. (after planning a huge outreach around their arrival) because (and I quote) "we are visiting other denominations other than their own during the tour? "

I am so saddened to read that. I know Craig and J.R. and their ministry often rides the line of "offensive" (and they know it too) - so I could see a church cancelling because they are just simply uncomfortable with Craig and J.R. (and if that were the case, the church should never have booked them). But to cancel because they aren't part of your party lines? Unbelievable.

An Emerging Description I want for me...

I haven't posted on my blog about the Emerging Church until now. Which has been somewhat by intention - I would rather post about things that get me and others looking at our character and living our lives all-out for Christ. Most of the EC conversation (whether for it or against it) doesn't seem to propel the conversants in that direction, and so I don't post about it. However, the Emerging Church is something I have interest in because it involves the Church - which is something I dearly love. If you don't know a thing about the emerging church - that's ok, many people within the "emerging church" aren't quite sure themselves. But there are loads of blogs about it, so a quick search of Blogger or Google will get you more info than you have time for.

I want to make it clear: I'm not anti-Emerging Church, nor am I pro-EC. But as I read Alex McManus' blog on whether the church he is involved with (named Mosaic) can be labeled "Emerging", he had a great quote that captured how I want to live my life AND for any ministry I'm involved with to look or feel. Here's Alex's quote:

Many of those who take on the mantle of the Emerging Church seem to me to be burned out Church leaders who needed to bail on a Christianity that offered pat but empty answers. I consider this a good move. But, in contrast, Mosaic is more like a convert who is full of enthusiasm, joy and hope. The new convert moves with speed and intentionality towards Jesus, towards the scriptures, towards Christ following community, and towards the world in service and mission.

I LOVE being around brand new Christians. Why? Because they have a sense of passion and excitement about Christ that many Christ followers seem to lack. Being around a new creature in Christ is always good for my own faith. I want to live my life with that same passion and excitement (balanced with maturity that comes from spending time with God in His Scriptures and in prayer).

And I want my church or any ministry I'm involved with to be more like an excited convert than anything else. The culture of that ministry would be outreach focused, moving intentionally towards Jesus, the scriptures, community, and world service. That's the kind of group I want to be involved with.

So are you living your Christian life with a staid faith? Or do you have the excitement of a new creation?

To read Alex's entire blog, click here.

Keeping an eye on your word...

On March 23, my wife ordered new lenses at Iowa Eye Care for my daughter's glasses. What was so unfortunate about the date was that if we had made it to Iowa Eye Care two days earlier, the lenses would have been under warranty. Bummer. But K needed new lenses, so we were willing to pay.

But when LeAnn and K went in to pick up the new lenses, they were cut wrong. So they had to be re-ordered, and K had to wait a week to finally get her updated lenses. When LeAnn and K were picking up the corrected lenses, LeAnn was told that she didn't have to pay anything. LeAnn was surprised by this, so she made sure, asking again. And the gal was clear - no payment was necessary.

"What a blessing!" we thought. At least until this past week.

K's left temple fell off this last week, so we needed to get it replaced. This meant another trip to Iowa Eye Care on 1st Ave. They ordered the part and told us the cost was going to be $27.

When K and I got home, there was a phone message from Iowa Eye Care telling us that we owed them $80 for the lenses from last March. They hadn't billed us. They hadn't called us in the Spring saying we owed. They waited until we had a need, and then say "oh, and by the way, you never paid." I felt like we were being accused of being negligent. So when we got this news, LeAnn and I were quite surprised because they had been very clear last March - we don't owe anything for the lenses.

There's more to this story I could share (especially from Iowa Eye Care's side), but this is getting long enough. Suffice it to say, LeAnn and I paid the $80, but I was so bothered by this issue. Why was I so internally worked up over paying $80 for eyeglass lenses?

As I thought through the issue, I realized it had nothing to do with the lenses. What bothered me so much was to be told one thing, then 5 months later have the other party go completely against everything they just said. Yes, it was a mistake - but why can't they keep their word?

I have to do this all the time as a parent and pastor. I will say one thing to my kids ("sure, you can have a piece of candy"), and then later realize it may not have been the best thing ("what? they've already had 4 pieces of candy today?"). So what do I do? Do I correct the mistake, but look inconsistent? Or do I suffer the mistake personally so that I am a man of integrity (but exhort myself to be more careful with what I say next time)?

After this incident, LeAnn and I have decided that we will take our eyeglass business elsewhere. If a company can't stand by the word of their employees and is so willing to fight for $80, then when I have to spend $300 on new lenses and frames this year, someone else will receive that, not Iowa Eye Care. It would probably soften this incident if Iowa Eye Care had treated us differently, but that's not the point of this blog. The point for me is I am resolved to once again be a word-keeper through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Baby Bird #4 arrives!

Tsion Christopher was born Saturday, August 5, at 6:00 am weighing 8 lbs and measuring 21 in. long two weeks before his due date. We were praying for 8 lbs because his big brother, S, was 9 lbs 7 oz and we did not want to repeat that! Mom and baby are doing great, and the siblings are thrilled to have a new little one in the home.

As to his name, Tsion (pronounced Zion - we preferred the transliterated Hebrew spelling) means "raised up" and Christopher means "Christ bearer", so to us his name means "raised up with Christ" which is from Ephesians 2:6 (the meaning of all of our kids can be found in Ephesians 2, so we kept with "tradition"!).

Starving Jesus

Watershed will be hosting the Starving Jesus "40 Days of Nothing" Tour on August 31st at our usual 7:30 pm time. To see the blog about the Cedar Rapids date, click here.

As I have started sharing this announcement with people, I have gotten a few questions. I think the Starving Jesus website can answer most of the questions I've gotten, but some have wondered how in the world Cedar Rapids, of all places, landed a stop on the tour.

First, it's probably because Craig Gross and J.R. Mahon, the guys who authored the book and will be speaking on the tour, are now living in Grand Rapids, MI, and "Grand Rapids" has two words and "Cedar Rapids" has two words and they both have the same second word, and the first word in both city names has 5 letters, 3 of which they hold in common, and this is one horribly long grammatically incorrect sentence, but I digress.

Naw, I doubt that the reason at all, but here's how it did happen.

I have known about the ministry of XXXChurch.com for some time now. I've referred guys struggling with porn-addictions or temptations to their free accountability software. When they put out a Mac version, I immediately downloaded it so I could tell these guys I'm counselling "yeah, my wife and best friend get my accountability emails" so that they would feel like someone else had led the way for them to place such a safety net in their lives. When I downloaded the Mac version, I selected to receive XXXChurch's free newsletter.

One month the newsletter talked about Craig Gross's new book (Craig is the co-founder of XXXChurch). The book was entitled "Starving Jesus". The title was slightly offensive, but I was used to that "line" being walked due to other things I've seen XXXChurch do to engage people in honest conversation about faith, Jesus, sexuality, masturbation, marriage, etc. To promote the book (or more importantly the message within the book), Craig and the co-author J.R. Mahon (a key staff member of XXXChurch) were going on a "40 Days of Nothing" Tour. One of the cities listed was Cedar Rapids.

I was curious, so I emailed to find out where in CR the event was going to be held. Craig emailed me back and said "could you host us?" After a couple of emails back and forth, we nailed down the August 31st date and made Craig and J.R. the official speakers for Watershed's Worship Gathering that night.

So that is the story of how "Starving Jesus" is coming to humble Cedar Rapids. I'm excited that the young adults from Watershed and other area ministries are going to be challenged in this way, and I'm praying for the Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts in an amazing way. I think the other questions you might have (like "Why the title "Starving Jesus?" "Why 40 Days of Nothing?" "Why is Jesus holding a mailbox post?") will be answered by the main Starving Jesus website (well, they probably won't answer the last question, but someone did just ask me that Thursday night when they saw the announcement for the first time).

Just need to vent...

RRRRRRR!

I need to vent for a second. I just heard from a female friend who confided that she was recently sexually assaulted by an acquaintance. My heart broke as I read her words and I am really angry with the anonymous person who did such a thing. NO one deserves to be treated that way as a creation of God. But because I know my friend, it seems even worse.

She is such a quality person. How could a guy even THINK of doing this to her, let alone act upon those thoughts?

Thankfully my friend has a good support system. And because she is such a quality person, I know she will heal and emerge stronger through this - possibly even go on to bless other women who go through a similar tragedy. But I still wish it hadn't happened to her.

If you are a guy and are reading this - don't you EVER touch a girl in a sexual way who is not your wife! I don't care how sexually frustrated you are or how attractive she is. If you cheat God's beautiful design for sex and relationships, then you will be even more sexually frustrated, she won't be as attractive after the incident, and you might end up with a criminal record. And if you are feeding your mind with materials that tell you that "all women want it", then take the trash out. Women want a man who will lead them by sacrificing for them (check out Eph 5:22-33!). Taking advantage of their body for your own pleasure is not sacrifice.

And women, if you've been sexually assaulted and have never told anyone, please do! Your healing will only happen as you open up to the right people (preferably another woman) who can help you work through what you experienced. God wants you to sexually enjoy your husband and give yourself to him, so don't let one jerk's selfishness rob you of the joy of being united physically and emotionally with a loving, sacrificing husband.

Man... this had been such a good day up until this point. I get to officiate a wedding this weekend - and unfortunately I think I know what will be on my mind as I pronounce Zac & Erin husband and wife. Hopefully one day my female friend will get that opportunity and this incident won't ruin that day for her...

On a positive note, my sister-in-law gave birth to Rylan Asher Bird today. Welcome to the family, Rylan! And congrats Derek & Becka! Hopefully Rylan's cousin will be here soon (but preferably AFTER Zac and Erin's wedding!).

Pieces of Glass

I found a surprise in my office today. A strange manila envelope was on my desk, clearly with something thicker than just a letter inside.

As I opened it up I was thrilled to find a copy of the soon-to-be released book "Pieces of Glass"! The story contained in its pages is that of my friend, Sarah Kay Ndjerareou. It is a heartbreaking story of the emotional pain Sarah went through as a result of a debilitating skiing accident her fiance suffered.

My wife and I were actually in Cedar Rapids candidating for the position I now hold when the news was shared with the church that Sarah's fiance was critically injured. I remember praying for this injured young man and his fiance whom I did not know.

Over time, I got to meet Sarah and I discovered she was a remarkable young woman. And then to my pleasant surprise, she married my good friend Nate a couple years later. And now she is a published author. Even though Sarah's life-story is still being written, I praise God that the splintered pieces of glass she saw from her life have been used to create a beautiful mosaic. I pray that the family of Sarah's former fiance are seeing some of the same work from God in their lives as well.

To get your own copy of "Pieces of Glass", pre-order it from Amazon or Zondervan. Or support your local Christian bookstore by getting the book after August 1st there.

Sarah has a blog with TONS of pictures of her daughter Sophia (and a couple with Nate as well!). Stop by and tell her "congrats" on the publication of her new book!

And to hear Sarah's story (as told to the Watershed crowd on May 26, 2005) click here. (This is the only place you'll find this link!)

Appearance is Everything?

Trivia question: Name the following company based on its litany of honors...

Received six awards in 2000 for being environmentally friendly
Fortune - America's most innovative company for six consecutive years (1996 to 2001)
Fortune - America's #2 company for Quality of Management, 2001
Fortune - America's 22nd best company to work for in 2000
Fortune - 2nd ranked American company for employee talent in 2000
Financial Times - Energy Company of the Year, 2000
Global Finance - World's best company in the Energy Sector, 2001

And the Answer is... are you ready for this... Enron.*

While everything looked so good externally for this energy giant, the core of the company was rotting due to extremely poor decisions. Today the word "Enron" doen't bring to mind "innovative" or "best", rather the word brings to most people's minds words like "failure", "corruption", "deceit", "fraud", and the like.

Sometimes I fear a lot of Christians live life like Enron. They try to appear like they have everything together, when spiritually and emotionally they are dry and possibly even rotting. They wear the smile on Sunday while their pillow is wet from tears. They carry the words of God under their arm, but God seems so far away. And they hate themselves for their hypocrisy.

So what's the cure? Confession.

It is amazing what a dose of truth can do. It may seem painful to let the blazing light of truth crash into the darkness of our souls - but our spiritual eyes will adjust and we will eventually be thankful that the truth is known.

Are you being a spiritual "Enron"? If so, who can you safely go to and confess the emptiness to?

(source: Leadership Wired)

Assuming the Heart

Ames, Iowa, home to Iowa State University, has made a bit of news this week. Thousands of people are descending upon the city for a big event, and so to "help out" the university student newspaper thought that they would give tips and info about the community. And the headline they chose played off of the popular "Dummies" books. But the reason this is making the news and blog sites is because the event is the Special Olympic National Games.

The students from the paper claim it was an innocent mistake, and even the event organizer has recognized it as such. But some people won't give it up, making assumptions about the motives of the students, harshly criticizing them over this mistake, calling them "insensitive" and implying the newspaper editors are the "dummies".

In other news, a 4 year old boy was stripped of his pageant crown as "Little Mr. Apricot" in California for flipping off the crowd with his middle finger. Organizers were outraged and gave the title to the runner up. Mom says he was trying to say he was #1, but he often confuses his index and middle fingers. Just recently my 6 year old daughter innocently kept pointing with her middle finger, and we kept correcting her - so I buy the mom's version. But again, as public opinion weighs in, negative assumptions are being made about the heart of the mom, the kid, and the pageant authorities.

These two stories clashed in my mind today with my own heart. As I felt sad about the quick judgment people were rushing too, I realized that yesterday I had done the exact same thing.

Due to an email I received, I investigated online a clash between prominent Christian figures. Assumptions about the motivations of one pastor caused a second pastor and his network to make sweeping judgments against the first pastor as well as take a hard stand against another movement within the Church. But this first story led me to another sort of unrelated story about a church where the transition from one pastor to another hadn't gone too well. I made all sorts of judgments against the outgoing pastor, assuming negative things about his heart and motivations.

Perhaps I was right - maybe the outgoing pastor really is as conniving as the online evidence seemed to support. But I am not involved in the case one bit and my opinion won't change a thing - so why was I so quick to assume the worst about a man's character?

As I read blogs and stories yesterday about the first incident concerning one pastor's strong stance against another pastor, I read tons of comments that other readers left. They rushed to judgment, typing sweeping statements of condemnation against the first pastor, assuming the worst about his heart, intentions, and motivations. I found myself extremely dissappointed in the Body of Christ yesterday. But then when I realized I did the exact same thing about the failed-transtion story, I was dissappointed in myself.

My silent prayers both last night and this morning were that God would give me a pure heart and that through the Holy Spirit I would operate with a clear conscience. In the past year I have felt like my heart and motives have been judged and negatively assumed by some. I want to live my life in such a way that these people would lack evidence to support their opinion. And I want to live my life in such a way that I don't judge others so quickly and that I am a man of grace.

Mankind makes mistakes because he is sinful. But last time I checked, I was part of mankind. That God for the cross of Christ!