why i am a socialist

words like liberal & socialism tend to make conservatives & capitalists cringe. But it seems the older I get the more I realize the importance of socialist views. Already many of you cringed, starting to scream internally, but seriously we can look at the 1st generation of Christians to see where socialism really took hold.

After the ascension of Christ, the new believers were witnesses to his work on earth and when he left, they took the energy of this God movement to unprecedented levels. They started usurping the government & culture of their day by giving their possessions to one another and getting rid of things they didn’t need. Why did they do this? They did it bc this Holy Spirit prompted them to take care of another, to be thy brother’s keeper so to speak. And check it out, bc of this, Christ became known to unknown people.

we like to throw labels around and frankly socialism is a label few people want in western worlds, but for me, if this means I can refocus my possessions and needs to help those around me, then count me in.

fyi – I’m not there yet. I’m not this radical. I like my things. I hope I can overcome this western mind-set.

thoughts?

baby preacher

I’m not quite sure what to think here. Is it cute? Is it way over-board. nonetheless it gives me a few laughs.

It’s been a while

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve written but a LOT has gone on personally and for Centerpoint. Our church moved to its new location September 13th and the results have been amazing as we’ve already met more new people in three weeks than in a good portion in the previous year! And these people get the vision of Centerpoint and are jumping right in.

My family got back from Disney last weekend as we were there to celebrate our niece’s 3rd birthday – quite a birthday celebration. We had a great time visiting the parks and Isaiah had a total blast.

Some of our closest friends and family are dealing with the loss of loved ones which serves yet again of the frailty and the quickness of life which reminds us to embrace life, to live the life God has given us to the fullest. Embrace your friends & family often.

Check back often, now that I’m back in some routine, there should be some more blogs and thoughts…

protection theology

For many years I have been critical of what I call protection theology. That is when Christians completely remove themselves from the culture around them and isolate themselves inside of a Christian bubble. Inside this bubble or wall, you can only find like people who believe the same things, dress the same way, and never talk about anything outside of their constructed walls – in order to stay safe from all evils.

This weekend my eyes were opened to a potential reason of why these walls exists. As an avid Ohio State fan and having a desire to brainwash my 4 year old son, I felt like 4 was the appropriate age to let him experience heaven, I mean, his first OSU game. An opportunity arose and we graciously accepted tickets to the first game of the year.

Isaiah had great expectations of seeing all the good, the band, the stadium, the hot dogs, the football team. We parked a few blocks north of where I used to live, just north of the stadium. I carried him on my shoulders as he looked around at all the tailgaters. Naturally I was aware he’d be exposed to some beer and choice language, but I didn’t really think he’d get the full exposure as most OSU students aren’t back on campus yet. Well ooops, I was wrong.

And coincedentally enough we sat near some Navy fans who were entitled to voice their cheers for their team which only ticked off the OSU fans surrounding me. Personally I felt one or two OSU fans were clowns & jerks, one particularly set me off for his total idiocy. Suffice to say, Isaiah got to hear the bad that comes with a college experience football game, a lot of bad language and a lot of drunkneness.

Part of me wanted to rescue him and protect his little ears. Thankfully I don’t think he really paid keen attention to all that was around him, he was focused on finding the real Brutus and the real band.

So bc of this experience I see the need for protection theology, or maybe not the need, but the reason that many churches and believers subscribe to that philosophy. Afterall the best way to be different and to be salt in the world, is to completely remove all the evil and isolate yourself away from all that.

But to me, the reality is, there are dangers to this way of thinking. Let me also say that I do believe there is a time and season for many people to be isolated from the world, but this should never ever be lived out forever. Here are my thoughts on the potential dangers of protection theology:

1. we never learn how to engage culture
2. we become prideful in our way of living
3. when we are exposed to the world around us, we have no idea how to respond
4. the world passes us by and we become out of touch with reality;
5. thus we let years and ppl pass by w/out any meaningful relationships with those Jesus called us to reach
6. when Jesus said, “go to all the world” we translate that as only a few select missionaries are to go
7. missionary lifestyles become an event – not a lifestyle

I’m sure there are more potential dangers I could list but that’s it for now. Again let me repeat, there are times I do believe it’s important to withdraw & isolate & to regroup and reorientate, but never should that last forever.

feel free to comment.

fear

Today my son went for a well check-up in order to enroll in preschool next week. While there, we learned he was due for a shot. Immediately he was overcome with fear, fear of pain, anxiety, fear of the consequences of the needle. Now 1-2 years ago, needles & doc visits didn’t bother him. Neither did sleeping in a dark room by himself, now he’s somewhat intimidated.

It amazes me how quickly as we age, we experience different things and we become fearful. Now don’t get me wrong, Isaiah still lives with wreckless abandon in many areas, but a few he’s allowed fear to take hold of him.

Don’t we do this as adults? We live our lives out of fear. We fear success, we feel failure, we fear speaking to others, we fear reject. Most of these feelings of failure are a direct or indirect result of previous experiences… but seriously do we have to let fear rule us?

How do we overcome fear? Can we overcome it? How can we get back to those years when we did everything in complete freedom of fear? I believe that this life devoid of freedom is what Christ meant when he said something about living life to the fullest. When we experience him completely, we rid ourselves of fear, and thus truly live.

This one’s directed at me

Short & not-sweet, but directed at me. I’m the guilty one here and by doing this, I only continue the cycle.

We spend too much time writing blogs, expressing our opinions, invoking the name of God for certain causes, more time tweeting, more time talking… and frankly not enough time listening, reading, reflecting, and thinking.

That’s it, that’s me, I’m guilty.

Posting this blog doesn’t save me from it, doesn’t change my wrong course of actions, nor does it change my life. Life change speaks for itself. We all have stories to tell, how this or that changed our life, but maybe we should let our lives speak for themselves for that speaks volumes.

Crazy Love

This past Saturday, with a great host of volunteers, Centerpoint showed the community of Chillicothe some crazy love in the form of a free carnival.

We had a great day in the sun with up to 500 people, kids and adults like. The carnival had: 4 inflatables, a face painter, 2 stilt-walkers, a train to ride on, food, and a petting zoo courtesy of Petland. We had an amazing slew of businesses offer gift cards to use at their place of business and overall we gave away 123 gift cards.

Many people asked us, “why are you doing this?” We tell them, “we just want to give back to the community and love you guys.”

Then some would say, “so you’re a church, so does this mean we’re signing up for your church or you want us to come there?”

“Well we’d love to have you at centerpoint, but that is not what this is about. We truly want to just love people and provide hope.”

So many times, our efforts within churches are inward-focused, which means, we are doing everything we can to get people to our church. And while some of that is necessary, sometimes we just need to love without strings attached, to provide hope without handing out a tract. If this hope & love we are offering is legit, then the rest will work itself out.

It was so amazing to be a part of this event and to provide people with a day they could enjoy. Many parents admitted they came bc they can’t afford to take their kids on vacations so this was the perfect thing for them; then many of them got free cards to eat at local restaurants, with nothing asked in return.

Today – offer love, offer hope, offer grace & redemption. Do it with no strings attached. Do it bc you love people and at the end of the day, our world needs love.

Crazy Love Family Day

This Saturday, August 29th, 2009, yes 2 days from today, come join Centerpoint for our first annual Crazy Love Family Day from 11-3 – located at Danbarry Cinema in Chillicothe.

Because we love our community and hope to provide a fun event for everyone, everything is free. We will have inflatable slide, a jousting inflatable, a train to ride on, 10 carnival games. Local business in our area have pitched in and we’ll be doing a gift card giveaway to many restaurants in our area and busineses.

You don’t want to miss out on this awesome event – everyone welcome from 11-3!!! THIS SATURDAY AUGUST 29TH

17 days till kickoff

This part of the year excites me like no other. Yeah Centerpoint is moving and have an awesome launch at Danbarry Cinemas. Okay so truth is that’s way more exciting, but c’mon it’s southern Ohio and it’s OSU time!!! I’m the dork who reads the dispatch the entire year for its updates on the football team.

This year we can expect a very young, very talented team led by Terrelle Pryor at QB. As he goes, so goes any title run.

telling a story through dance

While I’m neither a dancer or a real creative person, I am highly impressed by both. The following video is a part of last night’s So You Think You Can Dance and the choreographed dance was beautiful, was magical, and told a story of strength through potential tragedy. This piece was an emotional story about a woman and her man struggling with breast cancer. It shows the power humans have with their creative abilities and even the power to tell a story through dance.