“What to do for Lent?” This was the question I asked myself as I drove to my Silicon Valley job on the morning of Ash Wednesday. The only thing I’d decided was to work through an email Lent devotional. But that wasn’t enough. I had a feeling God wanted to lead me somewhere else.

Giving up something for Lent is clichéd, but…

Asking “what to do for Lent?” is still a fairly new thing for me. I resist the idea of “giving up something for Lent” because it feels so cultural, even in a post-Christian context. At work, my friends (who are mostly atheist / agnostic / ehh, whatever) were jokingly asking each other, “Is that something you’re giving up for Lent?” I don’t see any spiritual seeking in it. It’s kind of like a New Year’s resolution, except with an end date.

I’m more drawn to the idea of doing something, rather than giving something up. But what if the two aren’t so different? What if giving something up for Lent isn’t pointless self-flagellation? What if it’s a journey to take with God? What if giving something up for Lent creates room to do something else?

That thought rang in my head as I continued my drive. Suddenly, I knew what to do for Lent this year…

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My iPhone lock screen for Lent

One thing I’m doing for Lent this year is setting the wallpaper on my various devices. On my computers, I use the downloads CRM provides as companions for their email Lent devotional. That way, I’m looking at a verse and imagery that matches the devotional. But it doesn’t work on a phone, so I made this simple Lent wallpaper for iPhone use.

I wish I knew who designed the original image, so I could give them credit. A Google image search for “lent desktop” shows it all over the place, so it’s hard to say. But I took the original image, adding a slight white border on the sides. It’s cropped so that the word LENT is visible above the unlock slider, and above the iPhone page indicator dots. (Note that this is specifically for an iPhone screen, and won’t work well for an iPad.)

Setting this Lent image as your iPhone wallpaper is a little complicated. I’ll walk you through, step by step.

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Lent starts next Wednesday! Starting in 2010 (when God interrupted my Lenten prayer),  I’ve enjoyed the Lent devotional provided by CRM:

• Church Resource Ministries is an organization I highly respect. They’re doing missional work around the world, including the United States.
• The thoughts and questions come from CRM’s missional focus. There’s no fluff. It’s real, personal and honest.
• The format is a daily devotional email during Lent. The daily reminder in my technological world helps keep me grounded.

With a smart phone, you can have the email devotional in your hand, wherever you are. I like to take a mid-morning break during my workdays and walk around outside with my iPhone. I walk slowly and meditatively, holding the thoughts, questions and prayers against the backdrop of both nature and workplace.

To sign up for this email devotional, go to www.crmleaders.org/subscribe. Click the “Lent and Week of Prayer mailings” checkbox.

It all started simply enough:
Andrew Jones wrote a Leadership Journal post, 9 Reasons NOT to Plant a Church in 2012.
Dave Jacobs replied with My Patellar Reflex to Andrew Jones’ “9 reasons NOT to plant churches.”
Their exchange about the value of starting new churches kicked my thoughts into motion.

I was going to post a comment on Dave’s blog, but it got too long. So I started to write a post here. But it got too long, as well! (I’m working on taming the length of my posts.) So I thought, “OK, I’ll make it a two-parter.” I wrote part two. But I still hadn’t finished what I want to say.

God is stirring, and I’m starting to bubble

Evidently, God is stirring me again. It’s not just coming from my blogging friends; they were just an important kick. I feel like I’m entering a new season:

• Kay experienced spiritual growth in a sudden, unexpected burst.
• I had my own encounter with God.
• I started blogging here again. There’s something about trying to put my thoughts into semi-coherent words that forces me to wrestle through those thoughts.
• Prayer is a lot easier now.
• I’ve started reading Sacrilege: Finding Life in the Unorthodox Ways of Jesus by Hugh Halter.

So I’ll share what’s starting to bubble through a short series:

1. New Churches, Global Movements and the U.S.A.
2. New Churches Stuck in a Box in Post-Christian America
3. New Churches & Evangelism: Do We Have It Backwards?

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.”

I leaned over to my daughter during the worship service and whispered, “So the announcement of God’s coming is made to a bunch of dirty scumbags. And to a group of foreigners.”

I love the upside-down nature of God’s kingdom! It confounds those with supposed wisdom, whether we’re talking religious wisdom or anti-religious wisdom. It reminds me that God’s ways are so unlike our own, and that to follow Jesus, I have to “free my mind.”

For all my friends — Christian, atheist, and otherwise — I give you a blessing:

May the coming year bring you freeing of your minds.
May you experience wholeness and purpose.
May your relationships be healed.
May you begin to know the depth of Papa’s love for you.

God has moved into the neighborhood! Merry Christmas!

Comic by David Hayward, a.k.a. nakedpastor

If Jesus communicated kingdom stories / parables in our context today, what stories would he tell?

If Jesus communicated kingdom stories/parables in our context today, what stories would he tell? #compellingquestionoftheday

January 26, 2011 7:03 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@jr_briggs

jr_briggs

This was the question J.R. Briggs posed on Twitter. I would have shared it right away, but this was 11 months ago, while this blog was in remission.

But I loved the question so much, I saved it for future posting, along with J.R.’s own 11 examples. And now, the time has come!

1. The kingdom of God is like a flash mob in the food court of a shopping mall…

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Advent has begun! For most people, however religious or irreligious you are, this just means it’s time to prepare for Christmas. …But there’s a whole side of Advent that we’re missing.

Advent 2: The second coming

“Advent” means “coming,” referring of course to the coming of Christ. But the Advent season calls us not only to look back to the First Advent, but also to look forward to the Second Advent: namely, the second coming of Christ.

Holy Rapture, Batman! Didn’t we just get past end-of-the-world silliness? Well, it was silly. And part of the silliness is treating the second coming of Christ as “the end of the world.” I blame fire-and-brimstone preachers, and bad movies. Why is it the end of the world? Why not the beginning of the world?

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If you ever love to sing, as I do, I think you’ll find this amazing. Composer and conductor Eric Whitacre had a crazy idea: He’d post a video of himself conducting one of his vocal pieces, but without a choir. The virtual choir would be provided by individuals replying with their own videos of themselves singing.

How had I not heard about this? I happened to stumble across a TED talk where Whitacre explains his first such project, uploaded to YouTube on in May 2010:

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What does it feel like to be saved?

Are you saved by what you believe?

I use the term “saved” cautiously, knowing that it won’t communicate what I mean to many, especially (but not limited to) my atheist friends. But I want to be clear: Living into the Way of Jesus is neither a set of beliefs you subscribe to, nor a set of actions you aspire to.

There’s a longstanding see-saw debate among Christians: Are you saved by what you believe? Or saved by what you do?

If I may I be so bold: No. And no.

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