Moment of Genius

Here is a photo of some of us with the man whom Dan Allender called "the greatest living theologian:" John Frame.

Interesting-ness of his lectures: not off the charts

Hanging out with a bona-fide intellectual genius: pretty cool

Size of his brain: pretty large

(Notice how he's got a pretty hip Kanye West-like thing going with the half-untucked shirt)

Orlando, Day 2

Why do we talk so much about the core values of Coram Deo? Why do we have them? What do they do for a church? Today, we heard some helpful 'bullet point' explanations of core values:

Core values are unwritten assumptions that guide who we are and what we do.

They are the paradigm underlying our words and actions

They are convictions about how a church operates, not doctrinal statements about what it believes.

They are not "the only biblical way to do it;" they are "the biblical way we do things HERE." So if you don't agree with them, it doesn't mean you can't follow Jesus; it just means you can't follow Jesus with THIS local expression of His body.

Is this helpful in explaining why they're so important in a new church?

Rainy Days and Caramel Lattes

by Dusty White, guest blogger and honorary Coram Deo culture-shaper
live from San Francisco

Today I hurdled a few puddles on my way into Peet’s and ordered my wife and me two caramel lattes.

Amy the barista was in a good mood today. It’s been raining most of the day here in the bay area so to find Amy in a good mood caught me a little off guard. She’s one of those girls that you just never know how to consistently predict. In other words, you have to “feel it out a little bit,” and based on your conclusion, you make your best attempt at trying to make her smile. Sometimes you have to drag the smile out of her—even if it involves a little bit of cheesy remark. I’m sure you know her type.

Amy finally asked me the question. “Dusty, do you work? You’re always in here. You’re always reading books or working on your laptop or something.”

I’ve been praying for Amy’s soul for the past few months so this was my prime opportunity for telling her that my wife and I care about her in a sincere way. After praying one of those quick, dependent-on-the-Spirit type prayers, I responded: “I work with college students in the bay area so I basically get to work in a lot of cool places whenever I want.”

“That’s right—I remember that,” she said, “but how do you get paid?” She remembered something that I didn’t—a previous conversation about working with college folks. She also knows that everyone needs to get paid and couldn’t figure out how hanging out with college people supported my mini-van payment and my frequent caramel lattes.

“My church pays me to do it,” I replied.

The “church comment” usually makes people bottle up as they start recalling all of their spiritual experiences. Or else they say something like “that’s neat.” Amy’s response was rare and honest and she carried a sense of desperation in her tone. She said, “Oh, so you work for a church? So I should be crying and bitching to you about all of my life problems.”

The conversation couldn’t have been going any better. Remember, all I’m doing is ordering two caramel lattes, one decaf with soy. My wife is into soy sometimes—I think it was the rain today, or maybe she’s pregnant. Who knows?

I said, “Yeah, we could talk about all of your life problems sometime.”

Amy went on—“So you counsel people or what?” She can be kind of abrasive.

I thought about it for about 1.5 seconds and said, “Yeah, mostly—but I do a lot of Bible teaching and stuff as well.” For some reason when you throw in the “and stuff” it makes the awkwardness go down a little bit.

“Oh…sweet,” Amy said. She meant the “sweet” that is like the “cool sweet.” You know.

There was a line behind me so I moved toward the pick-up area and started talking to Mark as he brewed up my lattes. As I was watching him keep the regular separate from the decaf soy I couldn’t help but praise God in the back of my mind for what had just happened. The short conversation that I just had with Amy was huge headway and hope for what I’ve been praying about.

Amy didn’t fall to the tile floor and start repenting and accepting Christ into her life, nor was I attempting to get her to do that sort of thing, but I can see God gaining ground. Heaven is fighting for her soul. God wants her to be a woman folded into the kingdom kind of life. Satan hates it. Satan hates me having intentional conversations at Peet’s. Evil is lurking, enticing, and winning—but I know that Amy knows that there has to be more. I could see it brewing in her head today. I could sense it in her voice. She wants Jesus, but she just doesn’t know what she wants.

So why should you care about this experience that I had today? God gained some ground amidst my coffee shop trip this afternoon. I’m convinced that God gains ground with lost souls wandering aimlessly through people like you and me who simply order coffee with the intentional love of Christ. In the long run it is going to take more than coffee orders, but I want more conversations like that. More conversations that end up getting God his people back.

Orlando, Day 1

So it's our first day of the Orlando Church Planting Conference. 275 church planters, from 32 states and 4 countries, coming together to learn how to better plant gospel-centered, culturally relevant churches. Here are some random thoughts from the first day...

Arrived at our hotel at 2 AM and immediately fired Ivy for not writing down the DANG ADDRESS for where we were supposed to go. Seriously!!!!!

Hung out at Einstein's Bagels this morning, enjoying some good breakfast food and listening to Gavin and Todd spin the tallest true tale I've ever heard about chasing a tornado, almost getting sucked up in it, and shooting a lame horse. JD called Trevor Carden to confirm the details of the story, since Baker and Gavin have a tendency to get a little 'fuzzy' on the details...

Sat in conference meetings from 1 to 4 PM today, learning from some of the wisest leaders in church planting today.

At the end of my chapter in The Kingdom of Couches, I wrote that by changing the way we think about church, "we can be on the leading edge of the new reformation." This sentiment was confirmed today by Steve Ogne, who said that "the cultural shift that is taking place right now - and its effect on how we do church - is as significant as the shift from pre-Reformation to post-Reformation thinking."

We are sitting in our hotel room discussing right now how what we're doing with Coram Deo might be challenging the whole dominant paradigm of church planting (which tends to think attractionally). We are beginning to dream about what the Coram Deo Church Planting Network might look like. Pray for grand vision from God as we think and dream together.

The Mind Has Cliffs

I keep telling all of you to read Dallas Willard, but the fact is, some of you won't. So I'm going to start putting some of his more poignant quotes here. I'm no fan of hero worship... but I do think it's wise to learn from wise men. "He who walks with wise men will be wise" (Prov. 13:20). Willard ain't the Bible, but he has good stuff to say, and we'd be foolish not to listen.

Nothing enters the mind without having an effect for good or evil... You cannot choose conditions and reject the consequences... If you shoose to step off the roof, you can't then choose not to hit the ground. The mind (the person and all its dimensions) has laws just as rigorous as gravity. 'The mind has cliffs,' the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said, 'Cliffs of fall. Hold them cheap who never hung thereby.'

If God's eyes are too pure to behold evil (Habakkuk 1:13), we had better think it might be wise for us to look away as much as is feasible - even if it is called 'entertainment'... There are many things we need not see and are better off not seeing - though, if you wish, you have a 'right' to see them. Anyone who thinks that if I have a right to do X it is good for me to do X, simply hasn't thought deeply about the matter...

Images, in particular, are motivational far beyond our conscious mind, and they are not under rational control. We must take care that we are nourished constantly on good and godly ones, without necessarily being able to see and say what is wrong with the others. 'What is wrong' with them well may be something we cannot bring before our consciousness, but which works in the depths of our soul and body as an instrument of forces beyond ourselves.

The Confession of St. Todd

Finally some fellow laborers are stirring the pot a little bit through writing. Welcome Todd Baker to the fray - this is his inaugural post on the blog. But be warned: Todd's not the kind of guy to mince words. So if you don't like getting challenged, you might be better off to stop reading...


When I first decided to give my life to Jesus I knew that it would cost me everything. I had to give up my own life, my dreams, my riches, my idols, my family, my friends, my idols, my job, my car, my idols, and the affirmation of this world; from this end, and only from this end, could I pick up my cross and truly follow after Jesus.

I knew at that moment that I would be forever called out of the United States to minister to the poor. I knew that wherever God sent me there would be civil war, malaria-infested mosquito epidemics, no clean water, and that my martyrdom would likely await me around every corner. I knew that my decision to follow Jesus meant that my death was now imminent.

Laugh at me, fine, but know that I was truly convinced that all these things were all true. I remember feeling the cold beads of sweat wandering aimlessly down my back, the way the first few raindrops do when they hit your windshield. I remember trying to swallow only to find myself choking on my own Adam’s-apple. I remember being terrified. When I finally mustered up enough courage to accept Jesus Christ as Lord I wept like a small child, tears careening down my face. I had never been so afraid and yet so overjoyed. I had just inherited eternal life, by no work of my own, and all it had cost me was the messed-up, sorry excuse for 21 years on this earth that I had called my life.

I HAVE NEVER LOVED JESUS MORE THAN I DID AT THAT VERY MOMENT. HE WAS EVERYTHING THAT I HAD AND APART FROM HIM I HAD NOTHING. HE WAS SO PERFECTLY WORTHY OF THE SACRIFICE–OF-SELF THAT I WAS MAKING. THE TEARS STREAMING DOWN MY FACE EMBODIED A THANKSGIVING FAR TOO DEEP FOR ANY WORDS TO DESCRIBE.

In that very moment I knew the joy and the excitement that the first disciples had experienced when they threw down their nets, and their lives, in order to follow Christ. That moment was the closest that I have ever come to loving God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind. Within moments I desired the community of believers who could sympathize with my experience and who could coach me in the road that lay ahead. When I found this community I was warmly welcomed and then immediately corrected in my naïve assumptions of the sacrifice and romance that defined the Christian life.

As it turned out I would not have to “give up” my own life as much as I would simply have to serve Jesus with it. I would not have to give up my dreams, just modify them a tidge. I would not have to give up my riches, only 10%. My family and my friends were still safe! I just had to convert them. My job, my car: I would simply have to use them for the glory of the Lord. Best of all, I would be able to stay in the comfort of my own home. I didn’t have to follow Jesus anywhere; that sort of mission is apparently reserved for Christian all-stars somewhere between years 10 and 95. My dying flesh had received new life! No one was going to rip the idols of my old life from my not-dead-yet-fingers. I didn’t have to give up them up; I just had to re-carve them so that they could be rearranged into a mosaic that spelled “Jesus.”

Yes, my flesh rejoiced, and continues to even now. But my soul was saddened that day. Because my ears were so quick to hear this “good news” in addition to the “GOOD NEWS,” my idols, which were lying on the ground, suddenly found their way back into the hands of my new life - the life that I had just been freed to live in the joy of Christ alone. Now I follow Jesus with them in my knapsack. I don’t know how to get rid of them anymore. They, like the thorn in Paul’s side, will likely never fully leave me.

It is my own fault. I sit and I wonder sometimes nonetheless: If following Jesus had actually cost me everything, every idol that I had, how much differently would I feel about the Christian life that I now live?

Not What You Do, But Who You Are

It's not just what you do, but who you are that matters.

The goal we're striving for determines the outcome we'll get. If our goal is right beliefs or behavioral conformity alone, we'll end up with disciples who can pass a theological exam or perform the right external duties, but who aren't truly being transformed by the Spirit of God at the level of their character. (Please note that I am not saying that right beliefs and behaviors are unimportant; only that they are secondary to true heart transformation. "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing" - 1 Cor 13:2).

Pay attention to what you hear and see around you, and notice what goal people are suggesting as the whole point of the Christian life. Over on the Musings blog last week, a commenter wrote, "[T]he eternal destiny of the soul and the resurrected body is the most important issue in human existence." I responded by disagreeing, and suggesting instead that "the most important issue in human existence is that God's kingdom would come and that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Certainly the destiny of the soul is a linchpin of Jesus' kingdom. But it's not the only thing."

Her comment, whether intentional or accidental, reminded me of the Willard quote we looked at this morning:

The American church today… aims to get people into heaven rather than to get heaven into people… [this] implodes upon itself because it creates groups of people who may be ready to die, but clearly are not ready to live. They rarely can get along with one another, much less those ‘outside’… They have found ways of being ‘Christian’ without being Christlike.

How have you seen this otherworldly gospel affect you or those around you? How is thinking about spiritual formation challenging you? What questions or thoughts does it raise? Hit "comment" below and enter the fray.

Quotes on Community

Following Jesus is communal, not individual.

I hope that offering you a communal "pair of glasses" through which to read Scripture will help you see things you have missed - and spur you to break up with individualistic spiritual formation. I also hope you'll read The Kingdom of Couches to help give you a new paradigm for what Christian community could and should look like. Below are a few quotes from the book that relate to our interaction this morning at Coram Deo.

If we want missional community, we will have to decide that this world is not our home. We will have to repent of wanting our faith to be defined in terms of achievement and embrace the truth of what Jesus said - that our faith would be defined by our love for one another. Missional community begins with a deep conviction that living for ourselves - or even for a select few - is not satisfying, and that loving each other (as Jesus loves us) would be. This is the gospel. This is the only way to make sense of our being here on Earth. (p. 28)

Relationships with other people are at the core of your relationship with God. At the start, your community gave you a language with which to read and hear the gospel, and God used the experiences and conversations in your life to bring you to a point where you decided to give up your old life of sin and death for new life in Christ. As you mature in faith, community remains at the core. In conversation with other Christ-followers, in the reading and discussion of the Bible together, and in corporate prayer, you gain a more robust experience of God than you would ever have on your own. Multiple viewpoints tend to capture reality better.

Living a solitary life reflects a distorted reality. What's more, it rarely produces the tension that leads to life change. (p. 33)

What struck you the most this morning about our penchant for individualism and our avoidance of true, biblical community? Click the comment link below to post your thoughts.

God's Ultimate End

[communal interaction over Bob's message 1.8.05]

1) Truths Worth Remembering

First off, memorize with your kids (if you have them) the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
Q: What is the chief end of man?
A: The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

Jonathan Edwards' scholarly tome "The End for Which God Created the World" concludes as follows:
Thus we see that the great end of God's works, which is so variously expressed in Scripture, is indeed but ONE; and this one end is most properly and comprehensively called THE GLORY OF GOD... [T]he good of the creature... consists in the creature's exercising a supreme regard to God, and complacence [satisfaction] in him; in beholding God's glory, in esteeming and loving it, and rejoicing in it, and in his exercising and testifying love and supreme respect to God.

Edwards is a complex writer. John Piper summarizes it much more simply:
God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

2) Communal Application of Truth

Let's interact over 1) all the other reasons we do things besides the glory of God, and 2) how a God-centered view of life applies to different aspects of our reality. I'll start...

1) I do lots of things not for the glory of God, but because I want to be sweet. Lurking in the back of my soul is the selfish desire for Coram Deo to be successful so that I will look good, so that my ideas will be vindicated, so that my vision of what church should be will be validated and approved by others. On my better days, I want Coram Deo to be a success so that God will be glorified and so that thousands of people in Omaha will find their true delight in Him. But on my worse days, my true delight in God is obscured by my desire for my own fame and glory and exaltation. That's ugly... but that's reality.

2) A God-Centered View of Theology: We must know God in order to delight in Him. And the fuller our knowledge of Him, the more complete will be our joy in His character and works. So theology is neither a) an idolatrous attempt to figure God out so we can control him, explain him, and fight against those who don't share our view of him, nor b) an academic discipline that really doesn't matter and can be left to "the professionals" (whoever they are). Theology is a means to treasuring Christ. Theology should lead to doxology. Studying God matters because the more I know Him, the more I can love Him for who He is. So mature followers of Jesus should have a theology that is God-centered, humble, and leads them to prayer and worship instead of (or at least before) argument and defense.

Hit "comments" below to offer your musings on these two questions.

2006 Reading List

For many of us, New Year's Resolutions include some sort of reading. This year, instead of buying books that will end up laying around on your kitchen countertop getting splattered with tomato sauce and then eventually make their way to the top of the fridge where they collect dust until you rediscover them in October and kick yourself for not reading them... why not commit yourself to reading a book or two that has the potential to shape your soul? Below are three recommendations. And the fringe benefit is that all three of these books will line up squarely with the preaching emphasis at Coram Deo in 2006. So instead of spreading yourself thin... go deep.

Renovation of the Heart, by Dallas Willard - I've been reading and re-reading this book for 2 years, and I still haven't digested it all. Probably one of the most formative books you'll ever read on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, by C. John Miller - not a how-to book, but a portrait of a gospel-centered church that loves Christ and engages the culture. If you want to gain a picture of what we hope Coram Deo will someday look like, read this book.

The Kingdom of Couches, by Will Walker - okay, so I'm a contributing author to this book, and it's written by my best friend. But biases aside (or mostly aside): it is a really well-written book that will help you break up with the individualistic Christianity you're used to and move toward a communal understanding of spiritual formation. Read it. (I don't get paid to say that, I promise.)