This was the second week of Go Ahead, Ask! We also celebrated communion this Sunday.

The questions answered today were:

• How would you define lukewarm?
• What happens if we don’t make budget each week?

This was the first week of Go Ahead, Ask!, where people were invited to ask questions of the pastors of Pin Oaks. Questions answered today included:

• How did the canonization of scripture come about?
• What are our thoughts on the second coming, tribulation, rapture, etc.
• When does a person become saved?
• Predestination

The first impact to understand is that of the impact on communication. A Christian humorist once described this challenge as “being an 8-track guy in an iPod world.” It is a fact that developing communication technologies are creating a real generation gap between the old and the young. We are finding that there is not an overlap and sharing of the generations, without the conscious choice to choose to communicate. To choose to communicate with the other generation, you may have to choose to use the technology they use. You will probably never find you 92 year old grandmother communicate with you on Facebook, although there are notable exceptions. A 69 year old grandmother told me she is now never without her QWERTY keyboard messaging cell phone because she now has communication with her grandchildren almost every day.

The second impact to understand is that on media. We live in a time of an explosion of entertainment opportunities. This has brought an explosion of competition for people’s attention and sharing of ideas. In terms of the mission of the church, this impact on media gives us an expanded marketplace for ideas in our culture. We have to choose to take the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ into this entire expanded marketplace of ideas.

This impact of media leads to the third impact, the impact of entertainment. Because of the impact of technology and media we have more options than can be imagined, including an ever-expanding development of escapism through virtual realities.

Again, the impact of changes in mass media and entertainment, leads to the fourth area of impact: political interaction. Political ideas and philosophies can now be shared all throughout the mass population more quickly and extensively then anyone could of ever imagined. The last presidential election was profoundly impacted by the use of mass messaging through President Obama’s “Blackberry” to his supporters daily. People now turn to Facebook as much as they do to websites to learn about things. A video showing a gaff by a politician can be uploaded to YouTube and within hours millions nationwide have seen it. Things are really changing on how we share and learn information. Even I am now on Facebook and about to start Twittering my tweets all over the place.

The final area of impact to be aware of and understand is the impact on socio-economic issues. Today we find the entire world caught in a tension of things verses people. In order to get things, people become insensitive to other people. Then when they get things, they realize that the satisfaction they expected is missing. People are torn between the two ways of measuring success in our world today. Some look to things and power accumulation as proof of success. Others look for their satisfaction in life to come from their relationships and stable lives.

Globally, cultures around the world are struggling, often in dramatic ways, to learn to cope with some or all of these impact areas. Developing nations such as China have moved rapidly into the status of a developed nation, and the tension for example, between things and power vs. people and relationships, is now seen to dominate the Chinese culture. The growth of new car owners, who have never had a car before, is the greatest in the nations of East Asia.

It seems that the world today as never before is struggling with how to have meaning and purpose in life. It is time for you and I to take the purposeful message of new and eternal life in Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. It is a world waiting for the good news and real change that is only given by Jesus.

Hey, that sounds like the mission of the Great Commission, doesn’t it?

One of the main struggles with globalization, and a source of its many complexities, is that at the same time of the developing interdependency the global context is increasingly torn by ethnic, cultural, and economic tensions. An added radical Islam in the ethnic and cultural tensions increases the complexity. In these global tensions we find clans of ethnic definitions and differentiation dominating some nation-states and the thinking of many. There are fears of cultural and economic survival by many. Such is our emerging global society, that we are called to take the Gospel into all of its parts.

I don’t want to get too “wonky” as the politicians and “talking heads” say, but, to understand this emerging global society, we need to differentiate between philosophical globalization verses business globalization trends.

• Philosophical globalization is a comprehensive consciousness of one earth, and one world, and one planet and people. This definition is used in various cultures in understanding socio-political trends, especially in post-modern Europe, European and American liberalism, and those involved in the New Age eastern philosophical religions.
• Business globalization, in its various dimensions is a comprehensive consciousness of interdependency and codependency in shared economies, currencies, and business markets now being brought together by new technological paradigms of travel and communication.

The reality today, is that rather than 3-6 month ocean voyage, I can be on the other side of the world to do business, and see people in 16 hours. Internet communication allows me to do business and personal conversations, print communications by email, have meetings with others in various locations globally by teleconferencing, all at no special costs. We are just beginning to see just how much impact in missions can be had by the changing paradigms in business and communication. We are just now starting to visualize how we can use social networking sites, digital documents and videos, and online training to accomplish the task of making disciples globally.

Back in the 1950’s a very famous teacher of evangelism concepts and methods wrote a book called “Every Member Evangelism.” His premise was that the great commission meant that every member of the local church was to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone their lives touched. That was true then and it is true now, but now it has global implications. The business person who now travels internationally is a missionary wherever they go, rather than just in the town where they live, and work. I guess it’s true, with the changes in travel and communication; it really isn’t such a small world after all.

As for the missions of the Great Commission, the two aspects of globalism, philosophical and business globalism, present both a threat and an opportunity. Philosophical globalism with its absolute lack of absolutes and demanded inclusiveness, argues directly with the exclusivity of the gospel, as seen in John 14:6. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” (ESV) Business globalism on the other hand is a source of great opportunity to take the gospel into all nations, even allowing entry into the so called “closed nations” to missions.

It seems that globalism is a reality of the 21^st century. It is not just a political opinion, political option, or a cultural issue. It is a fact that humankind today lives in a world of globalism. Yet, this 21^st century needs the unchanging Gospel of Jesus Christ just as all previous generations have. Globalism is the world view you and I live in today, and the fact is, that it’s not your father’s world anymore. But, it is ours!!! Let’s be in it with the Gospel it needs so desperately.

The first major challenge of the 21^st century we have to face today is the reality of massive urbanization in our world. There are now hundreds of “Mega-Cities” around the globe, all crowded with the full spectrum of socio-economic demographics. The ultra-rich and powerful live within a few miles of the poor and powerless. As a friend of mine serving in East Asia said to me on my last trip to the area, “Missions ain’t no thatch huts in a jungle by a river anymore.” He said this while he and I were having lunch in the downtown area of a city of 3 million that is considered a smaller city in that nation.

With the new urbanization centers, we have an industrial and commercial, instead of agrarian emphasis that now controls life in the urban complexes. With the massive urbanization, technological paradigms have changed. For example, 31 billion searches on Google are done every month now. That fact makes me wonder, before we could Google our questions, who did we ask about these things? The internet has become the basis of business, retail, marketing, and communication globally.

The changes in communication are astounding. My 91 year old father in law asked me the other day what texting was. I pulled out my mobile phone and showed him, realizing just how much change he must have seen in his life time. The first commercial text message was sent in December 1992. Today, the number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the total population of the planet. It took 38 years for radio to reach a market audience of 50 million. It took television 13 years, and it took Facebook only 2 years to reach the 50 million mark. The number of internet devices in 1984 was 1000, and in 2008, there were over one billion devices. Without a doubt, regardless of what you think about it, the internet, and all that it brings, is here to stay.

This massive urbanization that the church must face in our global mission is really simple to understand as to its cause. In the past decades we have experienced a global population explosion that is shifting the centers of power, money and influence into new and developing areas. The facts are as follows: During the last 9 minutes…

• 67 babies were born in the USA…
• 274 babies were born in China…
• And 395 babies were born in India.

It is our mandate to share the life giving Gospel of the Lord Jesus with each of these children and their parents. The question we will explore together in the weeks ahead is just this: how in the world are we going to do it?

Pastor Phil finished out the series Finish The Race, talking about the end of 2 Timothy 4.

Pastor Phil walked us through the first of the Finish the Race series, going through 2 Timothy 4.

Phil started the first week of Finish the Race, focusing on 2 Timothy 4:3-5.

Music this week was:
Our God – Chris Tomlin
When Heaven Came Down – Dutton
Madly – Steve Fee

Each week on the worship blog we will list the songs that we have sung so that if you want to include them in your own personal worship time. The songs include links to iTunes where you can purchase them and download them.

In addition to a list of songs, we will include a brief recap of the service and what was taught or if any special events took place. It’s something to get an idea of where we’ve been, and so that we can see how God has moved among our fellowship.

Please, send an email to worship@pinoaks.org if there is something else you would like to see on here. I’d love to hear from you!

First, the attractional model has been the model that most churches have adopted over the last few decades. I like to think and for sake of this argument will concede that the motives for doing so are pure and based on God’s plan of redemption. (this thought is destined to become another post) As culture shifts, and it is shifting constantly, the church continues to reproduce the same efforts with more and more proficiency resulting in less and less results. This is the point I started asking some serious questions…why is that we are getting better at what “we do” but the results are worse than last years efforts? Simply, what got us here will most likely NOT get us to our next destination. The insanity of doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results (thank you Einstein) is a thought lost on most churches. Maybe we believe God will somehow supernaturally bless our efforts, but here is another place I asked a tough question. Is this hope for blessing “what we have always done” an excuse to be creatively lazy? When the results of our ministry are less and less do we use that as a judgment on those we serve or an indictment to our lack of creativity and courage?

I am guilty of relying on last years efforts without any thought of relevance or need. It hurts to say but I have enjoyed some “ruts*” for way too long. The pattern of ministry has created a groove where others have crossed time and time again, and instead of carving a new path, I have nestled gently down into the crevice that others have created and I now make it deeper. Without thought, and certainly no hesitation, I do the same things…killing my creativity, leadership, and vision. Then I fear we create and institutionalize what we do; to the point that it can’t be changed without stepping on someones toes, or someone abandoning ship and leaving for another church. This is a slippery slope and leads to a somewhat slow and agonizing organizational death. In it’s path of destruction lay the over-worked, under appreciated, passionless, and creatively crushed people of a church that has given up…and leaders that resigned in their minds ages ago.

The good news is that this can change. We can fight and claw our way out of the rut and do those things that are relevant now…and not rely on those things as “what we do” but what we’ve done. They serve as reminders that creativity, risk, courage, boldness, something different, and something daring can clear the path for greater eternal results. It is a return to some of the principles Jesus used when he walked and served on this Earth. He broke the mold and set a high mark…His path was never a groove and always challenged those who followed Him, those who opposed Him, and even those who needed Him. What has God asked you to do that is not recognized by the “people of the rut” as acceptable? Maybe the most important of all questions, does God think of your idea and desire for ministry is acceptable? If so, break free and enjoy the thrill of ministry outside the “ruts” right now.

*RUT: a habit or pattern of behavior that has become dull and unproductive but is hard to change.