My Favorite iPhone Games

A couple of weeks ago, I offered my favorite iPhone apps.  But since all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, here are the games that keep me entertained.  Nearly every game has a lite or free version you can get to try it out first.  But they’re all worth the (meager) price you’ll pay.

Zombie Smash

Zombie Smash is a fun, addictive game in which you’re defending your homestead from hungry legions of undead.  How?  By flinging them with your thumbs.  It’s got a great set of up-gradable weapons, quite a few types of zombies (each with its own characteristics) and difficulty settings to keep it plenty tough.  Plus they keep putting out upgrades for it, so the fun never stops!

Plants vs. Zombies + geoDefense

Okay, you caught me.  I’m minorly obsessed with Zombies.  But I grouped these two games together because they’re two of the best tower-defense games out there.  In PvZ, you’re a homeowner who purchases increasingly deadly plants from your crazy neighbor to fend off the hoards of undead (who of course want to eat your brains).  gD is a much simpler game in which you construct turrets to destroy wave after wave of geometric shapes (each with their own speed/strength).  Both are challenging and addictive; they’ll keep you entertained (or, quite possibly, frustrated) for hours.

Angry Birds

AngryBirdsThis is one of the most popular games out there right now (if Twitter and sales have anything to say about it).  Two minutes of play will show you why.  Evil pigs have stolen your eggs, so you do what any bird naturally would: you hurl yourself (via a slingshot you aim with your finger) at the pigs’ homes and castles in order to destroy them.  You have four different kinds of birds and these levels are hard.  You’ll have plenty of time to work on them, because once you download this game, it’s not like you’ll be working.

DoodleJump

Speaking of reasons you’ll never work again, meet DoodleJump.  This game is advertised as the most addictive game on the iPhone and they may be right.  The gameplay is impossibly simple.  You jump from platform to platform, steering your jumper by tilting the phone back and forth.  Tap the screen to shoot monsters (or jump on them) and that’s it.  The game has several different skins (space, undersea, world cup, Halloween, etc.) that change the gameplay ever-so-slightly to keep things interesting.  I’ve only owned the game for about a month now, and my friends and I have already dumped several hours into it.  Did I mention it’s addictive?

Words With Friends/ Chess With Friends

Scrabble is one of the most maddening games imaginable.  How are you supposed to make a word with three O’s, an A, E, X and Q?  Well, I can’t, which is why I always lose.  So what better reason to play against me?  Create an account and get started.  Find a partner and then play as often as you like – each person will be notified when it’s his/her turn, and you can take as long as you need to find that killer word.  I wish more than two persons could play a single game, but it’s still tremendous fun.  My user name is jrforasteros, if you want to play (and if you’re a chess player, it’s equally fun).

SkiBall + Paper Toss

Both of these games are also good, simple fun.  They both have the same gameplay – you swipe your finger across the screen to throw your skiball or paperwad.  SkiBall is a blast, and just like in real skiball, you collect tickets you can redeem for prizes.  I already bought Manda and panda bear and now I’m saving up for an 8-ball skiball.  Paper Toss is perfect for the office – you are trying to become the world champion paper-tosser, throwing paperwads into a trashcan (taking into account the wind currents created by the fan).  Since both games track high scores, you’ll constantly be fighting with your friends to maintain your first-place status.

Flood-It!

lrg

Last, but by no means least is Flood-It!  Again, the gameplay is pretty simple.  You’re presented with a board comprised of squares of six different colors.  You begin in the top-left corner and change the color of the squares until the whole board is one color.  Oh, and you have an extremely limited number of moves.  If you like puzzle games, don’t miss this one.

That’s it.  My best-of-the-best.  What are your favorites?

Preaching From Weakness

This is Kevin Powell. I don't know anything about him, and he's not on here for any reason other than because he's a handsome fellow.

If you read my post on CEO Jesus, you know that I have a minor obsession with the strengths-based, leadership culture.  And since I’ve recently begun preaching a lot more often, I’ve been reflecting more and more about my own strengths.  If you know me, you know that I struggle with pride, which in a lot of ways is a quest for affirmation/approval from other people.

And whether they’re just being nice or not, a lot of people tell me I’m an excellent communicator.  And I take pride in that because I work hard on crafting my communication pieces – both in the study and the proclamation.

And there’s my greatest temptation to pride.  The gathering I’m leading right now, EPIC, was formed to communicate the truth and power of the Gospel to persons who are (in our vernacular) “dechurched” and “unchurched” – that is, those who have had negative experiences with the Church and those who have never been exposed to Jesus and his Church.  When I craft a piece of communication (whether it’s a small group study, a discussion gathering, a prayer, responsive reading or teaching/preaching piece), I keep in mind that I’m speaking to these persons – using language that, while full of meaning to the believers who are gathered to worship, is also understandable and accessible to a person who is unfamiliar with what’s happening.

My problem is that it’s really easy for me to forget that and prepare talks that are meant to impress other Christians.

I can actually do this in real life. What's that? No, I'm not going to show you. I'm not your dancing monkey.We have a lot of visitors to EPIC week in and week out, and a lot of them are ‘church-shopping’ – they’re already believers and are trying to find a church that ‘meets their needs’.  These are also the people who are most likely to come talk to me after our gathering, to tell me what they thought of my communication.  And, God help me, I get (a sick) pleasure when they tell me that I’m better than another minister.

And not only do I feel pressure to entertain, I want to because deep down inside, I want to be the best speaker in town.

Of course that’s fed by the celebrity culture that’s developing in the Evangelical Church at large – we want to find a pastor who’s just like Rob Bell or Erwin McManus or Andy Stanley or Mark Driscoll.  But now consider Paul’s words to the Corinthians:

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.  And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.  My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5*

Paul was (apparently) not a very strong speaker, at least compared to some of the other guys he was up against.  And the Corinthians (apparently) were being swayed by other speakers who presented their version of the Gospel more eloquently.  But Paul reminds them in this portion of the letter (beginning back in chapter 1) that the Gospel doesn’t rest on human excellence – quite the opposite in fact.  The Gospel is for the poor in spirit, the broken, the humble, the least of these.  We shouldn’t rely on our skills to proclaim the mystery of Jesus – to do so is to negate the power of the Gospel.  Our communication needs to be full of our own journeys towards (and with) Jesus.  We need to be communicating from places of weakness, where God is working in us, changing and transforming us.  If we’re not, then we’re no better than the so-called super-apostles Paul condemned.

I’m afraid this is a tension I’ll always feel – I desperately want only to do the best job I can, utilize the gifts and talents God has given me to share the power of the Gospel in the clearest and most compelling way possible to those who do not know Jesus.  But I’ll always be tempted to start thinking more about becoming a preaching celebrity and putting on a show for the Christians who are evaluating how well I stack up.

At the end of the day, I don’t want to be concerned with what church shoppers think of my talks.  I want to spend my energy proclaiming the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection to those who have not heard.

Am I alone here?  Sometimes I feel like I’m crazy thinking these things.

*For the record, I don’t have room here to discuss how this passage has been abused in recent years by certain super-apostles in the contemporary Church.

My Most Useful iPhone Apps

A bunch of my friends have recently gotten iPhones, and since I’ve had mine for about a year now, many of them have asked what my favorite apps are.  So may I present my favorite, most useful apps! (Games are coming later)

Let’s start with Social Media

Google Mobile
GiPhoneNo surprise that Google would put out a great mobile app. It’s got a voice search feature and is pretty well-integrated with the full range of Google apps (mail, reader, ect., including the Maps app that comes on the phone).  Keeps you connected and informed – everything you need to thrive on Web 2.0.

Facebook

FBAgain, probably a no-brainer, but Facebook’s app just gets better and better with each update.  They just added a geo-tagging piece, presumably to compete with Foursquare.  A few (very) minor complaints aside, this brings the full functionality of Facebook to the iPhone in an intuitive, beautiful interface.

Twitter: Echofon or Twitter (duh)

echofon

I used Echofon for quite a while (the pro version is $5), and I like it a lot.  I recently started using Twitter’s own (free) app, and it’s definitely comparable – especially for free.  If you’re a regular Twitter user, these apps are the best two options (with TweetDeck a close runner-up).

Byline

This is a reader app – it syncs like a dream with Google Reader.  It’s a bit pricy, but fantastic.  The interface is beautiful and intuitive and the sync is quick.  It’s easy to customize and syncing it once a day lets you read your posts anywhere you go, even when you can’t access wifi or 3G.  Oh, and it’s a snap to send posts to friends and colleagues.  I tried several free reader apps before I broke down and bought Byline, and it’s well worth the price.

And now for productivity and lifestyle!

Evernote

If you own a Mac, I’m pretty sure your iPhone and computer have a mystical, incestuous relationship where they’ll read your mind and transfer whatever you need back and forth.  If you have a PC (and yes, I’m refraining from making jokes here), transferring files can be a bit trickier.  Enter Evernote!  Evernote is an excellent note-taking app that incorporates voice, picture and text and syncs it all with the desktop app (you can find here).  I use it to jot down sermon ideas, create shopping lists, and books I want to buy later.  You can do pretty much anything with it.  Which is why it’s awesome.

Couch to 5K

This app is designed to take you from couch potato to 5K runner in 10 weeks.  Amanda and I are only in week 2 of the program, but the nicest thing I can say about it is this: I hate to run.  Hate it more than almost anything (except cats).  And yet I can still imagine completing this.  The interface is great, well-integrated with the music player and the stepped program is easy to use.  Well worth the $3.  If I can do it, so can you.

iFitness

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m not exactly a gym rat.  I’ve always hated exercise, and lifting weights is no exception to that.  iFitness is a great gym companion.  It’s got tons of exercises, well-explained and easy to track and chart.

Lose It!

A big part of a healthy lifestyle is eating well, and if you’ve never counted calories, it can be tough.  Lose It! is a simple app that’s easy to use and lets you figure out basically how many calories you’re taking in in a day.  And since you can add in a surprisingly wide range of exercises, along with how many calories you’ve burned, it’s fun and easy to keep track of the goals you set for yourself.  Again, well worth the small price.

Yelp

yelp

Long story short: this is the best app to find new places to eat.  We’ve been frustrated since we’ve moved to Dayton because it’s been difficult to find good, local eateries.  No longer.  Thanks to Yelp, we’ve found tons of great out-of-the-way places, and with the added social networking features (geo-tagging, reviews, friends, etc.) it’s easy to share the best (and worst) of our finds.

Epicurious

If you like to cook at home, this app is indispensible.  Easy to find delicious recipes, rated by ease of preparation.  The app prepares a shopping list for you and then guides you on an easy-to-follow, step-by-step cooking adventure.  If you have even a modicum of cooking skill, do yourself a favor and discover some delicious meals starting now!

Chipotle

Chipotle_Logo

Delicious.  Simple.  It finds the nearest Chipotle (or you can tell it to go to your favorite) and sends your order.  You get a pick-up time and you’re good to go.  Show up, skip the line and leave happy.  It’s that easy.  I’m shocked more companies haven’t jumped on this band-wagon, but kudos to Chipotle for taking full advantage of the beauty of the smart phone!

That’s a good start.  What about you?  What apps have you fallen in love with?

The Real Jesus

For the past few weeks, I’ve been exploring various incarnations of Jesus I see traipsing about our culture.  And several people have asked, with all these Jesus filling our churches, if I think the real Jesus is even accessible.  The short answer is “Yes”.  The challenge is the reality of the plurality of Jesuses available to us.  Even if we restrict ourselves only to the Jesuses we find within the Church, so many assail us it’s easy to lose hope that the Jesus who walked among us, healed and redeemed us is truly available to us in a meaningful way.

But I have begun to wonder if it’s not precisely in the mess that we experience the real Jesus.

I think this is an actual photograph from that experience. True story.What if I assume that my picture of Jesus is incomplete?  And what if I also assume that your picture of Jesus is just as incomplete, but no in quite the same way?  What if I can learn to see Jesus better through my friendship with you?

If that’s true, then authentic Biblical fellowship is vital to a healthy relationship with Jesus.  It would mean that I experience the real, physical presence of Jesus when I am among the Church.  This is what Paul means when he talks about the Church as the Body of Christ.  This is why we have real, physical sacraments like baptism and the Eucharist (Communion meal).

In these practices, we experience the same Jesus as the early church (check out Luke 24:30-31).

And to many of you who read my blog, I want to say thank you.  Because I have met the real Jesus through my friendships with you, through worshiping alongside you and I’m grateful for that.  You’ve taught me to be more graceful, kind and gentle.  I’ve learned joy and peace from you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

What about you?  How have your friendships helped you to see Jesus better?

Holy Jesus

Also known as Jesus H. Christ (the 'H' stands for 'hallowed').

Last week, we looked at Homeboy Jesus – the Jesus who wants to be your friend but never challenges you.  Now meet his equally-evil twin, Holy Jesus (a.k.a. Holier Than Thou Jesus or, according to Homeboy Jesus, ‘Can’t Touch This’ Jesus).

Holy Jesus is really holy.  He always has been.  And it goes without saying that He’s way more holy than you will ever be.  And since ‘holy’ means ‘set apart’, don’t think for a minute that Holy Jesus will ever actually want to touch you.  Look at Him.

No, really.  Look.  Just for a second (if you look too long, Holy Jesus will burn out your retinas. See Indian Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark).

Did you catch how white His robe was?  Man, that thing is CLEAN.  That’s why you can’t get near Him.  Because you’re a dirty, wicked sinner that Holy Jesus doesn’t really want anything to do with.

Remember that one time He came down and died for your sins?  Yeah.  Good enough.  Now you can come to Heaven and live in a mansion He’ll build for you (which will obviously be a LONG way from His place).

Whatever you do, please just don’t talk to Him.  Or think about Him.  He’s too demanding anyway – He has so many rules and regulations you’ll never measure up.  Just accept that He died for you and trust that’s good enough.

What’s truly sad about Holy Jesus is that he won’t change you any more than Homeboy Jesus will.

Yes, this is what Holy Jesus thinks of you. You STINK!This Jesus is so distant and aloof that he can’t engage our lives in a meaningful way.  And it’s not the Jesus we meet in the Scriptures.  Jesus’ holiness was not a detachment from the people around him.  Jesus’ interactions with the unholy didn’t contaminate him, didn’t make him unclean.  Rather, his holiness was contagious.  He touched the unclean and made them clean, whole.

I know I am often tempted to follow this Jesus.  I don’t pray, don’t study because I don’t need to.  Holy Jesus isn’t interested in any sort of intimacy with me.  So my ‘relationship with Him is easy (even if it also involves a healthy amount of self-loathing).

I’m ready for a Jesus who transcends both Homeboy and Holy.

I want a Jesus who is my friend, but who calls me to be better.  Who is rooting for me, wants me to succeed and empowers me to overcome.

What about you?

Homeboy Jesus

FYI, Homeboy Jesus is blasting Public Enemy. Because he loves to stick it to the Man.

In these next two posts, I again want to explore two Jesuses who are really poles of a spectrum along which we relate to the real Jesus.  So please welcome among us Homeboy Jesus (a.k.a. Jesus H. Christ).

Homeboy Jesus loves you, but he just wants to be your friend.  He’s chill, he’s laid back.  Homeboy Jesus used to think you were rad, back when rad was cool.  But Homeboy Jesus doesn’t say ‘rad’ anymore because, bro, he’s not behind the times – he’s hip!  He’s with it!  He pretty much came up with Urban Dictionary.

Homeboy Jesus loves you just like you are.  You can wear his shirts and jewelry whether or not you live like him.  You can be associated with him just because you want to be.

Because, hey, Homeboy Jesus is your friend.  He wouldn’t do anything to upset you – certainly nothing as extreme as judging you for not living the way he wants you to.  Because Homeboy Jesus is

Just.

Too.

Cool.

for anything as wack as that.

Maybe the problem with Homeboy Jesus is really a problem with what we think friendship is.

Jesus is My HomeboyWe’ve watered being friends down to yes-man-ship.  Our friends are supposed to think we’re the best thing since sliced bread.  To agree that we are clever and beautiful and hilarious.  And right.  Basically that we’re Jesus 2.0.  Modern friendship certainly contains no element of accountability, not impetus to grow.  No wonder our friendships tend to be shallow (if they have any meaning at all).

This is unfortunate, because a true friendship is meant to better us, to spur us on, to sharpen us (like iron).

We like Homeboy Jesus because following him is easy – it doesn’t require any sacrifice or change on our part.  We can be down with him without ever once being uncomfortable.  If Homeboy Jesus doesn’t like what we’re doing, he’ll just leave, and we’ll be fine with it.

Unfortunately, following this sort of Jesus doesn’t transform us, because we’re really just following ourselves.

Our first clue probably should’ve been how Homeboy Jesus always agrees with us.

We need a better Jesus than this.  And we need better friends than this.  For our own sakes, if nothing else.

Sacrificial Lamb Jesus

Last week I took a look at Hippy, Left-Wing Jesus so I thought I should work towards the other extreme this week.  You know, to keep things balanced.  So may I present to you Sacrificial Lamb Jesus (a.k.a. “Scapegoat Jesus”, “Passion of the Christ” Jesus:

Fun fact: SL Jesus prefers colder climates, because all that wool gets VERY itchy in the heat. And a sweaty Jesus is a stinky Jesus. Sacrificial Lamb Jesus came to die for your sins.

And that’s all.

His whole purpose in becoming human was to come here and die in your place so that you can go to Heaven and be with God.  He didn’t die until he was in his early 30s, and he came as a baby, but no one is really sure what he was doing the rest of the time.  I heard he taught some stuff and did some miracles (which are NOT devil magic like Harry Potter), but that was all sort of like A1.  Some people think it makes the steak taste better and some don’t, but either way, it’s not the main course.

No, the main course was his horrible, terrible death on the cross.

See, every time you talk about how SL Jesus died, you have to use as much gruesome detail as you possibly can.  Your listeners need to know every painful, awful detail of crucifixion so that they understand exactly how awful, wicked and sinful they are.  Because, after all, when you talk about SL Jesus, you have to make sure everyone knows that he died in their place.  This was his only purpose.  If they don’t understand this, then they miss Jesus entirely.

The problem with this view of Jesus is that it’s too narrow; it ignores too much of his story.*

Evangelicals are (in)famous for focusing on the Cross nearly to the exclusivity of anything else, and here we’ve made a misstep.  At the Cross, Jesus defeated Death and Sin, but these were not ends to themselves.  Jesus’ story starts before the beginning of time, according to John.  And his mission was not to defeat Sin and Death, but rather to reconcile all things to himself – everything that had been lost in the Fall.  Sin and Death were standing between Jesus and his goal, but they were not the end of his journey.

Jesus’ ultimate goal was to restore the world to its original purpose – to be the place where God lives with all creation (including us).  Something in humanity is broken – that’s evident if you look at what we do to ourselves, each other and our world.  When Jesus came, he came not only to heal us, but to show us what a fully human person looks like.  That person is concerned with neighbors and creation.  Not because it’s hip or trendy, but because Jesus is all about shalom, the whole world existing as it was created to be.

That’s why we have to pay as much attention to Hippy Jesus as we do to SL Jesus.  We need them both.  We need his life and his death.

What do you think would happen if we stopped looking at the wounds of the crucifixion only as our source of healing but also as Jesus’ means of identifying with the brokenness in our world?  How might that change what we think it means to follow Jesus?

*If you just thought to yourself, “I like to be narrow.  Jesus said the road to Heaven is narrow,” then please follow these instructions: Place your hand on the desk in front of you.  Take a pencil in your other hand, and jam it as hard as you can into the desk-hand.  Have you done that?  Good.  The pain you are now feeling is nothing in comparison to the pain SL Jesus felt on the cross for the sin you just committed of taking Scripture so grossly out of context.  Lesson learned!

Hippy Left-Wing Jesus

The fish is jumping out of the implied water. Because animals LOVE Hippy Jesus. He's like a Disney Princess (R) in that way. Poor Hippy Jesus.  He’s all about Peace and Love, but for some reason everyone just loves to pick on him.  He was born all the waaaaaaaaaaay back in the early 1900s (if you can even imagine such a ludicrous time) when a group of Western intellectuals decided they should apply Christian ethics to contemporary social ills.  Where they’d get such a radical idea is beyond me, seeing as the real Jesus never mentioned anything about caring for the poor.*

Hippy Jesus really grew to maturity towards the late 1970s, after the sexual revolution and the polarization of the American political spectrum.  The Church was not exempt from that polarization, and it was during this time that Evangelicalism became a force to be reckoned with, thanks to the likes of the Moral Majority, Focus on the Family and Petra.

Christians quickly found it very important to know whether a person was ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’, with both sides demonizing the other.  Hippy Jesus got lumped in with all the left-winger because he thinks we should care about poor people and the environment and tends towards pacifism, among other things.

These days, Hippy Jesus is just as divisive as he’s ever been.

He’s hip and cool, has all the latest gadgets and is very socially conscious.  He’s usually sporting TOMs Shoes and loves American Apparel t-shirts (either that or TWLOHA).  And he has his fair share of enemies.  You might here a pastor rant about other pastors who are too metrosexual or people who are all caught up in the ‘Social Gospel’ at the expense of the ‘Real Gospel’.  Sometimes the debate gets downright ugly, and surprisingly Hippy Jesus doesn’t seem to mind.  For all his talk of love and acceptance, he can actually be pretty exclusive.  He does well with those he’s supposed to care about (you know, the poor and people like that), but when it comes to Christians who disagree with him, he tends to get a little bit…

…well, judgmental.  Condescending.  When he’s just with friends, he can be downright mean (in a hilarious way, and besides, the real Jesus reserved his harshest words for the religious people of his day, so it’s totally cool).**

It’s really easy for Hippy Jesus to get caught up in causes, to ignore Jesus’ death and resurrection (which are, after all, pretty violent).  But we have to remember that without the empty tomb, all our efforts to improve the world are in vain.  Without God’s final and decisive victory over sin and evil, the world would still be doomed.

Hippy Jesus would also do well to remember that the Gospel really is for everyone and that includes his enemies.  After all, if he’s really going to be a pacifist, he has to make sure that his grace extends to them too.

Have you encountered Hippy Jesus?  What are your thoughts about him?

* A person can only believe this statement if s/he has never actually read more than about four words Jesus says.

** Yes, if there was any doubt in your brain, this is another of my personal favorite Jesuses.

CEO Jesus

Since last week I took on a Jesus I’m not too big on, I figured I’d balance everything out by exploring a Jesus who is nearer and dearer to my heart than I really enjoy admitting.  So without any further ado, may I present to you

CEO Jesus (a.k.a. Corporate Jesus, Business Model Jesus)

CEO Jesus loves to ADMINSTER sacraments. Or ordinances. Whichever you prefer. He'll take a poll and get back to you on what we're going to call them.

This is a Jesus who’s been growing in popularity in the Church since the 1970s, and we can probably attribute both the seeker movement and the megachurch to his activity.  It was around that time leaders in the church really began to look to corporate America for guidance and inspiration.  So we began to see churches with Mission Statements (and later Vision and Process and a host of other flavors of statements) and Core Values.  We began to hire according to skill sets, even creating positions like Administrative Pastor.  Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin have joined Max Lucado and Rick Warren as must-reads for any church leader (and when the heck is Mitch Joel going to get on that list?  Come on, people!).

This hasn’t been all bad; indeed, it may have been inevitable.  Given that our culture is so shaped by the culture of Corporate America, we should have expected some degree of syncretism.  And leaders like Bill Hybles and Andy Stanley are shining examples of faithful incarnation of the Gospel in corporate culture.

But Corporate Jesus is really all about making you a better person.  He has worship services and encourages us to church shop until we find a place that meets our needs.  He wants us to worry about whether or not we like the music or how well the sermon feeds us.  This body of CEO Christ creates rockstar senior pastors and pop-perfect worship bands.

A good friend of mine recently interviewed at such a church, and during their Sunday gathering, his wife commented that he probably wasn’t cool enough to be a part of their leadership.  She was only partially joking.

The CEO Jesus is slowly working his way down the corporate church ladder: more and more churches are embracing strengths-based ministry, in which a person is profiled and then invited to serve where their unique combination of gifts and talents will best benefit both them and the larger church corporation ::ahem:: excuse me, larger church body.

Here’s my problem with CEO Jesus: I love him.

I love this model of church.  The reason we borrow so heavily from business is because their models work. Really well.  I have become a much better minister thanks to Marcus Buckingham and Tim Sanders’ mentoring.  Made to Stick and Communicating for a Change pretty much revolutionized my preaching.

And I really do believe that we love God best when we are good stewards of all the gifts we’ve been given, including our strengths and talents.

But what about the fact that the Gospel is not primarily about me?  What about the fact that I’m called to die with Jesus, not promote myself or my company (dang it, I mean church!)?  What about the fact that his strength is enough for me, that his strength is made perfect in my weakness, not my top 5? (that’s a Strengthsfinder reference for the uninitiated)

This is a tension the Body of Christ must take seriously.

Right. There's a limit. I get it.
Right. There’s a limit. I get it.

We walk a tight rope and falling to either side is deadly.  On one hand, we have the consumer church culture and rockstar, too-cool-for-school church leaders.  We run the danger of becoming a cheap, plastic generic Church made not in China (maybe we’d be better off taking a lead from Chinese churches?) but in focus groups and opinion polls.  On the other side, however, we run the risk of becoming ineffective.  I know that word is unpopular; we’re not supposed to measure God’s work because it’s somehow unfaithful.

In response to this problem Andy Stanley once said,

One time Jesus fed 5,000 men plus women and children.  How did they know how many people there were?  They counted them!

We should always be asking ourselves if we’re doing the most we can with the resources and energies we have.  If our vision is really God’s vision.  If it’s a BHAG (pronounced bee-hag, from Jim Collins – Big Hairy Audacious Goal).  If it’s something we can do on our own – the way CEO Jesus would want us to, or if we’re actually going to have to step out in faith and trust the real Jesus, who promised that we’d do even greater things than he, who promised never to leave us or forsake us and in whose name we will not rest until the whole world has been reconciled.

How much have you interacted with the CEO Jesus?  Do you see corporate culture in your church?  Do you like it or not?