Redeeming Social Media – The Experiement

January 23, 2015January 24, 2015 ~ sloggett ~ Leave a comment

So here is the deal. I’ve tried just about anything and everything to control the social media beast that consumes our time and energy. It’s the beast that maintains so much cognitive space in our minds that it actually is shaping who we think we are and how we engage the entire world. It shapes our communication, it runs businesses and it develops reality (true or not). The beast is real and there is nothing that we can do to stop it. Like all things, our sinful hearts have twisted something that was originally good and turned it bad. Luckily, we are loved by the Great Redeemer and we reflect that image to the world.

The question is really, how are we going to redeem social media?

I’ve seen it done in a few different ways. Prayer requests and organization seem to be a few of the things that people are using social media for. That’s in itself is dope. I love seeing people that I love, loving people on the mediums. There is more that we can do though. The “social” aspect of the mediums is a piece that I think that we are missing. The reason that I think we fail to engage the social part of social media is because we are inherently scared to socialize period. I think that as a culture we stand on one of two different sides. We either want to engage socially to the point that it’s a danger to our health, or we don’t want to engage period and it’s a danger to our health. In the culture that we live, excessive is the norm and having a decent balance is really more of an urban myth.

So here is the challenge: We are almost out of January, so for the month of February, what are you going to do to redeem social media? Who’s day can you touch and what encouraging things can you communicate to the people that you love? Make a commitment to loving people in and around social media, and don’t just consume it. If you see someone is having a rough time, reach out and go see them. Make the phone call, it will be vastly more edifying than the simple “like”.

What are some ideas that you have for redeeming social media? Share them out!

Come as you are

December 26, 2014December 26, 2014 ~ sloggett ~ Leave a comment

Reading through the scriptures today and preparing for the Christmas Eve service has me spinning on an idea that is a familiar stream woven throughout scripture, the idea of coming as you are. The gravity of the Jesus’ ministry, the incarnation of God coming to people is nothing short of breath taking. It’s one of those themes that we can quickly gloss over, as we run to the more exhilarating passages of scripture. It’s one of those themes that should shape our ministries and our communities as we live life.

The commands of Scripture, as we should read it, are almost always plural. Set to be done by God’s people. Jesus’ ministry in a sense should always be considered in a communal state. Jesus, the lamb of God, came down to the earth so that he would reconcile His people to Himself. The miracles that he performed brought great glory to His Father, opening the eyes and the ears of some of the people around Him. The interesting part of this is that the people did not do anything to warrant forgiveness nor did they do anything to clean themselves up. Jesus called them “as they were.” If we take this theme and apply it to our communities, I think that what we will find is that we require people to act a certain way for us to welcome them in. We might mask our expectations with calls to the alter or charitable giving, but ultimately within the Church we expect that people will act a certain way. This way is vastly different among churches, some churches require that you keep your hands down while worshiping and yet others look down on outward worship. Regardless of the expectation, we as a church frown on and ultimately miss opportunities to engage one another because of our presupposed expectations. The most evil and dangerous part of these expectations is that they evolve within a community. As communities grow and become bonded, they develop their own expectations. When the expectations of the community are not met within the community, there is hostility and often shunning, until the expectations are met. This is not a hard and fast rule, just a simple observation.

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine recently and I made a statement similar to the one that I just wrote, and it made him angry. Angry at me and he was rightfully so. I joined in on the communal expectation, ultimately ostracizing my own because they failed to meet the standard that I had set for them. Of course, realizing my error, I apologized and repented for failing to see the error in my ways. The conversation didn’t end there. We talked and I pondered about what the implementations of my blindness has for the communities that I’m involved in. How had my worship slipped back into self righteousness? The question is answered in the beginning of this writing, it’s an indicative/imperative assessment.

I failed, and we fail because we do not allow people to come to us as they are. We suppose that they will act a certain way, react a certain way or at least pretend to act a certain way. This creates communities that are not built on trust, but rather behavior. It’s simply going back to behavior modification on a communal level. It’s an issue that stems from original sin, we want to be God, and in doing so we throw burdens on people that aren’t theirs to carry. We want the clean, and yet we are called into the dirty.

My prayer is that our hearts will be broken for the broken. As broken people we will realize our faults and repent of our sinful ways. That we will yearn to be in the front lines of ministry, open about our brokenness and always on guard for the sin that is crouching at the door. That we will be people that look more like Jesus and less like the religious leaders. That God will move people into our paths, to challenge the norm and to force us to see the log that is in our own eye. Let us not be a people that misses the point, that gathers around expectation and in doing so, fails to point people to the one that never failed. His name is Jesus.

Reconciliation From the Heart

December 23, 2014 ~ sloggett ~ Leave a comment

There comes a time and a place where one must sit down and consider the past. For many, this comes during the end of a season or the end of a year. As I sit and think about the past year, I am baffled by all that has happened in my life. I think that sometimes we live our lives moment to moment, constantly driving towards the next accomplishment and goal. This rhythm produces a profound effect on our lives and the lives of the people around us. We become producers of content, from our 140 character tweets to our daily conversations and we become content in our lives of producing.

The good Lord has provided many opportunities to develop relationships, and in doing so, many opportunities to fail at developing relationships. It’s in that space, when we can quietly reflect on things that we could have done better, times where our worship went astray that we can learn from our mistakes. Time that we can repent, confess and return to worshiping the Creator. It amazes me that throughout my life, God continues to bring leaders that are patient enough to walk through the maturation process and loving enough to love, even when my heart is not in the right place. It amazes me that God was gracious enough to provide a wife for me that loves me regardless of how she feels about me in that moment. It amazes me that I have the family that I have, knowing that I don’t deserve that gift. There comes a time when you have to reflect on the gifts given.

The idea of radical reconciliation is so foreign to the world that we live in. The world that produces content at 140 character tweets and insta-everything. We take in and we push out more information than ever in the history of the world and in that process we lose part of the commitment that our words have had in the past. It seems to me that friendships and family are disposable terms in our current culture. That the words, “I love you” are little short of, “we are friends now, because you are doing what I want.” This systemic interaction produces the same level of commitment that our 140 words do. Approximately 7 minutes of life in the twittersphere. So the question begs, how do we radically reconcile our relationships and bring them to a point where they mean more than the tweet? It’s a complex problem, as all human interactions are. There are endless possibilities, more numerous than the sand of the sea. I don’t think that the solution is as complex. I think that the solution is rather simple, actually. The solution is found in our understanding of ourselves and the willingness to accept our condition.

In short, God has given us everything that we have. Our relationships, our material goods and the life that live. We manage to only bring destruction to the table. Our sin nature to put it simply. If this is true, the order of reconciliation should look something like, I have committed so much destruction and sin in my life that there is no room for me to judge you on any level. Therefore, because of my condition, I have no right to do anything except forgive and reconcile. In doing so, I will go out of my way to ensure that our relationship edifies the people around us.

The problem with radical reconciliation is that forces us to move from the field of competition, to the field of reconciliation. It forces us to put down our pride, our self righteous indignant flesh. We don’t live in a reconciled world, because we still want to live in the world of “me.” Unfortunately, the world of me creates destruction. The world of me wrecks lives and causes discontentment within our communities. The world of me rips through the relationships in our lives, producing communities that can’t trust and don’t want to live together. The world of me, disrupts and ruins the world that I live in.

There comes a time and a place that we have to reflect on the past, and my prayer is that as we look at the past, as we gaze into the future. A future where all things will be made new. A future that the brokenness of this world will be no more. In doing so, we gaze at the One who can change our hearts radically, so we might be able to reconcile our relationships.

The Gospel to the Streets

October 20, 2014October 20, 2014 ~ sloggett ~ Leave a comment

Walking through some teaching last night with a few of people made me realize that there is a disconnect, a misguided nature to the way that we teach Biblical truths to the people that God has placed in our paths. This disconnect isn’t inherently wrong, nor does it present itself as a heart issue per se, but it opens up conversation and teaching at a much deeper level. The issue is not with the curriculum that we are teaching but how we apply the teaching and the response to the truths that we are hearing.

Let’s flesh this out a bit. Last night we are working through the advanced year for Porterbrook. If you aren’t engaged in Porterbrook, find a learning site and go. We are talking about the Cross and the theological beauty of the scandal. The depth of the teaching is unreal. The implications are mind boggling and irrational, counter intuitive to the progressive society that we live in. As a group we can clearly define what grace is, and the happenings of the cross and this is where we find the disconnect. With all the teachings that we went over, we as a group struggled to be able to reteach or reframe all the teaching in language that mattered in our culture. We essentially have been taking great theological teaching and letting it die on our own domes (that’s brains in an urban culture).

Questions like; “How can you translate this for the people in your culture?” and “Can you explain this to me if I’m struggling with the nature of the cross?” turned out to be very pressing. Our group, had a difficult time breaking down the knowledge of the Gospel and turning it inside out. If we are going to fulfill the Great Commission we are going to have to turn the teaching inside out.

I love the phrase “turning the teaching inside out,” because it conveys the nature of the Gospel in a way that people can understand. As we peer into the Word, the Gospel infects our hearts, it changes us. We learn the deep truths, as we engage not only the Word but teachings from the word. It goes inside us. To develop disciples that internal engagement has to reflect and turn outward. It’s the nature of the Gospel. So our teaching has engage that reflection, it has to engage the mind and the heart. Our focus cannot be simply on learning, but on the teaching aspect as well. It’s in the nature of a disciple to teach, and reproduce.

Here are a few things to ponder before your teaching, regardless of the medium.

As a teacher, are you using theoretical language? Is your language conducive for reteaching? Are you pressing out how to teach the information? Are you using real world examples or are you relying on Christian language to reinforce your points?
Do your people really understand the material or are they just there? How can you format the teaching time to best engage your people? Is it time to step back and make sure that everyone is on the same page?
How is the Gospel speaking into the hearts of your people? You can turn the knowledge inside out, if it’s not really getting to the inside. Where are your people at in their daily devotions?
What’s going on in the lives of the people you’re shepherding? How can you leverage daily living as teaching moments? How is the Gospel speaking into their current situations?
Are you teaching our of your personal experience with the Gospel and whatever curriculum that you are working out of? Do you have stories and life events where the teaching as greatly effected you?

These are just a few of the questions that we should be asking ourselves as we are preparing to teach. The glory of the Gospel is that we can’t add anything to it, to make it work. We can however teach it in ways that press our people deeper in to mission, deeper into community and just plain deeper in.

How are you getting the Gospel to your streets?

Total Depravity and Fellowship

April 30, 2013April 30, 2013 ~ sloggett ~ Leave a comment

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Sometimes it’s hard to recognize just how relient we are on Christ. It’s so apparent when something doesn’t go right, or life gets stressed beyond where we are comfortable. This is where we find ourselves in complete depravity, needing everything from the Creator. If we look deeply in the words that Paul wrote to the Corinthians we see that he found great joy in feeling completely in need.

This week in the Basic Series, we talked about fellowship which ultimately comes down to the interpersonal relationship that we have with Jesus. It seems counterintuitive to think that an ‘internal’ relationship is directly responsible for our external ‘fellowship’, but through the scriptures I think that we can see how it directly plays out.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Fellowship is about relationship, and relationships are built around trust. Trust is built off of mutual vulnerability, allowing others to see and feel our depravity. It’s incredibly scary and it causes us to pull back. But God. His power is made perfect in our weakness, as we see above. He wants us to recognize that it’s not in the fellowship that we as a group are made strong, it’s in Him. See the relationship with Jesus works different than the relationship or fellowship that you have with your friends or even with the Church. God himself came down in human form, vulnerable to sin and capable of death. His resurrection defeated death and sin, so we can rest him him. There doesn’t have to be mutual vulnerability because like the song, His love never fails. Fellowship will fail, friendship will fail, but God…. our love fails,

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:8-13)

Paul can, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” because he knew that God’s grace and sovereignty never fails. His love never fails. If we continue to breakdown how these passages lace back into our vertical relationship with Christ we see that God is love, and

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:8-13)

The greatest gift from God is love. The power of Christ is love. Without the power of the Holy Spirit we cannot love even one person. We can’t love ourselves, we can’t love our kids, we can’t love our friends, we cannot love. You can’t have fellowship, and you definitely can’t have true communion without the power of the Holy Spirit.

The passage in James continues to reenforce this point.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Count it all joy, my brothers (community), when you meet trials of various kinds (depravity), for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness (love). And let steadfastness (love) have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Depravity looks ugly and it is. We are all capable of murder, but it’s God’s grace and continuing sanctification working through us that provides us with a glimpse of what it’s like to love. Through that insight we can start and work towards loving each other in community. True fellowship. It’s through his gospel that we find love, the words of his scripture and a interpretation of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

So my challenge today is that we focus on our interpersonal relationship with Jesus. We work towards a greater communion with Him so that we can have a greater communion with His bride.

This Weeks Teachings

April 23, 2013 ~ sloggett ~ Leave a comment

Each week for The Crux Student Ministry I lay out some going deep questions for our “cell family” or small group teaching. This week is based on the Fellowship portion of Francis Chan’s Basic series.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

Acts 4:32–35

All the believers were one in heart and mind.

This passage is loaded with Christ’s vision of the church. All the believers were one in heart and mind… Do we as a group have a gospel centered life? What does that look like? How can we center our lives around Jesus and what he said. How much easier would our life be without the drama of selfish desires? How much weight do you put in the things of this world and how does it effect your relationship with the Church? You know, the people we do life with…. or do we?

No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.

This passage started out discussing Christ’s vision of the church, that all the believers were one in heart and mind. The scripture then goes on to talk about our possessions and the things that we have. Do you think that the scripture is pointing us to something greater than our earthly possessions? What would you be more willing to give at this point, your TV or your talents and time? If the Holy Spirit truly empowers us to do all, then why as a family is it so hard to share our talents? Is it a pride issue? Are our talents and time our most prized possessions?

With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

The Church is suppose to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with power. Do our daily testimonies look powerful? Do we act out our testimonies daily? Do people see us differently? It’s said that the, “us against the world” mentality is the most dangerous and bonding mentality there is. As a Church, do we say, “it’s us against the things of this world?” How do you think that would play out in our daily walk and testimonies? Isn’t that the mentality that Christ calls us too?

And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them.

Honestly, what are your needs? If we as a Church don’t know each others needs, than how can there be “no needy persons among them?” How vulnerable does it make you to lay out all of your needs? Would that force you to rely on Jesus for strength? Would that build a more intimate relationship with the Church? Wouldn’t that really focus our lives on the cross? How much more real would that make the Church?

I’m talking real, as in, in your face, true life on life family. You take the pretenses and the judgement and throw it out the window and trust that the people around you are walking in grace and therefore there is nothing that can’t be brought to the table. I’m talking about family. How do we get our fellowship to look more like that?