"On the battlefield of ideas, winning requires moving toward the sound of the guns."
How people process and evaluate faiths determines how they choose.
6 Faith Paths
1. Relativistic faith path
Where most people are.
Something becomes true because they believe it. ..... So at the same time, God does exist for a Christian yet doesn't exist
because of an athiest?
However, truth is simply what is.
The key to life is to discover what is true and then to adjust your life accordingly.
2. The traditional path
I have always believed this - a hand me down faith
3. Authoritative path
You better believe this.
Authorities are only as good as their credentials
4. The intuitive faith path
I can just feel it....
5. The mystic faith path
"God told me" what is true
6. The evidentiary faith path
Is there evidence to this system of thought being correct?
Rethinking the importance of creation and evolution
Evolution is a theory, yet if you question it in academia, it is like questioning Stalin in 1925.
What are the social and economic implications for society of darwinism? Man = mud. You can do with him or to him what you
want.
The belief in creation says God created, so people have a spark of the divine within them - therefore, when you kill them you
are attacking God.
The first key to being an effective leader is being not dead!
Avoid burnout.
Who would applaud someone who only ran 3/4 of their race?
3 aspects:
Attention (tasks)
Connection (relationships)
Reflection (how was today?)
You can only make a genuine difference when you help transform a life.
America is culturally crippled by an addiction we deny having. Media exposure has become America's most widespread and
serious addiction today. Of the most dominant influencers in the USA today, 5 of the 7 are media.
Addictions
: they change our brain function
: they cause withdrawal symptoms
: we lose control of how much exposure we have
: we have a desire to reduce it but we are unable to
: it causes us to abandon or reduce our involvement in normal, heathy social activities
: the denial of an addiction
4 things
1. Recognise you cannot fix a problem that is not on the radar
2. Ask - What is our view about media?
3. Address the issue of parental responsibility
4. Can we raise up a new class of missionaries to the media world?
Historically, pinnacle nations become enamoured with sports, entertainment, celebrity, lose their moral compass and then fall in power.
Rethink our passivity
We have as much, or more, evidence for God than those who try to extract God from public life.
For a country to remain great
T.H.I.N.K. B.I.G.
Talent (intellectual)
Honesty
Insight
Nice
Knowledge
Books
Indepth learning - to understand
God
It really doesn't matter where you are, it's where you are going that counts. You get there by aligning yourself with God.
Google Carsons Scholar Fund
Humans are meaning machines - we add meaning to everything.
Sometimes we make the meaningless meaningful - superstition
Sometimes we make the meaningful meaningless.
Sometimes we can't make sense of the mess, and we must simply know that there is a master artist at work.
It requires 2 things: truth and experience
1. Truth
Spreading the gospel must always be grounded in the absolute truth of the christian message.
We have a defensible faith.
We have an unfair advantage in the marketplace of ideas - we have truth on our side.
Debate has a place but mostly dialogue is more effective than debate.
We do not begin dialogue by assuming the equality of all truth claims, but by the equality of all persons.
How do we facilitate this? Seeker small groups and using stories.
2. We must usher people into an experience with God.
Blaise Pascal - the night of fire.
There must be a connection between truth and experience.
Why they bought Myspace -
: to lead through it
: to help people express themselves
: to learn from it
In response to a question regarding the future of newspapers, Murdoch said they may not exist on paper but will exist as journalistic enterprise to deliver news: "If you have done your job right, people will come to you because they rely on you".
Encourage innovation
It's no longer about getting people's time or attention - it's about getting people's hearts.
Tomorrows leaders will be meaning makers.
People are tired of chasing cool.
Don't chase cool - infuse meaning.
This generation is willing to leave their job, parents, country to find meaning.
How do we infuse meaning? Reinvent FIRE
Ferocious
Imaginations that
Revolutionise
Everything
We must push responsibility to those on the outer edges.
Break habitual cycles - do something creative
The power of inconsistency!
If inconsistent- can't be predicted
If unpredictable- can't be duplicated
If can't be duplicated-it is valuable
Jesus was inconsistent.
It's all about influence and how we use media to impact culture.
Why branding?
1. Perception matters: if you don't control your perception in the community, you will be at the mercy of others who will
2. Choice : so many options
Branding is the compelling story surrounding you and your organisation. In a media rich world, we need an easy handle.
1. Visibility is as important as ability : visibility=voice
2. You can't brand a lie- we need to live more transparent lives than ever
3. Being different is everything
Questions to ask when working out branding
1. What's the point? Why do you do this?
2. Who are you?
3. Skills/ talents
4. What makes you different?
What can we do right now?
1. Understand the power of a name - your name matters
2. Put a lot of effort into logo and look - design matters
3. Be careful with humour
4. What is the overarching theme of your life and ministry?
Study
High hostility - 20% death rate over 20 years
Low hostility - 2% death rate
When evil men plot, good men must plan - Martin Luther King Jnr
To the extent that we love is the extent to which we will bear good fruit as a leader
3 aspects of love as a leader
1.You must love what you do - enough to inspire others
2. Love people outside of their work
3. Love people enough to push them
2. Vision is created by the stories ee tell and the heroes we create.
3. Defining God moments are only as significant as the lifestyle they produce. Get it into the rhythm of your life.
4. Teamwork is a strategy not a slogan.
Our job is not to get involved in artificial harmony but to debate and make decisions
5. Stop being surprised that leadership is difficult.
Max Dupree - leaders are only right 50% of the time - this allows resilience...
Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.
Rephrased
1. Surrendered
Learn to say yes to God in every area of your life
Why don't we? We are scared and we are selfish
2. Disturbed
We must be willing to die
3. Ruined
Be gloriously ruined for something that lasts
How will people know God is with them if we are not with them?
How we live is determined by the size you perceive God to be.
When we shrink God we offer
: prayer without faith
: worship without awe
: suffering without joy
: service without hope
Gideon looked at himself in a way that rationalised his passivity and say no to the big call.
What is unthinkable on my own is unstoppable with God.
God will be, this day, as big a presence in your life as you allow Him to be.
Integrity is not just the policeman against bad things happening- it is to be an integrated whole.
When a leader hits a wall, it is often because there is something not whole
Learn to listen to the cries of those around you.
1. Don't go to work and do a job: go to your destiny and fulfil your calling.
2. If you've got the faith, God has the power
3. God is answering your prayers
Replace wrong thoughts with God's thoughts and words.
Jesus was the ultimate reframer.
The things that control you are your beliefs.
The more I memorise and meditate on God's word, I hide it in my heart. The more I do that, the more His word becomes my beliefs and then He controls me!
We make mistakes
God allows consequences
God redeems - our soul and our failures
Ps 138:7 and 8
If you didn't go home, who would miss you?
If you didn't go to work, who would miss you?
It's all about meaningful relationships.
3 simple rules
1. Do right
2. Do everything to the best of your ability
3. Show people you care
People are most energised when they are using their strengths for a bigger purpose.
Purpose is the ultimate fuel for an energised life.
Negativity brings inefficiency.
We have a choice between 2 roads - positive or negative.
Filled with divine (enthusiastic) and filled with purpose.
Bring purpose to what you do everyday
Your relationship university was the family you grew up in.
This generation has a hunger and thirst for information on healthy relationships.
If you try to build intimacy with another person, before you do the hard work of getting whole yourself, all your relationships become an attempt to complete yourself and will fall flat.
Your relationships can only be as healthy as the least healthy person in them.
How do you be healthy?
Lock in the following.....
1. Profound significance - understand your profound significance to God and His deep love for you
2. Unswerving authenticity - your relationship with you (not pleasing others)
3. Self-giving love - recognising other's needs. Walking the extra mile.
Your internal dialogue is the most significant conversation yo have. 73% of your self-talk is negative.
How do good people lose heart?
They are assaulted by pain. This makes them feel angry or anxious. If they can't solve their pain then they feel alienated or arrogant. This leads to adulteries of the heart to calm or soothe their heart. This leads to addiction where I am dependant on this.
1 John 5:21
Idols - when we give ourselves to something else to calm or soothe ourselves
Gal 5:1
A good website listens carefully to people.
Iterate always - significant change every 2 weeks.
We addresses should have around 6 letters or 2 syllables and be spelt like they sound eg yahoo, google, amazon
We are moving from the information age to the attention age. How do we get people's attention?
What does this technology overload mean for preachers - the power of communication in person, real life connection and telling stories.
The spiritual me generation is saying all roads lead to a god of my own making.
Christian? Religious? Spiritual?.... Lovestruck.
NB this is strongly contextual to USA
The Advent Conspiracy
What does it mean to be a global christian?
Answer that by asking - Who are you praying for right now?
60 seconds
The average website has 10 seconds to get your attention.
The next 10 seconds answering 'what is this'?
The next 10 seconds answering 'can I navigate this?'
If people spend 3 minutes on your website, it's great!
In 60 seconds you can
: read 250-300 words
: type 33 words
: write 22 words
Everything is going digital and getting shorter.
Once it goes digital, it never disappears.
Communication is now becoming asynchronous. Technology was created to bring those who were far away closer. Now it is starting to move those who are closer further away.
"We will soon reminisce about evenings as a family gathered around the TV" Michael Moritz
Where to look in the future? The iphone. If it's not in my phone,does it exist?
Rethink how do I reach people who are bombarded by media?
Be an example
Give God the first-fruits of your time
Have healthy relationships
Get adequate rest (or you make poor decisions).
Be in a supportive relationship (accountability)
Like what you do
Be happy
Be vigilant
What go you here, will not get you there.
We live on a planet with great problems. We need great dreams and great faith.
Great dreams mandate great resources. Unless your dream requires a miracle, He will reduce your resources until He gets the glory of a miracle.
Christians need to
: understand the basic truths of Christianity
: defend the truths
: live out the truths
: explain these truths lovingly to others
It must affect the way you live.
Everywhere there are small written testimonies of people who have helped build this facility. One showed a lady who first got saved when she was 6, and came to one of the early services Dr Schuller ran at a drive-in movie theatre. Many years later,she gave the first $1,000,000 gift to build the welcome and hospitality centre.
It is inspiring. Faith and possibility thinking.
