jayhardwick.com

Friday Five

Been a crazy week...still lots to do today, so let's get on with this week's Friday Five!

1. Happy iPhone 3G Day to those who are taking the plunge! Lara Beth orchestrated a beautiful strategy so that I got enough money for my birthday to buy one with the reduced price...COOL! But, AT&T raised their rates by $15/month with text messaging...NOT COOL. Oh well...maybe next year...

2. The last two weeks, I have felt more like a real estate guy than anything else. But, it's been good. Thanks for praying for us...the hand of God has been all over this process! We cannot wait to start meeting neighbors and using our new home to gather people.

3. Visited my sister in-law at the youth camp where she is on staff this summer. Great worship environment, in spite of the middle schoolers! :-) Molly was standing next to me and I got all messed up when I could hear her singing "God of this City" at the top of her lungs with her hands raised and her feet dancing. I'll never forget that moment...NEVER!

4. Sam and I worked on some processes this week that are vital if Awaken is going to produce transformed people. I'm convinced that Christianity's credibility hinges on transformed people and if we can't produce them, then why bother.  I'm excited about the process God laid out for us!

5. Looking forward to Sunday: I am leading worship...yes, you read that right :-)...at my brother in-law's church plant, Generation Church, right here in Northeast Columbia. Got new guitar strings and got my callouses built back up....I'm ready to roll! In the afternoon, we are doing a "camp" at Sesqui State Park for kids from a local tailer park. And, Sunday night, Awaken will host the second prayer experience as part of the 40 Days of Prayer & Repentance.  Sunday will be a busy one, but I can't wait!

Have a great weekend!

That's Quotable: Tom Clegg and Warren Bird

"The inescapable conclusion is that we must throw out any notion that God is truly at the center of the church's heart in North America. The shift in society's view of the church has resulted in the marginalization of the church and the secularization of society. Christianity has lost its place at the center of American life. Christians must learn how to live the gospel as a distinct people who no longer occupy the center of society. We must learn to build relational bridges that win a hearing."

- Tom Clegg and Warren Bird in Lost in America, as quoted by Hugh Halter in The Tangible Kingdom

This may sound heretical...I'm not sure that Christianity losing its place at the center of American life is all that bad. When the gospel spread most rapidly and effectively, the first 300 years after Jesus' resurrection, Christianity was an obscure, marginal, persecuted movement that was nowhere near the center of life in the Roman empire.

The challenge, and I think the reason why we have a hard time swallowing this pill, is that the cultural shift requires huge shifts in our thinking, preparing, assumptions, living...everything. But, if we make these shifts, I believe we'll move closer to truly living out the Kingdom life Jesus founded, modeled, and called us to live. This shift may just be the kick in the rear-end we need to live in such a way that there is an easily discernible difference in values, behaviors, and relationships between those who follow Jesus and those who don't.

I'd love to hear from you...do you agree with Clegg and Bird? Do you agree that this shift could be good? What are some significant shifts that the church needs to make? What does it look like for Jesus followers to truly live as a distinct people?

It Begins with a Broken Heart

Last week, I told you about God's call for us to leave it all behind in moving to Columbia to start Awaken. There's another reason why de-emphasizing the form of church was and still is important.

Transformation on any level doesn't begin with a new church form - it begins with a broken heart.

In this day when so many are frustrated and disenchanted with more traditional forms of church, it's pretty easy to draw a crowd by selling a new church form - especially this "missional community" idea. As we've pieced together what God has called us to do, people have responded with phrases like, "Man, that is so Acts 2," or "Yes, someone finally got it right," or "That's the way Jesus would do church." I appreciate their enthusiasm, but I have a fear as a result of some of these comments.

The point is not to sell out for a church model that's "not like the last place." To that, I say, "Why bother?" Missional communities or Mega-churches can be equally effective and equally defective. The determining factor is not the form, it's the heart. The point is to be so broken over lostness in your city that you would do ANYTHING short of sin to see that city transformed!

God can do a lot with a heart breaking over lostness. I'm not sure He can do much with the pride that comes with thinking your form is the only one that is right and that it's way better than the one down the street. If that's the only reason we employ new church forms, then something is way off.

For months, we begged God to continually break our hearts for Columbia, not a church form. He has and still is. Along the way, we've asked Him to send us people whose hearts are breaking for Columbia, not a church form. He has and still is. As we form community and catalyze movement, our prayer will always be for God to keep us broken.

Friday Five on the Fourth

1. Looking forward to a great day & weekend with family and friends. Swimming, ribs, fixins, more swimming, more ribs, more fixins, and then cap it off with some serious fireworks. Yeah!

2. On Sunday night, Awaken will host the 1st of 5 prayer experiences as part of the 40 Days of Prayer & Repentance. Each experience will start at 6:00 pm @ North Point Church. I cannot wait to see how God answers our prayers to change us and change our city!

3. We're in the middle of taking the ultimate irreversible step to put down roots in Columbia. We're nervous as all get out, but confident that if God wants this to happen, it will happen.  Pray it through with us, please!

4. My grandfather in-law, aka "PeePaw", retired this past Sunday after 60+ years in the ministry, the last 41 years serving as Pastor of Ekron Baptist Church in Brandenburg, KY. Talk about commitment, putting down roots, and giving your life for the sake of a city...there it is! He and "MeeMaw" are in town and I am looking forward to spending time learning from and reflecting with them this weekend. Thank you, PeePaw & MeeMaw!

5. Freedom is never free. Really grateful for the men and women whom you and I never knew but who willingly gave their lives for our freedom. Even more grateful for the freedom and life that comes in trusting and following Jesus. While we were still sinners, He gave His life for our freedom. Amazing!

Happy Fourth!

Leave it Behind

Bono says it so well at the end of the U2 tune, "Walk On"...

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress up
All that you scheme...

Gotta admit that I didn't exactly jump for joy when it became clear that God was calling us to Columbia.  I sort of wondered why God would call us back to our hometown when Jesus didn't do so well when He passed through His hometown (Matthew 13:57-58). :-)

Not long after we started the journey, the unique opportunity that God was giving us became clear. Because we grew up here, there was a bit of street credibility that we could leverage.  We've paid our dues here. We know the culture. We know the people. We know the lay of the land.  We have an inside track.

As part of leveraging this, we felt like God called us to leave behind every form of church we've ever loved, hated, wondered about, worked in, dreamed about...everything.  He called us to leave it all behind, join Him in Columbia, and spend considerable time getting to know people.  Without a big vision to sell my only option was to listen.

As we got to know people...people far from God, people very near to God, and people at all parts in between...the question became "what does church look like among these people?" Instead of me asking, "How can I get people to do what I want" the question was, "How can I join what God is already doing and do what He wants."  I'm telling you, we would have never arrived where we are without this beginning point.

We'll use the same beginning point with all of our missional community leaders and anyone else who embraces the missionary call of God on their lives.  God is already at work in every man, woman, and child drawing them to Himself in and through Jesus - He's calling us all to join Him.  But joining Him often times means we have to leave it all behind.

Awaken Columbia

Well, the cat is finally out of the bag. Head on over to www.AwakenColumbia.com to see what in the world God is up to here in good 'ole Columbia, SC and what He's called us to do to be a part of it.

Pretty exciting stuff.

Pretty scary stuff, too.

Last night, we launched a 40 day season of prayer & repentance. You can follow, read stories, and participate yourself via the Awaken blog. We'll culminate this season on August 10 with a worship & communion gathering where as a community we will give ourselves fully to Jesus and His mission in this great city.

I've been sort of stealth about what we've been up to on purpose. Mostly because I needed time to let this vision marinate in my mind and heart, which has involved lots of wrestling, stretching, learning, doodling, etc. But, I also wanted our family to have time to start to live it. Don't want to take anyone where I am not willing to go and already going myself.

So, I'll unpack more of this in the coming days and weeks.  But for now, you know what we're up and you know how to pray. Thanks to all who have already been praying for, encouraging, and supporting us and this work. Keep it up!

Friday Five

1. House Hunting Mis-Adventure #2: Went to look at a house last Saturday. Walked in one of the upstairs bedrooms only to find a man and a woman...IN THE BED!  I don't even want to know what we're going to walk in on next! Any crazy house hunting stories out there?

2. Viva La Vida, as a whole, is going to have to grow on me. I like it, but I don't love it...yet. X&Y was the same, so I'm okay with giving it some time.  Your thoughts?

3. Preaching at Center Grove Church in Winston-Salem, NC on Sunday. The message I am preaching has been brewing in my heart and mind for months...can't wait to let it out!

4. I've decided that my new favorite drink at Starbucks is the Iced Doubleshot.  It is simply fantastic! What's your favorite at Starbucks?

5. Thanks to some very generous friends, LB, the girls, and I are heading out on Monday for a week at the beach. Really looking forward to getting away for a whole week with just the 4 of us. This will be our first "just us" vacation and I can't wait! What are you doing for vacation?

Happy Weekend!

The Upside-Down, Alternate Kingdom

From Tim Keller's masterpiece, The Reason For God:

"This pattern of the Cross means that the world's glorification of power, might, and status is exposed and defeated. On the Cross, Christ wins through losing, triumphs through defeat, achieves power through weakness and service, comes to wealth via giving all away. Jesus Christ turns the values of the world upside down...

This upside-down pattern so contradicts the thinking and practice of the world that it creates an 'alternate kingdom,' an alternate reality, a counterculture among those who have been transformed by it. In this peaceable kingdom there is a reversal of the values of the world with regard to power, recognition, status, and wealth. In this new counterculture, Christians look at money as something to give away. They look at power as something to use strictly for service. Racial class and superiority, accrual of money and power at the expense of others, yearning for popularity and recognition, these normal marks of human life, are the opposite of the midset of those who have understood and experienced the Cross. Christ creates a whole new life. Those who are shaped by the great reversal of the Cross no longer need self-justification through money, status, career, or pride of race or class. So the Cross creates a counterculture in which sex, money, and power cease to control us and are used in life-giving and community-building rather than destructive ways." (emphasis mine)

I think it's safe to admit that we have largely lost this ethos as the collective, universal community of Jesus-followers...at least we have in America.  The statistics prove it every year...there is virtually no difference between Christians and non-Christians in terms of behavior, values, and relationships.

Just after the Cross, you would have been an idiot to call yourself a follower of Jesus, yet retain the world's value systems and only wiggle your toe in the upside-down, alternate kingdom that Jesus founded.  You would have been an idiot because you would have been killed for something you only halfway believed in.

We are headed back to the culture the first disciples lived in after the Cross.  Christianity is no longer at the center of American culture.  And I'm not convinced that's a bad thing.

Yes, we should speak up for, defend, and fight for a Christian worldview.  But maybe before we defend it and argue for it, we should actually try living it. Christianity being shoved from the center of American culture just may be the jolt that we need to return to this upside-down, countercultural ethos that defined Jesus and His first followers.

What if we all lived on less so we could give more. What if we leveraged the power and influence we have for those who have none and never will have any.  What if we really embraced the Cross as all the justification we need...we are justified in and through Jesus and Him ALONE! No money, power, or sex can trump the justification of Jesus! What if we rested in that and then ordered our lives accordingly.

This is where I want to live...the upside-down, alternate kingdom of Jesus.  I'm begging God to continue to break me of pride, of my need for justification from other sources, and of my selfishness. At the same time, I am begging Him to give me a heart full of His love and grace shown toward me so that I can freely live it and give it to others.

It Might Not Work

I needed this today.  Maybe you do, too.

The object isn’t to be perfect. The goal isn’t to hold back until you’ve created something beyond reproach. I believe the opposite is true. Our birthright is to fail and to fail often, but to fail in search of something bigger than we can imagine. To do anything else is to waste it all. - Seth Godin

I often tell people that I feel like we're in the Research & Development Department with our lab coats and goggles on. Lots of "what's that button do?" kind of conversations!  What we're doing right now is nowhere near perfect.  It probably never will be.  It might not even work.  And, that's okay.

Lara Beth and I talked about this very thing last night.  A year ago, I was scared to death of failure. Last June, if God would have clued me in to all that was to come in the next 12 months, I doubt we would have ever left Greenville. Instead, what He's done is lead us little by little to a place of complete confidence and trust in Him and His call on our lives. And along the way, He destroyed my fear of failure.   But, I still have my moments and need reminders like Godin's.

What can you do today to advance the idea or vision God has given you for what could be and should be? Don't wait for it to be perfect in every way. Take your best thinking, best plans, best ideas to this point and take an irreversible step....as Godin says, anything else is a waste.

My irreversible step today...I'm buying a URL for our new website/blog. What's yours?

Hi, I'm Jay...Let's Talk About Sex

I've preached I don't know how many times in I don't know how many places and have never done what I did yesterday at The River Church.

When Bryan invited me to speak, he told me they would be in a series on marriage and that it would great if I could stick with the series.  The good news is that he is a part of a network of pastors/churches that plan their series and sermons together, so I wouldn't be on my own to come up with content.  But I'd still have to preach the message and make it personal...

So, in my first ever visit to The River Church, not only did I preach, but I preached on sex!  In the words of Gary Lamb, "Yeah...come on!"

And, since it was only 15 minutes away and they have one service, Lara Beth and the girls were able to go, too.  No, the girls were not in the service :-), but LB was on the second row smiling and laughing at me the whole time.  We had fun with it...no pun intended! ;-)

All in all, I had a blast! The people were great...they laughed at my jokes, talked back when it got good, and were gracious when it was all said and done.

So, if you need a sexologist to come in and drop some hammers, I'm your guy! I've got my opening line..."Hi, I'm Jay...let's talk about sex..." :-)