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Stonecreek Church Hosts "An Evening with John Eldredge"

Stonecreek Church will host Beautiful Outlaw: An Evening with John Eldredge, Tuesday, October 11, 7 p.m. in the main auditorium. The event is the first stop in Eldredge's four-city tour to celebrate the release of his new book.

Eldredge shares, "Beautiful Outlaw is a book I've just written about the personality of Jesus--His playful, disruptive, scandalous, dangerous, beautiful personality. There is nothing more that matters than Jesus; to have His life, His joy, His friendship, His love. To know Him is to have the greatest treasure in all worlds."

Seating is limited and this event will sell out quickly. Tickets are $5 each. There is no childcare for this event.

Tickets for Stonecreek Church leaders and attendees may be purchased, here.

Tickets for the General Public may be purchased, here.

For more on Beautiful Outlaw, visit Ransomed Heart's Web site, here.

Primal Christianity

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30 (NIV)

Mark Batterson will take you on a journey to recapture the heart of the Great Commandment for your own walk with God. If you have been looking for a resource that will help you recapture the intimacy with God your heart longs for, then look no further. In Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, Batterson invites us to rediscover the compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy that turned the world upside down two thousand years ago. To obtain your copy, visit RandomHouse.com.

Flabby With Small Passions

I wanted to share this excerpt from John Eldredge's book, Desire, formerly published as The Journey of Desire. This book has been significant in my spiritual journey. I've always been drawn to this excerpt because it exposes the word "nice" as an impostor to true strength. The comment, "He's a really nice guy," has always made me cringe. While typically intended as a compliment, it still makes me cringe. Yes, I want to be kind--Jesus modeled kindness in his strength. We are commanded to be kind (Ephesians 4:32). But "nice"? Where have you mistaken being kind with being nice?

And so Screwtape reveals the Enemy’s ploy—first make humans flabby, with small passions and desires, then offer a sop to those diminished passions so that their experience is one of contentment. They know nothing of great joy or great sorrow. They are merely nice.

Christianity has come to the point where we believe that there is no higher aspiration for the human soul than to be nice. We are producing a generation of men and women whose greatest virtue is that they don’t offend anyone. Then we wonder why there is not more passion for Christ. How can we hunger and thirst after righteousness if we have ceased hungering and thirsting altogether?

As C. S. Lewis said, “We castrate the gelding and bid him be fruitful.”

The greatest enemy of holiness is not passion; it is apathy. Look at Jesus. He was no milksop. His life was charged with passion. After he drove the crooks from the temple, “his disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me’” (John 2:17). This isn’t quite the pictures we have in Sunday school, Jesus with a lamb and a child or two, looking for all the world like Mr. Rogers with a beard. The world’s nicest guy. He was something far more powerful. He was holy.

( Desire: The Journey We Must Take to Find the Life God Offers , 53–54)

We Have a Winner ...

Congratulations to Ric who was the first to correctly answer the Wild Goose Chase free book give-away question. In fact, he did so Thursday, August 14, at 10:49 p.m., only moments after the post went live! Congrats, Ric. Enjoy!

Sorry, folks. The contest is officially "closed," but you can learn more about Mark Batterson's new book, here.

Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson

Most of us have no idea where we’re going most of the time. Perfect.

“Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit--An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something….

Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.” --from the introduction, Wild Goose Chase.

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of Washington, DC’s National Community Church, widely recognized as one of America’s most innovative churches. NCC meets in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the city, as well as in a church-owned coffee house near Union Station. More than seventy percent of NCC’ers are single twentysomethings who live or work on Capitol Hill. Mark is the author of the best-selling In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and a widely read blogger (www.markbatterson.com). He lives on Capitol Hill with his wife, Lora, and their three children.

Check out Mark’s 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals at www.chasethegoose.com.

FREE BOOK GIVE-AWAY! I have one free copy of Mark's new book to give away. Here's how to play. The first person to post a comment (reply) to this post with the correct answer to the question below, wins the book. Click the comments link below this post to enter. Here you go...

In step #6 of Mark's 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals, he references a Bible verse in Habakkuk that says, "Write down the vision and make it plain on tablets." What chapter and verse from Habakkuk does he reference?

Good to Great and the Social Sectors

Just finished Jim Collins' monograph that accompanies his book Good to Great. I recommend it to anyone leading or actively participating in a ministry or non-profit organization. Here are some things that stood out to me, and are highlighted in my copy:

1. A great organization is one that delivers superior performance and makes a distinctive impact over a long period of time.
2. In social sectors, the critical question is... "How effectively do we deliver on our mission and make a distinctive impact, relative to our resources?"
3. ...separate inputs from outputs, and hold yourself accountable for progress in outputs, even if those outputs defy measurement.
4. If your organization were to disappear, would it leave a hole that could not easily be filled by any other institution on the planet?
5. True leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to.
6. Purity of mission ... has the power to ignite passion and commitment.
7. Hedgehog Concept: a) what are you deeply passionate about? b) what can you be the best in the world at? c) what best drives your resource engine (time, money, brand)? The convergence of these three creates the "sweet spot" or "hedgehog" for yourself or organization.
8. People like to support winners!
9. Building a great organization requires a shift to "clock building" -- shaping a strong, self-sustaining organization that can prosper beyond any single programmatic idea or visionary leader.
10. Key to social sectors is the ability to build upon tangible results and emotional share of heart, so that supporters believe not only in your mission, but in your capacity to deliver on that mission.
11. Consistency distinguishes the truly great.

True Faith and Courage

I'm on vacation this week with my family in San Antonio, Texas, celebrating my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. While we're enjoying the "lazy river" here at the Hyatt Hill Country, I've been reading "God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life," by Paul Kengor, Ph.D.

Today I spent some time reading how the "USSR did not try merely to block or halt religious faith but to reverse it altogether. This was also true for many communist bloc states, particularly Romania, ...among the world's most bigoted empires." (p. 68)

The book gives account of Richard Wurmbrand, a pastor who endured fourteen years of earthly hell in a Romanian prison for his belief in God, particularly his faith in Jesus Christ. Kengor shares,

Wurmbrand and other Christians were tied to crosses for four days and nights, and many seem to have suffered greater humiliation that Christ himself:

(Wurmbrand writes,)

The crosses were placed on the floor and hundreds of prisoners had to fulfill their bodily necessities over the faces and bodies of the crucified ones. Then the crosses were erected again and the Communists jeered and mocked: "Look at your Christ! How beautiful he is! What fragrance he brings from heaven!" ...After being driven nearly insane with tortures, a priest was forced to consecrate human excrement and urine and give Holy Communion to Christians in this form...All the biblical descriptions of hell and the pains of Dante's Inferno are nothing in comparison with the tortures in Communist prisons.

...Other things simply cannot be told. My heart would fail if I should tell them again and again. They are too terrible and obscene to put in writing... If I were to continue to tell all the horrors of Communist tortures and all the self-sacrifices of Christians, I would never finish.

This pastor's reality is so far from our consumer-oriented Christianity. The next time I think about taking for granted my faith in Jesus--whether at work, my neighborhood or with my family--I pray I remember this story that represents countless numbers of Christ-followers across the globe that have stood with great courage against the oppression of Evil in countless forms.

This is a great perspective check-point for me. I take my relationship with Jesus and my public opportunity to make His name known for granted so many times.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 (NIV)