Jennifer Kay Smith
in love with creativity & its sourceArchive for mark batterson
Two questions we all ask ourselves
This is some good stuff from Mark Batterson’s new book, Chase the Wild Goose.
John says in John 1:20: “I am not the Messiah.”
I think there are two fundamental questions that drive us: 1) who is God? 2) who am I? And the first question is the key to the second question for a very simple reason. If God knows you better than you know you, then you need to get to know God so you can get to know yourself. Think about it.
Half of the “who am I” journey is discovering who you are–gifts, personality, passions, etc. The other half is discovering who you’re not. And this is where true freedom is found. It starts with this simple acknowledgment: “I am not the Messiah.”
I think most of us spend way too much energy trying to be who we’re not. But the greatest freedom is having nothing to prove. And I think that is why John was used by God in such a great way. He knew who he wasn’t. “I am not.” In the process, I think we not only come to terms with things we’re not good at. We learn to laugh at them. In fact, the healthiest and holiest people on the planet, in my estimation, are the people who laugh at themselves the most.
rick warren thoughts
“Every conflict is the byproduct of immaturity.”
“You cannot have control and growth.”
“Art needs a frame.”
“Be a proponent of the new not an opponent of the old.”
One of the things we talked about was the importance of decentralization. He talked about Saddleback’s transition from a mid-week service where about 1000 people would attend to small groups. They have 26,000 people plugged into 3400 small groups that span a 100 mile stretch from LA to San Diego. That is the power of decentralization. I think multi-site is another dimension of decentralization. Launching locations keeps you from becoming too centralized.
Another topic that came up was criticism. Rick made some fascinating observations. We live in a day and age when anybody can say anything and the criticism is global, instant, and permanent thanks to Google. Rick shared some wise advice.
“If you wrestle with a pig you’ll both get dirty.”
“Define yourself or others will.”
“Bless those who curse you.”
“Separate fact from opinion.”
“Hurt people hurt people.”
“Insults are insecurities.”
- Mark Batterson on Rick Warren
and more from awaken
Erwin McManus: There are a lot of great churches out there that are reaching people like Mary and Martha and Peter in the Scriptures, but there aren’t enough which reach out to Dionysius and Damaris (Acts 17). It’s better to be alienated by the Christian world if that is what it takes to reach the alienated.
Mark Batterson: “If you want to please Christians then quote the Bible. If you want to gain credibility with the non-Christian world quote other sources. Every “ology” is a branch of theology.” Paul quoted the poets of Athenians, so we should do the same. Rather than buying a property to build a church, National Community Church bought a coffeehouse next to Capitol Hill in order to develop genuine relationships with people who wouldn’t go to a church. The world gains their understanding of theology through movies and music.
Erwin McManus & Wayne Cordero: Every church has a rate of speed. You want to get just a bit ahead of it. If you go to fast, you will loose your people. If you move to slow, the entrepreneurs will feel under challenge and leave. This goes to show that we may have to pick up the pace in our leadership. Yet, if God has the church going at 60 miles per hour, we have to be humble enough to allow those going at 90 miles per hour to leave. Wow.
Bill Hybels: It’s not just enough to cast a vision. The people must own the vision. We have to take time to help people own the vision. This means moving away from a Sinai approach (I go away, come back with a vision, and tell you what to do) to a Team approach (We work through the vision and implementation together as a team).
Mark Batterson: We often trade in our imagination for what’s logical. We can drift towards being predictable. We have to keep dreaming and keep our innovation fresh.
