I spent the last few days in sunny Pasadena Ca at the Origins Conference hosted by Erwin McManus and the folks at Mosaic.
I have read Erwin's stuff before and heard alot of the concepts and ideas that drive Mosaic. A few things hit me this time around.
Creativity is a natural result of Spirituality.
Every person is created in the image of a creative God. As each one of us begin to understand who we are and where we come from creativity should be the result.
Creativity is not the possession of the few but of all. The creative process reflects and glorifies God. Creativity's natural home is the church. We have reduced our gatherings to nothing more than a lecture surrounded by often times completely irrelevant music.
The F-word
The word fellowship is kicked around christian subculture like a hacky sack. According to the folks at the origins project, the bastardized (my term not their's) version of fellowship which so many people settle for kills churches. It causes the people of a given community to become internally focused and they cease to reach out to those who are hurting and lost. They exchange warm comfortable discussions for dangerous messy life changing relationships. Peter Jackson painted a more biblical picture of fellowship in the first Lord of the Rings movie than most churches do. Fellowship is supposed to be what Christ followers do together to reach others with God's Love.
Phrases worth remembering:
Talent can crush character
Adults only learn in crisis. In order to develop character we need to create crisises.
The gospel brings out the beauty of a culture.
Contextualizing conference stuff:
The pace and values of Fairfield county, CT are killing people from the inside out. How do we help people discover the individual they were intended to be?
The church needs to open it's front doors as wide as can possibly be imagined. At the same time the church must narrow the stair that allows people to positions of influence and authority.
Where am I taking wrong turns on the journey of developing Christ-like character?
Origins and Ethos are coming to Manhattan November 28, 29, 30th, 2006. If you are an east coaster and hesitated to make the trek to Cali you won't want to miss this. Click here to check for info as it becomes available
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6 comments:
Hey TK,
I think I found your blog a long time ago but never subscribed or commented. Funny thing, my wife grew up in Fairfield County, and her home church is Trinity Baptist. We are up there every few months since her mom and brother and his wife still live there.
Anyway, I found you again while searching for Origins. I went in 2004 and it was huge for me. Cool notes, I'm almost definitely going to the one in NYC.
good stuff tk, thanks for your comment on my blog...good thoughts.
Hi Tk,
I was wondering, what does "talent can crush character" mean? can you explain that? thanks, stacey
Hey stace,
"talent can crush character" was my rough paraphrase of this quote "Sometimes a person’s talent is too heavy for their character." This thought was expressed by more than one presentor at the conference. A person might have tremendous talent but lack the character to support that talent, i.e., lack humility or generosity. A person with great speaking and teaching abilities who lacks humility could quickly self-destruct.
We actually took character assessments based on a character matrix that moves from self-serving on one end of the continuum to servant leadership on the other.
The lead pastor of Mosaic or, Navigator, a much cooler title than pastor, said this in a conversation with someone about joining the paid staff at Mosaic "I am more committed to your character than I am to your talent." The church (BIG C and Little c) is often guilty of hiring/recruiting staff and avolunteeers based on talent and not character to fill a void. The lesson learned for me...better to live with a void for a little bit longer than to fill it with someone who is lacking godly character.
Hope that helps. BTW- Did I mention the conference is coming to Manhattan in the fall? (Nov 28, 29, 30 )
Some great points to ponder, my brother (as usual). Thanks for sharing.
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