Gospel Centered Church

This is yet another attempt for me to succinctly describe my shift in thinking, and the difference between some churches I've been a part of in the past vs. my current beliefs. Convoluted you say? You ain't seen nothin yet...

Typical church, in my past, has...
...said it believes in evangelism, but in practice this means overseas missions for a few, door to door pamphlet dropping for a few, “relational” evangelism (Blurting “Jesus is Lord”) for some, but guilt and lack of evangelism for most.
…been a club or a religion, but not genuine relationships. Not honesty. Not exposure.
...been dominated by comparisons and pretending. Pretending to be mature. Pretending to have your life all together. Pretending to be sinless. Comparing ourselves to others (guilt or pride). Pretending to be thoughtful (I’ll pray for you... I’ve been praying for you, rather than admitting “I blew it. I forgot to pray for you”)
...forgotten about the gospel. The gospel seems to have served as the entry into Christianity, but after that we’re supposed to reach maturity on our own.
...spent most of its time and efforts sustaining itself rather than reaching the lost.
...spent most of its teaching efforts on fluff and content of questionable value. Even churches where the teaching was the predominant feature (hour long sermons involving tearing the passage apart to teach it bit by bit) had this problem... maybe even more than most.
...been comprised, almost completely, of people who grew up in the church or came from another church, or wanted their kids to have some morality in their lives. RARELY were people there who turned to Jesus because of evangelistic efforts of those in that church.
...filled with a huge majority who are lukewarm (at best) and a few who are committed and love Jesus, but hugely misunderstand their reason for existing.
...excluded unbelievers from participating or, at the very least, assumed that the church service is where you bring them to be saved.

Why is this? Why would the church be this bloated, self-focused (not missional), entity which is, practically, drastically different than what God says it should be.

Church that I’ve seen, that seems alive, looks like this:

Close knit relationships - Relational - diving into other people's problems. Diving into your friends problems and your neighbors problems. Genuinely caring and bring the gospel to bear in a non-”gospel presentation” way. It’s a grass roots, ground level, approach to bringing the gospel to the world around us. It is the gospel in the day-to-day grind... in EVERY moment, not just in religious moments. Sharing life with others in a missional lifestyle with the intent of discipling, being discipled and involving unbelievers in your lives to bring Jesus into their lives. Unbelievers are invited to participate in the church because the church (these day-to-day relationships, not a worship service) is where they’ll see a loving community reliant on Jesus for their peace and happiness.

Gospel focused - The gospel is not something to start with and then move on from. The gospel is a life-long pursuit and something to apply to every aspect of our lives. Reliance on Jesus is a big, never ending, journey. The gospel should be constantly on our tongue toward ourselves, one another, and the lost. Gospeling (speaking the gospel truth) to each other with consistency.
It means being honest...owning up to our sin and believing we are weak, sinful, people and that God is most glorified by such people. We are not strong and mighty, God is. God does not choose the wise and eloquent. He chooses the foolish in order to humble the wise. Admitting “my life is a mess, and I need Jesus constantly”... not minimizing the cross. Believing everyone is sinful and that none are better than others. We’re all lost without Jesus. This IS the gospel and any attempt to prove ourselves worthy turns out to be an attempt to disprove the gospel.
Believing the gospel is powerful and attempting to find any way possible to bring it to people (contextualizing the gospel).
We should be constantly assessing where we are failing to believe the gospel in our lives. Our significance is not found in our work, grades, looks, power, etc.. it’s found in Jesus. This is the gospel and reminding ourselves and others of this is how we ‘gospel’ ourselves and others.

Jesus focused - It's all about Jesus and HIS glory... (not OUR church or its growth, not OUR finances, not doctrine, not good morals or deeds, not patriotism, not freedom). Being Jesus focused often leads to movements that are anti-establishment as Christians realize that church services are not the best way to reach the lost (due to baggage, awkwardness, etc). Being Jesus focused means being “all-in”, attempting to let go of idols to follow God. Being willing to do whatever He asks, no matter how difficult, dangerous, or bizarre.

Mission focused - Not overseas missions (necessarily) but finding a people group that you are ready to pour your life into with the intent of showing Jesus to them. Recognizing that this is why we are here. Jesus asked us to make disciples and MAKING disciples doesn’t mean HAVING disciples. (We often confuse 1 on 1 mentoring of another believer with the creation of a new disciple of Jesus.) This kind of mission involves radical steps... radical sacrifice...doing whatever it takes to bring the gospel into peoples lives, but it also involves simply living as a disciple of Christ in the day to day in an intentional fashion which lets unbelievers see it lived out in your life. (Seeing comes via relationships, not stealing pencils from your employer while your co-workers are watching is good, but not enough.)

Cooper the Happy Monkey

Recently, some silliness by Corey spawned the following wackiness by our son. Basically, Corey would yell and act terrified (arms waving and whatnot) and Cooper would respond in kind. His wackiness was eerily similar to the monkey in Toy Story 3... so, here's a video comparison for you:

Dear God, ANSWER ME!

When we put our house on the market, I had hoped and prayed that God would sell our house "quickly and for more than it's worth". In part, I wanted it done and sold, and in part I wanted Him to get glory. After more than a month on the market, having lowered the price, and having seen a number of people tour the house only to pass it up and buy something else, I became bitter and frustrated. I mean, the emotions of being in two places at once, and having to keep the house clean all the time, is one thing... that's very real, but not what I'm talking about here.

Today I sat looking out my window asking God why I can logically understand that He works things for my best, but why He doesn't often seem to work in dramatic, "miraculous" ways in response to my prayers. The way I saw it, there's no reason why God shouldn't answer my prayer to sell the house quickly and for good money. After all, it would bring Him glory! Right? Well, then it dawned on me...

I was looking to bring Him glory by saying "God sold our house for more than it was worth and in less time than others were selling!". But this is rarely how God works... He most often works by affecting change in peoples hearts and lives, and less frequently in their physical comfort and bank accounts.

God is not as concerned about my physical well being as He is about my spiritual well being. My "unanswered" prayers regarding our house do not indicate His love for me... my development does. Because of this, my prayers that God would sell the house in a way that brings Him glory, are being answered. In the end, what brings God glory is how I've grown through this. He is a God of relationship and fatherly love, not a genie or divine vending machine.

UPDATE:
I figured I should amend this to reflect what happened after this... I had the above revelation and the next day, here's what happened.... I was in my office, frustrated that nobody was looking at the house. I was aware of the above, but still wondered why nobody was viewing the house as compared to early on. I came out to the kitchen and voiced this to Corey... I then came back to the office and prayed "God, I don't know why nobody is calling to see the house. Please just help me to enjoy my time with my family, and to cherish them while we wait". Literally one minute later, a call came that someone wanted to view the house in an hour. They came and looked at it, and within a couple of hours we had an offer. A full price offer within a month and a half of listing in the worst housing market in at least 30 years.

KU falls to a mid-major....again.

I've got all kinds of frustration over this one... but really, KU losing to VCU is much the same as their loss to UNI last year. And, because of that, I'm just going to copy and paste part of my blog entry from LAST March:

KU has some serious flaws that haunt them almost every year. And they are pretty consistently the same every year. The turnovers were a relatively new anomaly this year, but that's the only "new" thing. The two main things that have killed us almost every tournament for the last 15 years are:
1) Our help defense habitually leaves pure shooters. Whether it's by design, or by habit, our help defense continually leaves pure shooters too open. Nobody should EVER leave a shooter like Ali Farokhmanesh open... even momentarily. The instructions to his man should be "I don't care what else is going on, even if someone has a clear lane to the hoop, you stay with Farokhmanesh!" It's someone like this that kills us almost every year.
2) Very similar to the above... WHERE IS OUR ALI FAROKHMANESH? I mean, I understand recruiting the biggest, fastest, most athletic guys possible, but how about some shooters? The retort will probably be "what about Reed?" or "what about Collins?". Well, they are fine shooters... BUT, they can't shoot from anywhere in any position. A pure shooter has a quick release and only needs an inch to get his shot off. He can do it off screens or on the pull up. He can hit his shot anywhere, anytime. The problem with the guys we recruit is that they generally have slow releases and need space to shoot. Collins is the exception, but he's hardly a "shoot in any position" or a "shoot coming off a screen" type of guard. He generally needs space, and his penetration ability affords him that space.... unless his penetration isn't working (see Northern Iowa game circa TONIGHT!) I can't think of the last KU player who could do this... who could shoot quickly and in any position. (maybe Jeff Boschee? Though late in his career he was far from pure...)

And just to head anyone (Yes I know I'm talking to myself here...) off at the pass. No, our perimeter shooting is not good. Generally we get good open looks from our talented frontcourt or from penetrate and kick-outs. We don't have a single shooter, nor have we for many years, who can pop off a screen quickly and deliver a jumper. We've had a few who COULD have, but didn't for lack of aggression (see Rush and Henry)

Coach Self... You are the man. You're doing an awesome job. I never thought anyone could replace Roy Williams, but you've done it fantastically. My one piece of advice for you, from a completely outside and uneducated perspective: RECRUIT A PURE SHOOTER. A Steph Curry, an Ali Farokhmanesh, a Mickey McConnell... or, at a higher level, a Lacedarius Dunn or JJ Reddick. They're usually lightly recruited and all from mid-major schools. Almost every mid-major program has one, so they can't be that hard to find. My guess is that big schools pass them up because they're short, or slow, or can't dribble, or whatever. But come tourney time.... they kill you.

The next couple of years may be tough for KU fans as we are likely to be severely lacking in the 3-pt shooting department. If Henry DOES bolt for the pros, then next year we'd have guards of Taylor, CJ Henry (if he stays) Johnson, Little, Releford, Morningstar, Reed, Woolridge... as well as a assorted backups. The only proven shooters in the bunch are Reed and Morningstar, both of whom need a lot of daylight to get their shot off. Johnson, Henry and Woolridge are relative unknowns beyond the arc. Taylor, Little and Releford are all below average deep shooters. Oh, and ALL of these players (with the possible exception of Woolridge and Henry) need lots of daylight to get their shot off.

So... next couple of years may be more of the same. Good inside presence, lots of athletes, but inconsistent perimeter shooting.

Yep. Same thing EVERY YEAR. KU loses because the other team gets hot from 3-pt range and KU goes cold. I swear... EVERY year. I'd look it up and post the historical stats, but who cares? 2 for 20 isn't going to cut it boys... Coach Self: PLEASE RECRUIT A SHOOTER. And by "shooter" I mean, someone who can shoot it quickly, coming off screens and with little daylight. A gym rat.

As a side note, assuming the Morris twins don't come back (they're both locks to be drafted high in the NBA), KU will be weak next year; lacking shooters and big men. If you're lacking big men, but have quick guards that can shoot and create havoc defensively, then you have a chance. However, if you lack big men AND lack shooters.... it'll be a long year.

Emerging from the Quarantine

The Norris family appears (I don't want to say this too hastily) APPEARS to be emerging from our annual 4-6 week bout with the Chuck Norris Super-flu. This years variety was complete with a visit to the ER (for Cooper) and several consecutive weeks of mild fever along with a cough that doesn't quit and ceaseless streams of snot.

Chuck Norris Approved this Flu.

So, in the midst of our bout with the flu, we decided to list our house. It's on the market now and several people have come to look at it. And, when they came, we loaded our sick crew into the van (in other contexts "sick crew" might be something really cool) and went to sit in the store parking lot. We're discovering that it's hard to be patient and to wait for our house to sell. Hopefully we don't have to keep it spotless for too long... though we ARE learning to trust God more and more through it.

A good thing

This 5 minute video is a good thing and I should watch it daily, if not hourly, to remind myself of who I am.
Tim Keller - What is the gospel?

A shift in thinking...

I’m so pumped up about all I’m learning through our church’s journey. Finally, after many years, Christianity makes sense and the gospel makes sense. It’s exciting, but overwhelming to think about trying to explain this shift in thinking to others. It sounds subtle, and in some ways it is, but it’s also a hugely and amazingly revolutionary shift for me and Corey. So, I’ll just try to explain what the shift is and how it came about, as simply as possible.

And, just as a caveat, obviously this kind of thing is best explained in person (and not on a blog) and I’m sure I’ll butcher this, but oh well. Also, this really is a shift over several years which started with me and a few others just seeing that church as we were “doing it” didn’t line up with what we saw in the Bible. God graciously brought us on a journey which started with the Total Church conference and has woven its way through relationships with Acts 29 network and Soma Communities. This is a shift which is still in process, but, as I said before, I’m pumped about it. So, on to my story...

Our past:
In the past, this is what Christianity has been for us. This is speaking in large generalizations, and represents (as I said before) a bit further back in our past, but it’s helpful to see where we’ve come from. I hope this isn’t offensive, but it’s been our experience and our observation of many other Christians. Much of this may have not been what we’d say we believed, but it is functionally what we believed.

We’d say we believed the gospel, but what that really meant was that we believed Jesus died for our sins. The practical implications of this were virtually non-existent. It was like a one-time transaction and, after that, we were to do our best to make God happy and to look the part. We were expected to have everything together and to display some kind of “victorious” Christian life of conquering sin and growing in faith.

This belief was especially important because, at our core, we still believed that we needed to do something and that God expected it. Being caught sinning was awful because it was PROOF that we weren’t doing enough... that we weren’t as good as we pretended to be. Admitting weakness, or lack of knowledge, was unacceptable. Inadequacy, and failure, was crushingly depressing because it was evidence that we weren’t good enough.

Our view of the Bible was, practically speaking, that it was a book of rules for how to please God. Answers to our children as to why they shouldn’t commit a certain sin might have involved the tell-tale “because God doesn’t like it”. Our free time and money was spent according to the rules. So, Bible studies and Sunday attendance were mandatory for godly folk and involved gathering with Christians for delving deep into the scriptures and praying for one another. Generally, money was part of the “tithing” plan... you enjoy most of your money and the rest you “happily” give to God.

Love of others was one of the things you do, among others, but certainly held no place of prominence. Additionally, this “love” was either viewed as “live and let live” or as “doing nice things for others”... in some circles this included the occasional rebuke “in love”.

Free time was spent doing service projects for other Christians, feeling guilty about watching TV (it’s so sinful!) or maybe dropping a few hours at the homeless shelter.

Evangelism was the guilt-driven, effort of trying to shoehorn Jesus into a conversation with an unbeliever, or sharing the “Four spiritual laws” with them. The gospel was, as we applied it to ourselves, that Jesus died for your sins. No context was generally needed, or understood, for this. One very prominent method was to invite unbelievers to the Sunday worship service (church) so that they could hear the preacher and, hopefully, find Jesus.

The world was a place to be avoided. It was believed to be best to spend time and money supporting other Christians, hanging out at Christian coffee shops, listening to Christian radio, etc.

How things have shifted:
Most of what we’ve learned centers around the gospel. This all started a couple of years ago with a little booklet called “The gospel centered church”.

We now believe the gospel to be much more than simply "Jesus died for your sins" and yet, not more. What I mean is that the gospel is all about Jesus' work on the cross in order to bring a rebellious humanity to Himself, but the implications are more far reaching than we had initially realized. God knows that we need His help and that we are broken people and will need Jesus going forward, constantly. I love the idea that many churches have now of being "an okay place to be not okay" (I think that one is from the Village Church in Dallas). We now recognize that WE are not victorious… Jesus is. And any hope of being victorious without Him is a joke. Sounds like common sense, but maybe not in practice…

The ramifications of this are that our pride is crushed. We can no longer pretend that we're good enough. We know that we can't do enough or be enough. We fully embrace, both intellectually and emotionally, that only Jesus can do enough. Our salvation is 100 percent Jesus and we can do nothing to "help out". Again, this is what we'd SAY we believed, but practically we lived to look godly and to impress others with our righteousness.

Our view of the Bible is that it's a wrestling mat (as Sharad would say) that is intended to help us to grow in our love of God and man. Every rule set forth in the Bible is set forth to foster love of God and love of others. We now teach our children that we are, and they are, just as sinful as every other "bad guy" in the world. We all need Jesus. We tell them that we don't commit certain sins because God loves us and knows that it's not good for us or for the world (we're obviously more specific dependent on which sin it is).

Our free time and money is much looser. The Sunday worship service is simply one more gathering of the church and we can freely skip it anytime without guilt. Bible studies are also good, but optional and not required to be a "good" Christian. It’s not that we want to skip these events (though occasionally we might), but it’s just that we understand that this isn’t required for us to be “good Christians”. We also now recognize that all of our money is God's and we have to figure out how to use it all for Him (not just 10 percent).

Love of others is, as the Bible says, not just one thing to do… it's THE thing to do. Love of God and love of man are all that matter. Love is not "doing nice things" alone, but doing the hard things… sacrificing and loving in ways that sometimes don't even look loving to everyone. Loving means caring enough to say the hard thing, but only if you know the person enough to actually love them.

We believe that free time should all be for the Kingdom. That doesn't mean that all our time is spent going door to door or that we're always at the homeless shelter. It means that we view ourselves as missionaries and our lives as the mission field. Every relationship, Christian or not, is an opportunity for Christ to reign supreme.

Evangelism is, we believe, best done through committed relationships that don't care only about another notch in the belt. Jesus is not shoehorned in, but is naturally part of natural conversation. We don't change who we are between believers and unbelievers. We believe the Sunday worship service is a place for worshipping, not a place your bring your unsaved friends so they can get saved.. that should be happening at the store, and on walks, and while doing the dishes. I love the phrase "everyday living with gospel intentionality". We believe in bringing the gospel to bear on the mundane.

We now believe that we have wonderful gospel opportunities by supporting NON-Christians and hanging out and NON-Christian coffee shops and sharing common interests by listening to NON-Christian radio. This is what Jesus did… He plugged himself into the world of sinners around Him. He didn't cloister Himself away among the religious alone.


Basically, in a nutshell, we now realize that our failures and needs are designed to be met perfectly with the gospel... Maybe it sounds corny, but simple statements like “Sorry my house is such a mess...” can be met with “Your identity is not found in the cleanliness of your house, but in Jesus”. Statements like “I just feel like a failure and like I’m not doing enough” are met with “Jesus lived the perfect life, knowing that you’d fail and not do enough and His death is sufficient to cover your sins”. We believe that God is not glorified by our ability to overcome sin, but instead is glorified by admitting our weakness and our need of Him (2 Corinthians 12:9) and that our attempts to look good rob Him of glory. The gospel is ongoing, relevant, and perfectly sufficient for our needs and failures.


For a good, slightly more professional, take on all this... read Soma Communities’ story. They very much represent our thoughts and beliefs on what Christianity is about. Oh, and as you read what they believe, understand that they are very good at doing it and not just talking about it. And if you want to hear more about how they practically do it, and what we want our lives to look like, you might check out their “rhythms”.