Are you infected? Wanna be?

Greg shares about JustOne and the origins of Laundry Love People…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lots of good stuff in there. Well worth the 25 minutes.

You can read my notes from watching it the first time.

What’d you think? What notes did you take? How will you take these ideas and apply them in our community?

So many good points. So worth the nine minutes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If we were to take the things we measure our success by and apply them to the ministry of Jesus — a lot of times we’d have to conclude that he was a failure.

Quite often in ministry, people were leaving Jesus rather than coming to him. By the end of his earthly ministry there was no one left. He was abandoned by everyone. And yet his ministry was a success because he was completely faithful to his father….

We’ve got to get our attention off the tangible outcomes of our ministry as being evidence of our legitimacy and root it in something deeper. That something deeper is exactly what Jesus rooted his ministry in. Jesus said that his bread — what sustained his life — was to do the will of his father…

Jesus had his identity rooted in the fact that he was the beloved son of the father.

How different would our ministries be and our souls be and our joys be if we disconnected our legitimacy from the outcomes of our ministry and instead rooted our identity and legitimacy in the fact that we are sons and daughters of our loving father?

So where does your legitimacy come from? Is it the outcomes of your ministry or your identity in Christ?

Read more about the Daisy Cutter Doctrine.

• participation by all
• dialogue vs monologue
• strong community
• a people on mission – sent out into the community

The conversations and additional ideas that were brought up were great.

Then later that night, I came across this video from Soul City Church (a church launching in Spring 2010), sharing some of their vision for a new kind of church…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Does this video spark your imagination? Does it even seem possible? Could/would you take part in church 7 days a week? What about 5, 3 or 2?

HT to @churchbartender for the video

“Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.”

Here’s the video we watched to spur some of the conversation…

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s easy to talk in generalities about how we should react to strangers or the homeless or customers, etc. But the real application comes when we talk about those closest to us.

How does this change the way we relate to our spouse? Or our kids? Or our neighbor?

Reminds me of Paul’s instructions in his letter to the Philippians…

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. – Philippians 2:1-4

So what did you learn during your morning discussions? Or what stands out to you now?

Phil Vischer (creator of Veggie Tales) has started a great new online venture in recent months :: Jelly Telly.

On his blog last year he walked through several of the big problems facing kids and media – specifically Christian kids and Christian media.

One of the problems he points out is that Christians are defined by what we hate – not who or what we love.

…there has been a price for this political focus. Today, 80% of non-Christians in America have a negative view of Christianity. When asked what word first sprang to mind when the term “Evangelical Christian” was mentioned, the number one answer from young adults in America was not “loving” or “self-sacrificing,” but rather, “homophobic.”

He also points out that most Christians aren’t really living out what it really means to be a follower of Christ and that Protestant Christians can no longer define “grace.”

So issue number one – we need an education.

Since God has given Phil a passion and a burden for kids, he naturally wants to begin this education with kids (hence Veggie Tales).

Issue or problem two – there’s no platform for Christian Media.

There’s no American Idol, Nickelodeon or Disney for Christian media creators to launch their characters from. People aren’t walking into Christian bookstores like they used to and with the constant barrage from other media sources the Christian media content is quickly getting drowned out.

He also mentions that without platforms to launch media from, the creators aren’t likely to create the content. Sure a 24/7 cable network for kids would be great, but as Phil mentions, it could easily cost $100 million to get off the ground.

So along with these issues and the fact that Phil seems to feel the tugs of an “upside down King and Kingdom” interested in doing amazing things with Mustard Seeds (my words not his), he’s launched a new online network for kids.

I’ve checked out the site and I think it has a lot of things going for it but I’d love to get your input.

So check out the site and/or bring a kid over to check it out for you. Let us know what you/they think.

And in the meantime, here’s a quick “About us” video for all the parents…

Would you be proven guilty?

Please visit :: http://www.justin.tv/jdblundell to watch the video stream live.

Update :: we’re chatting on the justin.tv page as well.

Sorry for any confusion.

Let us know what you think.

encounter :: 052508 :: what He said from Jonathan Blundell on Vimeo.