If We're More American Than Christian We're Compromised, Says 'Jesus Untangled' Author

As the Church has become increasingly entangled in the pursuit of politics, the Gospel has become tarnished and often abandoned as the primary focus of the Body of Christ. — From Jesus Untangled — Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb back coverJesus Untangled author Keith Giles recently shared with Together LA that unity in the Church in Los Angeles is more critical than even other big cities simply because of "the breadth of diversity and the collision of cultures that are represented." He makes the case that his book is a "prophetic call for the Church to awaken from the 'American Dream' and to return to Her first love."Our interview (transcript below) with Giles drew some rather pointed answers from him about the state of affairs for Christians and their politics today.Together LA: What parts of your book address unity?Keith Giles: The entire theme of the book is about the dangers of putting politics at the center of our faith; whether as individuals or as the church. Unity itself isn’t the goal. It’s the byproduct of placing Jesus at the center and following Him. The book certainly does examine how divisive politics can be to the Body of Christ, so as we untangle our faith and crucify our politics, we begin to see our brothers and sisters as they truly are, without seeing them through a political filter.One reason we need to untangle our faith from politics is that if we are more “American” than “Christian” then we’ve become compromised by our nationality. AS I point out in the book: You can’t convert a culture if that culture has already converted you. We need to abandon our politics and seek first the Kingdom of God.TLA: A lot of people place much of their focus on political solutions to issues of social injustice. I know your book addresses this head-on. What would you say to these people in a nutshell?Giles: First of all, there’s big difference between politics and justice. In the book I point out that people like MLK and William Wilberforce weren’t practicing the same sort of politics we’re being pulled into today. MLK and Wilberforce both fought for the rights of the oppressed. They weren’t looking to pass laws that gave their party a political advantage over others. They were both willing to lay their own lives on the line to see justice done. Wilberforce even wrote a book where he urged Christians not to become entangled with politics but to transform the culture with the Gospel, which is really what Jesus told us to do in the first place. In fact, it’s really the only way to bring transformation into our world. Politics can’t change hearts, only Jesus can do that.TLA: How is Jesus Untangled pertinent to people living in Los Angeles or any other metropolis?Giles: I think unity is more critical in a place like LA, just because the breadth of diversity and the collision of cultures that are represented. More than, say any another large city like Houston or Nashville for example.For Christians, unity is extremely important – or at least it should be. Because, Jesus said our unity would be a sign that everyone would know that He was the Messiah who was sent by the Father. If we are divided politically (or any other way) we’re denying that Jesus is who He says He is.TLA: What needs to be done as Christians and as a Christian community to advance this idea of unity in the Church (with a capital "C")?Giles: We have to find what unites us and focus on that as much as possible. According to the New Testament, our unity is only found in Christ.Paul says, “For we all are one in Christ Jesus our Lord” [Gal. 3:28]. Notice he doesn’t say “we are all one in our doctrines”, or “our opinions” or “our political views”. In those things all we have is division. But if we remain in Christ, then we experience unity.So, whenever Christians argue about politics or divide over political views, it’s because they’ve allowed something else to eclipse Jesus in their heart.As I point out in my book, “What do you get when you mix religion and politics? You get politics.”People in first century Corinth had a similar problem. They were dividing over which Apostle was their favorite and Paul rebuked them for that. Yet today Christians feel it’s ok to divide over their favorite political candidate or party. That’s in violation of what Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians.TLA: What do pastors and churches (small "c") need to do for unity in the city?Giles: Whenever we make anything other than Jesus our center, we have division in the church, and between churches. So, if within a local church our center is an issue or a doctrine, then we will experience division. If between churches the focus is anything other than Jesus, then we will experience division.TLA: What obstacles are there to unity?Giles: I think what many fail to realize is that politics is another form of tribalism. This creates an “us vs them” mentality where we spend our time and energy searching for everything that is wrong about “them” and right about “us”. We lump everyone who is not in our tribe into a single amorphous collective where “all Liberals are stupid” or “all Conservatives are racist”, when this is certainly not the case. But the more we demonize “them” the more we can justify almost anything we say or do because, hey, look how evil they are! Soon, we start to believe that they are beyond redemption. Which, of course, is exactly the opposite of what the Gospel teaches us. 

Case For Christ Screenwriter: 'Most Significant Movie of My Career in Terms of Kingdom Impact’

Brian Bird has had a hand in more than 25 movies and television shows over the past three decades – including Touched by an Angel and When Calls the Heart – but his latest project, The Case For Christ, ranks near the top in his book.Bird was screenwriter for the film, which opens this weekend and follows the story of Lee Strobel’s transformation in the early 1980s from atheist to Christian apologist.“In my 30 years of doing this work, this is the most significant movie of my career in terms of kingdom impact,” he said. “And I think the results on-screen bear that out – not because I’m such a great screenwriter, but we had a great team on this.”Bird was executive producer and wrote the screenplay for the 2015 movie Captive, is executive producer of the ongoing Hallmark TV series When Calls the Heart, and was a producer of the hit show Touched by an Angel from 1999-2003.His faith and his extensive experience with family-friendly content is one reason Strobel asked him to write the screenplay for The Case For Christ (PG). The two also are good friends.Bird estimates that 75-80 percent of the movie is “on the money” of what happened in real life. The rest of it includes composite characters – that is, a single character who represents several real-life people – and time-shifting. Such tweaks were necessary to make the film not only entertaining but compact.Michael Foust recently spoke with Bird. Following is a transcript, edited for clarity:Michael Foust: Lee Strobel is your friend, but what else about his story made you want to get involved?Brian Bird: As anyone knows who has read The Case for Christ, that book is a deep data dive – 13 world-class experts – the world’s foremost leading authorities on the proof for the resurrection. All the evidence for Christianity is there. He was a hard-core atheist and cynical journalist who deeply loved his wife and his kids, and was trying to rescue his wife from herself. She had become a Christian at what he thought was a cult – Willow Creek [Church]. His whole quest was to rescue her and to get her back, because in his mind they had a perfectly happy atheist marriage. And he loved her. So I knew there was a great love story there. He’s the hero of the movie, but he’s an atheist. He’s trying to save his wife. You have some sympathy for that, even if his skepticism is infuriating.Foust: You were able to get quite a bit of apologetics into the film. What were the challenges in weaving apologetics without it becoming knee-deep in minutia?Bird: That definitely was one of the toughest aspects of crafting this – to figure out how much would be too much and how much would be enough, to find the balance. There were 13 world-class experts in the book. Well, we couldn’t cover all thirteen. I knew that we could get away with four or five expert witnesses, but not much more than that. So I focused on what seemed to be the three most cinematic ideas in the evidence – the veracity of the 500-plus witnesses who saw Jesus after the crucifixion, thereby verifying that the resurrection did happen. Secondly, the fact that there was no conspiracy to fake Jesus’ death – that it was not a hoax, that He truly did die on that cross. And thirdly, the authenticity of the ancient manuscripts. We wanted to make the case for Christ, but we didn’t want to give a book to people.Foust: But the movie isn’t just about apologetics.Bird: Right. There were three other big storytelling points in the true story: First, the love story, and second the whole big-city journalism story. Lee actually got nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories. Then there was his discovery that all of the great icons of atheism in history had deep father wounds, like him. I knew it could get very dry very fast if it was just Lee talking to somebody in an office somewhere. So we tried to give it a little bit of sense of urgency, like it was a big mystery he was trying to solve. It was a bit of a Da Vinci-code search for evidence.Foust: How do you want this to impact people?Bird: If you’re a believer, you have the cure for everything in the universe. Yet, most of us sit on it. We don’t share it. We just hold on to it. Something’s deeply wrong with that. This movie depicts that cure, and we have the opportunity to share it with people, not as propaganda but as a really good, true story that really happened. It had the impact of eternity on Lee and Leslie Strobel, and can have the impact of eternity on people who watch it. Buy a neighbor a ticket to this movie, and then go out to dinner afterwards and have the conversation that you’ve always wanted to have.EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview article originally appeared at Scenes, an online daily devoted to entertainment and culture.

Segregated Churches Need to Shift From Managing Decline to Credible Witness, Says Multi-Ethnic Leader

Segregated churches in America need to stop simply managing the current state of decline and begin working together to create a “credible witness of God’s love,” Mark DeYmaz, a leader of the multi-ethnic church movement, recently told Together LA.“We can’t be all about unity in our own local churches without unity in the city,” said DeYmaz, who was at the leadership conference, Catalyst West, on Friday. “Take for example, Together LA and Los Angeles — pastors coming together with varying ethnic backgrounds, economic conditions, and the urban and suburban churches working together to advance a credible witness of God’s love for all people in and around the L.A. region — this is super important.”

Mark DeYmaz Interview at Catalyst West 2017 from One Ten Pictures on Vimeo.

In his recently released book, Disruption: Repurposing the Church to Redeem the Community, he stated that not only are Americans divided along the lines of race, class, and culture as well as religion and politics, but Christians are often at odds with one another over the same things as well.READ — Disrupting the Division: Christians Must Tack To the Wind “This is the time, then, for Christ-centered peacemakers to step up and stand out so that Christians will no longer be seen as disturbing the peace but disrupting, in a positive sense, by diffusing division at every turn,” he wrote in his book.He said that the goal for Christians should be to come together to bless the city, to lead people to Christ, to promote the greater unity, and ultimately to fulfill the great commission.“The starting point is individually building cross-cultural relationships, [and] collectively creating local churches that reflect their communities, and then the aggregate effect of bringing all those pastors and churches together to have a transformative witness in their cities,” DeYmaz explained. The process he describes is the “future of the American church.”“In fact, if we don’t get to this state (of process) we end up managing decline. That’s what’s largely going on in around this country both in cities and in the church,” he said. “We are simply managing decline because we are bowed up … in terms of how we do churches that are systematically segregated. We target people groups, [but] we should be targeting communities and that’s the future and that’s what works like Together LA and others in cities around the country are all about. It’s so encouraging to see because this is the hope of the gospel, this is the gospel of Christ.”

Catalyst West Speaker at 'Uncommon Fellowship:' We Need To 'Humanize Each Other'

The first step in getting past much of the division in society today is to recognize that fear of each other is a factor and being propagated, said Mike Foster, author of People of the Second Chance and leader of a ministry by the same name.“Part of what I’m seeing in our culture is this absolute division, this ‘side taking,’ this polarization that’s happening,” Foster told Together LA backstage at Catalyst West on Thursday. “The underpinning of all that is just fear. I think one of the things that we actually need to be aware of is that we don’t have to be afraid of each other.”He added, “The way that we become less afraid of each other is to actually be together, to sit in the same room, to humanize each other and to say [things to ourselves such as] ‘Oh, he likes Starbucks grande lattes, me too,’ or ‘He has kids that are adolescents that he is trying to raise. That’s just like me, too.’”Foster said that there is much to benefit from “the sense of being together and understanding that fear is the engine for most of the dysfunction that we are seeing in our world.”He said he believes that fueling the fear is the large amounts of time many of us spend consuming news and television which “teaches us to be afraid.”“Our brain is taking in millions and millions of data points and cues all the time and I think we don’t realize how that’s impacting us in a really negative way,” he said.“I’m telling people to step back from that system and say, hey, listen, you are swimming in a system that is teaching you to hate people, to see people as your enemy,” Foster explained. “If we can step out of that and say, ‘Why don’t I shut up for a second and just listen.’ Instead of throwing a virtual stone from a million miles away, ‘Why don’t I just sit at a table and have a coffee with somebody?’”People should be able to sit down and have a conversation, he said. “I don’t have to agree with everything you say. You don’t have to agree with everything I say. The fact that is not happening in our society is very destructive thing that’s going to lead us on a journey that’s going to yield things that we ultimately do not want as a church, as a country, as a society as a whole.“The way that we heal our cities is unity, is coming together, is giving people the benefit of the doubt, is holding our tongue and actually spending some time listening, and asking a question versus giving an answer.”Foster was one of several speakers on Thursday, the first day of the two-day Catalyst West conference held at Mariners Church in Irvine.

Piles of Bureaucracy; Does God Care About Spreadsheets?

Work has always been a tricky environment for me when it comes to dealing with questions like “How does God use what I do?” or “Does what I’m doing day in and day out really matter?” or “Am I making God’s world a better place?” What I spent most of my career years doing looks nothing like the work we do at church, on mission fields, in hospitals, or in inner-city work for the poor or marginalized.Editor’s Note: Contributing writers at Pacific Crossroads Church in Los Angeles recently announced a blog series for this month that “seeks to address the struggle so many of us feel in connecting our workplace lives to our walk with Christ.” The writers state in their introduction to the series: Pacific Crossroads Church has partnered with PCC members Steve and Margaret Lindsey to start an exciting new project called the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles to minister to this need. The center will launch this month and the 1st Annual Conference is Saturday April 1st. You can find out more and register for the event by clicking www.faithandworkLA.com.Previous articles in the 4-part series can be read by clicking: The Daily Grind, Get Rich (and/or Die Trying); But What Is God’s Will? and here: ‘I May Have Carpal Tunnel and Tennis Elbow.’  Also, Together LA’s interview story on Steve Lindsey and the center is found here: Ministry Launches to Help Firmly Place Faith Alongside Your Work. 'Piles of Bureaucracy'is the final article in the series.I remember being mid-career as a systems engineer designing satellite communications electronics. As one project wound down, I transitioned to a new group to work in an unfamiliar area on a large research and development project full of future cutting-edge technology. It was an exciting challenge but a bit daunting, as there was so much to learn. I was surrounded by world-class talent, and I wondered whether this narrowly trained engineer could broaden enough to keep up. It took about two years of learning, design work, and trial and error before I saw results confirming my work was paying off. Needless to say, I was elated! My boss, a brilliant systems design engineer himself and pioneer in this field, was also pleased (though I often wondered if he inwardly smiled to himself “What took that guy so long?!”). But something bothered me. Did it really matter?I think, as Christians, many of us experience the struggle of a long-fought-for-result, pouring our life’s energy and passion into our work, feeling the hopes and fears of whether or not our labors will be accepted, and sensing the nagging concern along the way: “Does God really care about all this?” That was certainly a question I struggled with. Sure, I knew that we work in relationship with a bunch of people God loves and cares about in whatever our work context, and that God can use those relationships for his Kingdom. But what about all those thousands of hours of diligent and focused engineering, the results of which remain mostly unseen by anyone? Certainly no one would ever see the details of my contributions with hundreds of lines of simulation code, massive data files, test results, volumes of work stored on some server somewhere, backed up on another server somewhere, likely never to be accessed again. And what’s worse is all that work was likely to be repeated in the fairly near future by smarter engineers with better tools on a newer project that will outperform the best work envisioned in my project.The words of the preacher in Ecclesiastes haunted me during times like these: “All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccles. 1:8-9)But, then again, there were also those moments... pure joy, deep satisfaction, a sense of worth and purpose, being part of a larger enterprise, building something, something new, better, more efficient, more capable, and never done before. I could have sworn that in some way God was there, he cared, and it mattered. But why would he care? Yet a gnawing sense that my contributions somehow did matter was very present and very real. Though I’m perfectly capable of regular self-aggrandizement and pride, I don’t think most of what I felt was rooted in a sense of superiority or selfishness. It’s hard to describe, but I think it was closer to a sense of deep gratitude. In some way, I wanted to thank God. To sing about it. Party over it with my believing friends, and not just the office buddies. But I didn’t feel like I should. It didn’t connect well with my concept of what God wanted from me. I didn’t have a language yet for what God thinks of the daily grind of our hard work. You know, the stuff you do when you’re not sharing the gospel, you’re not showing compassion to a colleague in need, you’re not doing some extra-curricular service project, and you’re not leading or attending a workplace Bible study. The stuff you do well when no one is looking; hours fly by and you are buried in a spreadsheet, a complex problem, or tedious piles of bureaucracy. In fact, for a lot of us these kind of efforts take up much of the best of our actual career life. Is it possible the Lord of Glory cares about this too? Is my joy somehow a sharing in his joy?I now think so, and have been on a journey exploring God’s good purposes for our work. Come share the journey with us at the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles.Note: This post originally appeared on Pacific Crossroads Church website blog.On The WebCenter for Faith + Work Los AngelesMinistry Launches to Help Firmly Place Faith Alongside Your Work

Disrupting the Division: Christians Must Tack To the Wind

Americans today are divided along the lines of race, class, and culture as well as religion and politics. But Christians, too, are often at odds with one another over these very same things. This is the time, then, for Christ-centered peacemakers to step up and stand out so that Christians will no longer be seen as disturbing the peace but disrupting, in a positive sense, by diffusing division at every turn. To do so, we must tack to the wind.As you might imagine, I am not a sailor. But I do know this: ocean sailing requires wind. “Granted, wind isn’t normally in short supply on the open ocean—until you hit the doldrums. For centuries mariners have feared this equatorial region [the doldrums] for its tendency toward sailor-stopping calms.”[11] In other words, even the biggest and best of boats can stall for lack of wind.More specific to (the) discussion is a maneuver in sailing known as tacking. Tacking is used when the winds have shifted and a ship is unable to make forward progress because the wind is blowing toward the bow, that is, when the boat is heading upwind.“Tacking allows the boat to travel forward with a wind at right angles to the boat. The boat travels for a time at an angle toward its desired course, to the right for instance, then the captain swings the boom of the sail and tacks back across the desired course at an angle to the left in a zigzag fashion.”[12] In this way, tacking allows a ship to make forward progress in spite of prevailing frontal winds.Similarly, cultural winds have shifted in our lifetime, and for all intent and purposes, our boat, our collective witness, is dead in the water. Where Americans once embraced the church and Christian values, if not our message, a significant percentage of the country today rejects those values. Why? In large part because so many Christians in general, as well as pastors and churches alike, continue to think, talk, and act as if it is 1980 and not almost 2020. As with the analogy, our sails are fixed for past winds, hoping they will pick up again. But they won’t. Those days are gone. Indeed, we are no longer sailing with the wind, but against it. Thus, in order to advance the gospel, the church, and the kingdom of God in this day and age, we must swing the boom. We must learn to tack in prevailing winds.For example, both in private conversations and on social media, far too many of us are quick to speak, slow to listen, and slow to advance peace, in direct violation of James 1:19. Far too many of us want to impose theocratic rule and ways on an otherwise constitutionally limited, representative democratic republic. Beyond that, we are far too easily “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14), at times acting more like those without understanding, “in the futility of their mind,” with ignorance, callousness, or hardness of heart (4:17–19). We are often seen or portrayed as purveyors of fear, not faith. None of this is helpful for winning hearts and minds in what has been described as a post-Christian society.The fact is, the apostle Paul expected much more of mature believers. In Ephesians 4:29 he wrote, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” Notice Paul did not say we should not speak about or act on what we believe. Rather, we should do so in a way that is winsome and that plays to more than our affective base. But this is not what most people do, particularly on social media. More typically, they speak or write as if to those who already believe as they do. By doing so, their posts will receive many likes, hearts, and shares, but only from those holding similar views, while people who do not agree are only further alienated by a strong statement or opinion.We must learn then to speak to those beyond our affective base in language, tone, and tenor so as to be heard and received. We must learn to ask good questions, shape the narrative, and influence conversations that move people toward one another, toward the church, and ultimately toward Christ, not drive them further away. At any given moment, we must be more interested in winning people to the faith than we are in winning an argument.In short, we should remember that the mission of the church is best fulfilled not through political reform but spiritual reform, not through legislation but transformation, not through coercion but through conversion in seeing others come to know Him as we do.[13]________________11 Mark Shrope, “The Doldrums: Sailing’s Dead Zone,” National Geographic (2001), www.nationalgeographic.com/volvooceanrace/geofiles/01/.12 Stephen Portz, “How Does a Sailboat Move Upwind?” Physlink (2016), www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae438.cfm.13 Mark DeYmaz, “Evangelicals and Politics: Championing Political Positions as if Written in Biblical Stone Hurting Church’s Purpose,” Christian Post (11 July 2014), www.christianpost.com/news/evangelicals-and-politics-championing-political-positions-as-if-written-in-biblical-stone-hurting-churchs-purpose-123162/#2cA6G0A4Y7SVhtzH.99.Editor's Note: The above (Tack To the Wind) is an excerpt (permission from Mark DeYmaz) from Disruption: Repurposing the Church to Redeem the Community by Mark DeYmaz (Thomas Nelson and Leadership Network; March 2017, pp. 167-170).Learn more at www.mosaix.info/disruption.

Mark DeYmaz

A thought-leading author, pastor, and recognized champion of the Multiethnic Church Movement, Mark planted the Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas in 2001 where he continues to serve as Directional Leader. In 2004, he co-founded the Mosaix Global Network with Dr. George Yancey and today serves as its president, and convener of the triennial National Multi-ethnic Church Conference. In 2008, he launched Vine and Village and remains active on the board of this 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on the spiritual, social, and financial transformation of Little Rock's University District and the 72204 ZIP Code.Mark has written six books including his latest, Disruption: Repurposing the Church to Redeem the Community (Thomas Nelson, March 2017); and Multiethnic Conversations: an Eight Week Guide to Unity in Your Church (Wesleyan Publishing House, October 2016), the first daily devotional, small group curriculum on the subject for people in the pews. His book, Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church (Jossey-Bass, 2007), was a finalist for a Christianity Today Book of the Year Award (2008) and for a Resource of the Year Award (2008) sponsored by Outreach magazine. His other books include, re:MIX: Transitioning Your Church to Living Color (Abingdon, June 2016); Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church (formerly Ethnic Blends; Zondervan, 2010, 2013), and the e-Book, Should Pastors Accept or Reject the Homogeneous Unit Principle? (Mosaix Global Network, 2011). In addition to books, he is a contributing editor for Outreach magazine where his column, "Mosaic" appears in each issue.He and his wife, Linda, have been married for thirty years and reside in Little Rock, AR. Linda is the author of the certified best-seller, Mommy, Please Don't Cry: There Are No Tears in Heaven (Multnomah, 1996), an anointed resource providing hope and comfort for those who grieve the loss of a child. Mark and Linda have four adult children and two grandchildren.Mark is an Adjunct Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and teaches D.Min. courses at seminaries across the country including TEDS, Western, and Phoenix, where he earned his own D.Min. in 2006. — Amazon, Author Pages

Ministry Launches to Help Firmly Place Faith Alongside Your Work

God cares for every area of your life, and although it may seem obvious, He cares about how you live out your faith at work and inside the workplace. That's an area of our lives that could use more attention from churches, said Steve Lindsey, who is the visionary behind the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles (CFWLA).CFWLA is a gospel-centered non-profit dedicated to transforming our relationship to work, fostering human flourishing, and renewing Los Angeles, states the organization. Lindsey recently shared his vision with Together LA, and about the group's first conference to be held in Santa Monica on April 1. The CFWLA is partnered with Pacific Crossroads Church for "cultural renewal to equip, connect and mobilize the church, sent out to care for the world of work."Lindsey's answers to four questions about CFWLA from TLA are below.TLA: What inspired you to start this ministry?Steve Lindsey: My interest in integrating faith with vocational life goes back to the '80s (though I'm not really that old). I loved early exposure to Francis Schaeffer’s teachings that God cares about every area of life. Yet my vocational work seemed under-addressed in church contexts and ministry, and felt lacking any ultimate value or purpose to God beyond providing for my family and church or being a platform for evangelism. After much reading, prayer, research, and discovering the pioneering work of the Center for Faith and Work in NYC at Redeemer Presbyterian Church (Tim Keller's vision), my wife Margaret and I saw that such a center located in Los Angeles could be just such a catalyst for transforming our view of work and it's pivotal place in God's kingdom.TLA: How is the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles unique?Lindsey: CFWLA is unique in its addressing the needs of working believers in three primary ways: 1) In-depth theological and spiritual formation tailored to our vocational calls, within a rich and transformative community environment, 2) Envisioning God's redemptive purposes for our life's work inclusive of our vocational careers, and 3) Enabling the initiation of concrete expressions of social, cultural, and spiritual renewal in our city through our world of work.TLA: What is the most important thing people interested in attending your conference need to know?Lindsey: Come prepared to be fully engaged and receive an exciting vision for your vocational world and the future vision of CFWLA! Also, our website www.faithandworkLA.com is designed to make information and access simple to all of our events and offerings.TLA: How can Christians in LA come together to love on the city in terms of CFWLA goals?Lindsey: Loving the city well involves seeing God's love for all of creation more clearly. Our cities, communities and places of work are all extensions of God's creative work in the world. But so much has been broken and lost and in need of His restoration and redemption at the individual, social, and institutional levels. At the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles we believe that the gospel affects everything, and as Chuck Colson once said, "Transformed people transform culture." Anyone longing to see God's hand more tangibly at work through their vocational contexts is encouraged to seek us out.

Catalyst West: Uncommon Fellowship; It's Time For a Family Meeting [VIDEO]

From Catalyst WestIt’s common in our culture to sort, divide, and exclude. To look out for ourselves, make it at all costs, and leave others in our wake.But Jesus is building something uncommon.Something that invites.His fellowship is a household. A place where we belong to each other, look out for each other, and build each other up.A place where individuals are celebrated, not sorted. In this family, we are included, fathered, encouraged.Something that transforms.He cultivates this fellowship with His Word. He recasts fractured desires with His own. He molds pride into humility.He breathes into us, nurtures us, recreates us.Something that sends.His fellowship extends into the world. It transcends boundaries. Challenges darkness with hope.Enters the public square with humility and redefines the contours of culture with truth.For the Catalyst Leader, uncommon fellowship tells the story of our family. Uncommon fellowship possessesthe strength of our witness, bears the heart of God, and provides a signpost of the Kingdom to come.It's time for a family meeting.CATALYST WEST - MARCH 30, 31 - IRVINE, CALIFORNIA

Get Rich (and/or Die Trying); But What Is God's Will?

Editor’s Note: Is this a 'get rich' story? Read on to find out! Contributing writers at Pacific Crossroads Church in Los Angeles recently announced a blog series for this month that “seeks to address the struggle so many of us feel in connecting our workplace lives to our walk with Christ.” The writers state in their introduction to the series: Pacific Crossroads Church has partnered with PCC members Steve and Margaret Lindsey to start an exciting new project called the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles to minister to this need. The center will launch this month and the 1st Annual Conference is Saturday April 1st. You can find out more and register for the event by clicking www.faithandworkLA.com.The first article in the series can be found here: The Daily Grind. Below is the second article, which was written anonymously, in the series.

Get Rich (and/or Die Trying)

No one is paying me to write this blog.This being a guest weekly blog for a church, that shouldn’t surprise you. But what may surprise you is I do get paid to ghostwrite about 100 blogs a month, which more than meets my daily bread needs. It surprises me at least, as, two years ago, I didn’t even know this was something one could get paid for. And it’s not what I expect to be doing two years from now. It’s my classic LA “day job” as I work on my own artistic projects, and I thank God daily for providing me with plentiful freelance work that uses my talents, pays my bills, rarely if ever stresses me out, and gives me the time to pursue the creative projects that I believe God has led me to pursue, knowing that whether I ultimately make bank on those projects is an outcome I cannot control.Sounds kind of serene when I put it that way, doesn’t it? It certainly does to me, but of course I do not always choose to put it that way. I’m about to hit the big 4-0 and haven’t had a full-time job since I left a 250k/year position with full benefits and stratospheric mobility almost six years ago to pursue a creative life of unrelenting uncertainty, no job title, and very high co-pays every time I need to roll into Kaiser. And, if I haven’t hit my 10,000 hours of doing creative work for “free” yet, I’m awfully close. Which, depending on your perspective, is noble or kind of stupid from the outside. From the inside, it’s often head-against-the-wall infuriating. When I see someone’s brand new condo or house or family vacation across the world, I wonder if those monuments of the good life will ever be within my reach and if maybe, just maybe, this six-year, headlong campaign in the war of art has been little more than a kamikaze mission in a losing battle on behalf of the unsympathetic cause of boy-who-wouldn’t-grow-up artistic vanity.But then I remember what it was like when I was about to hit the not-as-big 3-0 this time ten years ago. I was six months into a career that I had spent years in school for and knew at my deepest core was wrong for me from day one. To put it bluntly, I was miserable doing it, and while the money was great, the job was all-consuming in the worst way.So why did I do it? Because I didn’t know who I was back then – and I certainly didn’t give a second thought to God, much less his will and how my work might fit into it – and so “work” (with no preceding “Faith &…”) all came down to making the most money I could. Which meant no following the creative trail of breadcrumbs God has always set before me, and certainly no pro bono church blogs. To quote Lucinda Williams’ “I Lost It,” the prevailing attitude in my life back then was, “Everything’s paid for. Nothing’s free.” And the prevailing result of that approach was perpetual failure in beseeching the counterfeit gods of all-that-money-can-buy to grant me the fulfillment I so desperately sought.How I got from there to here is too long of a story to tell here, but the most important shift was in my attitude. I’ve gone from “nothing’s free” to “I don’t want nothing if I have to fake it.” That’s a change that’s occurred in my life through learning to let go of what I thought was a need for certainty, earthly riches, and the adulation of others (all colossal works-in-progress, friends) by letting the Holy Spirit in to put the spotlight on God, not me.That too is a topic worthy of volumes, but a line that pretty much encapsulates it for me is one I recently read in Experiencing God by Richard and Henry Blackaby, which implores the reader to stop asking, “What is God’s will for my life?” and to start asking simply, “What is God’s will?”When I get anxious that all my “free” work won’t lead to my preferred outcomes, I have to make that mental shift away from “my career” and back to what I can do to accomplish “God’s will. Period.” It’s an hour-to-hour practice for me. Ideally, over time it will move steadily towards a moment-to-moment practice. I don’t know the future, but I hope that this will be a lifelong pursuit of true riches.Note: This post originally appeared on Pacific Crossroads Church website blog.On The WebCenter for Faith + Work Los Angeles

Church Creates Space For 'Kids Hope,' Relationships in Schools

As mentors and kids filed into the Kids Hope classroom at Eagle Rock Elementary this week, high-fiving and catching up on the important details that had taken place in the last seven days since they'd seen each other, I saw a little guy sit down at his desk, lean into his mentor and say, "I love being a Hope kid."I'm so grateful that our church believed in creating a space like this in our neighborhood — believed in going out the doors of the church to our local public school to connect with families who would never come through the church doors on their own — believed in the power of relationships to infuse a life with hope.This little boy and his family are now a regular part of our church community. Every Sunday he attends Kids Church while the rest of his family attend the 11:15 am North service.It turns out, hope is contagious, and not just for the kids!— Sarah Dornbos

ABOUT KIDS HOPE

Kids Hope USA is a national organization that has been equipping local churches to form partnerships with their local public elementary school for more than 20 years. Volunteer mentors are recruited and trained by the church, and matched with an at-risk student referred by the school — because we know that ultimately it's relationships that transform the lives of students and communities. For more information about Kids Hope Eagle Rock contact Sarah Dornbos at kidshope@cachurch.com or visit www.kidshopeeaglerock.com.

One simple thing will make a big difference in the life of an at-risk child: One-on-one, positive attention from a responsible, caring adult. Kids Hope USA develops these one-on-one relationships through the creation of church-school partnerships that pair church members with at-risk kids in supportive, mentoring relationships.Kids Hope USA mentors spend just one hour per week, reading, talking, playing and listening to a child at school. By helping the child feel loved and valued, they help that child to learn, grow and succeed.You can change a life ... and that’s no small change.

TOGETHER LA EVENTS: Kids Hope Los Angeles Appreciation Night with USA Leader

How Do We Love on Our City? One Ten Pictures Partners with Together LA to Carry the Conversation

LOS ANGELES — Churches in Los Angeles and surrounding communities now have a premier hub to share insights, inspiration, and best practices at Together LA (togetherla.net) , said One Ten Pictures Executive Producer Jeremy Gant.The video and media production company, One Ten Pictures, has announced its partnership this week with Together LA, a ministry organization that began two years ago as a conference that asked and began to answer the question, “How do we love on our city?” The collaboration includes the recent launch of the website and an ongoing content partnership.

NEWS RELEASE

“We hope to see Together LA and it's web portal at togetherla.net become a beacon of light and hope for the church in Los Angeles,” Gant said. “We want to serve as a catalyst for sharing the insights, the stories, and the beauty that is the Church in Los Angeles.“One Ten Pictures exists for this reason—to see ministry multiplied by empowering the local church and the everyday believer. We cannot think of a better partnership than to work with Together LA and it's network of churches.”The website serves as place to find resources that will help serve the city, encourage residents of the city, and confront the injustice taking place in the city, said Together LA Director Brannin Pitre.“Most of all, we hope that togetherla.net becomes a place that you feel that you can go to find the information that you need to further your ministry,” Pitre said.Gant said he is excited about the partnership for many reasons, but also because One Ten Pictures exists to equip ministries with media resources that will exponentially multiply their impact. One Ten’s other partnerships include special projects with Saddleback Church, Every Man Ministries, and other churches and ministries nationwide.“What's an added benefit about working with Together LA is that it's in our backyard,” Gant said. “We aren't traveling to some other part of the country or the world... we are literally just stepping out our front door in an effort to make a worldwide impact by first reaching our local community of Los Angeles.”

Together LA: togetherla.netOne Ten Pictures: onetenpictures.com

Media contact: Together LA Senior Editor Alex Murashko — alex@togetherla.net

Is the Gospel Making a Run in High Schools? ‘The Jesus Club’ Author Says ‘Yes’

At a time when Christians in America who are living out their faith, especially within institutions such as public schools, often feel threatened, One Voice Student Missions has successfully established lunchtime Bible studies at more than 70 high schools in Los Angeles, other areas of California, and in other states.It is because of youth groups such as One Voice that high school students in the L.A. area and beyond are being exposed to the gospel at a greater rate than many may presume.Enter The Jesus Club.Brian Barcelona, 26, who is the One Voice Student Missions founder and author of the book, The Jesus Club - Incredible True Stories of How God is Moving in Our High Schools, leads the youth organization by example, teaching Bible study in four L.A. high schools weekly. He said that his success in sharing the gospel is not so much about his own words or preaching style but the fact that he “shows up” on a consistent and regular basis.In the book, Barcelona recounts that in 2009, at the end of Spirit West Coast, “a huge weekend event, with some of the best Christian bands and speakers from across the country,” he had an encounter with God during which he received his marching orders—It was like a stern order from a general to a soldier, yet His words also felt like a father asking his son for a favor.“As I listened closely, the Lord said, ‘Brian, I want to release a movement that will save the high schools of America. And I want to use your life to do it. This movement will take your city. It will take California. So goes California, so goes the nation,’” writes Barcelona in the first chapter of his book. Farther on, he states, “God continued to speak: The movement I am about to release is going to restore prayer in public schools again.”Barcelona told Together LA that students have many of the same issues today, such as drug abuse, gang participation, family problems, and emotional trials such as depression, as in previous generations, but also face a different problem.“This generation faces a unique hurdle that no other generation has faced and that is social media,” Barcelona said. “Adding to their own problems, people are now going through other people’s feeds and seeing what’s going on in their lives. Studies have shown that this is the ‘loneliest generation’ ever but no one feels lonely because everyone is connected...If that makes sense. The relationships are not really that deep. That’s what I see going on at schools.”When asked how he approaches high schools for the first time, considering that the current political climate includes a large adversarial component, he said, “I don’t think that there is as much hostility towards the gospel as there is towards religion. I think defining those two (gospel and religion) and separating them from the beginning and realizing that a religious agenda is not the same as living out the gospel.“What we find in going into a campus is that we bring the Good News of the Kingdom,” he continued. “The Good News at its core is that we don’t have to be bound and linked the same as we once did. There is freedom in Christ. That’s not just modeled in a sermon or ‘Let me do worship in your school’ or ‘Let me go preach to all your kids.’ That’s modeled first in my response to how I will serve an administrator or my willingness to obey even some of the laws that already exist.“Sometimes, it’s not even [about] laws, but confusion about what separation of church and state really means. When we go into a campus we are there to serve… whether they let me preach the first week or let me preach in 5 months, I’ll do whatever I can to serve that campus and to bring the love of Jesus onto that school.”The Jesus Culture’s church and movement lead pastor, Banning Liebscher, states in an endorsement of Barcelona and One Voice: “I am so encouraged by the work that Brian Barcelona and One Voice Student Missions is doing to impact campuses across the nation. Nothing is more critical in this hour then to reach the youth of America where they are at every day. I am grateful for the heart and passion to lay down their lives for the next generation.”On the WebJesus Club Author Talks to Together LA [VIDEO]One Voice Student MissionsThe Jesus Club - Incredible True Stories of How God is Moving in Our High Schools

Evangelical Pastors, Leaders Come Together to Call Christians to Make 2017 'The Year of Good News'

'We commit to preach louder than our nation's politics, and we aim to make the message of Jesus Christ transcend the monopoly of our media.'

 RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A cross-denominational group of some of America's most influential Evangelical pastors and leaders has come together to call Christians to make 2017 "The Year of Good News."Pastor and Harvest Crusades founder Greg Laurie—who organized the letter—is joined by Evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham, Assemblies of God General Superintendent George Wood, Southern Baptist President Steve Gaines, Author Anne Graham Lotz, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler, Family Talk Founder Dr. James Dobson, among others, in signing and publishing the letter urging American Christians to make 2017 the year they "share the message of Jesus with everyone they can at every opportunity they can.""In a time of bad news, distracting news, divisive news, disorderly news, and, sometimes, depressing news we—as Christians and as leaders—want to recommit ourselves to making sure that the Good News of Jesus cuts through it all," says the letter.The letter, which is a strong reminder of the Christian calling to be bearers of good news, was also signed by pastors David Jeremiah, Levi Lusko, Robert Morris, Ronnie Floyd, Skip Heitzig, and James MacDonald, as well as authors Max Lucado, Joel Rosenberg, and Randy Alcorn. Christian leaders such as Eric Metaxas, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, and O. S. Hawkins also added their names to the letter.Christians everywhere are invited to join the "Year of Good News" with #YearOfGoodNews and to add their names at: goodnews.harvestamerica.com."We need a national miracle to heal our political, racial and cultural divisions, and that miracle is found in the power of Jesus to change our hearts," say the Evangelical leaders. "Therefore, we commit to preach louder than our nation's politics, and we aim to make the message of Jesus Christ transcend the monopoly of our media."The letter in its entirety, with its full list of signatories, is copied below.

The Year of Good News

In a time of bad news, distracting news, divisive news, disorderly news, and, sometimes, depressing news we—as Christians and as leaders—want to recommit ourselves to making sure that the Good News of Jesus cuts through it all. We call upon Christians in America to make 2017 "The Year of Good News."Christians everywhere must share the message of Jesus with everyone they can at every opportunity they can. Pastors must preach the Gospel boldly and pray intentionally for national revival.Despite the divisions and distractions dividing our nation and disorienting our culture, we believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ remains the hope of the world and is more needed in our nation now than at almost any point in our nations history.This is not to diminish the important good works and example that the Church as a whole provides, but it is to emphasize that Jesus has commanded us to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel" and to "make disciples of all nations."Our message is the Good News that God loved us so much He sent His son to this earth on a rescue mission. Jesus who is fully God and fully man lived a perfect life, died a perfect death and rose again from the grave.We need a national miracle to heal our political, racial and cultural divisions, and that miracle is found in the power of Jesus to change our hearts. Therefore, we commit to preach louder than our nation's politics, and we aim to make the message of Jesus Christ transcend the monopoly of our media. We confess our only hope of unity is on the level ground at the foot of the cross of Jesus, and our only hope of healing is in the victory achieved through his empty tomb.The gospel is the timeless, God-honored, God-ordained message that can change a human heart for time and eternity. We accept Jesus' command to proclaim his message, wherever we are to whomever we are around.Because 2017 is such a critical year for America, it must become the Year of Good News.Signed,Greg LauriePastor, Harvest Christian FellowshipCathe LaurieSpeaker, AuthorFranklin GrahamBilly Graham Evangelistic AssociationAl MohlerPresident, Southern Baptist Theological SeminaryAnne Graham LotzAuthorJames DobsonAuthor, Family Talk with James DobsonJack GrahamPastor, Prestonwood ChurchSteve GainesPresident, Southern Baptist ConventionDavid JeremiahPastor, Shadow Mountain Community ChurchChris TomlinMusician, SongwriterMax LucadoAuthorRussell MoorePresident, Ethics & Religious Liberty CommissionJames MacDonaldFounder and Senior Pastor, Harvest Bible ChapelGeorge WoodGeneral Superintendent, Assemblies of GodEric MetaxasAuthor, Speaker, Radio HostKevin EzellPresident, North American Mission Board (NAMB)Robert MorrisPastor, Gateway ChurchRonnie FloydSenior Pastor, Cross ChurchJoe FochtSenior Pastor, Calvary Chapel of PhiladelphiaBrian BrodersenSenior Pastor, Calvary Chapel of Costa MesaJoel RosenbergAuthorLevi LuskoPastor, Fresh Life ChurchOS HawkinsPresident, Guidestone Financial ResourcesRandy AlcornAuthorWillie JordanCofounder and President, Fred Jordan MissionsRev. Samuel RodriguezPresident, National Hispanic Christian Leadership ConferenceSkip HeitzigFounder and Senior Pastor, Calvary of AlbuquerqueLee StrobelAuthor__________Pastor Greg Laurie serves as the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, one of the largest churches in America; is the author of more than 70 books; hosts the nationally syndicated radio broadcast, A New Beginning; and is the founder of Harvest Crusades, a large-scale evangelistic ministry whose next event, Harvest America, will be held June 11 in Phoenix at the University of Phoenix Stadium and broadcast live nationwide. His next book "Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon" releases on June 13.Photo at top: Jeremy Bishop

Harvest Crusades Story: ‘I’d Been a Meth Addict For Over 20 Years’

Bizzle Testimony Includes Pimpin to Support Rap Dream

Bizzle.We ran across this exciting artist while learning about The Legacy Los Angeles Conference planned for Biola University on April 1st. From his bio, we discover that the Los Angeles raised M.C. Bizzle (born Mark J. Felder) wrote his first rap verse at no older than 8 years old and also started writing R&B around that same time. Now at 31 years old, he has over 20 years under his belt as a writer and "the experience shows in his sound and versatility."

In January 2010 he released the track “You Got Some Explaining to Do”, a song directed towards Jay-Z, calling him out on his negative references towards Jesus in his raps; which caused a lot of controversy. The buzz was bigger that he could have ever imagined.After continuously being called the “Christian Rapper” that dissed Jay Z, Bizzle decided that he wanted to continue his movement to bring Glory to Christ through his music. He released his first Christian Mixtape entitled “The Messenger” in March of 2010. “The Messenger” was a huge success, receiving over 20,000 downloads and creating an even bigger buzz on the internet, with his views on Worldstarhiphop.com, Allhiphop.com, Mediatakeout.com, Bossip.com, youtube.com, etc… totaling well over 3 million....In July of 2014 Bizzle released “Well Wishes.” The project is a heavy collaborative Christian Hip Hop album in which 100% of the profits are going towards building water wells in Mozambique Africa. Well Wishes reached #2 on the Christian Gospel billboard charts and #12 on the Hip Hop/Rap billboard charts. - Bizzle bio excerpts

Bizzle gives his testimony in the video (above). He is part of the Truth Music Tour which makes a stop at The Legacy Los Angeles Conference.

Prayer That's Tailor-Made For La La Land

If nearly two decades ago you would have asked me to explain prayer I would have had no idea how to begin.

I have found the greatest power in the world is the power of prayer. - Cecil B. DeMille

And if a Christian would have told me during my BC (Before Jesus Christ became real to me) days that prayer is about "talking and listening" to God, I would've probably said, "Yeah, sure."All I knew was that people who prayed generally went down on their knees, closed their eyes, and clasped their hands together. That's all there is to prayer, right?Not really. Now, as a believer, I'm convinced of the power of prayer... and its importance (it's not about style). As Rick Warren puts it, "Prayer isn’t convincing God to do our will but aligning ourselves with His will, which requires overcoming evil with good."Over the last several years, I've had the chance to chat with Hollywood Prayer Network (HPN) founder, Karen Covell. I believe her ministry is critical to the foothold and growing influence of Christians in the entertainment industry today. I believe much of the progress the Gospel has made in movies and entertainment is the direct result of first, God's movement, and second, the roots established by Covell and HPN beginning in 2001.Covell, a TV producer, birthed the Hollywood Prayer Network in July of that year, because she believed that Hollywood was not “Sodom and Gomorrah” but “Nineveh” – it can be redeemed, according to the ministry's site. HPN is a grass roots prayer ministry led by Hollywood professionals who seek to impact our culture through prayer. Over the years HPN has seen attempts to “change” Hollywood fail because content won’t change until lives change. HPN believes God is the only one who can change the lives and hearts of the decision makers, creative community, and power players in Hollywood and He will do that if His followers humble themselves and pray.And that brings us to Los Angeles.At the Together LA gathering held in 2015, when asked about how we should love on the city, Covell said, "The best way to love Los Angeles is to pray. Pray for the people here, pray for impact of this city. I learned long ago, if you pray for somebody, you can't hate them. If you want to love LA, you pray and you ask God to come down here to show his face here, to do miracles here and you will fall in love with the city."As her smile widened, she added, "However, if you like good weather, you can just fall in love with it immediately by showing up. That's easy."The reason I wanted to write about Karen and HPN, is because as the senior editor of the Together LA website, and while in the process of re-launching the discussion about loving on LA, I had to come up with the first set of stories. There is no better way than to start with the subject of prayer.I have no idea how big this discussion at Together LA will become. I have no idea of how large this platform will grow or how high participation levels will rise. But I have been praying about Together LA for more than two years now...And I know we must begin with prayer.HPN: Have a question for the Hollywood Prayer Network? Now's your chance to ask it! On Friday, March 10 at 10:30 a.m., we will be hosting a Facebook Live event with our very own Karen Covell! You'll be able to ask questions during the event and have them answered live! Be sure to join us! You won't want to miss it! Go here: https://www.facebook.com/hollywoodprayernetwork/ More on Prayer:The Model Prayer of a Worshipper by Dwayne MooreQuiet Time With God: It’s Simple, Really by Rick WarrenSide Note: What about "La La Land?"

The nickname for the California town whose literal translation is “City of Angels” comes from its initials: LA for Los Angeles. But “La La Land” also refers to the culture of its most notable industry, whether the reference is to the magic of its images of pretty people doing pretty things or to the instability of the various deals, relationships, and people behind them. The title of this exquisite film from writer/director Damien Chazelle refers to all of that and to the “la la” of music as well. FROM REVIEW OF LA LA LAND BY NELL MINOW

Efrem Smith: A Vision For Urban Leaders

Editor's Note: Together LA had the opportunity to attend the Los Angeles Mayor's Prayer Breakfast last Saturday where Efrem Smith cast a vision through a powerful prayer for the city. After reading his recent blog post (below) about attending the World Impact’s annual TUMI (The Urban Ministry Institute) Leaders’ Summit earlier in the month, it seems likely that some of the inspiration for the prayer came from his time there.When Christ walked the earth he had the ability to look at people and see something beyond the labels of society. Christ was able to see the under-resourced, unqualified, outcast, and marginalized as potential participants in the work of transformation. He was able to look at the corrupt, the incarcerated, the diseased, the poor, and left for dead and see something that even the religious leaders of the day had the lack of vision to grasp. Through the declarations and demonstrations of God’s love, truth, and new life those deemed unworthy find their identity as made in the image of God and from there, begin to see their potential to work alongside Christ and transform lives and communities.This month I attended World Impact’s annual TUMI (The Urban Ministry Institute) Leaders’ Summit in Wichita, Kansas. I was so moved by the hundreds of ministry leaders that have a revolutionary vision for the poor and the incarcerated. I participated in worship, shared meals with, and listened to the stories of Brothers and Sisters from around the country and around the world who are aligned with God’s vision for “the least of these.” But they don’t merely have sympathy and mercy for the poor and incarcerated. They are involved in training and equipping them to serve as church planters, pastors, community leaders, and missionaries. These Summit attendees are chaplains, church pastors, denominational leaders, and volunteers who see that the harvest field is not only plentiful, but contains gifted and talented folks who, if empowered and resourced, can take responsibility for transformation right where they are.This issue of seeing all people through the eyes of God, is not just a ministry model for me, it’s personal... READ FULL POST AT WORLD IMPACT, INC.Photo at top: John Fredericks for Together LA

Nation Ripe For Alternative Solution to Unrest Says Every Man Ministries President

People living in cities and communities throughout the United States are ripe for an alternative solution to the current unrest in the nation and the answer does not lie within politics or culture, Every Man Ministries Pastor and President Kenny Luck recently said.

NEWS RELEASE

“At Every Man we believe that our nation is finally ready to address the chaos and dysfunction happening in our cities and communities. But the root of that chaos and dysfunction is not political, it’s not ethnic, it’s not even cultural,” said Luck, whose ministry has helped thousands of men with their spiritual journeys for nearly two decades. “It is a spiritual breakdown of the family and the vacuum of spiritually and relationally healthy men leading those families.”Los Angeles Radio Show Plans to Expand Into Chicago, Philadelphia MarketsThe Every Man Show, which was launched as a radio program last year in Los Angeles (99.5 KKLA), has produced phenomenal results in reaching the city of 10 million people with the message of Jesus Christ specifically targeting men. Now, Every Man Ministries is seeking support to expand the show into the Philadelphia and Chicago markets.“At Every Man we know that when a child comes to Christ, 3 percent of the family will follow,” Luck said. “When a mom comes to Christ, 17 percent of the family will follow. But when a dad or father comes to Christ, 93 percent of the family will follow.”The act of men becoming believers in Jesus is an agent and catalyst for family health.“For the last 16 years Every Man Ministries has been building a grassroots network of churches,” Luck explained. “We’ve been building an ecosystem of resources and web platforms and curriculums to support and fuel a community-based revival of Christ-centered masculinity in the home.”Expanding into Philadelphia and ChicagoEvery Man Ministries seeks to secure broadcast time for the next 12 months in Philadelphia and Chicago. “We need to drive the grassroots, social media, and church campaigns to begin movements of transformation partnering with the churches of those major metro urban cities to reach and transform the hearts of men,” Luck said.Where do you come in?“Here’s where you come in. We are sponsoring over the next two weeks the Matching Grant Challenge for the Every Man Show. The good news is that we’ve already have had $100,000 come in of the $250,000 that we need to raise to get these two new time zones online,” he said.What do you do?You go to EveryManMinistries.com/challenge and join this unprecedented, historic movement of God through the Holy Spirit that’s going to transform the hearts of men, families, homes, communities, and cities from the inside out because we know that’s the real solution.Media contact: Alex Murashko - Email: alex@togetherla.net Phone: (949) 547-0907

'The Case For Christ' Movie Producers Offer Leaders Links/Key Dates to Maximize Outreach

Lee Strobel, who wrote a best-selling book about his research into Jesus and how in the process of writing the book he was transformed from a skeptical legal beat journalist and atheist to a believer, said he is confident that the upcoming "The Case For Christ" movie (based on the book) will be a useful tool for churches."One pastor who saw the film (at a pre-screening...movie opens April 7) said it's the greatest outreach movie of our generation. That might be an exaggeration, but I am convinced this film can be a great tool for churches to reach their communities for Christ this Easter season," shared Strobel recently with Together LA. "I'm hoping churches will buy out theaters or blocks of tickets, challenge their congregation to invite their friends, and then encourage everyone to come back for Easter services at the church. That's great spiritual synergy!"Producers recently released an online resource for church and ministry leaders that includes links to key events and dates prior to the movie's (trailer below) opening in theaters nationwide on April 7.In the Los Angeles area, an advanced screening of "The Case For Christ" for church leaders is set for the AMC Santa Anita 16 in Arcadia this coming Monday (February 27) at 7 pm. For details visit the Pure Flix Faith and Family Alliance webpage."People will find the movie very entertaining," Strobel said. "In fact, we showed it to a test audience of 1,000 people and they stood and applauded at the end! But beyond that, the film also chronicles my spiritual journey from atheism to faith, exploring the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. I'm praying it will prompt a lot of people to begin their own spiritual investigation."But what about the bad rap Christian movies often get? Is this movie only for Christians?"It's true that some faith-based films in the past have been a little cheesy or cringe-worthy. But there's none of that in this movie! We've got Academy and Tony Award winning actors and a powerful script by Brian Bird," Strobel explained. "Our test audiences have shown that not just Christians, but non-Christians love the film as well! And we've had a strong response from both men and women, across a wide spectrum of ages. People love a great story that's based on real events, especially when the film leaves them with something to think about."Church leaders interested in the movie's resource page of links and key dates, click here: http://pureflixalliance.com/emails/key-dates-and-oppurtunities.htmlPhotos and Video: caseforchristmovie.pureflix.com

New article: Key dates and links to maximize Case for Christ movie for outreach this Easter: https://t.co/EJISbEohO2

— Lee Strobel (@LeeStrobel) February 22, 2017

Global Church Planter's Vision to Reach Millennials Begins in Downtown LA

Pastor and church planter Jimmie Davidson wants to help millennials get over the whole "church thing" which apparently, for whatever reasons and according to recent stats, is causing a mass exodus from traditional Sunday services.Davidson is the visionary behind TheBrooks.Church, designed to help people who are accustomed to watching church services through the Internet or on TV “become people with a church” wherever they meet.He is aiming high, hoping for a billion global “gatherings” that meet at coffee shops, workplaces, and homes. While Davidson seems to be always thinking globally, his thoughts and prayers most recently have focused in on establishing a home base in Downtown Los Angeles."Lori (his wife) and I are in downtown LA preparing to launch The Brooks as a base to love this city, as a model for the world, as the launching point for the churches we pray to start Internationally," Davidson said.  "This will only be won through prayer, so we are asking you to pray!"His launch team has grown to 18 people over the past few months while "we expect the 300!""Our focus right now is community service projects to love our neighbors.  Those early adopters and pioneers of the faith who God is sending are largely from the arts, including actors living in the city," he said.Plans are for Easter Sunday to be the first service for The Brooks.  After Easter, monthly services are planned for May, June, July, August and September, and the launch of weekly services in October.Leading up to the Easter service, Davidson said he plans to begin a weekly message this Sunday (Feb. 26) titled “You Are The One” which he hopes will help people discover their calling, "their voice for God’s purpose in Life."“We are trying to bring the church where the church doesn’t exist as we raise up people that are not in the game, not using their talents, they are more spectators, and help them be a part of what Christ is doing all over the world,” said Davidson, whose bio includes the descriptor “Great Commission Strategist.”“One billion people mobilized, awakened, to host His church where they live, whatever space they have. It’s about His movement, it’s like streams of the desert, Isaiah 43:18-19. It’s the ultimate seeker-sensitive movement,” he said.“Forget the former things, I’m doing something new, like streams in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19Davidson told me that the timeline for reaching the 1 billion host milestone is not up to him, it’s “up to God.” Even so, it appears Davidson is well-equipped to lead and launch TheBrooks.Church at a time when one-third of millennials say they are unaffiliated with any faith, according to a Pew study released last year and other studies released this year.Davidson’s church planting experience includes starting Highlands Fellowship Church in Virginia which grew from a small group study of family and friends to 4,000 people in attendance and multiple sites. He is the founder of the Global Glory of God PEACE House where over 300 international business leaders and pastors have been trained from over 70 nations, “touching tens of millions of lives.”He was also a contributing author of the book, Multi-site Churches: Guidance for the Movement’s Next Generation, by Scott McConnell.“During the process” of his ministry work, as Davidson describes it, Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren asked him to lead the church’s global campus launches. Three years ago, after several months of prayer, he joined Warren’s team and became a PEACE Pastor overseeing all global missions including a staff of over 35 as well as thousands of volunteers in carrying out the PEACE Plan which includes “Planting Churches, Equipping Servant Leaders, Assisting the Poor, Caring for the Sick and Educating the Next Generation.”“Two years ago, we [Saddleback] launched three global campuses on three continents in two weeks – Hong Kong, Berlin, and Buenos Aires and then the following year, in the summer, during a hurricane, we launched Manilla,” Davidson said. “All of that had led to [the] innovative idea that I’m working on. God has wired me up to be an entrepreneur with an apostolic calling – how do I reach the people who are not being reached.”He says the vision for TheBrooks.Church is to “launch churches all over the planet through ordinary followers of Jesus, using 21st century technology, the Internet, where 3 billion people are online, with the 1st century idea that Jesus gave us when he said, ‘I will build my gathering and the gates of hell will not prevail against me.’”...or a trending millennials downward outlook.He added, “The gospel is meant to be seen up close. The online launch can be a little bit misleading because we are using that as a tool, as a platform, but the heart of what we are doing is what the Lord said, ‘Do not forsake the gathering of your souls together.' Jesus said if two or three of you meet in my name it will be done by my Father. There’s something powerful about people following Jesus gathering, others gathering, God showing up and needs being met.”Perhaps millennials, saved and unsaved, will begin to look at church in a new way.

The Brooks Church: Jimmie Davidson Launches Church Movement from One Ten Pictures on Vimeo.

.@JimmieDavidson wants to help millennials get over the whole “church thing” https://t.co/w1at39Ih4y #losangeles @together_la

— Alex Murashko (@AlexMurashko) February 20, 2017

Political Firestorm: DC Church Elder Shares 16 Ways to Promote Unity Within Congregations

Editor's Note: Jonathan Leeman is an elder at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., editorial director of 9Marks, and author of several books, including Political Church: The Local Assembly as Embassy of Christ’s Rule (Bio as it appears at The Gospel Coalition). His response to a pastor who is wondering "how can the gospel show a better way" during the current political unrest in the U.S. from both outside and inside the church begins below.A pastor writes:

Members of my congregation are increasingly hostile and mistrusting of one another after the election, especially online. What is my responsibility as a pastor, and how can the gospel show a better way for our polarized culture if we can’t honor one another in our own churches?

Dear friend,That’s a great question. I trust most pastors and Christians believe the gospel is big enough to reconcile and to unify. It’s easy to say, “We’re Republicans and Democrats together for the gospel!” But living together amid our partisan differences is like eating a spoonful of pudding with gravel hiding inside. It looks sweet at first glance, but put it in your mouth and you’ll break your teeth.I’m not going to Pollyanna you. Maintaining gospel unity amid political disagreement is hard.It’s hard because politics, by its nature, deals with questions of justice, and the gospel requires us to care about justice. So if one member’s conscience tells him that a certain party, candidate, protest event, or slogan represents an injustice, while another’s conscience says the party/candidate/slogan represents justice, it will be difficult for either to back down.It’s hard because political engagement nearly always involves making alliances with groups of people who don’t agree on everything. So any given party, candidate, protest event, or even slogan probably represents a conglomeration of issues, three of which might be biblically good and three of which might be biblically reprehensible. Can a Christian get behind the cause for the sake of the good things, especially if no other candidate, party, protest event, or slogan represents those good things?And maintaining unity amid political disagreement may get harder. The more our culture looks to government to solve our problems and be our savior, the higher the culture-war stakes will become on both sides.Certainly, our church on Capitol Hill has felt its share of political tensions. Here are 16 things the pastors or elders try to do to help maintain unity.

1. Preach expositionally.

If you’ve trained your congregation on topical sermons, I dare say they’re going to be more accustomed to your personal and ideological formulations. As such, throwing in a politicized sermon or two won’t startle them. It will sound like what they usually get—a topical sermon.If, however, you’ve trained them on weekly biblical exposition, forays into partisan politics will alarm them. And that discomfort is good....

 READ FULL STORY AT THE GOSPEL COALITION