Jonathan Herron

Free to Risk

These 3 quotes have been posted by my desk since beginning our church plant:

"And my God will meet ALL your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." - Philip

On Lamenting

"Lamenting is more than a technique for venting emotion.  It is one of the fruits of a deepening spiritual life that has learned to stand naked before God without shame or pretence."
- Pete Greig

It's been a weird week.  Deaths and new births. 
Figuratively and literally.

As quickly as something dries up, new resources are infused.

A couple I love loses a child.
Another couple, same church family, welcomes a child.

Out-of-the-blue new opportunites present themselves. 
Death always precedes resurrection. 

"To pray is to confess not the abundance but the exhaustion of one's verbal, intellectual, and spiritual resources.  It is surrender..."
- Alan E. Lewis

I feel like the Spirit is teaching me to surrender more to the throne of Christ.  My natural tendency is to become consumed by that which I have no control over. 
I need to move from the natural to the supernatural.  I need to become consumed by Him who has control over everything.

"History is lubricated by tears.  Prayer, maybe most prayer, is accompanied by tears.  All these tears are gathered up and absorbed in the tears of Jesus." - Eugene Peterson

Catalyst :: Top 15

Here's come cool news for those who call Catalyst home:  church planting blogger Derek Brown is assembling a list of the Top 15 church plants in North America (here's the criteria).  Today Catalyst made #5! 

To be in the same company as Epiphany Fellowship (I met Eric Mason last fall at A29 - he is very down-to-earth and freaky smart) and Elevation Church (Steven Furtick is on my short list of amazing leaders I want to have lunch with) is absolutely nuts. 

Our Core Team gets the shout-out on this - your sacrifices for the mission of Catalyst are inspiring others around the blogosphere while advancing this outpost of the Kingdom in deep dark Portage.   Way to go - now let's double-up our efforts to reach the over quarter-million in our 10 mile radius who don't know Christ.

We go until we get a "no."

//shift

"God is not a kindly old uncle; He is an earthquake."
- ancient Hebrew saying

I love that - He's not fuddy-duddy grandpa from Willy Wonka; God is tremendously able - over-powering - as He leads the unstoppable force known as the Church. 

"An earthquake can shift things that a kindly old uncle can only smile at." - Pete Greig

Spiritual Pygmy

Yes, that is me today.
I told our 1st Impressions/Tech Crew during prayer before Catalyst today to expect a quiet, slower morning.  The average church experiences a seasonal dip starting with Memorial Day weekend.

And then God laughed at me. 
We ran out of handouts today (I think that's a first).
I still have no idea where all today's visitors (all local) came from.  As I believe Jacob Ley put it, "Must be from all the advertising we haven't been doing."

Speaking Engagements

"No" is a word I've been using a lot lately.  I've already said no to 2 different conference speaking opportunities for this summer - I'm focused like a laser on the vision for Catalyst.

But I've also squeezed in a few "yes's" for speaking engagements in the coming months.  Speaking outside Catalyst sharpens me as a communicator and helps toward our adoption costs. 

Anyhow, I have a few open spots left for the summer - if you're interested, go here.

LOST = Brilliant

Let us detour from theology for a moment to talk about last night's Season 3 finale of LOST.  Holy cow - absolutely brilliant game-changer (bonus points for calling the twist before it was revealed).  Still not sure about the "only an extremely deranged person would think of doing what we're doing" comment from LOST's Executive Producer...  Did you notice the anagram of the funeral parlor (spoiler alert):

Hoffs/Drawlar = Flash Forward
Your thoughts on the Season 3 finale?

Underlined: Church Planting Landmines

Just finished the out-of-print book Church Planting Landmines by Tom Nebel and Gary Rohrmayer (thanks to Daniel Montgomery at Sojourn/Acts29 for this copy).  Here's what I underlined:

- It's usually more invigorating to anticipate the battle than to participate in it.

- Church planters often believe that things have become reality before they actually happen.

- We have never met an over-encouraged pastor.

- "There's no such thing as burnout. It's just people who are taking themselves too seriously" - John Maxwell

- "Unless the church evangelizes, it fossilizes" - A.G. Gorden

- After the intensity of the birth (church launch), there is always some type of let down (postpartum syndrome).

- If you need a piece of equipment but don't already have it, you're already paying for it.

- When a new church isn't as strong as quickly as the visionary leaders had envisioned, factual realities cloud their perspective.

- People forget their vision and present realities suffocate the dream.

catalyst summer series

Starting Sunday, June 3rd, we delve into the trilogy of 1 John, 2 John, & 3 John.  Can't wait for this new series - Love Wins.
On a side-note, we are definitely attracting our fair share of quality digital artists to Catalyst for message branding (which is perfect, since we've mapped out all our messages through March of 2008).  Having a pool of artists helps us not exhaust these important, dedicated volunteers.  Thanks to Rachel Adams for branding our new summer series!

Notes for my soul

Everyone was raving about our guest teacher at Catalyst yesterday - Jeff Miller.  I told you he's scary smart.  Jeff took his time walking us through Mark 6.30-44, Mark 8.1-10, and 14-21.  Holy cow - it was like getting hit square in the forehead with the Holy 2x4. 

Over breakfast today (a perk of having a home office), Amber asked me what I took away from Jeff's talk (since he hit so many levels of the text).  Here's some of what stirred my soul...

- Panic or Prayer?  In Mark 6.37, the disciples panic.  The odds are overwhelming.  The immediate cost of taking care of thousands would be a paycheck equaling 200 hundred days of work.  In a church plant situation, we're always facing new odds and difficulties.  Why is it we go into panic-mode (disciples) instead of prayer-mode (Jesus)?

- Jesus is the Son of God.  Yet He was desperate for prayer time.  I am not the Son of God.  Shouldn't I be even more desperate for prayer time?

- In Mark 8, we find the disciples repeating past mistakes given the same situation a few months later.  Do we not yet understand?

- Look at Mark 8.8.  It is only when something is broken that God creates an abundance.

- Jeff said that since we're a church plant, we're in a season of desperation.  If Jesus doesn't intervene, we're destined for failure.  Then he told us to never lose that sense of desperation.  For when a church begins to feel like they've got things under control, they no longer approach the Throne in brokeness.  And God only multiplies the broken, not the whole. 

- Jeff nailed me in Mark 8.14-21.  I am a Christian naturalist.  I claim to follow a supernatural God, yet I live my life with a naturalistic world-view.  Too often, wonder gives way to cynicism.  Do I not yet understand that I follow a supernatural Rabbi?