New Leadership Podcast

FfO Youth Leader Seminar - Session 3 (Jon Perrin) - This podcast is from a Youth Leader's Seminar I taught in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany recently. Although it primarily applies to youth leaders, the principles taught will benefit anyone in church or ministry leadership. The title of the series is "Questions we must answer".

http://www.perrinministries.org/upload/FfO_YLS-Session3.mp3

The NAME OUR CHURCH contest!

We’re having a contest! We are planting a church in Freiburg, Germany in the Fall of 2010. It will be “a church for those that don’t do church”. And we need a name and tagline for it!

You can help us name our new church. The name needs to be current, not too long and not “churchy”. If we choose your idea, you will receive an assortment of real Swiss Chocolates!

Some info about our church plant:

1. It will be highly relational.
2. It will be a high-intensity church service, with cool, experiential music and relevant teaching.
3. It will be active in the community.
4. It will be a church-planting church… our focus will be on planting more churches with the same DNA all over the Freiburg area.

Some info about Freiburg, Germany:

1. Renowned university city
2. Many of the young adults are highly educated and artistic
3. The greenest city in Germany

To submit a name, click here. You can also follow the discussion on Twitter: #nameourchurch

Insight 2010 Youth Leader Conference

The Insight 2010 Youth Leader Conference will be held in Loerrach, Germany from Mar 18-20.  It will be a time of equipping and encouragement by seasoned youth leaders.  We’d love to see you there!

You can get more info by clicking on the picture below.

Two silver candlesticks (redemptive endings)

At the beginning of the legendary musical, Les Miserables, Jean Valjean had just been released from prison after 19 years.  he came to a new town where he was forced to show his prison release papers.  The mayor and townspeople, as well as the local jail and other businesses refuse to help him or give him anything to eat.  The only one that will feed him is Mr. Myriel, the local Bishop.  He not only feeds Valjean, he invites him to spend the night.  Valjean returns the favor by stealing Bishop Myriel’s only “fineries” – silver utensils – and leaving in the middle of the night.
Valjean is caught by the police and brought back to face Myriel.  When the bishop sees him, he claims he gave Valjean the silverware as a gift.  Myriel adds, “You forgot to take the silver candlesticks that go with the silverware.”
After the police leave, the bishop offers him forgiveness and tells him to live an honest life.  The rest of the musical is about Valjean’s attempt to do so.
We all love stories with a redemptive ending.  Why?  There is something in each of us that cries out for a redemptive ending to our broken lives.  The Bible is full of these redemptive stories, for instance:

• Joseph – Gen. 50:20 “You meant to hurt me, but God turned your evil into good to save the lives of many people.”
• Moses – Acts 7:20-36 God brought Moses full circle to face his failure so he could learn to trust God to fulfill his destiny.
• Woman caught in adultery – Jn. 8:1-11 She was rescued from a death sentence.
• Prodigal son – Lk. 15:11-32 Welcomed home & forgiven by a loving father… even after committing the worst act of betrayal.

Now notice Heb. 4:16…

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Some people have endured unimaginable pain and horrors – betrayal, neglect & abuse – sometimes even at the hands of those they should have been able to trust.  God offers you grace to help you let it go.  Forgiving others will bring you freedom!  And, like Joseph, God can turn these horrible things into something beautiful, if we’ll let Him.
Others have been the ones causing the pain.  You need to come to the Father and, like the Prodigal Son, find mercy.  You will need to make things right, but you will find freedom and forgiveness.

Surreal airplane conversation

Image source: Rolf Wallner

On my flight back to Zurich last week I sat next to a young man named M. He is a homosexual clairvoyant (fortune-teller, tarot card reader, medium, etc). This lifestyle is the polar opposite of the way I was raised. Honestly, it was a surreal experience. But I learned a ton.
Some of my fellow pastors would have begun to tell this man how much he was "sinning." And, of course, the Bible is pretty clear about certain lifestyles. But I decided instead to get to know M.
I learned that he grew up in a very orthodox church, and even experienced the presence of God at one of their retreats. He is a very spiritually alert person. But this spiritual curiosity led him in a very different direction. This led to him walking away from the Church, and therefore, Christianity altogether.
He also described his relationship with his partner, and how they met. They want to move to a new area and set up a "spiritual guidance" shop. He found a group of "kindred spirits" in this new town and is excited about the move. He even described some of his hopes and dreams, and some of his pain and hurts. While M described a life that I had never even imagined, I got to see his heart and learn a little bit about who he is.
Eventually the conversation turned to what I do. After I explained our desire to start a new church, he told me I was not like any pastor he had met before, which I took as a huge compliment. I got to share a little about the change Jesus made in my life, and how my mission is to please God. I shared about how God loves people -- even people that the religious world has written off. And when he said he has never really read the Bible (because the King James doesn't make sense to him) but expressed an interest, I was able to recommend an "artistic" version of the Bible for him to read.
My point is this... if we write off people because of their current lifestyle or beliefs, we shut the door to God being able to use us to speak into their lives. I find it interesting that the very people who didn't fit in with a religious worldview ("sinners") were the very ones that seemed to love hanging out with Jesus. And Jesus defended them to the religious elite. (see Mark 2:14-17 and Luke 15) And I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with M.
We need to ask God to send more "sinners" into our path. And that He would give us wisdom in our dealings with them. After all, it's the kindness of God that leads men to repentance. (Romans 2:4) We cannot afford to be so "spiritual" that we avoid relationships with people that are in desperate need of God. After all, haven't we, too, been brought into a relationship with God by His mercy and grace?
This experience reinforced my belief that if you invest in a relationship with someone, you earn the right to speak into their life. Have you ever had any similar experiences?

We are visitors (part 11)

We visited another church in our area of Germany recently. We came just before the service started. Because we came at the last minute, there weren't five seats in which our whole family could sit together. Several ushers walked hurriedly past me. I finally flagged one usher down and I asked him if he had any more chairs. He never spoke a word to me, he just kept walking. Then, a few seconds later, he reappeared holding some chairs. I was glad that we could all sit together. However, instead of adding another row of chairs to the existing rows, he put them in the very back of the church along the wall. (There was PLENTY of room to add at least another 6 rows behind the existing rows.)

During the service, the pastor spoke about the value of bringing people into kingdom and how important each person is. Almost in tears he spoke so passionately about reaching this community for Christ.

Now the usher had no idea who we were. For all he knew we were just people coming into a church for the first time. My observation was that it doesn't matter how much you speak about or how passionate you are about winning the lost or reaching your community....the actions of your staff & volunteers speak louder than your words. While the pastor conveyed a passion, the usher's actions conveyed indifference. What if we were those lost souls that the pastor was speaking about?

Day #15,568

I just discovered from an online "Days Alive Calculator" that I'm now on day #15,568.  That's a lot of days!  Kinda makes you think about what your life stands for...

A common theme when I’m speaking to young people is “What do you want on your tombstone?” (And no, I don’t mean the pizza!)  What do you want your life to count for?  What do you want people to say about you at your funeral?  What legacy will you leave behind?

As for me, I want to have the same thing said about me that was said about David: “He served God’s purpose in his generation.” (Acts 13:36)  And I want those closest to me (my family) to think the most of me.  I want my wife and kids to have seen Jesus through my words and actions.  I want to leave a legacy of reckless obedience to the will of God.  And at my funeral I want them to honestly say that I loved people even as God does.

What do you want on your tombstone?