no more complaining about church, instead let us actively bring about the changes needed.

“Everybody wants a revolution, but nobody wants to do the dishes.”  The first time that I heard this I knew that God was calling me to do the dishes.  I am not really sure who originally said it, my google research connected it to a book by Shane Claiborne and Jonathon Wilson-Heartgrove called Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers, but even in their book it is a quote from a t-shirt.  If you know who said it please tell me!!

The more I thought about that quote, the more I felt like it described my calling.  There is a revolution happening.  I don’t know what to call it. I don’t think it will have a name until it is over and I am dead and gone.  The “Emerging Church Movement” is part of it.  New monasticism is part of it.  People like Francis Chan, Rob Bell, Shane Claiborn, Matt Chandler, Tony Jones, Brian McLaren are all a part of it.  In my life people like,  Mike Belt, Billy Combs, Randy Garner, John and Patti Hudgins, Ryan Johnson, Adam Wormann, Sean Read, Nate Austin, Greg Dabb, Scott MacBeth, Angela and Ashley LaBoda (I could go on and on) are all a part of it.  These people are taking the time to recognize God’s movement around them and they are joining Him.  It is a movement toward authenticity.  There is a sense among these people that being just another hypocrite in need of forgiveness is no longer good enough (not that it ever was, but it was acceptable to fellow hypocrites).  There is a “holy discontent”, to use Bill Hybels’ term, for being phonies.  We recognize that God has a higher calling for us.  Jesus said that whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness (John 8:12).  Lukewarm is not acceptable.  If you have not watched “Lukewarm and loving it” yet, do it.  This is as well an articulated description of the revolution as you will find.

As Ryan and I work daily in ministry we hope to do so as men who will bring this revolution to our local churches.  This blog will not become a place where we whine about how the church has gotten it “wrong”.  We don’t pretend to be doing it 100% right. This will simply be a place where we unpack and explore the ways in which we feel God is shaping and molding us to be servant leaders in the revolution.