O my God what a book! Our Director of Operations here at Lifepoint gave me this book a couple of moths ago. At first I just couldn’t get into it, but a few days ago I felt like I needed to give it another shot. In two days I had finished and the way the book personifies God and Christ and the Holy Spirit is truly amazing. The feeling and emotions that came up during the reading of The Shack gave me a sense that I was reading some of my own story. Through a tragic set of circumstances an adventurous, well-traveled God emerged. In the end the concept of God and the godhead go through a singularly remarkable transformation in the psyche of the reader. A transfer takes place and into the shack you go. Along with you go all the preconceptions of who and what God is. Once ready for your journey home, each step taken is fresh and new, a symbolic gesture of a new-found freedom and reality of a God who loves and loves well. You will feel yourself robbed of a moment worth remembrance if you awaken in the future having not read The Shack.
Archive for the ‘Influence’ category
The Shack
November 3, 2007reverb
October 17, 2007I don’t know if I need to recant or what, but what I do know is that – though subtle – I know that the beginnings of a “reverberation” are taking place personally. The conference was, from my perspective, what I’ve written. However, I think that I’m finding that even though the production aspects weren’t what I expected, there does seem to be an awarness of some things that I previously ignored.
One of those is that the events that have the most impact, like the services we produce, may not be the ones that are the smoothest and sharpest. I strive for our services to have a high “wow” effect, but I have to admit that I would rather have “wow” impact than “wow” effect. The influence we have on others has to count for more than a good show. Something must be left when the environment is gone. In other words, Catalyst could not have been that bad if I am still earnestly thinking about it.
Whatever It Takes
October 12, 2007
For the past few weeks (6 ) we have been doing a series called Whatever It Takes. The purpose has been to create a culture of serving within our people. The third week of the series was the week we went to Catalyst. Since returning I really have found that there were things that occured during the conference that just now are beginning to surface. True, I’ve posted about the things in Catalyst that I didn’t care for, but last night we had a group meeting and decided to discuss what positive benefits we gathered from the experience.
I had to think awhile, but the resounding idea that kept coming to my mind was the importance of leveraging our influence as a generation on the future of the next generation. Instead of trying to accomplish and invest in endless projects for ourselves now, why not think in terms of the “long tail” of our own influence and begin to do things purposfully for the future. It is important not to become too “future minded”, but it is vital that we look ahead and become, almost like David, a stockpiler of influence and knowledge for those who will come after us. We need to become known as people who “live the life” instead of a church that does this or that project – our good deed for the year.
I’m not saying that individual projects should be abandoned, just that they should be done in the context of a complete approach to a life of service and responsibilty.
christopherhildreth 