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Starbucks Christianity

Church has adopted a culture of talk, dress, likes, and dislikes.
The Church has developed it’s own culture.

It’s not that hard to spot a pastor in your local Starbucks.
You can tell by the clothes he’s wearing, the coffee he’s drinking, or even the computer on his table.

The Church has become another culture.

You don’t even have to be a Christian to live in this culture.
You can adapt your life enough around the things that a Christian is supposed to like and do enough to fool most people into thinking that you’re a part of the Church culture.
Heck, if you try hard enough, you can convince yourself that because of what you wear, do, and say, and go, it makes you a Christian.

There’s no problem with the culture.

The problem…
When the Church fails to live in the surrounding culture.
When the Church decides to STAY in its own culture.

Christ never called us to develop our own cliques for the purpose of forming more clones of ourselves.
Christ never called us to make following Him about the way we talk or the way we dress.

Christ called us to saturate our surrounding culture with Him.

Remember from your Sunday school lessons the people Jesus hung around with?
It certainly wasn’t only people from His own culture.
It was people from the world that surrounded him…
Prostitutes
Tax collectors
Diseased
Outcasts

Jesus saturated the surrounding culture with Himself.
We’re called to do the same thing.

It’s not the culture that is bad,
It’s refusing to live in the world around us that’s disobedient.

We have to reach out to the world around us.
We can’t expect that simply listening to David Crowder, going to Starbucks, wearing skinny jeans, and writing in our Moleskin is going to make us a follower of Christ or help others become one.

Don’t just be a member of Starbucks Christianity, be a follower of Jesus.
Don’t adopt Christianity as a culture to live in, adopt it as a life to live out.

Your thoughts?

07
Apr 2010
POSTED BY Jonathan Pearson
POSTED IN

Blog, Featured, Life

DISCUSSION 17 Comments
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Say It to My Face!

Matthew 18:15-20 is one of the easiest passages to understand.

It’s not that difficult to realize that when you have an issue with someone, you go to them FIRST.

It’s doesn’t take a ton of historical or even biblical knowledge to grasp the concept that Jesus is trying to relay in these verses.

But…

For some reason, they are rarely applied.

Instead of going to our brother (or sister) in Christ, we often choose to go to our best friend instead.
Instead of pulling someone aside and explaining our issue with them, we often choose to tell someone else.
Instead of confronting someone that’s wronged us, we often gossip about them instead.

Scripture is pretty clear on what to do if someone wrongs you, but we rarely get it right.

Imagine what the application of this simple passage of scripture could do to…

Our churches.
Our families.
Our schools.
Our offices.
Our lives.

If you have a problem with someone today…
If you feel like someone has wronged you…

Talk to them about it.
Approach them with grace and humility.

That’s what Jesus would do.

05
Apr 2010
POSTED BY Jonathan Pearson
POSTED IN

Blog, Featured, Life

DISCUSSION 16 Comments
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Me on Criticism: How to Respond

If you spend any time doing anything significant, you’re going to develop your share of critics.
Some will actually provide criticism that builds you up, but others won’t.
Some have no intentions except for bad intentions.
They’re single goal is to make everyone around them as miserable as possible (probably because misery loves company).
Here’s a lesson I’ve learned in my short life about a destructive critic…
Our response can be:
Bitterness
or
New Motivation
If we choose to get bitter at the critic, they win.
If we choose to get motivated because of the critic, everyone else wins.
  • When we choose motivation, we win because we have a new desire for God’s work.
  • When we choose motivation, the people around us win because we have a new desire to serve.
  • When we choose motivation, our church/organization/family wins because we have a renewed passion.
Bitterness or motivation,
What do you choose?
What have you found that helps you take the right approach to criticism?
19
Mar 2010
POSTED BY Jonathan Pearson
DISCUSSION No Comments
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Be You

One of my favorite things about social media is the resource it provides to learn from some of the best people on the planet.
It has never been easier for us to learn from our peers and from those that have experienced success in our area.
On the other hand, it’s also never been easier for us to become clones of other people.
Through outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and Podcasts, it’s easy for us to learn to BE other people.
If we follow, study, and replicate what others do, we’ll eventually learn to talk, act, look, and even think like the people that we’ve been trying to learn from.
The problem, God created you to be…YOU!
  • God created us individually to bring maximum impact to the area and culture we live in.
  • Different cultures need different leadership personalities in order to succeed.
  • Different people are reached better by different kinds of people.
No matter who you are, what you do, or what your calling is…be you.
Don’t become someone else simply because you think they’re doing a great work in their area.
God created you…uniquely.
Be who He created.
Be you.
15
Mar 2010
POSTED BY Jonathan Pearson
POSTED IN

Blog, Leadership, Life

DISCUSSION No Comments
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6 Suggestions to Help You Leverage Social Media

Since I dove head first into social media several months ago, I’ve become a believer.
Social media has the ability to allow us to reach further than we ever have been able to.
Social media allows us to form relationships, live our lives, and impact people that we would never be able to any other way.
Social media also has the ability to cause us a world of trouble.
If not handled right, social media has the ability to not only hurt the Body of Christ, but also our own individual ministries.
With a single tweet or a single status update, we can radically change people’s perception of us.
So,
Social media has the ability to extend our ministry or extinguish it…we must choose our words carefully.

Here are several things I keep in mind before I post things on Twitter, Facebook, or this Blog…
1. I must choose my words carefully.
2. Others may not know my personality.
I’m a pretty sarcastic person. However, the people reading my updates may not know that I am. I try to ask myself: Is this something people that don’t understand me may see as offensive?
3. Others can’t see my facial expressions.
I heard a while back that about 85% of what we say is from our body language. With social media, 0% is. I try to be careful that I say 100% of what I need to with words.
4. Clarity is key.
No need to beat around the bush or use confusing words or phrases. Be as clear as possible. As much as we are misunderstood in our every day lives, it’s even easier in the world of social media.
5. Don’t air dirty laundry.
While it’s important to paint an honest picture, some things are better left in your head or with your spouse. Twitter isn’t the place for it.
6. Use it as ministry.
As Christians, our calling is to reach the world. Being a Christ follower isn’t something we can turn on and off. If you have it, you have to display it, no matter the venue.
What other tips do you have for those of us that are trying to make a real difference with social media?
08
Mar 2010
POSTED BY Jonathan Pearson
DISCUSSION No Comments