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The WWJT IgniteRaleigh Video

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

This is the video of me speaking at IgniteRaleigh on the topic of “WWJT”. There are a couple of things you should know:

The MC, Zach Ward, forgot my name/location/topic. That’s what’s going on at the beginning.
There was an audible groan from the audience at the announcing of the topic.
The laughter was a LOT louder than on the tape. No mic for the audience.
Prior to the presentation, my wife asked me if I was going to be funny. I said “of course”. She responded “Pastor funny, or real funny?” Judge for yourself.
Hopefully it’s as insightful as people have made it out to be.

Enjoy.

This past week I had a wonderful opportunity to speak at a local un-conference called Ignite Raleigh (link). My self-assigned topic, “What Would Jesus Tweet: The Interaction of Religion and Social Networking”, was voted into the top 10, and so there I was. I gotta be honest: leading up to the conference, I wasn’t totally stoked about it. I had tons of stuff to do this week (and still do), with another semi-speaking engagement on Saturday night, and then preaching on Sunday am at Harmony. But I was voted in: the people were expecting something.

I wasn’t really nervous; I’ve spoken to crowds before, and I speak regularly every week. I was a little concerned about the time constraint (we had 5 minutes to get our point across and get out), however. I mean, come on, I’m a frickin’ preacher. I’m used to going 45 minutes a week. An hour on a good day with a couple cups of coffee. And now you’re giving me 5? Oh well. I also followed what I thought was one of the best talks of the night, from Ryan Allis of iContact. He’s a sharp guy; I picked that up from just the couple of minutes I sat with him in the green room backstage. I left the green room so I could hear him once he started; I knew there’d be some great takeaways (there were).

But then it was my turn.

And the MC (Zach Ward, who was amazing) forgot my name. Once he “recalled” it and announced the topic, the entire audience let out a cohesive ‘groan’. I hope that turns up on the video…

So here I was, literally, the no-name guy talking about a topic that no one wanted to hear about.

But God had other plans. He wanted the people of IgniteRaleigh to see a real guy with a sense of humor talking about the thing that matters most in life: why we live. And I think hope that people got to see that, by His grace and gifting.

The video will be posted soon, and I’ll definitely embed it on the blog, so I’ll let you see for yourself the presentation. I won’t bias it for you.

But know this: I left the stage simultaneously humbled because of what had happened, and joyous because I knew that He and I killed it. Most of all, I left prayerful, hoping that more than a decent talk, people saw a man chasing with all his might to be like Jesus; joyous, humorous, yet purposeful. Why is my life imitating His so important?

Because if I’m successful at following Him, it’d be a presentation worth watching on repeat.

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Zeal.

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Our church is very thoughtful. We don’t get very emotional in our services. There is rare clapping and hand-raising during worship, but other than that, it’s pretty cerebral. The sermons are intellectual, and we mix in liturgical elements to further stimulate the mind towards Christ. You have to think at Harmony Church. We don’t want to spoon feed.

But at the same time, we desire to stir passions for the glory of God and the good of Greenville.

Our affections for Christ are instrumental in our growth in Him. We don’t have to get emotional every time a certain song is played or sentence is said. We do, however, have to constantly remind ourselves of three things:

Where we came from
Who saved us
How our salvation was accomplished

This is where theology meets the streets. We were totally depraved, incapable of saving ourselves. No matter how hard we struggle, how mightily we try to get rid of our garbage…we always fall short (Romans 1). God chose to give us up to our own passions for a while. But His goodness leads to repentance. He sent His Son to die for us while we were yet sinners. Jesus came to earth in a fleshsuit, lived for 30 years in relative obscurity, and then began His ministry mission. His mission was this: to live the life we cannot live, and to die the death that we should have died. He did this on the Cross of Calvary. The Glorious Exchange happened here: we get His righteousness, He takes our sinfulness. What a trade! And out of joy, this should result in one emotion with many manifestations: joy.

Our joy in our salvation, and in our Savior, results in us seeing the world like Jesus did. It results in us gathering with other believers for the purpose of reaching our city and showing it the same joy that was shown to us. It results in constant study of the One who saved us through Scripture. Joy leads us into spiritual conversation (prayer) with the One who saved us.

So yes, our beliefs should ‘click’ in our heads. It should make sense to us. We should pursue the questions that plague our faith. But in addition to our quest for an intellectual grasp of our salvation, the work of Christ should also place within our heart a passion for His glory that eclipses all other purposes in life.