Lemon and Wilshire - A Birthing Place of Missional Engagement

February 28th. It begins. It becomes real and fully tangible. RockHarbor Fullerton launches, the second campus in a 2+1 vision of campus plants and church plants. RockHarbor Fullerton becomes my community. RockHarbor Fullerton becomes the place where a group of believers will come together to see and live out the Gospel together.

When I first found out that there was going to be a campus in Fullerton back in July, from the one and only Steve Carter, I was beyond stoked. The city I tangibly felt God calling me to pour out my life to, for a significant portion of my twenties (maybe beyond), was receiving the second campus in this vision that RH felt God leading them to work towards. I immediately wanted in, how could I not? Fullerton is an amazing city that God has cultivated a passion in me to reach. I believe that if one can reach and engage Fullerton, the rest of Orange County and Southern California can be impacted.

I remember the first conversation I had with Steve Carter in the RockHarbor Bullpen. I remember meeting up with him the day we got to look at potential buildings to hold our Sunday service in. I remember walking in to the Wilshire Auditorium and just feeling that this was a unique place that we could engage Fullerton from. I remember our first prayer gathering, the second, third, and vision night.

For 8 months my heart has been pulling and leading me closer and closer to the city of Fullerton. For 8 months I have been praying that God would allow us to be part of the work that God is already up to in Fullerton. For 8 months God has been allowing me to help play a part in launching this campus with other amazing people that love Jesus, Fullerton, and North Orange County. I've grown so much these 8 months for numerous reasons.

As I've been reflecting this past week God has been reminding me of a beautiful picture of a missional Church, a picture of what my prayer for RockHarbor Fullerton is. Let me take you inside that picture.

If you have grown up near church you have heard Jeremiah 29:11 quoted to you "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." A great verse, but the you is the Isrealites in a time of exile. What intrigues me most is that this verse is preceded by Jeremiah telling the Isrealites how to live inside this time period of exile, how to play out their lives. This gives context to verse 11. Jeremiah 29:5-6 says "Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there and do no decrease." Essentially, live in community. Be a part of your city. Engage it. Transform it. And then, he adds to this call in verse 7 "But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you find your welfare."

Simply, it is my prayer that RH Fullerton is a place where we learn to engage the city in which we live. Where we establish ourselves, get to know our city and build relationships through life by living there. It is my prayer that above all else we learn to fall in love with the cities God has placed us in. It is my prayer that we, for the sake of the Kingdom, for the sake of the Gospel, seek the welfare of our city. It is my prayer that we pray for our city. This is my prayer. This is my hope.

Super Bowl Masculinity Part 6: Jesus is the Example

For five days the cultural and Biblical masculinity map has lead us straight down a path to Jesus. To truly understand masculinity we must understand Jesus. If Jesus is the perfect Adam, perfect Moses, etc, it means He is our mandate on what masculinity looks like for He is what we as men should strive to be. Let us remember that Jesus was not only fully God but also fully man.

Let me paint a brief picture of the masculinity of Jesus. Jesus was emotional. The key, He handled emotions in the proper ways. For instance in John 11:35 it states that “Jesus wept.” What does that tell us about real men? They grieve. They weep. They mourn. They lament. Even though He knew that shortly Lazarus would walk out of that grave very, very shortly.

In John 2:13-22 we see Jesus overturning the money tables. Another side of emotions. He had passion, He had zeal, He had anger. The key, it was holy, righteous, just. He does not just let it fly and not care about the consequences. When oppression and injustice is taking place, a man must rise and take care of business. He must not sit idly by. In fact, a man should even be angered by oppression to the point of action – not rage or violence, but compassion and action.

One last picture of emotions, John 19:26-27. This is an example of how Jesus handles His emotions. Inside this we see beautiful picture of masculinity. Jesus is going through the worst torment a man can bare – crucifixion. An unjustified execution meant for guilty criminals in which He also happened to take upon Him the sins of the world and not feel His Father’s presence. In this torment, in His last moments, Jesus does not let His emotional mind get the best of Him. Instead He makes sure to not forsake His familial responsibilities as He asks John to look after His mother as if John where her own son. Even to the end, Jesus makes sure to keep leading, keep looking out for those closest to Him. He does not use His own personal problems as an excuse to not lead, to shed His responsibility. Even in the ending moments of His life Jesus leads and shows us how to have emotions without letting them control us.

These pictures paint us God-Man who is fully both. They show us He has the full range of human emotions: grief, sorrow, passion, anger, zeal. To see one final snapshot of masculinity (there are many more we could look at) let’s see what Paul defines as true masculinity, summed up in Jesus.

Even if you are not married, this is Biblical masculinity. In Ephesians 5:25-28 Paul essentially tells us to be men like Jesus: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” A man must love sacrificially – just like Jesus. Men must put others above themselves to the point where you are willing to seek their good before your own, even if that means death. For instance, what does Paul say the role of a man is? It is to treat your wife (or if you are single, women) with such respect that you would sacrifice your own life for their betterment.

 Being a man involves sacrifice, and when it comes to sacrifice there is no better example of sacrifice then Jesus. In fact, Jesus is the true, perfect example of what true masculinity is. Jesus was humble. Men should be humble. Jesus put others first. Men should put others first. Jesus served. Men should serve. Jesus provided for His family. Men should provide for their family. Jesus was a man after His Father's heart. Men should be people after their Father's heart. Jesus spent time in solitude and prayer. Men should spend time in solitude and prayer. Jesus trained up other men. Men should train up other men. Jesus treated women with dignity and respect that was unlike anything they have ever seen before. Men should treat women with dignity and respect that is unlike anything they have ever experienced. To put it simply, men must live like Jesus. True masculinity involves making your life look like that of your Rabbi, your Teacher. True masculinity is not loving Jesus like some bumper stickers would make you believe, but becoming a disciple of Jesus and going on a journey with Him. It is in this journey that men will get to show the true form of masculinity and allow these Super Bowl commercials to dissapear; it will allow them to simply just be a "funny" commercial because they will no longer remind us men that we are not who we should be. 

Are you ready to stand up and live like Jesus? Are you ready to stand up and be the man Jesus is calling you to be? Are you ready to stand up and be a man like Jesus?

Super Bowl Masculinity Part 5: How are you an Adam?

Over the past three days, we have been having a conversation about what culture is telling us about masculinity. We have been taking time to carefully critique and analyze what society is telling us men need to be, or what it claims we long to be. Today though, it is time for something different. It is time for us to realize that culture is not our final word or authority for what a man is. After all, we live in a fallen, corrupted society/culture/world. Therefore, we must go back and see the world that God intended for us to be a part of. After this, we can then respond to these snapshots of culture and speak life into what true masculinity really is.

Since true masculinity can only be found in one place, we must then understand what exactly it is we as men were created to be, otherwise we will never understand how a fallen corrupted world seeks to distract and destroy us. Our journey will start in Genesis and end with Jesus (but essentially, Genesis is about Jesus, so it starts with Jesus too) and by looking at His life, His example we can see how to respond to culture.

To do this I just want to take us to several verses in Genesis to give you an idea of who we men were created to be and how the Fall has affected us. *Note: These concepts are not entirely my own. My ideas have been shaped by Dan Allan, Mark Driscoll, Mike Erre, John Eldredge and Wild at Heart, and even my own Father.

Genesis 2:20 - Adam was given the responsibility and privilege of naming all the animals inside Eden. From the very beginning of our existence we have taken part in the work of God. We were given a job by God, and that was to use our creativity and take part in God’s creation. Inside this duty was the call to care for creation. Responsibility. Duty. Work. It is good, we were created for it. It is innate in us that we are to be creative, work, and bare responsibility. It is what Erre calls the “naming of the animals” instinct.

Genesis 3:17-19 – As we see above, work was around before the Fall. However, what our sin did was make our job, our work, our responsibility a burden. It became toilsome and we would no longer necessarily enjoy our work, as it would no longer be easy.

You see, men have it hardwired into them that we must be creative, we must work a job, we must have responsibility - it is the naming of the animals instinct. That was around before the Fall; the Fall only made it toilsome. One way to sum this up is that a man was not intended to be passive, but accept responsibility. 

Genesis 3:6 - Men along with all of humanity suffers when we fail to lead and are passive. Case in point - Adam did not stop Eve from taking eating of the fruit. All this after he had received the instructions and calling from God.

Genesis 3:16 - "Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you". The Fall has set this in motion. Today we see this scene play out in the constant struggle inside male-female relationships. The fight for relationship power stems from this, thanks to the Fall.

This is typically not a place where I would leave the conversation – but due to being concise it will be left here. As the conversation pauses here, it causes a chance to breathe and contemplate as we move towards the perfect Adam, the true picture of masculinity – Jesus. Think about these as we get ready to talk about Jesus.

Where is it that God is asking you take part in His creative work? What are you animals to name? Are you running towards it? Are you letting responsibility go and instead choosing passivity? How do you lose sight of what God has intended for you? How are you like Adam? Where do you let the Fall define you? Where do you let the Fall wreck your masculinity?

Super Bowl Masculinity Part 4: Where is your Adventure?

Commercial #3 is for the Dodge Charger. Watch it here: http://video.yahoo.com/network/100076996?v=6934463&l=7438495

If you have not noticed yet, each commercial is stepping up in its intensity. We have seen that society sees that men are called to be something; we have also seen that along the way men have forgotten who they are and must reclaim it. Lastly, we see that men are longing for something more. The only problem is that due to circumstances, due to culture, due to our sin nature we do not know how to receive what it is we are called to be and we get lost on the journey of becoming a man.

The power in this commercial lies in its simple voice over and mundane, beaten, broken, tame, frustrated, tired of life, apathetic faces of men. These faces and the monotone voices that are spoken over these faces show us a picture of men that are disconnected with life. These pictures serve to illustrate the point that the life that the average American male is living is leaving a giant, gaping hole in their spirit, in their heart.

The American, westernized man is depressed and who can blame them? Honestly, if we take a look at our society, our culture and even look at the men that are successful or have something that we wish ourselves have, we see that inside they are essentially longing for the same things we ourselves long for. What we can extrapolate from this is that our western culture is making us run inside a consumeristic rat race. This race is dramatically leading us nowhere as our life, our race is being played out on the world's largest treadmill. We are seeking and striving to catch this magical fruit that is dangling in front of us and will allow our spirit rest and peace, but in the end it is constantly, consistently inside our view but always eluding us by staying just out of reach of our fingertips.

This commercial is wearyingly filled with depressing, confining language as we receive the same message illustrated in facial expressions, conveying to us the principle that man is looking for something more, something deeper, something tangible, something to live our lives for and toward. To illustrate this, Anberlin’s “Burn Out Brighter (Northern Lights) says  we  want to "live inspired" and "die for something".

Frankly, this is what this commercial is telling us men want. We long for an adventure that is worth giving our life to.  Sadly, what is more intriguing is that Dodge is trying to convince men to believe that the missing piece in their life will be the Charger as it is "Man's last stand". This haunting, yet adventurously exciting phrase can mean one of two things. Either, we men are running out of time inside society and we need to act fast before our nueterization is complete or simply, we will not have to make another stand, because this car, the Charger, is what life is all about and will make you complete.

Men, this is not the only advertisement that is telling us what we need to be complete as an individual – it just so happens this was uniquely directed toward that longing in us on Super Bowl Sunday. What are you feeling your life with as you seek that adventure, that purpose? Do you feel that void in your life? Do you want to live inspired? Do you want to die for something? Or better yet, to quote John Piper, do you want to waste your life? There is an adventure waiting for us. God is inviting us into an epic journey that we get to take part in what God is doing, and we, men, get to play a part in it. Are you ready to play your part?

Super Bowl Masculinity Part 3: Take off that Skirt

Commercial #2 is for Flo TV and is entitled "Spineless". Watch it here: http://video.yahoo.com/network/100076996?v=6935017&l=7438495

Outside of this commercial being absolutely hilarious, it is an insightful picture into a dilemma that is inside our Western culture. It is here that I begin to tread carefully not wanting to offend anyone. It is here that I realize the Modernist rise of Feminism will want to take me out back and put me down. It is here that the Post-Modern notion of no truth is better than another comes into play as I begin to make a notion that men and women are equal in everything, but have hard-wired genetic differences in gender issues and roles. We are different and God bless that. A humanity that was full of people who did not: wear matching clothes, put away their underwear, throw away clothes with holes, care about what smells came from or out of their body, care about how much grease or pizza their body ingested, care about doing the dishes, or God forbid, ever write a romantic comedy.

We are different deeper down then at a mere physiological existence level of biology and it goes far beyond the comical, stereotypical notions about manhood versus womanhood that I mentioned above. Interestingly enough, this commercial has two ways that it comments on gender issues/roles.

Firstly, "his girlfriend has removed his spine". Thank you Jim Nantz for uttering that amazing line of dialogue. What does this mean? Well, she has taken charge in the relationship and turned him into a nice, tame, “polite” (to go back to our previous discussion) man. He has been "whipped" and she is now wearing the allegorical pants of the relationship for lack of a better metaphor. While, I would love to sit back here and critique this as the fault of Feminism or women trying to usurp men and be men that would nowhere be near the complete truth (some truth maybe, but only some). To illustrate this notion, none of this would be possible if men did not allow women to remove their spine.

Let me simply state this. This is a cultural insight into how men have become passive and nice, or "polite" to a fault. It has gotten to the point in our culture where the dream of the average American male is to sit at home in his pajamas, eat cheese puffs, play video games, and watch television all day - essentially never growing out of adolescence. It is in this passiveness, in this lack of responsibility, where we have fumbled the football on what it means to be a man and lead a relationship. It is here, that women have thus been forced to rise up and take charge of a relationship and fulfill tasks that men are called to do/be. This is not necisarily because men are incompetent (though many of my brothers may appear to be); it is our nature to be leaders and to be strong. Instead, I argue that culture has allowed men to live in apathy. We can be adolescent into our 20’s – we do not need to grow up. Our culture has forgotten how to transition our boys into manhood and in the process apathy has developed because we no longer know what it means to be a man. It is here we lose our masculinity because no one taught us what it is to be a man so we turn to culture and that is an imperfect representation of manhood (just look with your eyes what it says about being a man). Therefore, our apathy is what creates our “spineless”ness.

 Secondly, Jim Nantz tells Jason to "change out of that skirt". What is he implying with that jab? I have already implied this above, but he is saying that Jason and his girlfriend have switched roles in the relationship; she is wearing the metaphorical pants.

We have a part to play - it is not the fault of women or Feminism. Not only do we need to keep our spine and reject apathy and passivity. Also, many men need to rise up and quote unquote take off that skirt. We need to step back up and lead, not because we want to be on the couch watching football instead of shopping – but because what a woman truly needs (not because they are incompetent) is man who is willing to stand up for what is right and lead a relationship to the point where he is willing to lay down his life for her (just like Jesus) and by doing that we get our spine back and put on the pants.

So, while I would love to pass the blame, it is time we men stand up and admit it is our fault. It is time we get off the couch, put down the remote, put on some pants, and put away the bags of processed food and start being who we were called to be - men who lead. Society sees it with their very own eyes; society is even calling us out on it - just like Dove for Men does. We were created to do certain things, manly things, things that require sacrifice and an adventure of grand purposes.

So I simply ask, men, why are we not living up to it? What has gone wrong? Why are you apathetic? Why are you not leading? Why are you conforming to culture? Why are we not teaching our boys to be men? Why are we not living out Biblical masculinity?

Super Bowl Masculinty Part 2: Where'd All the Real Men Go?

Commercial #1 is for Dove Soap for Men. Watch it here: http://video.yahoo.com/network/100076996?v=6934407&l=7438495

Inside a commercial for a personal hygiene product (i.e. soap) we see what society is saying a man is. It is done in a comical, entertaining fashion – but it is definitely there. Did you catch it? Did you see the picture of masculinity that it is painting? 

This commercial does not paint a completely false image of what a man is, some of it is right. Some of what this commercial says about manhood is correct. Fundamentally, what I find fascinating is that this ad is trying to show those watching it that there is a foundational, underlying, ingrained, hardwired difference between men and women. From this understanding they then argue that the way we respond to that is by making sure men and women have different kinds of soaps – they need a soap that is specifically designed and intended for them to use – because they are men.

Watching the commercial you can peruse just a few highlights of what they think a man is designed and hardwired to be. Men should: be good at sports, look cool, lift weights, be strong, know how to fight, get married, and fulfill duties of protecting and providing for your family. To delve into these full-fledged would take too much time and energy. But from these alone, we get the idea that men have things that make them men (profound I know). While, I would argue this is a mixed bag of correct and incorrect things of what manhood is – the point is this – men were created to be something unique and underlying it all is a character of strength and resolve.

Outside these highlights, there are two things that I want to point out in our conversation here.

1) "Stay out late, but be polite" – This commercial is appealing to the side in men that knows we were not meant to be tame and passive. This is illustrating that there is something is us that is supposed to be wild (go read Wild at Heart by John Eldredge for more). But if you notice, it even shows that men are meant to be wild but at the same time “be polite”. This shows us that culture identifies men as people who feel trapped and that we cannot be truly who we are, because society is telling us we have to be these nice, “polite” men. Culture wants us tame and to lose our edge to the point that we don’t rock the boat, don’t ruffle feathers, or even shake birdcages. *Note: Nice does not equate with good. Nice is passive. Nice does not stand up for what is right. Polite is afraid of offending people so as to not rock the boat. A polite guy will never speak out, because who is to say he is right? A nice guy may speak out, but in the end, because he is “nice” he will never act out or fight for justice, fight for what is right because he is a nice guy.*Note 2: Men should never be violent, rageful, or wrathful. A man simply stands up for what is right and this can look like many different things. When a man sees injustice, he acts. This is the wild side we can never tame down and make “polite”. *Note 3: I’m off my soap box now.

2) "You can take on anything" - This phrase is so true. Now, with everything else that was in this ad, culture painted a picture of a man that was a jock, and if you were not you are not a true man. I thoroughly disagree with this as nowhere in the Bible/by Jesus is man defined by his outside or the physical and praise Jesus for that. The key is that a man’s strength, resolve, character must be able to handle anything. His character must have the reputation of handling anything. This does not mean a man is not allowed to have weaknesses. This does not mean that he cannot be vulnerable. This does not mean that he cannot show emotions. What it simply means is that when times get tough so does the man. He will not run away. When life gets hard, this man is not going to get buried. He is a man that you want at your side helping you, because while it might be tough you know he and all those around him will in the end be okay.  Dove for Men actually got that part right – kudos to you.

This snapshot of manhood is a picture of how confused our culture really is about gender and what it looks like to be a man. We must be wild but not too wild for we must constantly be “polite”. We must not step on any toes or hurt any feelings for then we would cease to be “nice”.

The blame for the confusion in masculinity can be placed on a lot of things. Maybe it is our fathers and their father’s and the father’s before them? Maybe it is our churches teaching us men that all we have to do to follow Christ is show up on Sunday and put 10% of your income in your plate while loving your wife while providing for your family? Maybe it is culture’s fault for telling men that the more women we sleep with the bigger man we are? Maybe it is society’s fault for giving us video games and movies, thus making it easy for us to stay in adolescence? Maybe, just maybe, it is women’s fault for letting us get away with not being a real man and settling for us staying and living as boys in adolescence?

Super Bowl Masculinity Part 1

Unless an American lived in a cave, one had to know that today was Super Bowl Sunday. I would find it hard to believe one could not know about it, live in America, speak English and still call themselves an American, but anything is possible I guess.

Super Bowl Sunday comes and goes, year by year, and has become an unofficial American holiday (for the better or worse is up to you to decide). One thing that can be gleamed from this is if one is man, one watches the Super Bowl (a generalization I know, but go with it). Football and more importantly the Super Bowl has been married to the idea of being a man. One Sunday a year, it is expected that every man in the country will be somewhere, anywhere eating food and watching the Super Bowl. Fathers train their sons in this ritual at an early age in the same way that mothers teach their daughters to watch sappy romantic comedies on Valentine’s Day.

This day out of the year is a great day to see what type of picture American society is painting about masculinity and manhood. From everything to the food we eat, to the places we watch the game, to what we wear, to what other members of the opposite sex wear, and even what team we teach our young boys to root for. More importantly though, discoveries and lessons abound even inside 30 second commercials that cost 3 million dollars to put on the air.

Now, I am not here to talk about our Western consumeristic culture (like I could), or even the Tim Tebow ad (which, by the way, I love and cannot believe they turned into a scandalous issue). What I want to talk about are three ads that paint a picture of American masculinity. It shocked me to find this many ads that wanted to talk about masculinity. It is almost as if our culture is beginning to realize that there is something not right, something broken, something that is incomplete about the men that society is creating.

One of my heart’s biggest desires, one of my strongest longings, one of my most passionate callings is to see boys become men; to see men stand up and start acting like men. I long to see a generation of men who end the cycle of abandonment and apathy. It is my dream that once again, men will fulfill their calling as leaders, lovers, servants, and fathers and in so doing change the world and let the Kingdom burst on the scene as they become the hands and feet of Jesus.

So, if you will indulge me, for the next three days I will be posting observations from all three ads. All I ask is that you sit back, read, get ready to laugh, and see what culture is attempting to teach our men. Once we do that, I’ll simply share some thoughts on how to engage with this issue.