Gabe Lyons is interviewed by Rick McKinley, founding pastor of Imago Dei Community.In the newest Q Podcast, Gabe and Rick examine consumerism in the church and how we can worship God this Christmas season by giving less "stuff" and more of ourselves and physical presence.
The Advent Conspiracy worship story is a growing movement of an emerging generation prompting Christians to connect behavior to the theology of the Church.
The message of Advent Conspiracy is simple:
[Worship Fully]
[Spend Less]
[Give More]
[Love All]
This Christmas, the message is a challenge to behave counter-culturally by sacrificing their typical Christmas spending-patterns and to give more away in service, money and self. Not just to make a statement to people who are not Christians, but to make a declaration of worship to Christ.
Advent Conspiracy asks the question, "What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?"
Which begs the question, "What if Christians lead this world-changing event?"
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Mark Rodgers | Political StrategistWhen have you heard a political leader share about the importance of the artist and popular culture in defining the future of society? In this talk, Mark Rodgers offers up his unique take on salt and light as a civic leader. Get a first hand perspective from Capitol Hill as he shares his journey of partnering with culture-shaping individuals to create the future.
Q Talks are 18-minute presentations given annually at the Q gathering by thought leaders and practitioners on the topics of the future, the church, the culture and the gospel. One Q Talk is released every two weeks at www.qideas.org.
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Catherine Rohr | Founder, Prison Entrepreneurship ProgramWhat do drug dealers, gang leaders, and violent offenders have in common with Fortune 500 CEO's? Entrepreneurial instinct, management experience and ambition. Put them together with some Harvard MBA students, a business plan competition, and a gutsy New York investment banker and amazing things happen. This idea turned national program is reshaping the justice system's commitment to prisoners reentering society. Hear how one woman tangibly loves her neighbors, even those behind bars. View the Q Talk.
Q Talks are 18-minute presentations given annually at the Q gathering by thought leaders and practitioners on the topics of the future, the church, the culture and the gospel. One Q Talk is released every two weeks at www.qideas.org.
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Jonathan Merritt, a popular faith and culture writer, describes how this emerging cultural force is different from their predecessors and why they demand our attention. It was the great Bob Dylan who rasped immortality into the phrase "The times, they are a changin'." He could easily have been singing about young evangelicals. Young evangelicals, an idealistic group of evangelical Christians roughly between 18 and 29 years old, has become an important demographic in culture. A simple Google search for "young evangelical" produces over 1.5 million results.
Young evangelicals are important because they represent the future of evangelicalism, an authoritative force in American culture over the last quarter-century, particularly within politics. Evangelicalism now comprises over one-quarter of the national electorate, and if you even occasionally watch the news you know they are a vocal bunch.
Over the last 25 or so years, evangelicals - the largest portion of which is Caucasian - have been dependable and predictable. They almost always doll out their votes to whichever candidate supports two platforms - a pro-life stance on abortion and a traditional definition of marriage for same sex couples. In the 2004 Presidential election, for example, approximately 78% of white evangelicals voted for pro-life Bush over John Kerry.
Young evangelicals, however, are proving to be less dependable and difficult to predict. They are a more ideological breed who exhibit less partisan loyalty. In a poll published in late 2007 by Relevant Magazine - second only to the Bible for many young evangelicals - thousands of respondents were asked "Who would Jesus Vote For?" The most common answer was "Barack Obama."
That's right. Some evangelical Christians believe if Jesus Christ were here today, he would vote for a liberal democrat. And they weren't bluffing either. According to a poll conducted by The New York Times, double the number of young evangelicals voted for Obama than John Kerry in 2004.
But young evangelicals aren't just voting differently; they are thinking differently. They are less loyal and more idealistic. They are less impressed with rhetoric and more concerned with results. Their supreme desire is living a life consistent with the teachings and ministry of Jesus Christ. And if that lands them in a different category or earns them a unique label or means they have to shift party loyalty, it matters not to them. They don't swear allegiance to any of those things.
These changes are often most visible in the social sector. Recognizing that much of Jesus' life was spent with the poor and oppressed, young evangelicals are fiercely philanthropic. Thought their hearts beat loudly for traditional values, they accept a broader social agenda beyond abortion and gay marriage. They care deeply about environmental crises, human rights violations, abject poverty, global health epidemics and other social issues.
If the young evangelicals of today are any indication, tomorrow's evangelicalism will look a lot different than it has in the past. If you are a person who values diversity of opinion and an increased sense of social responsibility, that may give you something to sing about.
For additional information, read Jonathan's article "The Uncertain Future of Evangelical Voters" on Newsweek / Washington Post's On Faith.
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Jeff Johnson, Activist and Producer, BETThe Hip-Hop phenomenon has grown beyond a creative space on urban playgrounds into an international language on every continent in the world. In the most talked about presentation at Q, Jeff Johnson masterfully weaves together the story of the church, racism, God, creativity and global concern.
Hear Jeff Johnson in this Q Talk about Hip-Hop culture.
Q Talks are 18-minute presentations given annually at the Q gathering by thought leaders and practitioners on the topics of the future, the church, the culture and the gospel. One Q Talk is released every two weeks at www.qideas.org. Read more...
Johnny Carr, National Director of Church Partnerships for Bethany Christian Services, explores the intentionality and service of adoption. Johnny adopted his first son, James, a deaf child from China, in 2005.I guess the first thing is to define missional. "Missional" is one of those junk drawer buzzwords that has become common in our Christian vocabulary with several definitions floating around. Wikipedia says that "missional" is a missionary-term that describes a missionary lifestyle, and I guess that is as good a definition as any. To live "missionally" is to express the Gospel holistically in the way you live - every day and in every thing. It is a way of life, not a program. It means living like Jesus lived. If you know much about Jesus you know that includes helping to meet the emotional, physical and spiritual needs of others. Living missionally means making a conscious decision to live each day with others in mind, rather than yourself.
In other words, YES - adoption is missional.
Recently, I was speaking with a lady who had asked her church for financial help for their adoption. The church leader responded that the church did not help with "optional" things like adoption. The pastor’s perspective seemingly saw adoption more like consumption than ministry. He saw adoption as a want - much like I want an iPhone. He was not viewing adoption from the perspective of the child.
When I meet with Pastors to discuss adoption ministries, I will often ask them, "Who does adoption help?" The typical response is "infertile couples." That is when I lovingly explain that adoption primarily helps children. Whether the child is an orphan from war, genocide or disease in Africa; whether the child is an orphan due to abuse and neglect and the state has severed the rights of his/her birth parents, or whether it is a new born baby that was born due to an unplanned pregnancy - adoption is (or, at least, should be) always about the health and best interest of the child. Unfortunately, many Christians are focusing on adults (us) rather than the child (them).
When adoption is seen through a child's eyes, it is easy to see the missional nature of adoption. In fact, this may be the ultimate missional decision because adoption is a lifetime commitment. Many people today are adopting children with special needs. Some of these children will never grow up to be independent. The people who are adopting these little ones know that they are making a decision today that will affect the rest of their lives. Instead of raising a couple of healthy kids, sending them off to college, and then sailing off in their motor home into retirement, they will be serving the least of these until one of them "retires" into eternity. That is truly missional.
Someone once said missional living was "religion without all the junk added," I thought that was interesting in light of James 1:27, "Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (NIV)
There are many different perspectives on the best ways to care for orphans, but with 143,000,000 orphans in the world today, something must be done by followers of Jesus Christ. Only 1-2% of these children will be adopted. We need many strategies that will best fit the cultures, values, and environments of the places where these orphans live, and adoption is a one great strategy.
Adoption is not the one-stop cure all for the orphan crisis, but it is a strategic and effective mode to care for the orphans of the world. It's also a commitment of sacrifice, a holistic manifestation of the Gospel, a missional posture and a service to Christ.
Bethany is an international team of nearly 900 people actively involved in ministering to the needs of children, young people, and families. With over 75 offices nationwide and international ministries in 13 other countries, Bethany touches the lives of more than 30,000 people each year. Bethany is supported through fees and gifts received from individuals, churches, corporations, and foundations. Bethany is known by many as an adoption agency, but our family-focused ministries also reach people struggling with unplanned pregnancies, infertility, and a multitude of other human hurts.
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From the Q 2008 gathering in New York, Gabe Lyons conducts a Q & A with founder of To Write Love On Her Arms, Jamie Tworkowski.To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.
The new Q & A podcast with Gabe and Jamie is available for download here. Listen to this compelling and rare story of TWLOHA and subscribe to hear more Q podcasts in the future. Read more...
