Like all good speakers, he began by capturing the good will of his listeners. Who doesn’t like to hear the good news that we are going to be comforted and inherit the earth? I would imagine nods of agreement and pleasure moved through the crowd like waves.

When did the nodding stop?

Jesus begins with his famous list of those who are blessed:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

Blessed are those who mourn,

Blessed are the meek,

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

Blessed are the merciful,

Blessed are the pure in heart,

Blessed are the peacemakers,

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Matthew 5

Simon, Garfunkel & Willard

What do you think of the people who Jesus claims are “blessed?” If you’ve been around Church much you’ve probably heard these all of your life, so much that they’ve lost any power. But think about it: Poor in spirit? Mournful? Meek? Persecuted?

Simon and Garfunkel rephrased Jesus words as “Blessed are the sat upon, Spat upon, Ratted on.”

Dallas Willard calls this the Gospel of Silliness puts it this way:

The sad truth is that many people around us, and especially people in their teens and young adulthood, drift into a life in which being thin and correctly shaped, having “glorious” hair, appearing youthful, and so forth, are the only terms of blessedness or woe for their existence.

So we must see from our heart that:

Blessed are the physically repulsive,

Blessed are those who smell bad,

The twisted, misshapen, deformed,

The too big, too little, too loud,

The bald, the fat, and the old—

For they are all riotously celebrated in the party of Jesus.

Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

While recognizing there is good news for us in our silliness, this is still not strong enough. Simon and Garfunkel go on to sing:

Blessed are the meth drinkers, Pot sellers, Illusion dwellers.

Blessed are the penny rookers, Cheap hookers, Groovy lookers.

Willard doesn’t stop with the, he adds the “crushed” and “the immoral.”

Then there are the “seriously” crushed ones: The flunk-outs and drop-outs and burned-outs. The broke and the broken. The drug heads and the divorced. The HIV-positive and herpes-ridden. The brain-damaged, the incurably ill. The barren and the pregnant too-many-times or at the wrong time. The overemployed, the underemployed, the unemployed. The unemployable. The swindled, the shoved aside, the replaced. The parents with children living or the street, the children with parents not dying in the “rest” home. The lonely, the incompetent, the stupid. The emotionally starved or emotionally dead.

Even the moral disasters will be received by God as they come to rely on Jesus, count on him, and make him their companion in his kingdom. Murderers and child-molesters. The brutal and the bigoted. Drug lords and pornographers. War criminals and sadists. Terrorists. The perverted and the filthy and the filthy rich.

There are two things in Jesus’ statements that could cause you to stop nodding along. First, there’s Jesus explicit statements, his pronouncements that these people, who seem so useless, are the ones who are blessed by God. But for every explicit blessing, there is an implicit woe. What about the “rich in spirit?” What about the merciless? The war-makers?

Does the list of the “blesseds” make you stop nodding? Or is it those who Jesus implicitly is condemning?

Apparently, I’m a “Yuccie”

Recently, Mashable shared a piece by freelance writer David Infante, a new type of the new urban elite…it struck me pretty close to home.

Let’s consider something new: Yuccies. Young Urban Creatives. In a nutshell, a slice of Generation Y, borne of suburban comfort, indoctrinated with the transcendent power of education, and infected by the conviction that not only do we deserve to pursue our dreams; we should profit from them.

I am the yuccie. And it sounds sort of, well, yucky.

Getting rich quick would be great. But getting rich quick and preserving creative autonomy? That’s the yuccie dream.

Infante goes on to list a handful of yuccies he’s met, including:

• a former financial employee who runs a music festival startup
• an MBA grad who switched to super-niche menswear e-commerce
• a one-time lawyer who now owns a craft beer brewery.
• a former accountant left his corporate job to pursue his true passion: making colorful socks! Letterpress stationery! Video gaming social networks! Organic vodka!

Where I stopped nodding

It doesn’t take me long to “stop nodding” along with Jesus. Over the last few years I’ve carved out a decent freelance-web-generalist business.

Why do I do it, you ask? I’ll probably baptize my intentions in my desires for ministry. A flexible job frees me up to pursue the work of establishing our church community.

But I’d be lying if I said that was the whole reason. The thrill of making my own way through the world, doing what I like, setting my schedule, or, as the author says “getting rich quick and preserving creative autonomy?” Sounds pretty good to me.

The fact is that I identify with the Yuccie ideal a lot more than things like “being meek” or being a “peacemaker.” I don’t know what ideal you’re chasing, but if this is mine, I have to admit that it doesn’t sound much like what Jesus calls “the blessed.”

The post This Person Might Not Make it to Jesus’ List of the “Blessed” appeared first on Chris Morton.

As a Youth Minister and Church Planter, we have to navigate technology and faith. Social media has made this more complicated than ever. Inspired by the TED talk The Innovation of Loneliness Kyle Sapp (Youth Minister) and Chris Morton (Church Planter) discuss their own struggles to connect, and what to do about it.

If you appreciate this podcast, please take a moment to subscribe on iTunes and leave us a review. It helps a lot!

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The post New Podcast! Is Technology Wrecking Our Ability to Be the Church? appeared first on Chris Morton.

I won’t mention the obvious listens like This American Life or Radiolab. Chances are if you don’t listen to them already it’s because you don’t own earbuds.

If you are a Church Planter, Pastor or just a reflective follower of Jesus, you should be listening to the following podcasts:

10. Pray as You Go

About a year and a half ago, I discovered a new level of anxiety I didn’t know how to handle. One of the lifelines I found was the Pray as You Go Podcast. Produced by British Jesuits, this daily Lectio Divina podcast has become central to my daily spiritual practice.

Where to Start: Anywhere! However, I recommend subscribing to the podcast instead of using their website or app.

9. The Liturgists

Unless you have a time machine, you’re probably ministering to “post-Christendom.” Almost everyone I know in my age cohort has had to reconcile the faith they received a very, very different post-modern world. The Liturgists follows David Gungor and Science Mike as they rebuild their faith in Jesus after stints with atheism.

Where to start: Episode 2—Genesis & Evolution

8. Sermonsmith

My co-conspirator at Austin Mustard Seed delves into the process of preparing to preach. As a busy bi-vocational guy, having a clear process is essential for anyone who wants to have something meaningful to say.

Where to start: Brian Zahnd

7. Robcast

Whatever happened to that proto-hipster Pastor who lost his platform for having doubts about Hell? He moved to California, took up surfing and got a job working for Oprah. Rob Bell has spent the last few years surf and deconstructing, now he’s back with a Podcast! This isn’t like the old Mars Hill sermons—it’s more like the notes from Rob’s own therapy sessions.

Where to start: Episode 3 | Receipts

6. Serial

If you don’t know what Serial is, where have you been? Besides just being an incredible feat of true crime storytelling, Serial is a portrait of 21st century, post-white American youth culture. Stop everything you’re doing and listen to it now. Where to start: Listen to the whole thing from beginning to end!

5. Seminary Dropout

Host Shane Blackshear describes it as halfway between seminary and youth camp. Shane talks to brilliant thinkers as an equal, drawing out their hopes and intentions. Every interview is insightful, even if you haven’t heard of the guests.

Where to start: Scot McKnight Part 1 and Part 2

4. You Made it Weird

Pete Holmes has a bit in his stand-up that his natural skill set only allows him to be either a youth pastor or a stand-up comedian. After a painful divorce and a lot of deconstruction, Pete is carving out a comedy career and rediscovering his faith. In each episode, Pete asks comedians to describe their opinion on comedy, sex and God.

Where to start: Zach Galifianakis or Dana Carvey

3. Reply All

Simply put, it’s a show about the internet. The two guys that created TLDR for On the Media jumped ship for Gimlet. The fact is, much of our life takes place on the internet today. It’s crucial to think missionally about the internet.

Where to start: An App Sends A Stranger To Say I Love You

2. Tear Gas and Gumdrops

When I said “Hey Kyle, we should have a podcast. What do you want to call it?” He said “Tear Gas and Gumdrops, because ministry is really tough, but it’s really good, too.” We try to be brutally honest about church planting, youth ministry, and our own—often painful—journey. Take a listen, subscribe on iTunes and tell your friends.

Where to start: Secrets I’m Afraid to Tell My Church or Unwanted? Single Christians in a Church for Married People

1. Startup

If you ever think you want to plant a church, listen to this podcast. If you ever think you want to start anything, listen to this podcast. If you like good stuff, listen to this podcast. Alex Blumberg captures his journey of leaving This American Life to start his own network. He takes the microphone everywhere, captures tons of blunders, and somehow manages to get a his company off the ground.

Where to start: Listen to the whole thing from beginning to end!

What do you think? What else should we be listening to?

The post Top 10 Podcasts Church Planters Should Hear appeared first on Chris Morton.

In you, Lord my God,
I put my trust.
I trust in you;
do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
No one who hopes in you
will ever be put to shame,
but shame will come on those
who are treacherous without cause.
Psalm 25:1-3

The Poet begs that God deliver him from shame.

I find it interesting that he does not ask outright for success. He doesn’t beg God for a win. He says don’t let me be ashamed.

The Fear of Shame

What is it about shame that is so terrible it sends us begging for God’s help?

What he’s describing here is a public humiliation. Think Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter, where the protagonist Hester Prinn gets pregnant out of wedlock and is marched down the street with a red letter A sewed to her bodice. Perhaps a more relevant example comes from dogshaming.com.

The poet is begging God for victory so that he won’t be humiliated.

Shame begins as a social construct. It’s used by families, communities, churches, schools and anywhere you can find a group of people to respond when someone behave the wrong way. But it doesn’t stop there.

Shame buries itself deep in our psyche. The scars of previous shame experiences can cause us to avoid opportunities of lead us down dark road.

Fear of being shamed leads to lying. We withhold our opinion or desires because of the fear of shame that someone will disagree and ridicule us.

Fear of shame leads us to isolation. I knew a woman who was very involved in a church community until she lost her job. She stopped showing up because she was afraid of the shame of having to answer the question “what do you do?” Fear of shame leads to inaction. I’ve known single men and women who were afraid to ask someone out on a date for the fear of the shame of rejection. I’ve known married couples who avoid sharing their true selves for the same reason fear of the shame of rejection.

Finally, shame and the fear of shame lead to numbing. We get sucked into wasteful behaviors and addictions to avoid the quiet moments where we hear the voice of shame.

Defining Shame vs. Guilt

If you can’t tell, I’m leaning hard on the work of Dr. Brené Brown, a well-known shame researcher.

Here’s how she defines shame:

“Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging.” Illustrate

The fear of shame has shaped much of my own life. I have felt ashamed to talk about my youth or my college experience, because I some of it was difficult or embarrassing. I’ve often been ashamed because of my finances. Throughout my 20s, I accumulated debt, had a hard time finding jobs or keeping them. I survived on beans and rice and the grace of strangers who took me in off the streets. I struggle with the shame of relationships. Making close friendships and romantic relationships have never come naturally to me.

While the poet speaks of being publicly shamed by his enemies, you only have to be marched through the streets once for this feeling to stick with you the rest of your life. My shame is often triggered when I’m alone. A memory of a failure or embarrassment pops into my head and I find myself reliving the shameful moment, mumbling aloud what I wish I had said. My heart races and blood rushes to my head. It can be worse than the actual moment of shame.

For me though, the biggest problem with shame is that I avoid risk. Any good opportunity requires risk, risk means becoming vulnerable to the shame of failure. Therefore, risk and vulnerability become a problems to be avoided and managed.

I find myself ducking around corners because I’m not up to talking to people. I don’t apply for jobs I should. I avoid building friendships that I need. Over time, I start to even avoid things that would bring me joy, because as Brené Brown says, When we lose our tolerance for vulnerability, joy becomes foreboding.

The Power of Absolution

Because shaming is a social response to certain behaviors, we need a social mechanism to counteract it.

The alternative to shame is not to avoid judgment or take on some “anything goes” attitude. The alternative to shame is guilt.

Brené Brown describes the difference between shame and guilt this way:

Shame is a focus on self, guilt is a focus on behavior.

Shame is, “I am bad.”

Guilt is, “I did something bad.”

How many of you, if you did something that was hurtful to me, would be willing to say, “I’m sorry. I made a mistake?” How many of you would be willing to say that?

Guilt: I’m sorry. I made a mistake.

Shame: I’m sorry. I am a mistake.

So what does it mean for Austin Mustard Seed to be a community that addresses shame? There’s a tradition of the church called absolution, that goes all the way back to Jesus. In one of the books about Jesus teachings called Matthew, he says this: “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.

A little later he says:

“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

It’s a crazy thought, but Jesus is saying that you and I have the ability to address, and somehow absolve others of their shame! Brené Brown has an absolution of sorts that she mentions in her book Daring Greatly.

“You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.”

Many churches traditions incorporate absolution into their liturgy. My favorite is this one:

First, there is a confession, maybe a public one, like the one we did earlier. Or perhaps this is in a private conversation. After the confessor finishes, they use the following dialogue:

Listener:The Lord has put away all your sins.

Confessor: Thanks be to God.

Listener Abide in peace, and pray for me, a sinner.

Shame is a social construct, and we have the capacity to release others from it.

The post Can Humans Absolve Shame? appeared first on Chris Morton.

Kyle and I share about some of the things we’re afraid to talk about….like how I am afraid to admit that I don’t really care about sports, or how sometimes we feel life people don’t like us.

This one’s from the heart, folks.

Listen here.

If you appreciate this podcast, please take a moment to subscribe on iTunes and leave us a review. It helps a lot!

The post Secret’s I’m Afraid to Tell My Church appeared first on Chris Morton.