Barnabas Piper's Blog, page 90

A Hidden Invitation from Jesus

Two words. So much truth can be packed into two words.

In Mark 16 Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to Jesus tomb to care for his body after a hasty burial. Of course we know what they found when they arrived. Nothing. Well, no body at least. They did find something, or rather someone.

An angel met them, and his message was clear and miraculous.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he told them. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has been resurrected! He is not here! See the place where they put Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see Him there just as He told you.’”

We are far too comfortable with the message that a dead man became alive. It should unsettle and amaze us still. But that is not the part of the passage that caught my attention when I read it recently. What grabbed me were these two little words: “and Peter.”

Go tell His disciples and Peter.

If I recall Peter was a disciple, quite a noticeable one, in fact. So why did the angel make special note of him? Why did Jesus want Peter called out so?

Because at that time it is a dead certainty that Peter did not feel like a disciple. He felt like he had failed Jesus because he had failed him. Just a few verses earlier Peter had loudly denounced the name of Christ even as Jesus was being condemned to death. He had distanced himself from Jesus to save his own skin in the hour of Jesus greatest need. He had failed his Lord after promising to never fail. In calling out Peter Jesus was claiming him as friend and follower.

Peter’s guilt and shame would likely have kept him from going to Galilee. How could he? He had failed. But “and Peter” is a promise and an offer of forgiveness. Jesus is calling him to come, telling him he is welcome, showing him the purpose and power of the cross on which He just died.

“And Peter” should bellow at us from the pages of our bibles too, for we are more like Peter than we like to admit. We are deniers and cursers, ashamed of Jesus. We deny Him in our apathy, our attitudes, our fears, our failures. Too often our guilt keeps from Christ’s presence just as Peter’s would have kept him away. So Jesus summons us, by name.

He did not die in vain. He did not die to save you in concept. He died to save you in reality, to draw you to himself, to call you to come meet him and know that your denials are forgiven. They were erased by his blood, washed away, gone, abolished, and if you follow him you are a disciple and friend.

Jesus hid the gospel in the first words he shared with his followers. He snuck in His message of forgiveness. He folded in His call to obedience and discipleship. He showed the power of the cross with two little words. Those words were a message to Peter, the other disciples, and anyone else who feels unworthy of following Jesus too.

Over-Complicating Accountability

We’ve made accountability way too complicated. Just reading the word “accountability” probably made some of you cringe just a little. Visions of awkward, forced conversations or going through a list of prescribed questions come to mind. Or maybe sitting at a round table with people you sort of know, drinking bad coffee out of styrofoam cups in a church fellowship hall during a men’s or women’s bible study. Some of you think back to college and your accountability group who got together, all admitted to the same sins as last week, limply suggested you all do better, and agreed to try again at the same time and place next week.

Accountability has become a formal word associated with groups and meetings and appointments. We’ve mistaken formality for intentionality. Accountability must be intentional or else it won’t happen. But when it becomes formal we usually stop being accountable. We’ve made it too complicated.

It really only has two main ingredients.

Humility

We must be humble enough to know we need help, to recognize our shortcomings, to admit them to others, and to listen to their counsel. Humility gets us over ourselves, our fear of losing face, our shame. It recognizes our need for others and their contribution to our betterment.

Relationships

We must have trusted friends. We don’t need a posse of them, just a couple. They must be people with whom we are honest and who are honest back, who will tell us hard truths knowing that we’re humble enough to listen. They must be unafraid of our opinions or our wrath. (Of course most wrath isn’t humble, either.) They must be godly and invested, in our lives enough to see the ebbs and flows of emotion and soul. And they must allow us to be for them as they are for us.

This is it. That’s the recipe for accountability. Have friends and be honest.

None of this is easy. But neither is it complicated. Do you have godly friends you can trust? If not, start there. If yes be intentional about trusting them and asking them to trust you. Might it help to meet regularly? Yes, but as friends who care not as “accountability partners” who devolve into rote questions and stock answers.

Accountability only works if it is rooted in relational investment. It works if it is not merely a Q&A but rather life lived alongside life, through conversation, meals, fun, crisis, ups, and downs. This is relationship, the kind out of which real accountability grows. The kind where it’s safe to be humble and honest.

Don’t over-complicate things. Keep it simple – humility and relationships. Then start the hard work of growing in those.

New Happy Rant: Cam Newton, Super Bowl Spectacle, and Think Pieces

In this episode of the Happy Rant podcast Ted Kluck, Ronnie Martin, and Barnabas Piper discuss the following:

Why is Cam Newton such a controversial figure? Ted find him insufferable, and Barnabas thinks he’s awesome. A debate ensues.
The Super Bowl is a football game, but it’s much more – it’s a spectacle. What are we gaining and what are we losing because it get’s bigger and shinier every year?
“Think piece” is a pejorative term for an opinion article, and the hosts discuss the good, the bad, the ugly, and the ridiculous of think pieces.

We have a new sponsor this week too – Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience by Mark Sayers (Moody Publishers, February 2016). Disappearing Church is a tremendous book, one that any church leader, Christian educator and intentional believer seeking to engage culture with the gospel should read. Sayers has a rare ability to blend theology, history, sociology, and missiology into a single narrative. He makes complex realities clear and shows the reader why the pursuit of “relevance” actually undermines the church’s mission. I wrote a more full review HERE. In the mean time, go get this tremendous book.

Big thank you to Resonate Recordings, the fine folks who make us sound listenable. If you are looking for great people to help your church put out recorded sermon audio or help you with a podcast they’re your people. T

Feel free to hit us up on Twitter at @HappyRantPod or on Facebook or via email at HappyRantPodcast@Gmail.com with any topic suggestions or feedback. We love hearing from listeners!

To listen you can:

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Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
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Episode #74

9 Ways to Be a Better Interviewer

I don’t consider myself an expert interviewer. I’m more of a novice or a plebe or an amateur, really. But over the past four years I’ve had the chance to interview several dozen people for various articles or podcasts. I realized early on that the really good interviewers make it look easy, but looks are deceiving. So much more goes into a good interview than you can guess from reading a published story or listening/watching a finished production. Here are nine things I’ve learned about interviewing someone well.

1) It’s hard

Interviewing is a simple concept: ask questions, record answers. But that’s not an interview; it’s a verbal questionnaire. And it’s boring for all involved. A good interview discovers things, is insightful, is engaged, and is surprising for both sides. That doesn’t just happen. It takes the right mindset, good questions, and all the steps I list below. Trust me. I learned the awkwardly difficult way.

2) Be prepared

Do your homework. Find out the basics, and ideally something beyond just the basics. An interviewee will be impressed and more ready to engage if you skip the perfunctory details and get to the good stuff. It’s good to confirm those details, but in doing so you are showing that you came ready. And being ready shows that you respect that person and take this interview seriously.

3) Structure is your friend

I like to wing it, just jump into things and try stuff. This can work in interviews, but only if the person being interviewed feels the same way. Most people don’t. It also doesn’t work if a distraction or interruption arises because your train of thought goes off the rails and crashes spectacularly. So come with a list of questions. Have a format. Have a flow in mind. These don’t need to be legalistically held to, but they are invaluable prompts and conversation accelerants.

4) Be in it to learn

Asking a question you don’t want an answer to is stupid. Asking a question in the hopes of setting yourself up to talk is selfish. Ask questions in order to hear the answer and absorb it. Follow up with further, more focused questions based on the answer. And interview in which you are genuinely curious about the subject is a good interview. It breathes life into it because you will dig a little deeper and listen a little closer. The interviewee will feel this engagement and likely respond better, with more thoughtful and forthcoming answers. In the end, you will be more satisfied, they will feel respected, and the content will be richer. If you’re in a position where you are conducting a large number of interviews this will keep you engaged too.

5) Let the interviewee shine

The interviewer is a catalyst for good content, not the star of the show. The one answering the questions is the star. Their answers are the content, not your responses to their answers. Ask questions that nudge them into the spotlight and pull out their most interesting or notable ideas or experiences. Then let those experiences shine on their own without your commentary.

6) Don’t be afraid to go off-script

Structure is your friend, like I said. But sometimes the unexpected happens when the subject says something fascinating or surprising. That’s great! Chase it down. Dig into it. Set aside your list of questions until you’ve wrung out the interesting stuff. Then you always have your structure to revert to regain flow. What you will end up with is a story with much more flavor because you were listening closely, heard something interesting, and went with it.

7) Let the story tell itself

Usually a theme or emphasis becomes fairly clear as you interview. You will get pages (or Megabytes) of material, but throughout you will find a thread. That is your story. That is what you are looking for. That is what needs to shine. All the other cool anecdotes, fascinating as they may be, should not make the final cut. If you find this thread early in an interview ask questions with it in mind, seeing if you can follow it and expose it more clearly. That way you will have more to work with when you are finished.

8) Edit rigorously

When you are done with an interview and are making into the finished product – article, book, podcast, video – use your editorial carving knife aggressively. Editing doesn’t mean changing content. It means removing the content that is off-point. It means all those interesting anecdotes and needless details get chopped so that just the main point is left. It means you don’t include every good one-liner, only the ones that make the point or tell the story that needs telling. A tight, clear, final product will be better because of all the material left in the wastebasket.

9) Listen to (or read) yourself later

This part is awful, but it will make you better. You need to go back later and review your work. Over time you’ll find redundancies, bad habits, and consistent gaps in your questions. You’ll see where you talked too much and listened to little or where you let a question lie instead of pressing it and rephrasing until you get the answer you needed. You will not enjoy this process one bit, but the more you do it the more future interviewees will benefit and the better your finished products will become.

Should We Imitate the Best?

From my latest article at WorldMag.com:

Last month, Mark Jackson, a basketball commentator for ESPN and a former NBA player and coach, declared that Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry was bad for basketball—the same Stephen Curry who is basketball’s most dynamic player on the sport’s most dynamic team. Jackson’s reasoning? Curry’s otherworldly shooting would inspire younger players, high school and college athletes, to emulate him by shooting too many 3-pointers, which would ruin the game.

Critics used to say the same thing about a young man named Michael Jordan and all his dunking. You might have heard of him.

From one perspective, this criticism has some merit. If a less-skilled player tries to do what the best players do, results would be ugly, so it’s best if those players don’t even try. They can focus on other skills instead. The fundamentals, right?

We see this dynamic in other contexts besides sports, too. A rookie preacher tries to preach like a famous pastor, and what we hear is an awkward style and little substance. A writer imitates a best-selling novelist, but what we read is a flat story told with stilted, flowery language.

. . .

The dichotomy I described earlier—imitate the best or stick to the fundamentals—is a false one. What makes the great ones great are the fundamentals. Well, fundamentals and God-given talent, but nobody rises to the top without mastering the foundational skills and making them second nature. Nobody becomes the best without countless hours of repetition of the basics—not athletes, preachers, writers, or leaders. Not anyone in any line of work.

Each of us has a set of skills, a level of giftedness. Some are athletic, some charismatic, some intuitive, and some creative. Our skill level is like our toolbox. Steph Curry and Michael Jordan have, or had, huge basketball toolboxes. But greatness at anything comes from first learning how to use those tools. What made those guys great wasn’t the number of tools they had but the skill in which they learned to use them. Most of us won’t achieve greatness, but if we become great at the process of pursuing greatness, the results will be special.

. . .

Read the full post here.

Disappearing Church – A Book for All Christians Engaging Culture

“How far can relevance take us?”

In his latest book, Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience (releases to day from Moody Publishers), Mark Sayers poses this question, and the answer is eye opening. For decades the Western church has sought to gain relevance, to gain the respect of “the public,” but in so doing has played into the hands of cultural beliefs and norms that actually undermine the gospel. By trying to validate itself the church has undermined its mission.

Can cultural decline be stopped? How should the church engage culture? How can the church present the gospel to a culture that believes in no god but the self? Are the methods the church has been using working? Sayers addresses each of these questions in the pages of this book and does so in convincing, biblically grounded, powerful fashion.

Few authors can weave together history, theology, sociology, missiology, and cultural observation in a manner that not only makes sense but is compelling and accessible. But Mark Sayers can. Drawing on an incredible breadth of sources he creates a tapestry narrative of how the church got to where it is today from where it all began in the book of Acts. He shows that the battles the church is fighting today against cultural lies are not new battles, but rather current ones against old heresies wearing new faces. He uses scholarship as a foundation, but writes with a light touch and a rare gift for description. Writing for “normal” readers – non academics and non theologians –  while describing complex ideas is difficult, but Sayers does it remarkably.

Disappearing Church is a book every church leader, Christian educator, and believer seeking to engage the lost with the gospel should read. It is deep, but not complicated and thoughtful without being heavy. Sayers communicates like a good pastor should with an abundance of truth shared in a way people can understand. This is one of those rare books that makes the reader cock their head and think “Wow, I never thought of it like that before” even as it presents timeless and biblical truths. It does readers to think and act differently without being overbearing or heavy-handed.

Go get this book. It is fantastic.

Mark Sayers other recent books, The Road Trip that Changed the World and Facing Leviathan are both excellent and written in the same fashion. If you;re a reader who thrives on excellent writing exhibiting clear, complex ideas communicating deep truths then go get these.

New Happy Rant: Why Comedies Don’t Win Oscars, Advice for our Younger Selves, and Churches Using Business Principles

In this newest episode of the Happy Rant, Ted, Ronnie, and I wrangle some absolutely pressing topics – things that keep people up at night. We bring clarity. We bring wisdom. We bring snark. Here they are:

Comedies are often the most memorable movies. People love them. So why don’t they ever win Oscars?
If we could go back in time and talk to our 20-year-old selves what advice would we give? And would we even listen to that advice?
Churches are not businesses, so how should they use business principles? Or should they at all?

We have a new sponsor this week too – Renovate: Changing Who You Are by Loving Where You Are by Leonce Crump (Waterbrook/Multnomah, February 2016). Renovate is a fantastic book for any church planter, missionary, or believer seeking to see his or her neighborhood transformed by the gospel. Crump, the founding pastor of Renovation Church in Atlanta, draws on his own experience and a wealth of biblical principles to show how developing a deep love for one’s neighborhood is just the thing God often uses to change hearts and ‘hoods. Renovate releases on February 16, and you should definitely preorder it now.

Big thank you to Resonate Recordings, the fine folks who make us sound listenable. If you are looking for great people to help your church put out recorded sermon audio or help you with a podcast they’re your people. T

Feel free to hit us up on Twitter at @HappyRantPod or on Facebook or via email at HappyRantPodcast@Gmail.com with any topic suggestions or feedback. We love hearing from listeners!

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #73

Stop Working for The Weekend

Friday’s coming. I can’t wait. I’m just working for the weekend right now. It’s almost here.

Some weeks are like that – we’re so tired or worn down that we’re thinking about the next Friday during Monday’s commute to the office. If it’s only the occasional week it’s normal. If it’s a few weeks in a row we’re due for a vacation. But if working for the weekend is the norm we’ve gotten things twisted.

We don’t work to rest and play; we rest and play to work. That’s how God made us. We are designed to work, and because of that design we should find great satisfaction in the activity of working. We may not love our particular jobs sometimes, but we should always love work.

God gave us the Sabbath and labor unions earned us a second day off. That rest is a gift, just like work. Even as we were created to work we were created to need rest, to take breaks, to trust that God will provide even if we don’t earn for a bit. But this rest is not the end; it is the means. It’s the means to recharge our mental and physical batteries so that we can find satisfaction in work and work well. If we make rest the aim we’ve turned God’s design upside down.

If this is the position you find yourself in, do these three things.

1) Examine your heart.

Working for the weekend is lazy and likely idolatrous. It means that your personal comfort is foremost in your. It means that your heart is not engaged in your work and, in fact, has completely missed the point of work as a gift. To work for the weekend means that you are working for the wrong reasons and not even finding those – for money, for personal or emotional fulfillment, to create or polish your image and identity. But work should be done “as unto the Lord” or “for the Lord.” We don’t work for the weekend; we work for the creator. When we lose sight of Him we begin to work for ourselves, and when that inevitably disappoints all we are left with is the hope of a decent couple days off.

2) Examine your gifts.

God made you with a special set of skills. Not Liam Neeson special, but special nonetheless. He made you unique and with unique passions. Once you have committed your heart to work as unto the Lord then taking stock of those gifts is essential. What are you good at? What do you love to do? If those do not align with your current job in some way you are only going to experience vocational friction. This doesn’t mean they need to line all the way, or even most of the way. But you will be much more likely be able to work with satisfaction, in a God-honoring way f you can find some meaningful way to out the gifts he’s given you to use in your job.

3) Examine your job.

Meaningful work looks different for different people because of the uniqueness with which God designed us. For some meaningful work might be selling bonds or financial services, for others it is preaching, for many it is parenting, for others creating art, and for others it’s manual work and craftsmanship. None of these is more meaningful than the others; the question is whether the worker finds the meaning in it? And that has a lot to do with whether he or she is exercising God-given gifts and passions. Meaningful work means that you see a purpose in it and you see your place in it. It is the right position with the enough right opportunities. Sometimes this is a temporary thing – meaningful for a few months. Other times it might be a career to settle into for decades. The question is are you able to do your job as unto the Lord, using the abilities He has given you to represent Him well?

If the answer to that is yes, even if it is difficult – and thanks to Adam it always is – then you won’t work for the weekend. You’ll work for God and be thankful for the weekend.

No Self-Made Stars

From my most recent article at WorldMag.com:

Would Tom Brady be Tom Brady without coach Bill Belichick? Would he be the greatest quarterback of a generation, or maybe ever, and have won four Super Bowls? Not likely. Of course, Belichick would not be heading a dynasty in New England if he and Brady hadn’t teamed up either.

The same is true for every great team in history. Michael Jordan needed Scottie Pippen in Chicago, and they both needed coach Phil Jackson. That New York Yankees dynasty of the late ’90s and early aughts was far more than Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich is just another good NBA coach without Tim Duncan falling in his lap in 1997, and Duncan might have been Karl Malone without Pop. Tiger Woods was taught golf as a toddler. Venus and Serena Williams’ parents moved them out of Compton so they could get elite coaching.

There are no self-made superstars, only talented people given unique opportunities and running with them. Yet we most often credit the individual’s effort for success.

. . .

It’s simpler to formulate a success recipe that says hard work equals big gains. It’s neater to assume that the most talented will rise to the top. It gives us a basic structure for climbing the ladder, knowing the next steps, and finding our ceiling. We like a tidy merit-based system that says people earn all they have.

No doubt it takes talent and sweat to rise to the top, but it’s foolish and disingenuous to assume that those at the top got there by themselves and those who didn’t lack work ethic or ability. What gets people to the top is talent, hard work, and opportunities—the kind of opportunities only God can orchestrate. If you are honest about your life, every success you ever had came from an opportunity you didn’t create. You may have pursued it. You may have looked for it. But God provided it just like He provided the talent and ability to do something with it.

The measure of success is what you do with the opportunities you’re given—stewardship. To some much will be given, and they ought to do great things. Others will toil just as hard and be given little, but both can be equally great stewards.

. . .

Read the full post HERE.

New Happy Rant: Books that Need to Be Movies, Helicopter Parents, and Charity Businesses

In this episode you’ll notice something new. That intro, so hot right now. Thanks to Ronnie J. Martin for finally officially moving us into the current eras of happy ranting. We also rant about a few other, more significant things.

What books would be awesome if they were made into movies? And which ones might be  . . . not awesome?
What effect is all this helicopter parenting having on kids? Will they be productive members of society? Will they be any earthly good?
What’s the deal with charities functioning as business? Or is it businesses using charity to market? Why can’t charities just be charities?

ig thank you to Resonate Recordings, the fine folks who make us sound listenable. If you are looking for great people to help your church put out recorded sermon audio or help you with a podcast they’re your people. T

Feel free to hit us up on Twitter at @HappyRantPod or on Facebook with any topic suggestions or feedback. We love hearing from listeners!

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #72