Update…
November 21st, 2008
I’m returning to (semi) regular “blogging” today, realizing that yes, it has been awhile and, as usual there are lots of things to discuss and break-down related to the times we find ourselves in. And yes, I’m conceding the use of the term “blog” since it is now so uncool and fringe to blog that it is actually cool to me to do it. I won’t twitter and I barely utilize Facebook - this is where my heart is. There is the book of Joel to finish, an election to break down, civil unrest in California, and my new post as the Executive Director of TheCall. The latter, as I’m sure you guessed, is the primary reason that I’ve been quiet on this space lately. My days have been focused and quite full, and so my prayer room time (which also doubles as my writing time) has been dedicated, well, to prayer - as well as a few projects that should be of particular interest to many of you.
Point being, while it has been a while since I’ve last written anything here (Lou’s open letter doesn’t really count), the main reason is knit to a project that I’ve been working on with a team of IHOP-KC leaders: we are producing some key documents for the Onething Conference that are often asked for and will hopefully be helpful in catalyzing our little slice of the prayer movement. The documents are as follows:
1. The “150 End-Time chapters” - our goal is to produce a document that puts, in your hands, the most definitive document we can produce related to the 150 chapters in the bible that discuss the end of the age. There have been about a dozen of us breaking down and analyzing the chapters so that we can present them in a helpful, concise, and precise manner. It’s the first of hopefully three documents that lay out all of the end-time passages in the Bible. What’s you’ll find with this document, however, is that for the first round only those passages that constitute 51% or more of the chapter count as an actual “chapter”. Thus many end-time passages that are of great importance (say, the four in the book of Ephesians) won’t make the “cut” this time around. A second document that is a bit broader is hopefully forthcoming, preceding the final, comprehensive document down the road.
2. Book of Revelation outline and “study bible” - this is the project that I personally have spent the most hours on (as well as many, many others) - discussion groups and think tanks devoted to the purpose of producing the most understandable, straightforward, simple and clear outline of the book of Revelation that we have ever produced. This is such a huge project that we are shutting down all of our afternoon breakouts this year at the Onething Conference so that Mike can systematically go through the book of Revelation and stare at, with 10-12,000 young adults, the “battle plan” of Jesus to fully and forcefully recapture the earth from the hands of wicked and unrighteous men.
3. “Signs of the Times” handout - no, it’s not my upcoming book, but it is the “prequel” that will help me finish it. In the same manner that we are convening think-tanks and discussion groups to produce the Revelation outline with our main leaders and their teams, we are working on producing a helpful 10-page document that will lay out the current context of the end-times and where we are in the grand plan of God to bring about the fulfillment of the book of Revelation. Honestly, the “Signs of the Times” book is one of the most difficult projects I’ve taken on - so I’m happy to have help and work as a team. Hopefully, this project will be the “boost” I’ve needed to finish the book. Of course, as we’ve seen over the past few months, can a book like this ever be finished when signposts emerge around us daily?
So, with that, I’m going to still try to sneak in some random thoughts as they strike me over the next few weeks leading up to Onething. Thanks for reading.
David
Entry Filed under: life at ihop-kc
9 Comments Add your own
1. John Barker | November 21st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Wow, I am very excited- elated even, to hear about these projects. I have one of my youth going this year (hopefully more will follow him), i will have to have him get me a copy of the handouts.
Thank You so much for yout tierless work, David. I know many are benefiting from your labor of Love.
2. sclough | November 21st, 2008 at 4:12 pm
So does this mean there are no breakout sessions this year? One of the joys of Onething for us was the opportunity to hear lesser known leaders on a wide variety of topics.
3. Washington | November 24th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Can’t wait… send it out!
4. Deana M. Holmes | November 25th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Uh, what “civil unrest” in California?
Are you talking about the many protests against Proposition 8, which are legal? I didn’t notice any mass arrests. Or does it discomfit you that people might actually take to the streets to protest the removal of their civil rights through the ballot?
Or are you talking about the incident in the Castro on Nov. 14? I don’t know how old you are, but for those of us who lived through the 1960s and 1970s, this is pretty minor stuff. They did get out of there without any serious injury, right? I’d note that the movie about Harvey Milk is coming out this week (wide release next week). Maybe you could take a few hours and go back to the 1970s. I believe the “White Night Riots” are in the movie and would be rather instructive to you (or you could just check Wikipedia).
But then you’d have to let yourself express some tolerance for people who are different than yourself, and I don’t think you have it in you, David.
(For the record: single, straight, 48, homeowner, devoted daughter and sister, church dropout.)
5. David | November 25th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
So, I have it wrong? Did I imply that “civil unrest” equals illegal activity? Or are you defining the term as such? Are there defined degrees of civil unrest that are established somewhere from the 60’s and 70’s by which the current unrest doesn’t “count”? I’m clearly not the expert on “actual” civil unrest, being the intolerant Christian stereotype that I am.
So, before I can comment further on your response (welcome to my blog, by the way, nice to meet you, thanks for the assumptions) it would be helpful for you to answer a few more questions:
1. How exactly do you define “tolerance”?
2. Is it possible to have love and yet maintain an acceptable level of intolerance?
Here’s an example - I have genuine compassion for a murderer who was beaten as a child, but I have little tolerance for the manner in which he is different than me.
Bear in mind that the above is not a comparative analogy, just an example to help establish the framework for what I am asking. I am curious if, since you seem to have something as imprecise as “civil unrest” so tightly defined (so that invading and disrupting church services, for example, wouldn’t count), I was thinking that perhaps you had the same level of precision in defining “tolerance” related to “differences”.
So please, explain the usage of these terms as you understand them since all I know about you is the bio you submitted at the end of your comment, which doesn’t really tell me a thing about you except that you’re devoted and didn’t like your church very much.
Thanks much!
6. Deana M. Holmes | November 26th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Tolerance = live and let live. If it doesn’t bother you, why are you so concerned about it?
I heard Lou Engle preach recently about a (proposed?) California law regarding transgender students. The thing that struck me about this, when thinking about it later (in fact, as I was pulling into a parking spot at work) was, “What do you care? Why does it bother you so much?” I mean, for me, it’s just not important. But for Lou, it was this hairy big deal, as if the world was going to come to an end. I just couldn’t get that. It was if one was messing with the primal forces of the universe if one did not stick to one’s God-given gender. (For the record, I’m not transgender, but I have done things that up until my generation women really didn’t do, like become a lawyer, although I don’t practice now.)
It’s the same with same-sex marriage. How does that make your marriage less? Example: my mother thinks of herself as married to my dad since 1959, but the legal facts are that her marriage license never got filed (pastor died the next week!). They didn’t get it straightened out (by filing a “certificate of informal partnership”) until 1997. It has her 1959 marriage date on it, but that’s because she got annoyed with the clerk when the clerk told her she had to put the first date that they lived in Texas together as husband and wife (which was in 1973). The 1959 date means a lot to my mom. I’m just glad for legal purposes (e.g., Social Security benefits) that she has proof of her marriage. Which is, by the way, something that is denied to same-sex couples since they can’t get married.
There are a lot of things that I don’t care for, but I tolerate them because it’s part of living in a multicultural and multireligious society. For example, I frankly hate the smell of kimchee but my Korean friends love it. There is a concept called *compromise*, which I don’t think you’re awfully familiar with.
civil unrest = I don’t consider legal protests part of ‘civil unrest.” These are components of civil unrest: Rioting, looting, property damage, lots of people getting arrested, lots of police getting called out, tear gas…in other countries this usually means the government calling out the troops and imposing “martial law.” To me “civil unrest” conjures up images of Kent State in May 1970 or the Watts riots. Maybe you might think back to what happened in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict. That’s civil unrest. Peaceful marching is not civil unrest.
I think you may have been surprised (I know I was!!) by the speed and volume of the reaction to Proposition 8. But it’s not legitimate to call it “civil unrest.” Seriously. Using the phrase “civil unrest” conjures up a vision of a society teetering on the brink, and, again (sorry to keep harping on this) for those of us who lived through some very unsettling times (or in very unsettling places), this is not that. But using the phrase “civil unrest” might be in your best interest, if you’re attempting to portray this society as falling apart.
Perhaps you’re unhappy because of the talk of getting Prop 8 reversed through the courts or via the initiative process. Maybe you like to think of the law as something stable and fixed, but that’s simply not the case. You were praying before Nov. 4 for someone else–not Barack Obama–to become president, no? So that you could get a couple more justices on the Supreme Court and get Roe v. Wade overturned? Why can’t opponents of Prop 8 do the same things? Or are these legal tactics only reserved to the “righteous”?
So there you go, definitions of “tolerance” and “civil unrest.”
7. Erin | December 6th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
David,
My friends and I are really excited to come to Onething this year, with the focus on Jesus’ battle plan being so sharp… I imagine we’re going to get a lot of practical training on how to prepare ourselves and others as forerunners. I was wondering if you guys have thought of (or plan to) have or provide space for meetings for those coming to the conference from various cities or regions so they can meet each other and begin to network and connect in the days ahead?
8. John Paul Fullerton | December 9th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Hi David,
Following-up with Erin’s comment–just an idea to continue the conversation, there may be better options, maybe there could be a room for people to meet, kind of like the sign-in room where people go to get their conference materials. Instead of an alphabetical arrangement by attendee’s name, maybe there could be an alphabetical arrangement by state (or group of states) names. Also maybe there could be poster sized post-em’s where people could make signs for their cities within the state areas. So, for example, in the Georgia area, someone could put up a post-em sign for Atlanta and people from Atlanta could meet there. There may be ways of making this more orderly. Maybe an online method of creating an email list would also be helpful for some people, though people may prefer to meet.
Also the throught was brought to mind–what about an open question and answer meeting, not just about end times, questions and answers about anything. Wow
Have a nice day
John Paul Fullerton
9. John Paul Fullerton | December 17th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Hi David
Just looking for a note to add this comment.
I was chatting with a friend at work today and looked up a scripture in the Net Bible. Some of the translator notes seem to be informative–I could say encouraging
http://net.bible.org/verse.php?search=Habakkuk%202:3&book=habakkuk&chapter=2&verse=3
Have a nice day
John Paul
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