Win a Free Copy of MOSAIC

On Oct. 1, I'll be hosting Keith Williams, general editor of the new MOSAIC version NLT Bible on my blog.

You can win a free copy of MOSAIC by doing one of the following.

(a) Visit this blog on Oct. 1, 2009, and post a question (in the comment section) for Keith Williams, or

(b) Send a message on Twitter or Facebook on Oct. 1 announces this giveaway. Use this message: "Win a free copy of the new MOSAIC Bible today. Visit http://bit.ly/1sIxj for details. @lawrencewilson"

If you send a Facebook message, you'll have to e-mail me so I can enter you to win.

I think the NLT is one of the best available translations right now, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the MOSAIC edition has to offer. I love the tagline for this edition:

On our own, we are little more than bits of stone and glass . . .

together we are the body of Christ.

Tune in on Oct. 1 to hear more about this new project.

To whet your appetite, here is an interview I did awhile ago with Dr. Joseph E. Coleson, on of the translators on the NLT team.

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Life in the Slow Lane

I'm feeling much better this week as I continue to heal from injuries sustained in my bike accident on Sept. 20. I have much less pain but am still unable to bear weight on my right leg. I'll be using walker for several more weeks, but my doctor believes I'll make a complete recovery with no permanent damage to my prosthetic hip. That's a relief.

My life is a lot slower right now (everything takes a long time!), and I'm not able to stand as much activity as I'd like. Hopefully, I'll be back to full strength--if not full mobility--soon.

I'm grateful for your prayers and the many tangible ways that you have supported our family--meals, rides for the kids, and building a step in the garage to accommodate a walker. The creative get-well cards from the gang at Awana and Kids Express were delightful! I don't know how we would be doing this without the support of our church. We thank you, and Heather and I continue to pray for your needs as well.

By the way, your pastor's wife has been an incredible partner to me now (as always). I'm amazed by her selflessness and energy. She needs your support and prayer more than I do.

I hope to be present with you at Fall Creek on Sunday. In the meantime, I'm getting the hang of walking with my hands and catching up on some reading.

See you soon--

Larry

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Bike Accident Update

Many of you know that I was injured in a bicycling accident on Sunday (Sept. 20). I arrived home from the hospital today, so here's my first chance to give a more complete update on my situation.

We enjoyed an incredibly moving worship service at Fall Creek in the morning, and Heather and I spent much of the afternoon watching football. Then we decided to beat the raindrops on a brief bike ride. We rode together for about 30 minutes, then I dropped Heather at home as a light rain was beginning to fall. “I’m not that sweet,” I joked to Heather. “A little rain won’t melt me.” 

About 20 minutes later I zipped through Markleville, aiming to round one more block (in rural Indiana, a "block" is one square mile) and  head home. I approached the abandoned tracks that run kitty-corner across State St. and did my best to square off so that I would cross them at a right angle. But my front tire caught the second rail and slid left. It was like hitting a patch of ice. The bike went out from under me in an instant, and I crashed on my right side. I was probably going about 14 m.p.h. at the time.

I knew immediately that this was more than the usual bump or bruise you might get by falling in the driveway; the pain in my hip was excruciating. Fortunately, an approaching motorist saw me fall and stopped to help. Other folk stopped or came out of their houses to assist. 

One of them graciously offered to call Heather, but mistakenly told her that I’d been hit by a car. Heather arrived within minutes but didn’t learn until we reached the hospital that I’d simply fallen on the tracks. By then she had told several people the mistaken version of the story. Being the victim of a hit-and-run accident sounds more intriguing, but there was no motor vehicle involved. I simply slipped on the tracks and fell. Yes, I was wearing a helmet.

I was taken by ambulance to St. John’s hospital in Anderson, where initial x-rays showed two fractures in my pelvis and a possible fracture of my right femur, near my prosthetic hip. A CT scan revealed that the femur had multiple fractures and that it was unclear if my prosthetic hip had come loose from the bone. This is still a concern. The physician feels optimistic that it has not come loose, but we should know for sure in a couple weeks. 

Either way, the treatment for the next month and a half will be the same—physical therapy and no weight bearing on my right side. “This is gonna hurt like heck for six weeks no matter what we do,” the doctor said. Gotta love that candor.

Obviously, my activities will be limited in the next few weeks, though I don’t yet know the extent. I’ll keep you updated on my progress; in the meantime, thanks to each of you who have responded with concern and prayer. Times like these make me deeply grateful for the communion of saints.

I'm grateful, too, to the good folk who stopped to lend a hand. I was in a great deal of pain when I fell, and couldn’t roll myself over or untangle my legs from the bike. I received help in the form of blankets prop up my aching leg, a hand to hold (literally), and even a shot of whiskey to ease the pain (which I declined :-) All of us could probably stand to open the shades a bit more often and connect with the people around us. 

Those of you who know me well can affirm that I don’t jump at spiritual explanations to mundane problems. Yet while we might easily explain this accident by the ordinary factors of rain and railroad tracks, I can't help but notice the close connection between this event and the very powerful worship experiences we’ve had at Fall Creek in the last two weeks. Undoubtedly, our enemy would be delighted to see that spiritual momentum reversed. Let’s not allow that to happen. Let the Holy Spirit direct worship at Fall Creek whether or not I am there to lead or not.

I'll keep you posted as I learn more about the impact of this injury on my schedule. In the meantime, keep doing what you've been doing so well these several months--being the church.

PS: The photo is me, in the emergency room, pointing to my livestrong t-shirt. I was hoping for a phone call from @lancearmstrong. No luck so far ;-) 

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Your Church Is Too Small

Most of us think too small about church.

You're probably hearing in that statement an echo of the church-growth language '80s/'90s, which held local churches should always be growing larger. Breaking the "200 Barrier" was the big goal of the 1980s. Nowadays 1,000 is the new 200, and the threshold for a megachurch has been notched up to 2,000. 

Yet all of that is essentially small thinking because it concentrates our energy on us--the local church--and fails to connect us with the real body of Christ--the worldwide church.

Two thousand may seem like a huge crowd in a single auditorium, but it's a teeny number compared with 2,100,000,000 (that's 2.1 billion) the estimated number of Christians in the world. 

This week I'm working on a message based on Eph. 4:3-6, which stresses the need for unity in the church. "There is one body." Rather than applying that thought to your local church, what if it were applied on a global scale? What would it take for us to generate unity among Christians worldwide? What could be the result?

Local to Global. We'd have to break the long habit of thinking of church as the building at 116th & Olio Rd., or even as the group of people that meets there.  In our minds, church  would have to become a much larger, more diverse, wider-spread concept, comprising all people who are followers of Christ--"one baptism."

Consumer to Contributor. Most of us are attracted to a local church based on what it offers to us--a good youth group for the kids, good preaching, lively music, a good location. To connect broader, we'd have to starting thinking about what we can offer to the body--both as individuals and as a local church.

Competitor to Coworker. When we think of the church as a purely local entity, we see other congregations as either competitors or consumer options. To unite broadly, we'd have to quit that. Church hopping among parishioners and one-upsmanship by leaders would have to end.

Conformity to Unity. To get any group to agree on something is difficult; to agree on everything is impossible. To unite broader, we'd have to limit our agenda to those things that really matter--in "Jesus said this" kind of way. We could still have our own preferences as a local churches, but we'd have to give up insisting that everybody do it our way. 

What would result from worldwide Christian unity? Here's my short list, I'd like to hear yours.

Christians in both larger and smaller churches would be empowered as they saw themselves as part of a global Christian movement and thought less about the number of people attending their local church. 

The world mission would be completed in our lifetime as every person on earth had the opportunity to hear the gospel message.

Many world conflicts would be ended as large groups of people advocated in unison for tolerance and forgiveness.

Persistent global problems would be solved, such as the lack of clean water and human trafficking, as Christians concentrated their resources, expertise, and social power.

The number of conversions would rise exponentially as nonbelievers saw the church corporately behaving like Jesus Christ and were drawn in by its authenticity, humility, and power.

So what do you think?  What would it take for the church to get beyond local thinking and unite on a broader level? Is it possible? What would result?

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Book Review: Fearless

Fearless
By Max Lucado
Hardcover, 224 pp., $24.99
Thomas Nelson Publishers

Fearless is a pleasant inspirational book, and if you are afflicted by feelings of anxiety, insecurity, or apprehension about your life and relationship with God, it will be of some help to you. 

If you are looking for practical steps that will help you overcome fear, keep looking. This book make you feel better (which is worth something) but will not arm you with strategies for coping with anxiety.

The best thing about the book (other than Lucado’s trademark prose, chocolate-rich with misty metaphors and peek-a-boo word-pictures that dispatch their sunshiny rays of grace-infused warmth to melt the icy fingers of dread from the doubting soul), is the catalogue of real-life fears that people face, each met with the biblical advice, “Fear not.” 

The author identifies 13 of the common sources of anxiety and shows how our relationship with God should replace that fear with confidence. The aim is to make the reader feel better based on biblical truths, and that works. 

The book includes a group discussion guide.

I offer the same advice on this book that Lincoln is supposed to have given in a book review: "People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like." If you like Thomas Kincade paintings and songs like "Butterfly Kisses," you'll love this book. 

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Six Tools for Spiritual Growth

Here's an interesting fact. More people believe there is a God than believe there is a devil. By the numbers, it's not even a close contest. About 96 percent of Americans believe there is a God; only 64 percent believe there is a devil.

It's the same with other aspects of spirituality. Far more people believe in heaven than in hell, and in angels than in demons. For some reason, we rather easily accept the idea that there is a warm, positive side to the spiritual world but are reluctant to believe that dark, unseen forces really exist outside of a thriller movie.

But what if they do?

What if our spiritual progress is not merely a matter of thinking more positive thoughts or gaining a bit of will power but is a struggle against an enemy who wishes to destroy us? What if we think we're on a journey but we're actually in a war?

That is, in fact, the case according to the apostle Paul.

This week I'm preparing a message based on Eph. 6:10-20, in which we learn about the Christian's "spiritual armor."

Extending the warfare theme used in this text, I'll hope to identify six areas of conflict in our spiritual lives and the spiritual disciples that are successful in defeating them.

Truth - Clarity vs. Confusion
Righteousness - Action vs. Lethargy
Witness - Boldness vs. Timidity
Faith - Resolve vs. Doubt
Salvation - Confidence vs. Fear
Scripture - Victory vs. Defeat

I've got a lot of work to do. (One of the many books on this subject, The Christian in Complete Armour, is over 1,200 pages long!) So I could use a few pointers.

What spiritual discipline is most helpful in your spiritual life?

What practical tips would you offer for overcoming doubt, temptation, or other spiritual attacks?

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Beyond Winning

The secret to getting along with other people is to either ignore them or to intimidate them into doing what you want.

That's not exactly biblical advice, but it's what most of us do most of the time. Figuring that polite aphorisms such as "Turn the other cheek" and "Be kind to one another" are impractical, we use conflict as a way of managing our relationships with other people. 

Whether it's a husband and wife deciding how to spend their last $20 or opposing parties deciding national healthcare policy, we seem to feel that there must be a winner and a loser in every situation.

This week I'll be speaking on relational stress based on Paul's advice in Eph. 5:21.  This is one of those situations where the truth sounds too simple to be true. Here's my paraphrase: 

The secret to getting along with other people is to treat them with the same respect you give to Jesus Christ.

Applying that in real life is, of course, more challenging than it sounds. We see that as Paul continued his teaching by giving practical examples in three relational contexts (marriage, parenting, and slavery). 

I hope to do something similar in this message, and I'm beginning by reflecting on these questions. 

How do you love and respect a spouse who doesn't return those feelings?

What's the difference between  respecting others and being taken advantage of by them? 

How would this principle apply to people who chronically abuse your trust--such as a child who lies to you or a coworker who is lazy?

Can you give some examples of how showing respect or submission have helped you deal with a difficult relationship?

What limits should we reasonably place on this idea? For example, do you owe respect to people who are doing wrong? Who have abused you? Who are trying to kill you?

Are there some people that you simply can't be reconciled with?

Living in harmony with other human beings is perhaps the most challenging thing you can do, yet I believe it is possible when we offer others the same respect that we give to Jesus Christ.

What do you think, team? Can you offer some practical insight on these questions?

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