Posts Tagged: The One Project
March: Val Kilmer, Porn, Apple, & a Tiger
The following are the 10 most viewed posts on this blog for the month of March. Maybe you read them all and want to read again, maybe you missed a few & would like to catch-up, or maybe you’d just like to share one with a friend. And perhaps you want to leave the page now. I’m cool with any of those options 🙂
1. The Porn Pandemic–I woke-up earlier than I normally do one morning and felt impressed to write this blog. Wasn’t really something I planned on writing and the content wasn’t the direction I was thinking of going when I started writing it. But it turned out the way it turned out and several folk have said they appreciated the honesty. In many ways it was written as a Dad with two boys, whom prays for God’s protection over them and God to give me wisdom in how I & my wife can help Him in that endeavor.
2. Bittersweet Moving–Two of our dear church members are moving in late July and the thought of them moving and also the reflections on what I had learned from them compelled me to write this tribute to them & encouragement to pastors & young leaders to be mentored.
3. Val Kilmer & I — This was orginally a post simply for the purpose to encourage encouragement that I wrote in February. It turned into a hit in March on the internet because the web manager of the Official Facebook U.S. fan page of Val Kilmer got a hold of the post and reposted it, due to my uncanny resemblance to said actor. That ended up getting this post a lot of traffic:)
4. Childhood Friday Nights — I love music! I especially love older Christian music & it seems like many others do as well!
5. The Apple Store — I believe churches could learn a lot about “customer” service from secular businesses! This was just another example.
6. 1 For Every 10k — I love church planting, I believe it is the best avenue by which to have mass sustained evangelism!
7. The Negativity Pandemic — I am sick of negativity!
8. Flee the Tiger — One of my members Kay Rizzo has recently published her first ebook. I was excited for her and wanted to help her get out the word.
9. Zechariah’s Beautiful Picture of the Gospel — I love Zechariah 3:1-5 and I wanted to share a couple thoughts in regards to this passage.
10. The Twitter Blessings! — I meant for this to be a compare & contrast of Facebook & Twitter with my views on why I prefer to Twitter. It turned into just a Twitter lovefest!
And those are the top 10 for the month of March & here just for good measure are the top for the first quarter of 2012:
- Val Kilmer & I
- The Porn Pandemic
- The One Project Analysis
- Bittersweet Moving
- Thoughts From Pastor Carlton Byrd…
- This Is Discipling
- Childhood Friday Nights
- The Apple Store
- 1 For Every 10k
- One of Many Goals for 2012
Hope y’all enjoy and would love your feedback!
The One Project Analysis
I attended The One Project in Seattle this past month and wanted to share my analysis of my time at this “gathering.” It was not a conference we were told but a gathering, a discussion on the supremacy of Jesus Christ within the Adventist church.
I and almost 700 other folk gathered for two days. Most of us attended because of invitation from either one of the leaders of the gathering or the personal invitation of a friend that had attended the first One Project gathering in Atlanta, GA. a year ago.
One of the questions I received over and over again from folk that knew I was attending was, “What is this thing all about?” My answer was consistently, “I don’t know.” When I vocalized that sentiment on twitter I was assured, “Jesus. ALL.” In other words I was told, “the gathering is all about Jesus.”
Did I find this to be true? Yes and No.
My perspective on the idea of “Jesus. All.” after hearing people insist to me that Jesus is “ALL” we are about, no agenda. After hearing the encouragement before the meetings for people to prepare for the gathering by reading the Gospels and/or The Desire of Ages. After hearing Japhet De Oliveira give his explanation to the purpose of this gathering in the opening remarks I understood Jesus.ALL. to mean that it would be all about JESUS HIMSELF.
With that expectation in mind I found it to be NOT Jesus. ALL.
There were several talks, the majority of talks in fact, where scripture was not opened and where Jesus as God, Man, Savior, Friend, etc. were not addressed in any manner and so if you came like me with an expectation of learning more about JESUS HIMSELF, then you would have found this event wanting.
If you came with the understanding that it would be about Jesus primarily as how He has been used and focused on throughout the history of the Adventist church, then yes it was Jesus. ALL. This was the focus of much of the gathering. Jesus 1844, 1888, 1957, Doctrine, Mission, the future.
In every talk I found things I could, “AMEN”, in every talk I thought there were wonderfully valid points made. I resonated strongly with Sam Leonor & Mark Witas’ talks. My heart was touched as a Dad & as a former prodigal with Pastor Terry Swenson’s story about his own son.
And there were things said that concerned me, statements I believe were on the border of ideas or teachings I would in no way be able to support. That said, these statements were either intentionally or unintentionally veiled and therefore hard for me to make a completely accurate assessment of.
The format of the conference was amazing! There was no wasted time! After our break times we went straight into the speakers, no wasted words on announcements or giveaways. The music led by Nick Zork w/ an assist by Kimberly Bulgin and many others was amazing. On a side note, I believe if we invested through our church education system in wonderful worship leaders as much as we do other areas of ministry, all our churches would be well served! (It is Biblical 1 Chronicles 6:31,32) The fellowship was wonderful. It had a nice reunion feel to it. The organization was terrific and the leaders I spoke with were gracious in hearing my concerns and humble in hearing my praise.
In summary I would say, it was not the gathering I expected, but this doesn’t mean it was a bad gathering. The focal point I expected, learning more about Jesus and drawing nearer to Jesus, was not the primary focus I experienced, and based on that alone I would probably not choose to attend again.
However, this is only their second (in some ways 1st) intentional gathering, and I think it is wise, unless there is was just absolute heresy, (which I choose to believe there was not) to reserve judgment after just one round. I was also encouraged by Alex Bryan’s statement that Chicago’s 2013 gathering will be a discussion on 8 stories from the life of Jesus. With that statement by Pastor Alex I believe a return and reinvested look at The ONE project is deserved, at least from me.
