So i went to see Rob Bell the other night. His current tour is called Drops Like Stars. It’s an attempt to look at suffering differently, to change the question a bit.

It was good, not mind blowing or anything but really good. I could unload on you all my thoughts but instead you should just go get the book. Word on the street is that the book and the tour are the same things. I plan on reading the book.

So, here you will just get some of my thoughts that i wrote (on my iPhone) while Rob was talking.

(this is an image i took while Rob was talking about Jonny Cash at the Viper Room in LA)

// my notes //
—————
//Insulators / The box
- When the box is crushed, something random is done or happens, that’s when we realize there is no box / or our box is destroyed.
- How can we smash the box?

// Telling people “i’m fine” and suffering behind the curtain.
- How to live honestly?

>> The Art of Honesty

// “There is no way to God except through trouble.”
(This was a quote from somebody but i don’t remember who. I’m sure it’s in the book.)

// The heart of the gospel is the cross.
- The heavenly incarnational “i know how you feel”

// Art and Feat :: a book
(i made a note cause i’m interested in reading this book he spoke of)

// “This to will shape me”
(this is something Rob said that noted)

—–

Well those were my notes. Obviously he said a lot more than that but those are the few thing he said that i wrote down. He did say one other thing that has stuck in my head. It was pretaining to his words on the “art of elimination” which is the section in his talk where he has us hold a bar of soap and talked about the time he invited sculptors over to his house to sculpt bars of soap.
The point was that some things will need to be taken away, eliminated, in order for you to see the potential in your “bar of soap” / your life.
Extremely sold point and illustrated with absolute creativity. I LOVE IT! i will probably steal the idea in the future!

So that’s my Rob Bell / Drops Likes Stars love for today.
Go read the book!
(here is a good review of the book if your interested)

And just incase your not familiar with Rob Bell (which, how could you not be)  he’s the dude who does the little 10 min video called nooma. As i was looking for a Drops Like Stars pic to post uptop i found this nooma. Enjoy!
(it’s old Rob but good!)

Enjoy!

I confessed to my congregation (the camp) that these were initial thoughts and that the Sermon on the Mount was really working me over and giving me a hard time.

I continue to study it. Currently I am reading some of St. Augustine’s thought and some his old sermons on our Lord’s sermon. I’m reading some studies by John Scott and still thinking HEAVILY about the words offered to me by Dallas Willard, NT Wright and Brain McLaren.

BUT STILL… The Sermon on the Mount is hard! It’s been hard to study, it’s been hard to land on an idea, a theology, a simple reading that I feel confident in when it comes to The Sermon on the Mount.

So I continue to study, read and now, listen to thoughts on The Sermon on the Mount.

I say, “and now listen” because just this past weekend I listened to a couple sermons from Mars Hill Bible Church on The Sermon on the Mount. First Rob Bell on “Blessed are the poor in spirit” and “Blessed are the meek”. And also Father Sirico who preached on “Blessed are those who mourn” which he cleverly entitled “Whistling past the grace”.

The messages were REALLY good. REALLY encouraging. And really on (if you ask me). Maybe not conventional readings, interpretations, or messages on this famous message of Jesus but very good in my opinion.

And to me very affirming.

I preached a message on what it means to be “blessed” (which I previously blogged about). I made the point that I think blessing (largely based on Jesus’ usage of the word) might be more about God’s presence than it is about God’s gifts. Rob, in quoting Fredrick Dale Bruner says, “To understand blessed it to understand a divine ‘I am with you’” and in his message Rob translates the term “fortunate” instead of blessed. I love it!

Well I would encourage you to listen to a few of these messages. Be encouraged that even at your lowest God is with you, i.e. you are blessed!

Grace and peace
Erik

Doing an event like this is hard. There’s a lot of work that goes into planning a retreat. This retreat is a hard sell. Why? Because you do not eat, you sleep in a box on a gym floor, and spend most of the second day serving someone you may or may not know. This does not exactly scream youth ministry in the tradition sense. Typically at a youth retreat you focus on the student. What do I mean by that? You focus on each individual students walk with Christ. This is easy. Easy in the sense that the students can grab on to it, it’s very tangible to them and personal. At this particular retreat we focus on issues like justice, mercy, and walking humbly with God. Talking about these issues forces students to think outside themselves into a world that they may or may not have ever thought of before. This does not give us any immediate response. These are issues that cannot be resolved in a night, or a weekend, but require a life time of processing, thought, and action. We have to trust that God is working in their lives as we present the gospel to them in a new ways. These are things that are hard for people to grasp, especially students, in one weekend. But God is stirring these issues in the hearts of his people, particularly students. I believe that it is through events like this that God is beginning a journey with these students. A journey that will lead them to changing the world.

Doing an event like this is hard, but ask me if it’s worth it and I would say without a doubt. Some great friends of my did the worship and as usual did a great job. Not only leading the students in song, but getting to know them. Another good friend of mine Erik was our speaker for the weekend; he had the toughest job of all. As usual he did a phenomenal job presenting the gospel to us in a way that kept us engaged, and at the same time invited us to think and question along with him. Finally my students. It was a tough weekend for them, but the hung in there and allowed God to work in their lives. I am very proud of them and am fortunate to be able to call myself their youth pastor. We have committed together to fast every Wednesday so we can more fully rely on God. They have challenged me to give up Twitter every Wednesday for the whole month of November, and I will be happy to do that along side them.

Doing an event like this is hard especially when I am challenged just as much as anyone to take a look at my life. When I have to ask myself, “Am I walking humbly with God, am I doing justice and loving mercy.” God is here and moving, but am I aware and following. That is the question I am asking myself after this weekend. That’s tough. I pray that this was more than just another fun event, but that it was the dawn of a journey with Christ. A journey where we do justice and love mercy because God is rubbing off on us.

Doing an event like this is hard, but maybe that’s a good thing.

I read this quote yesterday and it really got me pondering God’s prevenient grace. How he is drawing me to himself, how he’s drawing my son to himself. How he’s drawing all of humanity to himself. AMEN!

I went into the studio a couple weeks back and recorded 9 more RT. They will be rolling out this month on 89.1 here in Nashville!

Grace, Peace, and a little radio
Erik

PS :: (but an important PS)
I have 2 projects connected with these Revolutionary Thoughts.
One is a devotional book and the other is a CD with your favorite Revolutionary Thoughts as well as some good tunes!
So stayed tuned for these projects to be rolling out (HOPEFULLY) early 2010.
And if you want to help fund any of these projects that would be amazing!

You can donate to this ministry via PayPal.

Erik Willits Ministries is a 501 (C)3 non-profit organization.
All donations are tax deductible.

www.erikwillits.storenvy.com

As of right now we just have t-shirts in the store. SOONER than later  my first book will be coming out as well as a CD containing music and message (my “Revolutionary Thougths” to be precise.) It’s kinda a cool little project i’m working on. (hopefully available Feb. 2010)

But PLEASE, check out the merch store, buy a t-shirt and support the ministry God is calling me to.

Honestly, i have no desire to be a “store” of any kind but selling t-shirts and things really help to financially support the ministry God has called me to.

So check it out! BUY a t-shirts! Show your support!

Grace and peace
Erik

For a couple years i have had this website :: www.erikwillits.com but it hasn’t functioned even close to how i hoped that it would. LUCKILY i have some talented friend here in Nashville (otterball web design) that were able to fix this issue. NOW, my website is a well oiled machine! And i am excited for you to check it out!

:: Some things on my new site that you’re going to want to check out ::

.:: My new video is up and viewable! Check out the media page to view my short film entitled IDENTITY.

.:: My new merch store! My friends over at Store Envy helped me to set it up and we linked it to my new website launch. Check it out my buy a t-shirt!

.:: Revolutionary Thoughts are also up on my website. Just a few of my favorite are up here. But there are a few you can’t hear anywhere else. Check it out!

.:: There are a bunch of new things on the resources page. Make sure to check those things out as well.

.:: And of course the booking page is functioning! So book me for your next event!!!

Over all it’s just looking good, so make sure you check it out and let me know what you think.

Grace and peace
erik

Here is the video from the event
and below is the corresponding radio spot.

RT :: IMAGINATION

2 new thoughts went live today and a couple more should pop up late next week.

So make sure you check out www.RevolutionaryThoughts.com and take a listen.
I would love to hear what you think.

More to come!

Grace, peace, & Revolution
Erik

I am beginning a newsletter. The goal is to shoot out a monthly (or near monthly) ministry update via email to anyone who might be interested!

I am using Emma; a email service that will help me to manage my email lists.
It would help me greatly if you were to click on the image below and sign up to receive my ministry emails.

I look forward to connecting with you all in the near future!

and if you have problems with the picture here is a simple link ::
SIGN UP FOR MY EMAIL

Grace and peace
Erik

It seems as if I am standing on one side of a huge canyon and see how I should grow toward you, live in your presence and serve you, but cannot reach the other side of the canyon where you are. I can speak and write, preach and argue about the beauty and goodness of the life I see on the other side, but how, O Lord, can I get there? Sometimes I even have the painful feeling that the clearer the vision, the more aware I am of the depth of the canyon.

Am I doomed to die on the wrong side of the abyss? Am I destined to excite others to reach the promised land while remaining unable to enter there myself? Sometimes I feel imprisoned by my own insights and “spiritual competence.” You along, Lord, can reach out to me and save me. You alone.

I can only keep trying to be faithful, even though I feel faithless most of the time. What else can I do but keep praying to you, even when I feel dark; to keep writing about you, edven when I feel numb, to keep speaking in your name, even when I feel alone. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Have Mercy on me, a sinner. Amen.

A Cry for Mercy :: Henry Nouwen
(from A Guide to Prayer)

.:: I think most HONEST Christian leaders can resonate with this. I do! So i thought i would share!

Grace and Peace
Erik

This video is pretty funny.
Reminds me of SNL (saturday night live)

Here the video, and be sure to check out GodBeat Live!

My thoughts ::
Does God hold out on us because we don’t pray enough?
Does God give us more “blessing” or gift when we pray more?
Does God hold out on us when we mess up?
Does he give us more when we behave? When we’re good little Christians? And less when we don’t?

The list of questions could go on but I think that will do and you get the idea.

The good Rev. Thomas McKenzie made a point in his sermon a week or so ago at Redeemer that God doesn’t punish us. All punishment was absorbed in the person of Jesus Christ. I think that’s true. And I think it’s an important theological point. But it doesn’t answer the questions above. At least not for me.

Now I don’t think God works like that, giving and taking based on our “performance” or something but it sure feels like that sometimes, doesn’t it. Maybe it’s just the way we have been taught to think? Partly based on God in the OT and partly based on the art of coercion that the Church is WAY to good at.

So how does it really work?
How does God interact with us if not in the way insinuated by the questions above?

Thinking through the issues grace in real life and connecting the dots.
HELP!

Embracing Grace and peace
Erik

I am posting a little more content at www.revolutionarythoughts.com
(which is actually just another page of this blog)

But check out that link / page if you would like to read a bit more.

And if you want even more, i have posted a few of these thoughts in written form at the eministries “fan” page on facebook. So check that out as well.
(i’m trying to get 100 “fan” so i can get my own URL.)
(yes it’s true, we live in a nerdy internet world!!!)

But enjoy!
and let me know what you think.

Grace and peace
Erik

This is a great book if you have a heart for issues of justice or if you need to develop a heart for justice : specifically for the poor and the oppressed.

Now, it’s never a bad time for these words but I do think Sterns has published his book a few years late. As a young(er) Christian I think this issues has really been on the table for the past 5 years, at least in the circles I run in and among the books I read. But this doesn’t really take away anything from The Hole in our Gospel, a book I would recommend everybody and anybody read!

But i finally got some of the audio files that they are playing on WNAZ (89.1 here in Nashville). So i thought i would share.

Here’s the radio spot :: RT REVOLUTION
but check out www.revolutionarythoughts.com every week or so. i am planning on posting 1 or 2 of these every week.

Hope you like them, they encourage you, they challenge you, they get you to THINK in revolutionary ways!

Grace, peace, and revolution
Erik