Just finished speaking my first session up here in Seattle to church planters at an event called, “Starting Point.”

I spoke on “How has Jesus Wired You?”

Being comfortable with who you are is the fundamental pin in having a great relationship with God and a great relationship with others.

And who you are…your past…your experiences…your personality…will dictate what where you are going in life.  Jesus has wired you and knows it…knowing this will lead you in the direction of planting churches, being a leader, making other disciples, etc.

This has taken me a long time in life to realize about myself.  Who I am.

• I am not a young twenty something anymore.
• I am a father of two great little girls.
• I grew up in a divorced family where I never felt like I really had a family.
• I have been married for 10 amazing years to the same amazing woman.
• My biggest fear is failure.
• My biggest dream is acceptance.
• I am harder on myself then anyone else and when someone is hard on me – I feel like punching them cause I am already beating myself up about it.
• I love making people laugh.
• I am deeply loyal and value loyalty in my relationships.
• I like to sit and do nothing.
• I don’t have all the answers.
• I love to learn.  I love to teach.
• I love JESUS.

Who are You?

Many of you might not know Ryan Lind, but he was and is one of the founding pastors of Elevation Church.  He moved to Ohio almost two years ago…I miss this guy.

He emailed me today this little post for my blog…I love this guy.

Seven Things I Miss About Elevation Church

Two years is a long time to be away from Elevation Church.  It has been 730 days, minus the five days I was afforded to spend in Layton last year.  I miss you all so very much, and I know there are many of you I’ve never even had the opportunity to meet.  Layton, UT has a way of forcing itself into my thoughts and prayers every day.  This upcoming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday.  It is the birthday of Jesus’ Church.  As all believers celebrate the beginnings of Christian community, my spirit and mind are wishing to be with you.

While I could make a marathon length-list of all the things I miss about you, I wanted to share seven great things I miss about Elevation Church.

1.    The Theater Hallways – In our first year of existence Brandon made a yearbook video.  One scene continually makes me tear-up.  There is a shot of my daughter running down the theater corridor toward her class; pony tail bouncing, arms splayed out to maintain the delicate balance of toddlers.  It is a comfortable gallop that says, “This is my space.”  So much happens in the hallways: the bread, the din of conversation, the expectation, the demonstration of friendship.  When the music begins it takes ten minutes to get everyone in the theater.  That’s a great sign, by the way, regardless of how it frustrates the musicians and staff.  It is faith expressing itself in love.

2.    Kids – Remember that picture in your children’s bible of Jesus with about seventeen kids sitting on his lap, his head thrown back in laughter?  Forget all the programs for a minute.  I bet when Jesus showed up in an area, all the children knew they were loved.  Ninja, Dylan and Stockton were at my house as much as my own children, which made everything more valid, more real.  This Jesus that we talk about is being experienced and handed down.

3.    The Yelling – Whenever someone from Elevation emails me, apparently all they remember are the two times I stood on a front row and yelled at everyone.  “I miss you yelling at us all the time.”  Look, it only happened once a year!  But I miss it nonetheless. 

4.    The Planning – One of the greatest things about working for Elevation was preparation.  Everything supported everything else (or at least it that was the intention).  The video supports the music, which reinforces the video and leads into the teaching, which translates into House Churches.  Hopefully that spills over into your career.  While many churches are enamored by their purpose statement, the purpose of Elevation is woven into every action.

5.    The Non-Planning – Without surrendering incriminating information, I severely miss donating $10 a month to the Ami Jordan Garage Sale Fund on those nights some of us would gather to “pray” around someone’s kitchen table.  Ami is a good pray-er (and by that I mean she is very lucky and hits trips on the flop way more than you ever do)!

6.    The Rock-n-Roll – In the beginning there were just a few musicians.  We practiced in my garage.  Frequently neighbors would stroll by slowly.  Some would stop in and listen, particularly when we played a song for no good reason.  We covered a Willie Nelson song once (I have no idea why), but one lady walked for blocks just to see us.  Somehow the grace of camaraderie transferred to the theater.  Even as our first band learned to play with each other, there was palpable anticipation from the people of Elevation.  For me, it was the theme of Elevation’s beginning.  It signaled something wild was happening: join in or look out.  Rock-n-roll clearly does stop the traffic.

7.    Well, number 7 is just one long rambling list of names.  Insert your name here. 

I’m not one for cheesy life-verses, but if I was held at gunpoint and forced to pick a verse of the bible that meant the most to me it would be Philippians 3:16.  It says simply, “Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”  Paul is speaking of living according to the righteousness of God.  In essence it is saying: “God has made us righteous, go live like it.”  Think about the many good gifts God, in his grace, has given Elevation.  Hold true to what you have attained. 

Grace,

Ryan Lind

I blog at www.reamofpaper.com.  Please stop by, read and comment. 

So, Christian from K2 and I swapped places for our sermons on self-control as part of the Everything You Need Sermon Series.  Christian did a great job at Elevation.  You can hear him on our podcast by clicking here.

Check out the video from K2.

A few weeks back, we talked about knowing God.

We had a fun time making a funny point with a video we put together with Kyle Korver of the Utah Jazz.

So my friend, who does not answer his phone, has an incredible gift of writing.  He is a lot better “blogger” than I.  His latest post is really good and I wanted to share it with you.

Check it out here.

Let me know your thoughts…

I was asked to write an article for a ministers’ letter that is sent out to roughly 40,000 men & women across the United States.  I felt humbled to write for so many people who are serving…

I was also told that I was one of the youngest, if not THE youngest person to ever write for this letter.  Some of my heroes of the faith have written for this letter so the bar was set high in making sure I wrote an article from the heart, but with my ear on the voice of God for His people.

Ok…so here is the funny part, I think it is funny…  I sent off the article and of course it gets edited…but they edited a few of my word choices, specifically the word WHORE.  

Here is the original rough draft that I first sent off to the editors…yes, there are some grammer errors in here, but I wanted you to see the first draft as I think my first is always a complete reflection of my heart.

IN THE NAME OF LOVE

The two young Mormon missionaries stood there in my living room, wide eyed, pondering what they had just heard.

I decided to repeat myself to make sure they heard me correctly, “Yes, I would like very much to go through the missionary discussions.  BUT – before we do, can we hang out three times without talking about your beliefs or my beliefs.  Tonight we will order pizza, make some lemonade, and just chat.”

They nodded as if they really didn’t speak my language.

The night passed as we dove into causal conversation of where we were from, what are interests were, and where we had been in life.  The next meeting brought with it a trip to a local ice cream shop to continue in our conversation.  As we ate our ice cream and laughed at each other’s stories, I looked down at one of the Mormon missionaries shoes.  They were completely ripped apart.

“What is up with your shoes bro?”

“Well, I’ve been on my mission for 10 months now and I only brought with me one pair of shoes.”

“What size do you wear?  I’m sure I’ve got an old pair of shoes in my closet that are better than those.”

I was secretly plotting at this point.  I had learned from the previous week that his birthday was coming up.  I could make our third meeting a birthday party, complete with a gift of shoes that he desperately needed.

The balloons were in place.  The cake was made.  The streamers hung from the ceiling.  Friends of mine that I knew would be nice to these young missionaries were hiding all over my house.

The doorbell rang.

I answered the door.

SURPRISE!

As they walked into my house like two deer in headlights.  I held out my present to my new Mormon missionary friend.

He slowly opened the present.  He stopped as he lifted the lid of the shoe box and starred at the new pair of shoes.  “Why did you do this?”

“Cause I love you man…you are my friend.”

“No really, why did you do this?”

“Mama said you can learn a lot about the shoes a man wears…bro, I’m serious I love you man.”

The gospel story is a story of love.  God’s love for us.  God’s love in us.  God’s love changing us AND God’s love flowing out of us to transform the world.

John tells us that God is love.

Paul tells us that we have died to Christ and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us.

This means we have the most amazing love in the world living in us.  A love that changes lives.  A love unlike what anyone in the world can offer.  A selfless, gracious love.

34         “A anew commandment I give to you, bthat you love one another, ceven as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

35         “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

My job as a follower of Jesus is to love.  This is the characteristic that defines me as a disciple.  My love for others.

My job isn’t to save anyone.  The job of savior of the world is filled and He is doing a great job, I’m terrible at it.

This is why people walk away hurt from our churches.  We are doing jobs that are not ours to do and we neglect what we ARE suppose to do.  LOVE PEOPLE.

I believe in the local church.  Can you imagine what we would could do if we got back to our jobs of loving everyone we came into contact with?  Pharisees would start calling us friends of sinners.  The drunks and whores would be standing in our church services feeling unashamed and free to receive.

We have gotten so disconnected from a dieing world around us, we are trying to perfect methods of salvation instead of working on truly loving the people we come in contact with everyday.  We harm those around us when we don’t do our job and try to do God’s job.  You and I are not charged with convicting the world of sin, but the opposite…loving people that don’t deserve it.

I was interviewed tonight via phone for the Hollywood Pastor webcast that aired live via the internet at 7pm mountain time.

What a great show tonight!  I had fun and got really passionate talking about loving people.

Check it out…let me know your thoughts.

Elevation Layton is condensing our 9am and 10:20am service times to a single service time of 10:00am.

I’m excited as I know we will be needing to do two more services soon…the launch of Elevation Kaysville has added to our service schedules and we want to make sure we keep burn-out under control and our relationships as a value for us here in our community.

So…if you are normally going to Elevation Layton…remember, 10:00am is the new service TIME at the AMC Loews Cineplex Odeon Theater.