Wednesday, February 15

Celebrating 5 years at Crossings...

Mark Nelson at 3:41 PM 0comments

Saturday, January 7

4,917.1 miles from home…

I dropped my oldest son, Michael, off near Nashville this past Monday. He flew out of Nashville for Chicago then to Madrid then to Rome on Tuesday. He’ll be spending the next five months in Rome as part of the study abroad program at the University of Tennessee as part of his fourth year in the school of architecture. (here’s a pic of him at the airport in Nashville. Notice the Cubs hat)

Mark Nelson at 9:40 AM 0comments

Monday, January 2

A birth and a resurrection…

It’s been too long, I know. I’ve missed blogging.

I’ve missed having the time and the space in life to write, to observe, to rant, to question and to doubt.

So, I’m going to try and change that.

I’m attempting to create the space in my life to resurrect this blog. I think it’s mostly for me, although there might be a few of you who read this every now and then. It’s a discipline that at times feels like a drudgery before I do it, but life-giving after I finish. So it is with most things that are good for us…

I’m also, (deep breath), attempting to join the ‘twittersphere’….(I know, for some of you those are words you never thought I’d utter) Honestly, I’m not sure why, just feel like I need to. My twitter address: @standonthedesk

I am wrestling around though with what my approach to twitter should be. Is it more of an ‘status update’, or a ‘place to share cool stuff I read or see’, or a ‘place to come up with original thoughts that will change the world’, etc, etc… (My daughter has very specific “do’s and don’t’s” for me, so I’ve definitely been getting some counsel on the matter)

If you have thoughts or a specific philosophy on your approach to twitter, or what you think are the best parts of ‘twitterdom’, I would love to hear them…

Mark Nelson at 10:08 AM 3comments

Saturday, April 23

A Good Friday indeed…

Last year, Bill created 9 songs and a narrative that goes with the songs that he has entitled Easter Stories & Songs. (Tony Sobota created 4 original paintings to go with the songs as well) Go here to read more about Easter Stories and Songs.

Well last night, thanks to the generosity of John Ross and the church there at St. John’s, some of our Crossings community gathered to celebrate this work of art (the music, the paintings, the church) and celebrate the Easter season and the meaning of Jesus in our lives.

Mark Nelson at 11:09 AM 2comments

Friday, April 8

Again, Fallon is a genius…

Mark Nelson at 9:53 AM 1comments

Tuesday, April 5

Visiting Jonh at home…

About two weeks ago Jonh (yes, that spelling is correct) moved off the streets, out of the mission into his very own apartment at Minnvilla Manor, a 57 unit apartment building formerly the 5th Avenue Motel in downtown Knoxville. These apartments are subsidized by the local housing authority and offer on-site case management and 24 hour awake apartment staff.
I’ve seen some of these apartments before, and they are all unbelievably nice. Some of us have had Bingo Night at Minnvilla and had a great time with the guys there…

Our staff took a ‘field trip’ during staff meeting on Monday to see Jonh’s new place and shared some pizza for lunch as well as bringing some kitchen utensils to help ‘warm his home’.

Mark Nelson at 7:57 PM 1comments

Tuesday, March 29

Launch Sunday…woo hoo!

Crossings North launched this past Sunday…what a day to celebrate as a community.

It was a great day, smooth setup/tear down…sound, lights…superb hospitality…about 110 people in attendance (making this church probably one of the three or four biggest churches in this area of town)…and, as is the Crossings tradition, Eli’s Cheesecake after service to celebrate God’s invitation to ‘come, taste and see’.

Below is how we began our very first service at our second site…We hope this video filmed and edited by Wes Jones is illustrative of the type of community we want to become in North Knoxville.

Mark Nelson at 6:28 PM 1comments

Friday, March 25

So many good things…part V

I think in all of those areas there has been a decent level of success, but the reproducing and planting of a new church/site has been the most difficult. And probably not for the reasons you would think.

I think most often people assume that there are financial barriers, or the issue of not having ‘a critical mass of people’ to go with the new community, or there simply isn’t a desire in your people to be about reproducing. At Crossings, those things haven’t been are main obstacles… Simply finding the right person/people to lead the plant has been the hardest part of reproduction.

Mark Nelson at 9:14 AM 0comments

Thursday, March 24

So many good things…part IV

Mark Nelson at 10:21 AM 0comments

So many good things…part III

On March 6th, we “Celebrated Generosity” by giving 4 times our normal Sunday giving to be able to give to three initiatives: The Restoration House (local), Belloc, Haiti (global), and the North Site (church planting).

Mark Nelson at 10:19 AM 0comments

Wednesday, March 23

So many good things…Part Deux

Also, on March 5th, we had 59 people from Crossings serve at the Prom of the Stars, a free prom for 1,2000 physically & cognitively disabled people, 15 years and older. Below is a video used to promote this year’s prom...

Mark Nelson at 8:26 PM 0comments

So many good things…part I

What a crazy few weeks it has been in our Crossings community…

To keep the length of posts to a minimum, I will make separate posts on all that has been happening the last couple of weeks…

On Saturday, March 5th, at our monthly Leadership Community, we commissioned about 80 people in the Crossings North Launch Community to be a part of our new site set to launch this coming Sunday, March 27th.

It was a powerful day…made so by the sheer number of people feeling the call to be a part of this new plant, by the excitement of these people and the amazing collection of gifts in this group.

But also, at least for me, it was even more potent by the fact that back in December of 2006 around 15 of us from Knoxville traveled to Chicago & Community Christian Church for a very similar service…we were commissioned and anointed with oil, just like our people were this month, to be set apart for this work of God to help people find their way back to Him.

You can go here to read what I wrote back in 2006…

Below are some pictures both from 2006 and 2011…

Mark Nelson at 8:09 PM 0comments

Wednesday, March 2

“Farewell civility…”

If you don’t care about the controversy that reared it’s nasty little head this past weekend…stop reading now and go watch an episode of Community on Hulu…

But if you’ve seen any of the venom that is being tossed about surrounding Rob Bell’s new book, below is a tremendous article from Jason Boyett about the issue:

I'm not sure what Rob Bell was doing on Saturday, but I wonder how long it took for him to realize that he had blown up the Internet. At least, the Christian twitterverse and blogosphere.

Bell, the pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids and the author of Velvet Elvis and Sex God, has a fascinating new book releasing in March -- at least, the title is fascinating. It's called Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.

From the publisher's copy about the book:
In Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, Bell addresses one of the most controversial issues of faith--the afterlife--arguing that a loving God would never sentence human souls to eternal suffering. With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial, and his message is decidedly optimistic--eternal life doesn't start when we die; it starts right now. And ultimately, Love Wins.

Sound controversial? It is. It's supposed to be. And we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but on Saturday influential blogger Justin Taylor (who's also in the publishing business as vice president of editorial at Crossway) decided to judge the book based on its cover description. Citing that and a short video provided by the publisher, Taylor outed Bell as a universalist.

While he admitted that he hadn't read the book yet (!), he felt OK making this statement about Bell:

It is unspeakably sad when those called to be ministers of the Word distort the gospel and deceive the people of God with false doctrine.

And this one, too, in an explanatory follow-up statement:

If Bell is teaching that hell is empty and that you can reject Jesus and still be saved, he is opposing the gospel and the biblical teaching of Jesus Christ. You may think that's judgmental to say that; I think it's being faithful. I would encourage a careful study of 1 Timothy to see what Paul says about false teaching and teachers.

As of this morning, Taylor's post has more than 20,000 Facebook recommendations and 1,000 comments. But that's not all. Highly respected author and pastor John Piper read Taylor's post and recommended it to his Twitter followers with a link and this simple line:

"Farewell, Rob Bell."

Piper's tweet got retweeted and passed along and pretty soon, #robbell was in Saturday's top 10 trending topics, which is usually reserved for Middle East unrest, dead celebrities, and Justin Biebers.

{Audible sigh.}

Thoughts:

1. This is why people hate us. There is no meaner, more hateful person on Earth than a Christian who suspects you have gotten your theology wrong. Labeling that mean-ness as "being faithful" to the Gospel doesn't make it less hateful. While Taylor's post was fairly calm, the response to it by his readers was not. Bell got skewered in the comments, on twitter, and in other blog posts.

2. Really, John Piper? Your Reformed followers can be obnoxious at times, but I've always hoped you were above that. Sometimes you say things that make me roll my eyes. Most of the time, though, you're way more gracious than your fans. But "farewell, Rob Bell"? What a disappointingly smug, arrogant tweet. It's worth pointing out what Scot McKnight told Christianity Today about the matter: "The way to disagree with someone of Rob Bell's influence is not a tweet of dismissal but a private letter or a phone call. Flippancy should have no part in judging a Christian leader's theology, character or status."

3. Unlike some, I'm not going to fault Taylor for pre-judging Bell's book. I've ranted about books I haven't read, too. In fact, publishers' copy and marketing materials are designed exactly for that purpose: they are supposed to give you an idea of a book's contents so that you'll be intrigued and buy it.

4. I kind of wish Justin Taylor had gotten a copy of my latest book and called me names in a blog post.

5. But here's where Taylor's and Piper's responses annoy and frustrate me: They are so absolutely certain that they are right. Because Rob Bell seems to be indicating that hell might not be a place of eternal suffering -- or might not exist at all in the way traditional Christianity thinks of it -- then they say he is flat-out wrong. Dangerously wrong. False-doctrine wrong. Opposing-the-Gospel wrong. But you know what? The Bible is really squishy on the subject of hell. The everlasting-torment hell of Dante and Jonathan Edwards doesn't exist at all in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus talks about hell a lot, but sometimes in ways that a reasonable person could interpret metaphorically (like when he calls it Gehenna, after a real-life burning trash heap outside Jerusalem). And for centuries, some Christians have tried to make the case that, when Paul says Christ died for all, he really meant it. Not some. All.

No, universalism isn't an orthodox Christian position. Hell is. But are we not willing to admit that, maybe, over the years, we could have gotten something wrong? Is it so wrong to maybe hope that everyone gets saved? That hell doesn't exist? Because I totally hope that to be the case.

The truth is this: In order to be an everyone-get-saved Universalist, as Taylor claims Bell to be, you have to elevate some biblical passages and ignore (or explain away) others. Because there are definitely some passages that seem to be about eternal punishment in hell.

But...

In order to be a predestination-style, God-saves-the-elect reformed Christian -- like Taylor and Piper -- you have to elevate some biblical passages and ignore (or explain away) others. Because there are definitely some passages that seem to contradict predestination.

But...

In order to be a free-will Arminian Christian, you have to elevate some biblical passages and ignore (or explain away) others. Because there are definitely some passages that seem to confirm predestination.

See where this is going?

In order to be an Evangelical Christian...

In order to be a Roman Catholic Christian...

In order to be a Pentecostal Christian, a cessationist, an End-Times date-setter, a female pastor, a pacifist Christian...

Reading and understanding the Bible involves lots and lots of interpretation. Not just in light of the world and culture around us, but in reference to other parts of the Bible. At best, there are things that are unclear and not easily harmonized from Genesis to Revelation. At worst, there are things that seem to be downright contradictory. That's why I have doubts. That's why theology can be so controversial.

And that's also why theology is best done with humility and a recognition that certainty is very hard to come by. When we become so certain that our theology is ironclad and right, that's when we become smug, arrogant, and dismissive of people who disagree with us. That's when we do things like tweet that a thoughtful, hopeful, influential Christian like Rob Bell is dead to us.

Because that's what "Farewell, Rob Bell" means, isn't it? You're dead to me. What I believe is right. If you oppose it, then I'm done with you.

At least that's how I read it. Please tell me I'm wrong.

Mark Nelson at 7:45 AM 7comments

Saturday, February 26

Celebrating 4 years…

February is always a fascinating month for us at Crossings…

It seems to be our largest attendance for a month each year, which is odd because February is cold, still a ‘dark’ month in terms of daylight time, there’s the unbelievably mournful day for much of our culture (those that are single) called Valentine’s Day…but yet, at Crossings, February is a great month.

I think it all has to do with the cheesecake.

Every year, on our birthday as a church (we launch 2.7.07) we celebrate all that God has done in our community since that launch day in 2007. It is a time of remember, reflecting, dreaming, envisioning and feasting…

The feasting part is mostly attributed to the greatest relationship between a church (Crossings) and a cheesecake company from Chicago (Eli’s Cheesecake) in the history of humankind. To read the story you can go visit this blog page of mine…(go to February 12th & February 20th, 2007)

Below is this year’s ‘thank you’ to Eli’s…

Thank You Eli's!! from Wes Jones on Vimeo.

Mark Nelson at 8:17 AM 0comments

Saturday, February 19

At Jubilee 2011…

I’m excited about hearing some good teaching from Soong-Chan Rah, Bob Goff, and others. (Goff is the guy Donald Miller writes about in his book ‘Million Miles’ who hosts a parade in his neighborhood every New Year’s Day).

Mostly though I’m excited about spending time with my dear friend Jim Schmotzer and some of his staff, Seth & Stead. Jim and I have known each other for around 14 or 15 years. We share a common love of Over the Rhine, all things leadership, and the life-changing game of baseball. He has taught me so much over the years, asking me the right questions, opening his life to mine, it has been an unbelievably valuable friendship for me for all these years. That’s the real reason I’m in Pittsburgh.

Of course, you can’t go to Pittsburgh without eating at Primanti Brothers…something that sounds and looks horrific, (some kind of meat, french fries, cole slaw, & tomatoes all smashed together in one sandwhich) but it’s really pretty good…

Mark Nelson at 3:52 PM 0comments

Monday, January 17

A TCTC postscript...

So, sorry for the delay in a report on how TCTC went last weekend…I think it’s taken me a week to regain my strength enough to write. It was an extraordinary weekend in so many different ways---5,000 people; bunches of snow in mountains; great vision, great leadership and great artists to work alongside; Bill and I are very thankful and grateful for a chance to be a part of the weekend.

For our part we broke a huge mirror, tied up 9 high schoolers on stage with 225 feet of red rope, cooked eggs and bacon, painted and dyed things red…and taught the Bible in four moves.

Because of the size of the convention there is the need to do each main session twice, which meant for us teaching 8 times throughout the 2 ½ days. Much more exhausting than I had expected, but a great experience at probably the best teen conference put on anywhere, ever...year after year.

Here is a highlight video posted on youtube…(Is that John Locke next to the kid in the green shirt?)

Mark Nelson at 7:44 AM 0comments

Sunday, January 2

Thinking about learning…

This upcoming weekend Bill Wolf and I will be teaching at the main sessions at the Tennessee Christian Teen Convention in Gatlinburg. It’s a conference of right around 5,000 middle schoolers, high schoolers and adults.

We have 4 sessions, 25 or so minutes in each session to teach the entire story of the Bible. I know, I know…”what are we thinking?” (well, blame Alan Bradford, he gave us the challenge…and in the words of Barney Stinson, “Challenge accepted!”)

This teaching opportunity has caused me to think in broad strokes about teaching, my teaching, how the church teaches, what these kids are used to hearing, a lot of different angles on learning and such. I think it’s been a good process.

That has led me, naturally, to think about the teaching at Crossings, the practices and approaches we have in place…that’s always a good thought process.

Then I found the short video below from Sir Ken Robinson on ‘changing education paradigms’…

Thoughts?

Mark Nelson at 7:00 PM 6comments

Wednesday, December 29

I’m sure you don’t care…

Last night finished up a ‘mighty fine’ Fantasy Football season for me…(like I said, I’m sure you don’t care, but just give me a moment)…

I finished first in two leagues…

In the championship games:
-I took down Pervis in our Purdue Campus House league…(my 2nd league title)
-And in a battle of downtown pastors, beat Sean from Knox Life…(I think I’ve won this league a few times, not sure)

I also finished third in my other two leagues…(curse you Joe Webb & Jonathan Stewart, without big games from both in the semis I would have finished first in all four leagues). Congrats though to Cliff Brown, the 7th seed, on his Championship in the Crossings league…

I know, I know…it’s a ridiculous, childish obsession…but man, I love it.

(Only 10 weeks until our Fantasy Baseball draft…woo hoo!)

Mark Nelson at 10:19 AM 2comments

Wednesday, December 22

“Admit we just don’t want to do it…”

Below is a video from Stephen Colbert’s ‘The Colbert Report’ a parody of personality-driven political shows....

It’s such a strong take on Christmas, caring for people, and the words of Jesus…I don’t post it with the intention of it being a political statement as much as it is a ‘Jesus statement’…

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jesus Is a Liberal Democrat
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> March to Keep Fear Alive

Mark Nelson at 9:27 PM 4comments

Tuesday, December 21

Behold the Lamb of God…

Below is one song from Behold the Lamb, the finale, “Theme of My Song/Reprise”…from this past Sunday at Crossings.

You can watch all the songs individually on Greg Adkins’ web site…

Or you can watch the streamed service on Crossings’ web site here…

Mark Nelson at 1:19 PM 0comments