An Unconventional War

How real and present is evil? Why does evil seem to be concentrated more in some places than others? I know that most of us who profess Christ believe that satan is real and that demons exist, but I think the belief tends to be rather cursory. We feel tempted by satan. We talk in terms of the devil did this and tried to get me to believe that. But do we really believe that evil in the form of demons and darkness and hell is present in and around our every day lives? Really present?

I watched a documentary last night called An Unconventional War. It's a remarkable story of faith and perserverance in the face of incredible evil. It centers on happenings in northern Uganda, where a rebel group calling itself the Lord's Resistance Army has been terrorizing people in unimaginably horrific ways for over twenty years. The documentary is the story of how the faith, prayer and persistence of a small group of people reverberated and eventually broke the back of this incredible evil. Here's how the film is described at the filmmakers website (The Sentinel Group):

A remarkable modern-day saga of prayer, forgiveness and deliverance.

For nearly two decades, a bizarre predatory cult known as the Lord's Resistance Army abducted over 25,000 children and turned them into sex slaves and killing machines. The resulting carnage has displaced 80 percent of the region's population.

This powerful documentary chronicles how fervent prayer and unique church-state cooperation played a pivitol role in taming one of history's most brutal insurgencies in northern Uganda. It is a message of hope to lost and oppressed people everywhere - Issuing a challenge to invite God's presence with abandonment and expectation!

I definitely recommend this video. It is an incredible story about the power of God. About how circumstances and things happening in the darkest of times can be used by God to bring about miraculous changes. Watch this video and tell me that the devil and demons aren't real. More than that, watch this film and tell me that God doesn't do amazing things through the body of Christ when people respond to Him in faith and step out to confront evil in the name of Jesus. And then imagine what God can accomplish through the Body of Christ if we are willing to move forward in faith and believe.

My Friendship Connection

I am fired up. I had a great conversation yesterday with a guy named Vernon Brady who used to be the Vice President of the Church Growth Institute. He's spearheading an evangelism initiative called My Friendship Connection. And here's the awesome part for us: He wants eleven72 to help produce a series of videos for this oh so cool event (more on the event itself in a second). First a little background: Did you know that according to research done by the Church Growth Institute a full 86% of the people who trust Christ as their Savior do so because of the simple invitation of a friend. By way of contrast, only 2% come to Christ through the use of advertising. Wow. That is an amazing stat. The single most effective way to evangelize the people you know is to simply invite them to church. We didn't realize that the idea behind our video Just Ask was such a powerful one! But it makes sense when you think about it, because God is all about relationship.

Twenty years ago, Vernon was part of a program called Friend Day. The program, asking people to invite a friend to church, was used successfully by 47,000 churches. Since then, God has been growing up in Vernon a desire to see millions of people's lives forever changed through nothing more than being invited to church (and, of course, being reached by the Spirit and prompted to turn their lives over to Jesus). And the time is now. The seed that God planted with Vernon is poised to start a flood with My Friendship Connection.

What is My Friendship Connection?

My Friendship Connection is a strategy designed to mobilize your church for a great day of outreach. Synergy comes by connecting churches across North America on the same day with a single focus. Therefore, we seek to engage the masses into the largest army ever assembled for the purpose of reaching, evangelizing and winning friends to Jesus Christ through the local church.

Go to their website and check it out. Tell your church about it. Right now about 500 churches in Virginia are on board, but that number is quickly growing. They've had inquiries from other countries and big groups like the Southern Baptist Convention and the North American Mission Board are expressing interest. Just hearing about it, I could tell that God is in this. Imagine what might happen if tens of thousands of churches get involved with this in the next few months. Imagine all the people who will walk through the door of a church on November 4th (that's the day when all of this culminates). My friends. Your friends. Tens of thousands of people. Imagine all the people who will come face to face with the life changing reality of Jesus Christ. What a great day for rejoicing that will be! All because friends simply asked their friends, "would you come to church with me?

I'm so excited that God brought this to Lee and I. So humbled that we might be used to serve God's Kingdom in such a powerful way. I have never met Vernon Brady face to face. We connected because of our media on the internet. He could have called anyone. He called us. God continues to amaze me daily. This life of following Christ is truly a great adventure.

I'll have more to post on this as things progress. For now, check out myfriendshipconnection.com. And get ready friends!

Bono, Bill Gates and The Art of Storytelling

While headline surfing this morning, I came across an interesting article in the online edition of the New York Times. Citizen Bono Brings Africa to Idle Rich details how Bono is guest editing the July issue of Vanity Fair. Here's my favorite quote from the article:

“We need to get better at storytelling,” Bono said, sitting in the 22nd floor of the office of Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair. “Bill Gates tells me this all the time. We’ve got to get better at telling the success stories of Africa in addition to the horror stories. And this magazine tells great stories.”

After digesting the surreal sound of "Bill Gates tells me this all the time," I thought about the need for better storytelling. I've mentioned it before, but I really believe that one of the big keys to breaching the walls and defenses that people have, to really reaching people at a heart level is good storytelling. But what is good storytelling? Bono makes another great point later in the article:

“We are trying to deal with the Sally Struthers thing,” he said... “When you see people humiliated by extreme poverty and wasting away with flies buzzing around their eyes, it is easy not to believe that they are the same as us.”

In this context, warning against what he calls "the Sally Struthers thing," good storytelling requires that we are careful not to give people an easy way out. Our stories need to do more than point out a need or guilt people into responding, they need to connect "us" to "them" in a way that makes everyone appear more the same than different.

Like Bill Gates says all the time :), we need to get better at storytelling. With Easter coming, let's use our God given imagination and talents to think of new, exciting and better ways to tell the most incredible story of all time!

Did you know?

In China, 10,000 people a day convert to Christianity.

Over the last 20 centuries, 70 million Christians have been martyred.

67% of all humans from A.D. 30 to the present day have never even heard the name of Jesus.

These are amazing statistics, aren't they? These statistics and others like them made such an impression on us, that we put together a sermon illustration and a countdown that highlight these exciting facts. Check out our Evangelism Statistics Illustration by clicking the image below: (if you're interested in downloading these for your church - click here to purchase the illustration and here to purchase the countdown).

For more information and statistics like these, visit the following websites:

http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/globalchristianity/gd/findings.htm
http://home.snu.edu/~HCULBERT/1040.htm#religion