Ten years ago Connie and I (with our little Dog) made the very long drive from Dallas, Texas to Mount Pleasant, SC to join the staff of Seacoast Church.  Coming back to the Charleston area was a return home for both of us and from the moment I arrived I felt like I had been made for this place.

The first time I heard Pastor Greg share his vision for the church (pre-multi-site and pre-ARC) I was hooked.  I wanted to be a Jonathan to his David sized dream and for the next 9 years I could not imagine anything different.  In fact I planned on spending the rest of my life serving this house.

But about 18 months ago I asked for a Starbucks meeting to share something on my heart with Pastor Greg.  God was stirring a David sized dream in my heart to be a lead Pastor.  I had fought it off for sometime and really wanted to then as well, but in courage I met with Pastor Greg.

As I shared the story with Greg he encouraged me “if you can do anything else, do it – but if you can’t then you need to go for it”. As an aside, I don’t believe there are many senior leaders cut from the same cloth as Greg Surratt – he is his teams greatest cheerleader and advocate and there is not a greater friend on the earth.  He has been a constant encouragement to me as a leader and is always looking for ways to make his team and the kingdom better.

The problem that Connie and I had is that we did not have a city.  In church planting that’s pretty important.
So for the next few months we let God speak and we tried our best to listen.  Through my prayer  life God began to stir in my heart a renewed passion for my home town, Moncks Corner, SC.  The problem was it just did not make sense for a few reasons:

It is less than an hour from Seacoast.
It is in a small town, not the typical bustling city of church planters.
It is full of great churches reaching people for Jesus.

But we continued to listen.  We listend and followed.  As I shared my vision a group of people began to arise that felt stirred to follow and even though we hit speed bumps and fences and even a brick wall along the way, we continued to listen and follow and then in the end I heard from God and He gave me a vision for Moncks Corner.

I see a town where life-giving churches work together to change a growing town into a city for God.
I see a town where neighbors care for one-another and serve one-another.
I see a town where people gather to worship in Freedom and live out the Gospel in Freedom.
I see a town that Jesus is made famous through and makes a mark on the world.
I see a town that is known for being a light on a hill and breaking up darkness.

It’s not the town that exists but with the great churches in Moncks Corner working together it can be a reality.

So it is with sadness of leaving Seacoast but great excitement of our new adventure that Connie, Isabelle, Hayes and soon Sam announce that we will be transitioning off the staff of Seacoast Church after ten years to start Freedom Church.  We are excited, scared, overwhelmed and did I mention scared…but we know that God has given us an amazing team and an amazing story behind us.

If you are a Pastor in the Moncks Corner area and we have not connected please email me at shawn@shawnwoodwrites.com and lets chat!  I can’t wait to do ministry together.

If you know someone who needs a church in the greater Moncks Corner area – let them know about us!

www.freedomchurch.sc will be live soon!

I recently experienced a significant emotional experience.  It was a very hurtful situation.  One of those situations that has the potential to leave you bitter or better.

While processing this experience I have realized that there is a difference between something that is hurtful and something that is harmful.  This situation in my life, like many in yours, was hurtful – but the truth is, it was not harmful.  It looks like it may have indeed been helpful.

Hurtful things are often necessary things.  In fact just last month I had a great reminder of this when I had sinus surgery.

Surgery is a great example of something that is hurtful but also helpful. Because of the pain associated with my surgery I now breathe better, have far better sleep and no daily headaches.

The pain was worth what I gained. (man I am full of power packed, but true, cliches today)

For many of us in life there will be situations that are physically or emotionally hurtful that Christ is using in a quite helpful way. The key is to not be deceived into thinking that because something hurts God is not in it.  I am just being honest – I cried like a 14 year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert many times in the last several weeks, but God is using the experience to make me more like Jesus and ultimately to accomplish His goals .

This is written for Some of you that feel like you are going through a similar experience.  If you are going to be changed I gaurentee that there will be pain.  It’s okay.  It may be hurtful, but that does not mean it harms.

In the end God is sifting our character and making us more like Him and that is the goal.

A recent article in the L.A. Times suggests (maybe even proves) that music style, not just substance, may literally be running teens and young adults away from our churches. (the article is not about church music, but you will see the connection).

I thought this quote was especially pertinent to our pre-service music choices.

[box type="info"]When people hear music they don’t like, their brains suppress the production of dopamine — a neurotransmitter that regulates pleasure and other emotions — which puts a damper on their spirits.[/box]

Check out the full article  here

Yes, I have read the book.

I received a copy of and read the book in early March with the agreement that I would not blog or tweet or Facebook until today.  (For those who sit near me in the office you know that I did not agree to not discuss though.)

To tackle this issue I have asked my friend Jack Hoey III to write this post with me.  We read the book on the same day, have discussed often and I thought his voice would add much to this discussion.

Before I dive into my actual review of the book I want to cover a few things in response to the chatter over the last few weeks.

1.  This is not a Matthew 18 Issue.

I am very encouraged by the recent rediscovery of Biblical conflict management.  I think this is a positive thing for the kingdom.  I had no idea that so many people were so concerned about the proper method of church discipline. But let’s be clear, having public discourse about a public video and a public book does not fall in that category.  Rob Bell has not sinned against me.  He has however put some very opinionated views on Heaven and Hell into writing and done everything possible to make sure we read it – it would be irresponsible for those who do read it not to carefully examine these opinions to see whether they should be affirmed or rejected..

2. This is not an issue of honor.

I have really struggled with this one.  My desire is to always show honor to fellow Pastors and not be a hater.  My friend Steven Furtick has cultivated this desire in my heart over recent years and I am thankful to him for it. So let me just say that I have nothing against Rob Bell the pastor. I’ve never met him and he has never given me a personal reason to attack him in writing.  What Rob Bell has done is make some very serious claims and statements in his book.  Statements that I believe are dangerous.  To “honor” him by not addressing these issues would be a violation of the trust of those who look to me as their Pastor.  Most of all it would be dishonoring to God.  I am choosing to honor God and people who look to me as a leader.  I pray that in doing that I in no way dishonor Bell.  I will continue to pray with that spirit. Besides, Bell is an intelligent man. He knows full well that the history of the church is full of debates and discussions. Responding to something another pastor has written is not dishonorable; it is in keeping with hundreds and thousands of years of church practice. I think Bell expects—and maybe even welcomes—the controversy.

3.  This is important and should not be ignored.

A friend of mine and I had a Direct Message discussion on twitter the day the video broke.  He had some great points that maybe we should not give Bell his “15 minutes of fame” and just ignore it.  I thought about that.  If it would have worked, maybe that could have been a good idea.  But Bell has way more than 15 minutes of fame cached.  He has the respect and influence of millions of evangelicals.  Ignoring Bell would be easy, but the issues he raises are important and need to be addressed.

Another friend wrote, and I paraphrase, “Bell and all his critics are both in need of the grace of God -enough said.” I would assert that in its simplest form that is the issue with this book.  Are we in need of the grace God or have we already received it? That is a huge issue that must not be ignored.

So, what about the book review?  There are plenty of people smarter than me that will review this book from a theological standpoint.  Like this guy.  And this guy.  I will lean on them and you should too. Frankly, I think both reviews are spot on. Their take on Bell’s book is extensive, but what I would like to do is concentrate on a few issues that I think need particular attention,  a couple of highlights (or perhaps better stated low-lights) of the book.  To be frank, I don’t have the time to tackle every issue Bell raises that would see as unorthodox- there are just too many.  But here are a few:

Bell Believes Love Wins, not God.

How would you answer this question: “Does God get what God wants?” It’s a question Bell addresses in his chapter of the same name. At first blush all of us who love God would agree with the assertion in the chapter that God wins.  God wins?  Of course He does – he is God.  Of course, the subtle suggestion is that to disagree with Bell’s interpretation is to say that God loses.  That is what Bell would like you to believe and that is where I believe that Bell manipulates his readers. The real question we need to answer is: “How does Bell define ‘winning’?

Manipulation #1:  Proof-texting 1 Timothy 2:4

“[God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (ESV)

Bell reflects on this scripture as he writes:

“How great is God? Great enough to achieve what God sets out to do, or kind of great, medium great, great most of the time, but in this, the fate of billions of people, not totally great. sort of great. a little great.” (pg 136)

In reading Love Wins however I would say that to Bell God wins only if we win. And if that’s true, then God is our servant now because his goodness depends on our well-being.

Kevin Deyoung’s take on this could not be written any more clearly:

All this is built on the statement that God wants everyone to be saved. There’s no exegetical work on the meaning of “all people” and no discussion on the dual-nature of God’s will. In Bell’s mind, if all people do not end up reconciled to God its tantamount to God saying, “Well, I tried, I gave it my best shot, and sometimes you just have to be okay with failure” (103). Bell has taken one statement from 1 Timothy 2:4(God desires all people to be saved), avoids any contextual work on the passage (e.g., all probably means “all kinds of people”), and refuses to bring any other relevant passages to bear on this one (e.g., Rom. 9:22, “What if God desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?”) The result is a simplistic formula: “God wants all people to be saved. God gets what he wants. Therefore, all people will eventually be saved.” This is a case of poor theologizing beholden to mistaken logic. If it is “the will of God” that Christians “abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thess. 4:3), does that mean God’s greatness is diminished by our impurity?

Manipulation #2:  Bell counts on the reader’s ignorance of basic theology and biblical interpretation.  I pray the readers will show themselves more prepared than he thinks.

For example: Bell notes correctly that the Greek word “aion” is quite flexible in its meaning (as far as length of time) and that it could mean an “age” and “forever” in a more hyperbolic way like “it felt like it was taking forever”.  Fair enough. Apparently, however, the word’s flexibility does not include the traditional literal translation:” forever.”

Another infuriating example is that Bell switches from Preterism to a more literal eschatological view depending on what serves him best to prove his argument.  Now many of you would say, “that’s not the end of the world” (sorry could not resist) but it is actually a very lazy and convenient stature for Bell.

For instance, according to Bell Jesus is obviously not talking about “hell” or anything to do with the afterlife when he speaks of the coming judgment. Rather he is speaking of the political suicide the Jewish people would be committing if they chose rebellion against Rome over love. Thus, Bell blows up the orthodox view that Jesus himself talked about Hell more than any other Biblical writer. Indeed, he insists that Jesus actually never talked about an eternal place of punishment. Yet in the same chapter Bell lists several minor prophets who seem to point to a “hope” for the people and a renewal as the evidence that they were speaking of the afterlife for all not just the Jewish people. Interesting—if there is no eternal judgment, no everlasting separation from God, one wonders what the prophets got themselves all worked up over. What need is there for hope, if there is no hopelessness standing in contrast to it?

The worst case of Bell’s lazy and naïve Biblical interpretation, however, is how Bell uses Jesus words in Matthew 10 to the village of Capernaum as “evidence” that Sodom and Gomorrah have hope – a second chance even – after death.  Because Jesus said “it will be more bearable” for Sodom and Gomorrah than then  for the village so there must be hope for them still.

This is so…well, stupid. And I know Bell is many things but stupid is not one of them.  So if not unintentionally stupid it must be intentionally manipulative, or at best negligent.  It’s like the scene from Dumb and Dumber when the girl tells Jim Carey’s character “your chances are like one in a million” and he takes that to mean – “So you’re telling me there’s a chance”. Jesus was saying it will be worse for you than Sodom and Gomorah – that’s not the same as giving them hope.  That means it’s going to be really, really bad. By comparing Capernaum to hopeless cities, he is illustrating just how desperate their situation is.

Bottom Line

“Love Wins” is the handbook for Pluralistic Universalism.

Here is a quote to illustrate:

“What he (Jesus) doesn’t say is how, or when, or in what manner the mechanism functions that gets people to God through him.  He doesn’t even state that those coming to the Father through him will even know that they are coming exclusively through him.  He simply claims that whatever God is doing in the world to know and redeem and love and restore the world is happening through him…(page 156)…As soon as the door is opened to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Baptist from Cleveland, many Christians become very uneasy, saying that then Jesus does not matter anymore, the cross is irrelevant, it doesn’t matter what you believe, and so forth. Not true.  Absolutely, unequivocally, unalterably not true.  What Jesus does is declare that he, and he alone, is saving everybody.  And then he leaves the door way, way open.  Creating all sorts of possibilities.  He is as narrow as himself and as wide as the universe.  He is as exclusive as himself and as inclusive as containing every single particle of creation” (page 157)

What Bell says here sounds open-minded and tolerant and even loving.

It is not. His words seem vague but the underlying teaching is clear: faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is simply not necessary to be reconciled to God.

The furor that erupted weeks ago over the promotional video for Love Wins focused exclusively on whether Bell is a Universalist. As the above excerpt makes clear, Universalism is only one of several very troubling teachings found within the pages of Bell’s book.

This is a very big deal. The issues Bell addresses are not minor theological points that have no impact on the everyday lives of people. The subtitle of Love Wins conveys perfectly the magnitude of Bell’s teaching, for it deals with “the fate of every person who ever lived.” And Bell’s conclusion is this: there is no eternal judgment and faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not essential for salvation.

I pray that this blows over and that many are not deceived. I fear, however, that Bell’s words are what many people have been waiting to hear.

I pray that we continue to spread the gospel and rescue the perishing.

Of course, if no one is really perishing, then who needs rescuing?

I get the honor of preaching on Philippians 3:12-21 this weekend at Seacoast Church.  We have been involved in a series called the DNA of Joy as we look through the whole book over 10 weekends. 

As I have been studying and processing this passage over the past few weeks I have been increasingly encouraged that as Christ-followers  our stories end is already written.  We will be in the end a part of a glorification process.

I also love the fact that our first chapter was pre-written.  God was the author and we were a bit player in a great plot.  He justifies us.

But what strikes me the most is that the story, the middle, is still being written by our lives that we live now.  God gives us the margin to learn, grow, change and in short be made like Jesus.  We are being Sanctified.

As I look at life it seems that everything works that way.  Our churches are full of people goinf through the process of being made like Jesus and thus the church will learn, grow, change and in short be made like Jesus.

Then a thought hit me.  That means that we are not like Jesus now. (I think most of you would agree with that)  And if this is true we should love, maybe even adore, CHANGE. 

I don’t like change.  Just being honest.  I would rather stay the same.  But God seems to love change and he is changing me.

Last week my family had the absolute pleasure of spending a few days at Disney World. This has been an event we have been saving for and using every “point” we could earn on our Disney Chase Card and to say we were looking forward to it would be an understatement.

As most of you know we have a five year old princess and a 2 year old little prince who were giddy about going and Mom and Dad were pretty jacked about the plan too.

I have several blog posts in mind about the whole experience, but there was one I really wanted to tell you about. I referred to it on Facebook and twitter as the strangest day in Wood family history.

It was day four of our trip and we were at the Animal Kingdom. Just think zoo on steroids.
At about noon we missed a phone call from our Disney Hotel saying to call them because they needed to talk to us. We immediately thought “how bad could it be” and figured we would call them when we could.

At about 2:00pm they called again. This time they said “please call us about your room because we need to move you into another room”. Being cynical sometimes I immediately thought “they just have a big family they want to be near each other and they want to move us so they can put them together. No way!”

So while Connie and Isabelle went to the petting zoo and My mom took Hayes back for a nap I started a hour long phone tag game and then conversation with the resort.

Then came the news. They had found a Bed Bug in our room. Come to find out ONE DEAD bed bug. But abed bug none the less. What? I knew there was a saying “don’t let the bed bugs bite”, but I had no idea there were really bed bugs.

They told me that they would have to move us from our room immediately to take the highest of precautions (not I had just sent my son back to nap in the room, ughh) and here came the kicker, they would need to take ALL OF OUR BELONGINGS.  And when they said all, they meant all.

Over the next seven hours we would:

• Have my Mom wake my son up 45 minutes into his nap (not cool for a 2 year old) to get him out of the room
• ride back on the bus with a very concerned 5 year old and a crying 5 month pregnant wife
• catalog every item of clothing for 6 people for 6 days of packing (shoes, underware, bras, everything!)
• throw away all diapers and anything cloth and disposable.
• order room service for my starving and grumpy kids
• pack up the whole family and go to the mall to buy enough of everything we would need for the next 36 hours while our clothes were laundered to ensure we had not been infested

We finally got home from the mall around 10:30 pm (remember the 2 year old has not napped and both the 2 year old and the five year old have been at disney parks for 4 days) and we all ordered dinner for the adults.

Have you ever had everything taken from you?  It was weird.  We had to buy everything.  I am very particular about my socks (OCD) so this was a huge issue.

But here is the kicker.  Disney was amazing.

1. They cared enough about our well-being to do all of this for one dead bed bug.
2. They volunteered to take us to the mall.
3. They paid for everything (even our food) during the seven hours
4. They gave us an additional night in the resort and two additional days in the parks because they wanted our experience to be magical.
5. They gave us fast passes and made us reservations at restaurants that were full for the new nights.
6. I did not have to ask for any of the above.  They just did it. (they originally offered our money back on one night and so technically I did ask if that could change to an additional stay but they jumped to that with no issues)

To say I was Wow’d would be an understatement.

Strangest day in Wood family history.  A Mouse, a bed bug and a wow experience.

I love tech toys, I am not going to lie, so when the Ipad came out I was pretty stoked about getting one for no real reason at all.  Then Greg Surratt started using it for preaching and an elegant solution in search of a problem found a reason to exist.  I currently use my Ipad for most of my consumption (including reading on the Kindle app) but I know with technology changes that too could change.  I am a fickle user of gadgets.  But for preaching I have found the best solution to several problems:

1. Ready to preach in season and out.  With the combination of wifi (or 3G) + Google docs + Ipad I am ready to preach one of dozens of sermons at any point.

2.  I can read my changes.  In the past I have preached from printed notes and then made lots and lots of hand-written changes on the notes through the course of the sermon.  Now when I make those changes they are immediately updated to my document.  No illegible notes or scribbles.

3.  Access to the Bible in multiple translations.  Ever thought of a verse on the fly that you would like to read but are pretty sure that your reciting of the verse by memory may have broken Revelation 22:18 in the process.  Now you have the Bible, quickly searchable in multiple translations with you notes thanks to the youversion app.

4.  There is a great stand made by my dad that I get to use.

[box]How about you? Are you using the Ipad for preaching yet?[/box]

What is it that you really want?  I mean really want.  You think about it  a lot and often times spend time devising strategy how you can get it (or get more of it).   You probably have a strategy, are working a plan and have some measurement in your life to make sure that you are making strides towards the goal.

Write that thing down.  Visualize it.  Maybe even hold it in your hand.

okay – now we have identified our idol, now what will we do about it.

[box]One of my prayers during the 21 Day fast is that I would relinquish my idols? What’s your prayer?[/box]

Here are a few thoughts after week one of reading through the Bible using the www.youversion.com chronological Bible plan:

1.  I don’t know/remember a lot that I have read in the past.  I completely had Noah and Lot mixed up.  My apologies to Noah for all the times I have accused you of sleeping with your daughters.  I hope I still get a fist bump when we meet.

2.  There are some tough things to reconcile about God.  If you do not have an understanding and real belief in the complete and deserved soverignty of God I understand why you would have doubts.

3.  Speaking of doubts, my man Job went through some challenges and said some stuff I bet he wishes he could get back.  We have all done that.  At least I know I have.

Seriously.  You know what it is.  You know you need to stop but for some reason you just keep doing it anyway.

In order to do the thing that God has called you to do you will have to stop doing a lot of other things.

To write that book you may need to cut back on television.
To get in shape you may need to work out during lunch.
To know you wife better you may need a no-twitter zone at home.
Theoretically. (or those could be my actually things)

So when are you (am I) going to stop doing ___________________.  You fill it in.

[box]What do you need to add to your to-NOT-do list? Get some accountability in the comments section.[/box]