One door shuts.
Another door is opening.

Have you heard that message? Doesn’t it sound exciting? Easy? It’s a message I’ve heard in the church a thousand times. Every time a chapter is closed another is beginning. Every time a season ends, another is starting. Every time a door closes, another is opening.

“ing”…

Until you’ve been there, until you’ve managed to find yourself in the “ing”, this message makes perfect sense – a perfectly timed progression of events, moving from one door to the next, from one place in life to another.

Instant. Easy. Exciting.

But it’s the “ing” we don’t want to talk about. It’s the waiting, the moving, the happening, the progressing…

It’s the time spent in the hallway, when one door shuts and the next door hasn’t opened yet. It’s the waiting, the moving. It’s the trying, the proving, the growing, the questioning, the doubting. It’s the listening, the hearing, the knowing, the planning, the building.

No one talks about the hallway.
Yet it’s a familiar theme in the Bible.
It’s called Exodus.

Israel. David. Joseph. Jesus. The list goes on. They all spent time in the hallway, in exodus.
So why don’t we talk about it? Why does it feel so wrong? Why does the hallway get such a bad wrap?

The first question you’ll get when you decide to walk out the door is, “So where are you going now?” And if you don’t have an answer to that one, be ready for the follow-up, “Then why are you leaving?” The hallway can be confusing and uncomfortable. The hallway can even feel like punishment. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Exodus is a departure, a leaving, a movement. It’s motion, energy, action. An exodus is something you do, something you’re caught up in, somewhere you’re going, something you join because you don’t want to stay where you are.” –Rob Bell

The hallway is hard, but it’s a necessary part of our walk with God.
The hallway is where God speaks and gives direction.
It’s a time of growing, maturing. It’s a time of preparation.

We like to have things figured out, perfectly planned and put together. But God likes for us to rely on Him. We like to know where the closest and safest open door is before we let the door behind us slam shut. But God wants us to step out in faith and rely only on His all-sufficient grace, mercy and wisdom.

In the hallway we may look confused and misguided, but that’s exactly how we maybe ought to look, because in that, the light of God’s perfect way shines that much brighter. Besides, who are we to pretend we’ve got this all figured out?

In the hallway, after you’re finished complaining and groaning, doubting God and questioning your lot in life, make an attempt to just stop and listen.

God speaks in the hallway.

And when He has finished leading you and the next door finally opens, the light of God’s perfect way shines that much brighter and our past steps and seemingly misguided ways begin to make perfect sense in the scheme of God’s unchanging plan.

The hallway doesn’t always make sense, but in the end, it’s a necessary part of our walk with God. And when one door shuts another will always open. It’s not our job to have our next move all figured out. That’s God’s knowing. He’ll let us know when He’s ready. Just be prepared to spend a little time in the hallway.

Listen.
Follow.
A door is opening.

Chad has spent the last decade as a youth pastor and worship leader. In the past few years, he has successfully led and developed of one of the largest and fastest growing youth and college ministries in Northwest Ohio. Chad lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife Katie and two daughters, Morgan and Macy. He is co-founder of the Columbus Church Project and leads a growing team of 20-something young people committed to planting a new church in the Columbus area in 2010.

The David Crowder*Band is awesome. Really, they are. They have great tunes and they love Jesus. What else could you ask for?

Guest podcaster Erik Williams, also known as Erik w/a K, recently chatted with David Crowder about their upcoming tour, The Rock and Worship Roadshow, the new addition to the DC*B family (Steve 3-PO) and David’s favorite televangelist.

Who will win the World Series?
Will Twitter remain as popular as it is now?
What will be the best gadget of 2010?
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

We know that we all have predictions of what will happen in the year to come. And we’d love to know what you think will be a trend, what will be the latest and greatest, what is the forecast of things to come in 2010.

We need your help! Tell us ANYTHING. The skies the limit. Your answers will go into the Mar/Apr 2010 issue of Rethink Monthly. So, please, comment away. Let us know your predictions for 2010.

It was the summer of 2004 and Melissa and I had only recently moved to the small town of Keokuk, Iowa, to take a youth and worship pastor position at a church there.

There was one particular day I remember vividly. It was a good day. And I was feeling positive about the headway we were making in the youth department amongst the young people. I spent the majority of the day remodeling the youth room to make it more, well, “youthy.”

In addition, Melissa and I were starting to feel a great connection with those involved in the music and worship department. We felt like, though things were still somewhat new for everyone, we were making progress and things were starting to flow together nicely.

All throughout this specific day I had been thinking on these things and I was starting to feel good about our new role and the progress we were making. But just as I was leaving the church parking lot for the day, I felt an urge to go a different route home. At first I wasn’t exactly sure why I did this, especially since it was completely the wrong direction in which I was supposed to be heading. Regardless, I just started driving, turning left instead of right. And as I turned left, I immediately knew the reason for this illogical prompting.

He was a large man in a powered wheelchair cruising down the sidewalk on Main Street. I’d seen him before and, though he didn’t look poor or in immediate need, my heart still went out to him. I felt bad but never really did anything about it or asked him if I could help in any way. You know, never being Jesus in the flesh. I wanted to but didn’t. And knowing all this, I felt another urge – an urge to stop and ask him how I could help.

So I did.

Well, first I pulled my car into a parking lot on the other side of the road and told myself, “If he crosses the street right here, then I’ll get out of my car and talk with him.” He crossed the street but I stayed in my car.

I pulled back onto the street and into a different, more secluded parking lot down the road and told myself, “If he passes by here, then I’ll get out and ask him if he needs anything.” He did. So I did what felt natural. I stayed in my car and pulled back onto the road – such a risk-taker, I know.

Then I pulled into the Burger King parking lot. When I say “the” Burger King parking lot, I mean the “only” Burger King parking lot – validating my earlier point that Keokuk is, in fact, a really small town. I’m sure you can guess what I did next. I told myself “If he goes into Burger King, then I’m definitely getting out and talking to him about Jesus.”

He wheeled past my car, up onto the ramp, and drove his wheelchair into the front entrance of Burger King. I watched him the whole way, praying that he would go somewhere else – anywhere besides Burger King. But he did not. And so I got out of my car and walked in.

If you’re hoping for a nice ending, well, this story doesn’t have one. I was as nervous as could be as I walked through the door. God had called me to this point, the opportunity was there, but I was petrified. I was so nervous to present Jesus, if even by actions only, to this man.

He was short a quarter for his meal. I reached into my pocket, found a quarter and handed it to him. The door opened. He thanked me. I acknowledged politely, “Of course, no problem.” I ordered a burger and stood fairly close to the man as we both waited for our orders – the door still wide open. He turned and thanked me again. It would’ve been so easy for me to simply say, “I’ve seen you around town a few times. My name is Bo.” or “Man, I’ve had a pretty decent day. What about you?” Something, anything could’ve been my first step through the open door. But I let it slip away.

He grabbed his order. I grabbed mine. He cruised away in his wheelchair while I got in my car and drove home. That “great day” I had was robbed right from under me and I was the one who stole it.

It’s unfortunate, and ironic, that I had a hard time reaching out to one person when now I have been given the opportunity to reach out to thousands of people each month with our magazine, Rethink Monthly. Who’d of thought, as the hymnist penned, that a wretch like me, a guy who couldn’t even follow the simplest urge, would be given a task such as this.

Bo & Melissa Lane have two beautiful kids, Benjamin and Bella Lane. Besides having the privilege of printing this wonderful magazine, they enjoy long walks on the beach, listening to Hillsong United, and will pay virtually any amount for a quality babysitter.

Shortly after Aileen and I were married we moved to the small town of Dundas, Ontario. A historic and picturesque town, Dundas has made its way into a few movies. When we lived there, a movie called Haven (starring Natasha Richardson) was shot in its streets. We lived just half a block from the action so would sometimes wander on over in the evenings to watch what was happening.

One thing that fascinated and impressed me was how the filmmakers transformed the town to fit the setting of the film. The movie was set in the Second World War so for the sake of historical accuracy the town had to look like it had during the 1940’s. All the parking meters had to be pulled up and all the traffic lights had to be pulled down. The streets were suddenly filled with beautiful old antique cars. Many of the storefronts were little changed since the 40’s but of course there were some that had been built since and could not possibly pass the historic test. It was amazing to see what happened to these ones. In a matter of a couple of days the props people constructed false fronts for all of these stores. An ugly stucco building that was clearly a product of the 70’s or 80’s was transformed into a brick-built small-town general store from the 40’s. Nothing had changed inside, but the outside was given a fresh and entirely deceptive new face.

One of the climactic scenes of the movie has the lead character marching a large number of Jewish refugees through the town. They shot this scene and a few others and then, nearly overnight, the town was restored. The parking meters were put back into place, the traffic lights were strung back up, the old cars were hauled away and all those false fronts were torn down. The ugly buildings were exposed again, as ugly as ever. The movie, anti-American propaganda as it turns out, was awful. But that’s beside the point.

I was thinking about Tiger Woods this weekend and thought about the town of Dundas and all of those false fronts. I’ve hesitated to write about Tiger. First of all, his travails are reaching the point of media saturation, I think. His story has been glamorized and made into a sick form of entertainment. Of course it’s exactly the kind of entertainment our culture loves. We love reality shows which, by and large, are only pseudo-reality. We get to watch families fall apart on television and consider it entertaining. But even then the situations are only half real at best. But here we get to see a real family crumble. Their pain is our delight as we watch things turn from bad to worse. Yet here we are all seeing the ugly effects of sin and maybe it is a good opportunity to reflect for just a few moments on the nature of sin and the cost it demands from us. It proved an opportunity for me to think about Tiger’s situation and draw lessons from it.

Here are three lessons I have learned from Tiger Woods.

False Fronts Will Crumble

There is always this temptation to construct false fronts, to add a layer of respectability between yourself and the way you want others to perceive you. Tiger Woods wanted to be known as the all-American family man, a loving husband and doting father. His sponsors, the companies for whom he was a spokesman, needed him to be this kind of figure. And so he said all the right words and put on this veneer of respectability. In front of the cameras he played the role that was demanded and expected of him. And yet behind it all he was the opposite of so much that he claimed to be. Eventually and inevitably the false front collapsed and the truth was laid bare.

Imagine what would have happened in Dundas if the filmmakers had disappeared without tearing down those false fronts. Sure they would have stood for a month or two; maybe even a year or two. But before long they would have crumbled and fallen down. They were not build of sound materials and were not built on a solid foundation. They were made only to look the part, only to disguise the ugly and unfitting reality. All false fronts will eventually crumble and fall.

The lesson is, do not mask your sin behind a false front. Do not construct elaborate falsehoods to mask your sin and your shame. These false fronts cannot stand forever. And the shame and pain of the ruin of a life lived out behind false pretenses will be far worse than the shame and pain of just dealing with sin immediately and properly. The temptation to mask your sin is nearly as strong as the temptation to sin in the first place. But to mask it is just to compound sin upon sin. It is merely to delay the inevitable.

You Cannot Hide Your Sin Indefinitely

Sooner or later your sin will find you out. Just weeks before all of his sins were revealed and his life was laid bear, Tiger conducted an interview in which he insisted that family comes first in his life. “Family first and golf second. Always be like that?” asked the interviewer. “Always,” replied Woods. Yet even then he was in the midst of affairs. Even then he was telling bare-faced lies, thinking that he could get away with them.

The lesson is, you cannot hide your sin forever. Your sin is going to find you out. Your sin wants to find you out. I love how J.R.R. Tolkien displays this in The Lord of the Rings, how the ring puts the ringbearer under its spell but at the same time it wants nothing more than to captivate and expose and destroy him. Its beauty and desire is really a means to enslave and expose. And all sin is like this. It promises what it can never truly deliver. It offers the desires of the heart but delivers the most tragic and unexpected results.

Do not give yourself over to sin. Sin is a cruel, cruel master. Like that ring it will draw you in and like that ring it will chew you up and spit you out. And isn’t this what Satan loves? Wouldn’t he love to draw you into sin and then enjoy watching you suffer the downfall of that sin? Do not give yourself over to sin; inevitably you will find that it is impossible to hide it forever.

The Stage Will Be Bigger

Tiger Woods committed sins against God and sins against his wife and did so in a closed and private setting. Very few people knew about his sin and very few were there to witness it. The actual sins were committed in private on a small, intimate stage. But the stage for his fall is international. Where only the smallest handful of people knew about his sin while it was happening, today countless millions know about it. The other day in the grocery store I spotted his face on eight of the ten magazines by the checkout. People are calling this the sports story of the decade. It will follow him for the rest of his life. His family will never be the same. Surely he did not anticipate all of this when he indulged his sin.

The lesson here is that the stage for the fall is usually infinitely larger than the stage that was used to act out the sin. Private sins are so often publicly exposed. Think of people you know, perhaps in a church context, who have sinned against their families. So often they sinned in private but were exposed in public. So often their disgrace was so much wider than their initial pleasure. And again, this is exactly what we should expect of sin and of Satan. Sin’s pleasure is fleeting, its pain eternal.

Tiger’s sin teaches me that the Bible does not lie when it describes the cause of sin, the effect of sin and the inevitability of its exposure. Had Tiger just read the first nine chapters of Proverbs and applied those ancient but timeless lessons to his life, he would have known all he needed to know to understand where his sin would lead him. How much better would it have been for Tiger to be mastered by God instead of being mastered by sin.

Tim Challies, a self-employed web designer, is a pioneer in the Christian blogosphere, having one of the most widely read and recognized Christian blogs. He is also editor of Discerning Reader, a site dedicated to offering thoughtful reviews of books that are of interest to Christians.

Christianity has evolved in various ways since it began two-thousand years ago- sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad. In its purest form, the message of Christianity never changes, only the method in which the message is transferred. The first decade of this new millennium was no exception as the Church witnessed many monumental shifts in its culture.

THE EMERGING CHURCH

As the decade began, many young Christians in the post-modern world started to feel disenfranchised by the Modern American Evangelical Church Culture and its penchant for consumerism.

So in response, there was a strong push to get back to the roots of New Testament Christianity. This was done somewhat successfully as these young progressive Christians turned their attention towards authentic community, responsible stewardship of resources, compassion and justice for the poor and oppressed, and the importance of the words of Jesus.

But the ‘hard to define’ movement became more known for their candles, prayer labyrinths, and doctrinally vague leaders prone to relativism than their desire to grow closer to Christ; and has now been confusingly divided into two classifications: The Emerging Church, and the Emergent Church. It will be interesting to see what the new decade has in store for this mysterious trend in Christianity.

MULTISITE CHURCH

One surprisingly successful and pleasant trend of the 2000’s in the church world was the emergence of Multisite Churches.

As churches began to grow and were hungry to reach others for Christ, instead of launching large giving campaigns and erecting enormous fortune-costing buildings that could seat thousands of people only to find out that they would have to add more services or build larger buildings as they continued to grow, they began to open up medium sized campuses all over the metro areas where their ministries were based.

This has enabled churches to reach more people in more areas of their cities for less money. They reach more people because it’s easier for people to invite their friends to church if the church is in their own neighborhood, and the church can do that in multiple neighborhoods at the same time. It’s cheaper because they can rent a facility on Sundays to hold their worship gatherings in various neighborhoods or can erect many smaller buildings on smaller pieces of property versus a giant building on a humongous piece of property, and can centralize their leadership and administration in one location.

Technology has allowed this to be possible in recent years. One pastor can deliver one message to multiple campuses and tens of thousands of people at one time through relatively cheap satellite or internet broadcasting. Or the pastor’s message during the church’s first Saturday evening service can be recorded and then shown to the following services during the same weekend at several locations. Throw in a local campus pastor to shepherd the people and a live campus worship band and you have yourself an authentic church service. And the strange thing is – studies show that the congregations prefer to watch their pastor via video versus in person.

HIPSTER PASTORS

Another interesting trend in Christianity during the past decade was the emergence of Hipster Pastors. In the past, pastors were expected to dress formally wherever they went so that they would be distinguished from the rest of the world. Inevitably, this caused people to see pastors as individuals who were elevated above the rest of society and, subsequently, they became totally unrelatable and irrelevant to the very people they were trying to reach out to.

So a few progressive leaders across the Evangelical world starting dressing down, and starting dressing hip so that they would be seen as culturally progressive within their unchristian communities in order to be relatable and relevant to the new world they now found themselves in.

Pastors like Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll, Ed Young, and Steven Furtick have become almost as well known for their urban-progressive-yet-casual-fashion-sense as they have their theology.

And now on Sunday mornings all across America you are more likely to see your pastors wearing jeans, untucked shirts, bulky glasses, tight t-shirts, fashion-forward boots, and even flip flops than polyester suits, ties, sweater vests, and nicely polished oxfords.

A LOOK AHEAD

While this has been merely a brief snapshot of the past decade, it will be fascinating to see what the teenage years of the New Millennium will have in store.

Here’s to hoping for less plastic ‘spinner’ hubcaps, Facebook Farmville requests, and guys wearing pink shirts with popped collars; and more awesome ‘As Seen On TV’ products like the Snuggie and the ShamWow, Fail Blog, YouTube Videos, and of course – world peace.

“Peace Out!”- Another expression I hope we can leave in the past!

This is the 5th in a series of 5 articles to be posted this week.

Part 1: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: September 11th
Part 2: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Communication
Part 3: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Money and Environmentalism
Part 4: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Entertainment
Part 5: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Christianity

Anthony Trask is blessed with an incredible wife and two awesome kids. He currently co-pastors Fellowship Church in NE Salem. You can listen to his weekly messages at www.fellowshipsalem.com or read his blog at www.anthonytrask.com.

TELEVISION

During the 2000’s, Survivor started a Reality TV revolution. It spurred on countless other Reality Shows with topics ranging from ‘Home Remodeling’ to’ Talent Shows,’ from ‘Normal People Living in a Big House’ to ‘Dating Shows,’ and from ‘Plastic Surgery’ to ‘Dumb Celebrities Living in Small Town America.’

The 2000’s saw the complete and total destruction of MTV as it transitioned from being a cool channel that showed music videos all the time, into being a channel that showed trashy Reality TV about teens living very abnormally wealthy lives and grown men hitting each other in the crotch with hockey sticks – on purpose.

But there were some amazing things that happened to television in the 2000’s: flat screen TVs and the DVR.

Big screens became affordable, packed amazing high definition pictures, and could now easily be hung on the wall as their weight radically decreased.

And no longer would you be forced to watch commercials or be a slave to the time slot your show was on. All you now have to do is tell your cable box to record the shows of your choice, watch them on your schedule, and fast forward through all the Snuggie commercials.

CELEBRITIES

The 2000’s were a decade of celebrity obsession. The masses waited with baited breath to find out the status of Brad and Jennifer, Brad and Angelina, Nick and Jessica, and John and Kate. It was big news when a young starlet thought that ‘Chicken of the Sea’ was chicken, not tuna. And everyone stood in awe whenever a celebrity came out of the closet. But probably the most tragic example of America’s celebrity worship over the past decade was the rise and fall, and rise again of Brittany Spears.

MUSIC

This past decade saw the total evolution of the music industry as people stopped buying CDs and starting listening to music on the mega successful iPod. The iPod hands-down was THE gadget of the decade. This meant complete acceptance of illegally downloading music instead of paying for it at all. And now instead of relying on millions of dollars in revenue from record sales, artists have to be creative in their money making, heavily relying on concert ticket and merchandise sales in order to make a buck.

And sadly, an overall snapshot of the world of music during the 2000’s cannot be given without mentioning the death of music’s biggest superstar, Michael Jackson.

FLIM

Batman movies are cool again. Enough said.

This is the 4th in a series of 5 articles to be posted this week.

Part 1: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: September 11th
Part 2: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Communication
Part 3: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Money and Environmentalism
Part 4: Random Thoughts on the First Decade of the New Millennium: Entertainment

Anthony Trask is blessed with an incredible wife and two awesome kids. He currently co-pastors Fellowship Church in NE Salem. You can listen to his weekly messages at www.fellowshipsalem.com or read his blog at www.anthonytrask.com.