Danny J Bixby

I had the chance to talk with two guys after North Point’s 6:30p Saturday service last night, they were both VERY excited to be here. I wanted to share it with you. Here’s the quick rundown:

• They were both recovering addicts
• One guy has been sober for 18 months…and fell off the wagon Friday night
• His friend dragged him kicking and screaming to North Point for the Saturday night 6:30p service…this is less than 24 hours later
• Neither one of them had been here before
• They don’t have a car, they walked 2 miles from the nearest bus station
• In 30 degree weather
• To a church they had never been to!!
• We started a series on finances…both of them were incredibly impacted by it. Even though neither has a job…or any money.
• They both signed up to get baptized at our Spring Splash event next month

I’m amazed at the opportunities I have to talk with people like this. To hear the stories of how God is using the things we do here to touch their lives. Let’s be honest here, guys like this walk into a church and hear a sermon about giving/tithing and money…and how do you expect them to receive it? Probably not too well.

But God used that message to show them his love. They heard it and were hit square in the mouth with God’s grace. Awesome.

I came across this list of accountability questions that John Wesley would go over with those he was discipling…and of course answer himself. I thought it was a pretty interesting list and wanted to share it.

I think it’s neat to look through these and see the questions that, honestly, I would never think of going over as something to be accountable to. Know what I mean?

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass onto another what was told me in confidence?
4. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?
5. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
6. Did the Bible live in me today?
7. Do I give the Bible time to speak to me every day?
8. Am I enjoying prayer?
9. When did I last speak to someone about my faith?
10. Do I pray about the money I spend?
11. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
12. Do I disobey God in anything?
13. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
14. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
15. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?
16. How do I spend my spare time?
17. Am I proud?
18. Do I thank God that I am not as other people? As the pharisee did who despised the tax collector?
19. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I going to do about it?
20. Do I grumble and complain constantly?
21. Is Christ real to me?

What do you think of that list?

Maybe I’m wrong, but I personally think that if your faith in God is going to grow, you actually need to do something about it.

Yes, I believe our faith is from God. Yes, I believe he’s the one actually growing it. But we have to take action/respond to his prodding/be open to him, however you want to semantically put it.

I think it’s important to assess our spiritual growth from time to time and how we view our own path of development. To find ways to help ourselves along, you know?

A good way to do that is by asking yourself these three questions:

• What is one thing someone else (a church, a pastor, a mentor, etc) could do for you that would help you grow?
• What is one thing you could do for yourself that would help you grow?
• What is one thing you could do for someone else that would help them grow?

The experiment

Yesterday I started a small experiment. I manage North Point Church‘s social media outlets, and I asked a loaded question to our nearly 5,000 member community: (more…)

Do you look down on other Christians who don’t know as much as you do?

Be it about the Bible, church tradition, God, spirituality, etc. I sure used to be. Especially those who were new or weren’t as “far along” as I was in knowledge…or as I liked to think of it “spiritual maturity.”

I feel this artificial hierarchy of Christians is ingrained in many of us. You look through personal or group study options and you find tons of books with titles touting how to become spiritual mature, or a fully devoted follower of Jesus, or a true disciple, etc etc… (more…)

There’s a mantra that I often hear:

Consider the source.

Surely you’ve heard this…right?

Normally, it comes up as a justification for NOT listening to advice, criticism, etc due to discrediting the person who said it. But there’s a sneakier side to this little mindset…

If you’ve ever worked as part of a team, I bet you’ve found yourself in one of these situations. Either you (or someone else) gives some advice, a solution to a problem, a suggestion, etc and it’s shot down. No big deal. However, you then hear the exact same advice, solution, suggestion or what not delivered from somebody else…and now suddenly it carries some weight.

What in the world?!?!

There’s a part of your brain that wonders if you’re taking crazy pills. You know that someone essentially just echoed you…but the identical suggestion you put out there was rejected, while this one was embraced.

But I wonder, should you always consider the source? Assume the same thing is said from different people, from one source it is rejected/discounted…and from another it is embraced & implemented.

Obviously the weight of someone’s words are weighed based upon their experience, education, respect, trust, etc. But does the truth of what someone is saying actually change due to these elements? Or does it stand on its own…sometimes?

I came across this quote from famed British author, and student of H.G. Wells, A.A. Milne:

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience–well, that comes from poor judgement.

Smart saying that you identify with, right? Does it lose something if instead of attributing it to A.A. Milne, it’s given to one of his characters…Winnie the Pooh?

Kinda changes a little…doesn’t it?

What do you think, is there something to considering the source? Or does wisdom stand on its own?

Today is World AIDS Day, when we’re supposed to raise our awareness about this awful disease and take action against all the prejudices & stigma that comes with it.

In my opinion, most prejudices come from a lack of knowledge. You’re more likely to fear something you don’t know much about. You’re more likely to believe extreme details about something you know little about. And you’re more likely to not care when you focus on AIDS the disease, instead of the people who are affected by it and live with it. (more…)

First of all, sorry for any of you RSS subscribers who got spammed with old posts yesterday. I moved my blog and did some tweaks…and somehow while messing with my feed it shot out 10 old posts.

Whoops :/

In related news, I have some new digs! I finally made the switch from blogger to wordpress and am very pleased with it. I am having some problems porting over my old comments, but it’s a work in progress

I’m rocking the Standard Theme from John Saddington & his 8bit crew, I and will be tweaking it out sometime in the near future. Right now it’s pretty minimalistic around here…and I hope to not go too crazy with customization.

With these new changes comes a bit of change of philosophy for this blog. Here’s what I’m thinking: (more…)

>No beating around it, let’s just go straight in. North Point Church hired me full time this past Wednesday as the “Connections Coach”!!! (insert happy dance here)

For those of you who know me well, you’re aware of what a huge deal this is for me. For those of you who know me a little bit…this is a huge deal for me! I turned in my 2 weeks at my old job…this is really happening.

I’m going to work closely with my good friend (and new boss!) Connections Director Tim Perkins…go bother him on Facebook & Twitter, you’ll be glad you did.

Connections is basically nearly everything in the church that deals with ‘adults’ ministries. Our small groups (connect groups), getting people integrated into the church through serving, spiritual development, creating points of entry for new people, etc.

At the expense of getting all sappy…this is a life changing thing for me. I don’t quite know how to emotionally deal with this transition, and in some ways it hasn’t fully hit me yet. I’m at a point of excited & happy that can’t really be put into words. This is something that I convinced myself for the past 7 years just wasn’t going to happen for me. That choices I had made in my life weren’t going to allow it. And now that it is…it’s very powerful.

If you wouldn’t mind, I’d really appreciate that you pray for me with this new part of my life. I want to get right in now and get rolling on it. Thanks so much for letting me share this with you, and thanks for all the support!

I had the honor of witnessing one of the most powerful things I’ve seen at NPC this past weekend. We did a version of the ‘cardboard/posterboard testimonials.’ People shared in short, concise ways how God has changed their life. How God took them from what they “used to be” into what they are now.

It was incredible.

You could feel the love & empathy in the room from everyone watching the people on stage bravely sharing their struggles and failures (many for the first time). Every one of our 6 services ended in red, tear-filled eyes and a standing ovation. Here’s the video (after the jump)

I had several friends on the stage throughout the weekend, and the stories behind their signs are incredibly powerful reminders of God’s description-defying love. I heard from many people how they didn’t think their story was that special, how they didn’t see God working in it too much…but then after this weekend, that all changed.

They now realize the incredible things God has done in their life. And continues to do. They see the importance of their own story…even if it’s not very glamorous in their opinion.

It made others see their own stories for what they are, powerful examples of redemption. The people on stage made others mentally run through their own “signs” and what they would say. There was a connection in the room from even those just watching the display, as if they had made their own sign and jumped up on stage to share it as well.

I’m done talking. Please share your thoughts.

>I spend a lot of time managing the social media properties for our church and for me personally. So I often hear the normal “I don’t get Facebook,” or “I don’t get Twitter,” or “that stuff isn’t important” responses that people tend to have. I’m thinking of developing a new generic answer for that kind of feedback:

“Facebook & Twitter are like cocaine.”

Watch the below clip, and you’ll probably immediately understand. This is a quick clip from “Bill Cosby: Himself” from 1983. Just watch 20 seconds or so until the thunderous applause begins. *Also, profanity warning…if you care*

Odds are, if you’re using Facebook & Twitter something about what he said probably struck a chord for you. You probably easily see how Facebook/Twitter are like cocaine.

The main problem with social media

The main problem with Facebook, Twitter, etc is that it is so transparent. There is something about it which reveals your personality…and like Bill Cosby’s example, intensifies it.

It puts it front and center for everyone (who’s friended/following you) to see. If you look through someone’s updates, you can see their personality & what they hold as important coming through loud and clear. For some of us…that can be a sobering or depressing thought.

I thought of some personalities that are easily “intensified” by Twitter & Facebook:

1) Post a lot about other people? How you feel bad for so and so, or are excited for something awesome happening in someone else’s life; you’re probably a fairly empathetic and caring person.

2) Constantly post about yourself? What you’re doing, what you’re excited about, what’s going to happen with you, you, you, you. Well, you may be self centered.

3) Sharing lots of links & content? You’re probably hungry for knowledge & excited about learning. Maybe generous, so you want to spread the wealth around.

4) “Empty” posts about nothing in particular? Facebook games, what you ate for dinner, pointless twitter updates and the like. You might not have much going on…or you could just be naturally boring.

5) Negative posts about your life? Debbie Downer-ish updates about bad things you’re going through & the drama surrounding you? Could be a bit of a drama queen.

6) Intensely negative? Talk often about how dumb you are, or something stupid you did? Probably don’t have a high view of yourself…maybe even depressed a bit.

7) Post a ton of quotes? Maybe you just like sharing things that inspire you…or maybe you don’t have anything to say of your own.

Don’t post much at all? You know, the facebook/twitter stalkers. You’re on for several hours a day and update maybe once a week. I’d think you might be introverted, secretive/private…or just creepy

What do you think about the cocaine analogy, does it ring true for you? For that matter, what else could be added to that list?