My Kingdom is Not of This World.

It's not a secret that I've never leaned right politically. My upbringing, my experiences working among the urban poor and my embarrassment at conservative Christians married to the right wing Republican agenda have driven me away from the teritory held sacred by so many American Christians.

When people bring up the election, my response is two-fold.

First, I am so excited to hear mainstream Christian voices encouraging us to vote our values, not our party. Greg Boyd has called in to question the role of Christians and the state. Jim Wallis and Shane Claibourne have encouraged us to be "political misfits." And Rick Warren's Saddleback Forum proved that Christians want to talk about the issues.

Christians are migrating to a new space, more defined by a broad, Bible inspired agenda, and not limited to one party. It's about time guys, I've been lonely.

Second, I'm afraid that a younger generation of Christians are selling out to Obama the way their parents did to Reagan. I was a little overwhelmed when I saw dozens of my friends change their Facebook name to include "Hussein." Brian McClaren, perhaps the most influential theologian around, blogs regularly about why you should vote for Obama. When Relevant Magazine editor Cameron Strang turned down the opportunity to pray at the DNC, it was picked up by, one of my favorite authors, Donald Miller of Blue Like Jazz. Now Miller is stumping for Obama.

This election fills me with hope for the Churches leaders, but fear for my generation. My prayer is that before you vote, you will consider long and hard the implications of Jesus' statement "My kingdom is not of this world."

Coffee House Night

Tomorrow night is Coffee House Night. It's our humble attempt at JF to create a "Front Porch Environment" or "Throw a Matthew Party."

Here's what I mean. There's a lot of people who need to know Jesus, but you may not be able to convince them to come to your small group or your Church. Visiting Church is a lot like visiting someone's house.

Porches are for friends and strangers. From a porch you can see inside the house, and if you chose, come inside.

In Matthew 9, the newly converted Tax Collector throws a party for all his pagan sinner friends. And he invite Jesus. It's a chance for people to party, get to know each other, and hang out with Jesus.

Find out more about our next Coffee House Night. Listen to this month's performer here.

Wandering Wandering (jewjewjews)

This week in The Story we are reading about the wildnerness wanderings of the Israelites. I get the whole feeling of being lost in the desert. I also know that those are the times I'm most like the Israelites- mean and ungrateful. Here, in no particular order, are the top "desert wandering" seasons of my life:

• High School. All of it. Especially sophomore year.
• The night before fifth grade started.
• The next 6-12 months after I've been dumped.
• The semester I went back to college in rural Arkansas, after spending the summer with homeless street kids.
• Austin.
• My senior year of college, from the day I changed my major to the day I left for Atlanta.
  

The crazy thing is, I look back and see these as the most important times in my life. The times when God has seemed closest, and furthest. Looking back, I see that I was waist-deep in manna and quail the whole time.


Hopefully, I'll remember this the next time I'm stranded in the desert.

Brain Dump

I'm going to take a Brain Dump.

This is an idea I took with me from Getting Things Done. I have to admit that I didn't finish the book, and I still have a lot of trouble getting things done, but I loved the Brain Dump concept.

The Big Idea is that your brain is terrible at storing stuff. You have all these things you want to do, that are floating in the back of your head, making you uneasy, but you don't always know what they are. So, on a regular basis, you should take a brain dump.

Write down EVERYTHING, I mean everything that is on your mind. Your to do lists. Your life goals. Those hard conversations you've been putting off. The movie you always wanted to see. The girl you have considered asking out.

Before you can get anything done, you need to dump everything out of your head.

Twitter: Seth Godin convinced me.

I'm finally giving Twitter a try. I have to admit, I've been skeptical. The thought of following people in that detail makes reading a blog about someone's breakfast seem exciting.

Recently, someone asked me if I thought we were better or worse off with Social Networking. My answer is that Social Networking is neither good nor bad. But it is an expression of our times.

I believe that many of the unique social aspects of our culture, everything from Starbucks to Gangs can trace their lineage to the breakdown of traditional families and communities. Out in the suburbs, we're starved for meaningful relationships. Social Networking technology helps fill that gap.

In Seth Godin's new book, Tribes, ($.95 on iTunes) he talks a lot about Facebook, Twitter and other networks. He told the story of a guy at South By Southwest who found an empty bar and sent out a twitter to a few friends. In less than an hour, there was a line out the door.

Social Networking is here. Twitter is here. I guess I'll embrace it.
Follow me at twitter.com/chrismorton82.

There's Hope Yet

At Journey Fellowship, we're really enjoying going thru The Story. While studying the story of Joseph, I had one of those "aha!" moments, where you see something new in a story you've read a million times.

When Joseph is propositioned by his Boss's wife, he tells her "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"

The exchange strikes me as eerily similar to the one Eve had with the Serpent. She could have anything she wanted, except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, just like Joseph could have anything he wanted, except his boss's wife.

A professor of mine often said "Adam and Eve is not just the story of what happened, it's the story of what happens." We all face temptation like Eve did. But when it came Joseph's turn, he ran from it.

There's hope yet.

How do you describe your faith?

A lot of Churches are striving to be relevant. Hip theologians call this being "missional," while the more academic types use the word "incarnational." (Yes, I know this a gross simplification.) But how you describe what you believe and do is key to being meaningful to those around you. One church planter says their core values are being "God Stalkers, Grace Wholesalers and Guerilla Lovers." (Find out what that means here.)

How do you describe your faith?

Worst goal ever.

Since I have experienced some level of success in my goal of journaling daily (about 99.9% of the time for the last 6 weeks,) I have started a new goal:

BECOME A MORNING PERSON.

Now, mind you, I believe that this is quite possibly the WORST GOAL EVER. Why?

1. I have always stayed up. Even when I was a little kid, I'd stay up late reading books, or writing or playing on the computer. This goes back as long as I can remember.
2. I like night. It's dark. It's peaceful. Crazy stuff can happen.
3. It's hard to be social when you are trying to go to bed at 10pm.

So, why set the worst goal ever? One reason is that staying up doesn't tend to do me any good. I'm not having more fun or being more social. In fact, I tend to just watch a lot of TV and get depressed because I am tired and everyone on TV has pretty girlfriends. Why stay up late and think about that? Another reason is that I know very few successful people, in any field, who are not morning people. The most important reason is spiritual. I am much more likely to have a consistent time set aside for God if I start my day with it.

Day 1 I woke up at 5:30. Day 2...6:15. So, let's hope its not a trend.

Want to become an early riser? Here's some tips.

Audiobooks

One only has to look at my iPod to see what a nerd I am. I have almost no music on there. Not because I don't like music, but because I haven't had much a music budget since High School, and I'm kind of tired of listening to those CDs.

You will find over a dozen podcasts and audiobooks. Podcasts consist of mainly sermons, from a wide variety of evangelical, liberal and emergent churches. I also have my two favorite NPR shows, This American Life and Radiolab. Listening to those two is definitely a high point in my week.

The other thing you'll find on my iPod is audiobooks. I love audiobooks. I try to read a lot, but my ADD makes it a lot of work. In the last month I've gone through Phillip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace, a brutal scifi/noir read called Altered Carbon, and a business book The Art of Woo. I'm currently working through Jim Collin's business classic Good to Great, and Phillip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly. In my stack is David Sedaris' Naked, and a biography of George Washington. I don't know what I'd do without audible.com.

Journaling

At the beginning of September, I made a commitment to journal everyday for the rest of the year. It's probably hurt my blogging, but it's been a good experience.

Do you keep a journal, if so, what do you write about?

What are you doing this week?

Monday
Mondays are my new day off. It's an awkward transition, but I think it may actually help me get more organized. By day off, I mean, the day to pay bills, send important emails and run errands. Also having lunch with a local entrepeneur and dinner with a friend from our Apartment Life ministry.

Tuesday
Staff meeting and the new Journey Fellowship College Group.

Wednesday
My Dodgeball league starts Wednesday night. I have no idea what to expect.

Thursday
All staff retreat. I think we'll be wrapping our heads around some big theology. Community Group.

Friday
Still getting used to working on Friday. No plans that night. Any ideas?