Sunday, January 23, 2011

A REVIEW // Matthew Barnett, The Cause Within You

Matthew Barnett is the co-founder of The Dream Center (with his father Pastor Tommy Barnett) and senior pastor of the Angelus Temple in L.A., and in the opening of The Cause Within You, he talks about the night he spent on Skid Row in downtown L.A. (quite a dangerous idea) to celebrate their 15th anniversary as the Dream Center.

In the 15 years of the Dream Center, Barnett had worked with and spent time with people facing hardship and suffering but he had never slept on their streets. In lieu of a celebratory banquet with staff and volunteers, touting their own success, Barnett felt God leading him to do something different, radical and uncomfortable, much like what he felt when he started in the Echo Park area of L.A. as a young 20-year-old brand new pastor. So he did it. He spent the night on Skid Row. And he came away realizing that the more dangerous place to be for a Christian, more dangerous than Skid Row, would be the return to a "routine life not fully aligned with God's cause" (p. 25).

His experiences inspired this book, The Cause Within You. It's a collection of stories from Barnett's personal experience as well as the personal stories of people from the Dream Center and Angelus Temple. [Disclosure: I've attended Angelus Temple while in L.A. and was given an advance copy of the book by a staff member for review. I am also acquainted with two of the women whose stories are included in the book.]  The various personal stories are both interesting and inspiring, and they make for a quick and easy read, and illustrate Barnett's challenge well.

His challenge to himself and to his readers is to find the cause (or vision, dream, purpose, reason for being) that God has placed in each person's heart. But even more than just finding one's cause or purpose, he aims to have readers focus on their personal relationships with God in order to discover how waiting on God and having the right attitude will fuel the fire of their cause. Otherwise, what he believes often happens is that a person will redefine their cause to their own comfort level, rather than the full radical and passionate purpose God places within them.

He breaks the idea down into smaller bites: 1) discovering the cause, 2) waiting on God's timing, 3) having the right attitude, 4) starting to serve, even by small steps, 5) finding partners and 6) knowing when to quit. He includes inspirational bullet points at the ends of chapters of what he has learned, something a reader can pick up quickly for a reminder.

Barnett closes the book with the thought that one's God-given cause is the cause of Christ and to live out one's life to this cause goes well beyond personal achievement or success on earth and is part of something far more magnificent than anyone could imagine, with eternal significance. That's the bottom line and that's where Barnett leaves it.

*****
Confession: I usually read headier books on missiology or theology (maybe I'm a dorky bookworm, or maybe that's my God-given purpose). The Cause Within Me is more along the lines of popular reading for the Church. Absolutely nothing wrong with that; there just aren't many of those books on my bookshelves these days. Still, I found this book encouraging me and challenging me as I walk toward a new venture in my life this year. It reminded that I need to regroup with God and allow him to clarify and define my vision for this next stage of life.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

LIFE IN TENNESSEE // One Word 2011

Through my friend Grant [website] and the power of Twitter, I heard about a concept for the New Year: to pick one word to challenge and inspire you, one word to focus on. As a wordsmith and lover of things lexical, I thought I would take the challenge.

My one word: See

I've been thinking about this for a few days now because "see" seemed too simple, not deep enough or fancy enough for a writer. But I really couldn't get away from it.

I just recently finished grad school. I spent three years working and studying full-time, longs hours at my computer and in the books. Now that I'm done, I have a lot of free time and I've been trying to figure out how to fill it. With missions work in my future and a master's in cross-cultural studies hanging on my wall, I feel led to SEE what is out there in my community, to find a place to serve people from other cultures, to apply what I spent $32K in studying. I feel led to SEE who is living in Nashville now and how I can get involved until the time comes that I move on from this fair city.

I also find myself living in a virtual world.  I could easily be a hermit. I SEE much of the world through my laptop, Droid and now an iPad. It's easy to talk to friends and family without actually using my vocal cords or having actual physical contact. But I'm feeling convicted about that. Last year I started sending out more cards, notes and treats so that communication in my life wouldn't solely be in a virtual world. But now that I'm armed with knowledge and more defined call to missions, I need to SEE the world and its people around me. I need to reach out to them, talk to them and engage them.

So, SEE, that's my one word for 2011. To look outside my magic boxes of technology. To look outside the four walls of my house. And SEE what is going on in the world and how I can use my God-given gifts to his glory.