Michael White

Twenty-five years ago, no one had heard of TD Jakes, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren or Kirk Franklin. Trendsetters for certain, each of these ministry leaders was an absolute unknown when this generation began. The question I struggle with today is, with so many of us trying to carbon copy one of these individuals, what does that mean for the reinvention of church that is going to take place over the next 10-15 years?

I grew up hating church. I hated Sunday evening services, Sunday School and was too busy playing SOS and tic-tac-toe with my cousin to bother with 11am service. So for my generation, what does church mean for us? Does it mean a low commitment to weekly bible study, small groups and the like? For people with young children, just making it to Friday is a chore, how do you add one more meeting to that schedule? And when do you arrange it? Kids have games on Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays….Mondays are too close to Sunday and Wednesday night is the one night folks want to take a breath…. is it possible that God is reforming what we define as church right in front of our eyes and we are too married to successful examples to see it?

If you could design the perfect church, what would it include?

Would someone please put the Lakers out of their misery.

This thing is ridiculous..

Kobe should be ashamed…

ABC…Fire your analysts… too critical…..too…….much….

Pondering today is a labor because my mind is a bit scattered. But I wonder, do people feel as empty as I sense them feeling? Are they as broken as I encounter or just in a place of loneliness as if no one understands because they walk alone….

What in the world are you here for? That was the question i asked a coworker today as we spent a considerable amount of time trying to uncover her purpose in life. She’s lost. And I got lost trying to help her find her way. Isn’t that amazing? It happens all the time. Have you ever seen someone drowning at sea and the person trying to save them gets swept away because the drownee refuses to just be still. They want to continue to fight to save themselves as opposed to surrendering to the currents and allowing themselves to be saved.

Such is the problem with people looking to discover their God purposes. Unless God speaks to you in a dream or vision, or through an aha moment, more than likely you will run into your destiny or your destiny will run into you.

Be prepared!

Alot of times when our faith is challenged the greatest struggle we face is holding on to hope. In life we are sure to face times when life throws us for a loop and how we respond is less important than knowing that disappointment isn’t the conclusion to our lives. When God writes our life’s story, the finale is always written with receiving a standing ovation. God can’t get a standing ovation with life ending in a sea of misery and suffering. When the world looks at you they see the handprints of the God that you serve. And how they see you navigate the storms and come out ultimately victoriously will be the bread and butter of how God introduces Himself to others. So today, I know you are crying for more. I know it. I can feel it. You are hurting and you want the storm to quit raging. But there is no guarantee that peaceful days and sunny skies will greet you when you wake up in the morning. The only guarantee you have is that another day is soon to dawn and with it comes the opportunity to change. If it doesn’t come tomorrow, don’t give up…don’t give in… Have enough trust in God to see you through this. Remember the last few chapters of your life. God has good credit. He will come through. He handles His business better than anyone I know…

He has AAA credit!

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I learned alot from the West Wing like many Americans. And obviously, those knuckleheads running the Clinton campaign missed a few episodes of Martin Sheen and the rest of the gang do their thing on NBC. So while the campaign has ended in many ways, it is still pertruding along in other ways and Senator Clinton’s meeting last night, her event today and her official announcement tomorrow will go a long way to allowing the campaign to evolve in many ways over the next couple of weeks. But if I could talk to Senator Clinton one last time, this is what I would tell her….

Senator Clinton…. it seems like you’ve been listening to people seasoned in managing the game that is Washington politics. That’s great. The problem isn’t Washington, it is the millions of people, both black and white, who feel like all the support we gave you and your family for the last sixteen years slowly dripped down the drain into a cesspool of arrogance. You may not remember 1990 or 1991. You may not remember the days in Little Rock and traveling all around Razorback Country to far flung places like Fayetteville, Ft. Smith and Marion. And that’s ok. But at your best, who you were was someone comfortable around all people who rarely goofed in relationship building.

Mrs. Clinton, you’re goofing in relationship building. You are a great politician but the last six months have been less about politics and more about relationships. Senator Obama won the nomination not because he is the more seasoned politician but because he build more relationships than you did while alienating less people in the process. Black people in general, will always have tremendous respect for your husband. His legacy is set in stone with us. However, just because he is on the good side doesn’t mean you can’t chip away at that legacy. Be proud of the First that this campaign avails to us. I can’t compare the women’s movement to the civil rights movement. White women may been alot of things, but slaves who were hung is not one of them. Women in general may not have been allowed to vote, but a woman has never been castrated for whistling at a man with another skin color. I’m not racist, many of my closest friends are white. But when I am in this place we call America, I am not a man that happens to be black. I am a black man just as much as you are a white woman not a woman that happens to be white.

Senator Clinton don’t forget to listen to us… It’s what made you special when you and Bill were governeering while chanting ’soo-wee’.

Three years ago when I had the chance to meet then Junior Senator Barack Obama at a pastor’s only meeting with then Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., I had no idea that the man speaking then about a new vision for America would soon become the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. I had no idea that this charismatic figure from Chicago who was in Memphis supporting Harold Ford Jr., in his pursuit of becoming the first black Senator from the State of Tennessee would one day break an invisible barrier. This barrier, not that a black man could become a legitimate candidate or that he could raise the money nationally, but that invisible barrier that separated us all could be bridged in the presence of one man. He broke the barrier, inspiring rich and poor, black and white, Latino and Asian to come together under one collective banner, Democratic. Did I tell you, I am thinking all of this, as a long-time leaner of the Republican Party? I remember saying 8 years ago that John McCain would be good for the country.

But I had no idea…… And the surprise was priceless. 

This is part two of a series that includes the title, Site Redesign. When you think of transformation, most of those that have done teachings or preaching on the subject begin with grasping a new vision. And that’s great but flawed. No one captures a vision without an initial connection. That connections comes from a power higher than your own, for me, my personal relationship with Jesus. When you tap into Christ it is similar to plugging yourself into an outlet, and Him dispensing the necessary voltage for you to perform specific tasks, duties and operations. It is also where you get enough illumination to see a new vision for your life. Your new vision is His vision for you. It is amazing how people miss this as if reading the latest self-help book is going to give you an answer. Just read The Book, that one called the Bible. In it you will see this connection at work, for it says, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’. It also says that even before we were in our mother’s womb, God knew us and had a plan and purpose for our lives. The disconnect comes from our failure to plug in to discover what that plan and purpose is. Remember, the Bible also says that the steps of a good man are ordered (set in process) by the Lord. That is to say, that even though I’m going through a redesign, my redesign is exactly where God has me to be. If He needed me somewhere else, guess what….I’d be there….

Get@me…

If you’ve looked our header has undergone a revision. It’s a process that I needed as I discover what it is that God is calling me to do. This redesign has little to do with a blog and alot more to do with God reassigning my ministry focus. If I were TD Jakes we wouldn’t be having this discussion because Jakes has settled into his role. The same goes for Stacy Spencer, Steven Furtick, Jamal Harrison Bryant and Perry Noble. All of these guys are hitting doubles and triples on a consistent basis. The problem for me is, I am shifting and anytime you are in the middle of a shift there is an aroma that is unfamiliar that catches your attention.

I could sit here and say, ‘I’m going to plant a church’. And you would say great. The problem is, I still have a question. What kind of church or what kind of people.

In this modern time we live in, starting a church is no longer a strange event. People are doing it every day and I have no desire to roll in the same river as these churches. They didn’t reach me when I was out there sleeping in an abandoned apartment, while dreaming about becoming a billionaire. The pastor thought I was crazy, as opposed to nurturing my greatness from an ungreatness-like position. But it is my reality and the reality of so many people who have lost alot more than they have gained and are wondering where faith fits into what they are trying to do.

So….redesign

Have you ever heard the saying, “I can’t do right, for doing wrong?”? Such are the sentiments of someone in a place I call stuck on struggle. It is difficult, especially when trying to do the right things and to build positive momentum in your life to have life slap you in the face time after time, and you expect to get back up with the same vitality as before. The reality is, regardless of how strong you are at some point, that inner strength will begin to dissipate and you will begin to waver and ultimately collapse under the weight of failure. The only way to avoid this is to balance success and failure. When you never succeed and always fail you force the balance scales to tilt in the wrong direction. God does not want that for you. In fact, Jesus had something to say about this exact subject when He told the disciples, ‘in this world, you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world’.

Jesus knew that persecutions and bad days were coming for the disciples, unlike what any of them could have imagined. Imagine walking for Jesus for 3 years and then all of a sudden, him being killed and one by one, disciples losing heart and beginning to question what all of this was about. That’s the place where you are stuck on struggle. when you have been wading all night in a lake trying to catch enough fish to eat, and some man walks out to you and says, ‘throw your net over here, to where the fish wouldn’t normally be’. Those are the kinds of actions required to unstick yourself from struggle.

The only question is, do you have the mental strength to throw your net where it doesn’t belong?