Beauty in the Church

Posted on April 20, 2010

Our conception of feminine beauty is so distorted in American culture. I was driving around town last week and saw an Oakley sunglasses ad that pretty much it sums up: “Perform Beautifully.”

That’s right. Beauty is a competition, and you are up against supermodels like Karena Dawn and airbrushed advertisements. The principle driving beauty in America is a principle of performance, not godliness.Will you perform beautifully? If so, you will run with $130 shades.

Women are dominated by the principle of performance, competing against one another for the title of beautiful. And when you fail to be fashionable, you fail to be beautiful—a great lie from the pit of marketing hell.

Our culture says: “Perform beautifully,” but the Gospel says: “Jesus performed beautifully for you!”

The biblical alternative is wonderful freeing. Our culture says: “Perform beautifully,” but the Gospel says: “Jesus performed beautifully for you!” The challenge is to lay hold of your beauty in Christ. This begins with repentance from believing the lies of our culture–perform beautifully–and turning to faith in Jesus for your beauty.

However, true beauty doesn’t grow in a vacuum of confession, you’ll need something to rearrange your view of beauty. something to place your faith in. God calls women to a beauty of godliness that is imperishable, that outlasts youth, physical fitness, fashion, and any earthly measurement: “an imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (1 Peter 3:3-4).

God celebrates beauty of Spirit and beauty of Action. Peter and Paul lay this out wonderfully. Read about it more here. As you cultivate a godly beauty, pick up some of resources that can help.

New! Free “Too Late” Single, Miranda Dodson

Posted on April 19, 2010

Miranda’s new single “Too Late” actually drops tomorrow, but you can get it free right now!

“TOO LATE”

ALBUM: CHANGE A THING
Release Date: June 15, 2010

Miranda’s innovative folk winds through guitar strings, around vintage horns and forward-thinking synths, through wide-ranging-heart-filled vocals to turn listeners into believers. With lyrical images that reach right into the imagination, Miranda draws the listener into story and into sound. From impassioned alt-country ballads to fun head-bobbing folk-pop each track of her album “Change A Thing” stands strongly on its own but also hangs together united by collaborative creativity.

Get the single for free, then treat yourself to the whole album on June 15!

3 Layers of Mission

Posted on April 19, 2010

In a recent discussion on the GCM Collective Community site, we’ve been discussing ways to foster effective urban ministry. There have been some great best practices and insights shared. Here are three layers of mission I shared for missional communities (with examples from Austin City Life City Groups):

  1. Mission in Locale/Zipcode – a Missional Community that works with homeless communities to develop friendship & microfinance in their part of the city.
  2. Mission in Work/Vocation – an Missional Community that rallies around one of their artists by supporting their music by going to shows, building relationships into the artist community, and using music to fundraise for non-profits and build community.
  3. Mission as a Community – a Missional Community that has a partnership with a local job Womens Corps, serving once or twice a month to teach skills, serve the kids, and support the Job Corps.

We’re finding that it important to empower people to live out everyday mission in all three ways. If mission is a way of life, and not an event, then it will be important for missional community leaders to continually cast vision and equip for mission in all three areas.