Doesn't Anybody Follow Jesus Anymore?

When I sat down to write a book on the subject of following Jesus, I found myself realizing that it's really a lost art in the American Church these days.

We're really good at making converts, but making disciples (followers of Jesus) is something we're pretty bad at in general.

The reason this troubles me is that Jesus commanded us (see "The Great Commission" in Matthew) to make disciples, not to make converts to a religious organization.

This is why the subject of following Jesus is such a passion of mine. This is why I wrote the 40 articles that became the book, "Nobody Follows Jesus (So Why Should You?)" over the last few years.

You can buy the book online at the link below, or you can just download the PDF version totally FREE. What matters to me is getting the ideas contained in the book into the minds of people who have misunderstood our calling to be followers of Jesus, not members of an organization.

VISIT THE SUBVERSIVE BOOKSTORE HERE:
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1073843

Here's what one woman said after reading my book:
" I downloaded your "Nobody Follows Jesus" book. I told my friend (youth pastor's wife) about it. I wasn't sure at first what you were going to write about (the title threw me off a little), but I couldn't help thinking, "Right on!" just about the entire time I was reading. I just started it, but wanted to let you know how much it has impacted me already! I feel like you climbed into my brain and scooped out all my thoughts on this issue...thoughts I've been thinking about since I became a Christian at 7 years old. I can't help but want to follow Jesus...your words in this form help point others to do so too!

Thanks!"

You can also purchase or download the book, "The Gospel: For Here Or To Go?" which takes a practical look at being a missionary to the world you're in right now.

peas,
kg

HITCHENS, D'SOUZA DEBATE: IS GOD THE PROBLEM?

If you've got the time you need to watch this debate between noted Atheist Christopher Hitchens ( author of "God Is Not Great") and Dinesh D'Souza ("What's So Great About Christianity?").

You need to know what the greatest (and loudest) voices in our world today are saying about Christianity and Faith in God.

Watch:
http://www.tkc.edu/debate/

kg

WEEKEND ROUND-UP

So much to blog about this week, where to begin?

*Ministry to Prostitutes- Last Friday night, around 11pm, I lead a group of six others onto Harbor blvd. to minister to prostitutes there. It wasn't so pretty. We intended to pass out free coffee to the girls in hopes of striking up conversations. Instead, they all avoided us like the plague and some ignored us completely when we tried to talk to them.

We did pass out one cup of java to a man at the bus stop, and another man at a different bus stop asked us for fifty cents, but declined to receive prayer.

In hindsight we realize that most of those girls ignored us because their pimps were just a few feet away watching them and they needed to appear busy and not chit-chatting with passers-by. We'll modify our approach next time and adjust our methods.

One group I'm in touch with up in the Los Angeles area passes out gift bags to the girls with perfume, lip gloss, jewelry, etc. That sounds like a much better idea to me.

I can't help but wonder, however, how effective we can be in the long run since no one in our group has ever walked in this world before. The LA group is made up of former prostitutes and drug addicts and gang-bangers. Our group is made up of housewives, pastors, and desk jockeys. Do we have any hope of relating to them at all?

*My Ooze Article- There's a great storm of responses being made over at TheOoze.com on my article, "Destroy the (Christian) Subculture!" which really makes me smile. One person emailed me directly to say that he forwarded it on to his blog subscribers (about 150 people) and one of those in Brazil loved it so much he did the same.

Maybe there's hope yet for an awakening within the American Christian Church? I pray so. I pray.

My favorite comment was about my use of violent imagery to communicate my passion to destroy this subculture. He suggested that I probably sit at home playing hours of violent video games and watching porn. Ha! Oh yeah, I play "Halo 3" all day, watch porn and then I sit down to write articles on discipleship to Jesus in my spare time. That's the "ABC's of me, baby".

Riiiight.

Or maybe I'm a writer who uses language to communicate ideas and sometimes gets creative so that people will have a reaction to my words that goes beyond passive complacency? Maybe I realize that people need to be offended or shocked before they will respond and act and wake up? Yeah…maybe.

Ok, got to get back to my Halo 3 and pornos now.

*The [Subversive Underground] e-newsletter: For the first time in almost two years my free, weekly e-newsletter missed a week. Not because I didn't write it. Not because I didn't post it. But because the good people at Feedblitz didn’t send it out. Usually I catch these little hiccups, which happen almost every other week, and I email the customer support people to wake them up and remind them that they need to send it out because I've posted it and after almost 48 hours it hasn't been sent to the list.

This last weekend I had too much going on, with the Harbor blvd ministry, friends coming over, a sermon to preach at Soul Survivor Church, and family life, and so I wasn't quick enough to email Feedblitz and ask them to send out my [SU].

So, last week's article was sent yesterday. This means I'll have to send out two this week in order to keep the "weekly" promise I made to my subscribers.

To correct this on future articles I've re-set my Feedblitz account to manual send. This means that after I post the weekly article I'll have to go over to Feedblitz and login and send it out
myself. Every time.

See what I do for you people? It isn't all porn and games over here ya know?

*PODCAST SERMON: "LIVING THE MISSIONAL LIFE" - If you use ITunes you can search "Keith Giles" under podcasts and listen to my sermon last week over at Soul Survivor Church. It's more of a conversation than a sermon, really. I purposely tried to engage people in a dialog rather than deliver a prepared speech. I think it came out ok. If you listen to it let me know what you think.

*THE NON-CON UPDATE: As of this moment I am seriously praying about whether or not to throw the switch on the Non-Con for March 2008. Jackie Pullinger is confirmed. David Ruis and all the rest are still on board with it. I've got the location nailed down and I've done like six other conferences like this one before, so it's not that I'm not sure if I can pull it off.

What gives me pause is the fact that all of this stuff is seriously hard work. Because I've done a few of these before I totally understand what this does to me, and to my family, as the date approaches. The time it will take to set up the service projects, the financial risk to my family (since this is the first conference I'll do on my own...not for a non-profit ministry, but all by myself), and the stress that goes along with all of that, makes me really want to pray about doing this.

I have people emailing me all the time asking me when I'll open registration for this event. This is October. The event is in March. I know people are very excited about this, and because of that I want to make it happen because I know it has the potential to really bless a lot of people and especially to educate the Church about the Kingdom and to invite people to step out of their comfort zones and serve the poor. This is very exciting to me.

Please pray for me about this. Please ask God to give me wisdom and guidance about doing this Non-Con. I want it to be His will and His plan, not mine.

Thanks for your support.

Peace,
Keith

The Gospel: For Here Or To Go? - Free Download

My first book project, "The Gospel:For Here Or To Go?" is now available for purchase over at Lulu.com.

About the book:
This is not a book about how to change the world. It’s about changing your world so that God, through you, might introduce Himself to a few of the people around you.

To think of yourself as a missionary is to realize that you have a mission. Every single day of your life, wherever you are, wherever you go, you are on a mission.

This book is intended to shed some much needed light on what it means to live this way without being false. The important thing to remember is that you are not selling anything. The Gospel is not for sale. You are not a salesman. You don’t need to memorize a pitch. You will not track your success on a chart. You will not have to pretend to be someone else.

Free Download
I'm offering everyone the chance to download the book, free of charge. Just go to the link provided, download the .pdf version for free and start reading. It's yours to keep and to forward to your friends.

In addition, my second book, "Nobody Follows Jesus (So Why Should You?)" is also available as a free download and contains forty of my favorite articles published over the last four years on the subject of following Jesus. It's over 200 pages worth of my best writing and I'm proud to share it with all of you.

If you decide to purchase the print version of either book, please keep in mind that the bulk of the price you'll pay goes to the publisher, Lulu.com. I only earn about two dollars per book sold, so no one is getting rich here...except maybe Lulu.com that is.

Just for the record, the version of "The Gospel:For Here Or To Go?" I'm offering here does not yet include the introduction from author Neil Cole ("Organic Church") but I will offer an updated version of the book, along with additional chapters and supplimental material, as soon as all of that is completed.

The book is available online here:
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1073843

Thanks to everyone for reading my articles and for supporting my writing ministry.

Peas,
Keith

CONSUMPTION, EXPRESSION, IDENTITY

As a society, we are conditioned to find our identity in what we own or purchase. As Christians, we are conditioned to express our faith through the sanctified products we purchase, own or consume. This is the perversion of Christ into Capitalism and an expression of faith through consumption of products. It is wrong.

A good friend sent me an article he found that provided an intriguing historical perspective on our evolution from artisans to consumers. I've pulled out the quotes I found most fascinating below:

"A Short History of Consumption: With the rise of the Industrial Revolution, the relationship between people and the goods that they made was broken. No longer did peasants plant, tend, and harvest their crops; now agricultural workers labored over someone else’s crops in exchange for wages. No longer did artisans design, plan, craft, and sell; now factory workers repeatedly carried out a single step in the production of a product, again in exchange for wages."

"In short, people were no longer producers, they were now consumers."

"Our identities were no longer tied up with the work we did, but with the buying power our work left us with."

"So people found their identities not in their work but in the things they could buy by working."

"People became consumers, not just in the way they got what they needed but in who they felt themselves to be."

"Unlike the artisan who could express his or her identity through the things s/he created, we have learned to do so through the things we buy"

Full article here>

The entire article is mainly looking at consumption from an environmental impact perspective, but the points made about our lifelong indoctrination to consumerism as a society are very eye-opening to me.

Here's what I think we need to understand, as followers of Jesus, regarding the observations made in this article above.

CONSUMPTION IS SELF-EXPRESSION
We, as a society, have made consuming and purchasing products part of our identity structure. This is why people will fork out $30 for a t-shirt with some corporate logo and walk around as a billboard for them, not because they love that company or product, not because of their loyalty to the brand, but because they think that logo makes THEM look cool. It says something about them, and so they willingly become walking advertising...and they PAY for the privilege. Amazing.

CHRISTIAN IDENTITY
Honestly, this really does help me to formulate a clear picture of what's going on in the Christian subculture. We're finding our identity as "Christians" in the products we purchase. These products brand us and identify us as a subset of people. Instead of finding our identity in Christ by the way we relate to Him daily, obey His teachings, and emulate His example of service and unconditional love, we now identify ourselves as Christians by our t-shirts, bumper stickers, books and CD collections.

ARTISTS AND CONSUMPTION/IDENTITY/EXPRESSION
It's also fascinating how this shift in our society stems from the devaluing of artisans in our culture. People now express themselves by what they own or purchase more than by what they create with their hands or their imaginations. Artists within our society are influenced by this consumerist identity structure. Artists of faith are compelled to create art that can be sold, or that conforms to the acceptable Christian marketplace. Art in this context is devoid of pure self-expression, unless that expression conforms to the acceptable branding and messaging of the sacred market.

More from the article:

"The rise of consumption as our primary interaction with the rest of our society has had profound effects. For example, social status is obtained and marked by the things we buy and use. A car, for instance, is not just a way to get from one place to another but has to “say something” about who we are — and even the lack of a car says volumes. Unlike the artisan who could express his or her identity through the things s/he created, we have learned to do so through the things we buy: the t-shirt with the logo of our band or team, the bamboo towels that show our environmental commitments, the alternative album that shows off our indie cred, the designer shoes that place us as part of the trend-setting elite, the minivan that shows us to be part of the dependable, hard-working, family-oriented suburban middle class, and so on."

SUBCULTURE AND IDENTITY
The Christian Subculture has a market. That market embraces a brand. That brand has a message connected to it. That message serves the market and encourages ongoing participation in that market. It means providing reasons to continue purchasing these products day after day and week after week. The market serves itself. It exists to keep itself in business.

The Christian Subculture provides an oasis made of soothing products that help us escape from the Big Bad World that is "Out There". It's a sacred version of "Calgon-Take Me Away!" only our message is more pervasive. It's not just one soothing bath to calm our fears of being trapped in a world of sin, it's music and movies and clothing and books and toys and key chains and license plate frames and decals and candy and pens and pretty much every conceivable object and piece of product that can ever be branded with our message. It's nearly a complete world unto itself, and it's exactly what Jesus prayed to God would never happen to us. (see John 17:15)

THE CART THAT PULLS THE HORSE
I'm not against art or music or expressions of faith. Most of my favorite musicians are believers and their music contains references to our Lord and to faith in Him. Many of my friends are Artists who paint and sculpt and create art to communicate a Kingdom reality. The issue is not that creating art or any sincere expression of devotion to Christ is wrong. What is evil is the marketplace we've created to showcase product. In the beginning the market existed to serve the Art, now the Art exists to serve the marketplace. We have lost focus. Making money is now the main objective. Evangelism or edification or worship is secondary at best, if considered at all.

During my six years in the Christian Music Industry I slowly began to realize the sickness of it all. At first I saw the industry as a way to spread the Gospel and to provide a voice for talented musicians of faith. But soon I realized that it didn't matter if your music ministry was responsible for leading thousands to Christ each year. What mattered was record sales. If your CD's weren't selling at least 20,000 units per sales cycle you'd be dropped from the label in a heartbeat. It was, after all, a Record BUSINESS, and like every business making money and selling product is the very bottom line. Ministry is incidental, and sadly only useful in the context of marketing the product to your target audience, in order to drive more sales.

Like the money-changers in front of the Temple that Jesus chased away with a whip, the original idea was a good one; To provide animals for sacrifice so that people could enter the Temple and participate in the worship of God. However, when money got in the way the original vision was corrupted and the Temple became a marketplace which obscured access for the common man and made a mockery of real worship. The same is true today.

BACK TO JESUS
The tension still remains between the clear command of our Lord to "Go into all the world.." and a subculture that bears His Name, yet encourages a full retreat from the World and identifies membership based on purchasing the acceptable, branded product. The product carries a message that we should fear those outside of our group. It encourages non-involvement with the culture. It makes minimizing contact with those outside the subculture a preferable reality.

If Jesus modeled radical inclusion and commanded us to be known by our love for everyone, especially those who hate us, and a subculture emerges with His Name on it that encourages us to be radically exclusive and creates behavior by which we are known for our intolerance, hatred and condemnation of those outside our group, we must make a choice. Do we choose Jesus or do we choose the man-made subculture with his Name on it?

I choose Jesus.

If Jesus clearly teaches something, and another organization or person teaches the exact opposite we call that "Anti-Christ". To me it's plainly obvious that the Christian Subculture is "Anti-Christ" because it contradicts His message of inclusion, involvement and meaningful relationships with sinners.

I've said it before and I say it again; "Death to the Christian Subculture!"

BRINGING A CHANGE
Where can we fashion a whip and drive out the money-changers from the Temple? It's difficult because we now deal with this on a massive scale. Participation in this market-driven Christian Subculture is pervasive and intangible. There is no physical structure to kick over. There is no clear method for applying the whip necessary to drive them out.

All we can really do is to begin, one person at a time, to disassociate ourselves with this subculture. Stop participating. Stop identifying yourself as a follower of Jesus based on your purchases. Stop pandering to what the Christian Marketplace finds acceptable and palatable. Make Jesus your single source of Truth. Ask God to show you where you have replaced a Jesus way of life with a carefully branded subculture way of life. Escape the false notions of "Sacred" and "Secular" and just start living, as a disciple of Jesus, in this World (the only World), right now.

I declare a personal War against the Christian Subculture, and against the consumer who lives inside of me.

kg

**

LOVE THE POOR

LOVE THE POOR
by Keith Giles

I received a very encouraging email this week from a friend in Torrance, California who just hosted a massive "Health Fair" for the homeless a few weeks ago.

Read below what this ministry did to serve the poor in their community. The Kingdom is advancing here.
**
Keith,

Our Health Fair was an incredible success. All attendees registered at thee door and received cards with all the stations color coded.

In order:
1) Foot washing- Allowed for a few relaxing, intimate minutes with people. Washed, cleaned, dried, powdered, with new socks and foot medicine provided to those who had athletes feet or some fungus. This usually finished off with a few minutes of prayer for the person receiving the washing. If you ever want to get to know a homeless person, wash their feet and ask them to tell you about themselves. I find everyone has a story to tell and they really do want to share it, only no one cares enough to ask them for it. Mother Teresa said most people she cared for actually died of a lonely heart.

2) Next stop - 2 barbers chairs cutting hair, beards.

3) Dentist visit- Free dental inspection and appointments with Dr Carl who goes to our Church and donates every Friday afternoon to free dental care for the homeless. He pays all the secretary and dental hygienists, plus the labs, and crowns and whatever.

4) Nurses administered free Hepatitis A, B and C shots and Pneumonia shoots. (At our Wednesday night before Thanksgiving dinner we will give free flu shots).

5) Prayer team corner. Always busy, worked in pairs and alternated prayers in/out over the course of the evening.

6) Mental health Doctors to talk with folks, review medications and make recommendations. No medicine was dispensed.

7) County Drug and Alcohol booth that could place people in recovery shelters that night or as soon as they are ready.

8) Free shirts, protein bars, and goodies

9) Free Dinner and lots of it. As much as you wanted. Desert cart with cupcakes and the icing and goodies applied at table side just as they wanted.

Re-Cap:
We had 140 attendees, 15 of which were complete families. We had 125 volunteers form 3 churches.

Our God is such a Great God.

As I explained to the Press- These folks are our family. We treat and love them as we would our close kin at Thanksgiving dinner, with the respect and love we show our family.

THANKSGIVING DINNER PLANS
We will have our third annual Thanksgiving dinner this year. I go to the homeless camps, freeway under crossings, the crack and meth camps along the river in Harbor city, the corners were the migrants hang out and invite them all. We have staged intersections and shuttle them to dinner and back to their corners.

MINISTRY TO PROSTITUTES
I worked with a Ministry an Assemblies of God in the LBC at the North Long Beach Compton border. I was big into fresh fruit and vegetables food distribution to any Churches in need I could find. They would have a once a month "Ladies of the Night" ministry. The Church was in a prostitution/crack neighborhood were the girls pimps hung out. The pimps were bitter and mean and would not let the women come, but praise God they started coming for fellowship prayer and occasional help. A few women were secreted away from the location and from their pimps to start new lives.

Remember: Always travel in pairs and with one or two women in ministry to street prostitutes in case the Police want to talk with you.

Sorry for the long email, (it might be a record for me). Looking forward to new Kingdom adventures with your Church.

His Peace in your life - Amen
Bernie
**

I am SO encouraged by this email. Not only because of all the beautiful expressions of love being shown to the poor, but also because of Bernie's heart for people. It makes me want to get on my knees and ask God for more of His love for others. I want to have a heart like Jesus for those in need.

Blessings to you Bernie. May your tribe increase.
-kg

THE GOSPEL: For Here Or To Go? (The Book)

"Learning to live an incarnational life is essentially about re-learning what it means to be human, and how to relate to other humans as a human being; not as a christian to a non-christian." - Keith Giles (from the book, "The Gospel: For Here Or To Go?")

Last year I set a goal for myself to write at least one book project. I actually wrote two of them.

This year my goal was to publish at least one of them and I couldn't be more thrilled to announce that this book will soon be available for purchase on this very website.

"The Gospel:For Here Or To Go?" is essentially about incarnational ministry, or "Missional Life" as some like to call it.

The book started out as a workshop I did for Soul Survivor's "Momentum" Conference about two years ago. From there I wanted to write down what came out of this workshop and I ended up writing a six part series of articles which appeared online at both Ginkworld.net and at Neil Cole's CMAResources.com.

The book itself contains all of the same material you'll find in those six articles, but I've added another six chapters worth of material to make this a more robust discussion of what it means to live out the calling to go and make disciples.

This amazing cover image was created by artist, illustrator and very dear friend, Scott Laumann (http://www.scottlaumann.com/) who has done professional work for SPIN Magazine, Rolling Stone, Time, and a few other national publications. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have this cover from Scott.

Neil Cole (author of "Organic Church") has also agreed to contribute an introduction to my first book and I'm honored to have someone of his reputation do so. Plus it only seemed fitting since he was one of the first to champion those early six articles on his website.

WAIT...THERE'S MORE!

In addition, I will also release a 200 page collection of 50 articles on spiritual formation called "Nobody Follows Jesus (So Why Should You?)" alongside this book. This book collects my favorite articles on discipleship which have appeared over the last four years in magazines like Relevant, TheOoze, Ginkworld, SeedStories.com, and at Soul Survivor USA's website.

I'll have the online store open very soon. You'll have the choice to purchase the print version of the book or to download an e-book (pdf) version if that's your thing.

Hang in there. There's more to come.

peas,

kg

A GOOD LOOK IN THE MIRROR

For a long time now I've been saying that Christians are their own worst enemy. We complain about the fact that popular media lampoons us as being alarmist, extremist, and hateful.

The sad thing is, the popular media, and the average citizen, only reacts to what they see. We've not demonstrated to this World that we are like Jesus. Instead we embrace a political agenda which urges us into war, celebrates the death of those who are not like us, and largely ignores the poor and the sick.

Our example, Jesus, was a man of peace. He said, "Blessed are the peace makers for they shall inherit the Earth". Yet the political party most closely associated with Jesus celebrates war.

Jesus said that if we shared food or water or clothing or shelter with someone in need that it was the same as expressing our love for Him. (Matthew 25) Yet the Church in America is not known for compassion on the homeless, the poor, the orphan or the widow.

Jesus embraced the leper, yet those who call themselves His followers largely ignore those suffering from AIDS, the leprosy of our time.

I just saw this article online today and couldn't help but sympathize with those who commented in the negative about us - the followers of Jesus.

Read the comments found on this link
http://digg.com/politics/A_Nation_of_Christians_Is_Not_a_Christian_Nation

Just read the comments. Don't freak out. Please don't post a hot-tempered rebuttal and make the rest of us look stupid and hateful. Just read. Listen to what these people are saying. Ask yourself why they think this way? What has lead them to believe that the followers of Jesus are narrow-minded, arrogant, and self-absorbed?

We've created the image that is in their minds.

I wish that the label "Christian" was equated with people who are full of love, patience, kindness, understanding and compassion.

I wish.

kg

WHAT WOULD CS LEWIS DO?

What Would CS Lewis Do?
by Keith Giles

The other day a good friend of mine asked me if I ever thought about writing anything other than spiritual matters? Like fiction, for example.

The truth is that I did write fiction before I started the whole "Subversive" thing that's going on now. I had started to write a sci-fi novel called "Digerati" which dealt with memory replacement, bio-engineering and identity. Eventually that novel-in-progress inherited an artist and suddenly it was a comicbook/graphic novel-in-progress. Out of that project sprung a second project called "Hard Video" which was based on a short story I wrote. That project got an artist attached and soon I had several other sci-fi/graphic novel projects going all at once. After that came "Durango Silver" and "UV:Target" and then it totally snowballed.

The result was something we called "Plastic Animal Studios" and you can take a look at the projects we had going at the website: http://www.plasticanimalstudios.com

We actually had some of our stuff published in a giant anthology called "Prophecy" (not a Christian publication, in spite of the name). The "Hard Video" short story was in there first (and only) edition. We had finished pages on a second short called "The Devil's Riding Horse", and you can read that entire story at the website link provided, but it never got published because they went out of business.

One day, I will get back to my sci-fi projects and self-publish those as well. When I do, the question is whether not I should combine the fiction and the spiritual books into one blog/website or if I should create a separate identity for the fiction. My friend asked me about this the other day. He wanted to know if I would feel comfortable with people who follow my spiritual writings being exposed to my fiction, and conversely how I would feel if those who followed my fiction discovered my writings on being a Jesus follower. Good question.

I admit I've thought about this, but my kneejerk reaction is to ask, "What did C.S. Lewis do"? He just wrote and allowed the two worlds to co-exist. Go to Amazon.com and search his name and you'll find books on Christian Theology side by side with books on science fiction and books for children based on myth and fantasy. I think that's what I'll do too.

Granted, it's inevitable that some will read my fiction and be offended that I include violence and adult situations, and some will outright reject my fiction completely when they discover that I'm a "Christian Author"…so in some ways I can't win either way. That's just the way it will have to be, I guess.

I've done a lot of thinking lately about the false distinction of "Sacred" and "Secular" created by the Christian subculture. In order to further demonstrate my desire to eliminate the kind of mentality created by this man-made evil, it makes even more sense than ever for me to bundle everything into one unsafe package.

At the moment, however, I am firmly focused on publishing my books on spiritual matters.
Very soon I will announce the availability of my book, "Nobody Follows Jesus (So Why Should You?)" and provide a link here on this blog for online sales of the physical book, and pdf download option as well. This book is over 200 pages long and contains 50 articles on spiritual formation and discipleship I've published over the last four years at RelevantMagazine.com, TheOoze.com, and several other outlets. It really is a great collection of some of my very favorite articles on the subject of following Jesus. I can't wait to release it!

Following that I will make "The Gospel:For Here Or To Go?" available for online purchase. The cover, by Scott Laumann, is already finished and it is totally gorgeous. I'd buy it just for that cover image. The hold up on this book has been the introduction which Neil Cole (the author of "Organic Church") has been working on for me. He's been travelling a lot lately, and he's also in the middle of finishing up his own book too, so I have no problem waiting on him to provide me with his introduction at his earliest convenience. It will be worth the wait, I assure you.

After the New Year I will publish "Top 10 Things Every Christian Should Know (But Probably Doesn't)" based on the monthly series I wrote this year, with additional material which wasn't included in the online version of those articles.

Following that I want to release another set of books collecting my interviews with Dallas Willard, Matt Redman, Jim Wallis, Todd Hunter, Spencer Burke, Dr. Scott Bartchy, Tim Hughes, and uh…a lot of other people. I'll call that "Subversive Interviews" I think.

After that I'll publish a collection of my articles on house church called "The Mission: Adventures in House Church" and another collection after that of my articles on caring for poor called "Secret Service:Developing a Heart for the Poor".

Some of you may also remember that I have been writing another book of totally original material called "The Power of Weakness". This book has not been published in any online format. Right now, the book is still in the development stage and I will insert that book into the release schedule as soon as I have the time to put that final bit of polish on the manuscript. I mean, it's totally done, but I need to add a bit of narrative to the beginning of each chapter and just haven't had the time to do it.

Taking a look at that list, I think I have plenty to keep me busy in the self-publishing department.

Just between you and me, I'd really LOVE it if a publisher would offer to do all of this for me. As much as I love the freedom of self-publishing, it would really great if I could just write my books and someone else could handle the editing, the layout, the cover, and the marketing for me.

Ahh….yeah, that would be SO nice. If you know of any Christian publishers looking for great writers send them my way.

Until then…

kg

BETTER THAN ME

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves" - Philipians 2:3

I'm nearly ok with treating others like they're as good as I am, but "better than I am"? I don't know if I'm ready for that.

I used to be in a band with three other guys. I was the lead vocalist and lyricist. Early on I told all of them they had permission to kick my butt if they ever felt like I was getting too prideful or self-absorbed. Luckily, they all were quite eager to provide a butt-kicking to my ego whenever necessary, and I managed to hold my pride in check for nearly five years.

Actually, my ego was still incredibly virile, but I shudder to imagine what it would have been like had my band-mates not engaged in actively serving me large helpings of humble pie.

"Humility is a virtue so beyond my understanding that should I achieve it, I would be proud of myself" - Benjamin Franklin

Someone once defined a prideful person as someone who spends too much time thinking about themselves and not enough time thinking about me. I can relate.

As an only child I've never had any trouble thinking of myself, or how everything in the Universe relates to me, or to who I am or what I want. Maybe I'm so fascinated by the discipline of humility because I realize that I am most lacking of this quality?

Andrew Murray once said, "Humility is not thinking less of myself, it is not thinking of myself at all."

If this is so, I've got a long way to go towards humility.

The verse in Philipians urges us to consider others as being better than ourselves. I struggle with treating people as being on par with myself, to be honest. The idea of putting the needs of others above my own is still not the same as behaving as if everyone around me is actually better than I am. I can put the needs of others above my own needs and still believe that the people I'm serving are less important or intelligent than I am. What I'm called to do in this verse is to consider others through the lens of humility, and to see them as better than I am, as more deserving of honor and service than I am.

Again, God's Word compels us to throw ourselves on His mercy and confess that we are not capable of such selflessness. It's just not in me to love others sacrificially, or to serve them joyfully, or to regard them as more important than I am. It's just not.

That's where we have to fall on our knees and pray that God would transform us into the sorts of people who are capable of loving and serving this way. I need to beg God for the kind of humility that actually believes that others around me are better than I am. This means believing that I am not as fabulous as I think I am. It means humbling myself before God, and even before other people, so that God can work in me, and through me. My heart needs to be softened, like clay, so that God's fingerprints can be seen in my life as He kneads and twists and forms my heart into the shape of His Son's.

One interesting thing about the Kingdom of God is that to enter it you must first humble yourself, (see Mark 10:14-15). That's because the Kingdom of God is quite simply that place where the absolute will of God is done. This means that God is King, and that you and I are not. So, if we will not humble ourselves and submit to God's will in every way, we cannot enter the Kingdom. Better said, when we refuse to humble ourselves, we have left the Kingdom of God and entered our own Kingdom, where our will is done.

Even Jesus began his ministry by humbling himself to become flesh, to be born to a simple, poor family, and even to lay down his life for us all. (see Phil 2:5-8) See, God went first. He humbled Himself before us. He submitted Himself to us first, and even when we were putting nails through His hands and feet, He continued to surrender to us in order to rescue us from our sins.

I believe that is why Jesus set the example of washing his disciples feet. He humbled himself before them, served them as a slave would serve his master, and then said, "I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you...Now that you know these things, you will blessed if you do them." (John 13:15;17)

God has a lot to say about pride, and as I go through my life I have seen the wisdom of these words played out numerous times. "God opposes the proud, but gives Grace to the humble." (Proverbs 3:34)

This is good news, because I need Grace in greater measure every single day. If humility is the only way to receive this Grace, I am more than willing to be humbled, and to remain there, so that the Grace of God may shower down on my life like warm summer rain.

Let it rain.
kg

**

WEEKEND RECAP

MOTEL MINISTRY
On Saturday our house church family from "The Mission" went to serve the residents at the California Studio Inn in Santa Ana.

We had a bounce house for the kids, plus toys, clothes and books to give away, along with tons of free groceries.

You can read a lot more about what happened and look a lot of pictures of the day over at
http://www.MissionHouseChurch.com

My friends at Soul Survivor Church in Costa Mesa have also expressed a desire to partner with us in this ministry going forward. I can't wait to start working side-by-side with our brothers and sisters at SS.

MINISTRY TO PROSTITUTES?
This is a recurring theme for me. Ever since I first discovered that there were girls trapped in this lifestyle only a few miles from my house I've been praying about what to do to provide a way out for these girls.

I've lead a team from Soul Survivor Church to go out and pray for the girls, but we had mixed results. We realized that relationship is really the only thing that will have any impact. So, now we're praying at The Mission about stepping back into this ministry again...and I wasn't the one who brought it up, which makes me believe that God is stirring others in our group to step out and give themselves away in this fashion.

I'll be sure to provide updates on how this progresses....

THE MISSION
We had such an awesome Sunday together yesterday. I was blessed beyond words to realize what God has done, and what He has accomplished in everyone's life, at this house church that meets in our home. I am truly amazed that these people are such a part of my own family, and how all of us are really, seriously, family to one another. It's a beautiful thing!

OVER THE RHINE
Last night Wendy and I went with the Wright family (Jason and Heather from The Mission...Heather's an artist and her website is linked below on the left-hand side) went to see Over The Rhine at The Coach House. It was pure musical joy. I never wanted it to end.

NON-CON '08
I just need to get a few final details nailed down and soon I'll be able to open the online registration for the NON-CON '08 with Jackie Pullinger and David Ruis. Details here:
http://www.Non-Con.com

MAKE SOME NOISE

One of the most consistently brilliant blogs out there right now is written by my friend Mike Burns. The last three posts at his blog are worthy of mentioning here, but you need to go there yourself, book-mark his blog and read him often.

ILLEGAL TO FEED THE HOMELESS? (from Mike's blog):

"For a little background, the city of Orlando has recently passed a law making it illegal to feed anyone in a prominent city park where much of the city's homeless population congregates..."

"This legislation was passed last spring, and as far as I know, not one local Church or religious leader has done anything to stand against this unjust law. The only groups that have publicly stood against this law have been social rights groups and the ACLU..."

(more in this link)
http://emergingmission.blogspot.com/2007/09/breaking-law-by-feeding-hungry.html

Why have Christians and followers of Jesus (not always the same thing, mind you) done nothing to protest this? Is it because they are not actively serving and feeding the hungry? Is that why they've not noticed the change?

Are we willing to be arrested for feeding the poor?

ORLANDO BANS FEEDING HOMELESS DOWNTOWN
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/25/AR2006072500835.html

Once again, city governments respond to homelessness by making it a crime to be homeless. This is not a solution. Criminalizing homelessness does not make it go away, it does not help those who are in need. Criminalizing those who help the homeless is the worst response of all. Let's discourage people, everyday citizens, from getting involved in the process. Let's divorce ourselves from the resource of human compassion.

Yeah...that's a great solution.

I ask you to forward this info to your friends. This will come to your hometown soon, you can count on that. Speak up now or it will be something all of us will have to face soon enough.

Let's spread this news around. Let's speak out.

How can we call ourselves follwers of this radical Jesus and sit quietly in the face of injustice?

kg

Updates on the NON-CON '08 website

I've created two new pages linked off the main page of the Non-Con '08 website.

Click here to see:
http://www.non-con.com

The event Schedule is up for both days, including workshop titles, facilitator biographies, an interactive map to the event (thanks to Google) and listings, info and maps to four area hotels for you out-of-towners to make reservations.

The only major thing still missing is the online registration link. I promise to have it up by the end of this month.

The exciting thing is that I've had people dogging me to get it all ready so they can register NOW...and it's not until March of next year!

Wow.

Remember, only 100 seats will be available. This will be small on purpose and I am guaranteeing you now that we will not have another Non-Con in 2009. If you miss this one you've really missed it.

For now, go check the goodies on the official Non-Con site here:
http://www.non-con.com

kg

While You Wait...

As the finishing touches are put on my soon-to-be-released book, "The Gospel: For Here Or To Go?", I decided to put together a collection of some of the "classic" Subversive articles I wrote for RelevantMagazine.com back in the day.

The collection is nearly 200 pages long and contains some of my personal favorites like, "What If Jesus Could Be You For 24 Hours?", "Christianity 0.0", "Nobody Follows Jesus", and "The Wrong Question". (You can see the cover image above).

I'll make it available to the public in a few weeks (once I've proofed the copy on the actual book which is in the mail to me at the moment).

Soon you'll be able to pick up this collection and the complete version of "The Gospel:FHOTG?" right here.

Keep your eyes open...

Peas,

kg

HOUSE CLEANING at KeithGiles.com

House Cleaning at KeithGiles.com

A few of the links that formerly graced the left-hand sidebar of this blog have been removed.

Here's what you missed:
GO TO THE [SUBVERSIVE UNDERGROUND] FORUM!
*A good idea that never took off. Only about 5 people ever posted here and it's time to officially let it die. Thanks to all of you who hung out there and posted. It was fun while it lasted, which wasn't very long.

SHOP THE [SUBVERSIVE UNDERGROUND] WEBSTORE
*No one but me wants to wear a [Subversive Underground] t-shirt with glow-in-the-dark letters? What about a "Change The Status Quo (C.T.S.Q.)" tee? No? Oh well…

ENGAGE 06- DAVID RUIS a.m PODCAST
ENGAGE 06- DAVID RUIS p.m.PODCAST
*Sadly, these two incredible messages by my friend David Ruis are now offline. Only available on CD now, directly from me and/or the good people at Soul Survivor USA.

DAVID RUIS:MOMENTUM 06 PODCAST "MUSTARD SEED"
TODD HUNTER:MOMENTUM 06 PODCAST "EVANGELISM"
MIKE PILAVACHI: PODCAST "THE ONE"
*Again, each of these amazing messages have disappeared from the SS:USA podcast page so that means they're dead links. Sorry if you missed these. They were each profoundly awesome messages.

Keith's MYSPACE site
*I never go there anymore. Too much sleaze. I think the rest of the world will soon nuke their own MySpace sites, or trade them in for Ning or something more robust and less sleazy. No one there was really your "Friend" anyway. Live with it.

Steve Sjogren's "Serve!" Web-Zine

My article "An Actual Point In Time" is now online at Steve Sjogren's "Serve!" web-zine here:

http://www.serve-others.com/issue12/index.cfm

The actual article is linked here:
http://www.serve-others.com/issue12/index.cfm?id=12&ref=ARTICLES%5FDEEP%20THOUGHTS%5F99

*I think the original article was under a different title actually, but that's ok.

kg

Creative Marketing Examples

Want to see what happens when a team of intelligent marketers get together to create a focused, intentional campaign?

Here's what it looks like:

http://inventorspot.com/articles/amnesty_marketing_6120
kg

AFRIKAN

This is something I created to evoke the suffering of the African people - Poverty, Hunger, Genocide, Child Slavery, Human Trafficking, AIDS, Torture, etc.

Created using coffee, nails, acrylic paint, and an Ethiopian coffee sack.

It took me over a month to put this together, and the final stages, on my knees in the hot sun weaving the sheet of canvas into the sack, threading the rusty nails into the weave, were cathartic as I imagined bare shoulders in the heat of the African sun, bare feet on a wet loading dock, black weathered hands loading heavy sacks full of coffee beans into the ships hold for travel to American warehouses...and I felt connected to their sufferings, like walking into a spider's web and discovering an invisible world, a hidden connection between us all...
kg

Nice Surprise

This is a nice surprise. My friend Scott Laumann just informed me yesterday that he found this article on ChristianityToday.com, which originally appeared in Outreach Magazine. Apparently I am quoted in an article about Servant Evangelism, although, for the life of me, I don't think I was ever aware of this until yesterday.

Here's the link:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/outreach/articles/servantevangelism.html

And the quote:
Keith Giles, outreach director for The River in Tustin, California, adds to Sjogren's insights: True compassion is something you cannot argue against," he says. "People who are resistant to the Gospel are open to works of service and compassion. This becomes a path for them to take Jesus seriously, outside the theoretical framework or intellectual argument."

This is at least two years old...and I never knew about it?!

Wha...?

kg

PATTERN RECOGNITION

I've got a few days to kill until I start my new job at Ingram Micro (August 13), so I'm reading a few books checked out of the new library here in Orange. First, "Pattern Recognition" by William Gibson, is a sci-fi set in 2003, which only underscores the fact that we are living in the future today. It's really not a sci-fi, although Gibson is immortalized for writing "Neuromancer" which predated the Internet and, if you read it today for the first time, you would think he ripped off "The Matrix"...until you looked at the publication date and realized that he wrote his book a good ten years before Keanu ever said "Whoa".

It's funny to me how a good book, in this case a great book, can influence your way of seeing the world and moving through space. The book's protaganist has a gift for sensing "Cool". She is hyper-sensitive to marketing and is psychologically offended by logos and advertising, which is why she can sense the "next big thing" before it crests the horizon. Her sensitivity to brands and iconographic advertising has made me more aware of how enslaved we all are to marketing. Branding is pervasive. You cannot stand anywhere without being marketed to. You cannot wear anything without being told, on the outside as well as on the tag, who made it and that it is "Cool" to have one.

The character in this book is so oversensitized to logos that she clips the tags and removes the logo from her clothing, her glasses, her watch, her shoes, her computer, etc. It almost made me want to do the same.

It approaches something called by Richard Foster, "The Discipline of Simplicity". I believe there is an inherent human desire for simplicity, and yet at the same time a hunger for something beyond ourselves. Marketers (and I am one) take advantage of the human desire for something beyond ourselves and twist that into a desire for a product that will fill that emptiness. This is why television commercials and glossy magazine ads suggest, or even overtly declare, that owning or using the product in question will make you popular, or fulfilled, or beautiful, or complete in some way that you are now aware you are not.

It's easy to say that one desire is of the flesh and one desire of the Spirit. I know I've talked that way in the past myself, but now I think this is wrong. I believe that the desire for simplicity is a desire of the soul, and the desire for something beyond ourselves is also a desire of the human soul. Both are "of the Spirit" or Spiritual desires because this is what makes all of us Human.

Marketing plays one of these desires against the other. We are told we can fill our empty places with stuff, and so we try to do that, while at the same time our desire for simplicity disappears beneath a mound of receipts and boxes of junk in our garage.

There is a point, and I believe it is early on, when the things we own begin to own us. Once this happens, we are hooked and we continuously create mental shopping lists of things that we want or need or desire. I do this. You do this.

What if we could silence the coarse whisper for "more"? What if we could close our eyes and strain to hear that faint echo for "Less" instead?

A friend of mine used to regularly "De-Accumulate" his life. He would come to work with a box of goodies he had decided he no longer needed and start passing them out as gifts for his co-workers. I have a lot of cool stuff in my garage that I inherited from him this way.

I think the concept of "De-Accumulation" is a good one, but maybe we could modify it a bit? Maybe we could find people who really need what we don't need? Maybe no one really needs our junk? Maybe we could stop buying and start sharing?

These thoughts have lingered on the fringes of my brain for years now. When we moved into this house about a year and a half ago, as I was moving box after box of my junk into a storage unit, I found myself apologizing for the obscene amount of garbage I had acquired. My friends all told me to stop apologizing. I remember taking a sweep of the orange and white storage farm we were in the middle of and realizing that, in our society, we all own so much junk we have to pay someone to keep it for us in the event that we ever need it. There is a multi-billion dollar industry built around the American acquisition sensibility. Do they have these things in India or Africa, I wondered? Probably a few, I thought, but I'm sure we Americans have more, as usual.

How has the shopping mall replaced the cathedral? How have we allowed the pursuit of happiness to become an endless hunt for more objects and gadgets and trinkets and adornment? Maybe it was when the Church started entertaining us? Maybe it was when we realized that people would buy products created just for Christians? I'm not sure of the timeline, but I do know that we are now living in a Pop Christian Consumerist Culture and I want off the merry-go-round.

Maybe I'm recognizing a pattern too? Maybe the character in Gibson's book is helping me to see something that's been there all along?

Either way, it's worth exploring.

Now, this is way too long. I had intended to talk about the other three books I'm reading, and update everyone on the first "House Church Leaders" meeting we had last month, and share a few thoughts on Marriage that came to me yesterday morning as I was awakening from an over-caffeinated slumber...but not now.

Time for my second cup of coffee.

Peace,
kg