My take on Rob Bell, Love Wins and Everyone’s Destiny: The biblical text that deals best with this is Romans 2:5-11 and 16. There are two groups here…each will be judged in Jesus Christ (16), one group that is “persistant in doing good and seeking glory (God’s glorious vision of reality)” and the other that is “self seeking, reject the truth and follow evil”…one group has and will be rewarded with eternal life and glory or Heaven (not as a work but as desired gift), the other group will get trouble and distress, or a place that isn’t so glorious, Hell if you will (not as punishment but as the reality they choose to live in – and it is worked for, for sure – evil is harder to live with than good).

How many are in each group? This is where I think most make a mistake in trying to determine that…we just don’t and won’t know. I hope lots in the first and few in the latter…and I think that is God’s clearly biblical desire too…but we have this incredible capacity due to God’s desire for us to share in his nature…a powerful and life giving or taking freedom, and we can use that God-like power to reject the good…and God.  As I once heard Dallas Willard say, “we are doomed to decide” or in the case of those who long for God’s glorious Kingdom…very blessed!

The author Walker Percy summed it up….America has a Christ-Forgetting, Christ-Haunted culture. And that goes for the church too. We are haunted by Christ in knowing things should be different in our lives, but don’t know what that really is much less how to have a different life – it is now forgotten just like a language or cultural skill or pattern of living is lost.

When was this lost? Dallas Willard believes it to be somewhere after the second great revival in America when individuals, pastors, leaders and followers began to preach and model a gospel that was reduced in various ways…so that now we are gasping and grasping for the ghost and shadow of a life we are still impacted by and yes, haunted with some reduced expectation of…but we have truly forgotten what it is in essence, no vision for the whole of it, or how to have it and therefore little intention to live it.

But thankfully this life is not like language or skill or cultural tradition…it is the life of the Spirit and God can raise up those who simply cry out to God for this life….and look for those in history…right in the scriptures who preach and model this and by the Spirit resurrect this life among us once again. An example…Paul prays LOTS…read his letters…he is immersed in scripture not for theological literacy alone…but for actual obedience and faith to do things supernatural, like love his enemies and hope for a way of life radically different in all aspects. If we were just able to pray and love like that again…our families and churches would see people flock to them. But are we willing to be transformed that powerfully? Over and over God has revived the church with a small group of individuals who took that dare.  Are you willing to take that dare?  Want to be coached to do so?  Let’s talk.

Since publishing my book, Whole Life Transformation: Becoming The Change Your Church Needs, IVP formatio, Dallas Willard foreword, I have begun to coach and pastor pastors in person here in the twin cities but also by Skype-video on the internet so they can put into practice the content referred to in the book.

I help them in six areas of competence for ministry that I find many have never had training in their formal schooling.  These are often lectured on, but no “hands on training” is actually provided.  I teach this Curriculum of Transformation which is tailored to each pastor and church’s needs.

• A Prayer life – ministry “with God”, not just for him
• A Transforming Life – being able to say, “Follow me as I follow Christ”
• A Transforming Church Culture – not the latest programs, but lasting change, a “Catching force” of contagious lives
• The Biblical/Theological Basis – Recovering A Kingdom Gospel
• The Entry Points of Pain – starting as we are, not where we should be
• Typical Organizational Needs – same “means”, but a different “end”

I also have started to do more soul care retreats for pastors, pastors and spouses, consulting and training for churches and their staff and lay teams.

Please contact me to inquire about more info on beginning a coaching relationship, scheduling a retreat, or making a church team consultation.

Whole Life Transformation…is now available. Got my copies from IVP and they have made a beautiful piece of art of it! And my website, a dormant brochure for the last two years, will take on more of an interactive quality as my web folks, Tim and Julie, overhaul it some in time for my book’s exposure to readers wanting to take the next step with whatef “becoming the change” the world is waiting to see.  To learn more about the Order of the Renovated Heart contact me as well as read the material under the “ticket” menu on this site’s home page which explains more about the Order. I am keeping a list of those who are signing on to the Order and hope to have the web ready for our cyber interaction soon.

Go to the book page of this site for more information on this book.  A conference is being planned in LA (Site TBD) where the book’s authors will present. The conference will be on the weekend or a few days before September 17-19, 2010.

The tattoo is a form of what Roman Catholics have called the heart of Jesus.   In various artistic usages it has stood for Jesus’ heart of love for us and I have added flames to represent the Holy Spirit’s fire in me, a cross to represent Jesus’ work and presence in me, and an infinity symbol to represent the Father’s undergirding being and love for me. The heart is my heart…the thorns are the pain that I have experienced in my life…pain from my own sin and flesh, pain from the fallen world systems & family/ancestral sin and pain from the Enemy’s attempts to rob, steal and kill God’s life in me….but as I live in the Trinity and God in me…these pains are transformed and bind me closer to God.

Just got done leading the retreat…wow…we had church as we dialogued on these three questions…

How do we go through life less distracted, stressed and stuck on self and more alive to God and others…and more productive?

How does our life and what we do for work, how we do it effect who we are becoming?  Do we like it? others like it?  Like our spouses, kids, friends?

What in the world does what you do for work have to do with what God is doing in His Kingdom?

Thanks to Listen, Jim, Dick, Bill, Tom, Dan, Russell. Mike for a great time!

The Order of the Renovated Heart is a group of leaders, pastors, students who as individuals or groups (church staff teams, networked pastors and leaders) can begin to live according to a set of life changing practices which form a “rule of life”.  I provide coaching for developing such a rule for individuals and/or groups.  We will blog about our experiences and share what Jesus is teaching us.  Are you ready for a change from Christianity as usual and to learn what you probably didn’t in your home, church, college or seminary?  Come and see.  Keith

Join by contacting me through the contact function of this website (if this is not functioning let me know) or e-mailing me at keithmeyer777@gmail.com or calling me at 763-286-7587.

I have taught three Doctor of Ministry courses since 2006…DMS 801 Leadership in Spiritual Formation Community 2006 and 2008), DMS 817 Leadership in Spiritual Formation Retreats.  Praying for my students and looking forward to this time where God does incredible things!!!

Yes…I have received the final edits and even the cover art.  I even have an Library of Congress book ISBN number.  It is real now.