Lukas Naugle is the Director of Resource Strategies at Desiring God.

For those who can't make it to Hip Hop for Haiti tonight, we will be streaming the concert live online. Join the crowd in Minneapolis by watching online and by giving to Churches Helping Churches.

You can also join the crowd on Twitter using the #HH4H hashtag.

Chart-topping hip hop artist LeCrae recorded a new single to benefit relief efforts in Haiti. He'll be performing this song live for the first time at Hip Hop for Haiti in downtown Minneapolis tomorrow night.

Come join us! We will be filming the music video during this live performance. You will also be able to purchase an advance copy of the song with 100% of the proceeds going directly to Haiti relief efforts.

I went with the Churches Helping Churches media team to Haiti last week to identify the needs of the churches and help raise money to meet their needs. The things I saw, the things I filmed, and the people I met are still with me. I am haunted by the horror I saw, and yet the palpable hope of homeless and hungry Christians amazed me.

If you live in or near Minnesota, I want to personally invite you to a concert Desiring God is sponsoring called Hip Hop for Haiti on Friday, February 5, 2010. Order your tickets online. 100% of all the money will go directly to churches in Haiti through Churches Helping Churches.

Desiring God is seeking a full-time, on-site Media Creative with a strong desire to spread a passion for the supremacy of God. Qualified candidates will agree to DG’s Affirmation of Faith, embrace the vision of John Piper’s book Desiring God, and possess skills necessary to perform the duties of the position.

These duties include providing creative direction and technical expertise for the video, audio, and design needs of Desiring God as they pertain to the design and development of the ministry’s teaching, narrative, and promotional resources.  Please send resume, cover letter, and film reel (online or DVD) to jobs@desiringGod.org or Desiring God c/o Lukas Naugle 2601 E. Franklin Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55406. No phone calls, please.

God has used Don’t Waste Your Life to change the course of many lives since 2003. In the Spring of 2006, I had a chance to interview Chad Johnson about how it was impacting him. Little did he know that God would call him to leave his successful position at Tooth & Nail Records and start a non-profit music label called Come & Live! this year.

Come & Live! is an expression of the major themes of Don’t Waste Your Life (radical generosity, risk taking love, making others glad in God, missions, living simply for the sake of giving, etc). The basic idea is that the label is like a missions agency, the musicians are like missionaries, and you do not have to pay for the music. I am encouraged by how God calls men and women in different industries and cultures to find ways to make others glad in God within their context.

You can download for free without registration their first music sampler I Am Living Vol. 01. If you enjoy indie rock, hardcore, and alternative music styles you will find some tracks you will appreciate (there is a great variety). Also included is a sermon excerpt from John Piper.

"Seeking creative-types who want to reach out to a culturally diverse and post-denominational world."

I read this advertisement today from a seminary. I asked myself, "If I was a seminary recruiter what kind of man would I be looking to train to teach and lead the church of the future?"

Does the church need self-labeled creative-types in leadership? What is a creative-type?

Do they have a mac? Do they have messy hair? Do they not tuck their shirt in? Do they create something? Are they the ones who appreciate all kinds of art? Are they entrepreneurial? Do they have a reputation for bucking the establishment?

If we were to look to God's Word about this, especially 1 Timothy 3:1-8 and 2 Timothy 2:2, we would find descriptors like:

• above reproach
• husband of one wife
• sober-minded
• self-controlled
• respectable
• hospitable
• able to teach
• not a drunkard
• not violent but gentle
• not quarrelsome
• not a lover of money
• manage his household well
• not a recent convert
• well thought of by outsiders
• dignified
• not double-tongued
• faithful

Whether we think of ourselves as a creative-type or not, my hope is that all men who aspire to leadership in the church would desire the label of man of God (1 Tim. 6:11), workers for your joy (2 Cor. 1:24), servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1), men of sincerity (2 Cor. 2:17).

Edd Blott and I will be at The Legacy Conference this week July 30 to August 1. We will be teaching a workshop entitled "Developing Media Knowing the Gospel Counters Culture," giving away Don't Waste Your Life books, and test screening a new DWYL Documentary.

For those who don't know, The Legacy Conference is a theologically driven, discipleship oriented conference for urban youth. LeCrae, Shai Linne, Trip Lee, Flame, and others will be there teaching and performing.

Walk up registration is still available. Hope to see you there.

Seth Johnson has completed an internship this year with Desiring God's media department and what a blessing to the ministry he's been. His final project is now online.

We partnered with 1031sermonjams and produced a sermon jam video. The Don't Waste Your Life Tour is using it this summer to kick off each concert.

And speaking of the Don't Waste Your Life Tour, LeCrae's music video for the song "Don't Waste Your Life" is now available for purchase in iTunes.

The Don't Waste Your Life Tour is coming to Minneapolis at Club 3 Degrees on May 30th. If you are planning to attend, please order in advance as we are expecting a sell out crowd of over 1,200 people.

If do not live near Minneapolis, the tour is nationwide, so check out Reach Records for more information.

Over the past year we have been working with our friends from 10:31 Sermon Jams on a new album that is based on the themes of John Piper's book, Don't Waste Your Life. At their website you can now pre order "Don't Waste Your Life: Sermon Jams" and listen to the album's first single called "Treasuring Him."

For those who are unfamiliar with sermon jams, they are basically short bytes of preaching put to beats. This album is priced for outreach, and can be especially helpful in reaching young people who are not interested in reading or listening to preaching.

Reach Records and Desiring God are partnering this summer to spread Don't Waste Your Life in urban centers around the country. We would encourage you to check out the upcoming DWYL Tour 09 for details and to see seven satirical promotional videos we produced for them.

Desiring God also produced the music video for LeCrae's single, Don't Waste Your Life, from his latest album, Rebel (Amazon iTunes):

Update: DWYL Song Lyrics

Hook (Cam)

Don't wanna waste my life

Verse 1 (LeCrae)

I know a lot of people out there scared they gone die/
couple of em thinking they'll be livin' in the sky/
but while I'm here livin' man I gotta ask why,
what am here fo I gotta figure out/
waste my life?/ no I gotta make it count/
if Christ is real then what am I gone do about/
everything in Luke 12:15 down to 21/
you really oughta go and check it out/

Paul said if Christ ain't resurrect then we wasted our lives/
well that implies that our life's built around Jesus being alive/
everyday I'm living tryin' show the world why/
Christ is more than everything you'll ever try/
better than pretty women and sinning and living
to get a minute of any women and men that you admire/

ain't no lie/ We created for Him/
outta the dust he made us for Him/
Elects us and he saves us for Him/
Jesus comes and raises for Him/
Magnify the Father why bother with something lesser/
he made us so we could bless Him
and to the world we confess him/
resurrects him/

so I know I got life/
matter fact better man I know I got Christ/
if you don't' see His ways in my days and nights/
you can hit my brakes you can stop my lights/
man I lost my rights/
I lost my life/
forget the money cars and toss that ice/
the cost is Christ/
and they could never offer me anything on the planet that'll cost that price.

Verse 2 (Dwayne Tryumph)
(Note: verse 2 is not part of the music video)

Armed and dangerous
So the devil jus can't handle us
Christian youth them a stand wid us
Livin' n driven/ given a vision/ fullfillin the commission he handed us

London to Los Angeles
Da rap evangelist
Ma daddy wouldn't abandon us
"I gotta back pack fulla tracts plus I keep a Johnny Mac"
So are you ready to jam with us

So lets go, gimme the word an lets go
Persecution lets go
Tribulation lets go
Across the nation lets go
Procrastination bes go

Hung on the cross in the cold
Died for da young and the old
Can't say you never know
Heaven knows
How many souls are going to hell or to heaven so we gotta go in and get em

Verse 3 (LeCrae)

Suffer/ Yeah do it for Christ
if you trying to figure what to do with your life/
if you making a lot money hope you doing it right
because the money is Gods you better steward it right/

stay focused
if you ain't got no ride/
your life ain't wrapped up in what you drive/
the clothes you wear
the job you work/
the color your skin naw you Christian first/

people living life for a job/
make a lil money start living for a car/
get em a house a wife kids and a dog/
when they retire they living high on the hog/
but guess what they didn't ever really live at all/
to live is Christ yeah that's Paul I recall/ to die is gain
so for Christ we give it all/
he's the treasure you'll never find in a mall/

Your money your singleness, marriage, talents, your time/
they were loaned to you to show the world that Christ is Divine/
that's why it's Christ in my rhymes/
That's why it's Christ all the time/
see my whole world is built around him He's the life in my lines/

I refuse to waste my life/
he's too true ta chase that ice/
here's my gifts and time cause I'm constantly trying to be used to praise the Christ/
If he's truly raised to life/
then this news should change your life/
and by his grace you can put your faith in place that rules your days and nights.

Al Mohler's March 27 radio program addressed the issue of retirement, its historical novelty, today's financial pressures, and how we as Christians should think about it. If you'd like to listen to this program, the relevant section begins 11.5 minutes in.

Related resources from John Piper:

• Rethinking Retirement (booklet)
• Getting Old for the Glory of God (conference message)

My friend Tyler Johnson, a pastor at East Valley Bible Church in Gilbert, AZ, made my day today. He told me about a new music project called Page CXVI.

With music for modern ears, they are seeking to make hymns more accessible and known to the church again.

They are sharing their recent recordings for free to bless the wider church. You can listen and download them at their site.

(For those curious, I'm told that CXVI is the page number where Aslan sings Narnia into being.)

In this interview, Thabiti Anyabwile reflects on what he calls "holy hip hop" and its connection to the resurgence of Reformed Theology in African-American and urban churches.

Some of us at Desiring God wrote and produced a short film, entitled "James 3: A Story," for our national conference.

By request, we have made this film available for free and encourage you to use it in your church, small group, class, or wherever you think it would be helpful.

Along with the above YouTube version, we've posted HD and iPod versions through our 2008 National Conference iTunes Podcast.

We would love to hear what you think of it, and perhaps we will make more.

27 million people worldwide are victims of modern-day slavery. They are forced into the sex trade or back-breaking labor. Most of the victims lured into this criminal world are innocent children.

A new documentary in theaters this week, Call + Response, explores the injustices that are taking place in this underground society.

These atrocities are not only happening in other parts of the world, but also in the United States.

My good friend, Ben Patterson, who helped produce this documentary, encourages me by his example to move toward need and not comfort.

See this movie if you want to learn more and help support modern-day abolitionists. It is only in theaters for a limited time, so I would encourage you to attend one of the showings around the country this week. Check to see if it is in your city.

In some recent reading I have found C.S. Lewis and John Piper especially illuminating on the necessity of risk and courage.

C.S. Lewis wrote on courage in The Screwtape Letters:

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality.

A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions.

Pilate was merciful till it became risky. (137-8)

And John Piper wrote on risk in Don’t Waste Your Life:

Risk is right. And the reason is not because God promises success to all our ventures in his cause. There is no promise that every effort for the cause of God will succeed, at least not in the short run. John the Baptist risked calling King Herod an adulterer when he divorced his own wife in order to take his brother’s wife. For this John got his head chopped off. And he had done right to risk his life for the cause of God and truth. Jesus had no criticism for him, only the highest praise (Matthew 11:11).

Paul risked going up to Jerusalem to complete his ministry to the poor. He was beaten and thrown in prison for two years and then shipped off to Rome and executed there two years later. And he did right to risk his life for the cause of Christ. How many graves are there in Africa and Asia because thousands of young missionaries were freed by the power of the Holy Spirit from the enchantment of security and then risked their lives to make much of Christ among the unreached peoples of the world!

And now what about you? Are you caught in the enchantment of security, paralyzed from taking any risks for the cause of God? Or have you been freed by the power of the Holy Spirit from the mirage of Egyptian safety and comfort? Do you men ever say with Joab, “For the sake of the name, I’ll try it! And may the Lord do what seems good to him”? Do you women ever say with Esther, “For the sake of Christ, I’ll try it! And if I perish, I perish”? (89-90)

We also do not have to go far to know the mind of God on risk and courage. One example of many is Hebrews 11:35-39:

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,

Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Would you join me in praying for those in your family, friends, church, and brothers and sisters around the world who have need of courage today in the face of much risk?

For 12 months, the Resource Strategies department at DG has been testing whether our Don’t Waste Your Life T-shirts (charcoal, blue, pink) can be used as effective gospel-spreading tools. After receiving numerous unsolicited testimonies from people around the world about the T-shirt opening doors for gospel conversations at airports, coffee shops, etc., we've decided to begin offering them online.

They're specifically designed to be a tool for spreading. When I went for a walk through downtown Minneapolis a couple weeks ago wearing a DWYL T-shirt, I was approached by three very different people about it.

An African American man in his 30s asked where I bought the shirt. Later a white lady in her 50s walked up and said she loved it. And then a transient man in a park suggested we trade shirts right on the spot. (I really wanted to, but he had a sweaty Harley Davidson shirt so I passed on the offer.)

The shirt design is an effective tool to provoke conversations because it taps into a universal desire within us all. But be warned! If you wear the shirt be ready to speak the truth in love. For those of you who decide to take the challenge, we have a special message for you inside the shirt.

Join us at Bethlehem Baptist Church's North Campus this weekend (Sep 12-13) as John Piper teaches the seminar "Gravity and Gladness on Sunday Morning."

We have invited musical guests The Glorious Unseen to lead us in song. Stay for a special extended worship session after the session on Friday night.

About the Seminar:

The indispensable, defining heart of worship is the experience of being satisfied with God. Whether we are worshiping God by singing a hymn or visiting a prisoner, the impulse is the same: a thirst for God—a desire to experience as much satisfaction in God as we can.

In this seminar for The Bethlehem Institute, John Piper applies this heart of worship to how people meet God at church on Sunday mornings.

Details:

• Teaching: John Piper
• Musical Guests: The Glorious Unseen
• Date: September 12-13, 2008
• Location: Bethlehem Baptist Church North Campus, 5151 Program Avenue, Mounds View, MN 55112
• Cost: Free to the public
• Seating: General admission

Schedule:

Friday, September 12

• 6:00 pm - Doors open
• 6:30-7:00 pm - The Glorious Unseen leads in worship
• 7:15-9:00 pm - John Piper teaches
• 9:20-10:30 pm - The Glorious Unseen leads in worship

Saturday, September 13

• 8:30-9:00 am - The Glorious Unseen leads in worship
• 9:00-12:00 pm - John Piper teaches

“Serving the Voices” is the tag line for a new ministry that I've enjoyed getting to know over the past months. The RYFO Network seeks to holistically care for the unique physical and spiritual needs of touring musicians.

Knowing about our mission to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples and our commitment to give resources away, RYFO asked Desiring God to join them in serving this influential group of young people.

One example of this partnership occurred this July at the Cornerstone Festival where RYFO's founder Nick Greenwood and others gave away a few hundred resources backstage to many of the musicians.

If you are interested in praying for musicians, RYFO is starting a prayer support network that you can check out at their website.

What will your small group be doing this fall? The John Piper Small Group Series is one way to center your small group around the Bible as you pursue Christian maturity together.

Desiring God has designed these resources to be flexible so that each group can use the videos, study guides, and books according to what best fits their context.

Seth Godin, one of today’s best marketing minds, wrote a blog post last week entitled “Is it worthy?”

Godin reflects on whether any of his efforts are worth the investments and sacrifices of others, or whether someone else could have done better with the resources that he has been given.

Godin concludes his reflection:

The object isn’t to be perfect. The goal isn’t to hold back until you’ve created something beyond reproach. I believe the opposite is true. Our birthright is to fail and to fail often, but to fail in search of something bigger than we can imagine. To do anything else is to waste it all.

There is much to affirm here. Yes, we fail and fail often. Yes, we should participate in something unimaginably big. And, no, the fear of failure should not keep us from continuing in this pursuit.

Godin’s remarks also raise two questions for me:

1. Is searching for “something bigger than we can imagine” enough, or do we need to find something, too?

The seeking is essential, but only because what we find is so wonderful. The asking is important and valuable because of the answers.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed….
The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. (Psalm 34:4-6, 10)

2. Can we be set free from the fear of failure by telling ourselves that it is in our nature to fail?

In part, yes, but for the Christian there is far more. The fear of failure is ultimately conquered through Christ. We need to…

• …own up to our sin—the real failure. We fall short of and belittle the glory of God by pursuing our own greatness. (Romans 1:18-23;3:23)
• …change our goal. In faith, we should pursue the glory of Christ, the perfect one, rather than our own perfection. (Galatians 5:1-5)
• …trust in Christ for our perfection, because we are judged according to his righteousness as he intercedes on our behalf continually before God, the Father. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Recently Desiring God has been working with ReachLife Ministries. I've asked Trip Lee of Reach Records to tell us some of what God is doing through their work and our partnership.

*               *               *

Too many youth today are wasting their lives. Our culture promotes it: "Buy this, wear that, drive this." Some cultures pride themselves on that very message. This is particularly true in the hip hop culture.

Unfortunately, many today believe the hip hop culture is unredeemable, better left to itself. Hip-hop is rarely thought of as a culture that ought to be invaded with the truth of Jesus Christ. Truth is, there's a desperate need of Christians who are willing to spend their lives in order to reach it and say with Paul, “I am not ashamed of the gospel” (Romans 1:16).

Reach Records and ReachLife Ministries are devoted to doing just that; reaching the hip-hop culture for the glory of God. We embrace the truth that all cultures are wicked and sinful—that is, until people within that culture are confronted with the truth of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to be used by God for this very purpose.

Reach Records creates music that is relevant to the culture and is packed full of biblical truth. This platform has proven to be an incredible tool, both to introduce people to Jesus Christ, as well as help others go deeper in their faith. Through our music, we have the opportunity to reach a culture that otherwise would have no interest in what we have to say.

As a result of the music, it became apparent that many in this culture lacked solid biblical tools and resources to disciple them in the Christian life. Therefore, we created ReachLife ministries, a non-profit organization which produces Christ-centered tools and resources for urban churches and ministries to provide what music is not designed to do, disciple.

This summer, we are very excited about the opportunity to travel the country for our first official concert tour. The “Unashamed Tour” will hit around 25 cities in the US and the UK. It will be an incredible opportunity to encourage young believers all over the globe to not waste their lives and to be unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Each of us at ReachLife has been deeply impacted by the ministry of Desiring God and we are excited about the recent partnership with them. They have agreed to donate 10,000 copies of the book Don't Waste Your Life, which will be distributed free at our concerts this summer.

These books will be placed in the hands of urban youth across the country who have never been exposed to Desiring God or the teachings of John Piper. I cannot express the excitement I feel when I see young hip-hoppers not only hearing about the glory of Christ through our concert, but also leaving with resources that will help them to continue in that excitement.

Please join us in praying that the Lord will use both the tour and the books to glorify himself as he calls this generation to live unashamed.