Month: April 2007

  • The Bible Moo-ves Me

    Cows_001


    I officially have no shame. I am willing to do and be anything to help Romeo grow. A video is coming  that is, ridiculous. (insert your own groaner)

  • Finding Margin

    Margin
    I talk to a lot of people who are complaining that they are too busy. They have taken on so many things that they feel like they don’t get to enjoy any of it.

    I look at it like this:

    Stuff I do – What I get out of it = Margin of Joy

    An interesting observation is that the people who are "crazy busy" are making the mistake of thinking that if they increase the "stuff I do" they can increase that margin of joy in their lives.

    Here’s a solution:
    Drop some of the stuff you do, increase the quality of what is left… and your margin of joy will increase. Guaranteed.

    What do I drop?
    Drop stuff that isn’t biblically commanded first and see how that goes. It’s amazing how much stuff you can cut. Further, it’s amazing how creative you will get and how much joy you will find in having a few extra hours per week.

  • A church taking the day off?

    It’s not what it sounds like. (Although North Point does it every year between Christmas and New Year’s.) But a church in California is not going to worship this Sunday in their building… instead they are going to be meeting at many locations and sites to doing work projects throughout their community.

    The seats at North Coast Church in Vista will be empty the weekend
    of April 29, but members won’t exactly have the day off. The church,
    which attracts about 6,500 people on weekends, is planning the largest
    community-service event in its history, with participants painting,
    landscaping, washing and rolling up their sleeves for various jobs at
    54 sites throughout North County on April 28 and 29…

                            

    In all, congregants will tackle 92
    major projects, including painting and landscaping Washington Middle
    School in Vista and Claire Burgener Academy in Oceanside, with up to
    200 people working at each site.     Read the rest

    What is so astonishing about this to me is that they will grow by doing it. I can here some people saying, "Yeah but Hebrews tells us to not give up meeting together." They aren’t. They are meeting in 92 locations to worship by doing stuff. Plus, today’s people are all about action and taking a stand to make their world better.

    I love this on so many levels.

    As a pastor at a small church I look at this and have two immediate reactions.

    1. We couldn’t ever do that. We’re not big enough, plus… how would we get the money?
    2. We could totally do that! We may be small but big miracles often come in small packages.

    OK, back to Earth now. I’ll be watching this to see how it worked out.

  • A little off the bubble

    Bubble I live in a house that was built in 1871. Over the last 136 years gravity has had it’s way with parts of our house. In fact, there probably is more in our house that isn’t perfectly level than there is that is perfectly level.

    Recently I was putting in a new kitchen counter. The floor wasn’t level. The cabinets aren’t level. But after shimming up one side and thumping the hammer here and there I was able to make 2 unlevel things support a level counter top. Sometimes when a new visitor is in our house they’ll say something like "wow, I felt a little dip there" or "the porch seems like it may be a little crooked." They are right. It’s an old house and that happens over 136 years of settling and bowing under the weight.

    Outside it only gets worse. Our garage probably needs to be leveled rather than trying to take care of the major structural issues it has. A lot of years after an exceedingly poor design has led to the roof "swaying" a little in the middle. The south wall is buckled by about a foot at the top and the whole structure somehow stands. The patio leans just a little one way.

    I’m even noticing a couple of things about stuff that I’ve done that isn’t quite level. The kids new tire swing isn’t quite level. The play structure we had placed there last spring… it’s a little cockeyed.

    I can defintiely say this about almost our entire house. "It’s about a half a bubble off."

    That about says it all, doesn’t it?

  • 2 Family Videos

    A couple of unedited videos grabbed off of Kristen’s camera worth sharing.

    Here I am proudly following Paul around the football field at the Easter Egg hunt last month.


    Here is Megan at her very first soccer game. She is in training for the 2020 Olympic games. Though, she may be a little too for the 2016 games in Chicago.

  • ein kleines Stück von Deutschland

    A little piece of Germany

    One of the things I loved about living in Germany was the extensive bike trail system. You could theorhetically get from anywhere to anywhere cycling. Since I lived 7 miles from the city of Hanau where I went to school, the bike trails became my source of exercise as well as my commute.

    Yesterday I took my first trip on the Macomb Orchard Trail that just got connected to our neighborhood. What was once an abandoned train corridor is now a nicely paved path that connects Romeo to neighboring communities to the east and south. It’s really quite cool!

    As I slowly worked my way a couple of miles towing our kids in their bike trailer my mind was filled with memories of that time spent in Hanau. There were many adventures found on those bike paths. From the wicked slalom course for expert mountain bikers to the big loop that went up 2 miles and down 6 back to my little village to getting lost in the country and having to ask the man at a castle for directions back to town.

    I kind of doubt that my kids will have similar opportunities when growing up. Living in Germany is unlikely… but you never know! What I do know is that having this great resource of a bike path will help them make memories of their own.

    It also made me think… "Maybe we should have another German tradition that involves a path like this… a Volksmarch. It would be fun and interesting. Too bad there aren’t a lot of German’s here!

  • Poof, the week is gone

    Magic
    Just like that it’s gone.     Thursday evening. In a few minutes I have my small group and in the morning we leave for a two-day marketing retreat for the church.

    This was one of those weeks where I had to focus a lot on just pounding stuff out. We got a great piece of marketing done for MainStreet and about 25 other million things too. Back when I worked for BSBSIL I longed for fast weeks like this because I just got my work done and went home. It was all about getting paid and the faster the week went the sooner we got paid. But ministry is about people and weeks like this… well… thank God for my small group!

    I’m also looking forward to this little retreat. Marketing and church really do go together. Really, they do.

  • Virginia Tech Discussion Guide

    VatechcampusHere is the discussion we’re having in Light Force tonight.

    • Obviously we all know the facts of the shootings at Virginia Tech University this
           past Monday.

      • A
        student used a legally purchased gun to kill 32 classmates and faculty
              members before killing himself.
      • A place of trust and tranquility was turned into a killing ground.
    • By all
      accounts, the shooter is described as “a loner.”

      • Few if any friends
      • Never had a visitor
      • Apparently he struggled with speaking to people, so he became an English major.
      • He was “an average student.”
      • He attracted the attention of his classmates and professors with some
              violent writing, but he never crossed a line into violence.

    Discuss:

    What are your thoughts on the killings? How are you
    processing it?

    What are some reasons people do stuff like this? 

    (more…)

  • Confessions of a Pastor

    ConfessionsI just finished reading Craig Groscel’s book, "Confessions of a Pastor." He’s the pastor of Lifechurch.tv and widely regarded as one of the "innovators" of church ministries today.

    In Confessions, Craig documents his struggles. He talks about his pride, the fact that he doesn’t like most Christians. The fact that he struggles to have a devotional and prayer life. The fact that he’s afraid people won’t like him. On and on he runs through a series of admissions to things that would likely shock most "in the pews" Christians.

    This is powerful because pastors live in a fishbowl and are placed firmly on a pedestal in the eyes of congregants. In fact, it’s both the upside and the downside of our position. The Bible calls pastors to be "above reproach" and "worthy of respect" while at the same time Scripture teaches us that we hopelessly sinful beyond the grace of Christ.

    At first glance, this books could be taken as offensive or even emo. But I found this book very encouraging. Not only because I have some of the same weaknesses and fears that Craig describes, but because Craig gently and courageously talks about his weaknesses and then points himself to Scripture to be taught, rebuked, and corrected in righteousness.

    Living in a fishbowl on a pedestal isn’t easy. The reality is that I will never live up to people’s expectations. The reality is that God’s calling of "above reproach" is an awfully big stretch for a human… particularly in a shrinking world due to technology. But what I loved about Confessions is that he doesn’t say "Yo, fat pastor… be perfect like me." Instead he says, "Join me in striving for holiness in an unholy world."

  • For the Hokies

    VtribbonLike a lot of people, I sat in horror all day glued to the television. As the numbers went from 1 killed to "at least 20" to 32, I just felt this tremendous loss for the VaTech community.

    It’s amazing to me how much my Christian tendencies want to "find the good’ of the events of yesterday. I think those silver linings may come as the days and weeks go by, but for now… I’m just in shock and horrified by the realities of it all.

    Not much else I can say other than I hope folks are praying for the community, staff, employees, students, parents, and friends of Virginia Tech.

    Here’s nice list of resources from Gospel Communications.