Month: February 2006

  • Walking

    As I get ready to pony up a few dollars for my annual golf membership at Romeo Golf Club, I’ve really had to evaluate what I get out of it. For those who don’t know, during the golf season (April-October) I get up at the crack of dawn and play 9 holes of golf before work. On my days off I tend to stretch that to 18 holes, but for the most part I play 9 holes and still make it home in time for breakfast before work.

    Sure, I get excersize out of the deal. Sure, I feel better having played 9 holes than I do not playing 9 holes before my day at the office. Sure, I could get better excersize or raise my heart beat a little more. Sure, I could find a cheaper thing to do with my mornings. Sure, I could find something that wasn’t so controversial to do.

    But I like it. It’s more than just golf you know. It’s the time to myself. When you play the same course over and over again you find that you don’t really think about the course too much. I know the holes, I know the terrain, I know the breaks, I know the heighth of trees and the type of shot I have to hit. So it becomes a bit of a self-reflective time. There is something very powerful and spiritual to my time alone on the links. I know that each time I play I will score within a certain range and I will face certain problem areas. But I often get so caught up with my golf in the shear magnitude of the life-illustration. Golf looks simple, but it isn’t. We try to do things the easiest and best way, but we often mess up. We know that discipline will get us better results, but we fail to do what it takes. We know that life isn’t about having the best equipment. It never ends.

    Along those same lines, I ran into this post about walking on Marko’s blog.

  • Chains: The Great Equalizer

    Chains1This morning at my zero hour Bible Study we were looking at Ephesians 4:1-16. There are two things that jump off the page at me in relationship to life as a believer.

    1. Paul calls us to live a life worthy of chains. Say what? Paul was probably rarely in trouble before he came to Christ. But after his encounter with Jesus on his way to Damascus, his life was a wreck. But it all comes down to this. When you are chained up for what you do (look at v. 11-13 to know what to do) than you know that we are all equal in position in Christ’s church. If Paul, one of the greatest Christians in history, was chained to a wall… we are all the same.

    Bigsmall2. Growing up comes through knowing who you are and service. Louie Giglio paraphrases Jesus by saying our goal in serving Jesus is to make ourselves look smaller so Christ’s name will be greater. The smaller we make ourselves, the greater we will serve.

    Paul says that when we do this, we won’t be infants in Christ. What do infants do? Infants are more worried about "big me" than they are about "making Jesus’ name greater." Infants are easily tricked by people who talk fast and present crafty messages. I used the example of the prosperity gospel teachers. Just because they have a nice smile and look like nice people doesn’t mean that what they say is true. In fact, the entire prosperity gospel idea that "Prosperity is my birthright as a child of the King of kings" is antithetical to the entire new testement narrative. Did Jesus or any of his disciples die rich? Perhaps this was because they didn’t have enough faith, right?

    Prosper2But when you are  an infant in your faith and walk with the Lord these things seem like a good idea. You have a hard time looking past what you want to see what you will gain. Paul didn’t write, "To get rich is gain, to die is passing on wealth" did he? Quite the opposite.

  • The Olympics are Over

    OhnoMy friend Derek has posted a great wrap-up on the Turino Winter Olympics. As he points out, this was a tough games to get drawn into… but there were some great moments. There were heros and zeros.

    Athletes crash and fall. Some spectacularly, some on the verge of glory, some because of the elements. Like the old ABC montage said, the agony of defeat is part of the competition. In a strange and perverse way, this is why they are there. They are there to pick themselves up, and in the tradition of athletes before them and as will be followed by those who come after them, they pick themselves up and FINISH. [Read the rest]

  • Homebound

    After last weeks running around (I haven’t had a meal home in a week) I will be home or nearly home for the next month. Lord willing, our next significant trip is our vacation at the end of March to Florida. It feels good to know that.

  • New faces

    For anyone in and around youth ministry very long, you know it has it’s cycles. There are cycles when everything is great and there are times when everything is bad. There are times of YES and their are times of NO. There are times of excitement and their are times of blah.

    So where am I now?

    What is cool to me right now is the amount of new faces we’re seeing. I am not arrogant enough to think it has anything to do with me, but there are some people inviting new students… just as there are regular students who are fading out. So, it’s just interesting how it works as time ticks along.

  • Drive Deeply

    DrivedeeplyIn the morning we’re going to be driving deeply into God’s Word as we study together Romans 6. Looking forward to this.

  • Off to Birch Run

    Birch_runThis weekend is our "Leadership Summit" for the church. This is a great time to get away with both current and emerging leaders at Romeo and focus on our relationships with one another as well as working through some group and work goals. So, we’re off to Birch Run and will be back Saturday night.

  • Goodbye Calgon, Hello Texas

    Mad_money_1About a week ago I put out a limit order for a stock I own, Calgon Carbon. With a lot of the big names not endorsing it anymore, I wanted out. Intel and Sirius have taught me that lesson… when the analysts get out, I need to as well.  (Net portfolio loss in 2006 is at 18%. That ain’t good)

    So, I forgot about the limit order to be honest. Well, Wednesday morning I got a not from E-trade that it had gone through. I actually made a nice litte "short profit’ on the stick, so I can’t complain.

    Texas_roadhouse So the question was, where do I go from here? I know I am too tech heavy. So while I love tech stocks, it just wasn’t a good idea. So… I went back to my favorite stock philosophy of "buy what you use." In this case I thought about the busiest, most happening, and best steak around. Texas Roadhouse. [Yeah, remember this story about Kristen and I burning one on a date… it’s personal now!] So our 3 stocks of "things we use and love" are Intel, Sirius, and Texas Roadhouse.

  • is Dave coming or what?

    Dsc05862This has been a common question. "Is Dave really coming?" The definite answer right now is I don’t know for sure but I am pretty sure!

    We would both like for it to happen. We know what Dave would do here in Romeo. We know he’s available and we know that he can stay with us and I really want to help him answer the big question "Do I belong in church ministry?" If he did come, he’d be here from late June until late August.

    So that is where we are. At this point there isn’t much left to do than say… "Yes, 100% Dave is coming, I bought his tickets and everything."

    Who is this guy? Dave is a great guy that I lived with, served with, and learned to love as a brother in Christ. He’s great fun and filled with creativity. But Dave has a deep side as well. He’s terribly insightful and really hungers to know God in a deeper way each day. OK… let me be clear, he’s not perfect at all, but he’s a lot like me. "Good kid, lot of problems but a good kid."

    More on this soon.

  • On purpose

    PurposeI had a nice time with Jeremy down in Ohio yesterday. It is always good to catch up with a buddy, even if you have to drive a few hours to do it. Heck, it gave me time to catch up on my radio if nothing else. But here’s a little takeaway from our hours of chatting. See, Jeremy’s church is huge into the Saddleback, Purpose-driven thing. They just ride that horse like crazy and it’s done well for them. Their church has been able to really focus on a few key areas and move a long way. As he mentioned, when George (their SP) got there 18 years ago, they had roughly 32 people. Really zeroing in on a few keys things has helped that tiny church grow… a lot. It’s kind of fun to see a church grow like a weed in a town that is turning into weeds. Here’s my point. New Hope does all the purpose driven stuff. They buy the philosophy, they use their materials, they copy shamelessly from the best churches in the country.

    Part of me looks at that and says, "Are they so uncreative that they just copy everything from everyone? What are their churches paying them to…." That’s when it sinks in. The value their church has sent to the staff is that the people want the staff’s time invested in equipping, not curricuclum development. Less time in the books means more time in front of people. Less time making cool graphics means more time with people. Less time preparing for small groups means a better small group. That’s a lot to chew on for me. In some ways, doing what they are doing takes a lot of pride swallowing. It’s not that Jeremy and the rest of the staff can’t create great materials, their own vision and goals, it’s that they chose not to for the sake of equipping people. That’s a pretty unique take on it.

    Pretty smart for a bunch of copy-cats.