Category: hmm… thoughts

Today was the first time we ran two services under our new format. Overall, unofficially, I’d rate it a B+. There weren’t any major problems that have to be fixed. We had musicians in both services, both services ran on time, the resource/welcome area did exactly what we hoped it would do, KidsTown happened and went pretty well, on and on and on.

About those problems… honestly, I don’t even want to think about them right now. (Minor picky stuff mostly)I took notes, we’ll deal with that stuff in our staff meeting… right now I’m just glowing with excitement for the extremely good day today. Everything we needed to go well, went well. Phew! Now, getting at church at 7:30 am for worship team practice… that just leads me to the next thing I need… a nap.

I don’t think I have any complete thoughts today… but I do have several partial ones.

1. It is prematurely freezing here in Romeo. Current temperature at our house is 62.2 F. And it feels colder than that. Leaves are falling as I type this in my front yard. Far too early to think about raking or finding out why our leaf blower won’t work. And far too soon to think about getting the snow blower ready.
2. I’m excited for the football game today. I heard 35,000 people showed up for the pep rally tonight and rumor has it that the Notre Dame vs. Penn State game is the toughest ticket ever at Notre Dame Stadium.
3. My Fantasy Baseball team is in the playoffs. Heading into the last 48 hours the two teams are tied.
4. We’re hosting the churches Bonfire tomorrow night. We aren’t anywhere near being ready and the backyard closely resembles a wheat field before harvest. Today’s cold and rain is not helping matters.
5. It’s a fact, the elevator is open for business at the church. I think I was one of the first unofficial riders. I rode downstairs with the general contractor minutes after we passed our inspection. When the doors opened downstairs I yelled for Chris to come give it a try. It was a simple pleasure as she ran over and we rode upstairs. I’m extremely happy it’s up and running.
6. Two services in the morning. When I got here 3+ years ago we ran two services. It’s nice to be bringing that back. In fact, I think by doing two identical services we’re doing things much better than the old way.
7. The kids are going to see Lassie. In case you didn’t know, there is a new version of the old classic in theaters. I don’t think Paul will be into it… but Megan will fall in love with the story.

I have other random thoughts… but the weather has me desiring a nap.

We called it college.

This is the title of an article in the September/October issue of Relevant Magazine. (Yes, I think it’s the best Christian mag out there… hands down.) It’s contains one of two paragraphs that has kept me thinking this week.

Some of the worst decisions I ever made came during a night of binging. There are men I can’t remember, faces I’d just as soon forget. Friends I fought with, floors I fell on and bathrooms that became my bed. It’s pretty amazing what sorts of things we will tolerate when we are drunk. Porcelain gods and beer goggles are pretty expensive in the economy of life. (p. 49)

First off, it’s a really well written article. I really like the sentence I’ve underlined. Not only is it true, it’s a well constructed and imaginative thought.

But this article has me thinking because there is a present reality that we like to pretend doesn’t exist. There are students in my lives, college and high school, (dare I say middle school?) who I wonder if they are getting hurt in the world of binge drinking? It’s not hard to get into… and yet it comes with massive ramifications. I just wonder… do I care enough? Am I creating a place in Light Force where students who have gone there and done that can find forgiveness and chose a better way in the future?

Ever read something that just leaves you in shock? I just read this and could not believe the intense racism that exists in some places. Perhaps my eyes are not open wide enough, but I’ve never experienced anything quite like this. It is a travesty.

Two excepts from the news article (Source)

The Rev. John Stevens says Fellowship
Baptist Church in Saltillo voted not to approve blacks as members
during a scheduled Sunday night business meeting Aug. 6. Because of the
decision, Stevens stepped down from the Baptist Missionary Alliance
congregation that has an average Sunday morning attendance of 30 people.

According
to Stevens, the church made race an issue after a biracial 12-year-old
boy, Joe, began attending Fellowship Baptist with his temporary
guardians.

The church was "afraid Joe might come with his
people and have blacks in the church," Stevens said. "I could not go
along with that. There would always be a wall between us, so I resigned
that night."

Insert my jaw dropping face. I couldn’t believe this and I applaud John for walking away from that place. Words cannot express accurately what I’m thinking.

After being told of the vote, Cliff Hardy,
an officer with the Tupelo Police Department, left the church. He and
his family had been going to Fellowship Baptist for about a year and
had been praying about becoming members there.

"I was asking the Lord to lead us," Hardy said.

The police officer says there are good people at Fellowship Baptist, and the Bible was preached there.

However,
"You see, my best friend is a black man," he said. "I wouldn’t be
comfortable going to a place where I couldn’t ask my best friend to go
to church with me."

I don’t believe in leaving churches over flippant reasoning. But this is a valid reason to go. I pray I am never at a place in my life where people exclude others from fellowship in the body over clearly non-biblical standards. Absolutely sickening. It’s my hope that I am doing the opposite in my life… widening room at the table for people of all backgrounds for a seat at the table with Christ. I hope we are united in our differences by the shed blood of Jesus.

If this is true, how could anyone justify staying there? Where in the Bible are people getting this idea that we should not allow people of different races to worship together?

Life is busy, as usual.  I’m not mad about the busyness, I don’t think it’s out of control, I am just in a busy portion of my annual schedule where my comfortable routine is not possible and we’re mostly planning for the upcoming Light Force year. (It’s gonna rock… that’s all I can say)

Today I’ll be spending most of my time over at Kensington as we attend the second day of Willow’s Leadership Conference. The first day was pretty good. We listened to Bill Hybels, James Meeks, and Andy Stanley. All were excellent presenters and had good, inspiring, things to say. Here are some highlights.

Hybels: He told a great story about leading while young. While sailing in Lake Michigan, the other guys were skinny dipping and he was swimming… well, he left the sails up and while swimming the wind picked up and he was horrified to see the boat floating away. As he swam after it he thought "What will my dad say when I lose his boat, and what will people think of me when 3 naked guys swim to shore?"

His talk was great, his main point was leading for the long haul and he gave some strategies for continually getting more effective for more impact. Another memorable quote, "If I fail, people stop giving to our projects, and people will die."

Meeks: James was very, very good. I don’t agree with him theologically 100% yet I liked what he had to say. He encouraged us against the "white church mentality" to not care about numbers. He said that since all people matter to God, we should eliminate things that are growth inhibitors to our churches.  I loved his communication style. While he was speaking, God was speaking to me. Light Force will see some of the ramifications of that over the next few months!

Stanley: If you’ve never listened to this man speak, you need to. He is an extremely good communicator of biblical truth. He told us… "Christ jobs is to build the church, the pastors command is to love your wife." He told us that we should cheat the church and not our families. He talked a little about how this effects things at his church, and really encouraged Bob and I with the environment we need to create at Romeo. (Already underway.) Stanley’s principle about "Doing less is more effective" is trickling down into all sorts of things at church.

Today is interview day. More on that later. The world wants to know what Bill Hybels and Bono will talk about.

I’m not sure I even want to talk about this. But it has to come out somewhere and I think it has a good purpose.

(more…)

It seems all my really good thoughts seem to come to me while pushing the lawn mower. As I sweated my lunch off this evening I started thinking about something.

Today, we had Dave take a look at a list of the 50 Most Influential Churches in America’s websites. Based solely on the websites,  the top 50 seem to fit into one of the following categories.

1. The personality church– These are places where it’s all about the senior pastor, his books and messages, and everything else about him. He/She is prominently featured everywhere on the site. I’m sure his fingerprint continues throughout the organization… at least you are led to believe so.
2. The McDonald’s church– These are churches that are infatuated with their organization or denomination. My guess is that they are anticipating people to come to their site to discover that they can trust X Church since it’s just like all the other X churches out there.
3. The fearful church– These are places where the best thing they seem to have is that they are right and the rest of the Western world is wrong. Of course… being that they own all that is right, they will point you and your family in the right direction. Trust them…

Kind of weird eh? Go ahead… find them for yourself.

I’ve got a few things that I’d like to talk about that just get categorized as "other" that I need to get out.

1. We’re missing some stuff. Not the type of things anyone would steal. But annoying things like a TV remote and a belt and my Bible. What’s going on?
2. Still no Violet. We had a false sighting yesterday over by the Montessori school. It wasn’t her. 5 days is a long time for a little cat. Let’s hope she comes back soon.
3. Flipping tired. I don’t know how else to explain how I feel. I am just plain worn out. It’s been the type of week that just goes and goes. I’ve not been to bed before midnight once. I think Dave can hang with this type of schedule, but I’m worn out and I’m beginning to worry that if I keep it up I’ll get sick.
4. Dave’s still doing great. He hasn’t blogged very much because we’re never home.  But Dave is doing fantastic. It’s hard to believe that he’s been here more than 3 weeks. A lot done and a lot to do.
5. In case I haven’t said this lately… we love this town, the people, and our church. I’ve never been around a group of people who just genuinely love one another quite like I’m seeing here. It’s a pleasure to be a part of it.

Is it really Friday? There are certain times in life where weeks literally start to fly by. I’ve been out late every night this week. Mornings have been coming too soon.

Man, sure would be nice if life would slow down a bit.