Holy cow. I’ve done it again. Wednesday is here and I am only half ready. I still have a lot to do to make Light Force, LIGHT FORCE.

• Need to go to GFS for some food supplies. (Loaded up on cheap stuff at Meijer’s last night, thank you Super Bowl!)
• Need to buy a Super Bowl champions shirt for our quiz winner, Christian P.
• Need to nail down the talk, do PowerPoint slides, and a talk sheet. (The talk is mostly done… So these last two steps are actually easier than they sound.)
• Need to make the jello for tonight’s game… Bobbing in red jello for letters.
• Need to finish my prayer card for the Northern Ireland trip. (This was due on the 1st!)

I can easily handle these tasks if nothing goes wrong and if I don’t get too bothered by unscheduled visitors. (Wink, wink… Those adults who drop by just positive that I have nothing to do with my life.)

Since I don’t have all the fancy 401(k) and pension plans since I left “Big Blue on Randolph Street” a few years ago… I’ve found myself a little concerned about my financial future.

I know, I’m 28. But I recognize that now is the time to settle good on a good investment strategy to get things on track for my future.

This is based on two facts of my career choice which I cannot control.

1. I will make less money per year than my peer group. (In case you didn’t know being a youth pastor isn’t lucrative!)
2. I will likely never own a house since we can’t compete with our peer groups income.

Thankfully, I started my 401k early. (Now I have 2 IRAs, a rollover and a Roth.) Kristen and I are out in front of our peers in that we had generous employers early. But that is all gone now. We have a single, highly stretched income and no matching contributions. I stock away a simple 5% of my income quarterly. [Keep in mind I have opted to stay invested in social security when I could legally opt out.]

Long story short, after listening to a good book on tape, I am going to take the advice of the Motley Fools and stop investing in mutual funds and start investing my IRA money in the markets. Starting this quarter (or next) I will divert my contributions to a proven winner and start dollar cost averaging a certain stock. Did you know that Coke has returned about 18% per year for the last 85 years? Why invest somewhere else?

Who are you to judge me?



If there is one mantra in our culture that resonates faster than any others from non-Christians to Christians it is this… “Don’t judge me!”

I will admit that I am sensitive about this. I regularly get comments from folks that since I am a pastor… even my presence will sometimes elicit the response “don’t judge me.” As if I were judge, jury, and condemner. I am none of these nor do I claim to be… so why is it often attributed to any believer?

A dose of reality in a “whatever I want” world

At the same time, there is One who judges. There is a Day coming when we will all be judged and it won’t be pretty. In my life I can imagine the laundry list of sins that will be placed before me, because I am well aware of my sinfulness and my stupid inability to stop myself from continuing to sin. Nonetheless, I will be judged by the Lawgiver.

Sure, we all have friends that deny that this will happen. Furthermore, they deny that they are “that bad.” They say things like “Well, I am not as bad as Jeffrey Dahlmer, so I’m OK” or something equally stupid. However, when the punishment for even a single sin is eternal seperation from God, it doesn’t take “that bad” does it? Don’t they get it? We we all need a mediator in the worst way.

Expose, don’t judge



In my devotions this morning I came across this verse that adds perspective to the “don’t judge” mentality. Paul writes, “Have nothing to do with with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11)



What a powerful difference between judging someone and exposing their sins to them? When you judge someone you say “I am better than you are” but this isn’t what we are told to do, Paul taught us that when you expose something to them you say “Don’t you see that your own choices are messing your life up?” Instead of taking the judgment role… why not instead accept the role of allowing the Holy Spirit to do His job? While He is the author of our conscience He is also called the comforter.

I’m not saying “don’t judge” because that is a denial of truth, but instead why don’t we follow the Apostle Paul’s advice and “expose darkness?”

I think I am at the point where I would like to start separating myself from the evangelical powerhouse James Dobson. At the same time, there are many things that he does and says that I still embrace… Here’s an idea of what I mean.

Issues where we part company:

1. Becoming a PAG. It is putting the nail in the coffin to step down from Focus on the Family and create a political arm. He will soon be the Stuart Little of the 2000’s just like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. I have no doubt that he will run for president in 2008 and never make it to the New Hampshire primaries.
2. Making absolute truth a faith issue. This is “modern evangelicalism’s” inability to cope with the reality that we live in a post-modern society that believes in graded-absolutism at best and absolute relativism at it’s worst. The reality is that Christianity was born out of relativism and only embraced absolutism in Colonial times. Do the research!
3. Picking homosexual marriage as the “Little Big Horn of Christianity.” I just think he is fighting a battle that will ultimately be lost. Homosexual marriage has been defeated everywhere it has come up, it is based on a complete lie of secular humanism, (Born gay? Show me one sliver of research to back this up! There isn’t any but millions believe! Eerily similar to the idea of “separation of church and state.”) My opinion is that Christ can thrive in a United States that embraces homosexuals. It will be ugly, but the church will survive.
4. His allegiance with the home school movement. As I’ve shared in All Blogs before, it is my opinion that the home school movement is 100% wrong for Christians beyond the primary ages. It does not make sense that Dobson wants to change society without beingi involved in the educational process of children. He should be imploring universally that believers pour themselves into public life and public schools, but he has aligned himself with something that will sink the ship of many local churches and enter them into complete irrelevance.
5. His talking head status. I am tired of seeing him on CNN, FoxNews, and MSNBC. Does he not see that he is the goat of the conservative agenda? He looks like a fool in that he always says yes. It makes him seem as though he is interested in the fame of Hollywood.
6. The church has a responsibility to be political. I thought our responsibility was to disciple believers? Certainly an aspect of that is to teach truth that will cause action (such as social change) but we should not be endorsing a political party in such a way that violates our sacred duties.

Issues where I will always agree:

1. Abortion is infanticide and a black eye to the United States. Abortion on demand must stop… We will agree on that. The wholesale slaughter of unborn children under the title “human choice” is reprehensible at best and criminal at worst. The American people have turned their cheek to it and not realized that it has become a business venture and a perpetuation of racism. Why is it that over 75% of Planned Parenthood clinics are in African American neighborhoods?
2. Homosexuality is a sin. Yep, and so is any kind of sex outside of a marriage relationship. There is no doubt about this… The Bible could not be more clear on the issue. Even if people were “born gay” they still have the choice to act on this behavior or not act on this behavior. We are all natural born sinners. But if we are born to do something (such as alcoholism or addictions) we still have a responsibility to act according to what the Bible instructs us. Porn with a predisposition to something does not give us license to embrace it… Tell that to a cancer patient!
3. Parental responsibilities and discipline. I love and use Dobson’s books in raising my children. If he would “Focus on the Family” and not politics, I would still be embracing him!
4. Embracing these things could lead to real culture wars and the fall of the United States. I couldn’t agree more. Yet the Christ will still remain. Unchanged and unchangeable.

Postlude: Perhaps there are 2 people who will read this. It was not written for a mass audience. This was written to crystallize my own viewpoint as an evangelical and a pastor. My responsibility is to shepherd my flock… Which includes leading them to good water, leading them to good food, and keep them safe. It is my opinion that to do this best is to steer them away from the PAG that James Dobson has become… Hopefully after his failed attempt to run in 08 he will double back and focus on the family again! In the meantime, we can embrace portions of his ministry while steering clear of his political action.

I could never say that Megan isn’t my daughter. Pretty crazy, eh? 

There are times when holding a confidence is really, really hard. I’m in one of these cases and I really need to hold onto it for about another 5 days. But it is killing me.

In this case, it’s not a bad thing that I know… In fact it is quite exciting, but it just isn’t time yet to spill the beans.

Here’s the deal. The search committee has found their man. They have pegged the person they want as the next senior pastor, they’ve even shown him the whole enchiladas of his package, but the church won’t be told who he is until next Sunday.

The funny part is that I have secretly known for weeks who they have been talking to. Don’t tell! We’ve talked extensively but the search committee has no idea. Even funnier than that is the fact that they have scheduled a time when they can come and talk to me about who it is, etc. Pretty funny because I know who it is but they just don’t think that we’ve talked. I don’t think I’ll tell them I know but just let them tell me.

Kind of reminds me of the butler in Mr. Deeds, “sneaky sneaky.”

So on the inside I am rejoicing because it looks like the calvary has arrived. But on the outside I still have to hold up to “Whoa is me… When will this be over!”

And you thought keeping things quiet was easy. Hmmm.

I found this online and I thought it was well worth passing along.

What will they come up with next? I think this is a riot!

Here is an exert from the Herald-Press in Huntington. This is big new in this little small town.

Dr. John Sanders, whose views regarding God’s omniscience have been at odds with some members of the United Brethren in Christ denomination, will not teach at Huntington College after the 2004-05 school year concludes.The college’s board of trustees, meeting last weekend in Arizona, instructed HC’s president, Dr. G. Blair Dowden, to offer Sanders a conditional one-year sabbatical for the 2005-06 school year and that his employment at Huntington College be terminated after the sabbatical was completed.

Sanders, who has taught theology and philosophy at Huntington College, is a nationally known proponent of what is called “open theism,” which holds that God either can not or does not know the future – because, the argument goes, the future hasn’t happened yet.Such a doctrine contradicts traditional UB theology, which holds that God fully knows the future. It has also landed Sanders in hot water with the Evangelical Theological Society, which narrowly voted not to oust him from membership in 2003.

In a statement published on the Huntington College Web site, the trustees said their responsibility is to “insure that the direction of the institution continue(s) in the theological traditions of the College and the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.” Saying “the work of the college has been impeded and the focus of the college community has been diverted by the controversy around open theism,” the trustees chose to remove Sanders as an instructor at the college.

The board said the open theism issue was “distractive and divisive.”

As a student at the grad school, I recognize the issue and I respect the schools decision. Of course, student who like this man will not like the decision… But it is best for the school, it’s alumni, and it’s future. I don’t think the view is heretical, but I do not agree with it. I feel like it is a foolish attempt to solve the elusive “problem of evil.” Because, if God doesn’t know the future He could be held responsible for man’s choosing to sin. I think open theism is one of the last bastions of modern inkling to systematize all there is to know about God. I respect the thought and the scholarship, but it’s a silly view.

I am thankful that the school has made a move on this issue, as it clear up once and for all the college’s viewpoint. They have decided to not harbor the issue any longer. Praise God.

I’m thinking of challenging my students and other to begin fasting on Friday’s in preparation for our mission trips coming up.

Last night I had the pleasure of sleeping at Good Shepherd. I hadn’t wanted to do this before, but I am not sure why. It was actually a pleasant experience and I’ll be going back tonight.

Good Shepherd is actually a retired monastery and present United Brethren church… I will admit to being confused on that part. Actually, it reminds me an awful lot of a youth hostel in Europe. This would be a lower class youth hostel but good enough for what I wanted.

It had a warm room, a semi-comfortable bed, a desk, hot showers, and silence. Just what a tired grad school guy needs!

I’ve had a bit more pleasant time down here this trip as there are many more students in my class and all of us seem to desire someone to hang out with. So far I haven’t had to eat alone nor have I been bored during free time.

This evening I will be looking for something to do and I may ever go to South Bend to see my dad and go to a ballgame at my alma mater, South Bend Clay High School.