Check out our latest video that will be aired this Sunday (02/03/2008) as a part of our Choices sermon series.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Church calls 9-1-1
Okay, you have got to listen to this. I don't know that I even know what to say to it. Other than the Pastor's words, "She's no longer welcome here." Seems to run pretty counter-intuitive to what I read in the Scriptures. Let me know what you think. Copy and Paste the link in your browser to listen:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-audioPlayer_image.html?theSong=911&mp3File=info_Shun0801_911.mp3&h=200&w=200&title=WSJ.COM&thePubDate=20080108
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-audioPlayer_image.html?theSong=911&mp3File=info_Shun0801_911.mp3&h=200&w=200&title=WSJ.COM&thePubDate=20080108
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Church 2.0 is dead
Today I checked on our hibernating three-toed box turtle only to discover that he has not survived hibernation. We feel very sad, believe it or not. We really did care for him.
We don't know the cause of death. We did everything by the book to hibernate him. All I do know is that hibernation is a very difficult time for any hibernating animal.
I just thought I'd pass along that our littlest family member is no more.
We don't know the cause of death. We did everything by the book to hibernate him. All I do know is that hibernation is a very difficult time for any hibernating animal.
I just thought I'd pass along that our littlest family member is no more.
Friday, January 25, 2008
The Gym
Well...I have been to the gym eight times officially. I'm sore. Today I really wasn't all that keen on going, but once I went I was really glad I did. I am still kind of refining my workout routine but I have a little rotation going on with what I am doing and it seems to be working for me.
I can't say that the pounds are just falling off of me, but I do notice a difference in my attitude and in my energy levels. I do feel better and that is a good thing.
We've been going together as a family...another plus. The boys seem to be enjoying it.
I wish there was just a pill though...that would be a lot easier.
I can't say that the pounds are just falling off of me, but I do notice a difference in my attitude and in my energy levels. I do feel better and that is a good thing.
We've been going together as a family...another plus. The boys seem to be enjoying it.
I wish there was just a pill though...that would be a lot easier.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Our Path
There is a path I have noticed in the pages of Scripture that every man and woman on earth walks. You can't measure this path in terms of distance or years of personal experience. It isn't even measured by the pages within God's Holy Word that reveals it. It is the journey between obedience and disobedience.
The long, arduous walk is between Psalm 1 and Psalm 51. Listen to the words of Psalm 1...
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (NIV)
At one point in the life of David he was the embodiment of those words. He was like a tree planted by rivers of water. He meditated on God's Word day and night. That is the fire that forged the amazing, zealous character of David.
But somewhere along the way, David's attention got diverted. All the power and people and time somehow, slowly etched away at his stellar reserve so much so that instead of being captivated by the Word he lusted after a woman.
In his mighty fall, David didn't just lose his integrity but his joy as well. In Psalm 51, David begs God to cleanse him of his sin. Listen to his words:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts...(NIV)
This is the path that we all walk. If we would do what David did in the beginning and just immerse ourselves in the Word we could avoid so much heartache and loss of joy. Sin brings great separation and sadness.
Where would you find yourself on the continuum of obedience and disobedience? Are you leaning one way or the other?
You know what is interesting in this journey between Psalm 1 and Psalm 51 is Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is one of the strongest prophetic Psalms foreshadowing the coming of our Lord and Savior to die for the disobedient path that we far too often trod.
He took on our sins, even though he had none of his own, and laid down his life so that we would not waffle anymore between which path we should walk. He has called us to walk the path that he has walked. He is asking us to walk in his steps...to walk in the light.
And that which lights our way is the Word. The Word is our light for our feet on this journey of obedience.
I don't want to have a prophet have to hit me over the head only for me to discover that I have been incessantly sinning against my Father in heaven. I want to obey. I want to be renewed on the Word daily.
I want to walk for Him.
The long, arduous walk is between Psalm 1 and Psalm 51. Listen to the words of Psalm 1...
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (NIV)
At one point in the life of David he was the embodiment of those words. He was like a tree planted by rivers of water. He meditated on God's Word day and night. That is the fire that forged the amazing, zealous character of David.
But somewhere along the way, David's attention got diverted. All the power and people and time somehow, slowly etched away at his stellar reserve so much so that instead of being captivated by the Word he lusted after a woman.
In his mighty fall, David didn't just lose his integrity but his joy as well. In Psalm 51, David begs God to cleanse him of his sin. Listen to his words:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts...(NIV)
This is the path that we all walk. If we would do what David did in the beginning and just immerse ourselves in the Word we could avoid so much heartache and loss of joy. Sin brings great separation and sadness.
Where would you find yourself on the continuum of obedience and disobedience? Are you leaning one way or the other?
You know what is interesting in this journey between Psalm 1 and Psalm 51 is Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is one of the strongest prophetic Psalms foreshadowing the coming of our Lord and Savior to die for the disobedient path that we far too often trod.
He took on our sins, even though he had none of his own, and laid down his life so that we would not waffle anymore between which path we should walk. He has called us to walk the path that he has walked. He is asking us to walk in his steps...to walk in the light.
And that which lights our way is the Word. The Word is our light for our feet on this journey of obedience.
I don't want to have a prophet have to hit me over the head only for me to discover that I have been incessantly sinning against my Father in heaven. I want to obey. I want to be renewed on the Word daily.
I want to walk for Him.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Burgers and Friendship
It wasn't much, really. Just a few burgers in an over-priced burger joint. They were good burgers. But it was the re-connection with a friend that was even better. I enjoyed that. It's important to do that. We all need that in our lives. A good burger and a good friend.
Nothing can beat it.
Nothing can beat it.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Amazing Race and Life
One of the only prime time television shows that I really enjoy is the show AMAZING RACE. There is something about seeing these differing groups of people attempting to get around the world and complete all these crazy tasks and do it on little money and even smaller amounts of time.
My wife and I really like the show. But we know that we would probably kill each other if we were ever on the show too. What I have learned is that it takes a great deal of patience and encouragement for a team to actually win. In fact, the teams that play dirty to get ahead typically lose.
The teams that show the most cooperation and are the most encouraging to one another...those teams are usually set to do very well in the race.
That's how life is. If we can understand that sometimes the tasks we have to complete are indeed silly in the big scheme of things and that we all have a limited amount of time in this race (life) and that we are at our very best in the race when we are encouraging and cooperate well with each other, then maybe we'd finish strong.
It's not all about how you play the game, but it is about finishing strong as well. Those who finish strong have played well.
My wife and I really like the show. But we know that we would probably kill each other if we were ever on the show too. What I have learned is that it takes a great deal of patience and encouragement for a team to actually win. In fact, the teams that play dirty to get ahead typically lose.
The teams that show the most cooperation and are the most encouraging to one another...those teams are usually set to do very well in the race.
That's how life is. If we can understand that sometimes the tasks we have to complete are indeed silly in the big scheme of things and that we all have a limited amount of time in this race (life) and that we are at our very best in the race when we are encouraging and cooperate well with each other, then maybe we'd finish strong.
It's not all about how you play the game, but it is about finishing strong as well. Those who finish strong have played well.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Simpler Steps Ahead
I have been reading a book that I am almost done with called "Simple Church." The book has a premise behind it and that is to provide a simple process for people in church to become more mature and committed.
In a sense, the book advocates developing a "map"...a ministry map that shows the simple steps that you have in place that a person needs to take to move from simply attending your church on Sunday to becoming a fully-committed and mature Christian who is involved in a ministry.
As I thought about our current set-up it isn't so much a "map" per say as it would be more like a corn maze. People come in and can even get lost and some get frustrated and work their way backwards to where they started and leave. And a small percentage unbelievably find fulfillment in ministry.
So I am in the process of trying to change that. Some of the steps I intend to take in this is #1) Have a retreat where we discuss how to make our process simpler. #2) Get the leadership on the same page as to what needs to happen for us. #3) With their help, eliminate all that is not necessary in our church in helping people become the mature Christian we want them to become.
I think this is going to be a time-consuming process. I don't see it happening overnight. Nor do I think all of it will be pleasant (especially if we have to eliminate some long standing ministries that have just been around for a long time but aren't moving people to maturity).
Ultimately I want to move our church closer to what I believe Christ is calling us to be. We can't just simply be existing to have services each week. We need to be laser-beam focused on transforming peoples lives into the likeness of Christ.
And I want it to be real clear how we expect that to happen. It isn't going to happen by just listening to sermons on Sunday. We need clear steps for people to take.
Realistically I would like to see those steps be centered around our core value words (Influencing, Connecting, Devoting and Helping). Four steps. Four steps to maturity. I don't know though. Thus the reason for the retreat. I want help in trying to figure this out.
In a sense, the book advocates developing a "map"...a ministry map that shows the simple steps that you have in place that a person needs to take to move from simply attending your church on Sunday to becoming a fully-committed and mature Christian who is involved in a ministry.
As I thought about our current set-up it isn't so much a "map" per say as it would be more like a corn maze. People come in and can even get lost and some get frustrated and work their way backwards to where they started and leave. And a small percentage unbelievably find fulfillment in ministry.
So I am in the process of trying to change that. Some of the steps I intend to take in this is #1) Have a retreat where we discuss how to make our process simpler. #2) Get the leadership on the same page as to what needs to happen for us. #3) With their help, eliminate all that is not necessary in our church in helping people become the mature Christian we want them to become.
I think this is going to be a time-consuming process. I don't see it happening overnight. Nor do I think all of it will be pleasant (especially if we have to eliminate some long standing ministries that have just been around for a long time but aren't moving people to maturity).
Ultimately I want to move our church closer to what I believe Christ is calling us to be. We can't just simply be existing to have services each week. We need to be laser-beam focused on transforming peoples lives into the likeness of Christ.
And I want it to be real clear how we expect that to happen. It isn't going to happen by just listening to sermons on Sunday. We need clear steps for people to take.
Realistically I would like to see those steps be centered around our core value words (Influencing, Connecting, Devoting and Helping). Four steps. Four steps to maturity. I don't know though. Thus the reason for the retreat. I want help in trying to figure this out.
Monday, January 7, 2008
NOISE
Answering machines, voicemail, cellphones, telephones, internet, blogs, e-mail, text messages, billboards, Television, radio. We have so many ways to say things in our culture and so many things that are said to us.
But nobody's really saying anything worth listening to.
You ever thought about it? Think about all the chatter on the news about politics right now. Nobody is really saying anything. Yet we continue to listen to the noise because the noise is better than silence, I suppose.
Life is loud in 2008. We all have our volume levels cranked. Our ipods are dialed up. We are infusing our audible sense with so much clutter.
Podcasts, speeches, sermons, music, news, talk-radio. We like to talk so much that we even like to listen to people talk.
If our ears were feet, we'd walk 1,000 miles every day with how much we listen to.
Why does silence threaten us? By the way we live, we never give room to it...silence, that is. We don't want any quietness to invade any facet of our lives. Why many people even go to sleep with Mp3 players so they can let their beautiful noise lull them into sleep.
Noise. It is comforting. Loud, but comforting.
I wonder what would happen if we powered off our cell phone for 10 minutes and then pulled out our ear buds and turned off our ipod? And then maybe even turn off the TV and closed our laptop screen? I wonder what would happen if for just 10 minutes we decided to sit in silence and not hear anything but our own breathing?
How long has it been since you did that? Listen to your own breath? Have you ever laid on a pillow in such a way that you could even hear your own heartbeat?
What if in that kind of quietness you whispered these words...
"God, help me to not live so loudly."
Maybe God has been trying to speak to you but you can't hear him because you've been living with so much noise. God is a whisperer. He gave up thundering down to us long ago. He wants us to be so quiet, so rested, so...still...that we can hear Him whisper to us.
I think a 10 minute respite from all the clutter of the noise would do just about all of us some good. I get tired of it all, honestly.
I remember once, several years back, when I was all worked up about the amount of time I had been spending watching TV (that particular issue hasn't convicted me recently though) so much time watching just garbage. So I decided to issue a challenge through an impassioned sermon to join me in a 2 week fast from TV.
And to solidify the decision I even sent around a clipboard with a sign-up on it. When the service was over and I went to the back of the church building to get the clip board, I found on the clip board my name and the name of my pianist.
So our life changing crusade affected me and her. (And I don't even think I made it two weeks anyway!)
We are so scared of silence. I don't quite know why other than in silence is when we actually do hear. We hear the thoughts that the noise seems to keep at bay. We hear the actions and conversations that we have managed with all the help of the noise to stuff. And we don't want to hear that.
So we swim in the sounds. We bathe ourselves in it.
What a minute? Did you hear something? Oh, it was probably nothing. So what new songs have you got on your ipod?
But nobody's really saying anything worth listening to.
You ever thought about it? Think about all the chatter on the news about politics right now. Nobody is really saying anything. Yet we continue to listen to the noise because the noise is better than silence, I suppose.
Life is loud in 2008. We all have our volume levels cranked. Our ipods are dialed up. We are infusing our audible sense with so much clutter.
Podcasts, speeches, sermons, music, news, talk-radio. We like to talk so much that we even like to listen to people talk.
If our ears were feet, we'd walk 1,000 miles every day with how much we listen to.
Why does silence threaten us? By the way we live, we never give room to it...silence, that is. We don't want any quietness to invade any facet of our lives. Why many people even go to sleep with Mp3 players so they can let their beautiful noise lull them into sleep.
Noise. It is comforting. Loud, but comforting.
I wonder what would happen if we powered off our cell phone for 10 minutes and then pulled out our ear buds and turned off our ipod? And then maybe even turn off the TV and closed our laptop screen? I wonder what would happen if for just 10 minutes we decided to sit in silence and not hear anything but our own breathing?
How long has it been since you did that? Listen to your own breath? Have you ever laid on a pillow in such a way that you could even hear your own heartbeat?
What if in that kind of quietness you whispered these words...
"God, help me to not live so loudly."
Maybe God has been trying to speak to you but you can't hear him because you've been living with so much noise. God is a whisperer. He gave up thundering down to us long ago. He wants us to be so quiet, so rested, so...still...that we can hear Him whisper to us.
I think a 10 minute respite from all the clutter of the noise would do just about all of us some good. I get tired of it all, honestly.
I remember once, several years back, when I was all worked up about the amount of time I had been spending watching TV (that particular issue hasn't convicted me recently though) so much time watching just garbage. So I decided to issue a challenge through an impassioned sermon to join me in a 2 week fast from TV.
And to solidify the decision I even sent around a clipboard with a sign-up on it. When the service was over and I went to the back of the church building to get the clip board, I found on the clip board my name and the name of my pianist.
So our life changing crusade affected me and her. (And I don't even think I made it two weeks anyway!)
We are so scared of silence. I don't quite know why other than in silence is when we actually do hear. We hear the thoughts that the noise seems to keep at bay. We hear the actions and conversations that we have managed with all the help of the noise to stuff. And we don't want to hear that.
So we swim in the sounds. We bathe ourselves in it.
What a minute? Did you hear something? Oh, it was probably nothing. So what new songs have you got on your ipod?
Saturday, January 5, 2008
First Post in 2008
Okay, this is my official first post of the new year. I have recently joined something this year and I really like what kind of networking resource it is. I have joined Facebook.com (if you want to check out my page click the link on the left). It is amazing how in just the short time that I have been on it how many renewed contacts have been made...especially back from my Bible College days at Lincoln Christian College in Lincoln, IL.
Facebook has so many features, but one in particular is the creation of groups. I created a group called "the fort" for our church. From groups you can post events and advertise upcoming venues for your group.
It is just one more resource on a very cosmopolitan playing field. If you haven't already, check out Facebook.com (and send me a friend request!)
Facebook has so many features, but one in particular is the creation of groups. I created a group called "the fort" for our church. From groups you can post events and advertise upcoming venues for your group.
It is just one more resource on a very cosmopolitan playing field. If you haven't already, check out Facebook.com (and send me a friend request!)
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