This kid just had his teeth pulled and he's still high on the anesthesia. Result=Hilarious.
Good stuff.
2.18.2009
2.17.2009
HSBC D'Now 2009: A Call To Grace
This weekend was incredible. It was my home church's DiscipleNow Weekend. I actually had the honor of helping lead worship for roughly 400 students with a good friend of mine, David Devane. We had some great worship experiences throughout the weekend with the youth. David Nasser was the speaker for the weekend and did a phenomenal job. He really challenged everybody to actually live grace out instead of solely experiencing it at this specific event. Lots of memorable moments and lots of lives won for the Kingdom. Glory to God. Also found out that people actually read this blog. Feels good to know I'm not simply typing for myself -- even though I was quite satisfied with it. :-)
2.12.2009
Congratulations Elliott and Meredith!
Just wanted to give a shout out to my good friends Elliot Devore and Meredith Collins. They got engaged! Congratulations guys. Can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for you. God bless!2.10.2009
Obama Ticked Me Off Last Night
I am incredibly upset with our President, Barack Obama. I feel like he took a personal shot at me this evening. Let me explain.
My DVR was scheduled to record '24' on Fox. Obama's speech ran over it's scheduled time. As a result, my DVR recorded roughly 7 minutes of his yapping about the economy. In case you haven't caught on, I missed approximately the last 7 minutes of '24'. Needless to say, I'm pretty upset.
Looks like I must wait until the episode gets posted on Fox.com to see what happens. The anticipation is killing me.
2.03.2009
Business Strategies In The Church (Part I)
Lately something has been really bothering me. I have been hearing a ridiculous amount of information on how to make church the next big thing and how to make it culturally relevant, cool, hip, and visitor friendly. This is all well and good, but it seems like we sometimes forget that the gospel is TOTALLY counter-cultural. It says that we must DENY OURSELVES. How visitor-friendly does that sound? Not very? My point exactly.
We need to stop making church a business in our minds. We can treat it like a business and grow our church into a gathering of 5,000 clients every Sunday or we can let the Holy Spirit transform the lives of sinners and sanctify them on the time table he wishes to do so. Church growth is too big of a deal to often in ministry. Sometimes numbers can be one of the deadliest things in ministry. I truly believe the devil uses numbers often to destroy churches and their leaders. If the numbers are low, a pastor can quickly become frustrated and feel unsuccessful. If the numbers are high, the pastor can become conceited and believe that he is what is growing the church.
As I mentioned earlier, I think that business strategies, numbers, and making church 'cool' are all good if they are put in their proper perspective. God is the one who grows His church. You can have the best everything (environment, ministers, coffee, etc.) and not grow a single person if the Lord wills so. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you can have what seems to be the lamest, most outdated church style in the world and grow by leaps and bounds if the Lord wills so. Bottom line: It's God's church. He will grow it. Let's get over ourselves and stop acting like we're more important than we are. Let's stop trying to sell church and Jesus like the marketing department over at Apple sells iPods. Trust in God. Do your part: be faithful, be strategic, cast vision, but don't forget to trust God in all of it.
We need to stop making church a business in our minds. We can treat it like a business and grow our church into a gathering of 5,000 clients every Sunday or we can let the Holy Spirit transform the lives of sinners and sanctify them on the time table he wishes to do so. Church growth is too big of a deal to often in ministry. Sometimes numbers can be one of the deadliest things in ministry. I truly believe the devil uses numbers often to destroy churches and their leaders. If the numbers are low, a pastor can quickly become frustrated and feel unsuccessful. If the numbers are high, the pastor can become conceited and believe that he is what is growing the church.
As I mentioned earlier, I think that business strategies, numbers, and making church 'cool' are all good if they are put in their proper perspective. God is the one who grows His church. You can have the best everything (environment, ministers, coffee, etc.) and not grow a single person if the Lord wills so. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you can have what seems to be the lamest, most outdated church style in the world and grow by leaps and bounds if the Lord wills so. Bottom line: It's God's church. He will grow it. Let's get over ourselves and stop acting like we're more important than we are. Let's stop trying to sell church and Jesus like the marketing department over at Apple sells iPods. Trust in God. Do your part: be faithful, be strategic, cast vision, but don't forget to trust God in all of it.
In case you are wondering where all this is coming from, it's been building up in me for a while. It seems to be this recurring notion that I see popping up on blogs everywhere and a huge emphasis in the modern day church. Again, I think all of them have their proper place in ministry, but it just seems like a lot of people have forgotten about God and the fact that He has a plan, that will not and cannot be thwarted. This is great news for the church. God WILL grow His church regardless of how good we are at making it 'cool'.
*I have a feeling this will probably rub some people the wrong way. I pray that it doesn't come across as a shot at any individual, but as a concern that I have for a group of bloggers and churches. Anyway, there's my soapbox for the day.
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