Ideas for Office Warriors

Do you engage in some good-natured war games among your co-workers? You know you do. Learn from the master, John Austin, who spent years miniaturizing firepower for G.I. Joe and Star Wars figurines. In MiniWeapons of Mass Destruction, he describes how to build weapons from supply-closet goodies. From Wired, here are a few of his favorite workplace munitions.

Winning Ways: Taking Stock

Let’s see how well you know your Cold War trivia. Recognize the name Matthias Rust?

Rust’s story will let you know why this Sunday’s study is so important. In 1987, nineteen-year-old Matthias Rust piloted a rental plane into the heart of the former Soviet Union and landed in Moscow’s Red Square. Described by his mother as a “quiet young man with a passion for flying,” Rust apparently had no political or social agenda when he took off from the international airport in Helsinki and headed for Moscow.

He entered Soviet airspace, but was either undetected or ignored as he pushed farther and farther into the Soviet Union.

Early on the morning of May 28, 1987, he arrived over Moscow, circled Red Square a few times, and then landed just a few hundred yards from the Kremlin. Curious onlookers and tourists, many believing that Rust was part of an air show, immediately surrounded him. He was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison, but as a goodwill gesture the Soviets released him after a year.

His effortless penetration of Soviet air space raised serious questions about the Soviet Union’s ability to defend itself from air attack, and shook the Soviet military hierarchy to its core. The repercussions in the Soviet Union were immediate. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sacked his minister of defense, and the entire Russian military was humiliated by Rust’s flight into Moscow.

The Soviets were sure they had the best systems of air defense in the world. But then a teenager penetrated their airspace, undetected, and taxied up to the front door of the Kremlin.

Where are you vulnerable to Enemy penetration? We all have to watch out for things that lead us into miserable choices: aspects of our personality, patterns of behavior, emotional “triggers.”

If you want a life of victory, you have to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself. People in recovery groups remind each other, “A business that doesn’t take inventory will go broke, and a person who doesn’t take inventory will stay broke.” This Sunday, October 4, we’ll get some biblical guidance on taking stock of our lives.

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Link to Your World, Tuesday September 29

Yikes! This woman gave birth to a baby 19.2 pounds and 24.4 inches long!


The Statesman has an interesting story on Bruce Collie, NFL playboy-turned-Christian, brewing beer and raising kids.


“We are going to have a lot more Rifqa Barys in America because the kids are rebelling. I know families in Los Angeles whose kids are not attending mosque and their parents are threatening them….We in America are scared for our lives. No other religion on earth demands the death of those who leave it.” (Nonie Darwish, the Egyptian-born director of the group Former Muslims United, in reference to the teenage Muslim who fled her parents claiming that her conversion to Christianity put her in danger. Members of Former Muslims United say that conflicts will increase as a lot of second-generation immigrants from Muslim-dominant countries express desire to leave the family faith.)


One in 5 Americans may be secular by 2030, according to a Religion News Service report. Only 1 in 5, and as late as 2030? I would have assumed it would be more and sooner. This is not as disturbing as it may at first seem. When the thin veneer of nominal Christianity is knocked off our culture, the choice for the real gospel will be clearer.


“The truly transformational leaders differ in almost every imaginable respect except for two common denominators: they have a deep sense of humility, and an indomitable will. In church leadership, a good deal gets written about the importance and virtue of humility, but not nearly so much gets written about the need for an indomitable will.” (John Ortberg, from an excellent article about the need for a strong will in leadership)


New expectations in home buying: less square footage, fewer useless rooms (out go the foyer and “living room”), single story, 2 master bedrooms for multigenerational adult arrangements, etc. (story)


Get your Lost fix on: "Lost on Gilligan’s Island." Hilarious--well, if you're a Lost fan...

Living Large

Update below the post.

The Statesman ran a story on Bruce Collie, NFL playboy-turned-Christian in Wimberley. Patrick Beach opened his piece:

Say you're a guy. You have an imposing and ripped physique — including 20-inch biceps — athletic prowess, an enviable string of professional accomplishments, money, beautiful women, houses, cars, motorcycles — everything the world says you need to be fulfilled, happy, content.

But when you run the numbers, the bottom line of the ledger doesn't say that. Then what?

That was Bruce Collie, a former offensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles. He played and won in Super Bowls XXIII and XXIV, meaning he was a member of arguably two of the best NFL teams ever. He arrived in New Orleans for his second Super Bowl with a stripper on each arm. Hugh Hefner in shoulder pads. And it wasn't enough.

Beach goes on to describe Collie's spiritual search that resulted in a commitment to Christ--and a commitment to being fully engaged in loving and leading a large family. Collie and his wife have 13 children, who range in age from 7 months to 16 years. He decided against being a pilot or running a construction company because it would have kept him away from his family too much. He launched a brewery in Wimberley instead.

It's a respectful and well-crafted story about a man who's living as large with Jesus as he once lived without Jesus.

However, I kept waiting to discover the church the Collies connect with. That's more than just my "professional" curiosity as a pastor. My guess is that most churches that would love the brewery angle wouldn't know what to do with a home-schooling family of 13 that are up at 5:30 every morning for family devotionals. And, on the other hand, most churches that would love the idea of big, disciplined, home-schooled family wouldn't know what to do with the brewery angle. Where does a brew master with 13 kids go to church?

Read the story online, but as I've said before, don't waste your time even glancing at the comments section. When people can leave comments anonymously, they can be really vicious. And never, never add to the ugliness by responding to the comments.

Kudos to Beach for his article. And who's up for pizza in Wimberley this weekend?

(photo by Laura Skelding from the Statesman website)

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Update: I received this from Patrick Beach and got his permission to post:

Dear Pastor Goodman,

Thanks for reading the piece and commenting on your blog.

To answer your question, the Collies have gone to Cypress Creek Church in Wimberley, where I'm told Rob Campbell is pastor, but until very recently (and perhaps again in the near future) Sundays were work days for them. Bruce also made some vague comment about how judgmental people could be.

And speaking of that, yes, some of the comments make me lose faith in humanity. I actually jumped into the fray myself to remind people there are children involved here.

As for a pizza and beer run, I'd be surprised if their new venture will be up and running this week but the Black Forest I believe is open.

All best,
Patrick Beach

Song of the Week: Come, Thou Almighty King

Since we're celebrating the baby dedication of our pianist today, our Song of the Week is from his Hymns and Spiritual Songs CD. Stephen is the Associate Professor of Piano and University Organist at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin and has served as our church's pianist for many years (full bio here). He and his wife, Sandra, will dedicate their son, Seth, to the Lord in our service today.

Making the Choice for the Real Gospel Clearer

One in 5 Americans may be secular by 2030, according to a Religion News Service report. Only 1 in 5, and as late as 2030? I would have assumed it would be more and sooner. This is not as disturbing as it may at first seem. When the thin veneer of nominal Christianity is knocked off our culture, the choice for the real gospel will be clearer.

Are You Happy?

This is the wallpaper on my iPhone. Gets right to the point, eh?

LeaderLines: You Can Get Our Church Ready for the Prayer Tour

Hillcrest has scheduled a Prayer Tour, and as a Hillcrest leader you can help our church get ready for it.

What’s a “Prayer Tour?” It’s a walk through our building to pray for the ministries that take place in it, to pray for the people we impact, and to pray for the people we need to reach.

Our Prayer Tour will take place on Sunday, October 18. It will begin and end in the auditorium, and it will take 45 minutes to complete. You can begin anytime between 8:15 and 9:15 a.m., depending on what activities you have to get to. Many of our people will choose to begin the Prayer Tour at 9:15 a.m. and end at 10 a.m. in the auditorium in time for the worship service to begin. Some of our senior adults will choose to begin at 8:15 a.m. and end at 9 a.m. in time to go to their Sunday School class.

You can choose the start-time that works best for you because the Prayer Tour will be self-guided. When you arrive in the auditorium you will be given a map of our facilities and a prayer guide. The guide will tell you where to stop in the building and what to pray for at each stop.

For example, when you leave the auditorium and walk into the preschool wing, your guide sheet will tell you to stop in an empty preschool room and pray for the children who are lovingly cared for in the preschool ministry. You’ll be guided to pray for their parents who bring them, for the workers who take care of them, and for the various preschool ministries we have. You’ll then be instructed by the guide sheet to move on to the children’s wing and you’ll be given guidance on where to stop and pray. After that, you’ll be directed to the youth area, then the gym, then the adult wing, and so on. Forty-five minutes later you’ll find yourself back in the auditorium.

How can Hillcrest leaders help our church get ready for this important project?

First, commit to be a part of it yourself. You can sign up on the Connection Card this Sunday. I hope I can report your involvement!

Second, promote it among those you lead. I recommend you lead your entire Sunday School class or Common Ground group to take the Prayer Tour together as a group. Advertise the project at the start of your class time, include the project as a part of your prayer time, send reminder e-mails to the group the week before the Tour. Do what you can to impress on others the importance of prayer.

Third, plan on having some breakfast items in your class or group on October 18. Since we’re asking people to arrive 45 minutes earlier than they normally do, they’ll be ready for a light breakfast during your small-group time.

This is an exciting project. Do your part to rally our troops for spiritual engagement!

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

"A Certain Poisoned Sweetness"

This morning I read Anthony Bradley's comments at World magazine:

Quarrels, dissension, and divisions are plastered all over the internet as Jesus followers poke passive insults at each other in the name of whatever peripheral minutiae we determine as “getting the gospel right.” For example, not being Reformed enough, or not “traditional” enough, or too traditional, or too literal, or too involved in social issues, or not evangelistic enough, and so on.

It juxtaposed well with what I had just read in Calvin's Institutes (One of my reading projects for 2009, the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth). Commenting on the 9th of the 10 Commandments [against bearing false witness], he wrote:

We delight in a certain poisoned sweetness experienced in ferreting out and in disclosing the evils of others. And let us not think it an adequate excuse if in many instances we are not lying....Indeed, this precept [the 9th Commandment] even extends to forbidding us to affect a fawning politeness barbed with bitter taunts under the guise of joking. Some do this who crave praise for their witticisms, to others' shame and grief, because they sometimes grievously wound their brothers with this sort of impudence.

Ouch!

Review of The Third Man Factor

“We are hardwired for people!”

That’s John Geiger’s conviction after researching numerous stories of survival. In his 2009 book, The Third Man Factor, Geiger writes:

The experience has occurred again and again, not only to 9/11 survivors, mountaineers, and divers, but also to polar explorers, prisoners of war, solo sailors, shipwreck survivors, aviators, and astronauts. All have escaped traumatic events only to tell strikingly similar stories of having experienced the close presence of a companion and helper, and even “of a sort of mighty person.” This presence offered a sense of protection, relief, guidance, and hope, and left the person convinced he or she was not alone but that there was some other being at his or her side, when by any normal calculation there was none. There is, it seems, a common experience that happens to people who confront life at its extremes, and strange as it may sound, given the cruel hardship they endure to reach that place, it is something wonderful.

The book is a well-crafted look at the fascinating phenomenon noted by survivors in many settings.

However, the book weakens in Geiger’s attempt to explain and exploit the Third Man Factor. Given the helpfulness of a “presence” to share a survivor’s dire straits, Geiger wonders if there are things we can do to fabricate the Third Man experience at need to help us survive:

Can the Third Man, the guiding companion called upon by polar explorers, mountaineers and other adventurers, and those in the throes of a disaster, be summoned to help people facing crises of a more mundane nature? Imagine the impact on our lives if we could learn to access this feeling at will. There could be no loneliness with so constant a companion. There could be no stress in life that we would ever again have to confront alone.

This sense of a companion, Geiger believes, is something we should figure out how to fabricate at need. And this is because, to Geiger, the eerie experience of companionship is an evolutionary development to help us cope.

But this is where the book leads to despair—unless there’s something more than mere evolutionary development to explain the Third Man phenomenon. He concludes the book saying, “The Third Man is an instrument of hope, a hope achieved by a recognition that is fundamental to human nature: the belief—the understanding—that we are not alone.” But the belief that we are not alone is, in the end, an illusion in Geiger’s view. He’s got a foot in both camps: unable to ascribe the Third Man to anything but evolution but unwilling to conclude that, if that’s the explanation of the Third Man, we are utterly, utterly alone after all.

Except that we’re not. When I read of these experiences of a “presence” at the highest peaks, or deep under the rubble of the World Trade Center, or bobbing about on a lonely sea, it reminds me of Psalm 139:

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, [a] you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

Winning Ways: He Takes Us Where He Finds Us

We don’t have to be experts on the Bible and have our theology all figured out to get help from God. Just ask Darcy Jennings.

When her husband, Scott, began attending AA meetings, Darcy decided to join the Al-Anon group working with families of alcoholics. Neither had come from a church background, and so the talk of trusting God was new. “The idea that there was a real Higher Power in the universe was something I had never considered before,” she said.

But over time they became dissatisfied with a relationship with some unknown, impersonal, ambiguous "Higher Power." Darcy said, “I knew God was real because of the miracle of my marriage, but I didn't know who God was.” They were open to anything.

Scott chose an unusual approach to learning more about God: He stole a Bible from a church near their Connecticut home!

They couldn’t put it down--it was the first time they had really read a Bible seriously. Before that time, they wanted nothing to do with the Bible. In fact, a relative had sent a New Testament as a gift when their first child was born and they threw it in the trash. “All our lives Scott and I had been fighting the Bible,” Darcy said, “but when we began to read it for ourselves it suddenly became very precious to us.”

Soon they were attending church and going to small-group Bible studies. “In the process," said Darcy, "we came to believe that our Higher Power was Jesus Christ. That was really the turning point in both Scott's recovery and mine. The God in the Bible is so specific, and there was no question in my mind that He was the God who had already been involved in our lives through the Twelve Steps.”

When Scott found out he had terminal cancer, he found serenity in the crisis of death just as he found serenity in the crisis of alcoholism: By putting his trust in Jesus Christ. Scott is with his Higher Power now, in heaven.

The testimony of Scott and Darcy illustrates that God graciously works with us long before we agree to work with him. Come learn more about that this Sunday at 10!.

Tom

Scott and Darcy’s story is told in New Beginnings, pages 103ff.

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday September 22

Fascinating: ABC News reports on how games of Monopoly sent to Allied POWs in WW2 held tools to enable them to escape.


“You get to your PC every morning with hours of productive time ahead of you. Next thing you know, it’s 5 p.m. and you’ve frittered the day away on Digg, Hulu, Wikipedia and your fantasy football league. And no wonder — how can anyone expect to get anything done when you’re plying your trade on one of the most distracting machines ever invented? With so much available on your PC — your friends, blogs, games and even TV shows — working in a modern office can often seem as rattling as working on the floor of a Las Vegas casino.” From a NYT piece on software that can help you battle the distractions.


The NYT thinks the last words of those Texas has executed are worth printing. Too bad there’s no record of the last words from the people they killed.


A List of Money-Saving Lists.


Interesting obit on the man who wrote the 1966 “God is Dead” story for Time.


In Japan there’s a market for stand-ins when you need a friend. There’s a sermon illustration in there somewhere….


Ed Stetzer: “In response to letters—and lives—like these, the Last Letter Campaign has been launched by leaders who want to capture the heart behind them. I wrote my last letter, and in comparison to these, it seemed so… insignificant. I was not near death or about to go on a dangerous journey. But then I realized that we never know when history or death may visit us. We should live as if every day matters. Because it does. In the writing of it, something happened. More than ever before, I desired to leave a better and lasting legacy, to be a better discicple and to live more for God’s glory and agenda. I want to be the person described in my letter.”


When you call for civility in public discourse, people on both sides will assume you’re disagreeing with their position instead of their discourse. Mark DeMoss, who began The Civility Project, has been called a “bigot with manners” by the Left and someone who lacks conviction by the Right, according to Adelle M. Banks of the RNS. Banks’ story is worth a read, though I do wish examples had been cited of uncivility from the Left and not just from the Right. There are plenty.)


Use this plot generator from Slate to create a plot for the next Dan Brown conspiracy-thriller-novel. No better way to highlight the cheesiness that is a Dan Brown book. (HT: Between Two Worlds).


I have The Informant! on my Netflix queue, but Megan Basham of World magazine reminds us that the film leaves out the redemptive side of Mark Whitacre’s life story. “A cynical reviewer,” she adds, “might even wonder whether Soderbergh and executive producer George Clooney treat Whitacre with more scorn than they otherwise would have because of his faith.”


Reports that climate change is affecting the taste of beer might actually get people to take action.



"Funny that folks think Washington is the solution to the economy. In fact, one highly successful investment fund bets against Congress and wins regularly. The Congressional Effect Fund opened in May 2008 and is outperforming the S&P. Interestingly, from the time the Dow Jones Industrial Average was created in 1897, an astonishing 90 percent of its gains have occurred when Congress is out of session. This fund bets on that and has outperformed the S&P widely since its inception. In the face of those who believe Washington holds the answers, recall the words of Judge Gideon J. Tucker in 1866: 'No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.' The Congressional Effect Fund says, with solid evidence, that's still true today." David Davenport, Townhall.com; HT: Culture Connection).

Pretty Amazing Bike Work (HT: Curtis):

Song of the Week: "To Save Me" by M. Ward

From his Hold Time project, "To Save Me" is a hope that God would make his awesome power available for our need. The imagery is like the psalms. "He shifts in his sleep and the earth begins to quake" isn't too different from Psalm 78:65 (ESV), "Then the Lord awoke as from sleep like a strong man shouting because of wine/And he put his adversaries to rout." The ESV Study Bible says of the text, "This is a bold image, conveying what the believer can feel like when he has not so far seen how God is active. God stirs himself from apparent inactivity to take action on behalf of his suffering people."

Real Prayer is Straight-up Gimme!

Zev Chafets investigates prayer in a lengthy piece in the NYT, "The Right Way to Pray?"  He visits Brooklyn Tabernacle, a spiritual director, a suburban Reform synagogue, and a Catholic scholar.  But he was touched by the prayers of kids in a rural Assembly of God church:

Soon I was surrounded by the children of the choir. They wanted their own names written backward, and they also wanted a chance to testify.

“I prayed to Jesus when my grandmother broke her leg,” a little girl said. “Now she can get by herself to the bathroom.”

“Amen,” the kids said.

“I prayed over my sister and cured her asthma,” a teenage girl said. She wasn’t bragging. She just wanted me to know. “A boy named Wayne was burned in a fire,” another boy said. “The whole church prayed for him, and now he’s getting around without a walker.”

The church was filling up now. The pastor came over to greet me and wish me a happy Resurrection Day. We shook on it. He mentioned that he knows Sean Hannity, which was more than I could say. He took the pulpit and began with the traditional announcement, “Jesus Christ has risen!” There was a chorus of amens, and the pastor said, “Give Jesus a big hand.”

There are some 300,000 churches in America, and I could have picked any one to attend on Easter morning, but I liked being in this one. Especially the kids. They didn’t need Reverend Henderson’s prayer techniques, or the high-tech mantras of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Their prayers weren’t Rabbi Gellman’s suburban Jewish prayers of Thanks! offered to whom it may concern. They didn’t pray to de-center their egos or find transcendence or to set off on a lifelong therapeutic spiritual journey. They prayed to a God with whom they were on a first-name basis, and they believed their prayers gave them power, which they used on behalf of their asthmatic sisters and infirm grandparents and a kid they knew with burns on his body. Sitting in church on Easter morning, I realized that I was probably never going to become a praying man. But if, by some miracle, I ever do, I hope my prayers will be like the prayers of the kids I met at the Love church in Berkeley Springs. Straight-up Gimme! on behalf of people who really need the help.

Can We Trust the Jesus of the New Testament?

We're told that our culture "loves Jesus but not the church." But if the picture we have of Jesus in our Bibles can't be trusted, will people lose their interest in Jesus, too? 

Enter Bart Ehrman, a scholar who argues that very little of the Bible can be trusted to tell us who Jesus really was. His arguments are retreads and sometimes overstated, but he has gained a hearing in popular circles beyond the university.  North American Mission Board apologist Mike Licona offered his response to Ehrman in a week-long series:

Part 1: Bart Ehrman: A skeptical scholar not to be ignored

Part 2: The problem of authorship: Who wrote the Gospels?

Part 3: The problem of dating: When were the Gospels written?

Part 4: The problem of differences: Do the Gospels contradict one another?

Part 5: Why were the four N.T. Gospels selected and not others?

Note that this post is labeled "The Anchor Course Week 1: I Believe." Look for future posts that support the 8 statements of the Apostles Creed that we cover in my book The Anchor Course: Exploring Christianity Together, a study of the Christian faith for seekers and new believers.

LeaderLines: A Fire in the Fire Station

In De Queen, Arkansas, firefighters returned to their station from a call and found flames in their own house.

“One of the firemen called me and said the place was full of smoke. I thought he was joshing me. He said ‘We’ve got a fire at the fire station,’” De Queen Fire Marshal Dennis Pruitt said.

Lightning had ignited a fire, filling the station house with smoke. They called a dispatcher to get the Southwestern Electric Power Co. to disconnect the station’s electrical service, but things got confusing.

“We need the power disconnected at our station,” said a firefighter to SWEPCO.

“Okay, you have a fire to get to,” the dispatcher replied, “But why do you need the power cut at your station.”

“No, no,” the firefighter explains, “It’s the fire station that’s on fire!’”

As Hillcrest leaders, our job is to guide our people to have God-honoring lives. But, like those De Queen firefighters, we have to make sure that what we seek to fix in others doesn’t show up in our own lives!

To that end, it’s important that we remember what I call the four “staff infections.” You’ve probably heard of a “staph” infection. It often enters the body through a minor cut, but ends up causing serious complications. A leadership team can develop some “infections” that result in serious complications, too. Each year in the churches I’ve served, the staff members have heard me bring my annual “Staff Infections” talk. They heard the 2009 edition this past Tuesday.

These “infections” can affect all of us as leaders, not just the paid members of the team. Review your life for signs of the following infections:

Immorality: Our personal failures aren’t as “personal” as we’d wish. Our failures have a major impact on the rest of the leadership team. Let’s be sure we deal ruthlessly with our moral weaknesses instead of privately entertaining them. Of course, this includes sexual immorality, but it also includes misuse of funds and church property, gossip, abuse of alcohol, and crossing any other line God has drawn in his Word.

Incompetence: Leadership teams are plagued by this infection when team members have no interest in improving their performance. Symptoms include inattention to standards, constant excuses for failure to perform, and resistance to things that would help them improve.

In 1 Timothy 4:14, what Paul urged the young pastor of Ephesus remains good advice for ministers today: “Do not neglect your gift.” When ministers leave unopened and undeveloped the gift God has given them, laziness replaces vigor, routine ruts replace creativity, and the safety of sameness replaces the venture of faith. Instead, we need to develop ourselves into highly competent servants of the Lord.

Insubordination: We call our leadership group a “team,” but have you noticed that the teams we love to watch in sports have captains, coaches, and managers? To call a group of leaders a “team” doesn’t mean that lines of authority don’t exist. Teams don’t work well when members ignore these lines of authority.

To be honest, none of us always agree with those who lead us. But when this devolves into disrespect and open resistance, a staff infection has invaded the Body.

But insubordination can happen in our relationship with team members, not just in our relationship with team leaders. Remember, the Bible calls us to mutual submission. Ephesians 5:21 says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ministry teams suffer when members allow personal differences to remain unresolved. Ministry teams suffer when colleagues do not support each other in conversations with other church members.

Ingratitude: This is the worst of all staff infections, and source of the other three. Think about it. When I lose my grateful wonder that God has called me to serve his people, I can fall into sloppy habits (Incompetence). When I lose my thankfulness for the gifts of those I work with, I can quit being a team player (Insubordination). When I’m no longer grateful for what God chooses to give me, I can turn to embezzlement or adultery (Immorality).

Staff infections, like staph infections, can create a lot of harm to the Body. Make sure that you’re not giving any opening for these infections to invade your life. I’m so grateful for the team of leaders we have at Hillcrest!

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

3 Dying Myths About Preaching

3 Dying Myths About Preaching: (1) If You Preach a Good Sermon the Church Will Grow; (2) Who You Preach To is Who You Will Reach; (3) The Goal of Preaching is to Make the Bible Relevant.

I have come to agree that (1) is a myth, still deciding if (2) is a myth, and have always agreed that (3) is a myth.

Winning Ways: God-Deprived

God-deprived hearts, like oxygen-deprived heads, can’t think clearly enough to accept the obvious.

Jon Krakauer’s book, Into Thin Air, documents the consequences of oxygen-deprived heads. It’s a book about the ill-fated expedition to Mount Everest during the spring of 1996. Ascending Everest is, of course, a risky venture, but it was human error that caused some to lose their lives on that climb.

For example, there was Andy Harris, one of the expedition leaders. Harris was in dire need of oxygen during his descent, but he died holding oxygen canisters in his hand. They had been left for him along the trail down. Those who had already passed the canisters on their own return to base camp knew that the canisters were full. But when Harris radioed the base camp of his crisis, they could not convince him that the canisters were full and that he should use them. Disoriented from his lack of oxygen, he insisted that they were empty and were of no use.

He held all the containers of oxygen he needed to survive but--now follow me here--what he held in his hand was so thin in his head that he could not recognize what he held in his hand was what his head needed.

Got it?

I’ve just described life before God. It’s the very lack of God that makes us unable to see that what we lack is what we need! And so we keep doing life on our own and making a mess of things.

But not all of us. Many of us can testify: “We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” That’s the Second Step to victorious living. Last Sunday I began a Sunday morning study organized around the Twelve Steps used by many recovery groups. This Sunday, September 20, we’re going to look at Step Two.

Many of us could say that the Second Step perfectly describes how we awakened to our need for God. First, “we came”--we attended a church service, we read a book about faith that a friend loaned us, we joined a Bible study.

Then, “we came to”--that is, we woke up to spiritual reality. Finally, “we came to believe”--that is, we decided that this God-talk made sense and we accepted it.

This week, come. Maybe you’ll even come to. Or, best of all, maybe you’ll come to believe!
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday September 15

I’m not sure I’d gather all the stories in this article under the title “The Helicopter Parents are Hovering on Facebook.” Yes, the parent in the opening illustration went way over the top (Rule for parents: Never use Facebook to advise or chastise, especially an adult child. Yeesh!). But there are some sound parenting decisions for parents of teens in the rest of this article.


Baby born 9-9-09 has sibling born on 8-8-08.


Should you repair it instead of replacing it?


This NYT piece says happiness is catching. That’s one of the reasons we want you in a Common Ground group or Sunday School class.


Timothy George gives 3 reasons why John Calvin, born 500 years ago this summer, is experiencing a comeback. His magisterial work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, is my reading project right now.


This woman went without make-up for 30 days and learned some important lessons.


Classy. His parents must be so proud: “I can see someone spitting on him or punching him, but shooting him is pretty stupid.” Curtis Wisterman, a 16-year-old at a Michigan high school where a 33-year-old antiabortion activist was shot outside Friday in front of parents and students.


The story that opens this article probably won't be relevant to everyone (buying a stovetop). But the flowchart really makes a lot of sense. See “Should You Buy It? A Flowchart for Evaluating Potential Purchases.”


The WSJ said the President’s speech to a joint session of Congress “was especially notable for its use of one of Mr. Obama's favorite rhetorical devices: Noting in the first instance that his opponents have a good point, and entirely legitimate concerns, only to reject their ideas in toto when it comes to policy. Thus he endorsed the public's concern about the competence of government to manage one-sixth of the economy, only to finish with a soaring oration about the moral necessity of letting government do so.”


“It's not a ministry. It would be nice if it got out of the churches and got into the mainstream” (a critic of Dave Ramsey, in an AP story).


Texting Shouldn’t Be So Expensive: “The wireless channels contribute about a tenth of a cent to a carrier's cost, accounting charges might be twice that, and other costs basically round to zero because texting requires so little of a mobile network's infrastructure. Summing up, Keshav found that a text message doesn't cost providers more than 0.3 cent. You don't have to be a Wall Street analyst to do the quick math: With a carrier cost of one third of a penny, when a customer pays 15 cents to send a message, 98% of that 15 cents is pure profit. (Of course, you already knew that in your gut; that's why your stomach turns every time you examine a cell phone bill.)” (story)


Mohammed is now the third most popular boy's name in England.


A carrier pigeon beat broadband at delivering content in South Africa.


“Of the 25 members on President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, former Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page is easily the most conservative. Seven months after being named to the council, Page talks about his experience so far, from the shock of being invited to join in the first place and his frequent chats with White House officials to frustrations with the council's limited policy role that have him pondering resignation” (“Q&A With Frank Page, the Obama Faith Council's Most Conservative Member”).


“Now that Mr. Bush is gone no one seems particularly worried about the entanglement of the federal government with religious organizations. A recent study sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that President Obama's ‘faith-based initiative has so far generated little of the contentious press coverage associated with Bush's effort’” (Mollie Ziegler Hemingway in WSJ’s “Houses of Worship.”). What better proof of a double standard than to see Barry Lynn, leader of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and vocal critic of Bush’s faith-based initiative now in service to the same initiative under Obama. Time to change the name of his organization to “Americans United for the Separation of Church and State Under Certain Conditions.”

Song of the Week: "Dare You to Move" by Switchfoot

At Hillcrest we begin a sermon series organized around the 12 Steps this morning. Here's "Dare You to Move," by Switchfoot--

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

Health Care Coverage and Abortion

Earlier today I posted on Twitter, “One President gets a shoe thrown at him; another gets heckled. Some liked one but not the other. Some grieved at the incivility of both.”

I must say that I am disappointed in Congressman Joe Wilson’s behavior during the President’s speech, but James Taranto makes a good point in a piece I just read: “One certainly can't say that what Wilson said—‘You lie!’—was anything unprecedented. Indeed, the president had just gotten done saying exactly the same thing about ObamaCare critics. And by the way, Wilson quickly apologized. Obama still hasn't.” (WSJ Best of the Web, James Taranto.)

Whom did Obama say was lying? Among others, pro-lifers, who’ve been saying that Obama's proposals will use American tax dollars to fund abortion. Terry Mattingly at GetReligion writes about it ("Who's Calling Who a Liar?") as well as Fact Check ("Obama's Health Care Speech").

Imagine

We were living in the Cayman Islands when the U.S. was attacked 8 years ago this day. On the first anniversary of 9/11, the island's newspaper was kind enough to publish this editorial from me. I'm posting it today, 9/11/09.
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Imagine.

That's what John Lennon wanted us to do. In a poignant voice he sang—

Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try,
No hell below us, Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries [sic], It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for, No religion too,
Imagine all the people living life in peace

The song's popularity has returned since September 11 when men shouting "God is great!" took over the cockpits of 4 jet airliners to plunge them into prominent American buildings. Over the next several days we discovered that these men, and many others where they came from, hope heaven will welcome them for their "martyrdom." Suddenly Lennon's vision of how beautiful life would be without religion sounded fresh and relevant again. Neil Young sung the song on a live TV show raising donations after 9/11, growling the lines above with bitter sarcasm in his voice. Our local newspaper, the Caymanian Compass, quoted Lennon's lyrics in their entirety on the back page of a booklet commemorating the 9/11 tragedy.

The former Beatle urged us to imagine a world where we all live only for today. So let's imagine—it's easy if you try:

Let's see . . . the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia . . . the systematic "re-education" and execution of dissidents in Vietnam . . . the bloody revolution of Chairman Mao in Communist China . . . and Stalin's "purges" . . . and don't forget the brutal management of power in Castro's Cuba (just read the book "Against All Hope" before you disagree with that last one).

Lennon urged us to imagine a world where we all live only for today. But we don't have to imagine it. We can look back across the last century of a world exhausted by communistic atheism and see it.

Sometimes I'll hear someone trot out that tired old line, "More people have been killed in the name of religion than for any other reason." The implication behind the line is, "So, religion contributes to our world's problems, it doesn't solve them." But none of the vast, horrible atrocities I just listed off took place in the name of God. In fact, they took place in societies that firmly and dogmatically rejected any belief in God whatsoever. I certainly don't favor violence that is done in the name of God, but I'd venture a guess that more people have been killed in the pursuit of stamping out religion than imposing it. The Communist experiment of the last century proves my point.

It's interesting that many years after Lennon recorded “Imagine,” and a few years before he was murdered, he began a spiritual search. What intrigued him most was the life of Jesus. He even hesitantly declared at one point that he had become a Christian, though by doing so he was more likely expressing his admiration for Christ's teaching than announcing his conversion to it. Obviously the utopian sentiments he expressed in the song "Imagine" didn't satisfy him in the long run. I wonder where his examination would have brought him had a deranged gunman not ended both his life and his spiritual search.

Imagine.

Untangling the Knot of Health Care Coverage

Do you think you could provide for your family's heath care coverage with $1.77 million? According to this Atlantic Monthly piece, David Goldhill says that's how much you'll pay across your lifetime under our current dysfunctional system of health care coverage:

Let’s say you’re a 22-year-old single employee at my company today, starting out at a $30,000 annual salary. Let’s assume you’ll get married in six years, support two children for 20 years, retire at 65, and die at 80. Now let’s make a crazy assumption: insurance premiums, Medicare taxes and premiums, and out-of-pocket costs will grow no faster than your earnings—say, 3 percent a year. By the end of your working days, your annual salary will be up to $107,000. And over your lifetime, you and your employer together will have paid $1.77 million for your family’s health care. $1.77 million! And that’s only after assuming the taming of costs! In recent years, health-care costs have actually grown 2 to 3 percent faster than the economy. If that continues, your 22-year-old self is looking at an additional $2 million or so in expenses over your lifetime—roughly $4 million in total.

Yikes! But Goldhill, a Democrat, says the solution isn't to simply have the government take over: "Like its predecessors, the Obama administration treats additional government funding as a solution to unaffordable health care, rather than its cause. The current reform will likely expand our government’s already massive role in health-care decision-making—all just to continue the illusion that someone else is paying for our care."

Oh, you really need to take some time to read this Atlantic piece. (And I mean "take some time"--my printout ran to 17 pages.) Goldhill challenges us to "reexamine our basic assumptions about health care—what it actually is, how it’s financed, its accountability to patients, and finally its relationship to the eternal laws of supply and demand."

LeaderLines: The More Things Change...

Mildred “Babe” Statos celebrated her 93rd birthday yesterday. She’s one of our greeters along the Senior Adult hallway on Sunday mornings.

She gave me a copy of the “Happy Birthday Times” prepared for her by a friend. It describes life in 1916, the year of Babe’s birth.

In September 1916, Woodrow Wilson assured women that they would soon be granted the right to vote. Allied forces beat the German military at Somme in the first battle to use tanks. The Academy Awards wouldn’t begin for another 11 years, but Charlie Chaplin was popular in the silent film, “The Pawn Shop.” Dario Resta won the Indianapolis 500—at an average speed of 84 mph.

Gas was 8 cents a gallon, and went in cars that cost $500 on average. A new home would set you back $5,000. You could get a gallon of milk for 36 cents; throw 7 more cents on the counter and get a loaf of bread.

A lot has changed in our nation in the last 93 years. And, if you’re a church leader, you know a lot has changed in the way we do church work. But at least one thing remains the same: Christ expects his people to take the Great Commission seriously: “Go to the people all nations and make THEM my disciples. Baptize THEM in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach THEM to do everything I have told you” (Matthew 28:19-20, CEV).

Notice how I highlighted the word “them.” You can’t even begin obeying Christ’s Great Commission until you identify who the THEMs are in that command. They aren’t just people across the sea; they’re also people across the street. In other words, the THEMs in that command include your co-workers, neighbors, friends and relatives. In fact, its hypocrisy to focus on the THEMs across the sea if you’re ignoring the THEMs across the street.

So, the first step in obeying Christ’s Great Commission is simply to open your eyes. Jesus said, “Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest” (John 4:35, NLT).

To that end, you need to have a specific list of THEMs you’re praying for. And, as a Hillcrest leader, you need to always be challenging our people to identify their own THEMs.

We can do a lot more after we open our eyes; we can’t do a thing until we open our eyes.

Well…?
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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Winning Ways: Through the Valley of Surrender

Before we can get to the summit of victorious living, we have to go through the valley of a humbling surrender.

Tim Cahill knows something about this. The adventurer decided to hike from the depths of Death Valley (282 feet below sea level), to the top of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the continental United States.

The park ranger told him that 90 percent of those who begin the adventure quit the first day, but Tim Cahill and a companion decided they could do it.

The first several days, their thermometer registered 113 degrees—at dawn—and topped out their thermometer at 150 degrees as the sun rose. The heat caused their feet to swell and their boots to warp, and soon they were walking on painful blistered feet. On the second day, they began to hallucinate. On the third day, they began to come out of the oppressive environment. Their swollen feet returned to normal size and they replaced their ruined boots with new shoes. On the fifth day, they even found a cool spring to plunge into. On the sixth day, they made 20 miles overland. Their strength was returning. On the seventh day, they hiked 30 miles. On the eighth day, they began hiking up the slopes of Mount Whitney. Halfway through the tenth day, they reached the snowy summit and gazed around at the world. Cahill and Nicholas had just joined a small and elite fraternity of those who have walked from the bottom to the top of America.

The only way to gain victory over the things that defeat us is to first admit that those things are defeating us. Sometimes that admission of defeat is as punishing as a hike through Death Valley. But it’s the only way to come to that high point of victory.

The Bible says that the only way you and I can live the life God wants us to have is to first admit that we can’t do it on our own. “I have the desire to do what is good,” Paul said in Romans 7, “but I cannot carry it out.”

This is where it all starts for those working the 12 Steps of a recovery program: “We admitted we were powerless” over the things that defeated us and “our lives had become unmanageable.”

This Sunday, September 13, we’ll begin a sermon series through the 12 Steps. Even if you’re not dealing with addiction, we all have things that defeat us. As I said last Sunday, the church is a big recovery group! And I’ve found that the Bible has a lot of encouragement and guidance regarding recovery. Join us this Sunday at 10am as we begin our walk through the 12 Steps!
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday September 8

Regarding the plans to have the President address the nation’s school children today, Albert Mohler hits the nail on the head: Opposition was overblown, but fawning over Obama by the Dept of Education didn’t help matters. The moral of the story: “The White House should shut down the cult of personality, and the nation's conservatives should discipline themselves to discern the real issues from the conspiracy myths.”


ALL CAPS emails lead to woman's firing


“Austin parents believe they are a more influential source of information about sex for their teens than they actually are, a survey released Tuesday shows” (Statesman).


“Too much social media can be a bad thing. Two girls lost in a stormwater drain in Adelaide, Australia, updated their Facebook status instead of calling emergency services on Sunday night, in a situation authorities called ‘worrying’.” (Story)


Lots of people are commenting on this Atlantic piece: “I’m a businessman, and in no sense a health-care expert. But the persistence of bad industry practices—from long lines at the doctor’s office to ever-rising prices to astonishing numbers of preventable deaths—seems beyond all normal logic, and must have an underlying cause. There needs to be a business reason why an industry, year in and year out, would be able to get away with poor customer service, unaffordable prices, and uneven results—a reason my father and so many others are unnecessarily killed.”


London’s Telegraph compiled 50 things that are in the process of being killed off by the web, from products and business models to life experiences and habits. See if you agree.


“Whether you believe you have some purpose to fulfill on earth or just have trips you plan to take and books you want to read, you have a survival edge over people with fewer goals. So say researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago who interviewed more than 1,200 older adults” (RD).


Wired’s GeekDad asks which is better: The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. LOTR; hands down.


100 Most Educational iPhone Apps


“Imagine a small device that you wear on a necklace that takes photos every few seconds of whatever is around you, and records sound all day long. It has GPS and the ability to wirelessly upload the data to the cloud, where everything is date/time and geo stamped and the sound files are automatically transcribed and indexed. Photos of people, of course, would be automatically identified and tagged as well. Imagine an entire lifetime recorded and searchable. Imagine if you could scroll and search through the lives of your ancestors. Would you wear that device?” (“Life Recorders May Be This Century’s Wrist Watch”)


“Christian couples staying faithful online” (AP story)

What Does Your Translation Say About You?

iMonk is wondering if the ESV lives up to its marketing. I recently bought the ESV Study Bible for my iPhone and I'm still evaluating it. I’ve used the NIV for 25 years in the pulpit, and it’s still my translation of choice (with a curious eye to their announced 2011 update). I occasionally quote from the NLT and on very infrequent occasions I will quote from the NASB or The Message when making a point in the pulpit. According to Scott Mcnight’s witty observation (quoted in the iMonk post), what does that make me?

“NRSV for liberals and Shane Claiborne lovers;

ESV for Reformed complementarian Baptists;

HCSB for LifeWay store buying Southern Baptists;

NIV for complementarian evangelicals;

TNIV for egalitarians;

NASB for those who want straight Bible, forget the English;

NLT for generic brand evangelicals;

Amplified for folks who have no idea what translation is but know that if you try enough words one of them will hit pay dirt;

NKJV and KJV for Byzantine manuscript-tree huggers;

The Message for evangelicals looking for a breath of fresh air and seeker sensitive, never-read-a-commentary evangelists who find Peterson’s prose so catchy.”

I guess that makes me a “complementarian evangelical” who spends time with “generic brand evangelicals” and enjoys visiting the “seeker sensitive” folks though grounded on my “Reformed complementarian Baptist” heritage?

Okay, I can accept that.

Song of the Week: "High Hopes" by Paolo Nutini

Paolo Nutini was in town Friday. Diane and I saw him at Waterloo Records downtown where he and his band spent a half hour performing songs from his new album, Sunny Side Up. Here's "High Hopes" from that project--

Story Enough

In Yann Martel's bestseller The Life of Pi, a Hindu boy named Pi meets a Catholic priest, Father Martin, who tells Pi the story of the of gospel. Pi asks for more:

I asked for another story, one that I might find more satisfying. Surely this religion had more than one story in its bag--religions abound with stories. But Father Martin made me understand that...their religion had one Story, and to it they came back again and again, over and over. It was story enough for them.

From Paul Miller, A Praying Life

LeaderLines: On a Mission . . . From God

Are you a “bunker Christian” or a “beachhead Christian”? And, as a leader, are you fostering a “bunker mentality” or a “beachhead mentality” at Hillcrest?

From time to time I’ve raised that question with you since I arrived. A bunker is a defensive position while a beachhead is a position from which soldiers can take the offensive.

Some Christians prefer life in the bunker, hiding away from what they perceive as the overwhelming forces of unbelief in their culture. But faithful believers know they are called to influence, to persuade, to win hearts and minds. They know their own lives are to be kingdom beachheads in God’s gracious invasion of a fallen world.

Another word for the beachhead mentality is “missional.” It simply means to live with the keen awareness that you are supposed to be participating in God’s redemptive mission.

“We’re on a mission,” Jake Blues explained to his band in a memorable scene from The Blues Brothers. “From God,” added Elwood Blues in a nasal Chicago accent.

Who woulda thought The Blues Brothers was so theological?*

As leaders, we have to nudge everyone to this mindset. That’s why I like to read articles like this one by a fellow Austin pastor, Jonathan Dodson. He said, “Don’t make the mistake of making ‘missional’ another thing to add to your schedule. Instead, make your existing schedule missional.” He suggested 8 ways:

Eat with Non-Christians. We all eat three meals a day. Why not make a habit of sharing one of those meals with a non-Christian or with a family of non-Christians? Go to lunch with a co-worker, not by yourself. Invite the neighbors over for family dinner. If it’s too much work to cook a big dinner, just order pizza and put the focus on conversation. When you go out for a meal, invite a non-Christian friend. Or take your family to family-style restaurants where you can sit at the table with strangers and strike up conversations (Mighty Fine Burgers, Buca di Peppo, The Blue Dahlia, etc). Have cookouts and invite Christians and non-Christians. Flee the Christian subculture.

Walk, Don’t Drive. If you live in a walkable area, make a practice of getting out and walking around your neighborhood, apartment complex, or campus. Instead of driving to the mailbox, convenience store, or apartment office, walk to get mail, groceries, and stuff. Be deliberate in your walk. Say hello to people you don’t know. Strike up conversations. Attract attention by walking the dog, taking a 6-pack (and share), bringing the kids. Make friends. Get out of your house! Last night I spend an hour outside gardening with my family. We had good conversations with 3-4 neighbors. Take interest in your neighbors. Ask questions. Engage. Pray as you go. Save some gas, the planet.

Be a Regular. Instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, eating out, and coffee, go to the same places. Get to know the staff. Go to the same places at the same times. Smile. Ask questions. Be a regular. I have friends at coffee shops all over the city. My friends at Starbucks donate a ton of left over pastries to our church 2-3 times a week. We use for church gatherings and occasionally give to the homeless. Build relationships. Be a Regular.

Hobby with Non-Christians. Pick a hobby that you can share. Get out and do something you enjoy with others. Try City League sports. Local rowing and cycling teams. Share your hobby by teaching lessons. Teach sewing lessons, piano lessons, violin, guitar, knitting, tennis lessons. Be prayerful. Be intentional. Be winsome. Have fun. Be yourself.

Talk to Your Co-workers. How hard is that? Take your breaks with intentionality. Go out with your team or task force after work. Show interest in your co-workers. Pick four and pray for them. Form mom’s groups in your neighborhood and don’t make them exclusively non-Christian. Schedule play dates with the neighbors’ kids. Work on mission.

Volunteer with Non-Profits. Find a non-profit in your part of the city and take Saturday a month to serve your city. Bring your neighbors, your friends, or your small group. Spend time with your church serving your city. Once a month. You can do it!

Participate in City Events. Instead of playing X-Box, watching TV, or surfing the net, participate in city events. Go to fundraisers, festivals, clean-ups, summer shows, and concerts. Participate missionally. Strike up conversation. Study the culture. Reflect on what you see and hear. Pray for the city. Love the city. Participate with the city.

Serve your Neighbors. Help a neighbor by weeding, mowing, building a cabinet, fixing a car. Stop by the neighborhood association or apartment office and ask if there is anything you can do to help improve things. Ask your local Police and Fire Stations if there is anything you can do to help them. Get creative. Just serve!

Good advice! Apply at least one of the 8 ways to your schedule this week. Because Jake and Elwood were right: We’re on a mission . . . from God.

Tom

* Of course I’m being tongue-in-cheek referring to The Blues Brothers as theological. The 1980 film was a vehicle for some great blues songs, but mind the R rating for language.
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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Obama's Address to School Children

I read in today's Statesman that some parents are threatening to keep their kids home from school if classroom teachers provide time to hear the President address kids via the Web about the importance of education.

Really? Hey, I didn't vote for Obama and have strong objections to several of his policies, but I'm trying to get my mind around this. Our democratically-elected President, whom Scripture commands us to respect, wants to tell our kids to stay in school. I'm supposed to object to this because...?

Reverence vs. Relevance

Watch "Reverence vs. Relevance" on-demand streaming at this website. It's an exchange between Ed Stetzer and Mike Harland regarding what--if anything--needs to change in Sunday morning congregational worship music. About an hour.

Know Your Stem Cells

Time magazine reports on the advancements being made in medical care through the use of stem cells. Notice in the article that it's the use of stem cells from adult skin cells that's being discussed. When reading about pro-life objections to embryonic stem cell research(which destroys human life), keep in mind that the objection isn't
over all stem cell research.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1919838,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

"A Lot of This 'Church is Lame' Stuff is Really Immaturity"

What do you say to those who say they don't go to church because churches are dull, disillusioning, or disappointing?

Kevin DeYoung in CT: "There are enough sinners in all of our churches, and we need to be willing to listen to people when they are genuinely hurt. But I think a lot of this 'church is lame' stuff is really immaturity. Hopefully people will look back and say, 'We were kind of like petulant children getting tired of our parents and thinking that they didn't know anything.' Then you get married and have your own kids and realize, 'Maybe I didn't always see everything as clearly as I thought I did.'"

DeYoung is author of the new book, "Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion" (Moody), Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/august/35.58.html?start=1

Winning Ways: Missing the Heart of the Father

Do you know the heart of the Father? Churchgoers need to ask themselves this question as much as those who have been absent from church life—maybe more so.

John Haggai (not John Hagee) is the founder of the Haggai Institute for Advanced Leadership Training. I still haven’t found a better leadership book than his 1986 book, Lead On!

He once told the story from his boyhood days. It was 1935, and his minister father ran a Christian camp for boys in Michigan. The Great Depression made finances tight, and they had to watch every penny. One day his dad filled the car with gas to get to a city 15 miles away. Before he got there the car stalled, out of gas. Someone had punctured the tank with a spike.

It did not take long to identify the culprit: a 10-year-old boy in the camp.

Haggai wrote, “I disliked this rich, spoiled, arrogant boy. I wanted my father to see that the ‘spoiled brat’ was severely disciplined.” But Haggai was both appalled and angered to see his father sitting on the edge of the dock with his arm around this boy, calmly discussing what happened.

He admitted he did not know the heart of his father. As a result, he was surprised and stunned by his father’s compassionate forgiveness toward someone who had created such an expensive problem for the family.

Jesus told a famous story about two sons who missed the heart of their father. We often call it “The Parable of the Prodigal Son,” but we miss an important truth when we give the story that label. There were actually two sons in the story, and both were separated from the Father. One was separated through self-expression and the other through self-righteousness. The troubling word in that sentence is neither “expression” nor “righteousness” but “self.”

In the parable of the lost sons (plural), Jesus wanted us to know that there are actually two ways to be lost. One way is widespread among those who do not put church-going on their schedule; the other way can be found among those who do.

This Sunday we’ll look at this parable and apply it to life. It’s the introduction to our new study series called Get a Life! Join us at 10am!

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday, September 1

“In several benchmark tests of focus, college students who routinely juggle many flows of information, bouncing from e-mail to web text to video to chat to phone calls, fared significantly worse than their low-multitasking peers” (Wired).


Seven Expenses Keeping You in Debt.


“What has separated [Heisman Trophy winner Tim] Tebow from other college stars of his generation has been his focus on using his popularity to help others” (NYT).  But Ted Kluck at CT says believers have him on a pedestal and need to give the guy a break.


“Gene Burd, a UT professor for 38 years who has never been promoted to full professor and at this point doesn't care what colleagues say about him, is the exceedingly rare individual willing to speak out. He says that Christians at UT ‘have to stay in the closet. If they come out, they're doomed.’ He added, ‘It's ironic: Texas is a conservative state with many Christians, but this campus is an enclave for leftist indoctrination’” (World, covering Rob Koons, a University of Texas at Austin philosophy professor and evangelical Christian, who poured six years into development of a UT Program in Western Civilization and American Institutions before administrators yanked it away from him).


“In University of Vermont research, after men and women pedaled for 20 minutes on a stationary bike, questionnaires showed their moods remained buoyed for about half a day, whether they were fitness fiends or just venturing off the couch for the first time” (RD).


Wired magazine has an interesting article on “Good Enough” technology: “Companies that focus on traditional measures of quality—fidelity, resolution, features—can become myopic and fail to address other, now essential attributes like convenience and shareability.” The author calls it the MP3 effect, a reference to the fact that MP3 files are lower in sound quality than CDs or records, but have taken over the market because they are much easier to share and store. Lots to chew on here.


“Guilt in its many varieties — Puritan, Catholic, Jewish, etc. — has often gotten a bad rap, but psychologists keep finding evidence of its usefulness” (NYT).


“A few researchers are looking again at whether happiness can be bought, and they are discovering that quite possibly it can - it's just that some strategies are a lot better than others. Taking a friend to lunch, it turns out, makes us happier than buying a new outfit. Splurging on a vacation makes us happy in a way that splurging on a car may not” (Boston Globe).


“All this online social networking was supposed to make us closer. And in some ways it has. Thanks to the Internet, many of us have gotten back in touch with friends from high school and college, shared old and new photos, and become better acquainted with some people we might never have grown close to offline….But there's a danger here, too. If we're not careful, our online interactions can hurt our real-life relationships” (WSJ).


“A new study shows that simply holding a heavy object can affect the way we think. A simple heavy clipboard can makes issues seem weightier - when holding one, volunteers think of situations as more important and they invest more mental effort in dealing with abstract issues. In a variety of languages, from English to Dutch to Chinese, importance is often described by words pertaining to weight. We speak of 'heavy news, 'weighty matters' and 'light entertainment'. We weigh up the value of evidence, we lend weight to arguments with facts, and our opinions carry weight if we wield influence and authority. These are more than just quirks of language - they reflect real links that our minds make between weight and importance” (Link)


“In 21 years time, the world's population will have increased by a third, rising to 8 billion people. In response, demand for food will increase by 50 percent, water by 30 percent and energy by 50 percent. All these factors will come together to create a problem much more serious than the sum of its parts” (Story)


The space shuttle mission includes a bit of missionary history: part of the airplane that Nate Saint flew on the day he and other missionaries were martyred in outreach to Auca Indians. (story)


Ignatius the Ultimate Youth Pastor (HT: Between Two Worlds) --