Listening to Local School Teachers—And Praying

Just before every school year begins, Hillcrest hosts a lunch for the teachers, administrators, coaches, and custodians of Anderson High School, Murchison Middle School, and Hill Elementary School.

As a part of the lunch program, we encourage the participants to complete a survey we provide at each table setting.  Not everyone turns in one, but here are just some of the answers from the 100 surveys that were completed this year. It will give you a greater appreciation for our school teachers, their needs, and their perception of what their schools and students need:

In your opinion, what is the most challenging issue you will face this school year?

Balancing work, children and family

Getting kids to pull their pants up

Challenging coworker and Mondays!!

Having enough time to prepare great lessons and to give individual attention to more students than we’ve ever hand (Anderson H.S.)

Keeping a positive attitude!

Finishing grad school this coming semester

Organizing: I’m juggling parenthood, teacher-hood, and being a wife!

In your opinion, what is the most challenging thing your students will face this school year?

Knowing what to expect on STAAR Exam

Not using their phones for 90 minutes of my class

My students are 3-5 year olds so probably leaving their homes and getting used to school routines (Hill Elem.)

Cliques

 

In what one tangible way can we partner with you and your campus to make this school successful for you and your students?

Provide volunteers for HEROs Program at Anderson. [This request, and requests for mentoring, came up a lot. Contact Steve Cloud or Karen Raulie for more information.]

This lunch is so amazing. It makes us feel appreciated and we thank you so much. [We got this comment a lot!]

This lunch is a wonderful way to start the year. Other appreciation/thinking-of-you things throughout the year?

School supplies; paper for copies, please!

Continue to host WyldLife [a Christian YoungLife program for middle schoolers that we host on Mondays. We also host YoungLife for Anderson high students.]

We would love to do our concerts here—just sent you an email about that. [Murchison Middle School held 2 of their concerts in our auditorium last year]

If your congregation has any German speakers that would like to visit my class….

Provide extracurricular activities to kids who have none.

Are there any specific things we can be praying about for you?

That my students will discover their unique gifts/talents

That I have patience and understanding for the diversity of students I have.

Economy in general, rain, best candidate elected for President

Financial blessings: My husband is getting ready to retire and a bit nervous about that.

This year is full of transitions for me: marriage, moving.

 

For your students?

That all my students feel supported and capable of improving themselves academically—never giving up on their education.

That I can inspire my students to greatness.

Strength and courage to stand for what’s good and right—especially when its not the popular thing.

That God would multiply their rest when they get it and their mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.

Feeling accepted, loved, confident.

Winning Ways: The Power of Prayer

According to one of the search-engine giants, "How to Pray" is one of the top searches on their site. This Sunday we'll begin a 4-week study designed to answer that question.

The study comes just in time, because the Hillcrest Family will be spending a lot of time in prayer across the next few weeks.

For one, there's a new prayer focus called First Wednesday starting September 7. The first Wednesday of every month in the 2011-2012 year will be dedicated to praying for those who need to come to Christ or return to him. Next week, join me in my office at noon for a First Wednesday prayer meeting. If your schedule won't allow you to attend, send in the names of those you want us to pray for (jami@hbcaustin.org).

Also, we expect to receive 1200 prayer requests from our Connection Campaign. Our Prayer Team will lift up these requests regularly throughout the Campaign.

I'm encouraged by Pete Greig's image of intercession as water working slowly into rock. In his book, God on Mute, he wrote (157):

In prayer, we appeal to the gentleness of Christ's nature as well as His power and engage with the complex free will of people He loves. That's why prayers for people generally work slowly, like water seeping silently into the tiny cracks of a vast boulder. For a long time, nothing may appear to have changed. Our prayers, resembling mere dribbles of water, appear to be of an entirely different nature than the substance of the rock. But then there comes the first great freeze of winter--some circumstances beyond human control--and overnight, as if by magic, as if struck by lightning, the vast boulder splits open.

I hope the sermon series and the prayer activities across the next few weeks will get you back into that rock-splitting work that we call intercessory prayer!

Grateful for our Ministry and Mission Fair!

What a great experience we had last Sunday! My thanks to all who made our Ministry and Mission Fair a success! Keep in mind that every booth you stopped at and every mission representative to talked to is supported by our church budget. You're already supporting these ministries and missions when you give your offering to Hillcrest!

With that in mind, stay faithful in your stewardship. We're behind in budget support as we enter the Fall calendar. Your generosity makes possible all the ministries and missions you saw on Sunday.

Links to Your World, Tuesday August 30

Report: Male Hair Loss 7 Times More Painful Than Childbirth


“There is a lot going on in the brain,” Eagleman said. “You’re not just passively tracking the river of time. You’re actively constructing it" (Why Some Seconds Seem to Last Forever).


Photos of 5 stupidly precarious ways to use a ladder


You'll probably order Karl Marlantes' 2010 Matterhorn, as I did, or his forthcoming What It Is Like To Go To War, after reading this WSJ piece on heroism and who gets recognized for such.


"Does the secular left realize it has a civility and tolerance problem too?" Read Rod Dreher's excellent piece.


Very Clever: Not your ordinary wedding engagement photo shoot, this couple survives a Zombie attack in theirs.


"Responsible, self-governing citizens do not grow wild like blackberries. They are cultivated in institutions — families, religious communities and decent, orderly neighborhoods. And government has a limited but important role in reinforcing social norms and expectations — including laws against drugs and against the exploitation of men and women in the sex trade" (Michael Gerson, on why Libertarianism won't work).


Texas Sting Nets Tenth Abortionist

The Anchor Course is Now an eBook

You can now download The Anchor Course as an ebook for $7.99 for iBooks and other epub formats:http://ow.ly/6c6Eo

Winning Ways: What Part Will You Play in Someone’s Faith Story?

I love “Faith Stories,” and Jonathan Chen shared a great one last Sunday! “As an international student from China,” he told us, “I faced 2 barriers, huge mountains, to accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” The first was his atheistic background, and the second was to admit he was a sinner.

These barriers were overcome by a co-worker’s invitation to her church’s loving care and faithful teaching. “At LSU, the first people I met at a jambalaya party in our school director’s home were Vicky and Mark Tiller. They were a Godly couple. I know now God assigned Vicky to be my office mate. Vicky invited me to a Wednesday night supper at Southside Baptist Church.”

After a year of experiencing the love and teaching of this church family, Jonathan said, “I realized obtaining a PhD degree was just a gain of scholarly esteem. I needed to purpose everlasting life through Jesus Christ. My family and I declared Jesus was our personal Savior and were baptized.”

You can read the full transcript of his testimony at www.GetAnchored.blogspot.com. What will God do with your own invitation to have a classmate or co-worker attend Hillcrest with you?

“Unhindered!”

We’ll be in Acts 28 on August 28, and so end our 16-month study through the Book of Acts. The last word in the Greek text of Acts is akolutos, which means unhindered: “He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance!” It cannot be a coincidence that the last word of this book is the best one-word summary of the whole book!

To that end, the theme of our 2011 Missions and Ministry Fair is Unhindered! After the 10 a.m. service this week, you will be released to our gym filled with booths and tables with information on the ministries and missions our church supports. Come and get informed, get inspired, and get involved!

Callers Are Needed

Our 2011 Connection Campaign begins in just a few weeks. Volunteer to be a caller! Based on previous experience, our calls should result in about a hundred interested in attending our church, and about a thousand interested in prayer. Let us train you and put you to work! Contact Herb Ingram right away (herb@hbcaustin.org or 345-3771).

___________________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

The Intolerance of Popular Tolerance

Jonathan Dodson, a church planter in Austin, at The Resurgence:

The claim that all paths lead to the same God actually minimizes other religions by asserting a new religious claim. When someone says all paths lead to the same God, they blunt the distinctives between religions, throwing them all in one pot, saying: “See, they all get us to God so the differences don’t really matter.” This isn’t tolerance; it’s a power play. When asserting all religions lead to God, the distinctive and very different views of God and how to reach him in Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam are brushed aside in one powerful swoop. The Eightfold Noble Path of Buddhism, the 5 Pillars of Islam, and the Gospel of Christ are not tolerated but told they must submit to a new religious claim–all ways lead to God–despite the fact that this isn’t what those religions teach.

People spend years studying and practicing their religious distinctives. To say they don’t really matter is highly intolerant! The very notion of religious tolerance assumes there are differences to tolerate but pluralism is intolerant of those very differences! In this sense, religious pluralism is a religion of its own. It has its own religious absolute—all paths lead to the same God—and requires people of other faiths to embrace this absolute.

Read the whole thing.

Links to Your World, Tuesday August 23

"Despite years of putting up with underperforming teachers, overcrowded classrooms, and a gradually deteriorating educational experience, American students reluctantly announced Tuesday that they would be giving the nation's public school system yet another chance this fall" (Nation's Students To Give American Education System Yet Another Chance)


How to Win at Rock, Paper, Scissors


Survey: 1 in 8 Fake Using Their Cell Phone to Avoid Talking to Others








According to a survey reported in Time online, "every hour of TV that participants watched after age 25 was associated with a 22-minute reduction in their life expectancy."


"A former “Teacher of the Year” in Mount Dora, Fla. has been suspended and could lose his job after he voiced his objection to gay marriage on his personal Facebook page" (story). Were his statements intemperate? Probably (Read the article to reach your own conclusion). Did he lose his rights as a citizen when he became a public school teacher? We'll see.


12 Things You Should Stop Buying Now


Nice guys finish last. Or at least they earn less, according to a new study.


Serving placenta at your next party? Let me know so I can send my regrets....

Hide Your Belonging

I’m guessing some Christians take this to heart:

(HT: 22 Words)

Jonathan Chen’s Faith Story

Great “Faith Story” by Jonathan Chen in our service yesterday! Here’s the transcript:

Good Morning!

I am Jonathan Chen. Thank you, Pastor Tom, for giving me the opportunity to share my faith story with the congregation this morning.

First, allow me to introduce my family. It’s a typical Chinese family—2 adults and 1 child. I’m a professor in textile science at UT. My wife is Peiyu, and our daughter is Diwen, who graduated from Texas A&M in 2008. We are all originally from China. Our hometown is Wuxi, an industrialized city in Eastern China, just about 2.5-hour drive from Shanghai.

We left China to move to England where I was an international PhD student at the University of Leeds for 4.5 years. We left England for Baton Rouge, Louisiana where worked at LSU for 13 years. As you can see, our overseas journey was almost halfway around the earth.

My story of faith was a long and a difficult 7 years journey. The first time I visited a church was in 1991 while I lived in England. I knew nothing about Christianity and at that time, didn’t even think about becoming a Christian. As an international student from China, I faced 2 barriers, huge mountains, to accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

First was my atheistic background. In 3^rd grade, the “Great Cultural Revolution” began. All moral education we received was based on atheism. There was no God! Teachers taught us to be Chairman Mao’s “Materialist.” We were only allowed to believe what we could see and what we could feel. Materialism was right, religion was wrong.

The second barrier was to admit I was a sinner. I’d never done wrong, so why did I need to confess I was a sinner? It was difficult understanding that admitting to be a sinner had nothing to do with wrong doing; it meant belonging to a sinful nature.

God was there and taking the journey with me. I’d like to mention a couple of people who made a great impact on my Christian life change.

In England, Margaret Wood, a Jehovah’s Witness, voluntarily came to the house Peiyu and I shared with 4 other Chinese Students to teach the Bible every week. During this time, Peiyu learned English. Margaret helped our Chinese students shop and find a rental house and furniture. She even took us on a tour of the beautiful English countryside towns. Even after Margaret’s car window was smashed and her portable radio/cassette was stolen, she continued to come weekly to share the Bible with us. At that time, we had no idea of what was difference between Jehovah’s Witness and true Christianity, until later we were involved in the Southside Baptist Church in the U.S.

At LSU in 1995, the first people I met at a jambalaya party in our school director’s home were Vicky and Mark Tiller. They were a Godly couple. I know now God assigned Vicky to be my office mate. Vicky invited me to a Wednesday night supper at Southside Baptist Church. During the prayer time, the pastor prayed for me and my family. I still didn’t quite understand the power of prayer. Now I know, it’s a big deal!

Our first Christmas day in the United States is unforgettable. My daughter and I were sick. That morning Vicky, Mark, and their daughters Amy and Emily knocked on our door. After wishing us a Merry Christmas, they surprised us with Christmas gifts. Vicky and Mark had not pressured us to join their church, but there in our little one bedroom apartment, they exhibited God’s grace and love through their actions. In the following summer, Vicky invited our daughter to join the church Vocational Bible School. Since then, we began participating in the church activities. Biblical truth is told in Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Right then I realized obtaining a PhD degree was just a gain of scholarly esteem. I needed to purpose everlasting life through Jesus Christ. On April 5^th, 1998, my wife, daughter, and I declared Jesus was our personal Savior and were baptized at the Southside Baptist Church.

Please join me as I pray:

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day you have made. Thank you for your love, mercy, and salvation. Because of you, we no longer live in darkness. Because of you, we have hope. I ask your presence in this worship time to open our heart to receive your message. Lord, help us spread your kingdom news to every corner of the world (even to the people in China). In Jesus’ name, Amen.

"We are seeing the true end of an impressive product line"

So Long, WebOS:

The feeling of melancholy I get is because we are seeing the true end of an impressive product line. It started with the Palm Pilots, which taught us we could carry a real computer in our pockets. Next came Treos, which proved our phones could have brains, too. WebOS could have been a third act of greatness, if it weren't for the fact that greater forces couldn't help but prevail.

I loved my various generations of Palm Pilots, from the very start of the line. Still no better data entry than Giraffe handwriting recognition. And Treo was the first real smartphone. I had hopes for WebOS to do more than it did.

There's a leadership illustration here for those with ears to hear.

Happy 91st Birthday, Ray Bradbury!

As a 9th grader I found Ray Bradbury's stuff in my high school library in Maine. I proceeded to devour Something Wicked This Way Comes, Dandelion Wine, The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, I Sing The Body Electric, and The Illustrated Man. He turns 91 today.

"Barbarism must always ultimately triumph"

Brian Phillips for Grantland comments on the enduring appeal of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian:

There's an awesomeness quotient here that accounts for a part of the story's success. But what's really striking is how grim [Howard's third installment] "The Tower of the Elephant" is. In sharp contrast to most heroic fantasy, there's no overriding moral order, no dichotomy of good vs. evil, no trustworthy authority that makes everything make sense. Yara is evil, but Conan is a thief, and the elephant creature is simply unfathomable. The world — and this is common to all the Conan stories — is essentially an anarchy of situations; what happens just happens, with no final judgment or possibility of redemption. You climb a tower, you discover a gruesomely tortured elephant-headed alien, you cut its heart out. Maybe you decide to get revenge on its behalf. On to the next adventure.

What's the appeal of all this? The Lord of the Rings was the perfect fantasy for WWII-era Europe, the story of an external evil defeated by a courageous alliance. The Conan stories address a more insidious threat, the decay of civilization from within. Science fiction and the western took opposite tacks to create frontier adventures for a world with no more frontiers; Howard created a sort of nightmare inversion of both, a world in which the ragged edge of civilization is always rolling backward. "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind," he wrote in the Conan story "Beyond the Black River." "Civilization is unnatural. … And barbarism must always ultimately triumph." It wasn't a cheerful form of escapism — Howard killed himself with a gunshot to the head in 1936, when he was 30 years old — but it was weirdly suited to a Depression America whose guiding institutions were widely perceived to have failed.

So, to Phillips the Conan saga is "an awesome story around a strain of American neurosis — the idea that civil society is about to collapse, and then it's just you and the road and your sword. That's a fantasy that tends to spring up in hard times, obviously, when cultural decline is combined with a suspicion of collective action."

Maybe so. I'm always a little skeptical of analysis done on the comic book genre. And it sounds a little like saying fans are "clinging to their guns and religion"--the unfortunate social analysis of a certain politician running for office. Still, it's an interesting observation to contrast Tolkien's Christian-infused fantasy with Howard's nihilistic one.

"I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains, and then find somewhere where I can rest"

The view from our balcony. Garden of the Gods, with Pike's Peak in the back. The passing storm dropped short-lived snow on the Peak as you can see.

(The quote is from Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings)

Links to Your World, August 17

Cast and director of 'The Help' tell their stories


Baseball Umpires Show Their Inner Hams on Strike Three


Don't Taze Me, Bro: So, it seems a music minister popped his pastor with a tazer. I like the church neighbor's comment: " I would never have expected nothing from the church ... any church." So true.


This guy invites you to use his Starbucks card as you wish.


64% of Americans Don’t Have $1,000 in Savings


"Researchers from Concordia University in Montreal report that constant bitterness can lead to physical illness, affecting everything from organ function to immune response and vulnerability to disease." (Story)


This guy "told fellow members that his goal is to play the lottery until he wins enough to pay off the church's mortgage, which is now 2.7-million dollars." Um....


Some good points about improving the speed of your creative output: Attention pastors, sermon writing will improve by following the advice here.


‘Arrested Development’ in Lego Form


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Winning Ways: Opportunities to Learn and to Serve

Cover the next few weeks with prayer, and join in! Here are a few opportunities to learn and to serve.

People of Faith and Action

This Sunday, August 21, we’ll continue our study through the Book of Acts with a reminder from chapter 27 that nothing can sink God’s promises.

The Apostle Paul knew that God intended him to bring the gospel to Rome, and that confidence enabled him to hold up during one of the most dramatic stormy sea voyages you’ll ever read about. But that confidence showed up in both faith and action. He displayed radical trust in the protection of God, and he also engaged in practical actions to ensure the survival of everyone on board the vessel.

Likewise, we need to be people of faith and action. Be assured that the one doesn’t cancel out the other. Find out more this Sunday @ 10.

“Unhindered!”

We’ll be in Acts 28 on August 28, and so end our 16-month study through the Book of Acts. The last word in the Greek text of Acts is akolutos, which means unhindered. “He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ,” verse 31 says, “with all boldness and without hindrance!” It cannot be a coincidence that the last word of this book is the best one-word summary of the whole book!

To that end, the theme of our 2011 Missions and Ministry Fair is Unhindered! It will be held in our gym following the 10 a.m. service on August 28. There will be no Sunday School or Common Ground that day. Following the worship service, everyone will be released to the gym where you will find booths and tables with information on the ministries and missions our church supports.

Callers Are Needed

You’ve been hearing the wonderful testimonies in our worship services from those reached by previous Connection Campaigns. Our 2011 Connection Campaign begins in just a few weeks. Volunteer to be a caller! I’m signed up for the Monday night team. We’ll train you, and then on the night your call team meets you’ll place calls at our phone bank. Based on previous experience, our calls should result in about a hundred interested in attending our church, and about a thousand interested in prayer. Let us train you and put you to work! Contact Herb Ingram right away (herb@hbcaustin.org or 345-3771).

_______________________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

LeaderLines: Your Leadership in our Connection Campaign

In September we’ll place twelve thousand calls to invite our community to church and to ask how we can pray for them.

It would be good to review how God has used this effort in our church in the past. Here’s my LeaderLines note from January 17, 2008, about four months after the 2007 Campaign:

In this week's Beacon, Herb Ingram gave us an update on our Connection Campaign. Herb wrote, "It continues to be one of the most effective outreach campaigns I have ever been a part of."  He pointed out that some results are quantifiable while others are harder to measure.  Regarding the count:

· We had around 120 guests at our BBQ.

· We added about 200 households to our prospect database.

· We have around 50 people that are maintaining some degree of continued presence.

· We have had 4 families join the church, some awaiting baptism.

· We continue to see new folks from the Campaign.

In addition to this good news, other results are harder to measure.  Herb wrote:

· We've had scores of cards, calls, and emails thanking us for reaching out to the immediate community with this prayer effort.  We have really upgraded our standing in the community at large as a church that cares and prays.

· It was like a revival for many of our people who participated, sensing that we were making a real effort to connect with the lost in our local mission area.

· Many of the unchurched in our community are now open to us and should the situation arise, I think we would be the first church they would think of for ministry.  This is no small thing.

I think Herb's last point is especially important.  Any effort like this raises the profile of our congregation in the community, making people more mindful of Hillcrest.  To have 50 people from the Campaign attend even occasionally is a fantastic success in my book, but our church is now "on the radar" of far more people than that.

We continue to contact them.  In fact, I just sent a letter to 180 households from the Campaign, encouraging them to make a "New Year's Resolution" to come visit us.  Through Easter, we will continue to mail our weekly newsletter to every household that told us they were interested in us.  We also include them on special mailings highlighting our special events.

That means our Connection Campaign isn't over yet!  Please continue to pray for the 180 households who originally expressed interest in getting information about our church.  Pray for the 50 of them who have made one or more visits to Hillcrest.  And pray that we'll continue to find creative ways to raise awareness of our church in northwest Austin!

That was in 2008. I look forward to what God will do in our 2011 Campaign. The launch is just around the corner. We start placing calls on Sunday, September 11.

As a partner in leadership at Hillcrest, how can you best prepare our church for the upcoming Connection Campaign?

First, pray for God to bless our efforts.

Second, promote the Campaign in the halls and pews and classes of our church. Generate enthusiasm!

And three, sign up for one of the call teams. My call team meets on Monday night, but other nights are available. We’ll train you, and then on the night your call team meets you’ll place calls at our phone bank. Based on previous experience, our calls should result in about a hundred attending our church on Connection Sunday, and about a thousand interested in prayer. Let us train you and put you to work! Contact Herb Ingram right away (herb@hbcaustin.org or 345-3771).

_______________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 350 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Will End in Travis County

Community Impact News is reporting that the Central Health Board of Managers for Travis County will stop using income from taxpayers to fund abortion services.

Central Health, according to Impact News, says the decision is in response to the passage of Senate Bill 7, which states that "except in the case of a medical emergency, a hospital district that uses tax revenue to finance the performance of an abortion may not receive state funding."

While we'd like to know how the annual half-million in taxpayer dollars will be reallocated, its good news that the public will no longer be made complicit in a procedure that most find objectionable. I wrote about the Central Health Board's poor reasoning behind their past decision for taxpayer-funded abortions in Travis County. You can find those posts here and here.



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Dramatic Aerial Images of the Southwest Drought

Lots of striking images of Austin waterways in This Time magazine slide show:

"TIME commissioned renowned aerial photographer and photojournalist George Steinmetz to document the effects of the drought in Texas, New Mexico, and Georgia. On his journey, Steinmetz quickly found that even in the driest sections of the country, the cliched idea of the bowl of cracked earth and dust was neither common nor representative of the crisis. In many places, green on the ground was simply evidence of the intensity of water usage for irrigation, homes, and recreation. The effect of the drought can only begin to be appreciated when we see the lakes and reservoirs where the water is coming from, or what the land looks like when we are forced to stop watering."

See the slide show here.


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"I pray I may be ready with my witness"

Germanicus leapt upon the wild lion in Smyrna,
wishing to pass quickly from a lawless life.
The crowd shook the stadium.
The proconsul marveled.



 ‘Eighty & six years have I been his servant,
and he has done me no harm.
How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?’
Polycarp, John’s pupil, facing the fire.



 Make too me acceptable at the end of time
in my degree, which then Thou wilt award.
Cancer, senility, mania,
I pray I may be ready with my witness.

John Berryman, "Eleven Addresses to the Lord," #11

From John Berryman; Collected Poems 1937–1971, edited and introduced by Charles Thornbury (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux).

LeaderLines: Small-Group Prayer Times

Our church is a praying church.

In our Connection Campaign 3 years ago, we collected around 1200 prayer requests from our community. We’re gearing up for another Connection Campaign in September, and I look forward to connecting our community with God’s care and power through prayer. While that campaign is underway, I’ll bring a series of Sunday morning messages on prayer.

As a partner in leadership with me, you can make sure that prayer remains the priority in our church. One way is by looking for ways to organize times of prayer for our people.

I asked Jim Sessions, a teacher in our Adult-5 department, to explain their practice of prayer. I think you’ll find it inspiring. Here’s Jim—

Dear Pastor,

You asked me to write about our department’s special prayer times when one of our members faces a critical battle.

When one of department's members face a critical battle, usually a health issue, we invite the members of our department and any others especially close to the person we are praying for, to come to our home one evening for a time of prayer and encouragement.

When Dred Simmons faced surgery to help him fight his pancreatic cancer we gathered around him and Mae. Recently we joined hearts and hands for Bill and Susie Miller as Bill began a long series of radiation treatments for prostate cancer.

We have some wonderful folks in our group who pour theirs hearts out to the Lord for our brothers and sisters. Many of them lead in prayer.

When we meet to pray, I may make a pot of coffee, but it is not a social gathering. We focus on reaching into the heart our Lord on behalf of our brothers and sisters. We use a lot of Kleenex.

Some people are not comfortable with this kind of activity and we respect that. I always ask the person we pray for if they would like to have a group prayer time.

I hope this gives you a true sense of what we do, or try to do.

Jim

Thanks, Jim! Our Adult-5 department is blessed with a collection of leaders who, like Jim, make sure to keep prayer paramount.

What can you do in your own group, class, or department to connect our people to the care and power of God?

____________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 350 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Time Machine

Have I really been posting for 6 years? Here are some random August posts from “Get Anchored” from the past 5 years:

2006: From the Bench to the Barstool?

2007: Stepping on My Own Toes

2008: Take the Church-and-State Quiz

2009: Just Had to, Um, “Link” to This Story

2010: Quitting in Style

2011: The Five Commandments of “Words With Friends”

Book Review: Skye Jethani's WITH: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God

Skye Jethani wants his readers to experience life with God, but first he has to clear the field of four insufficient ways people relate to God. Some people see God as a giver of rules and rituals to follow (LIFE UNDER GOD), or the provider of useful principles to observe (LIFE OVER GOD), or as a genie to grant us our desires (LIFE FROM GOD), or as a commander sending us forth to accomplish a mission (LIFE FOR GOD). Each of these ways of relating to God has its place, of course (we are to ask God to meet our needs and God does send us into service, for example). But UNDER, OVER, FROM, and FOR--none of these prepositions alone can adequately define the relationship to God we're meant to have as well as the preposition "with." It's LIFE WITH GOD that we're being called into. Readers will immediately see themselves in one of the four inadequate ways of relating to God (mine was "LIFE FOR GOD"), and will remember again that there is more to discover.

Winning Ways: What We Hope People Will Become

"I wish before God that everyone would become as I am."

It's horribly wrong to wish that, or it's beautifully right. It depends on what you're hoping for.

Paul expressed this wish in Acts 26:24-29. As he expressed his confidence in the resurrection of Jesus, he turned to King Agrippa and said, "You believe the prophets' promise. I know you do."

Put on the spot, Agrippa scoffed, "Oh, in so short a time you're persuading me to be a Christian I see!"

"I wish to God," Paul replied, "that you and everyone listening to me would become as I am."

Some of us want others to become as we are, but not in the way that Paul was wishing. What we mean is, "I wish to God that everyone would adopt my political convictions." Or, "I wish to God that everyone had my taste in films and music." Or, "I wish to God that everyone was as culturally refined as I am."

While it is certainly right to have our own preferences and passions, the agenda of our church fellowship is not to ensure everyone aligns with us in these areas.

But there is a way that it is entirely right to say, "I wish everyone would become like me."   If we have met Jesus, we want everyone to know him as we do. It becomes the subject of our prayers to God and the subject of our conversation to others.

Join us this Sunday @ 10 as we renew our hope that Austin will become like us. We need to repent of the wrong way to hope that, and we need to renew our commitment to the right way to hope that.

Thankful for Our Deacons. While the deacons at Hillcrest are not a governing board, they are a wonderful sounding board. We've enjoyed prayerful and productive conversations on a number of topics. In our multigenerational church, it's great to have a multigenerational deacon team. Here are their ages: 82, 81, 76, 67, 66, 65, 63 (3), 59, 57, 55, 54, 48, 47 (3), 42, 39, 37, and 35. As you can see, we'll soon need to identify a few church members from the 25-35 age range to join us, but otherwise we're well represented across the wide age range of our church. You can find their names at www.hillcrestaustin.info/deacons. Pray for these guys!
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday August 9

Read "That truck driver you flipped off? Let me tell you his story." I don't "flip off" truck drivers but I sure get annoyed when they jam both lanes of I-35 between Austin and Waco. I'll try to be more understanding after this article. Read it to the end for a most powerful punch.


Out-Of-Control Conversation Safely Turned Back Onto Self


10 Things You Shouldn't Keep in Your Wallet or Purse


The Onion has a fake "statshot" in the form of a USA Today graph on "The Reasons We're Skipping Church." I like the 3 percent who say we're skipping because "No one listens to our sermons" :-)


Scott Adams of "Dilbert" fame explains what happens to creativity when you eliminate boredom. Not sure I agree--I like all my available "distractions"--but more space for think-time is something we could all use.


It's got to be one of the toughest jobs in the world: Pictures of the last 6 presidents before and after their terms.


Our International Mission Board is looking for accountants. Sounds like an adventure awaits.


"Is living clean the key to living long? Maybe not, says a new study by Yeshiva University's Institute for Aging Research, which shows that people who made it to the ripe age of 95 were just as likely as their shorter-lived peers to engage in the kinds of lifestyle habits that researchers deem unhealthy: eating fried foods, drinking, smoking and failing to exercise" (Time). It almost makes you think that there's a higher reason to take care of yourself than mere longevity.


8 Biggest Locks on Earth. Why?



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"The cumulative effect of standing under the steady rain of God’s word"

For tomorrow's preachers (and, by extension, all who listen faithfully to them), a good word from Thabiti Anyabwile at my former church:

"To be sure, there are those sermons that have radical, life-changing effects on people. Praise God. But the reality is that the cumulative effect of standing under the steady rain of God’s word week after week is what readies the full harvest. Take the pressure off tomorrow’s sermon. Hit a string of singles rather than swinging for the fence. Be faithful to the text and let the word do its work as the Spirit conforms people to Christ."

Read the whole thing and pray for tomorrow's message wherever you may preach it or hear it.




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"What is needed is a beautiful and compelling portrait of Truth"

Trevin Wax:

The power of Love Wins is not in Bell’s exegesis or in his thoughtfulness. The power of Bell’s book is in its aesthetic qualities. Bell is appealing to the sentiments and emotions in a way that proves effective for many disaffected evangelicals today.

Bell’s book is troublesome, not because it is a thoughtful representation of the optimistic inclusivist position. (See Clark Pinnock’s work if you’re looking for that!) It’s troublesome because it is seeking to make inclusivism beautiful. Bell succeeds at “dressing up” falsehood. Meanwhile, his evangelical critics aren’t even bothering with the wardrobe. We are Nixon, and he is Kennedy. From a purely rhetorical, debating standpoint, we win. But Bell understands the medium.

What is needed is a response that takes into consideration the beauty of Truth. We’ve got the truth portion down when it comes to propositions. What is needed is a beautiful and compelling portrait of Truth.

This was my reaction upon reading Bell's book, too. But C.S. Lewis already gave us the book we say we're looking for.


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LeaderLines: Stages Up the H.I.L.L.—Stage Four

I see Hillcrest becoming a church where people can find a follow Jesus together. In the last several editions of LeaderLines we’ve been looking at this vision--and your part in fulfilling it. (Read previous entries in this series here.)

Today we’ll look at how to lead people into “stage four” in finding and following Jesus together. We must recognize that people are at one of four stages when it comes to the “life purposes” all humans must fulfill. God made us to honor him, invite others to him, love each other, and live his Word--at our church we call that our “H.I.L.L.” to climb.

When we fulfill those purposes, we are fulfilled as human beings. At Hillcrest, we should expect to have people at four stages when it comes to these life purposes:

Stage One: “I am exposed to the life purposes.”

Stage Two: “I agree with the life purposes.”

Stage Three: “I practice the life purposes.”

Stage Four: “I advance the life purposes in others.”

Someone at Stage One is being exposed to the H.I.L.L. we’re meant to climb: She catches a vision of the way life could be as she spends time with believers--in structured Hillcrest activities as well as informal social occasions.

By the grace of God, she reaches Stage Two where she agrees with the life purposes: She accepts Christ’s offer of forgiveness, commits to the path he wants her to walk, and she formally connects with the Hillcrest community through membership.

Then, at Stage Three, she grows in her ability to honor God, invite her world to the new life she’s found, love others, and live the Word. She’s climbing the H.I.L.L.

What’s next for her? As Hillcrest leaders, we need to notice that she’s climbing the H.I.L.L. and move her into a position of influence or leadership where she can advance the life purposes in others. That’s our work with people at Stage Four.

Notice a few things about that last paragraph:

First: I’ve described people at Stage Four as those in positions of “influence or leadership.” Positions of leadership involve official roles such as teacher or committee chairman or deacon, and so on. However, there are more positions of influence than there are positions of leadership. Positions of influence include such informal tasks as giving a testimony in a service, being the “go to” person for advice, or being the “E.F. Hutton” for a particular circle of relationships. (Okay, if you’re old like me you’ll remember the old commercial: “When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen.”) Every leader is an influencer, but you don’t have to be a leader to be an influencer.

Second: I believe the only people who should lead and influence a congregation are “Stage Four” people. These are people who agree with the life purposes (Stage Two), are actually practicing the purposes (Stage Three), and are therefore leading others to accept and practice the purposes (Stage Four). Sadly, this is not the case for every church. Too many of us have served in too many church settings where the leaders and influencers were not passionate Christ-followers and did not have a priority to make others passionate Christ-followers. Let’s make sure that the only people we put in the “driver’s seat” of our church are people who are trying to reproduce their own passion for Christ in others!

Third: It’s the job of leadership to build leadership. The Apostle Paul said something about this: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2). Now, he was speaking specifically about the role of pastors, but the principle applies to other leadership positions: multiply yourself! Enlist and equip others! If you’re a leader, part of your job is to watch for those who “get it” and put them into positions where they can lead and influence others. The other side of that coin is relevant, too: make sure you guard the positions of influence and leadership in our church. Don’t occupy those positions with people who aren’t climbing the H.I.L.L. and who don’t have a drive to help others up the H.I.L.L.

I hope this overview of our church’s work has been helpful. If you need to review the previous LeaderLines entries, click here.

Tom

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 350 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Winning Ways: Hillcrest Blessings

We Southerners have our phrases. One that shows up a lot has to do with blessings and hearts, but like any Southernisms, you have to know how to use it. Whether it's your heart, his heart, or my heart someone is blessing clues you in to how the heart's being blessed.

"Bless Your Heart": This is an expression of empathy when someone has just reported their bad news. We're so often confronted with news that leaves us speechless, and it's good to have a response ready at hand. How the rest of the country gets by without a phrase like this, I'll never know.

"Bless His Heart": This is an expression of indulgent tolerance for foolishness. As in, "That boy is dumber than a sack of hammers, bless his heart."

"It Blessed My Heart": This is said in testimony to what awakened you to a new appreciation of God's activity.

I had a number of little moments last Sunday with our Hillcrest Family that, well, blessed my heart.

There was that time before the service as I turned the corner and saw Brent McKanna reading to his two kids. They were on a hallway bench, one child on each side of him, finishing up their last book in our library's summer reading challenge. That's a moment of grace where you want to snap a picture for your Facebook status update, but doing so would ruin the moment.

Then there was the hour after the service as I joined my Common Ground group. We pastors tend to enlist others into a small group without joining one ourselves because we worry it will look like favoritism. We pastors need to get over that worry. I watched my group interact on Sunday and thought, "This is the way its supposed to be." The only problem is, now I know why groups are so resistant to split up with they get too large! That doesn't mean it shouldn't happen: It just means its harder than I realized when I used to tell everyone to do it.

Finally, there was the memorial service for Alexis Lennart. This dear young woman lost her battle with an eating disorder last week, and we gathered to honor her life Sunday afternoon. Lori Shepard shared some memories and Herb Ingram reminded everyone of the gospel promises. What struck me was the intergenerational interaction that makes Hillcrest so special.

Take a moment to sift through your experiences with the Hillcrest Family and count the ways God is using your church in your spiritual growth.

It will bless your heart.

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday August 2

A teen's worst nightmare: Student driver crashes into DMV office.


Is the tooth fairy getting stingy?


Here's the REAL reason Google+ will beat Facebook: Circles keep you from having to wade through status updates of people who say, "Just saw Cowboys and Aliens--Don't know what I think of it," or "That was a great bowl of cereal today!" Here are 27 Circles you can use to rein in the most annoying social networkers.


Good advice for tweeting here. I need to crank down my practice of tweeting every profound quote I run across. Any Twitter violations you need to repent of?


Or you could just read "Chatting with Thoreau About Twitter" and decide to never tweet again....


"Turns out that "Friends" had lots of friends; splitsider.com found the 6 characters had 85 on-screen sexual partners during the 10-seasons" (@JamesEmeryWhite)


Ed Stetzer suggests 3 reasons why so many in the media were ready to tie Anders Behring Breivik to Christianity, particularly right-wing Christianity, following the mass murder in Norway that Breivik is accused of conducting.


Also, two of the best quotes from all the commentary last week:

James Taranto: "What do Barack Obama and Anders Breivik have in common? If you don't know they're Christian, liberals get enraged."

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He was a flaky extremist who might as well have claimed to be fighting for the honor of Hogwarts as for the cause of Christ" (Philip Jenkins, a Pennsylvania State University professor who studies global religion and politics)

Here's an $8 million iPad 2 made from a T-Rex’s thigh bone splintered and shaved into Ammolite sourced from Canada (a rock which is over 75 million years old). The 'Home' button is a single cut 8.5 carat flawless diamond.


How exercise keeps the brain fit




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The Five Commandments of "Words With Friends"

Funny stuff. Jon Acuff gives us the Five Commandments of Words with Friends:

1. Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s words.

Just like in Scrabble, each time you play a turn, you get a collection of letters you can use to spell a word. Don’t covet your neighbor’s letters if they get the much-desired “blank letter” which can be used as any letter. Don’t out act in envy if you find yourself without a single vowel.

2. Thou shalt not cheat.

There are four different apps that you can use to cheat on Words with Friends. One of them is called “Cheat with Words.” You tell the apps what letters you have and the apps will tell you every possible word you can form. When someone used the word “Horjemr” in a game against my wife, it was clear they were cheating. No one on the planet regularly uses the word “Horjemr.” Except maybe “Horjemr Smith” who only uses it to say, “I sure hate my parents for naming me Horjemr.”

3. Thou shalt not strike a person who always adds “S” to your words.

The “S guy” is the worst person to play in Words with Friends. This vocabulary villain waits until you spell a brilliant word and then lazily tacks on an S to the end of it, soaking up all the points with none of the work. Scoundrel! But before you lash out, keep in mind, this is a completely fair move. Dastardly perhaps, but it’s not cheating.

4. Thou shalt heed the call of “Your Move” quickly.
Your iPhone buzzed. Your Droid beeped. Your smartphone essentially said, “Hey, it’s your move on Words with Friends.” Do not tarry friend. Do not delay. Make your move quickly. Play your word with great haste.

5. Thou shalt not be a sore loser.

You lost. In one fell swoop your opponent got a triple letter score with a Z and tore your word kingdom asunder. Do not slander or gossip. Do not throw barbs or have a mouth of poison like the wicked. In other words, don’t use the chat feature of Words with Friends to talk trash.

Read the whole thing, and add "Stuff Christians Like" to your RSS feed.


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