Links to Your World, Tuesday, January 31

 New Mexico is getting about an inch wider every 40 years.

 

Two sociologists discovered that as people spend more time on Facebook, they start to believe that others have a better life than they do.

 

This article on the infectious nature of "professional laughers" made me smile--which is sort of the point.

 

"The funeral industry is in the midst of a transition of titanic proportions. America is secularizing at a rapid pace, with almost 25% of the country describing itself as un-church [sic. The phrase is "unchurched"]. Americans, embracing a less religious view of the afterlife, are now asking for a "spiritual" funeral instead of a religious one." Max Rivlin-Nadler for The Awl. He goes on to reference cremation as an example of the secularizing trend in funeral services, which I think is incorrect. Cremation is an increasingly popular choice for environmental considerations and (primarily) because it's cheaper. But the rest of the article was interesting. 

 

According to Google's Ad Preferences, they assume I'm in the 24-34 age range.  I need to do more Google searches for soft yogurt, apparently.

 

Brett Nelson of Forbes is on to something: "I propose a theoretical pre-college regimen called “grownup training.” Specifically: six months spent working in a factory, six in a restaurant, six on a farm and six in the military or performing another public service such as building houses, teaching algebra or changing bedpans....Each offers a window on a critical, if unglamorous, societal function; taken together, the group cuts across all manner of socioeconomic currents: old and young, rich and poor, rural and urban. And beyond the obvious educational and character-building implications for the kids, grownup training would offer broader benefits to society—like cheap, dedicated labor for hospitals, schools and charities."

Don’t Take it From Me - Kathy Keller on why you shouldn’t marry an unbeliever: “Over the course of our ministry, the most common pastoral issue that Tim and I have confronted is probably marriages–either actual or proposed–between Christians and non-Christians. I have often thought how much simpler it would be if I could remove myself from the conversation and invite those already married to unbelievers do the talking to singles who are desperately trying to find a loophole that would allow them to marry someone who does not share their faith.” (HT: Challis)

Here’s a sample of the companies who give out the best, and most unusual, employee perks.

The truth behind the cereal box:

 Previous Posts from "Get Anchored" This Week:

"We Want to See Into the Hearts and Minds of People"

Happy Birthday, Francis Schaeffer

LeaderLines: Leadership Vows for the New Year, Part Four

Review of George W. Bush's "Decision Points"

Review of Bo Giertz's "The Hammer of God"

Toxic Nagging

Winning Ways: What Four?

"We Want to See Into the Hearts and Minds of People"

Noah Sachtman for Wired reports:

 Chief Scientists of the Air Force Dr. Mark Maybury [would] like to build a set of sensors that peer into people’s souls — and forecast wars before they erupt.

Maybury calls his vision “Social Radar.’” And the comparison to traditional sensors is no accident, he tells Danger Room. “The Air Force and the Navy in this and other countries have a history of developing Sonar to see through the water, Radar to see through the air, and IR [infrared] to see through the night. Well, we also want to see into the hearts and the minds of people,” says Maybury, who serves as the top science advisor to the Air Force’s top brass.

The Social Radar would collate information from "Facebook timelines, political polls, spy drone feeds, relief workers’ reports, and infectious disease alerts" to better "quantify, model — and, eventually, foresee — the human, social, cultural, and behavioral dimensions of conflict."

Can human behavior really be forecast? 

 Maybury is quick to push back on the criticism.  “Just like nobody could imagine seeing through the night or seeing through water, nobody can imagine seeing attitudes. And actually, in my view, that’s very much a future reality,” he says.

Wired

Happy Birthday, Francis Schaeffer

 Francis Schaeffer would have been 100 today. In an Introduction to Reflections on Francis Schaeffer, J.I. Packer wrote, "Among evangelicals he became an opinion-maker, a consciousness-raiser, and a conscience-stirrer." Packer suggests 7 reasons why Schaeffer was important in the the 2nd half of the 20th century:

First, with his flair for didactic communication he coined some new and pointed ways of expressing old thoughts (the "true truth" or revelation, the "mannishness" of human beings, the "upper story" and "lower story" of the divided Western mind, etc.).

Second, with his gift of empathy he listened to and dialogued with the modern secular world as it expressed itself in literature and art, which most evangelicals were too cocooned in their own subculture to do.

Third, he threw light on the things that today's secularists take for granted by tracing them, however sketchily, to their source in the history of thought, a task for which few evangelicals outside the seminaries had the skill.

Fourth, he cherished a vivid sense of the ongoing historical process of which we are all part, and offered shrewd analysis of the Megatrends-Future Shock type concerning the likely effect of current Christian and secular developments.

Fifth, he felt, focused, and dwelt on the dignity and tragedy of sinful human beings rather than their grossness and nastiness.

Sixth, he linked the passion for orthodoxy with a life of love to others as the necessary expression of gospel truth, and censured the all-too-common unlovingness of front-line fighters for that truth, including the Presbyterian separatists with whom in the thirties he had thrown in his lot.

Seventh, he celebrated the wholeness of created reality under God, and stressed that the Christian life must be a corresponding whole—that is, a life in which truth, goodness, and beauty are valued together and sought with equal zeal. Having these emphases institutionally incarnated at L'Abri, his ministry understandably attracted attention. For it was intrinsically masterful, and it was also badly needed.

Read the rest.

LeaderLines: Leadership Vows for the New Year, Part Four

Have you noticed how often the phrase “make every effort” shows up in Scripture? For these opening weeks of the new year, I’m taking you you to six places where that phrase shows up in Scripture. You’ll discover that these six challenges are especially important for those of us who lead:

I vow to maintain my integrity.

I vow to forgive those who hurt me.

I vow to be a peacemaker.

I vow to be an encourager.

I vow to mentor others.

I vow to never stop growing.

We’ve already looked at the first five vows. (Click the links above to find the posts.) This week, let’s make a commitment to never stop growing.

In 2 Peter 1:5-8 (NIV), the Big Fisherman says, “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

There’s that phrase again: “Make every effort.” In this case, it’s applied to our willingness to continually develop.

We cannot afford to get stagnant as leaders. There’s always more to learn about the Bible. There’s always more to develop when it comes to the spiritual disciples of prayer and service and giving and mortification and so on.

But, of course, we’re called to continually develop in these areas whether we lead or not. In addition to growth as faithful believers, leaders need to keep our eyes open to ways we can more effectively lead.

So, are there better ways to run our programs to help us get our people where they need to be? Are there better ways we can organize our time or better ways we can spend our budgeted dollars? Are there trends we’re ignoring to the detriment of the organization we’re responsible for? Are there seminars or books that can help us become more skillful in our tasks?

I ran across an interesting verse in my Bible reading this morning. It was the summary statement of King Hezekiah’s life. 2 Chronicles 31:21 says King Hezekiah “sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.”

Did you catch the formula? Strong faith + energetic work.

As church leaders, let’s make a commitment in 2012 to grow in both areas!

__________________________________

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.

Review of George W. Bush's "Decision Points"

I read George W. Bush's memoir, Decision Points, during my vacation last week. It provoked a number of reactions in me.

One, it stirred memories of what I was doing in the first 8 years of the new millennium we're in. The stories he recounted made me think back to what I was doing when those incidents hit the headlines. Half of that time was spent in Cayman and the other half was in my freshman Hillcrest years.

Two, it made me reflect on how the office of the American President has evolved in light of other presidential biographies I've read (most recently, Ronald C. White's A. Lincoln: A Biography, David McCullough's Truman, and I'm completing Edmund Morris' triology on Theodore Roosevelt). Comparing the Bush years to these other presidents, it struck me how widespread the current American President's responsibilities have become, and how rapid-fire his responses need to be.

Three, the book strengthened my resolve to pray regularly for the President and those who surround him, no matter who holds those positions, just as scripture commands. 

I found the book a surprisingly enjoyable read. It was a good decision for Bush to organize the book around major descisions he's faced instead of a chronological play-by-play. Most intriguing to me were his chapters on his spiritual conversion, stem cells, 9/11, and Afghanistan. I think his reflections on Katrina will be helpful for those evaluating that "decision point" in his presidency. There were other chapters that made me squirm just as much as when the decisions were "live": the decisions on Iraq (for which I remain largely in agreement) and his decisions during the financial meltdown (for which this juror is still deliberating).

Review of Bo Giertz's "The Hammer of God"

 Bo Giertz's The Hammer of God surprised me. 

It surprised me at how engaging it was, considering it was written in 1941,  translated from Swedish, and obviously written to contend with regional worries in Swedish Lutheranism. 

It surprised me to read of the depth into which pastors once were involved in parishioner's lives--by invitation or just by force of the authority of their office.

It surprised me to read of pastoral life in a culture where the pastoral office was a tax-supported agency of the state--and thus too often occupied by unregenerate office-holders.

It surprised me to find that the book topped the bestseller list in Sweden the year it came out, and it remains in print in many languages today. When people think of Swedish literature today, they think of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but there was a time when Sweden was known for more redeeming fare.

It surprised me to find how, well, "entertaining" an author could make a work that is really an exposition of the differences between licentiousness, legalism, and the saving grace of the gospel.

The novel is a small triology of novellas, each taking the reader to a different era of the same setting: the early 1800s, the late 1800s, and the mid 1900s. As the translator, Hans Andrae, wrote in the Preface:

The author unveils the dramatic confrontation between the Faith of the Church and the many beliefs (and disbeliefs) that battle for the human soul, which basically remains constant even as cultural settings are changed. Faith comes down to a matter of relying either on our own accomplishments to be right with God or on receiving as a free gift by grace the righteousness Christ gained for us. 

I'm grateful to have been surprised by this find.

Toxic Nagging

 The WSJ has an article about a marriage condition it says is more common than adultery--and even more toxic. A worthy caution:

Nagging—the interaction in which one person repeatedly makes a request, the other person repeatedly ignores it and both become increasingly annoyed—is an issue every couple will grapple with at some point. While the word itself can provoke chuckles and eye-rolling, the dynamic can potentially be as dangerous to a marriage as adultery or bad finances. Experts say it is exactly the type of toxic communication that can eventually sink a relationship.

...

It is possible for husbands to nag, and wives to resent them for nagging. But women are more likely to nag, experts say, largely because they are conditioned to feel more responsible for managing home and family life. And they tend to be more sensitive to early signs of problems in a relationship. When women ask for something and don't get a response, they are quicker to realize something is wrong. The problem is that by asking repeatedly, they make things worse.

Men are to blame, too, because they don't always give a clear answer. Sure, a husband might tune his wife out because he is annoyed; nagging can make him feel like a little boy being scolded by his mother. But many times he doesn't respond because he doesn't know the answer yet, or he knows the answer will disappoint her.

...

The first step in curbing the nagging cycle, experts say, is to admit that you are stuck in a bad pattern. You are fighting about fighting. You need to work to understand what makes the other person tick. Rather than lazy and unloving, is your husband overworked and tired? Is your wife really suggesting she doesn't trust you? Or is she just trying to keep track of too many chores?

The article proposes 8 tips if nagging is a problem in your relationship.

Winning Ways: What Four?

Have you seen a giant "4" migrating around the church building? I've seen it in the adult wing, the gym, and the office wing. 

There's no telling where it will pop up from time to time in 2012. It's a way of reminding us to engage in 4 activities with 4 friends this year:

Identify

Intercede

Invest

Invite

First, identify 4 Austin-area people who need to connect with Christ and church involvement. "Open your eyes and look at the fields," Jesus said in John 4:35, "They are ripe for harvest." Have you followed Jesus' command to "open your eyes"? We're challenging you to identify 4 people that could use your Christian influence in 2012.

Second, intercede for your friends 4 times a week. If you don't have a daily time of prayer and Bible reading, now's the time to start the routine. 

Third, invest in your life in your 4 friends' lives this year. Spend time with them. This may involve scheduling dinners or movie nights, but mostly it involves including them in activities you're already going to do anyway.

Fourth, invite them to at least 4 Hillcrest activities this year. We offer you 52 activities on Sunday morning in 2012, and in addition we'll have Sunday School parties or Second Half banquets or seasonal musicals that can be good "entry points" for your friends. 

 Come this Sunday @ 10, January 29, and I'll tell you more about the 4!

 The Anchor Course: Exploring Christianity Together. This Sunday night, I begin Week One of the Anchor Course. I wrote this book as an introduction to Christianity for those asking questions about the faith.

 What are the evidences for God? Why do Christians call the Bible the Word of God, and can we trust it? What does it mean to call Jesus the Son of God and why is his death on a cross so important to Christians? What about heaven and hell? 

 These are important questions, and we'll meet the next 8 Sunday nights to discuss them, 5:30-6:30 pm. Children's activities and child care are provided. Registration closes after this Sunday, so don't miss out. 

 For more information, or to sign up, contact my assistant, Jami (345-3771 or jami@hbcaustin.org). 

Links to Your World, Tuesday January 24

Why I love Jesus but I hate that video that tells us we shoud hate religion. 

 

"Christian radio is like Joel Osteen in musical form….safe, happy, and untruthful" (Matt Papa). A bit over-the-top, but his blog post is a worthy caution for those who program Christian radio--and those who listen to it.

 

Exit Polls Reveal Majority Of South Carolina Voters Had Emotional Breakdown In Voting Booth

 

The Iranian regime regards Christianity as a threat to their hold on power--and plans to do something about it. Pray.

 

Eight Ways to Live as Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President

 

Robert George: "Pro-life citizens..., who in 2008 allowed themselves to be persuaded that Obama wouldn't, as his critics warned, push abortion hard and run roughshod over the religious liberty and rights of conscience of...pro-life citizens and their institutions, have now gotten a rude awakening. His administration revealed its contempt for religious freedom and the rights of people and communities of faith when it embraced an extreme and utterly untenable position on the ministerial exemption in the Hosanna-Tabor case.  In case anyone thought that was some sort of isolated mistake, the President's abortifacient and contraception mandate leaves the matter in no doubt."

 

Unreliable Man Angry He's Not Judged By That Time He Was Reliable

 

Of tattoos and young Christians.

 

4 Ways the Book of Proverbs Was the Original Twitter

 

Here's an excellent blog post on how to blow a job application and interview--and how to ace one.

 

"Get Anchored" Since Last Tuesday:

LeaderLines: Leadership Vows for the New Year, Part Three

Winning Ways: They’re Searching, So Help Them Find Us

Closer to Scorsese's "Silence"

LeaderLines: Leadership Vows for the New Year, Part Three

Have you noticed how often the phrase “make every effort” shows up in Scripture? For these opening weeks of the new year, I’m taking you you to six places where that phrase shows up in Scripture. You’ll discover that these six challenges are especially important for those of us who lead:

I vow to maintain my integrity.

I vow to forgive those who hurt me.

I vow to be a peacemaker.

I vow to be an encourager.

I vow to mentor others.

I vow to never stop growing.

We’ve already looked at the first three vows. (Click the links above to find the posts.) This week, let’s make a commitment to encouraging others and mentoring them.

Leaders as Encouragers

In Romans 14:19 (NIV), Paul writes, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”

We looked at “making peace” last week: Now note that word “edification.” What is an edifice? An edifice is just another name for a building. An edifice is something that is built up. Edification, then, is a process of building up instead of tearing down.

Christian leaders are to be encouragers. A leader’s greatest skill is revealed in how he corrects someone who has made a mistake, how she handles someone who raises a suggestion that needs a little refining, and how he presents himself to the troops when the group faces a setback.

In every one of those instances, leaders should be dispensers of hope. Cecil Osborne once said, “Perhaps once in a hundred years a person may be ruined by excessive praise, but surely once every minute someone dies inside for lack of it.”

Right now, I’m reading a book by Sam Crabtree called Practicing Affirmation. Trusting the Scriptures that say God grants mercy to those who refresh others, I want to do a better job of this in 2012.

Leaders as Mentors

In addition to encouraging others, we need to look for ways to mentor. In 2 Peter 1:15 (NIV), the Big Fisherman wrote, “And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.”

It’s an effort we need to make as leaders, too. At a Promise Keepers event, Howard Hendricks said that every man needs a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy. The third relationship is the one we often ignore.

Every man needs a Paul—someone to mentor him and challenge him.

Every man needs a Barnabas—a real friend.

Every man needs a Timothy—someone into whom he can pour himself.

Hendricks went on to say that men will end their lives with a sense of unfulfillment if we don’t train other men professionally or personally. Hendricks was speaking specifically to men, but his words apply to women as well (Titus 2:3-5).

As we move further along in this new year, find ways to encourage and to mentor. Next week we’ll wrap up this LeaderLines series with the vow to continually grow.

_________________________________

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: They’re Searching, So Help Them Find Us

When someone uses the Internet to search for a church, we want Hillcrest at the top of the search results. You can help.

A web search is the main way people end up at Hillcrest these days. So, it’s important that Hillcrest get to the top of everyone’s search results. I’ve got a couple of ways that you can make that happen.

Write a Review

 First, write a positive review of your Hillcrest experience on our “Google Places” page. Go to http://ow.ly/8ryBz (I shortened the link). Click on the red button that says “Write a Review.” Several of you have already written very kind things about your Hillcrest experience!

Whether you’re a long-time member or you’ve just started visiting, you can help us reach people by reporting on your Hillcrest experience. Even if you have visited Austin from out of town, you can still write a review.

This helps us in 3 ways. First, when someone is doing a web search for a church, it’s impressive to see a large number of reviews about a church. Second, when they start reading about specific things you appreciate about Hillcrest, it raises the likelihood they’ll come check us out. And, third, sometimes certain things you say in your review raise the position that Hillcrest ends up on the search results page. If they’re looking for the same things you mentioned in your review it increases the likelihood that Google will send them to our website.

You may have other places to leave a review, such as Yelp or the “Recommendations” section of our church’s Facebook page.  Every time you make a positive mention online, it helps us!

Link Your Social Media to Our Website

Here’s a second homework assignment: Link your social media to our website. If you’re on Facebook, “like” our church’s Facebook page. If you’re part of Google+ you should “+1” our website when you find it in the search results. When we’re promoting an event on our website that you’re excited about, share the link on Facebook or Google+. If you have a blog, add www.HillcrestAustin.org to your recommended links.

Help Them Seek and They Will Find

Since we placed a little ad with Google, the ad has been viewed about a thousand times a day, and five people per day have clicked through the ad to our website. If you’ll take a few minutes right now and complete this “homework assignment,” you’ll make it easier for these people who are looking for a church home to find us!

______________________________
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.

Closer to Scorsese's "Silence"

Jesuit priest Tim Byron reports that we're getting closer to Martin Scorsese's film adaptation of Shusaku Endo's Silence. The acclaimed director's love of the book comes through his forward to a recent edition:

How do you tell the story of Christian faith? The difficulty, the crisis, of believing? How do you describe the struggle? ... [Shusaku Endo] understood the conflict of faith, the necessity of belief fighting the voice of experience. The voice that always urges the faithful - the questioning faithful - to adapt their beliefs to the world they inhabit, their culture...That's a paradox, and it can be an extremely painful one: on the face of it, believing and questioning are antithetical. Yet I believe that they go hand in hand. One nourishes the other. Questioning may lead to great loneliness, but if it co-exists with faith - true faith, abiding faith - it can end in the most joyful sense of communion. It's this painful, paradoxical passage - from certainty to doubt to loneliness to communion - that Endo understands so well, and renders so clearly, carefully and beautifully in Silence.

I liked Endo's Silence, but I liked The Samurai better, and wrote about it here. I've been waiting for news on Silence since 2006, when I posted this:

What will the acclaimed director focus on from Endo's novel? What concerns me is what will be done with the priest's spiritual struggles and with the challenges from his tormentors. The priest in the novel often asks himself about the silence of God in the face of such intense suffering on the part of faithful Christians. And the tormentors often remind the priest that the Japanese have their own religion (Buddhism) and the Christian faith he is trying to transplant in that foreign soil will never survive. The Japanese officials, in fact, consider Christianity just one more Western characteristic they are trying to expel from their islands.

Could it be that it's this theme that has captured the attention of the director and screenwriter: the conviction that Christianity is part of "Western culture" that shouldn't be imposed on other cultures? Never mind that it's this conviction that led 17th century Japanese magistrates to devise the most inhumane of tortures for their own Japanese citizens who embraced Christianity.

Will the magistrates become "the voice of reason" in this film adaptation of the novel? Will the film convey the futility of missionaries like this priest who bring Christianity to other cultures only to bring trouble to the people who embrace it? It would certainly fit the spirit of the age: To many, Christianity is looked upon as a "Western religion"--even an "American religion"--that shouldn't be transplanted to other cultures. In reality, Christianity is a universal faith that transcends passports, flags, and national customs. Far from being "Western" or "American," culturally-speaking, Christianity actually sprang from a Jewish messianic movement in first-century Jersusalem under Roman occupation. It spread from there south, east, west, and--for our interests in America--it also spread north into what is now Europe and the British isles to take root in Anglo-Saxon soil and from there made its way to America. In other words, cultures now considered "Western" and specifically "American" were recipients of missionary outreach long, long before they became supporters of missionary outreach.

More here.

 

LeaderLines: Leadership Vows for the New Year, Part Two

Have you noticed how often the phrase “make every effort” shows up in Scripture? For these opening weeks of the new year, I’m taking you you to six places where that phrase shows up in Scripture. You’ll discover that these six challenges are especially important for those of us who lead.

For the next few weeks in LeaderLines, I want to take a look at six personal vows that you and I should make in 2012:

I vow to maintain my integrity.

I vow to forgive those who hurt me.

I vow to be a peacemaker.

I vow to be an encourager.

I vow to mentor others.

I vow to never stop growing.

Last week we looked at the first vow. This week, let’s look at forgiveness and peacemaking.

Leaders as Forgivers

First, you’ll never be effective in leadership without forgiveness. In Hebrews 12:14-15 (NIV) we read, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

You will be hurt in leadership. Just think of all the modern proverbs of leadership:

“The pioneers are the ones with the arrows in their backs.”

“If you call the shots you’re going to take the shots.”

“The moment you put out your shingle, people start throwing rocks at it.”

All these little sayings wouldn’t exist if leaders didn’t have to endure times of criticism.

If you’re going to lead people, there will be times that people will frustrate you, stand in the way of your vision, and even organize against you. So, leaders have to vow be forgivers, bridge-builders, fence-menders.

Leaders as Peacemakers

In addition to forgiving others, we should make a New Year’s vow to be peace makers. Ephesians 4:3 (NIV) says, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

We leaders need to do more than just forgive those who hurt us: we need to look beyond ourselves and to see how we can promote peace between all those we lead.

The vow to be a forgiver has to do with your own conflicts; the vow to be a peacemaker has to do with the conflicts you see between others.

As leaders it’s our job to get our group to the next level: if we coach, we want to lead our team to a winning season; if we oversee a sales force, we want to break the old sales record. But our group won’t advance to the next level if there’s a lot of infighting. So leaders have to spend time making sure the policies are clear, the chain of command is spelled out, the lines of communication are open, and conflicts are resolved quickly.

This is true in a church, too. A big part of church leadership involves monitoring the health of relationships among the church members and doing what it takes to keep those relationships healthy. It’s interesting the way the verse is worded: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.” The unity that the Holy Spirit provides is something that must be kept: we do not create it—it occurs because the same Spirit that fills you fills me. Our job then is not to create it but to keep that unity that is provided for us.

Next week, we’ll look at some more “New Year’s Resolutions” that we leaders should “make every effort” to keep!

___________________________________

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: Of Limericks, Haikus, and Other Divine Poems

"You are God's poem."

That's what I reminded the congregation this week. I pointed out that the word "workmanship" in Ephesians 2:10 ("for we are God's workmanship") is a translation of the Greek work poeima. Pronounce it and you'll hear "poem." I'm encouraged to think of myself as God's poem.

At coffee after the service Don Young informed me that, if this was so, he was a limerick. And Erin Waldo posted this on Facebook:

Smart, sarcastic, weird.

Also a bit off-kilter.

I am a haiku.

I love it!

The poem-point was to drive home the truth that God has created us and gifted us to be useful to his plan for the world. That was in Week Two in our series, "Riding Herd: Managing Your Time, Talents, and Treasure." We wrap up the series this Sunday with the biblical principles of money management. Join us at 10!

The Anchor Course: Exploring Christianity Together. This Sunday night, I begin a new semester of the Anchor Course. I wrote this book as an introduction to Christianity for those asking questions about the faith.

What are the evidences for God? Why do Christians call the Bible the Word of God, and can we trust it? What does it mean to call Jesus the Son of God and why is his death on a cross so important to Christians? What about heaven and hell? 

These are important questions for people who are trying to make up their mind about Christianity. If these are the questions you ask, come to the Anchor Course. If you know someone asking these questions, bring them to the Anchor Course. 

This Sunday's meeting is a "Get Acquainted" night, 5:30-6:30pm. If you choose to register at the end of our "Get Acquainted" night, you'll receive a copy of my book for free and we'll meet for the next 8 Sunday nights, 5:30-6:30. Children's activities and child care are provided. 

For more information, or to sign up, contact my assistant, Jami (345-3771 or jami@hbcaustin.org). 

Friendventory! I'm getting a lot of good notes turned in, so add yours to the stack! We're taking a "Friendventory" at Hillcrest. We want you to tell us about the person who invited you to Hillcrest, even if it was many years ago! Email me, write me, or turn in a Connection Card this Sunday!

Links to Your World, Tuesday, January 10

Dreaming is an essential part of understanding, organizing and retaining what we learn. Time reports.

"A particular mind-set or belief about one's body or health may lead to improvements in disease symptoms as well as changes in appetite, brain chemicals and even vision, several recent studies have found, highlighting how fundamentally the mind and body are connected" (WSJ reports).

Advice for getting your teen to clean his/her room.

WSJ: "The Texas Longhorns football program—just football; not basketball, baseball or anything else—is worth $805 million. To put this into perspective, the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars recently sold for about $45 million less."

Try "the phone stack" at your next dinner outing: "It works like this: as you arrive, each person places their phone facedown in the center of the table. As the meal goes on, you’ll hear various texts and emails arriving… and you’ll do absolutely nothing. You’ll face temptation—maybe even a few involuntary reaches toward the middle of the table—but you’ll be bound by the single, all-important rule of the phone stack. Whoever picks up their phone is footing the bill." (HT: John Erskine)

This man wants "three-throwing" to be the next WWJD bracelet. In his video, the oddest thing is the before-and-after photo: Under one pic is the question: "Christian?" in the next photo the man is "three-throwing" and the caption reads "Christian." Who knew identifying a true Christian was so easy?

LeaderLines: Leadership Vows for the New Year

“Make every effort….”

Have you noticed how often that phrase shows up in Scripture? For these opening weeks of the new year, we’ll look at that urgent statement in six Bible verses. You’ll discover that these six challenges are especially important for those of us who lead.

Maybe it will help you avoid the lame leadership that was exposed in a book called Jackspeak: The Purser's Rum Guide to Royal Navy Slanguage. The book includes some performance reviews for British Navy and Marine officers. Obviously, the military leaders being examined need a little work on their leadership skills:

"His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of curiosity."

"This officer is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definitely won't-be."

"Works well under constant supervision and when cornered like a rat in a trap."

"This young lady has delusions of adequacy."

"She sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them."

"This officer should go far—and the sooner he starts, the better."

None of us can say we’ve “arrived” when it comes to being good leaders. Every leader could admit to the need for improvement. For the next few weeks in LeaderLines, I want to take a look at six personal vows that you and I should make in 2012:

I vow to maintain my integrity.

I vow to forgive those who hurt me.

I vow to be a peacemaker.

I vow to be an encourager.

I vow to mentor others.

I vow to never stop growing.

We’ll begin today with a fresh commitment to integrity. Simon Peter wrote, “So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (2 Peter 3:14, NIV84).

Simon Peter had been talking about the return of Jesus Christ, the coming of the new heaven and the new earth. And he said that since we anticipate this, we should make every effort to be honorable people.

That’s especially true in leadership. Someone has said, "Integrity is like oxygen. The higher you go, the less there is of it."

Sadly, that was proven true in a landmark survey for the Wall Street Journal a few years ago. The Gallup polling organization found that executives as a group had more problems with integrity than the general public. Eighty percent of executives polled admitted to putting the public at risk by driving drunk, compared with thirty-three percent of the general population. Seventy-eight percent had used the company phone for personal long distance calls. Thirty-five percent had overstated deductions on tax forms. And 75% had pilfered work supplies for personal use, as opposed to forty percent of the general public (Resource: Keeping Your Ethical Edge Sharp, pg. 25).

The scripture tells us to make every effort to be found spotless and blameless. That’s a call to every Christian, but those of us who lead should pay special attention to it, and for two reasons.

First, our position of leadership makes us more visible. When we are raised up in leadership, everything about us goes on display: our jokes, our language, our honesty, our self-discipline, the respect we show to others, even how we treat our family. Sometimes when we take a leadership position, we’d like to think that the only thing that matters is how well we do the job, but we can’t think that narrowly. The higher we are raised in leadership, everything about us becomes more visible, and our desire then should be for spotless, blameless lives.

There’s a second reason why leaders need to commit to integrity even more than the rank and file, though. The higher you go in leadership, the more you are exposed to temptations that don’t affect the rank and file. Temptations to abuse, to exploit, to manipulate. We’ve all heard of leaders charged with sexual harassment, or accepting or offering bribes. We leaders need to know these temptations exist and vow to maintain our integrity.

There’s a great scene in the film Rob Roy where Robert Roy MacGregor is talking with his young sons. They’ve heard him talk of honor and they ask him, “Father, what is honor?” And in that wonderful Scottish brogue, MacGregor says, “Honor is a gift a man gives himself.” (Note: Sadly, while Rob Roy is an inspiring film in many ways, it is not a film for family movie night.)

Make sure you’re giving yourself such a gift in 2012. Make every effort to live a life of integrity. Next week, we’ll vow to be leaders capable of forgiving and peacemaking.

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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: What's a Friendventory?

The New Year is underway! Here's how we're helping you start it right.

We're Taking a "Friendventory." No, you won't find that word in the dictionary. Most people who attend Hillcrest were first invited by a friend. During the next 3 weeks we're taking an "inventory" of those friends: a "friendventory." Even if it was many years ago, and even if your friend has moved out of the area since then, be sure to honor your friend by including him or her in our Friendventory. Use the Connection Card in Sunday's bulletin, or write me at tom@hbcaustin.org. You have until January 22. 

Riding Herd. To "ride herd" over something means to manage it, to steer it toward a desired end. Your 2012 will be a lot more effective if you can "ride herd" over 3 things: your time, your talents, and your treasure. We're taking the first 3 Sundays of the new year to learn how to manage these things. If you missed the first sermon on New Year's Day, you can listen online at www.HillcrestAustin.org. Join us this Sunday, January 8, and learn how to manage your talents! Remember, we'll be back to our normal schedule: an hour of worship @ 10, followed by an hour of small-group fellowship.

Midweek Study. "The Fruit of the Spirit." Join me for a 9-week study on the Fruit of the Spirit as found in Galatians 5:22-23. It starts this Wednesday, January 4, 6:30 p.m. in A-164. I used to count off my reps in my morning workout by reciting the Fruit of the Spirit. It was a great way to work on spiritual fitness while I developed physical fitness. I promise I won't lead you in push-ups during midweek study, but let's get in a good "spiritual workout" every Wednesday night!

"First Wednesday." Do you pray for God to reach your lost friends and relatives? Do you pray that God will use our church in reaching the lost? During the 2011-2012 church year, we're setting aside the first Wednesday of every month to do that. So, on this First Wednesday, January 4, take a moment to pray. Send me the name(s) on your prayer list and I'll add them to mine. And join us during the midweek service at 6:30 so we can pray together!

We're off and running! 

Links to a your World, Tuesday January 3

Crochetdermy. Wow. Giant life-like animals made from the art of crochet.

Very nice. I've been listening to this in the background a couple of days: First Listen: Charlie Haden And Hank Jones, 'Come Sunday'

"Many online sellers flood consumers with limited-time offers starting well after the dinner hour, when the odds are best that people have a few drinks in them. The Gilt Groupe, which specializes in high-end flash deals, says it’s adding more deals that kick off at 9 p.m. While sellers don’t overtly promote the idea of drunken shopping, hundreds of sellers, including QVC and eBay, take careful note of nighttime shopping patterns—which spike around 8 p.m. and often stay strong through midnight. It’s during these shopping “happy hours” that sellers often focus on fun, seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time impulse purchases." (Time)

Disney princesses on the covers of fashion magazines:

*sniff* Man crawls under cars for hours at Walmart to rescue a scared abandoned dog. Let's be thankful God is this patient in drawing us in. 

Austin #7 Among America's Drunkest Cities. Sigh....

Knowing God - This month’s free audiobook from ChristianAudio is J.I. Packer’s classic, Knowing God. 

Dallas Cowboys Release Jerry Jones