Thursday Night Reflections

Well tonight we had our opening College Life of the semester and I thought it was pretty sweet, though I admit I am a bit biased. It was great for me to finally have all our students together in one place and you could almost feel the excitement. I think it’s going to be a great year!

A couple of my reflections:

• I thought the leadership team was awesome – did a great job welcoming, showing people where to go, getting people signed up for small groups – they are all studs and studdettes
• The band rocked my face off! Andrew did a great job leading it out, Arash jammed the electric, Nathan was like animal on the drums, and Paige striked those paino keys like they were going out of business. AND…did everyone hear Gillian? The newest addition to the worship team and she rocked her voice all night long!
• As far as talk “takeaways” I would take the following:

1. We must drop our card board cutouts if we want to engage each other in real/genuine community
2. Romans 12:9 says, “Let love be sincere” – Also translated without hypocrisy – when we use fake cutouts of ourselves – true love cannot take place, in-fact, it inhibits it from taking place!
3. We looked at Acts 2 – the first community/church in the New Testament and saw: They were devoted to “the apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer – this translates to our core elements at college life – worship, connect, serve, honor. All these things they were “devoted” to…they weren’t hobbies – they were committed to them

How can we be committed to these above aspects each day in our lives?

I think the apostles teaching translates that they were devoted to getting in the word – go get in the word, if you haven’t today – stop and go do it!

They were devoted to fellowship. The sold there stuff to help others! How are you helping those around you? Do you care more about your stuff or people? Tuff question.

They were committed to breaking bread – they were eating together – real intimacy happens at a table with people. Go eat with someone, get to know them.

Lastly, they were committed to prayer. Are you praying for those around you, the campus, the church, the community? Are you praying for those who are in need? Prayer also shows that people are more important than ourselves. Go and do it!

A lot of challenging stuff tonight – it’s hard for me too! Hopefully we can take gradual steps to change the way we interact with the world! I’m excited for the next couple of weeks as we unpack our core elements!

Filed under: Sunday Morning Reflections

Kingdom Assignments

I just came across the below post on the Catalyst blog and thought it was worth passing on. I love it when churches decide to do something about the things they are talking about!

Here’s the post:

Calvary Bible Church, in Boulder CO, came up with a creative strategy to catapult their congregation into becoming an externally focused church. It was a series of projects called “Kingdom Assignments.” They started these back in June of 2003, there were 5 projects:

1) They gave $100 to 100 people and directed them to use the money to raise more money – based on the parable of the talents. Their $10,000 was multiplied into $50,000, which they donated to local charities. The bigger message was for the members of the congregation to go out and serve others.

2) From Luke 12 – a man’s life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. They challenged people to live radically and de-accumulate possessions, and give to the poor. Thus the project was for 200 people to sell $200 worth of their possessions andgive it to the poor. $84,000 of possessions sold went to local community organizations. And the congregation was encouraged to live with less and be more kingdom minded.

3) “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.” They challenged people to serve “90 minutes in the next 90 days” in the community. They brought in non-profit orgs from outside the Church, community organizations like Red Cross, SafeHouse, EFAA. They had like a ministry fair, where members would sign-up to serve with those organizations (instead of for parking ministry or whatever). This encouraged Christians to go out and serve outsiders and created positive relationships between the church and the orgs. And members who had served were encouraged to serve further. This got Christians out into the community, being salt and light.

4) They challenged people to invite one person to church for Easter, and they grew the Easter attendance by 30% (ok, everyone does this).

5) Finally, the big thing that they’ve continued to do every year: Sharefest. Starting in June 2004, on the weekend of Sharefest they gaveup the offering from Sunday to the local public schools, and 650 members served for a day and a half doing work projects and maintenance at the schools. They took a weekend and blessed them. This is based on Jeremiah 29:7 “seek the peace and welfare of the city to which I’ve carried you into exile.”

The Sharefest program has grown such that this last June 32 churches worked together to to serve 35 agencies and schools.

Today, the church has grown significantly and is now well known for serving their community and has positive relationships with government and social organizations. They did all this by getting the members of the body of Christ to work together – they empowered them and facilitated opportunities for them to sacrifice themselves.

What have you done to increase your church’s outward focus?

You can see the post HERE

Filed under: Church, Religous

5 Things I want to be…

I did some reflection this morning with College Life gearing up for the big kick-off tomorrow. Here’s what I wrote in my journal this morning during my reflection time – 5 things that I want/hope to be:

• Productive - I want to be a person that gets stuff done. I want to be given tasks, create them myself, and work hard. I want to create work for myself and work near capacity – I thrive on projects. At the same time I want to enable people to perform their spiritual gifts within the body of Christ, so within the desire to create stuff and get stuff done – I have to be diligent to include any leadership team available to join in on the process because it is our ministry, not my ministry – we are the body of Christ called the Church, I am not soloing as the body of Christ.
• Creative – Productivity seems like mindless grunt work without creativity. Creativity allows expression and freedom to create and make things come alive. Creativity takes a task and makes it memorable. I hope that I can make things memorable (in a good way).
• Innovative – If creativity gives the flourish – innovation breaks new ground. I want to do things that no one else has done before. I want to be different. Innovators are leaders, and that’s where I want to be. Within the College Life leadership team I am ALWAYS emphasizing the “why not” aspect of ministry. “Why not do something different?” “Why not try something new?” “Why not change this one element that we’ve been doing and do it different or just drop it or replace it with something else?” “Why not?” I think it’s good to continue to jump off cliffs. If we fail, no sweat, we just keep moving – God is good and He is in total control. I think that He truly desires initiative – go get’r done!
• Loving – I don’t want to be a person known for task accomplishments and effective time management, I want to be recognized as a person who loves passionately! I want to always be overflowing with a love for my family, friends, leadership team, college students, calling, and life in general. I hope and pray that I never get caught up in the details of ministry that I forget about loving people first. I hope and pray that I would stop things to be with people when those times come up. People want to know that you care and I want people to know that I care. A good friend of mine taught me this a long time ago.
• Spiritual. At the end of the day – there’s nothing more important than my walk with God. I want people to know that my life is continually being changed, shaped, and that I am continaully be transformed into the image of Christ because I spend time with Him. I pray that I would make it my primary initiative to not get caught up in things that are ultimately meaningless at the end of the day but to invest in my King, Creator, and maker.

Well…that’s what I want to be…what do you want to be??

Filed under: Personal, Reflection

A New Olympic Game…

Again, I can’t help it – I’m trying to hold onto the Olympics for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE! Michelle and I are finishing up our DVR’d episodes and loving every minute of it – watched the volleyball gold yesterday, sweet! But…while watching the Olympics an ad came on promoting the upcoming year of “The Office” and it made me think about this video clip about Jim’s new Olympic sport…ahhh…tying “The Office” into any post is a success in my book!

more about “A New Olympic Game…“, posted with vodpod

Filed under: Random, Videos

Column in Yesterdays Oklahoma Daily

Yesterday while I was chillin out on the lawn by the Union with the student paper taking in the life of the OU Campus I came across an article that I thought was interesting.

What’s the most interesting part is the column is titled, “Fundamentalist doctrine does not belong in schools.” As soon as I read the title I had a hunch of what was ahead but that’s not what I am writing about. What I am writing about is not whether the doctrine should be included or not (because that’s not really what the article was about either – more just a rant on why evolution makes sense) but more so the concerns raised by the author.

The author really used the column to essentially smash creationism and intelligent design thinkers with his apparently much more logical “evolution” methods.

The author writes:

Intelligent design doesn’t belong in schools for two reasons.

Firstly, it’s not science. Secondly, it’s not true.

Intelligent design proponents usually promote their cause by attempting to pick holes in the theory of evolution and then suggesting their own idea as the default alternative. And I do say “idea” advisedly because intelligent design is not even a theory.

A theory is a framework of propositions formulated to explain a phenomenon. A theory must be predictive, and it must be testable. It must be capable of being disproven.

Intelligent design makes no predictions, and is so amorphously defined that it is effectively unable to be proven false.

It is not even truly explanatory, as it creates the problem of the origin of the designer, an agent necessarily more complex than that which it has created.

Scientifically, intelligent design is worthless.

Intelligent design proponents frequently refer to the elaborateness and complexity of organic structures as evidence for design.

Breathtaking elaborateness, yes — but nothing that isn’t predicted by evolutionary theory. Evolution accounts for the numerous design flaws we see in organic structures such as the human body, which intelligent design cannot do without a bit of contortion.

Take, for example, the fact that the urethra runs directly through the prostate.

Surely an entity capable of aligning the 100 billion cells of the human brain would know better than to make such an oversight. And a major oversight at that — just ask any man over sixty.

Observations in genetics, zoology, botany, microbiology, epidemiology, paleontology and ecology all affirm evolution’s validity with mountains of evidence, while not a single paper confirming intelligent design has ever been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Intelligent design — according to the overwhelming preponderance of evidence — is nonsense.

Whoa there cowboy! That’s a lot of hating and very little about why teaching the theory of creationism in schools is a bad idea and for those of you, especially the students who got your hands on this paper, who might be a bit perplexed or confused about the issues – fear not, God is NOT dead. I promise!!

There are two GREAT articles that I recently read that confront an unbelieving, skeptical culture from a past issue of Christianity Today.

The first one is called, “A New Day for Apologetics”

I think Christianity and the Christians proclaiming it went through a phase were we tended to think that gatling gun apologetics were the answers for everything. Then there was a reaction to that where it became popular to say, “Apologetics don’t work at all. God is mysterious and and Christianity is weird but I like it” (think how some people used “Blue Like Jazz.”) The above article discusses what is good and appropriate about the role of apologetics.

The second article is written by one of the smartest guys out there, William Lane Craig on how to deal with “the new atheism.” It is called “God is not dead yet.” It’s a good one and well worth the read.

Again, the intention behind this post is not to incite a heated argument but more-so present information that is counter to the above columns assertions and that shows there are indeed SMART reasons for the belief in God.

If you wish to read the full article from the OU paper, just click HERE. And when you do, be sure and read the comment posted to the article at 9:04pm, I thought it was right on…

Filed under: OU, Religous

Another Olympics related post…

I know I know…you’re thinking, “Geez, Jeremy – the Olympics are over – you are being so irrelevant!” But…Michelle and I still have several days of dvr’d olympics to go so as far as I am concerned – the Olympics are still in full swing!

But for those of you who have already seen it all – I decided to do a top 20 Olympic falls for you. I have a personal policy that any time I come across videos of people falling I am obligated to pass them. So here you go:

more about “glumbert – Top 20 Olympic Falls“, posted with vodpod

Filed under: Random

Whose Kingdom are you building anyway?

If you’ve been following me here, you know that a couple of days ago I encountered some attitudes that I thought I had graduated from a long time ago. If you haven’t read the original post, you can by clicking HERE. But for those of you who did…I’ve been really trying to think through the pitfalls that sneak up on me and I did that today by reflecting on a statement I made in a journal entry several months ago and that statement was, “All I want to do is be used by God in the expansion, deepening, and growing of His community and body called the Church.”

As I read that statement, I thought to myself, is that really true? Or is my chief desire really that I want people to know who I am. That I want my peers to acknowledge me. That I want to do something big for God and at the same time leave a trail that leads back to me or the website of the ministry I am involved in.

The truth of it is, when not in check, I can be very self-serving and I wish that wasn’t the case.

Often when reading through the gospels I would wonder how the Pharisees got so far off course. Now, being a follower of Christ and having been involved in spiritual leadership for several years, I have begun to see how it happens. I think we all begin with pure, godly intentions. God blesses our efforts, and some rewards come with it. (Let’s call them “perks.”) After time, we feel entitled to those “perks.” After more time, we get competitive and begin to compare ourselves with others. When that happens, our efforts are more about being first than making a contribution. Then jealousy and bitterness take over. All of a sudden, we get caught up in building our own kingdom.

This morning as I reflected, I’ve come up with several ways to wrestle with this yuckiness. I think first, we need to admit that it’s real. We need to stop denying it. We’re human. We’re flawed. We’re prideful. Second, we need to compensate for our selfishness and pride with generosity and sacrifice – this can be done by:

• Passing along a great idea even when we know it won’t be traced back to us.
• Give credit to others without mentioning our level of involvement.
• Stop worrying about our position on the organization chart. Instead, focus on adding value.
• Allow anonymity to be an act of worship.

I don’t know, just some thoughts and reflections I had as I continue on the journey of being shaped and transformed into the image of Christ.

Filed under: Reflection, Religous

It’s Monday – Play a game!

I know that it’s hard to stay focused on Mondays so why not play a game while you are just sitting there wasting time in your unfocused world??

With that, I am pleased to give you David. The story of a young shepard who rises to be a king. Personally I never knew that David looked so angry, I wouldn’t want to mess with him!

In case you didn’t know that you could click the picture for the link to the game, you can just click HERE!

Filed under: Games

My Journey this week…

Here’s what I learned this week through my time in the word:

• 2 Kgs 20:5 – the power of prayer
• 2 Kgs 21:1 – Manasseh = evil
• 2 Kgs 21:19 – Amo = evil
• 2 Kgs 21:2 – Josiah = good
• 2 Kgs 22:8 – Book f the Law found
• 2 Kgs 23:4 – Cleaning out the Idols
• 2 Kgs 23:31 – Jehoahaz = evil
• 2 Kgs 23:36 – Jehoiakim = evil
• 2 Kgs 24:14 – Israel in exile under Babylon
• 2 Kgs 25:9-10 = Temple destroyed along with Jerusalems walls
• Psalm 1:1-6 – Drink this in
• Proverbs 18:10 – Amen
• Proverbs 18:20 – Great advice!

Filed under: Bible Journey

Yuck.

Sometimes when I think I’m making fantastic spiritual progress, I’ll run headlong into a bad thought, motive, or attitude that I thought I’d graduated from a long time ago. What really stinks about it is when I get down about being back to square one and I allow myself to think that I am totally unworthy for anything that God might have, do, or use me for. But that is a lie! I have to continue to pick myself up, admit my shortcomings, grab hold of Christ, and continue to walk along the journey of living out my faith in life.

At the risk of being overly vulnerable (there is such a thing), I wanted to let you in on some of my sins that surface in my heart sometimes that make my Spirit sit up and go yuck. And…I’ll categorize them for extra fun…Enjoy

• When my wife asks me to do something simple to serve her and my initial response is to be perturbed by it or feel too busy, tired, or whatever to allow me to not have to do it or put off whatever it is till later. What stinks is that I could use that time to serve her well. I’ll call this selfish yuck.
• When something good happens to someone else, even worse someone I am close to, and my initial reaction is negative or that I wish it had happened to me and not them. Generally I am pretty good at keeping a “Kingdom perspective” and realizing that we are all in this together and that my initial response is generally, “praise God that He is moving,” But…sometimes that’s not my initial response and that just makes me think yuck. This is the jealous/competive yuck.
• When I feel sorry for myself because of a minor inconvenience like a mic not working right, or a projection slide out of order, or stopping to help someone with a flat tire, or someone being a tad late because they were having a rough morning. I’ll call this the ungrateful yuck. Because the truth be told, some people would kill for the blessings that I perceive as inconvenience – the fact that we have a mic to plug into a sound system, the fact that we have a projector and not an overhead, the fact that I have the resources to help someone with the flat tire, or that people are stepping up to lead when I need them.

Just wanted you to know and to encourage you that if you are constantly discovering some crud build up in your soul, your not alone. Be encouraged. Jesus makes you clean. Turn to Him, admit your shortfalls, and allow Him to continue to do great works in the shaping of your life!

Filed under: Personal, Reflection, Religous

FRESHMEN MOVE IN!!!! WHOOHOO!!!

Well today it finally started, Norman is becoming a full blown college town and I couldn’t be more stinking excited! It’s funny, Michelle and I waited for four months from the moment we knew we would be joining the family at Wildwood Community Church and then once we got here I had to wait another month before the students returned and started gearing up for classes. That’s a lot of waiting! Talk about one SLOW transition! So I’m glad they are here!!!

Today I got the first tastes of what SOW (Sooner Orientation Week) was all about with the big freshmen move in day. I got to hang out with Tyson Miller and some BYX fellas and help some freshmen get into their rooms in half the time which is always a blessing. Looking forward to all the other activities going on – like tonight’s “movie on the green” – this is great!

Filed under: OU, Personal

A Blessing to Ponder…

I came across this “Franciscan Blessing” earlier today and it has been really nagging at my heart. I hope that I can take it (and that nagging) and put it into active change. Maybe you can help me do it by continually challenging me when you see me! Here’s how the blessing reads:

“May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart. Amen.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people. Amen.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy. Amen.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.” Amen.

I hope and pray that the blessing of God, who creates, redeems and sanctifies, will enable you to take all the things above and effect change not only in your life but in the lives and community of people around you every day.

Filed under: Personal, Reflection, Religous

YES! Finally Some Support!

I couldn’t have been happier the other day when I came across this article that finally gave me proof to the credibility of sleeping in! I’ve always found that working late into the night rather than early in the morning to work better for myself. While I have “trained” myself to go with the systems of the world – at least now I have reason to pump my fist in the air and yell about conformity in the world!

Not only does the article give you 5 reasons why the world tries to make you feel guilty for sleeping in – it also gives you 5 reasons why sleeping in every day will BOOST your productivity! That’s right, boost not limit your productivity! I can see it now…all the sly college students sleeping through early classes for the cause of productivity! Well…at least you now have some kind of argument, though, you didn’t hear it from me!

The five reasons the article gives for why sleeping will boost your productivity are (drumroll please):

1. Depending on your chronotype, you may be a night owl living in a morning lark’s world
2. Most people need more than 8 hours of sleep
3. Sleep consistency is important; the time you wake up is not
4. Sleeping in can improve your long-term memory retention, memory organization, and learning
5. Sleeping in allows you to catch up on sleep debt.

You can read the article in full by clicking HERE and get the added bonus of learning how to become a late riser.

Filed under: Random

More Leadership Thoughts

I love leadership books! As of late, I can’t seem to stop reading them and even worse, I can’t stop buying them. I love the insights/opinions/thoughts of different ways to lead and serve people within the church. I was recently reading an excerpt from “Heroic Leadership,” written by Chris Lowney, and came across a few quotes that really popped me in the face so hang on cause here they come:

“Who invented the yardstick that measures some as leaders and others as merely teachers, parents, friends, or colleagues? And what are the dividing lines! Does one have to influence at least a hundred people at a time to be a leader! Or will fifty do? And if fifty, what about twenty, ten, or even a single person? And does a leader’s impact have to become apparent within the hour? Or within a year? Are there not also leaders whose impact is barely perceptible within their own lifetimes but manifests itself a generation later through those they raised, taught:, mentored, or coached?

“The confusion stems from an (inappropriately narrow vision) of leaders as only those who are in charge of others and who are making a transforming impact and who are doing it in short order. And the faster they do it, the more transforming it is, and the more people it affects, the hotter they register on the leadership thermometer.

“But the stereotype of top-down, immediate, all-transforming leadership is not the solution; it’s the problem. If only those positioned to direct large teams are leaders, all the rest must be followers. And those labeled followers will inevitably act like followers, sapped of the energy and drive to seize their own leadership chances.”

Man, can you hear the announcer now? Lowney steps to the plate, the pitch, Lowney connects and it’s GONE! I think Lowney hits the nail square on the head and in doing so caused me to realize something about the current structure of the leadership teams within College Life. I intentionally set it up as “leadership” teams and not “volunteer” teams because I don’t believe the Bible calls us to be volunteers but to be leaders serving the local church but…in doing so I have also stepped into another muddy puddle – are those not on the “leadership” teams but in College Life not leaders? No. I believe that God created us all to be leaders and that we should seize opportunities to both serve and invest in the local churches that we are a part of. Don’t be a follower – be a leader. Don’t be one who is in the crowed following Christ and when it gets hard you turn away (John 6:60:67) – put on the gloves and get to work – it WILL BE rewarding, I promise!

Filed under: Leadership

Sad News…

I know many of you, like me, have at one point or another thought about digging to China. In fact, I know many playgrounds today that are littered with children with dreams of digging so far that they will one day poke their heads out on the other side of the world. Even as a type this, holes are being dug. It is estimated that 3 holes are started every minute of every day of every year by children with a dream, a vision much like mine…

The sad news is…even if I did make it all the way through the burning core (and I would with my super powers) I wouldn’t end up in China. In fact, I would end up drowning in the Indian Ocean as I poked through on the other side somewhere between the coast of Madagascar and Australia.

Don’t believe me? No problem, I wouldn’t let my dream die that quickly either – you can go to this site, double click on the location where you would start digging on the top map and then it will show you the location you would pop out on the other side of the world on the bottom map. Or…you could just go on and ignore this post and continue to dream the big dream! Either way, it’s your call…

Filed under: Random

It’s Your Ship.

A pastor that I am often encouraged by and have come to admire for a number of reasons is Todd Wagner, the pastor of Watermark Community Church in Dallas, TX. Just recently he spoke at a conference and made this statement, “Some people choose a church like a cruise line—what is comfortable for me? Some people choose a church like a battleship—agreeing on a mission and everyone playing their part.” I think Todd is right on with his statement. I believe that unfortunately the North American evangelical church has shifted away from the body of Christ operating as a collective whole with everyone engaged within the community to make the body work correctly (1 Cor. 12:12-26) to that of sitting on the sidelines and letting the “paid” people do the work.

I hope and pray that as we at College Life pursue the incoming class of freshmen at OU that we are pursuing them to engage them in the body of Christ and to empower them to lead and serve in numerous ways and not because we are looking to establish ourselves with a larger and greater number to tout.

Filed under: Church

It’s Monday – Go play a game!

It’s Monday again and nothing better to get your week started off right then playing a simple computer game to get the gears moving. This one is pretty fun and addictive so give it a whirl. Just click HERE to let the fun begin!

Filed under: Games

My Journey This Week…

Here’s what I learned this week in my time in the Word:

• 2 Kgs 3:15 – next time I am in a meeting making a decision – this will be my initial response
• 2 Kgs 4:3 – go big or go home – God is ABLE
• 2 Kgs 4:32-35 – interesting technique
• 2 Kgs 5:11 – prideful – I like that his god can’t so he goes looking for a god who can
• 2 Kgs 5:12 – God requires obedience, even in trivial things
• 2 Kgs 5:16 – no honorarium please
• 2 Kgs 5:17-18 – just doesn’t get it…you can’t worship two gods and besides that – God is not a God of location or soil for that matter
• 2 Kgs 5:25-27 – Consequences of greed
• 2 Kgs 8:12-13 – not news that you get everyday
• 2 Kgs 8:19 – Gods continued faithfulness
• 2 Kgs 13:1 -2 – Johoahaz = evil
• 2 Kgs 13:2-3 – Those who allow disobedience are punished
• 2 Kgs 13:4-5 – Despite disobedience – any hint of repentance or affection towards God brought His compassion
• 2 Kgs 13:10-11 – Johoash = evil
• 2 Kgs 15:3-5 – Good king, yet still afflicted with leprosy by the Lord
• 2 Kgs 15:24 – Pekahiah = evil
• 2 Kgs 15:27-28 – Pekah = evil
• 2 Kgs 17:7 – Consequence of sin
• 2 Kgs 17:15 – What are ways I do this today?
• 2 Kgs 17:32-33 – Only one God!
• 2 Kgs 18:1 – Hoshea = Get’s it right = Good king
• 2 Kgs 18:3 – Finally someone honors God like David
• 2 Kgs 18:29 – Deception
• 2 Kgs 19:1 – Great first response – is my first response in a terrible situation to immediately enter into prayer?
• 2 Kgs 19:6-7 – Deliverance
• Acts 14:14-15 – It is NOT about us!
• Acts 14:19-20 – Stoned, brushes himself off, goes right back in
• Acts 14:22 – We should preach more of this message
• Acts 15:10 – What unnecessary hoops do we try and make people jump through to reach Christ?
• Acts 15:39 – Even the godly act fleshly sometimes
• Acts 16:6 – Paul heeds the Holy Spirits calling – does not do what he wants but what the Spirit guides him/allows him to do
• Acts 16:17 – Odd declaration from a demon…
• Acts 18:3 – Paul, the working man
• Acts 18:6 – The Gentiles become Pauls mission
• Acts 19:2-5 – PAul explains purpose in baptism
• Acts 20:9 – Now that’s funny…
• Acts 20:11 – A man gets hungry doing miracles
• Acts 20:22 – Courage – steps up regardless of outcome
• Acts 20:24 – YES! May I live that prayer every day!!
• Acts 20:35 – Give it away…
• Acts 21:13 – Paul gets it
• Proverbs 17:24 – Eternal vs Earthly
• Proverbs 17:27 – Help me to be this man
• Proverbs 18:2 – Don’t be this fool – especially with religion
• Psalm 143:5-6 – Perspective in times of trial is important – Remember how the Lord has worked
• Psalm 145:4 – Remembering through story telling
• Psalm 145:8-9 – the love of God
• Psalm 147:10-11 – Trust in God not yourself

Filed under: Bible Journey

Put a face on social justice issues

From time to time I get a newsfeed update from the Catalyst blog and awhile back I got one that was written by David Crowder. Yes, you are correct that I read it initially because of the name attached to it but since that initial reading I have reread it several times to “refocus” what I am doing to impart change within my role in social justice issues. Michelle and I LOVE giving to various organizations that help the world – from Living Water to Malaria No More to buying stuff that helps other people get stuff from sites like TOMS but…while that is great, however, I think sometimes we miss the faces and people

that are right in front of us. After reading this article, and rereading this article, David has made my desire to become more aware of the people around me who need help and to not only provide that help but have a relationship with them in doing it. It KILLS me when people wait for the church to get involved when Christ has called us to be involved from the get go as individuals – don’t wait – just do. Anyways, check out the article below it’s pretty stellar.

It is a Saturday afternoon in Waco, Texas and I am at home sitting on the couch with my wife. The television is on and it is displaying a golf tournament and we are observing this through half-opened heavy eyelids. It’s rather lovely.

I feel the need to point out that I live in one of the more economically depressed sections of town, as in, seriously, two of our neighbors call themselves the Rockstars because, they sell “rock,” (as in crack cocaine) – they do a brisk business. So, again, this time with context, my wife and I are sitting on our couch on a Saturday afternoon watching the “sport” of golf with lots and lots of Fidelity and Buick commercials.

Abruptly, I am jarred from this, my privileged slumber, as, “David! David!” is yelled at loud volume from somewhere behind me. I now feel the need to point out that we do not have any curtains on our windows. We’ve been in our house 6 years and curtains have held only occasional importance, like now, with, “David! David!” being shouted from the street at the window located directly behind my head, which is again causing me to think, “Seriously, we’ve been here 6 years? We need some curtains.” I turn and peek over the couch. It’s John. I say this to my wife, “Oh, man. It’s John.”

John is an elderly black man who has no home. He is one of Waco’s homeless. He is my neighbor. He comes around and wants to pick up the sticks in my yard. He says, “David, I’ll just get these sticks out of your yard if you can spare a few dollars.” We do this often, rid the yard of sticks. It’s really helpful – you can imagine – the ability to move about your yard without the obstruction of sticks. So, here is John, standing in the street outside of my window, watching us watch golf, when he decides he needs to tell me something. Peering over the couch, my eyes meet with John’s and I am left with no choice outside of meeting John at my back door.

“Hey John.”

“Now, David. I don’t mean to disturb you. I see you and your wife in there just relaxing, watching the TV, the golf I see, my apologies.”

“That’s quite all right. What’s going on John?”

“Well, like I said, I don’t mean to disturb you, I just wanted to say congratulations.”

I pause. I’m not sure what my line is supposed to be. I had all of my lines ready. I had formulated them on my walk from the couch to the door. I have no idea what he’s talking about. I think to myself, John is genius. This is a new angle. I’m trying to anticipate his next move and I’m forming fantastic pieces of discussion that will totally make John get a real job and stop living on the street and asking me if he can pick up my sticks. I respond, “Uh, thanks.”

“Yep. You’re gonna do it. We’ve all talked and we know you’re gonna bring ‘em home. Just like last time. Yep, congratulations. We’re all pulling for you.”

“Uh, OK. Now what might this be regarding?”

“Those Dove awards. You’re gonna win ‘em! We all prayed and we know you’re gonna do it, you’re gonna bring ‘em home you hear me?”

I pause. I have no idea where to put this. John has basically told me that the homeless population near my house is 1) aware that there are such things as “Dove Awards” and 2) that my band and I have been nominated for some, and, 3) seriously? (!) The homeless had some type of meeting, or assembly, or whatever, and are praying we win? What on earth! That is the most ridiculous thing ever, and – what, seriously? Thoughts like this are in my head: David, you make assumptions that are wrong. You need to repent. You are evil.

Social or civil justice issues are incredibly difficult objects to get my head around. It is a given that most of us desire to live in a just society; the awkwardness lies in agreeing upon just how exactly we arrive there. It’s easy to become pessimistic and passive even when attempting to effect change, i.e. after hearing Red Campaign marketing costs, or reports that mosquito nets I sent contributed to a water shortage crisis due to the nets actually working and people surviving malaria. Thus, obviously, it resulted in a rising population and a rise in water consumption, thus resulting in a water shortage, which now those same people are dying from.

To carry the story of God in a way that makes a real, tangible difference to those we live among can be really frustrating at times. I think the only way to not become paralyzed by the task, is, to get close enough to these issues for them to turn into names and faces that walk up to your fence on a Saturday; who lean in and yell your name and give you something that leaves you smiling and tearful and repentant and a little more in love with the people God has made.

You can see the article on THIS page

Filed under: Social Justice

Filling the Void

As most of you know via my facebook status’s – I’ve been grinding out various details for our upcoming leadership retreat for College Life. I’ve been thinking about ways that we can connect as a team, planning that needs to take place, and most importantly how to lead and create better leaders out of all of us throughout the process. Through this reflection I’ve realized several things about leadership, especially college leadership, and more importantly, the voids that sometimes occur within weak leadership. Here’s what I’ve realized about the void:

1. Without vision, people will define their own vision and the loudest voice will prevail
2. Without strategy, people will do what they’re most passionate about whether or not it helps the organization fulfill its mission
3. Without clear communications, people will assume for themselves what’s most important
4. Without encouragement, people will gravitate to the first person who gives them attention when they need it
5. Without leadership, people will follow the leader they choose or assume they’re the leader
6. When there’s a void, it always gets filled

Hopefully I will lead well enough that our leadership team will function as a collective whole and lead out in ways that there are no voids to fill because we care and are so deeply passionate about seeing God glorified in us and through us within College Life in the upcoming year.

Filed under: Leadership