Merry Christmas

Well, it's Christmas Eve.....I'm sitting in the church. I just finished my sermon for tomorrow (yes, we are having church tomorrow....we're not big enough to take the day off! ). For those of you who don't know, we just bought a house, we closed on it yesterday and will move in on Monday.....it's a crazy time of year. I looked though some of my archives....I can't believe I have been doing this on and off (mostly off) since 2003.....wow! What really surprised me is that I have never wished anyone a Merry Christmas on my blog....

Cindy's calling me to come and wrap....so....

Merry Christmas!

(GO TO CHURCH TOMORROW...even if your church is closed....go somewhere!)

How 'bout those Bears!

Once again proving a SEC quarterback is always better then an ACC quarterback!

Bears 16 - Falcons 3

What time is it?

I was at home most of yesterday watching my kids, as well as watching a lot of tv. Seiko has this new tv ad that caught my attention. It has some of those "beautiful" people hanging out in a desert, with the wind blowing through their hair, cloths, etc. In it they say that it's not your cloths, or favorite color or personality that tell people about you, but your watch. That got me thinking...I don't own a watch...

hmmmm....I guess I don't have anything to say...

WWJD - revisited

Michael Spencer asks an interesting question...

"?If you were to spend three years hanging around with Jesus as he is presented in the Gospels, do you believe you would come to the conclusion that [fill in this part with the theological issue being tested]?"

I can't add much more then what he had to say, other then I would be dealing with a lot more sick people nd talking more about the Kingdom.

New Look

So, what do you think of the new look????

It's 10:35 on Saturday night. I have finally finished my sermon (I may modify in the morning). I'm not preaching on anything that I planned on preaching on yesterday (go figure!).
I spent most of today in training for Scouts. For those of you who don't know, I am a Webelos den leader for Nathan and the assistant den leader (wolves) for Ben. I got frustrated today because I was hoping for more meat then what I got during training. The entire time today I was freaking out that I wasn't going to get my stuff done. I was hoping for more meat to make it worth while. Oh well, I'm done..so I guess I can stop freaking out!

We're going to go and look for a house tomorrow....I hope we actually find something.

I'm so tired right now I doubt I'm making any sense! I'm going home and try to get some sleep!

My oh my...it's been two months since I last posted! I'm looking around my blog and it's kinda dusty around here...I think I need to change some stuff....

So, it's Friday (supposedly my day off) and I have been sitting at my desk all day, trying to write a sermon. There must be a better way to do this. I started in John, but didn't like it, went to Jude, now I'm in 1 Peter. I think I'm going to do a series...I need a break from being creative for a few weeks.

Jordon Cooper made a comment in his blog sometime in the past week about how blogging has become a hobby for him. Perhaps I need to look at this as the same.....

This place is getting dusty and stale, perhaps I need to shake it up a bit....

Hey, guess who just got a new picture phone......


Perhaps there will be more pic's on this site.....

I don't care who you are, dat's jist funny. link

Screwtape revisited...this is so funny that it is scary. Check out Plan 9.

Just finished the noon slot. Cindy and I did the first half of the hour with the kids and the second half by ourselves. It went well with the kids for about 15 minutes, then they got bored....the second half seemed to fly by.

I saw Jordon Cooper's request for prayer this morning. I put him on our board for prayer during the weekend. I started to pray for him and I really got affected. You know, I have never met the man, and I don't think that I have ever posted a comment on his blog, but I really got affected when I started to pray for him. I have been reading his stuff for at least 3 years now and he is one of my favorite blog's. You know, I doubt he knows who I am, and I really doubt he has ever read my blog, but when I prayed for him today, I felt like it was one of my best friends...I started to cry on his behalf. Amazing how God does stuff like that. I grabbed a rock for him on the way out...to remember to pray for him through out the day.

Hey, if you get a chance, pray for Jordon Cooper.

It's Thursday morning and I just left the prayer room. We are starting 84 continuous hours of prayer today. We opened it up at 7:00 with the morning office and will close it at 7:00 pm on Sunday. I want to try and blog through out the weekend on what happens and how it goes, as well as comment on my own experiences in the room (I may actually blog from within the room one day.)
It was a good start...the five of us who normally handle the morning office were there. It started slow, but then it seemed like we started going somewhere. For me, it was a realization of everything that we had been working on finally coming together. Cathy mentioned that she felt "lighter" once we were done. It was somewhat funny though...the five of us have been active in morning prayer since last November, yet today it seemed clumsy at first...go figure....we must be starting to take new land. Cindy is in there now, I go back at noon. More later...

We're doing Streams 101 class this weekend at the church. Dave is in the church teaching and I am sitting here with Matthew and Caleigh at the youth's candy/water/coke table blogging away. (Ain't wireless grand! I'd show you a picture, but T can't figure out how to e-mail pic's from her phone). The two of them are playing the bible version of who wants to be a millionaire. (There taking it somewhat seriously, I'm giving them a hard time. It's good to be the pastor!)

It's been a long tiring week, but it has been an interesting one. God really showed up for Cindy and me. Sunday I mentioned that we needed to get rent. Well, it did not come from the offering, but it showed up later in the week. So much so that we were able to catch up on some of the bills that the church has been running late on (We gonna have some heat this winter!). It has been a hard season, but things are really starting to look up. I think we are going to go into the fall all caught up on the business end of the church. I knew God could do something like that, but I never fully knew how. For the first time in months I'm feeling really good about stuff....I think it is going to be a good fall.

The college kids came back yesterday (nothing like being in Wall-Mart with 25,000 students and their parents). We have a group going out tonight after midnight to give the students pizza once they stumble out of the bars (at about 1am). I'm too tired to do that tonight, but I am excited to see that we have a group going out and doing something out of the box.

I love the fact that they are willing to go into the streets and meet the kids where they are, in the middle of their mess. I can see Jesus doing that. Going out to where the lost are and eating with them. That's just too cool. I think there will be some fruit from our trips out into the street...although it probably won't be the kind of fruit that most would be comfortable with. Perhaps that's the problem that Jesus had. The fruit that he was getting was not the fruit that the religious establishment wanted. You see, we like people who are like us. But most of the people who are like us are already saved...like us. It feels comfortable when people like us come to church. We don't have to explain things, we don't have to change things. But when those who are not like us show up, things get messy. We have to explain what we are doing, we have to be patient with them, we have to help them get through all their junk....who really wants to do that?

me.

.

Scott McKnight has an interesting story about a meeting with FF Bruce on his blog.  

“The reason I bring this up is that I asked Professor Bruce, because I had an audience with him, about women and ministry. My question was a big one: "Professor Bruce, what do you think of women in the ministry and how texts like 1 Cor 14 and 1 Tim 2 apply to the issues at hand." Here was his response, and I shall never forget it and I sum it up here. "First, I think 1 Cor 14 is textually corrupt. Second, I think Paul would roll over in his grave if he thought we were turning his letters into a new Torah. And third, as for what I think about women in ministry, I'm for whatever causes the freedom of the Spirit." What struck me most were answers 2 and 3.”

I have read and appreciated FF Bruce’s writings before, but I always thought of him being a tad bit more conservative in his thought.  A comment like the one above makes you think.  I like the way Scott runs with this, tying in the importance of freedom in the Spirit to the argument of women in ministry.

I'm turning into such a geek....I just started running Firefox and you know what....I kinda like it. I then went and got Thunderbird....very interesting....I then spent time trying to figure out RSS...I got the Atom feed working, not sure on the RSS yet. I an turning into such a geek! (I feel the need for a pocket protector or something).

Ignore my previous post....Just when you think everything is ok, you lose all your comments (UGH!!!!!). I just spent the past hour trying to fix this thing. I HATE HTML!!!!!! Good by squakbox, hello blogger comments (I hope that's a good move)

Never actually realized that anyone other then me read this thing...Heidi, if your still reading, I responded.

The church's web hosting service has decided to go out a business. What fun that has become. I just discovered that it can take over a week to transfer your site to an other hosting service (something about releasing domain names or something like that). Well we are moving, but I think our e-mail just died. I asked the guy at the new host (godaddy.com) what will happen to those e-mails (like I didn't already have a feeling). We are about to see if the old Roman Catholic teaching of limbo is true, because that is where all my e-mail are about to go for the next week (oh happy day!)

Yesterday was interesting. I showed a video to the church on 24/7 prayer. I was positive that I was going to hear about it (since the word "laid" is used) but so far all has been quiet (go figure, I usually get yelled at for lesser things :) ). Beyond that, I'm just waiting for the 101 to happen. Streams invades in three days!!! I'm not sure how ready we are!!!!

It's Saturday....it's 9pm. I'm waiting for Cindy to finish her stuff, then were done. I finally got my sermon done today...I'm not too happy with it. It feels like something is missing...Although I'm not sure what it is. Whenever I feel this way the night before the sermon usually goes well the next day. Here's praying that happens again.

I find myself really stressed out lately. We need a good offering tomorrow...I need to pay some bills (like my rent!) I feel like we are at a turning point and good things are about to happen, I'm just stressed out until then. Summer's are usually hard...people on vacation and stuff, so it is hard to tell what the health of the church is. In May we were over 100 people (near 120). Now I'm not so sure. I've looked at the fellowship list and I don't think most of them have left, they just don't come every week. Looking at 35 people can really be depressing. I'm praying that they all come back from vacation soon!

Once again, I start a post with "Well, it's been a while since I last posted...I need to do this more often..."

This summer has been incredibly hard. With everything going on with my dad's illness, my mom being my mom, and the church being broke, I feel like I need a vacation bad! Unfortunately, I'm not sure when or if that will happen.

The next few weeks don't slow down too much. We have the Streams folks coming in here to do the 101. It should be fun, but I'm tired! The week after that, Cornfest starts! (College kids are back!) We're doing a pancake breakfast and 24 hour prayer during the entire thing.

I really have a good feeling about the 24 hr prayer. The past couple of weeks have felt like the enemy was pressing against us, both the church and my family. I think we are about to break through on something...I have a really good sense about the fall, that most of the stuff that has been holding us down is going to go away and that God is really going to show up.

Now I'm not saying that because I need to think positively, I'm saying that because little things are starting to happen. We have had a string of bad things happen to people (fires, job losses, deaths, etc), but it seems like in most of the case, once they got through it, they were in a better place, both spiritually and physically (and financially for most). I think we are beginning to feel some of the birthing pains of what is going to break loose in the fall. And I think the prayer thing in an important part of it all.

Oh well....I will try (I promise) to write more later...

I need to start posting more...things have been really rough around here lately...

More later...

btw...Chris Parod is blogging!!! Check it out...it may be dangerous!

BTW - I have some Gmail invites. E-mail my Gmail account if you want one.

I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by the entire Pope thing over the past month. I wonder if it is my Catholic upbringing or if it is something more. There is something about the mystery of it all that seems to be missing in the modern church. Don't get me wrong, I love the Vineyard and all, but our history only goes back 20 years or so. From what I understand, when Bert was elected as head of the AVC, they had a tele-conference, not a conclave. Not that I think we need to become more denominational, but there is something to say about the mystery of it all. About the history of it all. To think that some of this stuff that occurred today goes back over several centuries, if not longer. That just intrigues me.

I wonder if we lost something when the Protestant reformation threw out much of our past. Most of the sacrament are gone. Communion, no longer mysteriously transforms into the body and blood of Christ, now it just represents the body and blood. The liturgy has now become a service. And renewal meetings, signs, wonders, and charismatic gifts have all become the norm. We can even plan of vacations based on who is speaking at what conference and what they are going to do! (Has it all become a show?) Where is the mystery of it all?

I don't think we need to raise the clergy up to the level that they have in the Catholic Church (remember, everyone gets to play), but I do think we need to take time and remember that we do not know it all, that God is still God and that he can do what ever he wants, when ever he wants, where ever he wants, to whom ever he wants and because of that, we need to approach him with a sense of awe and mystery.

I'm just not sure how that looks today...

I've really been feeling like something has been missing lately. I think we have finally gotten to a point where we have the church turned around (although I wish the finances were better...pray for more $$ to pay rent and bills!). It seems like we have slipped into the same model that we were doing in Cartersville. Although the church seems to be happy with it and we seem to be growing, I just keep on feeling like there must be more. We have become a really nice (and different) church, but I'm not sure we have become a community as of yet.

I had a weird dream the other night where I was sitting on the top of a building with Cindy, my late Uncle Ted, and our youth leaders, Theresa and Jeff. Ted looked at me and said "For as long as I have been here, nothing has changed, don't you have a plan or something?" There was more to that dream, but those words keep resonating in my mind. I thought we had a plan. It just seem to have gotten side tracked in the re-planting process. Perhaps this is the time to relook at the "plan".

We were supposed to be missional...we were supposed to have small groups that were geographically focused...missional churches outside of the main church. The ministry was supposed to happen in the groups, not in the church. In the streets, not in the building. The building was supposed to be more of a community center and less of a Sunday only thing. It was supposed to be a sanctuary, more in the sense of a place of safety and protection, and less in the sense of holy place. That's where we are supposed to be. So now the question, how do we get there?

Pastor Bashing 101...Man, can I relate to some of this. Sorry Rocky for putting you through some of this...

"What was once horrible has now become acceptable, familiar the way a landscape becomes familiar. No matter how gruesome or spectacular, over time you become used to it. Eventually, you can walk through it without feeling any need to comment." Interesting article in today's Chicago Tribune on Terry Schiavo. Have I ever mentioned how much I like John Kass?

I thought I got rid of the funk on Saturday night...I guess I didn't...

Happy Easter!

I am really in a funk today, and I don't know why.....

Last night I spoke at the community Good Friday service at 1st Baptist Sycamore. It was an interesting evening. There is some movement within the pastors of this community towards bring the church together. They are calling it a "one church" movement. I like to call it the geographical church. They asked me to talk about prayer and the church. I gave a short (10 min or so) talk where I said that we need to get the intercessors together from all the churches, then the pastors need to get out of the way and let the intercessors just pray (radical concept).

I didn't fully understand how difficult some of this is going to be until I overheard some conversations. This was a community event, and there were about 10 pastors form the area there. I overheard a person say that they were worried that their pastor might be there and see them. They did not want to get in trouble for being in someone else's church. WHAT IT WRONG WITH US? Why are we so freaked out about stepping into others churches. I had a women come up to me and tell me that she liked my message. I felt that I was being rude because I did not formally introduce myself or get her name. So I put out my hand, introduced myself and asked for her name, apologizing for not asking sooner. She gave me her name, then got defensive, telling me that she went to such and such a church and that she was happy there. Is there something wrong with us when we can not be polite without people thinking we are trying to recruit them???? I just don't get it.

If we are ever going to get this idea of a geographical church, we are going to need to get over ourselves. Church is not about us and the small little expression of it that we attend. Church is about being the bride of Christ. And the entire church is part of his bride, not just the people we like. When we finally start to look at the church the way Christ looks at the church, perhaps we will begin to see the beauty of the church. The little details that make us all different make the entire body more beautiful.

I have truly come to the conclusion that marriage is a prophetic word on what the church is supposed to look like. Our spouses are complex. They are not robots where every single move they make is predictable. Instead, God has made their personalities incredibly detailed and complex. And those complexities are what many times we find beautiful in our spouses.

The same is true with the church. If the entire church was like the Vineyard, we would be pretty boring. But instead, the church is diverse, detailed, complex, and different. Where our building is, we are neighbored by a Methodist church, a Lutheran church and a Catholic church. Down the block we have a Bible, Baptist, Four Square, Congressional, Hispanic, and Greek Orthodox churchs. All of us have services at about the same time on Sundays. We are all worshiping the same God, we are all following after Jesus. Some of us are evangelical, some of us are denominational, some are orthodox, some are liberal. But at the heart of it, we are all trying to follow Christ. What if, instead of trying to find out who is better, we look at them and saw the bride, in all of her beauty? That's how I think Christ looks at it. Perhaps we need to be looking at it the same way. Because, the church is not about us and what it can do for us, it's about Jesus.

It's Good Friday and it's snowing here in DeKalb. It's going to be 77 and sunny in Georgia. Why did we move here again?


Here is an interesting article on the Terri Schiavo case. I have been giving a lot of thought to this case over the past week or so. I'm not totally sure how I feel. One thing that really has come to my mind has been the power of words. How arguments can completely change once we define things. How easy it is to de-humanize something just by labeling it. I think Kass has an good point in his article...one that I agree with.

I HATE HTML!!!

I just spent the last 30 minutes trying to figure out what was missing from by blog (the title), where it went (it was covered by the blogger banner) and how to get it back (more lines on the top!) UUUGGGHHHH!!!!

Well, it's been a long time since I've written anything. We just put some computers in the church and now have internet....so I guess that means that I have no excuses for not posting anymore. I'm sitting in the soundroom, typing away at one of the computers up here. Church has been interesting lately. We just did a conference on deliverance. It was a powerful thing...although the response of many have been surprising. People have been set free, but they are on an emotional rollercoaster....very surprising to say the least.

Other then that, the church has been growing leaps and bounds....we have finally broken 100, worship is getting interesting, and the prophetic is starting to move. We are really gaining momentum and things are getting exciting.

Oh well, people are now up here, starting to bug me. More later.