Thats My King Remix

My new friend BARTON is pretty amazing. He creates stuff that will blow you away. Here is an example:

Check out his site, or IGNITERMEDIA for more of his dope-ness. Buy some of these products and support great art in the church.

Christianity is dead…yea right.

So this weeks cover of Newsweek states that Christianity is about to drift away in America. The premise is that in the past 20 years America has moved from 86% Christian to 76% Christian, thus it is over.

WELL, tell that to Rick Warren. He personally teaches the new members class at his “Little” church every month. He stated last night on Larry King that on average they have 100-200 people in the class each month. Last month, however, over 2,400 people attended the class and became members. Oh yea, they also had over 800 water baptisms last month.

Surveys can say whatever you want, it is all in how you ask the question. If you think that what we believe is not connecting, do something about it…make it connect…Rick is doing it, and it is working…BIG.

We are not called to the earth to be defeated, we are called to overcome and bring the kingdom to earth. Just sayin.

Finding the finish line

In life we pass mile markers. Some recognize these as points in the process for what they are, mile markers. Unfortunately, some people see mile markers as finish lines. As they pass a marker, they slow down. They stop working as hard. They think they have lost, or worse that they have won, yet there is still so much in front of them. Some people pass a mile marker and they quit.

From projects to organizations, personal to professional, goals to achievement, you have to be able to define a mile marker and tell the difference between a mile marker and the finish line. When you start the race you should know where the finish line is, and what it looks like. Then, as you pass mile markers you will know how to regulate your speed, how much ground you need to make up, how to pace yourself and your staff. Mile markers allow you to quantify momentum. Mile markers are awesome, they are IMPORTANT, but they are not finish line.

The saddest thing I see is when people have so much further to go, so much more potential, the ability to make history, and they slow up when they pass a mile marker thinking the race is over. Keep running, never quit, do not settle for the GOOD mile marker when the GREAT mile marker is the finish line!

LETS RUN!

Say What: Religion

The cure for religion is relationship. – K Cooley

how do you do you?

so you are you. pretty obvious. But really you are the best you that you can be. if you change who you are, then you become her, or him. how about this…be you and dont apologize for being you. sure, you can always tune you up. there is plenty of room for you to grow and develop, but keep the core of who YOU are. Please. we need you. we need you and who you are. we need your mistakes, your success, your talents and your faults. if we all started to be like her or him, we would get bored.

you being you shows the creativity of Him. He made us all different but made us to be who we are. now go rock who you are, and rock it hard. much love.

Dreams of Freedom

. What can we do to fix this problem? We are called to be free. Don’t take your freedom for granted.

NOT FOR SALE

Peeking in the window

 

Something that I found as an interesting concept. Imagine you walk up to a house. Every room of the house has a window. As you approach, you want to find out what is happening inside the house. What is up? What is going on with this family? What do they do and how do they act? 

So if I look in the kitchen window a get a picture of the goings on of the home through that perspective. I may see meals being prepared, homework being done, or groceries being put up. However, that view does not let me know what is up in the study or on in the garage. 

I think sometimes our lives are like this. We look through our little window and we think that the entire world is working like the kitchen, when really there is reconstruction being done in the garage, there is a cleansing being done in the bathroom, there is a warm fire and games being played in the study.

Don’t be afraid to take a step back and check out life through other windows. Ask some questions about the other rooms. Get the full picture of the house. 

I honestly don’t do this enough, but I am committed to pursuing the view of  the entire house and all the activities in the house. I want to know about the entire life that makes the house, not just the one window I am looking through.

Motivated Patchwork

I heard a talk today that moved me. i love the story of David from the bible. The reason I love David is he was a screw up. He did all the things that you say you would never do. He did all the things we all do.He did what i do…and yet he was still a man after Gods own heart. Grace, amazingly.

So when David was young, he sought God. And in the seeking, found Gods way to do thing. As he became successful, as he became busy, as he become a leader, he started to trust “carts”. See, the ark was built to be CARRIED. It had handles. But when David saw the ark, it came in on a cart. Wheels, to make it easy. It was not the 6 steps and sacrifice the way God created for the cart to be moved, but rather a simple hook up some cows and roll with it version. Gods path for your life, your relationship with him, was created to take a sacrifice. David got lazy, or busy, or relaxed and started to not seek Gods way, what He was saying, but rather he started to take the patchwork, crumbs, and theories of what other people told him what God was doing, saying, and how He was moving. Truth is, we all do this.

So today I was challenged to not eat off others crumbs, to not follow the patchwork of what others say, to seek for myself. God created the search for him to be 6 steps and sacrifice. A bloody, hard, sacrificial road. You ready to roll with the cart or carry the call?

One thing i miss

Do you know the thing I miss most about working at a church? Sunday. Sunday is the day you see all the weeks work come together. The creative meetings, the planning, the ability to see peoples lives changed. The outreach, the impact. The experience of worship, the communication of a good conversation between a communicator and those wanting more for their lives. Nothing like it. Sunday on a church staff is where you get your grade for the week. It shows if you got all your junk together or not. So rewarding to watch your work come together and God to sprinkle his anointing on it to effect the lives of 10’s, 100’s, or 1000’s. Much love and respect to all my pastor and church friends today. You did a good thing.

no god?

I know I believe in God. He has done to much for my life. But there is a group in London (timely with my last post) who are running an advertising campaign about there being no God. You can read the BBC article HERE.

Christians a lot of times feed the perception of weird. We need to understand how people feel about us, why, and know what perception we are feeding. We get it wrong a lot, but we get it right a lot too!

LOVE this response from a Methodist leader: Spirituality and discipleship officer Rev Jenny Ellis said: “This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life.”
She added: “Christianity is for people who aren’t afraid to think about life and meaning.”