Big Announcement Today!

Well, today I was officially asked by my pastor to speak on Sunday, September 28th, while he is away in India. That's an incredible honor, and something I take very seriously.

It's funny. I've spoken in public, both in and out of the pulpit, more times than I can count. But there's something about a Sunday morning service that always really makes me do a gut check. I have this tremendous sense of responsibility.

I've pretty much gotten past the feelings of needing to impress anyone with my latest "heavy revvie" (that's "heavy revelation", a slang term for "deep theology" I use sometimes), my elocution, vocabulary, or my wit and humor. Now it really comes down to me not wanting to waste A) everyone's time, and B) the opportunity that God has given me. Here are "X" number of people, and I have about an hour to share something with them that hopefully will impact them in a positive way.

And when I speak to a new group, I always go through this process. First I think, "I'll pull out something I've taught in the past that seemed very effective/relevant (ie. popular)!" Kind of a "hit them with my best punch" idea. This usually lasts for about 2 minutes.

Then I think, "But wait, that'll probably come off stale. I need to speak from what I am personally going through right now. That way it'll be more from the gut." That lasts for about 6 minutes.

Then I always come back to, "I just need to pray about it."

It's funny, when I pray about it, sometimes I end up doing the former, sometimes the latter, and sometimes I get something totally new just for that specific occasion. Imagine that, God knowing better what to say to his people than me...

Better go. I've gotta go start reading the Bible and studying and stuff...

And Then...

After our day started kinda in the toilet, I went to work tonight! That was cool...

Until I slipped on the wet floor and fell. Hard.

So, I think I'll head back to the recliner now.

Fun Day

Well, this time, the title was sarcastic...

Today, my wife and son and I were cleaning up in the front yard: blowing leaves off the driveway, picking up some sticks, etc.

Fun Thing #1:
My wife noticed that my car (which i part on the street because our garage is a converted carport and can't hold both cars plus be storage) had been hit and my rear tail light assembly was broken. Drat! Looking on line, it looks like most of my first paycheck from the Hut will go to that.

Fun Thing #2:
Shortly after that, my son and I went in (he was getting nappy), and my wife decided that she was going to finish up just a bit. A few minutes later she came in calling for me to come help. I went into the kitchen to discover that she had uncovered a nest of wasps while raking leaves. Long story short: she was stung on the ear, lip, side, knee, and ankle. They were very painful. Thankfully, she is not allergic, so other than a little swelling and a lot of pain, she's fine.

What a fun day!

Something Serious for a Change

My friend Jeff has been blogging for the past several months. I read Jeff's blog religiously (haha...it can't all be serious with me writing it), because a) he's my friend, b) he's a good writer, c) he often makes some great points, d) it's interesting to see where this journey is taking him, and e) I figure if I read his, then he'll read mine and that will raise my visitor count. :)

A couple of Jeff's recent posts, this one and this one, have been in reference to the "Lakeland Revival". In case you haven't heard, you can read a summary article from Wikipedia (a reknown source for information) here.

The long and short is this: there are ongoing "revival" services at a particular church. Many said it was a modern-day move of God. Many were critical. Hundreds of thousands came to visit. Many claimed to be miraculously healed. Now, the leader of the "revival" has had to step down due to marital difficulties. Lots of people have strong opinions regarding this.

Me? It just makes me sad. Not just the leader stepping down, but the whole thing in general.

What I see is lots of money, lots of effort, and lots of time all thrown toward an event. I am sure that most, if not all, of the people involved were sincere. The same could probably be said for the people that attended. I would LOVE to see a huge revival/move of God sweep the nation and the world, but I just don't see it looking like what I've seen during this and other "moves". In my experience (and I have experienced two of the major ones in recent years), these "moves" always seems to be inward focused on the church.

A while back, Jeff tagged me as part of a syncro-blog, to write "A Manifesto for Church". My manifesto was simple. "Love God, love your neighbor." Like I said, simple, right?

For some reason, we struggle to do that. It seems to come out more like "Love church, love your congregation". We end up "doing" church instead of being "the church". I know that I am not by any means the first person to say that, but it just gets driven home more and more. We love a revival. We love the excitement of it. Jeff actually blogged about something similar today.

William D' Artega wrote a book called Quenching the Holy Spirit, and in it he talks about Phariseeism, and how it always tries to rear its ugly head. He basic premise is that "revivals" tend to progress through these stages:

1. God moves.
2. We think it's cool.
3. We try to reproduce it in our own power.
4. God quits moving the way He was.
5. We keep doing it anyway.
   

Subconsciously we think, "Okay, service was great today. Especially when we did this, this, and this." So, the next time in, we do this, this and this again, hoping for the same results. Sometimes I think that the problem is that the congregation also saw what happened when we did this, this, and this, so they've now learned the appropriate response. Before you know it, what was "fresh fire" has become going through the motions.

--

Well, enough of this complaining. Believe it or not, I am not down on the local church, or the church in general. I attend a local church. I love it. The pastor is great. The people are great. We strive to reach beyond the walls of our "church". Is it perfect? No. Do we still have to resist the tendency to become liturgical and religious, despite the fact that we are a very laid-back, non-traditional church? Yes. Do we do stupid stuff? Yes. Do we get right sometimes, too? Absolutely!

Now, am I a part of the "emergent church"? Probably. Am I part of the institution? Yes...and at the same time! Do I have all the answers? Of course not! I don't even have most of the answers!

But I know this: I want to love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love my neighbor as myself. So, there you have it.

The WWW - What An Incredible Time Saver!

(With a title like that, everyone will be reading this blog!!)

My wife and I were just discussing today about how convenient the wealth of information on the World Wide Web is in everyday life. No more phone books or encyclopedias! The world is at our fingertips.

Here's some examples of what I mean:

1. Look up the price of dimensional lumber at Home Depot - 4 minutes (Decided to check my email since I was already on the computer - 48 minutes (cats in clothes are so cute))


2. Needed a phone number for the IRS - 2 minutes (Checked my Facebook page to see if I had any new friends - 72 minutes)


3. Paid a bill online - 5 minutes (Clicked on ad on bank page...apparently, even though I am in a debt management plan right now, I can get a home loan for 100% with no money down - 17 minutes)


4. Checked my work calendar to make sure I don't have to be anywhere first thing in the morning - 1 minute (Hopped onto YouTube real quick - someone had told me about a really funny video involving yogurt, ostriches, and an oil filter wrench - 97 minutes)


5. Did a Google search wanting to read up on Michael Phelp's latest victories - 10 minutes (Instead, ended up reading about the history of the Olympics and the greatest medal Olympic champions of all times - 51 minutes)

See what I mean! A great timesaver!