My buddy Chris Marlow‘s non-profit, HELP, is hosting their launch party here in Austin tonight. I’m planning on being there.
Great coffee, great music, and a great cause.
Don’t be lame. Be there.
Todd over at MondayMorningInsight.com posted a very interesting article this week about the decline of denominations last year. For the first time, Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics were among those in decline, rather than the sole growing groups in the survey.
To be honest, I have very mixed reactions to the article.
On the one hand, my denominational colors fly, and I struggle with the knowledge of the Southern Baptists (the church of my youth and upbringing) declining membership. It breaks my heart. I was raised in a southern baptist church, received my bachelor’s at a southern baptist university, and have earned roughly 2/3 of my master’s degree from a southern baptist seminary.
On the other hand, I believe that this is the natural order of things. Where there once was a movement of God among like-minded churches, the denomination was established to protect that movement. Unfortunately, in building fences and walls to protect the denomination from outside attackers, it also prevented movement of the denomination. Thus, the once-rolling stone, is now gathering moss.
I believe that the denominational lines are blurring and are being replaced by like-minded churches gathering in networks for accountability, training, and sending. Groups like the Acts 29 Network, The Association of Related Churches, and the Willowcreek Association are the new denominations.
The key difference, is that churches are able and encouraged to participate in multiple networks in order to see the Kingdom furthered.
My prayer, is that God would keep the younger pastors (myself included) humble enough to respect, love, and honor those still clinging to the denomination even if we, ourselves, believe that time is past. There is still much wisdom and experience to glean, and we would be fools not to listen.
I was going to get to go home last night. But instead, I had to wait another night in Corpus because my brake pedal isn’t working.
The funny thing about momentum is that we all want it when we need it, but it’s incredibly dangerous if we can’t slow or stop.
So for now, I’m stopped. But I’m coming home today.
Taking the lead from Human3rror, I took the blog personality test today. Apparently, my blogging is an outlet for my altar ego, since my last personality test showed me as an ENTJ.
I guess that figures when you try to be authentic, you inevitably fail. Why is that?
Do you blog more like your personality, or differently?
Some of you have wondered, like I have, “Why do we call it a Bible belt?” “Where exactly is it?” “Do I live in the Bible best?”
The answers to these questions may be answered by a recent Gallup poll.
Now, admittedly, the question asked during the poll was, “Is religion an important part of your daily life?” If they’re going to proclaim that this “proves” a Bible belt, I wish they would at least consider asking a question that makes some mention of Christian, Jesus, or – I don’t know – Bible. But based upon my travels and conversations, this map seems to be fairly accurate.
It looks like a belt across the southeast. Texas is the buckle. Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, etc. are apparently the muffin-top. Where do you live? Would you agree with the map or have an objection? I’m curious…
I’ve been reading Good to Great by Jim Collins and an illustrative story really stood out to me. The story describes and explains what the author describes as The Stockdale Paradox, named after Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was the highest ranking US military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp during the Vietnam War. He was tortured numerous times during his eight-year imprisonment from 1965 to 1973.
The Stockdale Paradox is to retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
“I never lost faith in the end of the story,” he said, when I asked
him. “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would
prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life,
which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”I didn’t say anything for many minutes, and we continued the slow walk
toward the club, Stockdale limping and arc-swinging his stiff leg that had never
fully recovered from repeated torture. Finally, after about a hundred
meters of silence, I asked, “Who didn’t make it out?”“Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The optimists.”
“The optimists? I don’t understand,” I said, now completely confused,
given what he’d said a hundred meters earlier.“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be
out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go.Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would
come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be
Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”Another long pause, and more walking. Then he turned to me and said,
“This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you
will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the
discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever
they might be.”To this day, I carry a mental image of Stockdale admonishing the optimists:
“We’re not getting out by Christmas; deal with it!”
Four out of five church plants don’t survive. Countless others never get off of the ground. Are you able to look at this reality and still maintain the unwavering faith that you will succeed, or are you merely an optimist?
As we look at Aaron’s role in Israel, specifically in the final chapters of Exodus, one other thing strikes me as interesting. If we are responsible for carrying the burden of our church (our people) across our shoulders into the presence of God, and we must always keep the reality of who God is in the forefront of our minds, then we also must accept responsibility when mistakes occur.
After receiving instruction written by the hand of God, Moses comes down from the mountain and, in a rage (and I’m already planning some posts regarding Moses’ little rage blackouts), demands an explanation as to why God’s chosen people are dancing around, celebrating and worship a golden statue. And, as a typical leader, Aaron stood and blamed the people and the fire. “They gave me the gold, we threw it into the fire, and this calf came out of the fire.”
The world is full of leaders who shirk responsibility and deflect blame in each and every situation. But that’s certainly not our role. We carry the burden of leadership. That means that when the situation moves in the wrong direction, it’s our responsibility to reroute it. We must look in the mirror and understand that our leadership (or lack thereof) is the shaping mechanism for the health and direction of those we lead.
If I’m honest, I do this all the time. If my kids would behave, then I wouldn’t… If my house were clean, then I’d never… If he wouldn’t have cut me off in traffic…
In what areas do most often pass the blame? What areas are more natural for you to accept responsibility?
The great guys over at Ministry 2.0 are coming to Austin next week where they’ll be putting on a workshop helping ministers and leaders at various stages in the journey, learn how to better use technology in ministry. In the time that we live in, the internet is the technological advancement that is already helping bring the Gospel to those who would never hear it otherwise.
You’re probably already aware that today is the last day to register and receive the early bird discount. But did you also know that they passed on an additional 10% off coupon to readers of ChurchCrunch?
And, to sweeten the pot just a little, did you know that I’m live-blogging the whole thing right here at www.davidnormanblog.com? Be sure to follow me on twitter here and Ministry 2.0 here. The general twitter hashtag for the workshop is #ministry2. Join me next weekend in Austin either in person, or right here.
This morning is my last time to wake up at 3 o’clock in order to go open the gym. I’ve been getting up that early since September, and to be honest, it’s downright painful.
So, I though that I’d let you know at 3AM that I’m now getting up and heading to work one last time while you’re probably still snoring and getting that little bit of slobber on your pillow.
Don’t worry, next week there’s no way.
In fact, if I’m up at 3AM next week, it will be in a sheer panic, waking up with night sweats with worry. Next week, the next step of my journey begins. But until then, I leave you with my morning routine.
3:00 AM – Get up and Clean up
3:15 AM – Walking out the door to the Jeep
3:17 AM – Start the Jeep and begin running red-lights all the way to the gym
3:40 AM – Arrive at gym and punch in 5 minutes early
3:45 AM – Turn on lights and music
4:00 AM – Open the doors and begin stocking the coolers
4:45 AM – Read blogs from my Blackberry sipping on a caffeine drink (Thanks for the mobile access Bloglines!)
5:00 AM – Sign up members for Spin Class
5:30 AM – Spin Class begins and begin reading Scripture
6:00 AM – Quiet Time finished, gym up and running, reading a little Piper throughout the morning in-between greeting and helping members
What did you accomplish before 6AM this morning?
As Moses was receiving God’s handwritten instruction (including, but not limited to the Ten Commandments), even God’s handwritten instruction regarding the role of Aaron in the ministry and worship of Israel, the nation had grown restless.
In Chapter 32 of Exodus, we learn that the nation is begging Aaron to “make gods for us!” And, for some reason (and I have a theory), he complies. Aaron instructs them to bring gold, he then melts it and then shaped it into a golden calf. Then he constructs an altar, and declares that the next day would be a feast or festival to the god who delivered them from Egypt!
This is what happens to leaders who are given the opportunity to lead without correct doctrine, or correct instruction. It’s as though he’s so eager to lead that his desire to be in charge, or to be well-liked, or to, well, lead led him to ignore the obvious. That calf that he made out of gold had absolutely NOTHING to do with getting them out of Egypt.
And should you continue reading in Exodus (and you should), you’ll learn that had Moses not stepped in with a powerful prayer, it would have cost the lives of everyone in Israel save Moses alone. Instead, it still cost them the lives of over 3,000.
That’s a very expensive leadership lesson.
Have you ever been forced to learn something in ministry the hard way? Would you be willing to share and prevent someone else from echoing in that mistake?