Primal

December 16, 2009 — 0 Comments

Recently, I was given the honor of reading Mark Batterson‘s new book, Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, in order that I might write a review of it. Mark is the pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C., and has previously written two other books: In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, and Wild Goose Chase.

In Primal, Mark Batterson writes that the church’s inability to reach and connect with twenty-somethings that are leaving the church in droves, rises out of our lack of following Jesus’ own words. In Mark 12:30, Jesus gives what is now known as The Great Commandment – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

The author’s conclusion is that “we’re not great at the Great Commandment. In too many instances, we’re not even good at it” (pg. 7). The book is written around the premise of rediscovering a primal compassion (heart), a primal wonder (soul), a primal curiosity (mind), and a primal energy (strength) – and in doing so, we strip away all of the religious pomp and circumstance and relearn what it truly means to love God.

I really enjoyed the overall message of this book. The author does a good job “re-imagining” how we as a generation of believers can learn to love God in its most primal form. What if a generation stepped up and read this together and committed themselves to becoming great at The Great Commandment?

What if we made this the first book we read in 2010? What might change in you?

In book reviews, church, theology

I double dog dare you

December 15, 2009 — 0 Comments

The last two years, I’ve read through the Bible cover-to-cover using The Daily Message. Over these last two years I have:

  • left a nice position at a great church in Corpus Christi, TX
  • uprooted my family from Corpus and moved to Austin
  • attempted to start a new church in Austin knowing that God would have to provide financially not only for our new church, but for my family as well
  • realized that, at worst, God looked upon my fervor and faith and said, “Nice layup. Totally wrong goal. But nice layup.”
  • uprooted my family from Austin and moved to Wichita, KS
  • taken a pastoral position at a new church in Wichita knowing that God will provide not only for our new church, but for my family as well.

There is no single mare dangerous thing than to immerse yourself in God’s Word. It will ruin you in a wonderful way. The way you look at the world will completely change because the way you look at God will completely change.

So ask your family this year for a Bible that you can read through in one year. There are dozens of different methods to read through the Bible – book-by-book, OT/NT/Psalms/Proverbs, Chronological, Topical, etc. Pick a translation that you can read easily because there will be days that it’s not easy. Buy a few highlighters, figure out what time of day you’ll read it, figure out where you’ll read it, pray for discipline and get after it.

Just don’t be surprised at the things it will completely change in your life.

Go ahead. I double dog dare you…

In church, personal

Sunday Rewind

December 14, 2009 — 0 Comments

Week 2 of The Greatest Gift

  • What an awesome worship gathering!
  • The worship bands continue to develop and mature leading us in worship.
  • This week, we looked at John 3:16 – but in trying to peel the layers of familiarity off of it, the goal was to restore the wonder of this verse.
  • God’s motivation for sending his Son into the world is love!
  • And the world – all of humanity (including YOU) – is the object of God’s great love!
  • The Greatest Gift of God is Himself.
  • We continue to see lives and hearts change at Crossroads Friends Church and that PUMPS ME UP!
  • We held a churchwide lunch after the worship gathering this week, and if you weren’t there, you missed some of the best food I’ve ever had (north of the Red River at least).
  • We also gave away rocks to all of our volunteers that serve faithfully each week at Crossroads reminding them of Jesus’s words in Matthew 16:18 – that we (as those who confess Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God) are the rock that Jesus builds his church upon.
  • Thank you for your faithfulness and gifts of your service.
  • And thank you to Jana and Mable for hosting and coordinating the lunch.
  • This coming week, we’ll focus on the Nativity Story and how a baby born in a barn could possibly be the greatest gift that the world has ever known.
  • Is there someone in your life that doesn’t know? Bring them with you!
  • I’m so grateful to be a part of this church and it’s humbling to be your pastor.
In church, leadership

A Norman Snowball Fight

December 12, 2009 — 0 Comments

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In personal

Derailed

December 10, 2009 — 0 Comments

In Good to Great by Jim Collins, the author explored successful CEOs and what characteristics made them successful. These lessons have encouraged and impacted thousands of leaders by helping them to see behind the curtain.

In Derailed by Tim Irwin, the author explores failed CEOs and what characteristics led to their respective downfalls. These lessons have the same, if not greater, potential to help leaders guard themselves from failure.

We live in a different sort of generation. Historically, humanity has searched for people to look up to and admire, but today we watch and enjoy seeing people in prominent positions and celebrity fall from the pedestal that we place them upon. One of the critical reminders in the book (to my mind, anyway) is that none of these CEOs, none of the pastors that have recently experienced failures, woke up on any given day and chose that day to be the day during which they would fail.

Derailment, failure, is a process of poor decision-making where leaders consistently make decisions detrimental to their long-term success. This book gives those same leaders markers and big-picture themes to use as a filter through which to pass these small daily decision through. That is how we can avoid being derailed.

Derailed was reviewed in part of the Thomas Nelson Publishing Book Review Bloggers program.

In book reviews, leadership

Thursday Thoughts

December 10, 2009 — 0 Comments


This year, I chose to start a new Christmas tradition. I began reading Christmas sermons by the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, on each Saturday in December. This act guarantees a few outcomes:

  • I am constantly humbled as a theologian and as a preacher.
  • I am often given insight to some passages that I may not have seen before.

This past Saturday, I read the sermon “Joy Born at Bethlehem,” delivered December 24, 1871. And as I think about the message that I’m preparing for this coming Sunday on the gift of eternal life, my mind keeps coming back to this quote:

The God who made you, and against whom you have offended, has come down from heaven and taken upon himself your nature that he might save you.

Jesus, who is eternal, set aside his nature and clothed himself in humanity, and was born so that we could inherit eternity. We cannot fathom the depths that Christ went to in order that we might live.

In theology

Leading in Holiness AND Repentance

December 9, 2009 — 0 Comments


One of the greatest dangers among pastors and ministers is a lack of authenticity. This is one of the most common precursors to a pastor’s moral failure.

It begins innocently enough. We take to heart Paul’s command to his flock that they were to follow him as he followed Christ. Suddenly, we begin to understand our role as pastor/teacher differently. We begin to understand (rightly) that we are not only to lead from the pulpit (or stage), but are called to lead from the midst of the people in the churches we lead. This becomes an issue when we succumb to the pressure of living as an example of holiness, and in attempting to do so, we fail to live as an example of repentance.

As for me, I have never been good at wearing the mask and playing the role – whatever that role may be. I’ve always had an amount of inability at “faking it.” I’ve almost always been faithful to who I am…often to my expense.

But even in the last month (my first in a lead pastor role), I’ve felt the almost immediate inclination to play the game and pretend that I have it all together. I’ve fought this urge, and will continue to do so, because my responsibility is to lead in holiness and in repentance.

The reality is that it’s not about living up to a code of conduct, or checking actions and behaviors off of a list. My responsibility as a pastor is to lead with the trajectory of my life – to constantly be pointing to and growing in Christ. This is was Paul meant. It means growing in holiness through repentance.

And so I will continue to do the best I can to keep the mask off. It won’t always be pretty, but it actually is the best i can do.

In church, leadership, personal

A Week’s Perspective on Thanksgiving

December 5, 2009 — 0 Comments
My kids think anytime I lay down on the ground, it’s time to rough house.

Last week, my Mom and Step-father joined us in Kansas for Thanksgiving. The next day, we all went out to the Christmas tree farm to select our family Christmas tree. This is a tradition that I experienced as a boy growing up, and I can’t even begin to tell you what it means now as a dad.

I grew up in a family that treasured family time – each year we cut a live tree (because artificial trees are awful), string it with white lights (because colored lights are of the devil) that don’t blink (because lights shouldn’t crawl like ants or blink like they have a bad fuse), and decorate the tree with ornaments from our (the kids) childhoods.

This year, my mom got to see me in a different light. This year, she joined my family as we selected a tree, she helped string the lights (in fact, she may have completely strung the lights on the tree), and place ornaments from my kids childhoods on the branches. (My step-father even bought us a remote control clicker to turn the lights on and off.)

Looking back on this Thanksgiving, one of the things I was (and still am) most thankful for is that my family got to spend time with my family. My kids got to spend time with their Granny-Sue and Papa-Steve. And our house was filled with laughter and love this Thanksgiving.

Thanks Mom and Steve. We loved having you guys over. Thanks for making the trip.

In parenting, personal

It’s Official on Facebook, It’s Official in my Book…

December 2, 2009 — 0 Comments

I talked about utilizing social networking technology during my message this week. This might actually be a little over the line.

But it’s funny, huh?

In culture, tech