21 Random Thoughts

1. I love the holidays! They remind me that tradition means something and that new traditions are essential for creating new memories.

2. Basketball provides lots of life lessons for me.

3. I may be addicted to social media. Determining boundaries has proven to be difficult.

4. Emotion can be your worst enemy or your best friend and sometimes it's one disguised as the other.

5. Learning and Mentoring go hand in hand. Keeping what you learn to yourself is arrogant and self serving.

6. I haven't written a song in 15+ years. Disappointing

7. "If you build it, they will come" is not a biblical concept, neither is "God helps those who help themselves". Both are quotes, one from a movie the other from a founding father.

8.The Matrix was a revolutionary Movie... to bad the sequels were not. A lesson we could all learn from.

9. The experiences God used to change our lives will not be the same experiences He uses to change the lives of those around us. We are not called to recreate for others what God created for us.

10. My life is a musical.

11. Only God can change your life. No church, religion, government or person can change your existence, no matter what they promise. No they can't.

12. I have many pet peeves... most of which are things I hate about myself.

13. Exaggeration is just a rationalization for lying.

14. I need Jesus as much as anyone.

15. To ignore any one part of the Gospel is to ignore the whole.

16. You cannot claim to follow Christ and reject His body. Quit pretending that you can. If you are not a part of a church body find one or finally admit you just hate the fact that Christ died for all the people you can't stand.

17. When we are in the worst economic crises since the great depression, discourage your wife from wearing the dress made with real sterling silver.

18. When God invests in you, make sure you provide a good return on His investment.

19. I love my job but it can be very hard at times.

20. Love God more than you love your spouse, love your spouse more than you love your kids and love your kids more than you love anything left in life. Not the other way around.

21. Creativity is.

Catalyst 08 Roadtrip #8

I am officially home from my Catalyst 08 road trip. I found this awesome shirt at the event

It was a perfect addition to an amazing event! From the worship time to the immense amount of information provided by some of the great church minds of our time, Catalyst 08 will be a week that I will look back on as a "catalyst" for growth in my own personal leadership.

I'm already making plans to attend next year. Thanks for everyone who prayed for us while we were gone. Here are a few more pics... Enjoy!

Catalyst 08 Road Trip #7

Great morning so far. There were tons of unexpected moments. Lonnie brought a live elephant and a donkey in to the arena, Jeff Foxworthy showed up to introduce an African Children's choir and these chicks actually made clogging (yeah you read that right- clogging) cool again!

Tim Sanders a former executive from "Yahoo!" kicked off the morning and spoke about the importance of businesses doing the right thing to help its consumers. He put an emphaisis on giving and the importance of giving to those in need and not taking advantage of them.

Dave Ramsey was up next. I was expecting a financial discussion however he spent the majority of his time speaking about leadership and unity. He gave us "5 enemies of unity"
1. Poor communication
2. Gossip
3. Unresolved disagreements
4. Lack of shared purpose
5. Sanctioned incompetence
Very solid stuff. He took some time at the end to remind us that God's financial ways are perfect. He is in control and this econmic crisis is only temporary and should not be approached with a spirit of fear.

Franklin Graham accepted the Catalyst Lifetime Acheivment Award on behalf of his father. Billy Graham was scheduled to be here but could not make it due to health issues. It was a pretty incredible moment.

Top that off with worship led by Aaron Keys and this morning has been amazing. Aaron has so much depth as a worship leader. I can only hope to have that kind of depth one day.

We're in the home stretch...

Catalyst 08 Raod Trip # 6

Friday morning and I'm still trying to process all the information from yesterday. It was like drinking from a fire hose. Today promises to be another great day capped off by another message from Andy Stanley. Stay tuned!

Catalyst 08 Road Trip #5

Catalyst 08 has been awesome so far. We had a rough start this morning. Matt T. was in charge of making sure we were all up on time. Unfortunately there was some confusion about which time zone we were in and needless to say PC and Mike were knocking on our door before we were even out of bed.

Everything you have heard about he traffic in ATL is absolutely true; "GRIDLOCK". It was a challenge getting to the convention center. We were about 3/4 of the way there when we realized AA left my ticket at the hotel on the desk in our room. Not a good morning for the young guys... Im sure PC was wondering what kind of responsible staff members he was working with.

Once we arrived at the convention the morning got way better. So far we have listened to Andy Stanley speak about earning the moral authority of those we lead. GREAT STUFF! We also listened to Jim Collins author of the book Good to Great. He had some excellent perspective on leadership. The highlight of my morning though was actually participating in a worship service that I was not leading. This is a rare treat for me, especially since it was lead by Steve Fee.

I have tons more to share but not a lot of time. Here are some pics from this morning.

Catalyst 08 Road Trip #4

We have arrived! Made it in to ATL about 2:30. We were able to pick up PC and Raburn at the airport so they didnt have to catch a train to North ATL. After checking in to our Hotel we all hung out at Jason's Deli for about an hour. Looking forward to tomorrow! Registration for Catalyst 08 begins at 7:00 AM. Ugh... I thought this was a conference for young leaders!

Catalyst 08 Road Trip #2

ATL here we come!
Our departure time was 2:00 PM
This was when actually got in the van


We soon realized we were out of gas so after stopping to fill up and then going back to pick up some various items left behind

This is when we actually left.


AA maned the GPS

We made it to Little Rock and stopped at The whole Hog Bar-B-Q joint for Dinner with my good friends Rob and Rachel


So far we have seen 33 McDonald's and 15 Wal-Mart’s

Yep we are in Arkansas!

Next Stop Memphis…

Catalyst 08 Roadtrip #1

14 hours in this!?!?
We are leaving around 2:00 for the ATL.
We have until 3:00 Wednesday to arrive.
That's more than 14 hours....
Stay tuned!

Catalyst Week

I have officially dubed October 5th through October 12th:
Catalyst Week.

I (along with Matt T., AA, P.C. and Raburn) will be headed to Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon to join of 12,000 ministers and church leaders for the Catalyst '08 Leadership Conference .
P.C. and Raburn are flying but Matt, AA and I thought it would be way more fun to do a road trip. So tomorrow afternoon we will be heading out on a 14 hour drive to the ATL to see and hear from some of the most influential church leaders of our time. And of course, I will be sharing the event with you right here. I plan to blog about the trip every day this week so check in periodically to catch up on our adventure to Catalyst. I know will be an incredible trip.

Tuesday Question Of the Week

One of the big buzz words in many churches these days is "Community". It's always interesting to me that we find new and creative ways to package what God intended for the church to be. When I was growing up it was CARE groups then later it was LIFE groups. It wasn't much longer we threw away the acronyms and called it Small Groups and of course now its just Groups with an emphasis on "community". I guess the most surprising part of this is the concept of repackaging is that we have to do it at all. Its almost as if we have to "sell" God's word to the believers to claim to follow His word.

You don't have to look very hard to find God's intention in establishing smaller communities in which to do ministry. When Moses was leading the Israelite people God recognized that it was next to impossible for any one man to lead such a massive amount of people. He had Moses divide his people into smaller groups down to ten per group just so he could lead them effectively. Jesus had a small group who later established small communities around the region and eventually started the greatest small group movement in the history of mankind.
Most of the New Testament was written to small groups of people.

I find it a bit ironic that the larger we get as a congregation the smaller we have to become to shepherd people and do ministry effectively. So here is my question of the week:

Tuesday Question of the Week

Are you in a small group? Why?/Why not?

Mad Prop's Friday Week #5

Its been a few weeks since I've posted one of these. Mostly 'cause when I am mad at the world its hard for me to give mad props to anyone. I have to admit when I first watched this I was pissed! However, the more I watched and listened the more I thought... "this guy has some serious guts." I've always liked Donald Miller. While I don't agree with his political views, I have enjoyed his books tremendously and my respect for him has only increased as I have come to grips with what he just did.



So "Mad Props" to Donald Miller who had the guts to walk into a room full of Anti-Christians and petition God to do the things we have not been able to do on our own in the name of Jesus Christ. That takes stones! MAD PROPS Don...

Bonus Question of the Week!

We all know they are out there. All of us have at least one that comes to mind almost immediately. Some of us can think of several right off the top of our heads. It's the "celebrity" ministers that just go to far in order to be heard. Most of the criticism is justified. There are those guys out there who cause us to shake our heads and wince because we all know at the end of the day it will have a major impact on Christianity as a whole. They go way to far in their antics and justify it as "spreading the word."

I'm not talking about leaders that have differing doctrinal beliefs. I think God can sort all that out when we get to heaven. Neither am I talking about pastors who are innovative and creative in the way they bring the message to non-believers. I think there is value in new methods of evangelism. I am referring specifically to people like Michael Guglielmucci.

A FORMER Adelaide pastor who inspired hundreds of thousands of young Christians with his terminal cancer "battle" has been exposed as a fraud.
Read the full article here.

I know this isn't Tuesday and maybe I should have saved this for next week but I have a question:

How do we as a church respond to people like this?

Tuesday Question Of the Week

I came across this article today.

McChurch: I'm Lovin' It

One pastor believes franchising congregations is the model of the future.

"Church plants," "sister churches," and "satellite congregations" may be a thing of the past. In 2008, the language of missiology is changing, so look for "church franchises" in your town.
click here to read the full article

So here's the Q'

Tuesday Question of the Week #7

Would you attend a church where the teaching/preaching is done through video broadcast? Have you ever? Why/Why not?

Tuesday Question Of the Week

This pic is from a blog I have been reading lately.


Here's the Q

Tuesday Question(s) of The Week #6

Does your church communicate well? How could it be better/worse?

Conferences

Every year I look at the list of conferences I'd like to attend and every year I find some reason not to go. The thought of attending a conference is not at that appealing to me. I, quite frankly, just have too much going on... or at least thats what I tell myself. I liken conferences to morning workouts. There are so many things that I would rather be doing, eating breakfast, reading my bible, watching the morning news show, SLEEPING! But there is nothing like the feeling you get after working out for a good hour in the morning. You feel refreshed, exhilarated and ready to go take on the world and whatever may come at you. Conferences are that way for me. There are about two million things I would rather do instead but there is nothing like the feeling I am left with after spending two full days listening to the experience and Godly wisdom of people who I admire and respect. Most of the time God uses them to give me a spiritual workout that I will never forget and in the end I feel refreshed and ready to take on the task God has put in front of me.

Today I listened to Craig Groeschel Teaching Pastor at of Life Church. He is an INCREDIBLE communicator. Best quote from Craig

"In order to reach those that no one else is reaching, we have to do things that no one else is doing."

I cant get enough of his stuff!

Up next Chuck Colson. Gotta go!

Quote Of The Day

Session two was with Gary Haugen. Gary is the founder of IJM (International Justice Mission) If you want to know how to live out Biblical justice in our world you need to read this guys stuff. The best quote of the day came from Gary when he said,

"If you want your leadership to matter, you must lead in the things that matter to God"

Great stuff!

Willow Creek Leadership Summit

I am attending the Willow Creek Leadership Summit with PC, Matt T. and some of the other ministers from FCC. Just completed session one with Bill Hybles... it was AMAZING. I am truly in awe of his humble spirit and his leadership perspective. I believe that God has set him apart as one of the great leaders of our time. One of my favorite blogs asked the question this week "If you could spend 24 hours with a leader, who would it be?" My answer to that question would be Bill Hybles.