Here and Now

I have a couple posts in the hopper - I just have to finish them. I'm working (well, SUPPOSED to be) on my sermon for Sunday - Vital Signs (the Fruits of the Spirit). But I'll have something soon, I promise.

So ten years ago Johnny Hart (who died like 4 years ago) ran this strip (click to enlarge): And there's been controversy since.  Okay, I get it.  Hart was a Christian and he expressed his faith in his comic strip - lots of people calling him a fundamentalist...dunno what his particular Christian religious persuasion was - except that his funeral was in a Presbyterian church. So, anyway, it's just clear that lots of people missed the point****.  In fact, Hart himself claimed to be shocked that people thought he was an advocate for  replacement theology  based on the strip...  He could be clever - a 2006 strip that I think has a well played double entendre: (And, for the record, I'm no more or less offended by that than I am by people who use  Fred Phelps  as the posterboy for Christianity - every religion has it's crazy fundamentalists...well, the big ones I know about, anyway...)  Nice double joke on "moon shaped" and bug - Luna-Tic...

I think maybe I have a spammer who is a follower.  Can that happen?  If not, he's got a strange blog... Hmmm...now I feel like I'm being stalked :)

From worship Sunday: Bob Pierce, World Vision's founder, wrote this in his journal on a trip to Korea, before he founded WV: "Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart"

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock. -Ben Hecht, screenwriter, playwright, novelist, director, and producer (1894-1964)   So, if this was true fifty or seventy-five years ago, today you might say, "Trying to determine what is going on in the world by surfing the internet is like trying to tell the time with a stopwatch" or something...

I caught this on the Catalyst Monthly email that I get.  I'm reproducing it in its entirety (it's not all that long) because I think it all matters - to leaders of EVERY generation (I'm not a nextgen leader - I think I'm somewhere in the middle - but it all applies to me too). Anyway, here it is: 7 Thoughts for Next Gen Leaders APRIL 04, 2011 This is a guest blog post from  Brad Lomenick , the director of Catalyst. You can read more of his thoughts at  www.bradlomenick.com . 1.  Learn it, relearn it, and then learn it again.  Just because you are out of school doesn’t mean you quit learning. Be a lifelong learner. 2.  Being an expert is quickly fading in the current culture . Everyone is an expert these days because of technology and connectivity. Don’t put your hope in being an expert, since now more than ever there is someone else who knows way more than you do. 3.  We have to reclaim a sense of Biblical understanding, wisdom and practice . Ou...

I was at a meeting two weeks ago talking about the ministries that Steve and I do and how we're constantly growing and learning and reaching and I said, "We're not arrogant enough to think we have all the answers.  But we do know a lot of the right questions to ask."  Which, yeah, sounds like a bumper sticker - but it's not.  I realized my whole life has been this - far more asking than answering.  The more I learn the less I know (yeah, another bumper sticker - okay, it's a blog) - but every question opens up a hundred more, doesn't it? So I'm reading a leadership blog and I read this: The Right Question Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions. One church's worship team uses these questions to review their Sunday services for improvements. What went really well? What needs improvement? What was confusing for the first time guest?  Okay God - I'm listening...

I go a couple conferences during the year and they're always held at big churches ('cause they have the resources) or hosted by big churches at bigger venues ('cause they have even more resources) and the speakers are always mega-church guys ('cause they have free time j/k - 'cause they have name recognition and 'cause they must be doing something right)***.  Eugene Cho takes a bit of issue with this in this  really insightful article .  So, okay, I agree with Brother Cho that this is an issue...but what do we do about it? *** Yeah, how many of us will go to a church leadership conference featuring George Adams and Simon Mcally?  Anybody?  Really?

It's Monday - so i't blogreading day for me. I check out a lot of leadership blogs, read a lot of articles and jump from link to link.  It was one of those link to link to link jumps that took me to this article  about Spiderman the Musical .  Now, Bono and the Edge of U2 did the music for this musical that has become a monster, so I'm interested to begin with, right?  And, you know, it's Spiderman so, though I'm not a Marvel Superhero fan, it's still part of my childhood culture... Anyway, in the article, Peter Schneider, former chairman of Walt Disney Studios (so I figure he's got some insight into such things), talks about why this production became a bit of a nightmare (yeah, it's grossing lots of money - but has cost a fortune to produce and has been fraught with problems).  This paragraph is particularly compelling: A show does not come off the rails in one day. It is the cumulative impact of many wrong turns. In Jon Krakauer's book "...

This has been a heck of a weekend.  Friday,  Willet , a great band from Maryland (they used to be called Clearview, for those keeping score) played a concert at the church - starting their weekend event called the Hunger Strike.  They spent Friday night and most of Saturday with our youth and then they led worship music and shared the message at church today.  And it was a great weekend - but it has been an exhausting weekend for me, too. You see, Friday, the band came and there was a mix up in what they would need and I had to scramble to get speakers and amps set up (had a lot of help, not complaining, mind you - but I was REALLY tired they finished the concert - which I got to run sound for) then I took the girls to Kane to stay with my aunt because Lori and I were heading to a conference Saturday - got home about midnight - up at 6 on Saturday, Cranberry Township for most of the day - back to Kane after we got back so we could bring the girls home - finally hom...