Here and Now

As part of my Monday morning routine, I surfed over to the Church Marketing Sucks webiste and hit on an interesting post here . To summarize: Most people don't think about church. Why market a church? Because most people don't think about church. Ah, you may be thinking, "Of course they think about church. How could they NOT think about church?" Okay, maybe you're not thinking that - but for me, and for most people I know, well, we think about church. But that's because most people I know GO to church - it's part of us, part of who we are. I don't think about hair care products. I mean, really, have you seen my hair? I got it cut over the weekend and decided to do something different. Set the clippers on 4 instead of 3. Well, it is winter and that extra 1/8th of an inch might just keep me warmer. But I don't think about conditioners and gels and...paste? Really? Volumizers, restructurizers, um...what? I Googled hair products a moment ago...and was...

I started reading two leadership books this week: Bill Hybels ' Ax.i.om: Powerful Leadership Proverbs and Seth Godin's Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us Tribes has an interesting (and pretty common sensical , if you ask me) premise: we all want to belong to something bigger than ourselves - and generally when we "join" we want to be with like-minded (or like-interested) people. We form tribes. We form tribes around common interests: The Deadheads who followed the Grateful Dead, Trekkies , Star Wars fans, comic collectors, train nuts ( heh , I am one), sports teams. We form tribes around common ideologies: the emergent church, the One campaign, politcal parties, social issues... We form tribes around the things that are important to us. Tribes are different from organizations. Tribal bonds are very strong - sometimes (and wrongfully, but realisticly ) stronger than family ties. Saturday golf outings, first day of buck season hunting camp, every night at the bar a...

A friend of mine brings me coffee once or twice a week. Just stops in my office and chats and has a cup of "Seattle's Finest" with him for me. It's a real blessing to start my Mondays off that way. But today he handed me the cup and insted of the familiar red wrapped with brown, it's green & snowflakey wrapped with brown... What? Christmas already? I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt (you know, maybe it's a HOLIDAY cup) since the wrapper says, "Enjoy the little celebrations." But the cup itself says, "Seeing stockings filled with treats, small but sweet surprises."**** Sigh... Well, I guess I have no real reason to complain. It just seems like we push from Halloween (which was extremely profitable, despite the economy it seems) right into the next commercially viable holiday, Christmas. Watch, the day after Christmas the Valentine's day stuff gets put out (poor January, no big-selling holidays - I guess Martin Luther K...

Friday Lori asked Elie, "What do you want for Christmas?" "Gum, and um...uh...Meatballs." "Really?" "Yeah, um, gum and meatballs." Now, you have to understand a tiny bit of backstory on this. First, gum is a treat for my kids. It's not that we withhold it from them, but they really like chewing gum. Sometimes they'll ask for a snack and it'll be gum... And Elie likes to have her own - not the gum that just everybody can have a piece of, but gum that is hers (which she will give you if you ask her...but that's not the point). And meatballs. Not just any meatballs. When we moved here Lori and I were really excited that there is an Olive Garden restaurant right nearby so we have gone there a few times (okay, more than a few - I like their food :) ). Anyway, at some point Elie discovered the meatballs in the wedding soup and that is her new favorite food (which works out well, in a way for us - because Rachel and I like the soup part,...

This Saturday at Independence Middle School here in Bethel Park will be a concert featuring our own 11:01 band and another local band - Psalter... Here's the link for the Nyadire Connection. And here's the skinny on the event: THE NYADIRE CONNECTION PRESENTS Contemporary Christian Music Featuring Suzie Ackerman And The11:01 Band and Psalter Saturday, November 8, 2008 7pm Independence Middle School, Bethel Church Road, Bethel Park Tickets $10 for Students $15 for Adults 100% of the proceeds from the concert will go directly to the Nyadire United Methodist Mission in Zimbabwe . Suzie Ackerman and the 11:01 Band play for the Sunday morning Contemporary Service at Christ United Methodist Church (CUMC) and Psalter is a local comtemporary Christian band involved in the worship of various churches in the south hills. Call Christ UMC (412) 835-6621 for ticket information or stop by the CUMC Office weekdays 9:00am – 4:00pm

Yesterday was All Saints' Sunday - we ran a video with the names and pictures of those who have died over the past year here at Christ Church while the band sang Chris Rice's Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus). It was beautiful and moving. Many were older, some were too young - all are loved and are missed dearly and it doesn't matter that I don't know any of them. We're in this together - when one mourns, we all mourn, at least a little. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Adding to the roll in my heart this week - a friend who lost her baby and her family who mourn with her, a grandfather (who was much like a father to this young man) who passed suddenly over the weekend. Mourning lasts the night, but joy comes in the morning. My friend Aaron (whose blog Aaron Rambles I read regularly) posted last week that his adopted baby Tobiah has some trouble with his heart here . I'll be praying for Aaron and Marjorie and Corban and Tobiah. His post rem...

Today is Trick-or-Treating night...we live in a really hilly neighborhood... Anyway, Rachel was a bride - I totally freaked out the first time she put it on - I'm sooo not ready for that (I know, like 20 years from now...still, it's going by too fast...). Elie was a fairy princess. Part of Elie's costume was a glow-in-the-dark magic wand. As she was getting ready, I heard her say as she waved her wand, "Abracadabra keep me safe." If only it was so easy, you know? Just wave a wand to keep her safe. Of course, we often treat God that way, don't we? Just say the right words, wave the wand, whatever...and, poof!, we get what we want. I worry about the girls all the time. I pray that they are safe when I'm not around... Man, I wish I had a wand... God - keep them safe...

The election is coming up too soon - and the presidential race, again, is not an easy choice for me... I found this from the Global Board of Church and Society somewhat helpful... Linky Here's the main page

I just read this in Judges: 6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. 7 The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. And I started thinking to myself, "How does that happen?" It seems like we're only the second generation after the Red Sea was parted and the deliverance from Egypt - and the 40 years in the wilderness - and they've forgotten. How? The only answer that I can come up with is that the generation before stoppe...

I was reading the latest issue of Outreach magazine - an interview with Erwin McManus: Q What's the key to unleashing that human potential? A Not seeing human potential and the glory of God as somehow in conflict with each other. You hear that all the time in churches! In fact, that happened at the Mayan, one of our locations, a couple of weeks ago. One of our attendees is this amazing artist, one of the Suicide Girls of SuicideGirls Radio on L.A.'s Indie 103.1 FM. [The four-year-old show features interviews, advice, current events andmusic, and Rolling Stone named Indie 103.1 "America's coolest commercial station."] She has incredible talent, musically and as a writer, and she's a brand-new follower of Christ. Well, some guy came up and was asking her questions. He said to her, "So, you're going to just let God do it from now on and you're going to fade away, right?" and she said, "Yeah." I said, "No! You're not going to ...

I just came from our service for prayer and healing. It's such a powerful service, I'm so glad that Christ church continues with it, even though it has the smallest attendance. In this case, numbers definitely aren't everything. One of the things we do at the service is pray individually with each person who wants prayer at the rail after communion. I mentioned the verse from James, "The prayer of the righteous is powerfully effective." And on the way home I started to think about some of those powerful prayers that I've prayed with people over the past 12 years of ministry. A woman whose heart was broken for her daughter who can't shake an addiction. For a woman who just needs hope, when her body is being eaten up by cancer. I prayed once for an older woman who said to me, "I just want life to be worth living." For a young couple who both have mental and physical and financial challenges in their lives, but who love each other and want to get...

Last week I went to Catalyst. It was an amazing conference. The quote that haunts me from the two days is this: To reach the people no one else is reaching, we have to do the things no one else is doing. Andy Stanley said that - he was paraphrasing Craig Groeschel...

I saw this on the Blood:Water Mission website and thought it was worth posting here, too... Since 1990 Newgate Mission has been serving the homeless population in Longview, Texas and the surrounding area. Newgate Mission exists to relieve needs, recover lives, rebuild community, and restore hope. They provide support for the spiritual, physical, social, emotional, educational, and financial needs of our community.“It was during one of our daily Bible studies that an amazing thing began. We were discussing helping those less fortunate than ourselves and some were questioning how they, as homeless individuals, could possibly help anyone else. I have donated to Blood:Water Mission for the last few years so I knew about the great things they are doing in Africa. I shared with our group how many people in our world lack the most essential of physical needs, clean water. I told them about the 1000 Wells Project and how $1 can provide enough water for one African for an entire year. They were...

I spent a couple days last week at the Catalyst Conference and I picked up the T-Shirt I wore yesterday at church. Drink Coffee Do Good It comes from Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee company which is Rwandan coffee that you can get mail order. The thing is, rather than some giant multi-national corporation benefiting from my purchase of coffee, Rwandan coffee farmers benefit from purchasing this coffee. Check out the websites. Here's an interview from catalyst . Cool idea - check it out...

My friend Michael posted something simple yet very profound for me the other day: http://barneyisfat.blogspot.com/2008/10/some-days-it-feels-like-world-is-going.html "It makes the scary go away when we read his [Jesus'] words."

Yesterday we celebrated communion. That, in and of itself, is not all that remarkable - we celebrate communion every Sunday here, though we only have it during the full worship service on the first Sundays of the month (in the contemporary services). Otherwise we celebrate an abbreviated communion service in the chapel after the services. Yesterday was World Communion Sunday. Again, not all that remarkable, really. We didn't use much different in the way of liturgy... In the chaos that was my Sunday morning, however, I forgot to get people to help me serve communion. Fortunately, we have some really great people here - who think more clearly on a Sunday morning that I do - and three people were pointed out to me to help - Rose, Dave, and Brenda (THANKS DENISE!). I "briefed" them on what to do - I mean, it's pretty normal and rote for me to a degree. And that's a problem, I think. After the service, I thanked them for helping with communion and Brenda said to ...

So I'm hearing a lot about this new movie, Fireproof . If anybody would like to see the movie and have some discussion on it, it's the focus of our Reel Sactuary for October. The info is here . See you next Saturday...

I came across this post on a blog and was intrigued: http://www.spendlessreachmore.com/?p=33 Recently I was watching FOX news and they had Political analyst Carl Rove. He was talking about bounce and bounce time. When he was the campaign manager for President Bush, they new their bounce time was about 4 days. In other words, 8 years ago when they gave a speech they knew the speech would be in the hearts and minds of people for about 4 days, he later went on to explain how today’s rules have drastically changed. He said the bounce time, today its about 1 hour! Staying in front of the congregation with information and being part of your organization is more and more crucial. As you know… Its a living organization that has continual needs, depending on them to show up week after week to get feed by the Senior Pastor is life time, that is a week to week is a lifetime! Putting together a strategic plan to engage with your audience on a daily basis is a really good idea. If you have no...

Bill Murray's character Bob in What About Bob? says to his psychiatrist (Richard Dryfus), "There are two kinds of people in this world: those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't." So, I'm one of the former - I like Neil's music - it's catchy, it's cheesy, it's classic AM radio 70s music. Now his newest album, Home Before Dark , is really good. Rick Rubin, who produced Johnny Cash's last album produced this...but I digress. I couldn't help but think of the opening line from Neil's "Sweet Caroline" this morning (you should hear Rachel sing the horn part Bomp - bomp - bommmmmp!!!!) "Where it began, I can't begin to knowing..." I was thinking about the books that I've been reading lately and they seem to be about the beginnings of things. U2 by U2 ; The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss ; The Making of Star Wars ; Bob Dylan Scrapbook , and I realized that I enjoy "the making of...

A friend of mine once told me a story: He was a soldier in a combat zone, and as he was trying to move quietly he heard a woman screaming and men laughing. He crept forward and discovered a man and several children tied up while a couple of terrorists did unspeakable things to a woman, the wife of the man who was tied up. True story. As he was telling me the story I quickly ran through the options - do nothing, walk away and try to live with myself. Intervene, get myself killed and not stop them. Shoot them. There was no good solution. Life is full of the choice between bad and bad (life is also full of the choice between good and good - but that's another post). Is the commandment about not killing more important than the commandments about helping the helpless? Okay, most of our bad/bad choices aren't this dramatic. But we still have to make them, don't we? I have known people who have had to choose between putting a few gallons of gas in the car to get to work or buying ...