Archive for February, 2008
A few weeks ago when I got up to get ready for work I turned on the TV to listen to the news and found a local preacher giving a message to his congregation, although televised for us all to experience. I am not going to even get into whether or not this particular ministry really needs to have a TV ministry or not but the preachers topic and the crowds reaction is what got my attention.
The message was on kindness and how we as Christians should be known for our kindness more than our treachery. I couldn’t agree more. Now I have to admit that I am not a fan of this preachers speaking style nor was his content well developed. This particular church was an amen corner church. You know the kind. Every word that the preacher says that remotely sounds right, and even some that don’t, gets an amen shout or someone stands up and raises there hand as to say…that’s what I think.
The peculiar thing about this message was that all the while the preacher was talking about kindness the congregation was silent. No amens. No shouts. No one standing up and clapping. In fact there was no response at all. I assumed that perhaps the audio wasn’t picking up the audience or that there really wasn’t anyone in the seats and he was really just preaching to the camera when all of the sudden he said something that got a response.
Once he mentioned that he didn’t think we were suposed to give to every person on the corner holder a cardboard sign, the crowd errupted with amens and shouts. The more he talked about not giving to those we might call deadbeats the crowd was lively and excited but as soon as he returned to kindess the congregation soon grew silent once again. It seems they cared more about not getting scammed than taking a risk on kindness.
The moral of the story…if he was preachig to the choir…the choir sucked. When we lean more on conspiracy than compassion we live a corrupt gospel.
I just read a post by Paul Peterson who is getting ready to launch a new church. You can read it here.
I didn’t realize all that was expected of me. I’m worn out and depressed just from reading it…alright…I’m over it.
There is something that consumes my thoughts and my prayers. I don’t just take it seriously as whole but I take responsibility for it on a very personal level. Communicating God’s word is my responsibility. Many can do it and some even assist me in it but when it all comes down to it, it is my responsibility.Seth Godin wrote this in a post a couple weeks ago and it struck a chord with me.
- If you read a blog post and misinterpret what I said, that’s my choice, not your error.
- If you attend my presentation and you’re bored, that’s my failure.
- If you are a student in my class and you don’t learn what I’m teaching, I’ve let you down.
God has given me the very serious task of presenting him before many people. He is always at work doing his part so if the message doesn’t come across. it’s my fault. That is a very solemn thought to me. Seth went on to say…
What’s helpful is to realize that you have a choice when you communicate. You can design your products to be easy to use. You can write so your audience hears you. You can present in a place and in a way that guarantees that the people you want to listen will hear you. Most of all, you get to choose who will understand (and who won’t).
The truth is that we all have this responsibility. We may not all teach in front of an audience but we are all called to communicate God’s message to those around us. The question we need to ask ourselves…is the message getting across?
Several months ago we started something we call “First Sunday”. Basically on the first Sunday of the month we get together for lunch after Sunday morning service at the Ward’s house. We have great food brought by a bunch of people and a lot of fun. The reason I love this time so much is that it is so much fun to just casually hang out with LifePoint. There are cool people and complete dorks alike who all put aside their coolness and their dorkiness just to enjoy themselves and serve one another. And I would like to personally invite you my readers to join us on Sunday, March 2nd for this months theme…Salads. There will be large variety of different types so please come hungry for…salad. If that’s possible.
So why am I inviting you?
Anthropologists know that the best way to learn about a species is to study them in the wild. That is what First Sunday is to you. An expedition into the natural habitat of an actual LifePointer. You will find out thing you didn’t know about the species. Things like how much they love food and how sometimes inappropriate things slip out of their mouths…and I’m not talking about the food. You will learn that most LifePointers have a strange rite of passage where they all gather around a TV and act like rock stars. A strange practice to say the least.
What you will learn that will really amaze you is that the average LifePointer is a lot like you. Lots of unanswered questions but a desire to be around other people who believe that God can be experienced in our everyday lives. These people believe that it should happen through them and not just to them. So the question is…why wouldn’t you want to come.
I hope to see you there.
I have decided that I am going to start a regular Monday post called “SHOUT OUT”. In these posts I will give an honorable mention to an individual or team of people who make Lifepoint what it is. My desire to is brag on those who get it and encourage those who want to do more. How regular will it be…every Monday until I start doing it more sporadically or not at all. How’s that for assurance.
Today I want to brag on the music team. When we were about to LifePoint we had about the best music team you could want when it came to talent and technique. At one conference we attended everyone was talking about how hard it was to develop a great music team and how crucial it was. We just sat back and with a smug assurance knowing we were miles ahead of anyone else in this department. Then our whole band “disbanded” before we even finished our preview services. Now I am still friends with all of them but needless to say…I was crushed.
Today the future is a lot brighter. While our current music team is still working at getting together they are awesome already. They are up early every Sunday morning and willing to adapt to the vision at a moments notice, although that has not truly been needed up to this point. They have tons of musical talent to tap into and I expect that they have the potential to be one of the best teams in Cleveland…at least for are style. Perhaps in the future I will introduce them individually or let them introduce themselves.
What makes this team so amazing is not necessarily a polished professional performance, but that they are committed to God and his plan for LifePoint and I would not trade that for the best musicians in the world…maybe sub them in…but not trade them.
To our current music team I just want to say thank you for believing in what God can do through LifePoint and choosing to partner with it and in case I didn’t tell you this 100 times already…you guys were awesome yesterday!
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead
- Have you ever had high expectations and then felt like they were not reached. I felt like that with todays message.
- In spite of my own feelings I was really encouraged by someone today who said that the message really helped them with their own doubts and the direction they were headed. Just goes to show that most preachers are the worst judge of how the message went.
- I spent a good portion of the day working on lifepointchurch.tv. Kevin and I added some new stuff to the main page such as links to the most recent blog posts, flickr picture pool and easier location of contact info in the footer.
- Be looking for a lot of new stuff on the website or at least some easier ways to access information.
- I just realized that I removed the “subscribe to the LifePoine E-News” link. I will work on getting that back tomorrow.
- Angela and I were relaxing and watching T.V. when all of the sudden our 32″ LCD just turned off. I have no idea what’s wrong with it but I do know it won’t turn back on. I guess I will have to bring it to someone who might be able to fix it.
- All this happens just a couple hours before the Oscars began, of course. We have been forced to revert to a vintage 27″ mammoth of a TV.
- I am tired now so I think I will call it a night…at least from mentally strenuous activities.
Just a few random thoughts.
- Kevin and I have been discussing our website and I think we have some great ideas to keep it fresh and felling a little more alive. Now I just need to figure out how to make it look good and not jumbled.
- The T-shirts for all our winners from the little message contest arrived. I will be giving them out during service on tomorrow. I even ordered one myself and will be wearing just to represent. Future orders need to be tweaked a little bit but over all they came out great.
- I am so excited about the message tomorrow. I am talking about doubt, which just about everyone I know is struggling with recently. I am going to go against the mainstream on this one so you don’t want to miss it. If there is anyway possible…do not skip tomorrow morning. This may be the best and most eye opening message you have ever heard…but I doubt it…or do I. You will just have to come and judge for yourself.
- Just signed up for twiiter and testing it. I am really behind the times. I guess I will never be called on the bleeding edge. #
- In case you were wondering why I started using twitter, I figured it would be a way to keep me blogging at least a little bit every day. #
- I am really looking forward to going to Olive Garden tonight for Jenny’s birthday. I have only been 1 time in the past 3 years. #
- Leaving work. Traffic is really bad. Riding the break makes me sleepy. #
- I’m at the bookstore reading. “What we give our attention to, grows.” - Ken Blanchard #
- At dinner and everyone is making fun of me for using twitter. #
As anybody who knows me or reads this blog regularly know I started working for Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union a little over 6 months ago. I am the Web Administrator there and I was basically hired to redesign and build the website and intranet as well as head up some other projects to increase information management and web standards.
Any project for a financial institution takes longer than you would expect due to red tape, quality control and myriad of other delays but the time to release the new website has finally come. You can check it out here.
I have to say that although my heart and passion is to pastor and lead LifePoint and hope to one day do that exclusively, I love working at TVFCU. The people are awesome, the mission is spot on and I plan to learn as much as I can from the leadership here.
If someone would have told me that relationships would become a lot more complicated when I started pastoring I would have shrugged them off as being cynical. Now I can see that they would have been right. Most pastors feel like it is a lose/lose situation. If they take on every new relationship they overextend themselves and their families and if they don’t they are labeled as being uncaring or unfriendly.
Pastor Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv has shared some insights for church members to consider when wanting to minister to or befriend their pastor. It’s good advice…even if your pastor isn’t me. You can read them here and here.
