Ok people, this is not going to be anything profound, but just wanted to get some things together and such. Tanner and Jessica are planning on coming into Waco on Feb 23, I think Erin and Bethany may be able to come, and I assume Grant and Desiree will be in town, so any of you other jokers think you can come in? Tyler, Brandon, dunno who else has been lurking, but basically, I think we can just eat together, Robin wants to make enchiladas, and just talk, nothing formal or anything like that. Would be fun and would give us all a chance to maybe talk in person.
Also, I am doing what is called "mentoring" over the summer. Basically, I have worked it out to work on Denver stuff and get class credit for it, pretty sweet. So, a few things that I plan on doing are by-laws, constitution and basic gameplan. Probably more, but I will let you all know. So here is where you guys can come in. If you would like me to email that stuff to you guys as I am finishing it, I would love additional input. Basically, I will just do the basic stuff, and it will all need to be ratified so that you can all have a say in how it looks. Mostly, this is just stuff we need to have done and will give me an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone type of deal. So, here is what I need, you guys to email me your addresses and also to let me know if you can help some over the summer, not sure what else we'll need. I also plan on visiting some other churches, so if you want to visit a church and let everyone know what you think, you know take notes and such, let me know. Anyway, appreciate you guys and keep praying that God would provide for us, its much closer than when Tyler first put up this blog!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
No offense or anything, but...
How often do we hear that phrase, immediately followed by something that could not be taken any other way? "No offense or anything, but this food sucks." "No offense or anything, but you really need a haircut." "No offense or anything, but your ministry is dragging the whole church down."
When we get started, each of us will have roles to play. Each of us will also have jobs to do. Each of us will come up short sometimes. I will drop the ball on a sermon or two, that is a fact. But we should not accept it as something that should happen often. One thing I think we really need to work at together, is the art of thinking together. Each of us will have responsibilities, but maybe someone will have some good ideas to help you with yours. And maybe you will have some good ideas for someone else.
We need to work together to ensure that we are open to constructive criticism, and also constructive at giving criticism. "Criticism" often gets a bad name. We should not shy away from helping each other to improve what we do. If there is something about my sermons that drive you crazy, or I say "um" too much or something like that, I hope we can find a way for you to tell me. Do not walk up and say "No offense or anything, but I slept all the way through that one. That was a snoozer!" I am confident we are all going to Denver because we want have an excellent community, and I think we can each help everyone else in some ways. What do you think about all this? Is there a good way to offer some help to you? How can we work together at this to help be excellent together?
When we get started, each of us will have roles to play. Each of us will also have jobs to do. Each of us will come up short sometimes. I will drop the ball on a sermon or two, that is a fact. But we should not accept it as something that should happen often. One thing I think we really need to work at together, is the art of thinking together. Each of us will have responsibilities, but maybe someone will have some good ideas to help you with yours. And maybe you will have some good ideas for someone else.
We need to work together to ensure that we are open to constructive criticism, and also constructive at giving criticism. "Criticism" often gets a bad name. We should not shy away from helping each other to improve what we do. If there is something about my sermons that drive you crazy, or I say "um" too much or something like that, I hope we can find a way for you to tell me. Do not walk up and say "No offense or anything, but I slept all the way through that one. That was a snoozer!" I am confident we are all going to Denver because we want have an excellent community, and I think we can each help everyone else in some ways. What do you think about all this? Is there a good way to offer some help to you? How can we work together at this to help be excellent together?
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Forgiveness
Robin and I have started helping with the youth at a friend's church here in Waco. We are pretty excited about it, good to be back in a church for a few months until we move. Anyway, as side note, it is by far the most welcoming, kind group of people I have ever been around. One thing I want us to think about is how we can become like that.
But onto to main topic. We talked about forgiveness in the youth Sunday School, and the old guy that led the group told a very sad story. He said that when his daughter was young, a teen aged boy came over to his house and molested her. He was obviously still in some pain about this, but he talked about how he thought for awhile that when the boy got out of jail, he would go and kill him.
Eventually, he ended up on his face in his bedroom, praying for that boy. He talked about how God was helping him still to learn how to forgive, and so I started thinking about forgiveness too. What is so astounding about forgiveness is not what it does for the one who is forgiven, but what it does for the one who forgives. Bitterness eats at us on the inside, it tears away our humanity, it threatens to turn us into something less than human, and in the process tempts us to think of others as less human. As a church, we must help one another to forgive. Let me encourage you now, God wants you to forgive for your sake.
Maybe not much to comment on this time around, but again, if there is something you would like to talk about go ahead and mention it and I'll come up with something. Let me tell you all some of the things I am praying for, they may or may not happen, but maybe you can join me. I am praying that God will provide us a building. That some church would be closing its doors, or some other business and that they would just want to give it to us. I am praying that we would all be ready to move at around the same time. I am praying that God will provide jobs for each of us, places we can be salt and light in the world. I am praying that we find a way to be united as God wants us to. What about you guys? As I mentioned before, we want everyone to come into town for some Saturday afternoon, we can cook dinner and just catch up, nothing official, but maybe dream a bit and encourage one another.
But onto to main topic. We talked about forgiveness in the youth Sunday School, and the old guy that led the group told a very sad story. He said that when his daughter was young, a teen aged boy came over to his house and molested her. He was obviously still in some pain about this, but he talked about how he thought for awhile that when the boy got out of jail, he would go and kill him.
Eventually, he ended up on his face in his bedroom, praying for that boy. He talked about how God was helping him still to learn how to forgive, and so I started thinking about forgiveness too. What is so astounding about forgiveness is not what it does for the one who is forgiven, but what it does for the one who forgives. Bitterness eats at us on the inside, it tears away our humanity, it threatens to turn us into something less than human, and in the process tempts us to think of others as less human. As a church, we must help one another to forgive. Let me encourage you now, God wants you to forgive for your sake.
Maybe not much to comment on this time around, but again, if there is something you would like to talk about go ahead and mention it and I'll come up with something. Let me tell you all some of the things I am praying for, they may or may not happen, but maybe you can join me. I am praying that God will provide us a building. That some church would be closing its doors, or some other business and that they would just want to give it to us. I am praying that we would all be ready to move at around the same time. I am praying that God will provide jobs for each of us, places we can be salt and light in the world. I am praying that we find a way to be united as God wants us to. What about you guys? As I mentioned before, we want everyone to come into town for some Saturday afternoon, we can cook dinner and just catch up, nothing official, but maybe dream a bit and encourage one another.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Politics
Maybe this will draw Tyler back in... or Brandon. Right now we are in the midst of a huge campaign, the primaries are being decided and such. I personally think that there is no one that we as a church should absolutely support. I think each has some pros and some cons, personally, I really like Barack Obama. But here is what I'm getting at. It is ok if one of you doesn't like him or anyone I do like. I think as a church it is important for us to try to be informed on the issues, to encourage people to vote or to make their voices heard, but also to be sure that we do not try to say that "Jesus would vote for Huckabee" or something foolish like that.
Many have horrible feelings toward church because church often over steps the boundaries and begins to try to elect "God's man" or whatever. I guess, this is kind of hard to get at, what I'm wondering is, what role do you all think we should play in these types of things? Should we try to make all the candidates known, and their stances on issues so that our people can be informed, should we just ignore politics all together? This is complicated, and I don't expect us to figure it out completely, but I do think it is something we should try to come to agreement on. Hopefully we can agree to disagree on candidates, while finding some common ground about how to talk about politics. What do you guys think?
Many have horrible feelings toward church because church often over steps the boundaries and begins to try to elect "God's man" or whatever. I guess, this is kind of hard to get at, what I'm wondering is, what role do you all think we should play in these types of things? Should we try to make all the candidates known, and their stances on issues so that our people can be informed, should we just ignore politics all together? This is complicated, and I don't expect us to figure it out completely, but I do think it is something we should try to come to agreement on. Hopefully we can agree to disagree on candidates, while finding some common ground about how to talk about politics. What do you guys think?
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