Month: January 2005 (page 3 of 4)

Just had one of those “WOW!” moments this morning. I get the Leadership Weekly e-mail from Christianity Today. This sentence got my attention…

Why is it you never hear from a pulpit committee when you need one?

I went on and read the story Ted Traylor tells about his three mighty men who, like David’s mighty men, went back to the hometown well, got some water, and refreshed their leader’s soul.

Check out what one of those guys said to their pastor…

“We have talked about this all day�six hours up and six hours back,” the largest man said as he stuck out his hand to grasp mine, “and we want to make this statement to you: We will die for our pastor. We will die for you. If you stay straight and be moral and be ethical and be biblical, we will die for you. If you are immoral and unethical and unbiblical, we will kill you.” (Now that’s a deacon!)

We all need some “mighty men” (and wieldy women!) who will stand by our side, not because of who we are, but because of Whom they serve. Do you have some “friends indeed?”

Oh, here’s the link to the whole story…

From Philippians 4, The Message…

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

From Philippians 4, The Message…

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

I’m reading Donald Miller’s newest book…good stuff! Where I started this morning, I found this…

…we are at a disadvantage because the Jesus that exists in our minds is hardly the real Jesus. The Jesus on CNN, the Jesus in our books and in our movies, the Jesus that is a collection of evangelical personalities, is often a Jesus of the suburbs, a Jesus who wants you to be a better yuppie, a Jesus who is extremely political and supports a specific party, a Jesus who has declared a kind of culture war in the name of our children, a Jesus who worked through the founding fathers to begin America, a Jesus who dresses very well, speaks perfect English, has three points that fulfill any number of promises and wants you and me to be, above all, comfortable. Is this the real Jesus?

Is Jesus sitting in the lifeboat with us, stroking our backs and telling us we are the ones who are right and one day these other infidels are going to pay, that we are the ones who are going to survive and the others are going to be thrown over because we are Calvinists, Armenians (sic), Baptists, Methodists, Catholics; because we are Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, or liberals; because we attend a big church, a small church, an ethnically diverse church, a house church, or is Jesus acting in our hearts to reach out to the person who isn’t like us – the oppressed, the poor, the unchurched – and to humble ourselves, give of our money, build our communities in love, give our time, our creativity, get on our knees before our enemies in humility, treating them as Scripture says, as people who are more important than we are? The latter is the Jesus of Scripture; the former, which is infinitely more popular in evangelical culture, is a myth sharing a genre with unicorns. (p. 146-147)

Maybe, the question is not “will the real Jesus stand up?” as much as it is “will the followers of the real Jesus please stand up?”

Well, there’s not a story to tell yet. But there may be one rattling around in my head…

I had to go downtown yesterday for a quick little business. I hopped on the train and away I went. (I’m still amazed that I can drop a little token into a gate in Dunwoody and be in the middle of downtown in a few minutes! Yeah, yeah…you can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy!)

So we did our thing, and got back on the train. I was engaged in one of my favorite pastimes – people watching. All of a sudden, as clear as day, this sentence popped into my head:

I walked into the station at Five Points one day, and I never came out.

Sounds like a great “first line” to me. I jotted it down in my trusty Moleskine, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Who knows?

I guess they have a contest for just about anything these days! IMHO, though, this one was really no contest at all!

Jimi Hendrix not only had the skills to become a rock legend � he apparently had the right look as well. A recent poll found that Hendrix had the best “guitar face” � the look guitarists get when trying to nail a high note or power chord.

Here’s what the guy who won the prize for “Best Amateur Guitar Face” had to say…

Guitar face is a spur of the moment thing, something you have no awareness or control over,” Campbell said in a statement. “Guitar playing is … all about energy, transferring your spirit to a hungry crowd through six strings and a wall of amps. You can’t help sharing what you feel with a look, whether it’s serious or maybe a little silly.

One of these might be a pretty good dessert after one of these! What do you think?

Somebody help me out here…sometime in the last week or so, I know I read a post somewhere about including more women in our blogrolls. Was it Tom Peters? Was it one of the “emerging church” folks? Who and where was it?

And while we’re at it…I’m looking to do just that…add some links to blogs from a woman’s perspective…any good links?

Link to Mike Shea’s website…

I found these quotes over there this morning…

One reason I like writing by hand is it slows me down a little, but it also forces me to keep going: I’m never going to spend half a day noodling with a sentence to try and get it just right, if I’m using a pen. I’ll do all that when I start typing.

It slows you down. It makes you think about each word as you write it, and it also gives you more of a chance so that you’re able– the sentences compose themselves in your head. It’s like hearing music, only it’s words. But you see more ahead because you can’t go as fast.

I love music. All kinds. Well, almost all kinds…

Last night and into today, I’m in a jazz mood. On the way home from two funeral homes last night, I was listening to the local jazz station and they featured some Jim Pearce and Rene Marie. So I went hunting this morning, and found that Rene Marie has an “artist radio channel” on Musicmatch. (I’m listening to her rendition of “A Foggy Day” right now!) And I found Jim Pearce’s cd samples as well.

Why jazz? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the uniquely American music. Maybe it’s like Donald Miller said, “It doesn’t resolve.” Maybe it’s the treatment of the standards, the “great American songbook.” Who knows?

I think perhaps when all is said and done, it’s the way that good jazz musicians interact with one another and the music. They improvise. They have give-and-take. Sometimes they lead. Sometimes they follow. Sometimes they push their way to the front to make their contribution. Sometimes they fall into the background to accompany the current leader. Sometimes they play off of what the others are doing. Sometimes they do their own thing together. They color inside and outside the lines while staying within the boundaries of the melody or the chord progression. Sometimes they head out, a little past the boundaries, stubbornly beckoning the others to come along for the ride, exploring new territory.

Maybe the reason I like jazz is because it is – because of all those reasons and more – a great metaphor for life and leadership, especially in these “different” times in which we find ourselves.