I’m not endorsing or opposing a candidate, but I found the lead in this article interesting, to say the least…
Mike Huckabee learned how to be a politician in church.
Very interesting, kind of, well, sad…
Your mileage may vary, as usual…
Category: Church (page 3 of 5)
Long, long day. Tired. No music playing for the Unwind tonight. Not literally, anyway. Got an earworm for Gesu Bambino, as sung by one of the most gifted and talented sopranos I know…the great Alison Holmes Adams, who just happened to sing that tonight at our Christmas Eve Eve “Christmas Songs” program. And who also just happens to be the wife of our student minister (and the real reason we keep him around!) 🙂
Some Sunday night stuff…
- Our pianist ain’t too shabby, either! (I’ll show you who he is when I find out where he is online!)
- Our little group of singers is pretty OK, too! (Thanks, gang!)
- The lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” knows how to throw a party!
- Lots of guests tonight – including some of “The Boy’s” buds!
- Speaking of “The Boy…” I got a text message from him earlier this week that simply said: “I killed my dinner tonight.” He already got his Christmas gifts from us: Georgia Boots and blue jeans. He’s turning into a regular South Georgia good ol’ boy. Go figure…
- I sat at brunch and post-concert reception today calculating how many strides on the elliptical machine it will take tomorrow to undo the nutritional damage I did today. Not good…
- But, hey…doesn’t part of the Christmas magic include a magical, mystical disappearance of all calories in party goodies? I thought so…
- I don’t care who you are, the Vince Guaraldi soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas sure makes for great Christmas party background music!
- We talked about hiding Christmas gifts in plain view this morning. And isn’t that really what God did when Jesus showed up in a manger in Bethlehem?
- Got one of these from one of my members. No, silly…not one of those members. One of these members!
- Mmmmmm…sausage balls, tea cakes, red punch, hot wassail punch, chocolate chip cookies, pound cake, sugar cookies, etc! Did I mention the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” sure knows how to throw a party?!?!
- 4:00 a.m. comes early in the morning, especially when it’ll be 20-something degrees outside. Brrrrrrr!
That’ll pretty much do it for me tonight! Where’s my cap? I’m settling in for a short winter’s nap…later!
Most of you loyal readers of this little attempt at a blog – both of you! – are also fans(?) of my buddy Gary Lamb, the lead pastor of Revolution Church in Canton and soon-to-be Jasper, Georgia. It seems I have more and more opportunities to invite folks to Revolution! (Can you “invite” someone somewhere you don’t go yourself? Hmmmm….good question!)
Anyway, I met a guy at the YMCA today who has just moved here from Arizona. In the course of our conversation, we started talking about churches and how he and his family haven’t found a church yet, etc., etc.
I asked what he was looking for in a church. His answer: Something upbeat with a great kids experience for his son. He asked about my church, and I honestly pointed him toward Revolution.
“What’s the pastor like?” my new friend asked.
I just laughed. “Just go Sunday and hear him preach,” I responded. And I laughed again.
Overheard in a mall store yesterday…
Isn’t it amazing that the pastors who make such a big deal about ‘reaching manly men’ all dress like gay rock stars?
Too funny…
As both of you loyal readers know, I serve a small traditional church as pastor. I just finished up a message series yesterday about our mission as believers. The final talk was a challenge to be “messengers of hope” in our neighborhoods and our city. Included in the talk was this statement…
You are not the hope of your neighbors. You are not the hope of our city, our county, our state, our nation, or our world. That job is already filled! Jesus – and only Jesus – is the hope!
I told our folks I hoped that would take some of the pressure off their lives. But then I said I wanted to put a little bit of it back on: The only way some folks in our neighborhoods, our city, our county, our state, our nation, and our planet will ever find the real Hope is if we start being messengers of hope ourselves.
Sometimes when you step up and take the initiative you should have been taking all along, you don’t get the negative response you were dreading. In fact, it works out pretty well!
To the two or maybe three of you who care, I apologize for not making good on my promise to fill in the blanks about quitting from a couple of weeks ago, so let me give you the Reader’s Digest version of “I Quit Today.”
Two Sundays ago, my talk was called “I Quit,” and I based it on 2 Corinthians 4, which God had been using to rock my world for several days at the time. I prefaced my message by saying that there comes a time when, contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s OK, even necessary to quit. (I hadn’t read Seth Godin’s The Dip at the time, but my later reading of his little book on quitting sure resonated with my heart and mind!) Anyway, about this time, you could sense the tension in the congregation when I announced that I was quitting. I went on to talk about seven things I was quitting, effective immediately. (Here they are, in case you’re interested).
- I quit playing church – and start pleasing God. Life is way too short to play to the audiences that don’t get it, that don’t care about it, and that really don’t matter in the eternal scheme of things.
- I quit being responsible for things I’m not responsible for – and start fulfilling my calling. I am responsible for doing some things and doing them as well as possible. But I am not responsible for everything.
- I quit focusing on peripheral issues – and start focusing on what really matters.
- I quit doing everything I can – and start operating in God’s power and with God’s resources.
- I quit complaining about how bad I have it – and start being grateful for the work God is doing in my life.
- I quit placating the insiders – and start seeking out those who are far from God.
- I quit gazing at what’s around – and start concentrating on what’s ahead.
There you have it, ladies and gentlemen…use it if you want it. Learn from it if it helps. Ignore it if it doesn’t. But whatever you do with it, I’d certainly appreciate and benefit from your prayers. Thanks!
Stay tuned…more details to come…
My buddy Tony McCollum rocks! Go check out the great stuff that Tony’s leading at Mill Cree…uh, FUSION Church!
Tony’s quote from a text message…
We changed the name and raised some money. Can’t beat that! 🙂
Nope, Tony, you can’t beat that! And you can’t beat good friends! Thanks!
Started a new series today at The ‘Crest.