Category: General (page 17 of 121)

One of the guys who stops by these parts of the blogosphere from time to time is the illustrious Sean Michael Murphy, of the West Chester, Ohio Murphy clan. He’s quick with a comment, and usually his comments are insightful and make me think. He also happens to have one of the coolest blog titles I know of. Yeah, go on over there and check it out.

Anyway, he posted today about the Adam Sandler movie Click, currently playing at a megaplex near you. His post quickly leaves the movie, and he ends up talking a lot about going back and living your life over with the knowledge and experience you have. What would that be like?

Here’s the last two paragraphs…

None of this really has anything to do with Click. His deal is more about fast forwarding through the rough times. By doing that, he misses out on life…and really living.

I wonder how much of life I miss out on by skipping by the great challenges? How different would my life be, going forward – if I embraced the challenges and dove straight into them, and took some greater risks…

Don’t miss that last “I wonder.” Don’t you dare miss it! In fact, you may want to print it out, tape it where you can see it, and refer to it often. Just so you don’t miss it…

We have a good friend to whom we affectionately and only half-jokingly refer as Mr. Know-It-All. Why? Well, because he knows everything, it seems! (Why else?)

Anyway, Mr. Know-It-All has been a real friend, an encourager, and a butt-kicker when necessary for 15 years or more. I really don’t remember exactly how we became friends, but I do know that his advice and encouragement and prayers have been the only things that have kept me going at times.

Last week, Mr. Know-It-All had a biopsy, and 2 of the 6 scan points (or whatever – I’m not real sure about such things!) came back showing cancer. He’ll go next Tuesday to have some other tests to determine whether the cancer is localized or spreading, and to determine what course of treatment will be best.

If you get a minute, would you lift up a prayer or two for my friend, Mr. Know-It-All, Warren? And you might lift up a couple for Mrs. Know-It-All and their three grown kids, too.

Thanks…

This happens a lot around here, but apparently it’s a mighty big deal in the home of Starbucks.

Check the first comment from one of the baristas…

This is a regular occurrence at our DT. We’ve had mornings when one person will start it and it just spreads all the way down the line–sometimes for hours. It’s a lot of fun. In my town it’s been popularized by pastors of a local church who are some of our best regulars.

Pretty cool, and you really will be amazed at how it touches people at Starbucks and other places, too. Try it!

OK, right on the heels of Gary’s post, Marty Duren steps up on the tee box. Good shot, Marty!

My buddy, Gary Lamb, tees it up, takes aim, and hits it 500 yards down straight down the fairway, when he talks about “the vision thing.”

Same friend, different issues. Things of which my friend’s afraid, and which are really paralyzing my friend’s life…

• That there won’t be enough of God’s provision to sustain my friend and my friend’s family in a time of deep need and crisis.
• That once my friend’s wasted an opportunity, there is never another chance.
• That God does for others but not for my friend.
• That age is a limit to usefulness and fruitfulness.
• That there is no hope, no future, no point.

Since yesterday, I’ve been a sounding board of sorts for a friend, someone pretty close, who’s asking questions and looking for good answers. Questions like…

• It says at least twice in the Bible that “there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Does this mean that everything that seems right to me is in reality the wrong thing? If I’m torn between two courses of action, and one seems right, is the other one automatically the correct choice – no matter how impractical or imprudent it may be?
• In light of the Gideon story, is it ever legitimate to ask for confirmation with a “fleece?” In what types of situations is such confirmation advisable or acceptable?

Now, first to worst…that’s an accomplishment!

I don’t think the Atlanta Braves will ever win another game!

I’ve really been in a jazz mood lately for some reason. Tonight’s Unwind is courtesy of MusicMatch Jukebox‘s On Demand feature. You can listen by artist, by album, by track, or by genre, which is what I’m doing tonight. I clicked on the Jazz genre, and hit the Bebop section. My cup is running over with a wide selection of great jazz!

Right now, for instance, Miles Davis’s original sextet is cookin’ with “Mr. Jackle” from the Milestones album. Immediately prior was “Brazil” from guitarist Grant Green’s The Latin Bit project, and a couple of tracks back was Horace Silver’s classic “Song for My Father,” which became more well-known when Steely Dan stolesampled it on “Rikki, Don’t Lose That Number.”

Anyway, you get the idea…great Unwind stuff!

About Father’s Day…

• I knew it was Father’s Day because of the all the new Hawaiian shirts that made their debuts at church!
• We got home and burned a couple of pieces of dead cow on the grill. Throw that on the plate with a cool salad with my original creation honey mustard vinaigrette, a baked sweet potato, and some grilled peaches (don’t waste those precious chunk charcoal-fired BTUs!) – and you’ve got a Daddy’s Day feast that even a formerly fat guy who’s shed 52 pounds can appreciate!
• Share that fantastic feast with the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” and “The Boy” and it makes the feast even more fantastic! Thanks, y’all!
• Top that off with a three-mile stroll here, phone calls to both dads, and that pretty much sums up a super Father’s Day!

Hope yours was all that and more!

More Unwind notes…it doesn’t get a whole lot better than John Coltrane’s “In a Sentimental Mood,” thank you very much!

…you’ll probably get the wrong answer.

I’m in the middle of Ed Stetzer and David Putman‘s Breaking the Missional Code.

I was talking to my buddy, Gary Lamb, about the book Thursday night. Gary made a couple of interesting comments that I thought were right on track vis-a-vis the book. Gary said, rightly, that the book really is a lot common sense stuff, stuff that we all ought to know already. He also commented that every pastor ought to read the book, but the ones that need it the most probably won’t be inclined to read it.

Right there in the middle of the common sense stuff, right in the middle of the stuff we ought to know already, right there in Chapter 4, “The Missional Church Shift,” Ed and David throw out a challenge to all of us who think our “preferences” are the main thing…

Scripture teaches that we are to ‘consider others better than yourselves’ (Phil. 2:3). This includes the truth that our preferences should never become more important than what our church needs to be and do missionally. For that matter, the church’s focus should not be the preferences of other church members either. A truly biblical church will ask, ‘What will it take to transform this community by the power of the gospel?’ not ‘How many hymns do we have to sing to make everybody happy?’ (p. 51)

That question hit me right between the eyes for some reason! Gary has said more than once – and he’s right – that church planting is the extreme sport of ministry. But there may be nothing more dangerous in ministry than trying to transform a church that seems to be old before its time, a church that needs a turnaround. We’re probably getting the answers to the questions we’re asking. And we probably need to start asking some better questions.

The question for me – in the current church I serve, and in fact, in the one I left to come here – has changed. And it should have changed long ago. The question is not…

How do we grow our church?

The question has to be Ed and David’s question…

What will it take to transform this community by the power of the gospel?

Commons sense stuff? Yep. But we have to choose. And the choice starts with the premises, the presuppositions, the questions.

What will it take to transform this community by the power of the gospel?