Monday, October 13, 2008
Quote o' the day
“Every concept formed by the intellect in an attempt to comprehend and circumscribe the divine nature can succeed only in fashioning an idol, not in making God known.” - Gregory of Nyssa, “Life of Moses”
Monday, September 1, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
What the heck?
Brain Lateralization Test Results |
| Right Brain (66%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (24%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain |
Are You Right or Left Brained?
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
New Addiction
Featured in the September issue of Food & Wine is my new favorite place on earth:
http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/where-to-go-next-best-us-coffee-bars
http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/where-to-go-next-best-us-coffee-bars
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Q & A
Relevant Magazine recently asked,
"As the Church moves forward in the new millennium, what is the biggest problem facing the body of Christ?"
Chuck Colson:
"We have substituted therapy for Truth. We hear a feel-good message, and we’ve lost our understanding of the basic truths of Christianity. The world is defining us by the attacks of aggressive secularists, best-selling authors who admit to being anti-theists. They will continue to define us unless we learn how to define ourselves—and not only define ourselves, but live out our faith in such a way that people can see the invisible Kingdom made visible in our midst."
"As the Church moves forward in the new millennium, what is the biggest problem facing the body of Christ?"
Chuck Colson:
"We have substituted therapy for Truth. We hear a feel-good message, and we’ve lost our understanding of the basic truths of Christianity. The world is defining us by the attacks of aggressive secularists, best-selling authors who admit to being anti-theists. They will continue to define us unless we learn how to define ourselves—and not only define ourselves, but live out our faith in such a way that people can see the invisible Kingdom made visible in our midst."
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Are you a chaplain?
I had coffee with a very good friend yesterday morning. What was supposed to be 30 minutes of getting caught up turned into 2 hours. We talked about what has happened over the past few months since we had last gotten together. I've only known this friend for 15 months and so even now we are still sharing more and more of our story and how we came to be where we are.
I was telling him about a phone call from another friend the week before where we discussed his struggles with a potential inappropriate workplace relationship when the topic of a former pastor came up. I was describing this pastor's week as roughly 40 hours of office time in sermon/teaching prep with an occasional trip to the hospital, wedding and/or funeral....no time in the community, no time in a small group, no relationships with the lost, no feeding the hungry or clothing the poor....nothing that I believe Jesus came to die for. His response has had me thinking ever since:
"So....he was your chaplain."
He went on talking but I glazed over (I'm not a very good listener at times). Let me stop and say this is in no way meant to bemean the role of a chaplain. I've only known two people who were chaplains and both were amazing people. I guess I'm stuck on how some people who call themselves pastors and that take on that incredible task can get to a place where they believe that 90% of their life should be given to sermon preparation.
I truly believe that he was/is a product of a lot of things but mostly a time and place that takes the idea of the equipping of the saints as they (try) to do the rest of the Bible.....literally. I guess the idea is, "I'm just called to equip the saints." How anyone can get to a place where they believe they are in no way called as a Christian to get out and live life among the world and put "their money where their mouth is", is beyond me.
I know this generation is passing away. Most of the pastors I know spend intentional time outside the walls of the church engaging this wonderful world that Jesus came to die for and have a pretty good grasp of God's mission of reconciliation. Many of the pastors I know and interact with are actually trying to figure out how to get more of themselves and the money that comes in back into the community to meet the needs of the least, last and lost.
As always, I apologize that you choose to be subjected to my ramblings....just my way of processing the ideas bouncing around in my head about the idea of pastors as chaplains.
I was telling him about a phone call from another friend the week before where we discussed his struggles with a potential inappropriate workplace relationship when the topic of a former pastor came up. I was describing this pastor's week as roughly 40 hours of office time in sermon/teaching prep with an occasional trip to the hospital, wedding and/or funeral....no time in the community, no time in a small group, no relationships with the lost, no feeding the hungry or clothing the poor....nothing that I believe Jesus came to die for. His response has had me thinking ever since:
"So....he was your chaplain."
He went on talking but I glazed over (I'm not a very good listener at times). Let me stop and say this is in no way meant to bemean the role of a chaplain. I've only known two people who were chaplains and both were amazing people. I guess I'm stuck on how some people who call themselves pastors and that take on that incredible task can get to a place where they believe that 90% of their life should be given to sermon preparation.
I truly believe that he was/is a product of a lot of things but mostly a time and place that takes the idea of the equipping of the saints as they (try) to do the rest of the Bible.....literally. I guess the idea is, "I'm just called to equip the saints." How anyone can get to a place where they believe they are in no way called as a Christian to get out and live life among the world and put "their money where their mouth is", is beyond me.
I know this generation is passing away. Most of the pastors I know spend intentional time outside the walls of the church engaging this wonderful world that Jesus came to die for and have a pretty good grasp of God's mission of reconciliation. Many of the pastors I know and interact with are actually trying to figure out how to get more of themselves and the money that comes in back into the community to meet the needs of the least, last and lost.
As always, I apologize that you choose to be subjected to my ramblings....just my way of processing the ideas bouncing around in my head about the idea of pastors as chaplains.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Post of the year!
I read a ton of blog posts every day. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50. It goes without saying that I don't read every word of every post but I do skim all of them to find the ones that I am interested in. As you may or may not know, there is a synchroblog of some 50 people today posting on the word "missional" (the rest of the folks are listed at the bottom of David's post). I guess it is the nature of my interests but about a dozen of the people taking part are in my google reader. This link will take you to what is, right now, the best post I've read this year. I guess it is because I'm a recovering mega-church member. My family and I have been a part of 3 different mega-churches over the past 10 years in 3 different cities and two different states. There are many positive things about mega-churches but in the end, we decided that for us, the negatives (probably not the right word) outweighed the positives. I've struggled to put my feelings into words on why we had to leave LifeChurch but, where I have failed, David Fitch has excelled. Do you ever read something that makes you wonder if that person has been offloading brainwaves from you? That was this post for me.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
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