links of the week (3.26.10 edition)

Another Friday = a great plethora of links for you to enjoy.

1. Here is some great Japanese humor.  It is very funny to see what a crowd is capable of.
2. I have always loved spoken poetry.  This one is titled “I’m sorry I’m a Christian.” It is a very great message that the church needs to share with the world.
3. Donald Miller wrote a post about the 7 books that made him, and will make you, a greater writer.  Worth checking out.
4. Parenting 101.  We all need.  Vickie and I especially.  The pictures were simply fantastic.
5. When I was a summer youth intern, my times were watching movies and discussing the spiritual realities captured in them.  This week I found out that Mars Hill Church (Seattle) has a similar concept called Film & Theology.  Worth checking out.
6. I have enjoyed Bob Kauflin’s thought on what worship leaders should when they lead worship.  Here is part 1, part 2, and part 3.

quotes of the week (3.25.10 edition)

Sorry for putting this out so late.  I simply forgot yesterday.

Here are my favorite quotes from the past week:

1. “My dream isn’t to be tied to who I am as much as it is who I need to be.” – Christy Leake, quoted on Ben Arment’s blog.
2. “It’s the things that no one sees that produce the results that everyone wants.” – Craig Groeschel
3. “For God is not the author of confusion.” – 1 Cor. 14:33
4. “Complaining is typically followed by inactivity.” – Jon Acuff
5. “Fundraising is as spiritual as giving a sermon, entering a time of prayer, visiting the sick, or feeding the hungry.” – Henri Nouwen
6. “In the end, we are not going to be held accountable for the size of the ministries we built.  We will be judged on the size of the impact we made with those ministries.” – Miles McPherson
7. “It felt wrong not to swing.” – Joquain Phoenix’s character in the movie, Signs, on why he always swung for the fence during his minor league baseball games (despite his huge home runs, he held the record for most strikeouts – similar to Brett Favre comparing his touchdowns to interceptions ratio)

Baby Bunch Chronicles (3.19.10)

Today is a big day for Vickie and I.  We are going to the OB/GYN and getting our first ultrasound. 

I am honestly not sure why it is just now taking place but oh well, that is the cards we were dealt.  We have a few friends who are pregnant who have had one or two ultrasounds and they are not that farther along than we are, so needless to say – we are anxious. 

This is also a big weekend for us because we are going to be with some close friends and family revealing the gender of our baby tomorrow night.  We technically won’t find out what our sex our baby is until tomorrow with everyone else but this is still a big baby.

I will let you know more when I find out more.  Pray for the best results.  Like I said, we haven’t had many tests done so we are a little nervous and somewhat scared but this is going to make it a reality for us.  I might cry.  I might not cry till we cut the cake and see if it is either pink or blue.  I will fill you in soon. 

Bye.

links of the week (3.19.10 edition)

Another Friday.  Another list of things for you to read.

1. Real men are bridesmaids.  Posts like these are great reminders of why we do what we do.  Is it for our glory or for God’s?  Also the picture at the top is hilarious.
2. The Lonely Entrepreneur is Lame.  This post by John Saddington is all about having a team behind you.
3. Integrity should be your highest virtue.  This post by Michael Hyatt motivated me once again to make integrity something to always strive for no matter what.
4. Sometimes I forget what a pastor is going through.  This post, which is actually an email to Clayton King after he spoke at Newspring about protecting the pastor, is great in order to remind yourself that pastors are people too.  They have a lot on their plates and sometimes they don’t have anyone to help hold them up in support and encouragement.
5. I found this post great fun.  The 15 noteworthy that changed the internet.  Agree or disagree with what should or should not be on there?
6. We all have communication issues sometimes.  Here is a post that I thought was helpful for avoiding mistakes when communicating expectations. 
7. One of my favorite worship songs was tainted and unused almost immediately after it took the world by storm.  That song is Healer by Mike Guglielmucci and it was frowned upon because the story of Mike’s cancer was a lie.  However, this post redeems that song for me.  This is my favorite post of the week. 
8. Content is what matters.  After all, if you have every kind of equipment yet nothing to say, it is all for not.  Great post on one of my favorite blogs. 
9. So check this out, Donald Miller has a blog.  Yep, the guy who wrote Blue Like Jazz and Searching for God knows what.  That guy.  It’s also really, really good.  Here is a simple post about turning every-day actions into spiritual rituals. 

What things on the Internet are inspiring you?

quotes of the week (3.18.10 edition)

Thursday are starting to become one of my favorite days because I am able to share with you what quotes rocked me over the past few days.

Here they are for this week:

1. “Justice is truth in action.” – Benjamin Disraeli, 19th century British prime minister  (I got this one from reading a blog about LOST.
2. “If we insist on keeping Hell (or even Earth), we shall not see Heaven:  if we accept Heaven, we shall not be able to retain the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.” – C.S. Lewis, from the Great Divorce
3. “Your greatest temptation will not be to chase after what is ridiculously evil, but what is deceptively good.” – Pete Wilson
4. “It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.” – from the one-word motivational poster for the word MISTAKES
5. “Successful people rarely confuse a can-do-attitude with a smart plan.  But they realize that one without the other is unlikely to get you very far.” – Seth Godin
6. “Humanity was created in the image of God and ever since humanity has been returning the favor.” – Rene Descartes (I have hard this a lot over the years and I finally discovered who said it first.)
7. “My giving will be rewarded not by how much I gave but by how much I left.” – A.W. Tozer
8. “Honesty is making your words conform to reality.  Integrity is making your reality conform to your words.” – Stephen Covey
9. “One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.”— E. M. Forste

What quotes have rocked you lately?

links of the week (3.12.10 edition)

Another Friday.  Another list of links for you to ponder and take a gander through.

1. Uncool people need Jesus too.  This is a must read post for church planters.  Title says it all.
2. Madison Richard’s thoughts on Donald Miller’s new book struck me.  Not because it is a review.  But because it is something that I need to see lived out in my own way.  After all, a story worth sharing is a story worth living.
3. The key to leadership is delegation.  I know this from some successful experiences, but mainly from failures.  This was a great article, specifically for pastors, but for all who wish to simply be better at outsourcing as well as to learn the reasons behind it.
4. This blog post got me thinking about leadership.  Here is the list without his great notes: The 5 marks of authentic leadership according to Michael Hyatt are Insight, Initiative, Influence, Impact, and Integrity.
5. Why are sermons so long?  What if we switched the messages in our church to say 5 minutes?  What would happen?  Read this post and you might consider it.
6. Things you can’t do when you’re not a dog.   Funny video.
7. My favorite commercial of all time is the most recent Old Spice commercial featuring the guy one the horse.  Hilarious.  If you haven’t seen it, here it is.  But I found something even that made that video so much more better.  They used hardly any CGI.  It was mostly made live without the use of computers.  Here is a making of video for you to see how.

quotes of the week (3.11.10)

It is Thursday and I have some great quotes for this week.

Here they are:

1. “Sometimes we need to die to our dreams so that God can resurrect them…No death = no resurrection.” – Mark Batterson
2. “Multitasking, in short, is not only thinking, it impairs your ability to think.  Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it.” – Stanford teams of researchers found here.
3. “The measure of leadership cannot be found in the leader; it is found in the impact the leader has on his or her followers.” – Michael Hyatt
4. “Our past successes can be one of the greatest contributing factors to our future demise.” – Tony Morgan
5. “Suddenly having money won’t make you better (or worse).  It will only magnify who you already are.  If you are selfish with what you have now, your selfishness will only grow when you have more.” – Colin Cowherd (ESPN).  Thanks to Mike for posting this one.
6. “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy
7. “No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight in heaven who does not, in some measure, behold it by faith in this world.  Grace is a necessary preparation for glory and faith for sight.” – John Owen
8. “When you show folks how they can make a difference, you’ll have no trouble attracting people to get involved.” – Brad Cooper
9. “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” – Maria Robinson
10. “Don’t ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman

What are some quotes that have changed your life?

living truly for Jesus?

What do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about becoming a follower of Jesus?

That is a question that I believe that we all need to wrestle with from time to time.  But I believe that you can get even more specific and ask it this way:

Am I representing Jesus in the most accurate way with my life?

This is something that I have been pondering recently and I honestly have had a lot of insights into where I am falling away from representing Him most truly.

I hope you will ponder this question and see where you come up short.

After all, Paul told us in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5).  This forces you to examine if you are living out your faith truly.

charlotte

Charlotte.  What a beloved city.

Vickie, myself, and some close friends are going to visit Charlotte today.  I am excited to get away for a day.

We are looking at getting a new car and the one my wife wants is in Charlotte.  But we are also going to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D Imax.  And then going to attend Elevation Church at their newly built Matthews Campus.

Going to be experiencing worship for the first time in a while without actually leading the worship.  I am sure that I will be given some insights.  I hope to share with you soon.

What are your plans for the weekend?

holy discontent

My soul is craving more.  I am not sure what it is at the moment but I am desiring more out of my life.

Just so you know, it is not as if my life is not satisfying because I have a wonderful wife, a great job that fits my situation, have great roommates, belong to and connect to a great church, with kid on the way and a dog that destroys your dog in every way except by physical threat (b/c she is like 4 inches tall and cute as a button – hey I’m a softy).  But something is missing.

Something in my soul needs to be spurred on.  I have come to realize that it is a holy discontent.

A holy discontent that simply wants to see more people come to know God through His Son.

I don’t know how to do that, but that is my passion right now. I don’t care if they go to a service on a Sunday.  Or if they go to a small group.  I don’t care if they are serving at the moment. I don’t even care if they are stuck in their sin.

I desperately desire only for them to be connected to God in relationship.

And then everything else will take care of itself.