idiot pastors

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x55yaw_church-sign_news

gas prices

this is not a blog complaining about gas prices. i am concerned in the turn that it has taken the last 5 years. when i was in college gas ran around $1.30. i could fill up between $12-15. that would last me almost a month in college. i did not have to drive that much in college. i chose when it was important to drive. i had friends that would drive from one side of the campus to the other because they thought it was easier. i chose to walk. iwu is not that big of a campus and i try not to be that lazy.

today i drive 8.5 each way back and forth to work. i also drive anywhere between 20-100 miles during the work day in which i am reimbursed $.45/mile. we live about 11 miles from our church and about the same from our closest friends in the area. jenny drives about 4 miles to work at the most. overall we drive about 300 miles a week. the overwhelming majority for work/church.

a lot of people are complaining about gas prices. the ones i see complaining most are driving big trucks and suv's. gas is all about choosing what is important and what you can live with or without. america is starting to see there entertainment funds go down.

i remember going over to canada every now and then over the years and noticing that gas always cost quite a bit more. i always wondered about this and today i looked up gas prices around the world. after reading this i was quite thankful for the $3.81/gallon that i paid for this morning.

Belgium $8.84
Canada 4.73
Italy 7.20
Israel 7.30
Turkey 10.13
UK 8.18

but there were also countries that paid hardly anything

venezuela $.17
saudi arabia .45
kuwait .78
iran .33

what is the difference? these countries produce quite a bit of oil. i believe the united states needs to start using our gasoline.

for more gas prices around the world check out these sites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_usage_and_pricing
http://fabulously40.com/article/2171/Price-of-gas-from-around-the-world/

a bit political

obama is very optimistic. he thinks that if he is voted in as president he will be able to change how politics are done. he says it all with a smile, good mannerisms and an upbeat positive attitude.

i just cant help to think that i heard these same things as i was a student at indiana wesleyan. i enjoyed my time there. the profs we very upbeat and optimistic. they were challenging us to be world changers. and we as students believed we could.

we did not know however what we were getting into. i am now four and a half years removed from iwu. i have done some amazing things in ministry and enjoyed the time. but i cant help to feel a bit disappointed at times.

i almost begin to wonder if we vote in obama if we will end up feeling the same way. he has told us that he can bring change to washington. but what if he doesnt. in four years will we feel a bit disappointed.

every candidate for president has promised something while running but there has been many broken promises. the one that sticks out in my mind is bush, sr with his line "no new taxes." we all know how that worked out for us.

i wonder what would happen if candidates just came out and told us the truth.

"i cannot promise change, but this is what i will do to try to see it happen."
"i will work on trying to pass this bill, but it will probably be turned down in congress."
"life for you will change only when you act to bring about change."

but he or she probably wouldnt be voted in.

the rock (stars) cries out

i am not sure how many of you saw the idol gives back, i did not. however i did here about it. many people have commented how nice it was to here them sing a worship song. others have commented on the changing of the name Jesus to Shepherd. other then it sounding pretty nice with the quality sounding solos by my two favorites on the show. yes i have favorites. with the writers strike and not much to choose i have actually watched american idol for the first time in however many seasons.

the inquiry that i have to ask about was that song worship?

i cannot speak of the hearts of the people on american idol. some of them might be very solid believers of Christ and have a great relationship with Him. if that is the case then it could be considered worship.

and for the christians who might have been watching them sing it could have been a worship experience.

what i am wondering is did the unbelievers singing or watching this performance actually worship?

can there be worship with unbelief? what is worship in spirit and truth?

defending the weak

today as i was working i was listening to erwin mcmanus. he was discussing how early on in the marriage that he fought with his wife on the topic of pacifism vs war. he was a new christian at the time and would always come to the same conclusion that Jesus would not where a sword. his wife however grew up with a world war ii veteran for a father.

one night when mcmanus and some friends were going out for the evening he witness this lady being dragged by a guy with her hair. he was being very forceful. in this highly populated area with everyone watching and no one doing a thing he decided he would. so using force he stopped the guy from hurting the woman.

he went home that night to tell his wife he was no longer a pacifist. he realized that there was a time for using force. there are many people today that cannot stand up for themselves. they are taken advantage of in everyway imaginable. some of these wars can be fought without weapons. but we are supposed to stand up for the weak and unprotected.

my friend brandon wrote in his blog this weak this quote by mlk jr. "you not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him." you can read the rest here www.runningcautiously.blogspot.com

when war is fueled by hate is a topic for another blog. but a war fueled by the protection of innocent lives is another story for me. you will not see me carrying a weapon. but hopefully in all the "wars of life" that i fight it is not done through hate or despite but for defending those who cannot defend themselves.

keeping the innovators

Innovation today is at a high; tomorrow innovation will be a new high. In other words change is happening quickly. In the last few years we have gone from the simple iPod to the iPod Video and today we have the iPhone. This has brought a major change to Apple, Inc. The iPod brought about iTunes, which has brought a new industry to the company. Apple has been able to do something that a lot of churches have not been able to do, incorporate new ideas to move the company forward.
There are many innovative leaders today. Jason is 28 and is serving at his fourth church. He has done some amazing things at each of his churches. I also think of Ben who is 27 and is one of the most talented young pastors I know. He has put a lot of time and energy into the ministry. He comes home exhausted and worn out and does it again the next day. Churches can learn a lot from these Pastors, but what can churches do to help them?
A young assistant pastor went to his Senior Pastor and told him he felt like he had to resign. He felt led to make movies that would lead people to Christ. The Senior Pastor asked, Why not do that within our church? This was the start of the movie Facing the Giants. What would happen if more churches would receive pastors ideas like this?
Churches need to 1. Encourage people in their efforts. The church board voted to bring them on staff and now needs to help develop them. 2. Volunteer to be involved in a ministry position. Pastors are overworked because they are filling roles that can and should be filled by others in the congregation. 3. Understand that “New ideas are usually germinated from a sincere desire to see a church increase or improve its ministry” 4. Give them time to be creative and implement them. You cannot change them from being an innovative leader. You have a choice of letting them create or snuffing the passion because they no longer have the time. When this happens, you will more often say goodbye. 5. Send them to conferences to spark their creativity even more. This will give them opportunities to spark their creativity.
If you do these things I will not guarantee success. Every church is not meant to make movies. But when a church focuses on innovation you might end up with the churches version of the iPod, something that might change your church for future generations to come.

cant wait

taboos in the church #2

i am also still a little dumbfounded by another taboo in the church. taking sides on the football grid iron has become quite an interesting situation. i am from maine and i love the new england patriots. a few months ago the pastor invited us to wear our football jerseys to church to support our favorite team. so i did, thinking nothing of it. of course the favorite team he was talking about were the colts.

i was also very new to the church, so when i show up to church with my jersey on not really thinking too much of it, i received borderline harassment. i became that patriots guy. at the beginning of the service my good friend john welcomed the crowd by asking if there were any colts fans in the house today and asked them to stand, the crowd erupted. then he suggested that his friend was wearing a patriots jersey. he asked me to stand and turn. we had a good laugh out of it.

but what pursued in the next months made me realize that today sports can be a big taboo. even though i know it was in good fun i really just got sick always being referred to as the patriots fan. most conversations were started out that way, it became very old. i never realized that colts fans were so bitter against the patriots.

i just moved here from new york which is the middle of yankee country. of course i am a red sox fan. but in my two years in new york i never received near the trouble that i did in the last couple of months living in indy. does that mean yankees fans actually have more class?

what other taboos have you seen with the church?

taboos in the church

when i grew up there were certain things you just did not discuss within the church. when i was young i remember my mother telling me how people viewed things differently. even though someone votes for one person over another does not mean they are any less christian then the other. but of course there was the underlying idea that she would vote republican no matter what.

when i was in college profs emphasized in classes that pulpits were not the place to endorse a candidate over another. it came out which professors were democrat and which were republican. i am not sure what year it happened, if i was still at iwu or shortly after i left.

this year it seems like everyone has taken sides. i have friends that have definately supported huckabee from the very beginning. others who supported romney, well atleast til today. i have some friends who are all about the obama sensation. while i usually just sit in the background and listen to the conversation or read their blog.

about 6 weeks ago a friend asked me who i was looking to vote for. this was back before no candidates had dropped out yet. and i knew that indiana's primary still would not take place until may. i told them "at this time, i have it narrowed down to five candidates. they laughed and chastised me for not knowing this very critical decision. i figured i had plenty of time to figure it out. i knew by the time that i had a chance to place my vote in may most of the candidates would be out anyway. i definately knew i would be ready to voice who i would vote for in november.

today 4 candidates are left are left. i have now narrowed it down to three candidates. even though i still am reserved about all three of them. i do have a front runner. but personally i am still involved in the church and do not feel like taking sides. i still believe that this is a taboo within the church and there are other battles that i am concerned with more then duking it on on who will be a better president.

today though people are a little more open minded then they were when i was growin up. as long as you back up why you are planning on voting for this person it wont necessarily mean that you will be chastised from the church. but i am still not going to tell you who i am voting for.

stay tuned next week for social taboo #2

pursuit of perfection

if it is possible it is very tough to be perfect. perfection as a wesleyan is something that we are supposed to shoot for. but i am wondering if it is possible. when i was a sophomore in high school my jv basketball team went 15-0 and then we played our last game of the season and lost. we were so close to the possibility of perfection.

this season the new england patriots had the same shot. they won all 16 games of the regular season and the first two games of the playoffs. unfortuntely in the superbowl they fell short. i however want to concentrate on the first 16 games. they were undefeated. which the record portrays perfection. but in reality was it perfection?

in the first 16 games tom brady who was voted mvp of the nfl set an record in most touchdowns (50), had 69% completion in passes with 4,806 yards. as good as tom brady was though. he threw a total of 8 interceptions. sure that is amazing but it is not perfect. he was also sacked a total of 21 times. still not bad by any means but definately not flawless.

randy moss caught 98 passes with 23 of them being for touchdowns which is also an nfl record for td receptions. and i know this is hard to bellieve but did actually drop a few passes.

in the end though during the regular season the patriots were perfect as a team. their record is now in the history books. the perfection was a team effort, individually they would have fallen short.

in the church you will experience the same thing. imperfect people messing up striving to be perfect because that is what we are called to achieve. what would happen in the church if we picked on everyones faults. left them to achieve it on their own. in football teammates pick each other up when they are down. they also defend each other in the media. you have to in order for your team to be strong. the same thing needs to happen within the church, if we are ever to be perfect we have to fight as a team, protect each other from the enemy. build an encourage other believers.

it will only happen as a team if we are going to change the direction of the church. people will never change their opinion on the church, unless we try to work together.

updates/ thoughts

1. the movie juno is a must see. very well written.

2. grad school is going well. but takes up a lot of my free time. my first class was an A. non profit management has started well and has sparked the business side of me already after just one week.

3. a lot of changes are taking place at church. i pray they are the right decisions. starting march 2 we are cancelling the poorly attended traditional service and moving to one unity service for a time. possibly up to six months.

4. the patriots season was amazing. if only they could have finished well (future blog coming on this)

5. i am speaking on the pros and cons of the internet to a group of 5-6 graders on wednesday.

6. i think one day i would like to plant a church in portland, me

7. i cant wait for the writers strike to be over. i need the office back in my life (by the way john krasinski is a patriots fan

heart

does the heart of a person really matter? in my four years of ministry i have seen some people with great big hearts. it really is an amazing thing to come to the realization that when someone cares one can change change the world, maybe not the whole world, but atleast the whole world for somebody. the same can be said when hearts are cold. it can bruise an wound other hearts around it.

in my first ministry, the song leader would lead the congregation in worship but would refuse to pray out loud. whether it was nerves or lack of confidence i am not sure. it did not matter if it was in front of the congregation or in a board meeting the man refused to pray. was it his heart?

during the last few years there has been a war of sorts. traditional vs modern worship. hymns vs choruses. hymnals vs projectors. unfortunately for the most part young vs old. i have attended churches with both styles. when i was in college i was in a traditional setting. with all the chapels during this time being more modern. in my first ministry position the pastor was trying to take the congregation to more of a contempory/early 90's setting. in pulaski we were relatively modern. at fall creek we have a service for each. at any time while attending these churches i have never really considered changing the style of music. but in so many other churches people are arguing about style. i question why this actually happens. is the argument about the style of music or an issue with the heart?

i have visited mega-churches that are very traditional but yet are thriving and tiny churches with a very modern feel. not to say that the size of the church reflects the heart, but to show that the style of music does not reflect being relevant.

in greenville one sunday right before the service was about to start a teen came to me and told me that an adult blew her off when she had handed her a flyer for our fundraiser coming up by laying it down 2 seconds after it was given to her only to walk away. this situation not only reflected the heart of this lady but also crushed the heart of the teen. how is it that the heart can be affected this much?

when will this end? not that all churches have all sorts of trouble. i bet the percentages are less then one thinks. but i think it is the the smaller percentage making a bigger splash. all of these are issues of the heart. when i go into a church and music plays it doesnt matter how it is played or what is playing it. but the squabbles of the few are affecting those outside the church. they are starting to take notice.

in a recent article on thechristianpost.com titled how do unchurched americans view christianity, "A full 72 percent of the people interviewed said they think the church ‘is full of hypocrites,’" said LifeWay Research director Ed Stetzer. "At the same time, however, 71 percent of the respondents said they believe Jesus ‘makes a positive difference in a person’s life’ and 78 percent said they would ‘be willing to listen’ to someone who wanted to share what they believed about Christianity."

unfortunately what the world sees is not the truth. while the church does have some hypocrites, i truly believe with all my heart that it is full of loving and faithful people who occassionally mess up. i believe the church has a good heart. while sometimes misrepresented or misguided at times i believe their is a lot of loving God and loving neighbor being done. what my hope and prayer is that the world starts to see it.

change

everyone is discussing change. it seems that 2008 might be the year for change. from politics to the church to the environment everything is changing. technology has never stopped changing and as much that has changed in the past year more things will change this year.

1. president- by the end of 2008, the united states will have a new president. this has already been decided. obama is running on the campaing of changing washington. if he or hilary are elected it will be a quite the change as well. them being the first multi-racial or woman in the oval office. either way we will have a change.

2. technology- with the iphone and the wii, technology is becoming more interactive. people are choosing the interaction of the wii over ps3 and xbox360 even though the graphics might be better with the latter two. with sites like facebook people are becoming less interactive. the need to call your friend who lives 500 miles away is no longer needed but we can check in on him and be updated on their life.

3. environment-people are becoming more green. this process has taken a lot longer then it should have. but people are being more aware of global warming. as i type this it is 65 degrees outside. and while this might not be directly effected from the warming of the globe, one still has to wonder. smaller cars are going to become increasingly popular. not just because of the new standards by the government but it is the more trendy vehicle to own. gone are the days of the bigger suv and gladly welcome the hybrids, smart cars and vehicles with 40mpg or more.

4. church- agreeing with books like unchristian and revolution, you will see more community. people are now wanting to be closer to a few then friends with a lot. this community will happen more outside the walls of the church building in homes, restaurants and coffee shops. you will continue to see more home church plants. the church will become smaller and bigger. there will be less church buildings with a lot more closing their doors. the bigger churches will absorb the people from these other churches.there will also be more mega-ministries. places like lifechurch.tv will grow more. other megachurches are planning on going multi-site life newspring church in south carolina.

nothing that i have written here is new info. but what are we supposed to do with the info on this. we know everything is changing. but how are we as pastors adapt to change our ministries to cope with all this change. if all this change is happening then what do we do in order not to fall behind. church has essentially been done the same way for hundreds of years with a few adaptations here and there. will we allow all these changes to happen but not change our ministries. it doesnt mean adding a projector to the sanctuary, and it doesnt mean singing the newest worship songs with a rock band. but it definately means the times they are a changin.

new years

i am not sure how you feel about making resolutions. i remember back in high school giving up soda for a year. i was pretty proud of myself for keeping the resolution. it was the only time i ever made one. so if you ask me that is a pretty good record for new years resolutions. i have found i do not really have a need for resolutions. today the biggest three resolutions are about getting in shape, quitting smoking, and not swearing. all of which are very admirable.

as you know i am a huge red sox fan. the other day while reading an interview with jacoby ellsbury, their center fielder. they asked him if he had made any new years resolution. he responded by saying. "Normally, I'm a person that will make goals all year round." so i guess he has an idea of how to get to where he feels he needs to be. it is not about making resolutions but setting goals, continually re-examining those goals and figuring out if you are reaching those goals.

i think the goal of setting a resolution is transformation. while i do not set resolutions i am all about setting goals to see life transforming change.

so for those of you that might be setting resolutions good luck. have a fun year

santa?

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake

You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming
Santa Claus is coming
Santa Claus is coming to town

from the lyrics of this song santa could be a deity or a stalker. either way i am scared of what he has become.
all we have to do is sit on his lap and he will make our wishes come true. all we have to do is believe in him.

the sound of silence

the last two weeks i have driven around in silence. you have to understand, i love music. i have never understood those who like to drive without a cd playing in the background. i also like talk radio and podcasts. but for two weeks i have not listened to a thing other then the revving of the engine and the blowing of the warm air.

you see two weeks ago my car was broken into. i noticed it on a tuesday morning as i was about to leave for work. my door was open a little as i approached and i thought, thats weird. as i walked closer i realized glass was on the ground. when i looked into the vehicle i notice the cd player had been yanked out, at about the sametime i realized why i could not find my ipod. it had also been in the car. so literally there has been no sound in my life as i have been driving or working out.

i thought that silence would be tougher. but it hasnt. in some ways i have very much enjoyed it. i have been praying a little more. i have been processing my life a lot more and when jenny rides with me a lot more conversation happens then normal. the other day i drove our second vehicle and after a couple second after turning on the car i realized there was music. it was almost a shock.

the insurance covered the cost of the cd player. but i havent been in too much of a hurry to go out and pick one up. i know if we had a long road trip coming up i would definately rush to have one installed. but for now i kind of like the silence. i am not sure if it is related to my day job. you see at the moment i work at a ymca before and after school program where there is absolutely no silence. my mornings and afternoons are filled with screaming, crying, laughter, whining. for now a silent drive is actually invited.

how big small can be

i frequently look for new music on myspace or purevolume. today i found a band that is absolutely amazing. you might have heard of them. they are starting to get quite a name for themselves. check them out at www.myspace.com/1000generations. they are very refreshing christians/ musicians with original lyrics. this is one of the songs.

My hands cannot hold the world,
But they can help someone in need,
And my cash could never end hunger,
But it will help someone to eat.

It may seem insignificant but lately,
I think sometimes we forget…

Just how big small can be,
it doesn’t have to be, all or nothing.
How big does small have to be,
for us to do something?
And find how big small can be

A fire starts with a single flame,
It’s not hard to see its attribution.
A storm starts with just a drop of rain,
And it only takes one, one man to start a revolution!

So if it seems insignificant then maybe,
It’s just that we are prone to forget…

What if one person changes one person,
Is that worth the time?
What if one difference makes all the difference
And we start to find…

a christian

i have been thinking about the definition of a christian the last few days. i had a conversation with andrew who i met when i was his youth pastor in new york. he is now studying youth ministry and business at iwu. he mentioned how a girl spoke at chapel the other day and seemed pretty mad about the direction of the church. she claimed no one took the name of christian anymore, how we are all ashamed to be associated with the church. sure i was not there and did not hear her speak on this topic, but here are some of my thoughts.

is there anything wrong with with using the term "follower of Christ," what could be so wrong about this? personally i do not think it matters what you call yourself but how you represent what you believe.

christian is defined as a "little Christ." in essence this is a great word. everybody should aim to be a little Christ. Christ is so much bigger then we are. he is the Son of God. he has no beginning and end. he is human and God. perfection at its peak. so we really do not have a shot at being "all Christ." so we settle for being a little like Him.

follower of Christ can be defined as a sheep to a shepherd. we follow him because he is our protector. but i also think it could be imitator of Christ. similar to the game follow the leader. we do things because we have seen him do it. like being a child, we see how our parents act and we learn from their example.

but in reality there is no difference. on facebook under religion i am listed as a follower of Christ but i did not do it to say i am not a christian. i never considered the possibility it might upset somebody. i gues i have more things to be worried about in my life then the semantics of who i am. i have a hard enough time living it out.

transparency and the church

i have never been great at being transparent. i do wear my emotions at all times so people know how i am feeling but for me it is hard to admit to others that i sin. sure i am open that i do sin and will even be open about some of those sins. sure i sin but it is the small sins of coveting my neigbors mustang, anger while driving. nothing that actually affects someone else. so it is ok.

i guess you could call it pride. i have been in the ministry now for 7+ years and because of this i am supposed to be good or at least better then those that i minister too. it is a hard standard to meet when you hold yourself to this kind of pressure. yesterday jenny and i visited a church where our friend is the pastor. it was a great time of worship but there were a couple things that stood out to me during the service that i would like to see more often at churches.

the first was right before we took communion. the pastor asked each one to look into his own life and confess the sin in their lives. this is something we have to do more often as christians. the second was two girls came forward probably both in the young twenties and you could see that both of them were pregnant. however there was no ring on either of their finger. they both came in front of the church to apologize for their sin. not only that they admitted that they did not feel comfortable in the church, that they felt judged.

so often when there is a single parent pregnancy it is looked down upon to the point where it is not talked about. this only causes more controversy in the end in what could have been settled easily. the transparency between these two girls should be commended. and how the church received tem is even better. they showed them nothing but love.

acts 1

our sunday school class started to study acts a couple weeks ago so i wanted to discuss a few of the things from acts that stood out to me or some others during that class.

acts is a great book. it starts out with Christ promising the disciples the coming of the Holy Spirit. it is hard to understand for the disciples because what could possibly replace Christ? he tells them that this is not the time to free israel. i think if i were one of the disciples i would start to question if Jesus was ever going to restore or if it were just talk, however Jesus did just rise from the dead so he atleast does have that on his resume. Christ tells them to spread the word about him which is really one of the few times he asks the dishowciple to tell people about him. up until now he didnt want to draw attention on himself.

Jesus does go to heaven and then the disciples walked back home to what is considered the upper room. there are 120 present and in verse 14 said they were in this for the good or until the end. they were completely together or united in which is a miracle because having 120 people united on something can be a hard task. specifically at this time unity is very important as it is up to them to carry on the gospel as Jesus had commanded to the very ends of the earth. what is also nice about verse 14 is that it says women were included.

what took place next was deciding whom would replace Judas as a disciple. we were kind of wondering what the purpose of this might be. suggestions included Jesus had chosen 12 so they wanted to keep it at 12. another was said Judas was the treasure which is a position that should be filled. yet another was that the disciples traveled by 2.

how they chose the next disciple to replace Judas is interesting. they concluded through prayer that the person must be someone who had been there since the baptism up until the ascension including witnessing the resurrection. so obviously there was some criteria that this person had to meet. they decided on two candidates and after prayer cast lots. we all kind of chuckled because we knew this would never happen today. lets draw straws to see who our pastor might be. but then this lady at our table rose her hand and said she had been a part of a church growing up that deciding things buy placing the names in a hat and drawing them out, after much prayer of course.

i am defianely looking forward to the rest of this book. i understand that i didnt touch on all aspects of acts 1 but that should give you enough to chew on for now.