Monthly Archives: November 2008

I am sitting in the DoubleTree Hotel in Nashville and I am enjoying the serenity of the simplistic sounds of the keys tapping and the computer fan running. The noise from outside has been masked by the walls and I have sometime to digest what is going on….what God is saying to me.

So far we have had-

Francis Chan challenge us to lead our people to being the reborn church of Acts. A church that was absolutely unstoppable and with followers and members who were fanatical.

Chap Clark challenge us that ministry the way it has been done is like a nice picture that has been dropped and the frame been glued back together…it is time to reframe.

Shane Claiborne challenge us to love people unconditionally and serve others compassionately

Tony Campolo challenge us to abandon the consumerist mindset and lead our churches in a anti-fragment move. To get the church working as a community to reach their communities.

Andrew Martin challenge us to rethink how we deal and treat gay and lesbian people. That their sin is not one that can just be quit and may never be completely undone. That it’s scars run deeper than most of us can imagine.

Jim Burns challenge us to reassess our marriages and work towards making them more intimate.

Mark Yaconelli challenge us to slow down and allow God to show us Himself

Then Francis Collins challenge us to allow science and faith come together….although I have some problems with his interpretations

It is so much to process and I hope to be able to post more later and more details my mind is racing right now with the things I want to do with the church back home.

Until later

I am headed west….well at least in relation to where I am anyway.

I am going to be spending the next 6 hours on the road heading to Nashville TN so that I can attend the 2008 NWYC. This is a conference that I have pined over for many years now and I am so excited to go. It actually wasn’t even my idea to go I wasn’t going to try. A friend asked if I would go I said yeah. Then I signed up and he didn’t. HAHA joke will be on him. I will be posting here some so look for it

I have an itch, a craving if you will. It is something that has been eating at me for a while.  At my core I am a evangelist/ soul winner. That is what gets my fire going. But in 6 months I have yet to see a salvation as a result of what we are doing with our group.  And I don’t know what to do about it.

Don’t get me wrong as a minister I know I can go and pound the pavement and knock on some doors and love them to Jesus but I worry about going by myself. I am afraid I cannot get the support of the people around me. Most of all I worry that the follow up ball would be dropped in my church because we have no permanent pastor right now and we are twisting in the wind.

So there is my dilemma and I am going in circles. I have an itch that I don’t know how to scratch. I will keep praying for opportunities.

Thoughts

A quote from a friend on twitter “Obama and Judeo-Christian values are incompatible. He is pro-choice, anti-family & his policies will crush the poor”.

Maybe that is what we need.  Maybe if times get tough enough the sleeping Christians of this nation will be forced to wake from their decades long sleep and put action to the faith they hold so dear. 

Maybe we will be forced to love the hurting because they will be so abundant. 

Maybe we can become the light that Jesus prodded us to be.

Maybe we can live up to the monicker “Christian.

In a day and age where so many churches are sitting on the laurels maybe the best thing for us is to get a swift kick in the pants and watch what our laziness has brought in harvest. The church has no one to blame but itself for the condition of the world we have lost track of what was necessary and important long ago and instead focused on pretty buildings and well planned programs. I grow sicker of it day in ad day out. I know that before the return of Christ things in this world will get worse and it will be more awful than we can imagine. I just hope that I get to see an awakening of historic proportions across this great land in my lifetime. 

Ultimately we can only hope pray and trust in our Lord.

I joined this network called highcallingblogs.com. Partly because I wanted to network my blog but more because I wanted to partner with a group that supports ministry minded blogs.  We Christians don’t get a lot of support from each other and I think it is great to be a part of something that lifts others up. Shoot on over and check them out.