A Place for Singles to Have Some Fun-damentals

Saw this on the Wittenburg Door blog. I didn't believe this until I actually visited the site. (No, I didn't register.)

http://www.fundamentalbaptistsingles.com/

Vacation Scoreboard

At the beginning of my vacation, Mike Fiedler sent me a link to Tim Stevens blog that gave statistics on his book writing retreat and suggested that I do the same. Tim Stevens logged the number of hours he worked on his book, number of pages written, etc.

While I didn’t go to the extremes that Stevens did, here’s an idea of what I did do while on my brief reading/writing sabbatical.

Books read or currently reading:

Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Book Proposals That Sell by Terry Whalin
Changes That Heal by Henry Cloud
Jeremiah by Jeremiah via Holy Spirit (PS – Chapter 9:23-24 is the passage of the week. Look it up.)
If you haven’t got time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over? by Jeffrey Mayer
The Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey, Jr.
Beyond the Box: Innovative Churches that Work by Bill Easum and Dave Travis

Books that got a good, honest skim: (Note: A good, honest skim was a skill learned in seminary. I guess some would call it speed reading. I go through every page and skim each page, stopping at points of interest along the way. By doing that, I get the gist of the book but I don’t comprehend it entirely like a true speed reader.)

God’s Gravity: The Upside-Down Life of Selfless Faith by Craig Borlase
The Backward Life: In Pursuit of an Uncommon Faith by Jarrod Jones

Articles read: A Dimension of Being by Rick McKinley & stuff in 2007 Catalyst book

DVD watched: Just Stop and Think (15 minute film by Francis Chan given away at Catalyst)

CD's listened to: A series of messages on missions by Todd Ahrend (ask me for copies - they're incredible)

Writing projects worked on:

Wrote personal stuff in my journal.
Developed a book proposal for my novel “The God Robbers”
Created an outline (13 plot points) for new novel titled “Slow”
Revised/edited non-fiction book “Your Greatest Challenge” also brainstormed for other titles.

Motorcycle rides = 0

Thanks to a wonderful family (who will remain anonymous here since I’m not sure if they want me to publicize this) who allowed me to stay at their condo at the beach from Thursday to Saturday! It was great to get away and have some “me-time” though I missed being home with my honey and kids.

Reading, Writing, and Riding

I'm taking some vacation days this week. I plan on doing nothing more than reading some books that I have not had a chance to finish or even start. I am going to work on a book that I am writing and, if the weather is good, I might hit the road on the Honda one day. So far, the weather report looks wet this week. Looks like I'll get a lot more reading and writing done.

I'll give a book report here when I'm done.

If the weather is good, maybe I'll learn how to do some tricks on my bike this week too.

A New Board Game

I thought this was a joke when I first saw it. It's not...it's at Family Christian Stores for $34.99.

http://www.familychristian.com/shop/product_image.asp?ProdID=16542

Lifehouse's Everything Skit

My favorite part of this is when the crowd roars. Watch and see...

Reverb from Catalyst/Being or Doing?

30 of us from TNC attended the Catalyst Conference last week. It was a good conference with super music and challenging speakers. Instead of reviewing every speaker, I'll direct you to Mark Waltz's blog at http://www.becausepeoplematter.com/. Mark did a great job of reviewing each speaker.

I'll just say that Craig Groeschel probably spoke to me the most followed by Rick Warren. I've heard Rick many, many times in the last 20 years and that is the boldest message that I've ever heard from him.

Yesterday in our weekly staff meeting, we debriefed a little about the conference. Catalyst is designed for Christian leaders but over the last couple of years it seems to be more about trumpeting each speaker's causes and books. I wonder if Zondervan or Tyndale or other book publishers are subsidizing the expenses for Catalyst because almost every speaker is selling his latest book. In addition to that, many of them expose us to their pet cause so that by the end of the two day conference attenders aren't sure if they should give to a water project in Africa, an urban ministry in Philadelphia, a Christian art movement in LA, or buy a specific brand of shoe that promises to give shoes to the needy in return for your purchase.

It can get a little fuzzy.

Back to our staff meeting...I mentioned that the Catalyst workers shirts said, "What will you do?" The post-modern Christian movement is more about doing than being, it seems. The twenty-something generation, we are told, wants to do more hands on ministry than the baby boomer generation. It's all about action, they say. Rick Warren had the most memorable quote in my opinion when he said, "The body of Christ has amputated its arms and legs and all it is now is a big mouth."

Ow!

He's right. We have to do more than talk the talk, we have to walk the walk. But I cautioned our crew yesterday that there has to be a balance between "doing" and "being." Just go to http://www.wikipedia.org/ and type in Social Gospel or Walter Rauschenbusch (pictured above) and you'll see that those in this movement who are all about "doing" sometimes leave the Gospel behind. They forget that the reason for the ministry is done ultimately to lead people to Christ. The opposite is true also. A fundamentalist Christian is so separate from the world (i.e. "being" holy) yet overly aggressive with the gospel that he many times harms the reputation of Christ. So what's a Christ-follower to do?

Balance. We need to learn to be like Christ. When we learn who Christ is and what his expectations of us are, then we will "do" things in a way that honors him. If we "do" without "being," our efforts are no different than the local Rotary or garden club. If we "be" without "doing," we make no impact at all.

It's a quandry. And one that I won't settle in this early morning post. But that's just some stuff I've been thinking about since yesterday afternoon.

Steve talked about Thinkers, Feelers, Doers, and Talkers last Sunday. I lean toward being a thinker so I "think" that everyone should practice their faith like me! But I know that is not the case and that different personalities grow in different ways. It's all part of the journey...

Mom's Overture

I'm not a mom but I have one and I'm married to one. This is really good. I guess I should have saved until Mother's Day but couldn't. Thanks Moms for all you do!

Late Night Brain Dump

- I'll be attending the Catalyst Conference Thursday and Friday in Atlanta. A large group from TNC will be in attendance. I'll be able to connect with some old friends too.

- I've been reading Purple Cow by Seth Godin. Talking about the power of TV in its early days, he tells the story of the creation of Cap'n Crunch cereal. If you had a commercial on TV, you were guaranteed to sell your product. In 1962, Quaker Oats hired Jay Ward, the creator of Bullwinkle & Rocky, to create an animated commercial for a kids cereal. Ward invented Cap'n Crunch cereal and made the commercial. After the commercial was created then Quaker Oats began to produce it!

- We're over halfway through our SHAPE series on Sundays at TNC. It's a great study if you've never done it before. I know it was incredibly helpful for me when I was able to put the 5 elements of SHAPE together years ago.

- For the record (in case you were in TNC's 2nd service last Sunday) I turned 46 on my birthday Sunday - not 52.

- The Gamecocks are doing pretty good. Kentucky will bring a good test to Columbia Thursday night. Clemson looked awful against GA Tech! Awful! (Walt, Laura, et. al., you should be ashamed.) I hope the Tigers bring that with them to Williams-Brice in November.

- Speaking of football, the NA Yellow Jackets are having a good year. Yes, they are only 3-3 but considering their record over the last couple of years 3-3 is a major improvement. The guys are playing with a lot more confidence this year. We get into our conference schedule against Lexington this Friday. I think we will do well in region play. Expect NA to make it to the playoffs this year. That's right. I'm calling it.

- We are reading The Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley as a staff. Pretty good stuff.

- Good news about one of my writing projects. Found out yesterday that an editor with a major publisher liked my book proposal. She was supposed to give it to the editorial committee today. They will read it over the next month and make a decision in their November meeting. That's pretty exciting whether they publish it or not.