Merry Christmas!

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:14)

Interview with a Creative Genius & Imagineer

I just finished listening to an interview of an acquaintance of mine, McNair Wilson. I met McNair a couple of years ago at the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writer's Conference. We spent two weeks together at the conference in May 2006 & 2007. He was one of the featured speakers at each of the conferences. He is an incredible and hilarious speaker as well as a creative genius. He spent 12 years working as a Disney Imagineer and now works with large corporations and ministries helping them become more effective by thinking outside the box.

I encourage you to take some time to listen to each segment. Have pen and paper handy. You may want to take notes or record a quote or two.

Audio interview with McNair Wilson

The First List

A lot of people are going through their Christmas shopping lists today. It will be one of the busiest shopping days of the year as everyone tries to complete the Christmas insanity.

I was reading the January issue of Real Simple magazine this morning. It's all about getting organized for 2009 by using lists. The entire theme of the magazine is how to make lists, how to use lists, resources you can buy for your lists, great lists of the past, lists, lists, lists.

For some reason, it seems to be assumed that lists are unique to the most recent generations. Like it's a 20th and 21st century phenomenon....as if you couldn't make a list before Post-It notes were born. But lists have been around a long time. Can you name the first list ever recorded? You can find it in Exodus 20.

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol.
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God.
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Do you know this list? Maybe you can put them to memory if you haven't already.

Book Review: It by Craig Groeschel

Why do some churches seem to have it and some don't have it? What is it? Craig Groeschel, the founding and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, explores the differences in churches and church leaders who have it. Based on his experience as the pastor of a new and fast-growing church, Groeschel doesn't mind being honest and telling you when he has had it and when he hasn't had it and what led him to those times.

That's what It is about.

I can judge how well I liked a book by how much I underlined. I usually read non-fiction books with a pen to underline it and make notes. I didn't use a lot of ink in It.

Most of my ink was used on a sidebar article within the book by Mark Driscoll. Driscoll started Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington in 1996. He said, "The key (to having it) is the preaching of the person and work of Jesus Christ from the Bible every week with passion and clarity. The issue is always, only, fully, clearly, uncompromisingly, and exclusively Jesus. If Jesus is lifted up, then a crowd will gather, that crowd will be converted, those converts will become passionate, that passion will result in creativity, and that creativity will result in a movement of God, because the Holy Spirit delights to work through his people to the glory of Jesus."

Groeschel quotes: "If your ministry has become focused on the already-convinced, I'll bet your ministry doesn't have it."

"God won't let a ministry keep it for long if they won't give it away. Keeping it to yourself is a sure way to kill it. And those ministries that don't have much of it often work hard to guard what little of it they have. What's funny about it is the more you try to hoard it, the less of it you tend to have. The more you are willing to give it away, the more of it God seems to give."

"Earlier, with nothing much to lose, we regularly took big risks. Year after year, we'd bet the farm. Now that we had something to lose, we became more cautious, guarding what we already had. Instead of saying, 'What do we have to lose? Let's go for it!' we found ourselves saying, 'With so much at stake, we'd better play it safe.' Instead of living by faith, we lived by logic."

For me, the final chapter was the best. Groeschel finally got down to what it takes to have it. It is living a Spirit-filled, Spirit-controlled life. People and churches with it have the Holy Spirit. Groeschel encourages us to pray three prayers. God stretch me. God ruin me. God heal me. This chapter was so good that I intend to copy it for our church staff.

This is where the rubber hits the road. You can read all of the leadership books, go to all of the conferences, listen to all of the latest, greatest teachers and worship leaders, but if you don't get down on your knees regularly and let God invade, fill, and control your life, you will never have it.

Quotable Quote

This quote has been on my desk for a few weeks. I keep forgetting to post it. It got my attention.

"A once-persecuted Chinese pastor friend said, 'I weep more for the American church than for the Chinese church. The American church has forgotten how to trust completely upon God.'" (Ronald Keener, Nation's Economic Troubles Worry some Churches while others see a Silver Lining in Downturn, Church Executive, Volume 2008, Issue 10, 2008.)

What are the odds?

A dozen city employees in Piqua, Ohio recently pooled their resources together and won $207 million dollars in the mega millions lottery. This caught my attention because I saw a billboard advertising it the other day and was astounded at the figure. $207,000,000. That's a lot of cabbage.

I've never been a proponent of playing the lottery. I don't like the odds. According to The Motley Fool's column in today's Augusta Chronicle, the chances of winning the California Lotto Jackpot are approximately one in 18 million. If you bought 50 tickets per week, you ought to win once every 6923 years. Would you bet me a dollar that I can flip a coin and get 24 heads in a row? That's the likelihood of winning the lottery.

The lottery has been called "a poor man's tax" or "a tax on people who can't do math." I don't frown on those who play it. I just don't think it's wise stewardship. Statistics say that I'm three times more likely to be killed in a car accident on the way to buy a lottery ticket than to win.

While it's fun to imagine what we could do with $207 million, the lottery also feeds our greed. That's the danger of it. We have to be careful not to allow the dream of getting rich quick to destroy our satisfaction with our current situation. Jesus spoke about the dangers of worrying about the material things of this world. Read about it here.

Empty Nesting

2008 will go down in Jennings' history as the year our home became an empty nest. With Bailey off at college and Cliff moving out on his own, it's been much quieter around our house lately. Even Christmas tree shopping was different this year. For the first time ever, Beth and I went on our annual trek to Clarks Hill Christmas Tree farm without the kids.

Thanks to technology, we can keep up with the kiddos pretty easily so they were virtual shoppers with us. I took this picture and sent it to the children asking, "Is this one okay?" to get their approval.

Some call it the Empty Nest Syndrome but there's no syndrome in our house. Beth and I have always enjoyed spending time with each other so it's almost like going back to our newlywed days. Grocery shopping is quicker and cheaper now. The trash can is lighter on Tuesday nights when I drag it to the street. The second bathroom stays spotless now and there is less housecleaning and laundry. When Beth isn't in the mood to cook supper (which isn't often), we can hop in the car and go down the hill to Sno-Cap, Gary's, Waffle House, or The Cotton Patch Cafe for something quick to eat.

We are at the stage in life where we get to see the fruit of our labor. Many parents don't want their children to grow up, but what's the use of putting all of the energy into your kids over the years if you can't see any results? That's like continuously plowing a field and never getting a harvest. Granted, our two still have some growing up to do and we will never stop being parents. But, so far, it has been a wonderful ride every step of the way. Since Cliff was born on June 27, 1987, every year has been different in some way. Our lives drastically changed that morning and it has been fun. This stage, while quite different from the other stages, is enjoyable too.

If you're getting near this stage, don't fear it. Embrace it. It's a new chapter with fresh challenges but when you center your home on Christ, he will lead you through it. That's a promise.

First Impressions

In 1990, I attended a church growth conference in Orange County, California. It was held at a Presbyterian Church but only because the Southern Baptist church that sponsored the event didn't have their own building. They met at a local high school. About 150 people attended the conference that week. A little-known pastor named Rick Warren was the host and Saddleback Church was the name of the new church. They had experienced some success and had grown to a few thousand people in a short time so they hosted a conference to tell other pastors how they did it.

Little did anyone know, including Rick, that he and Saddleback Church would become a household name among church leaders. It was at that conference that I heard Rick say, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." I've tried to never forget that.

So, today, my bride of 25 years had to have a root canal at Augusta Endodontic Center by Dr. Emmanuel Ngoh. I have NEVER been treated like royalty at a doctor's office. We were welcomed at the door by one of his many warm and personable assistants. She told us everything that would happen and what to expect. They took Beth back immediately. After a few minutes, Dr. Ngoh (pronounced "go") came out and introduced himself to me. We spoke for a minute about church and mission trips. He offered me a soft drink, coffee, and a computer if I wanted to get online. I said, "Yes" to coffee and figured that someone would point me toward the coffee pot.

A few minutes later, another assistant asked me about the coffee. "I'll get it myself if you'll just point the way to me," I said. "No," she insisted to bring it to me. A few minutes later my coffee came to me on a silver platter in a real coffee cup, not styrofoam like I expected (and would have been perfectly pleased with, by the way.) That's it pictured above.

Beth's procedure was painless and she left there a little dopey from the sedation. Another assistant escorted her out to the car in a wheelchair and we were gone in just under 2 hours. I don't want to have a root canal done but if you ever have to accompany someone else to have one performed, I hope it's at Dr. Ngoh's office.

At TNC, Mike Fiedler, Katie Czapala and their crew take extra effort to be sure that we make a great first impression. One of the trademarks in TNC's brief history has been the remarkable job our First Impressions Team does from the parking lot to the service. People like to be warmly welcomed and treated with respect. Today's doctor's visit was a reminder to me of the importance of making a good first impression.

If you're a sports fan...

I started another blog in October. Still tweaking it since I'm using wordpress.org and still learning the program. It's exclusively about sports. Come by and visit every so often at www.blogaboutjocks.com.