My Dog is 94 Years Old

According to this chart that tells you how to calculate a dogs age in dog years.

Piranha Pedicure

Check out this video and blog post by travel writer Daisann McLane.

I'm going to Southeast Asia in May. I'll have to look for one of these "shops."

Why the Healthcare Bill Doesn't Bother Me (Too Much)

Over the last 48 hours, I've noticed a lot of Facebook posts and Tweets about the demise of the USA due to Congress' recent vote regarding Obama's healthcare reform bill. There was a day when I would be in line fussing and complaining about it. And though I did make a brief remark about it to a fellow Tweeter this morning, I have remained pretty silent about it.

Am I for it? Not really. It seemed to be a lot of information to be digested that was pushed through quickly. I would like to know more about this huge document that will eventually involve my money. But that's only speaking as a citizen of the United States.

I am not a citizen here. I don't belong here. The Bible clearly states that my citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). I am an alien here - a passerby, a tourist, a pilgrim on my way to an eternal place where, as CS Lewis wrote, "we will one day speak of the galaxies of old."

There was a time not too many years ago when I listened to conservative talk radio almost daily. I subscribed to US News & World Report, The Nation, and other news magazines. Like millions of others, I watched Fox News sometimes until my blood pressure reached dangerous limits. It was not healthy.

At some point, God reminded me that my job on earth as a Christ-follower is not to see that morality is legislated but to see that Jesus Christ is lifted up because by doing so men will be drawn to Him. I am a missionary here. The Christian population is dwindling in the United States. Church attendance is perhaps at an all-time low. According to some researchers, less than one-fourth of the population attend church with any regularity. In the 90's over 40% of Americans attended church at least once per month according to Gallup.

If you are a Christian in America, you are living on the mission field.

Now let me ask you a question: If you were a missionary in Rwanda, India, Japan, Germany, or Argentina, would you occupy your time trying to straighten out the government's problems in those countries? No. You would spend your time ministering to people one-on-one in your local community, training Christian leaders, and reaching out in practical ways to those who need to hear about the amazing grace of Jesus.

The revelation a few years ago freed me up. I changed the radio from Rush Limbaugh to ESPN radio. I stopped subscribing to the magazines. I rarely watch the news. I haven't put my head in the sand completely. I get the local newspaper everyday and look at every page. I see the news online. I vote. I am aware of what is happening but I've decided that God is WAY BIGGER than the President, Congress, and even the National Debt. I will continue to strive to be a good temporary citizen of the USA but my real citizenship is not here. It's in heaven. For now, I will attempt to be a heavenly influence in these weird times in which we live.

I trust you will too.

1 Question w/ Matt Ames

Matt Ames did a one question interview with me on his blog today. You can find it here.

Experiencing God Again

In the early 1990's, a Bible study called Experiencing God was introduced. I met the author, Henry Blackaby, at a pastor's meeting a few years prior. I knew of his previous writings and his incredible knowledge of the Bible - especially his knowledge of how God moved in unusual ways in both Biblical times and throughout Church history. He is a walking encyclopedia regarding revival and spiritual awakenings. I knew Experiencing God would be a good study and I was right.

I ran across my book from 1993 during my recent office transition and decided to read through it again. There are tens of thousands of Christian books and Bible studies out there but I truly believe that this particular study is a classic. Granted, it is not popular right now like it was in the 90's but that doesn't mean that it will not move you closer to God and knowing how He works in your life. Just like you can't judge a book by its cover, you also can't judge a book by its copyright date.

Just because a book is dated doesn't mean it can't speak to you. There is a reason some books are called classics. Classics speak to more than one generation. In the case of Experiencing God, I would say that every generation should take a look at this study.

I'm only through the first 2 of 12 units. Here are some meaningful quotes from Blackaby thus far:

Jesus did not say, "I will show you the way." He said, "I AM the way.

"What is God's will for my life?" - is not the right question. The right question is, "What is God's will?" Once I know God's will, then I can adjust my life to Him. The focus needs to be on God, not my life!

If you have been working off the world's definition of servant, you are using the wrong approach to serving God. You do not get orders and then go out and do them. You relate to God, respond to Him, and adjust your life to Him so that He can do whatever He wants to do through you.

We often act as though God tells us what He wants us to do and sends us off all by ourselves to try and do it. Then, any time we need Him we can call on Him, and He will help us. That is never the biblical picture.

When God is about to do something through you, He has to get you from where you are to where He is.

When you believe that nothing significant can happen through you, you have said more about your belief in God than you have said about yourself.

If you feel weak, limited, ordinary, you are the best material through which God can work.

I can't stay the way I am and go with God.

You never find God asking people to dream up what they want to do for Him.

Understanding what God is about to do where I am is more important than telling God what I want to do for Him.

In every situation God demands that you depend on Him, not a method. The key is not a method but a relationship with God.

He has a right to interrupt your life. He is Lord. When you accepted Him as Lord, you gave Him the right to help Himself to your life anytime He wants.

Many of us don't want to give attention to our character, we just want the big assignment from God.

Interview with Missionary Joy Sheraden

How long have you been a missionary and where have you served?

I have been on the mission field for almost 4 years in San Jose, Costa Rica.

How do you describe your current position?

My current position is the assessment and evaluation director for the global team of Boy with a Ball. Basically I track information so that we can see how our programs are running, what we need to change, if we need more personnel to make programs better, start new programs, or stop others.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you measure the American church’s global missions efforts? Why?

I haven’t had much contact with lots of other churches so I wouldn’t know how to answer that. I think there is some preparation for churches to send teams, but I’m not so sure that there is much preparation for long term missionaries within the churches. It’s great to go on short term trips, but what is the long term vision?

We agree that the gospel is the greatest spiritual need of the world. What is the greatest physical need?

I think that the greatest physical need is clean water, food, and education.

If you could stand in an arena full of church leaders, what would you say to them about fulfilling the Great Commission?

First of all, to the leaders, my question to them would be. Do you have a passport? Have you ever used it? Before you can ask other people to go you need to go yourself. I think that in some cases that teams get sent and they have not been properly prepared. There has to be lots of communication before, during and after any trip. Also having an ongoing relationship with the place that you want to serve is a huge thing. There has to be someone on the ground that has done the prep work and that will be there after to do the follow up. It’s great that you had 100 kids say "the prayer," but what happens to them after you get on the plane to go back to your life and they go back to theirs - Where they aren’t sure they are going to eat tonight, or even be safe? Who is going to teach them to walk it out?

Are you excited or concerned about global outreach in the next decade?

That is what excites and worries me. Who is going to be the one to do the follow up and who will support those that are the ones doing it?

New Wine or Kool-Aid?

At the risk of sounding like an old fart, I want to post something about Christian Leadership Conferences. I've been attending such for decades now. I am in my 23rd year of ministry and I have attended some stellar conferences through the years. I attended Rick Warren's Church Growth Conference in 1990 before anyone really knew who Rick Warren was and before Saddleback even had a building. The conference was held at a Presbyterian church in El Toro, CA.

I've heard many of the megachurch pastors and their leaders, Bill Hybels, Lee Strobel, Robert Schuller, Andy Stanley and his dad, Charles, Ed Young (Sr. & Jr.), Jim Mellado, Bob Russell, Greg Surratt, Perry Noble, Adrian Rogers, etc. etc. No doubt, I've been enlightened, encouraged, and educated by these men (and some women. And, by the way, did you notice that they taught me to alliterate?)

We moved our church offices recently which meant that I had to move a bunch of my books and stuff to a new location. I decided to go through a collection of conference notebooks and write down quotes and notes that I wanted to keep in my journal. Then I discarded the notebooks for the sake of space. I've enjoyed reviewing those dusty notes and, in fact, have been reinvigorated by some of them.

I say all of this to say that I am not anti-conference. But I don't attend them much any more.

I think we have too many now. There seems to be too many conferences and too many megachurch pastors with too many opinions. Each conference is trying to attract the same church leaders. Let's face it. Most of the church leaders who attend these conferences are white, middle to upper-middle class, suburban church pastors who are trying to reach white, middle to upper-middle class suburban families. And many leaders are saying, maybe even doing, outrageous things to get attention.

A few years ago one megachurch pastor told about how he spontaneously decided to do a staff turnover. He reassigned his middle-aged Administrative Pastor as the Youth pastor, the Graphic Designer became the Worship Leader, and other weird stuff like that. Everyone was reassigned to a position where they had no education, experience, or calling - except the Senior Pastor, of course. It was done permanently, not temporarily, for the sake of change.

In a breakout session later that same day, the newly assigned Youth Pastor confessed in his breakout session on "How to do Youth Ministry" that he had no idea what he was doing.

I wonder how many wanna-be megachurch pastors in the audience that day went back to their churches and did something similar just because the cool pastor from Texas said so?

Idiot.

Last night, I saw a Tweet from a friend who apparently attended a conference at a megachurch in Alabama. According to his Tweet, "Staff at (church name) will be fired if they are caught doing ministry..they are hired to train members to do ministry."

That's ridiculous.

I don't think my friend agreed either. (At least, I hope not!)

Everybody wants to do something different, out-of-the-box, creative, radical, cool, awesome, something nobody has ever done before, etc. etc. Jesus called it new wineskin. But you have to have new wine before you can use the new wineskin. New wineskin without new wine is not the answer.

Copying what another megachurch is doing is not new wine - that's called "drinking the Kool-Aid." Drinking the Kool-Aid is following a charismatic leader and doing whatever he says to do without question. That's foolish. (For details on where "drinking the Kool-Aid" began, see this Wikipedia link.)

Do I sound like an old traditional fart? I hope not. I've been in new, contemporary churches for all but 6 of my 23 years of ministry. I am currently in my 5th church plant. I love reaching people with the gospel of Jesus in a fresh, relevant way. But I don't love how church leaders dress, teach, talk, and lead like other megachurch pastors in an attempt to be like them. And I don't like how some megachurch pastors say or do ridiculous things to draw attention to themselves and their churches.

Just be who God made you to be. Please. If you want to put the gospel in a new wineskin, you've got to spend time with God and get the new wine. Don't just drink someone else's Kool-Aid. A pastor friend of mine told me years ago that we (pastors) need to get alone with God often. In his words, "We need to get a jug of water and a Bible and go out in the woods for a day and be with God."

Probably not bad advice. Don't drink the Kool-Aid. Get a jug of water and see if Jesus will turn it into new wine.

A Powerful Drama performed to the Lifehouse song "Everything"

This was new to me 3 years ago when I first posted it in 2007. You may have seen it many times. I was reminded of it and watched it again a few minutes ago. It always makes me emotional. I love it when the crowd roars near the end. Watch it again.