Outward Focused: Winning Cities for Christ

Steve Sjogren: Session 3 Notes on "Winning Cities for Christ"

We are more than just a 'church' - more than winning a neighborhood - we are winning Cities for Christ!

- When you are winning a city - planting a church - you have to engage in conversation. Tell your story - sell it everyday to 5 different people.

When planting the Vineyard in Cincinnati, God spoke to Steve and told him - "You are Small irrelevant and boring"...and he spent many months figureing out how to not be small irrelevant and boring.

Many churches have a 'Come and See mentality'. Until Christ returns, no church should be come and see. Because nothing we invite people to come and see is relevant, big, or exciting.

Churches should be "GOING and DOING"...Going and doing acts of love is what makes church exciting and relelvant. We are in danger every week of being small irrelevant and boring, unless we go and do.

LOVE PEOPLE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.


Steve Sjogren is the founding Pastor of Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, and loves servant evangelism.

Outward Focused: Equipped for Outreach

Steve Sjogren: Notes on "Equipped for Outreach"

Most evangelism programs are "linear" - trying to win an argument. Evangelism is about creating an 'atmosphere'. An atmosphere of Love - enabling the Holy Spirit to work in peoples lives.

Create a Buzz in your city! - Read Seth Godin's All Marketers Are Liars...

If we give away love, we (church) become associated with what we DO, not by what we say, write, or where our building is.

The best way to figure out how to love people, is to talk to the people God has given you. It's how you figure out what type of outreach might work.

Practice!

DO outreach for several months. (doing it willy-nilly does not work)

We should be all about Acts 10:38 - doing good to all kinds of people!

We should be about acceptance, and not approval (we accept - God approves)

People were accepted by Christ - yet, Jesus did not approve all of them.

We are all in Process!

We can accept people, even if they don't change. The rest is between them and God.

We can't put a dealine on our love - we have to love continually - not just for a set amount of time, then give up.

We should love until God gives up on loving.


Steve Sjogren is the founding Pastor of Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, and loves servant evangelism.

More :Outward Focused: HERE

Outward Focused: Horizontally and Vertically Smart

Steve Sjogren: Session 2 Notes on "Vineyard Leader Meeting"

Read Re-imagine! by Tom Peters!

Big Churches have 3 things that small churches don't - Power, Heart for Service, and Marketing.

If you are small - look for artists in church to provide art for marketing...don't always go with the pre produced piece...(you can't always do that)
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On Teaching...

Plug your listeners into something that is Practical in their lives.

Practical Applications should be the speaking points of your teaching...they should be the beginning points to teach biblically from...
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On Worship...

Israel Houghton Worship...Good stuff!

...When we gather the people at our churches on the Weekends...are we having a celebration/party or are we having a funeral?...

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Steve Sjogren is the founding Pastor of Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, and loves servant evangelism.

More Outward Focused: HERE

Outward Focused: Stories about the day I died

Steve Sjogren: Session 2 Notes on "The Day I Died"

Steve has a new book arriving early next year talking about the day that he actually died. ON the operating table, his heart completely stopped, and was dead for 7 minutes.

During that time, he had an encounter with God.

Steve explaings it as abook that will more than likely 'piss Christians off'! The book is actually not intended for a Christian audience, but for the Not yet Christians - as a tool to lead them to a better understanding of who God is.

There were many things that God spoke to Steve that day, and I can't do justice to the whole encounter ( you'll have to buy the book!), but he did give two specifics of things God wanted him to change. He did say that he was rebuked,and knew he had to change, yet felt encouraged and loved by a Holy God.

A couple things he heard that day:

1. Stop moving like a rabbit. Move like a turtle.

As a church planter, Steve was working over 100 hours a week. Several lunches a day, several meetings a day. God clearly told him to slow down. The Rabbit life doesn't pay off in the end. He lives that out since that day, and in his next church planting experience, hopes to continue a more turtle pace. Slow And Steady!

2. What are the names of your kids friends?

God spoke to him about getting to know his kids friends. During that time, they would be over at the house, but Steve never took the time to get to know them, to love on them, and be a good father figure, and Godly influence in their lives.

From his experience that day, Steve wanted to encourage people that there should be no fear in death. Many have fears of death, and from his 7 minutes (which to him felt like much longer) he knew he was in the presence of a loving God who cared for him.

After his experience, he spent many hours finding our what went wrong, what doctors did and didn't do. He has gained much wisdom about the experience. He encouraged all the men at the conference to take care of themselves, and be wise about their helathcare, adn ask many questions. Live with the Wisdom of Solomon!

Steve said he read a chapter of Proverbs a day for the past thirty years and Prays that "God would let him live out that wisdom is his life".


Steve Sjogren is the founding Pastor of Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, and loves servant evangelism.

More :Outward Focused: HERE

Outward Focused: Putting a dent in the world

Steve Sjogren: Session 1
Notes on What Steve has learned as a Church Planter/Pastor/Writer/Speaker/Teacher

1. People have a desire to Change the World. Sometimes, their desire to change the world is even more deeply rooted than their desire to get to know God.

- We should be World Changers! We should be radical ALL of our days. Not just until we are 35.

We should always focus on loving the untouchables, the outsiders, the nobodies, the hurt and broken - the people no one wants! Thats what Jesus did. And He is our model.

2. To do the Stuff that Jesus Did - You have to have to engage people.

- Doing the stuff is as easy as leaving an above average tip (30 percent instead of fifteen!). Compliment your server at a restaurant, then call the manager over and compliment your server again!( I saw Steve do this personally - and it blows people away - because the manager expects you to complain. He didn't know what to say when Steve kept lavishing on the compliments of this server)

Buy someone Coffee behind you at Starbucks. Buy the next person in line behind you at Taco Bell lunch. Buy Tic Tacs and give them away!

Each of these is simple and easy, and gives an opportunity for the Kingdom of God to show up right there - in that moment.

Mat. 13:1-23 The SCATTERING of the seeds.

Jesus told the parable of Scattering - Not Planting- seeds. Of course, the seed fell on all types of ground. But the point is not the ground, the point is the abundance of seed that was thrown. We can constanly look for opportunities to scatter the seed of kindness and let the Holy Spirit do the work of 'plowing' in peoples hearts.

- God will grow you into an extrovert. Spending 25 hours preparing your message behind the computer is a cop out. There are better things to do with our time. (There is ENOUGH TALK about God...Let's DO SOMETHING to show His Love to People!)

How do we get people "OUT THERE" -> "IN HERE"?
Many churches can't anwser that question.

We have to BRING and INCLUDE.
Watch our Vocabulary - not "Visitor" - "Guest" is better - "Newcomer" is best...

We make people feel like there is a great chasm between "all of us who are already in the church" and those who are "Not Yet Christians". Yet, if we don't watch our vocabulary,if we don't include, we'll never bridge that huge gap.

Steve Sjogren is the founding Pastor of Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, and loves servant evangelism.

More of :Outward Focused: HERE

Outward Focused: A week with Steve Sjogren

What a great weekend at Camp Garner Creek! The Tennessee men's retreat was a blast, then this morning, Steve Sjogren spoke again at Franklin Vineyard.

This week, I am going to go thru my notes and post some of the best, and most thought provoking things for me from this weekend retreat.

Steve Sjogren at Vineyard Men's Retreat

Late this afternoon, its off to the Vineyard Tennessee Men’s retreat at Camp Garner Creek. I am really excited. This two day getaway is much needed!

Very cool: Pastor and Author Steve Sjogren from the Cincinnati Vineyard will be speaking at several of the sessions.

I have no way to blog while there, but I’ll take notes, and post some thoughts when I return!

(He’s also speaking this weekend at Franklin Vineyard, about the 7 minutes that he actually passed away, and God spoke to him. – His new book on the subject comes out soon)

Email Dumbs Us Down

I was reading Fast Company and I came across “Be heard above the Electronic Din”.

Point 4 is:

Live By the Blacberry, Die By It
If you're spending more than five minutes on an email, make it a phone call. Then follow up with a tactical email. A recent study shows that constantly checking email, voice mail, and so on temporarily lowers your IQ more than smoking marijuana does. "Email makes you dumb," Nelson says. If you want to be productive, it helps to eliminate constant distractions.

Do blogs make us dumb as well?

I know people who spend lots of time reading blogs!

What to do with the Golden Years!?

This has been on my mind a lot lately…

I saw MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY on Letterman not too long ago, and he was talking about having an RV and riding around the country in it at least once a year.

He mentioned a story about having internet and satellite tv, sitting in the painted desert watching a game and grilling ribeyes right outside.

Dave said the same thing I feel…

“man,does that sound romantic…I must be getting old.”

It’s been on my mind a ton.

I took a trip last week to the state of Arkansas with work, and I was really noticing the beauty of our country. There is a lot of it between Nashville and Ft. Smith.

That’s all. I must be getting old.

Any time anyone mentions a place that might be cool to visit, that image pops up in my head about traveling to see it in an RV.

A little Redneck?

A little old?

I guess.

High Touch

Brand Autopsy is running a series about Starbucks and how their brand became what is it today.

High Touch trumps High Tech. It’s a great thing to remember as I continue to do ministry.

Doug Fields Says the same thing in Your First Two years in Youth Ministry.

90% of youth ministry is relationships. The kids won’t remember my best message. They’ll remember that I loved them and hung out with them, and was a good example for them.

Starbucks tried to go high tech, and the audience response was negative. The personal element was lost when the customer was able to order without talking to a barista.

Is the personal element lost when we go too high tech in Youth ministry? I am sure God uses High Tech. I just don’t want to get lost in the glitz and glam.

I know about smoke and mirrors – I am in radio!!

Do we do High Tech because the pressure is there to try and impress?
Are we High Tech to ‘keep up with the Jones’? (the Jones’ being the big church down the street)

I actually like High Tech. I like a good performance, and a good message. I believe in Creativity with presentation, not in interpretation, of the Word.

There does have to be a balance. Right?
Because people desire High Touch.

Whisper

Cool post on Fast Company’s blog a couple days back that I just found about finding your vision, your passion.

It suggests an exercise to help find what is whispering to you – from a Christian perspective – what is the still small voice of God saying to you?

1. What whisper do you hear?

2. Put it on paper - I recommend doing this even if you think you know it already - it forces you to articulate it more clearly.

3. Recognize that this is your sweet spot - the place where you'll find more creativity and success than anywhere else.

4. When the time is right, follow it. Slowly at first if you have to.

5. Revisit this whisper at least once a year as it can change and grow as you begin to listen to it.

Question: How have you woven your whisper into your life?

Gonna think about it, and write it out - maybe even here on the good ol' blog!

Field Trip!

No posts for a bit – Off to Arkansas with work – Back on Friday!

Great Stuff From Evotional.com

Since I found Mark Batterson’s Blog a couple weeks ago, I have really enjoyed it, Today, I was knocked on my butt by several things he had written in his evotional! Great stuff! I feel like part of NCC long distance!

The section on Reproduced Illusions really got me. Here are a few quotes:

our perception of ourselves is based on others perception of us. To a large extent, we become who other people think we are. Psychologists call it "the looking-glass self."We live up or live down to the expectations of others!Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world."In other words, don't live down to the world's standards. Live up to God's standard.There never has been and never will be anyone like you. That isn't a testament to you. It's a testament to the God who created you. You are absolutely unique. That is the way God designed you.All of us start out as one-of-a-kind originals but too often we end up carbon copies of someone else. We try to be like someone else instead of trying to be the person God has created us to be. We settle for conformity instead of originality.

Let me try to say it as concisely as I can: if you base your identity on the opinions of other people you're worshiping their opinions.God's opinion is the only opinion that counts!Conformity is living down. Worship is living up.Here's the bottom line: you become what you worship. If you don't like who you're becoming you're worshipping the wrong things! Identity problems are worship problems. Start worshipping God and you'll become the person God created you to be.

Romans 12:2 says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." You can't always change your circumstances, but you can always change your mind. Studies have shown that, at any moment, eight million bits of information are streaming into your brain. You've got to determine what you pay attention to.The Message translation of Romans 12:2 says, "Fix your attention on God." That's what worship is. You stop focusing on what's wrong with you and you start focusing on what's right with God.

Busy Busy - Slow to post

Its been a crazy week round here, so not much posting been going on.

We had to finish a last minute video project last week that meant 24 hours split over two days (and nights – til 4 am).

Lots of thoughts and things going on in the mind, that would have been great blogs, but not able to get to the ‘puter!

Notice the new Blog look. Still deciding if I like it or not.

Quote from Dave Foster

Sometimes we Christians fail to realize that because we go directly to our agendas of trying to save souls and propagate our religious faith, we fail to realize the very example of Jesus.

Love a person with your life.

Meet their needs.

Fill their hunger.

Give them something to drink.

Walk a mile in their shoes.

And then and only then do you have the right to share the story of where you’ve found hope.
– Dave Foster from Bellevue Community Church

This is a Great quote/post/thought on Dave Foster’s Blog. He is a guy who always makes me think and expands my brain!

Friday fun

from Question of the Day:

Danger

If you could experience something considered very dangerous with your safety guaranteed, what would you want to experience?

Here's my answer

I actually did get to skydive with the Golden Knights one time - as a publicity stunt - I would do that again with those guys - but by myself - it would have to be bungee jumping off one of those extremely high and unsafe looking bridges where it looks like you could either be swept away in the river below or plaster yourself on the rocks! - But that wouldn't happen this time, because my safety is guaranteed, right?

Share Winning Stories

From Mark Batterson’s blog:

Here's one practical tip

We start every staff meeting by sharing wins.

The "old school" word is "testimony." Sharing wins gets us focused on the positive things God is doing. It has become part of our culture. It sets the tone for everything we do!If you're pastoring, put "wins" at the top of every meeting agenda. It's positive reinforcement.

You need to celebrate what you want to see more of.

It doesn't matter whether it's a boardroom, classroom, or locker room, sharing wins is one small step/one giant leap towards creating a positive environment. Sharing wins can revolutionize a church culture, family culture, or work environment.

Cool thought – and it is a thought that is echoed in the book I am reading – The Leadership Challenge ( good read – not a tough read – but I am really taking my time with it, making notes, underlining and highlighting to re-read again!)

…telling stories forces you to pay close attention to what your constituents are doing. Telling stories about others give you the chance to reinforce that “everyone is a leader.” Hearing or reading a story about similar people (people they can identify with) is also the most effective type of role model for stimulating an audience to learn how to take such actions themselves. (p.100)

Post it Note Thoughts and Quotes

I write a lot of Post It Notes. I have different thoughts around the office and car, and I thought I would write a couple out. (Just in case I lose them or something like that)

• Loving Selectively is worldly; giving it freely is miraculous – Don Miller

• Every Sinner has a future! Every Saint has a past! – Dawson McAllister

• We should have faith in a person – not faith in a predetermined outcome

• Come as you are. You’ll be loved. – Cincinnati Vineyard slogan

• Those who hear not the music oft perceive the dancer as mad

• We should always be Growing and Going toward God

• What kind of leader are you going 2 be? One that Looses or Binds the Holy Spirit? – Steve Robbins

• Deepen Your Message – Dawson McAllister

• Look for the creativity of God in Life and in Scripture

Rob Bell in Dallas Morning News

There is a great article/interview with Rob Bell in the Dallas Morning News. I was reading Scott Hodge, who happened upon it thru Jordon Cooper.
Here’s a quote from the article:
In the Scriptures, belief works in tandem with action. Our actions are reflective of our beliefs, but our beliefs drive our actions. So what I'm interested in reclaiming is the importance of these two together.
Sometimes faith becomes all about what people believe, and how you act doesn't really matter. But in the Scriptures, how you act very much matters. Like it says, what does God require of you but to love justice and mercy and to walk humbly? Those are all actions.
Velvet Elvis is on my list to read before the end of the year!

Top Five Questioning songs

From Music Memoirs :Top Five Questioning Songs

Here’s what I have come up with (off the top of my head):

‘Who are you?’ The Who
‘Who makes the rules?’ Steven Curtis Chapman
‘Do you believe in love?’ Huey Lewis and the News
‘I wonder what would happen to this World?’ Harry Chapin
‘Why Georgia?’ John Mayer

What about your five questioning songs?

The Power of Bad Communication

This has been on my mind for the past four days, so I thought I should get it out of my mind, and onto the blog.

Tuesday, my wife was having ‘post-pregnancy issues’ – and decided to call her doctor to find out if what was going on with her body was normal.

The nurse responded, “Let me call you back.” Shortly after that call, the nurse called again saying, “How long will it take you to get here? You should come NOW.”

In a panic, my wife immediately called me, and I made a mad dash thru the office to let everyone know that we were headed back to the hospital.

(It’s a trek to the hospital for us. We actually live about 30 minutes from Nashville in no traffic. We thought, for sure, as we left the hospital last Friday that we wouldn’t be making this journey again for a long time! How wrong we were!)

I could tell by my wife’s mood that she was very tense about what could possibly be wrong with her, her blood pressure was rising, and we still had to load up number one son. The drive to the hospital was not any longer than normal, yet, it felt like there was another extended hospital stay at the end of the drive, so neither one of us felt like we wanted to actually arrive at the hospital.

With kid in tow, we proceeded quickly to the third floor, and then proceeded to sit in the waiting room for 15 minutes. We then were shuffled to one of the doctors’ exam rooms.

This is what was said:

I am so glad you could come so quickly. The doctor has two deliveries that could be happening at anytime this afternoon and we wanted to squeeze you in before hand if we could.

Needless to say, as relieved as I was, I also was a bit upset. We had both given up our day to rush to the hospital for what we thought was a medical emergency, only to find out it was just a scheduling issue.

How easily can we cause someone to have a reaction to what we say. If this nurse had explained to my wife on the phone that, ‘the doctor was due to deliver two babies at anytime, and could she come now?’ My wife would have been a much happier camper. I would have been a much happier camper. Her heart rate wouldn’t have been racing. She wouldn’t have thought there was a huge emergency with her body.

This incident reminded me how easy it is to communicate poorly. Many times, I don’t give all the facts, or I don’t communicate the facts, or what I am trying to say, to the receiver. It makes no difference what I think I said if the receiver doesn’t understand. It makes no difference what I said if the receiver responds negatively to what they believed they heard me say.

Am I communicating in such a way so that the people who hear me understand what I am trying to say?

CRASH!

Cool thing happened this week. As I was emailing friends and family about the new addition to our household, I decided to include several people I had not been in contact with for several years. I included friends from High School, old bosses and co-workers, it was just fun, because email is just easy!

I received a great email response from the guy who gave me my first full time job in radio at KYQQ in Wichita Kansas. ( I was looking at putting a link – but it is now a Spanish station – very funny) CRASH DAVIS is now in Florida at WIND fm. He’s the PD and also the midday host. Also a very cool thing – he’s part of a great church in his area – the Springs. Dude is playing in the band and leading a small group! It’s a cool thing to find another guy in radio on fire for God!

Batterson's Blog!

You know what I really like about Mark Batterson’s blog? Is that he makes it really easy to get the bullet points because he puts them in bold font.

Cool technique. One I’ll have to remember. See, now, I’m just getting carried away.

Reasons Why Being a Dad is So Cool #2

My kids' BMs aren't as scary as when I have seen (or smelled) them on other kids.

Yes, I know. It's a little graphic. Yet, I thought for sure I would keel over at the site of a stinky diaper. Not the case. I can handle the BM's!

Yet, sadly enough, I have been told by many friends who are parents: at this first stage it IS easy, but when he gets to be a year and a half - WATCH OUT! :)

Reasons Why Being a Dad is so Cool #1

You get to experience someone from the day they are born.

(This might wig some of you out, and I don't blame you)

I actually got to help in the 'birthing process' on Tuesday afternoon. It wasn't planned; I didn't expect it; and if I would have had time to think about it, I probably would have declined. Yet, when it came time to "push" - there was only a nurse, my wife and me in the labor/delivery room.

The nurse (Rhoda!) looked across the bed and said - "Grab a leg". Whoa Nelly! What an amazing thing. I was so inexperienced, after several pushes, my wife was diagonal in the bed. Rhoda says - "You need to secure her leg more, and push back when she pushes - so she will continue to be in the center of the bed!"

Then when the Doctor and the full team arrived, I stepped away from the bed, and our Doctor says, "get back in place!" I just figured they should let a professional handle the counting and the leg holding - not a mere rookie! (now looking back, I think I should get a discount from the hospital, because it technically took one 'less' person for them in this delivery!)

I won't go into gory details for the faint of heart. Yet, I do want to say how amazing the human body is to withstand so much and be able to do what it does to pass on new life (my wife is truly amazong, adn I love her so much!!!!). And, what an amazing God we have, that created us to reproduce the way we do. How could anyone 1.) not believe in God after that, and 2.) not want to pass on to others (Especially a child) the wonder and awesome-ness of God after witnessing the beginnings of life.

DEAN MATTHEW GRAY!!!!

3:12 pm Tuesday Sept. 6, 2005
7lbs 1 ounce
19 inches

What a great experience - more on that later when I have more time, and our life calms down a little! I am one Proud Daddy! He is a beautiful kid:) I am kinda partial though...

Quotes from Messy Spirituality

Just finished Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli. A great quote or two:

There is no room for pretending in the spiritual life…Pretending is the grease of modern nonrelationships…But being real is the synonym for messy spirituality, because when we are real, our messiness is there for everyone to see. (pgs. 26-7)

Spirituality isn’t about being finished and perfect; spirituality is about trusting God in our unfinishedness (pg.29)

…it turns out that what disqualifies you and me from “spirituality” – the mess of our lives and our crippledness – is what most qualifies us to be chosen by Jesus… Some of us actually believe that until we choose the correct way to live, we aren’t chooseable, that until we clean up the mess, Jesus won’t have anything to do with us. The opposite is true. Until we admit we are a mess, Jesus won’t have anything to do with us. (pg. 37)

This book led me to go pick up Dangerous Wonder again, and check out all the things I underlined from when I read it last year!

Mo’ later! My job beckons !!

Vineyard Aggregator!

I have just become part of the Vineyard Aggregator! Thanks Steve! Since I am a Vineyard guy, I figured, I’d try to connect with other Vineyard-ites! Look for the cool icon somewhere else on my page, as soon as I figure out how to add it!!! lol

Good Quote

A great quote that I received as part of Dan Miller’s Newsletter
'You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.' -- Woodrow Wilson

Thoughts

1. Loving the book Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli


2. I could never be a Television anchor. I would feel too guilty standing in front of hurting people and just reporting. I would have to help. I could not just ‘do my job’.


3. When it comes to paper towels, I like them to be more like towel, than paper.


4. I realized how much I loved going to High School football games last night. One of the guys in my youth group is on one of the local football teams. We had a blast at the game. I can’t wait – we have some other guys in the group who are in the marching band at another school – so we are gonna be loading up on some High School Football this season!


5. I thought we were going into labor last night – contractions every 11 minutes. Very consistent. Then she went to bed, and they went away! No more contractions today.

Fred Smith on training workers

Read a great article from Fred Smith this morning about training core leaders. So many great points in this article, and many points are applicable to any business setting, not just doing church.

“Development is based on improvability.” He says that we should train to someone’s strengths and not to their weaknesses. I recently read another article that mentioned the same type of thing. If we focus on our peoples good traits and good work skills and talents, many of the negative will fall away.

He gives Five Criteria for Trainers to measure progress:

1. Is this person's job fitting well with his or her talents?


2. How much willingness to do the job am I seeing?


3. How consistent is the person's effort?


4. What are the objective results?


5. Is this person willing to be evaluated?

He develops all of these in the article. Throughout, he gives little tidbits of wisdom that I know, and have forgotten. It’s always good to get a good reminder.

Katrina, Countdown, and Cats

We finally got some word about friends we have in the New Orleans area. Our pastor here in Tenn. received an email from our former pastor, saying that he and his wife were out of N.O. and that his staff had all left to various places in the country. We also heard from some friends of ours who are also pregnant, and they made it to Houston, and have already found a new doctor. Thank God!

Count down to Induction: (since they don’t let ladies who develop Gestational diabetes go to 40 weeks) we go in on Monday night at 11:30, and the process begins. Who knows how long it’ll take for Dean to make it into this world! But I can’t wait! So less than five days now. Wow. My life will completely change. It already has! (And will continue – that’s what life is – right? Change – A Journey – it seems to me that that is a great representation of what God has for us. If we don’t change and grow – we pretty much die).

So I am fretting about our cats and the room they occupy in our house. Here’s the dilemma: My parents are driving into town for the birth of our kid, and I don’t want their first impression of our new house (to us at least) to be ‘hmm – smells like cat pee’. They could very well think that because 1.) Our house is on a corner lot. 2.) We have no garage 3.) You have to park near the back of the lot and walk up to the house. 4.)There is no parking for visitors to come to the front door. 5.) Our back door opens in to a room that was formerly the garage.

Without getting into it here, our four cats have now declared that room their home. It very easily could smell like cat pee. It’s pretty aggravating to me. (I am looking for new homes for the cats. Something in our life just has to give)

So, the parents will come to the back door, and it could smell like cats. See, if they came in the front door, we could hide and mask the eau de cat – but that just ain’t gonna happen. Funny, this could be some sort of teaching on letting God into our smelly, pee infested, back rooms of our lives. That’s pleasant! But true – how often do we want Him to come in the front door, while we hide what’s in the converted garage.

(by the way - even though we clean their boxes every day they still smell!!!)

Pregnancy Fatigue

We’re getting to the point where we would just like our baby to get here! I guess God gets people (mainly women) to the point where “we don’t care what the pain is going to be, just get here!” It’s funny though – I have those feelings in a way as well. Mine are more planning thoughts, like:

• Are we going to be able to continue all the events and activities that we currently do?


• Will we be able to resume life after birth?


• Will we have a pleasant baby – or a crying baby all the time?


• Will we be able to have a routine and function well as a family?


• What will life look like after the birth of my kid?


• What types of issues are we going to deal with after he gets here?


• Where has my mind gone? I feel like I am not functioning at work, or church or home at 100%

So, needless to say – I too am ready for the new blessing to the household, so I can stop my weird questioning thoughts, and just get on with life with new child – as exciting and scary as that will be.

We continue to pray for our friends and former neighbors who were hit by Katrina. The water keeps rising in New Orleans. Scary stuff.

From Leadership Journal

I read an article from Leadership magazine and a quote that I really like stands out to me...Donald Miller was talking about setting up a confessional on a college campus, but instead of having the students come in and confess, he and his friends would man the booth and confess the sins of the church, people of God, they personally.

The point was that confession is the opposite of being defensive, and we need to be more confessing instead of defensive as followers of Christ. The Cool Quote was this - about love:

" Loving selectively is worldly; giving it freely is miraculous."

I just thought that was a great quote and it truly is miraculous when love is given freely., How easy it is to hold love back when someone or something does not gel with our way of thinking. How radical and counterculture it would be if we truly loved, truly gave away and didn't hold it back because someone may have a different opinion on something (a cause, or mission) we hold near and dear to our hearts. The thing is, we are all different, and have been called to many different things.

Can I truly confront in love and not be condemning? Can I truly love freely, not selectively? I would like to work on that.

Unique

God has really been dealing with me about being a ‘unique’ ‘singular’ person, created in his image and not like anyone else…its cool to see a couple blogs about it this week – Gods reading my mail!!! Check out Perry Noble’s Thoughts on the issue, also Mark Batterson had some thoughts in a different direction on our unique Signature.

Also, doing some major praying for all our friends in New Orleans who are evacuating or staying there during Hurricane Katrina…I used to work in the building right across from the Superdome at B97, and I am trying to imagine all the folks who are being herded in there because they can’t evacuate the area. Scary and intense to watch and wait. We pray for the best for the city!!!

Preaching on the big Screen

Mark Batterson from National Community Church had this on a blog post a couple days ago…

Who said you have to preach from behind a pulpit? Jesus did most of his preaching at the beach or on the mountain! We are currently experimenting with "offsite preaching" that is shot "on location" and pre-produced as a short film. Why not? Especially if your church meets in a movie theater! Our theater screens double as postmodern stained glass. They enable us to communicate truth in moving pictures.

How sweet would that be? A cool thought, and very true of our culture today, every thing is so visual – I love NOOMA that Rob Bell and his team put together. I think it’s a great way to relate truth, and keep people interested in the big message of God without being irrelevant. Mark Batterson continues and says “irrelevance is irreverence”. Great post – and Amen Bro!

Keepin it real

Perry Noble had a great post on ‘Keeping it Real’

“The way I see it--it is our job to point people to Jesus, not ourselves.”

His point is that he needs to be, and should be, transparent when leading his congregation. Cool thoughts, and great post.

Blogger for Word

Got the new Blogger for Word attachment – Very cool! I can open up Word and type in blogs now at my convenience!!!

Dad Decisions

I had to make a Dad Decision that really rocked me last week. My wife developed Gestational Diabetes - like many women - during this pregnancy. Her body isn't breaking down her sugar like it should. So Friday we were at the Doctor's office and we had to make the decision between a new 'glucose pill' treatment (actually it's been around a while, but just recetnly begun use on Mother's during pregnancy), or the insulin that has been around and everyone knows.

Needless to say, we had little clue about either, actually. But we had to make the best decision we could. And I thought to myself...

"Holy Crap - I am going to have to make decisons like this that could alter ANOTHER life for the rest of MY life!"

I felt like Calling Mom and Dad and saying - thank you for all the decisions you made. You did well!!!

What Napoleon Character r U?

You are Napoleon Dyanamite and a buttload of gangs
are trying to recruit you.


Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I am Napoleon! I didn't expect that!!!

dream?

Weird Dream last night - What I remember... 1st - not being able to move my feet. They felt lilke they were dead weight. Then, I was back in my hometown - I was in the 'theatre school' I grew up in with my old friends. I saw one of my friends' mom and dad - but his dad, in the dream, was my current CEO of the company I work for. Weird. Then, I was doing some sort of Song and Dance number with someone. Then I woke up.

Weird weird weird. Trying to figure it out!

John Wooden Quote

Mistakes made while expanding boundaries are what I wanted. If we weren't making mistakes, we weren't far enough out on the edge. If we weren't pushing against the walls of our capabilities, we weren't practicing correctly. The time to cut down on turnovers is during games, although we should try to avoid them during practice, too. When the game was tight, I wanted the person taking the last shot to be surprised if he missed. When we needed a basket badly, the player who wanted the ball was the one I wanted to have it. For example, in my next to the last game as a teacher, we were two points behind Louisville with only a few seconds to go. We set up a play for Richard Washington. Afterward a reporter asked, "Why did you pick Washington?" I replied, "Because he's not afraid to make a mistake. He thinks he's a pretty good shooter — and he is — but if he misses he'll think, Well, you can't make them all. He won't be devastated. Therefore, he's harnessed his fear. The others might be thinking, I've got to make it. If that's their thinking, they'll be fearful about missing. I didn't want that. I went with Richard."

From Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success - book just came out - I love reading stuff by and about John Wooden. Definately an amazing Man of God and a great Teacher and Coach

Great Prayer from Dave Foster

"O God, I am tired of trying to be a better version of the old me. Change me and make me a man after God's own heart. Let me love you for who you are not what you do for me!"
-- David Foster

Dave is the Pastor of Bellevue Community Church. My wife and I went there when we first started dating. Dave is a great Pastor/speaker/Motivator! and I really believe God worked thru him and his church to draw me back to Him! Thanks Dave!

thoughts on Tuesday

At work -

Trying to use Viral marketing to promote DMLIVE! we had a good meeting about it - and it's interesting that I started reading Seth Godin's Unleashing the Ideavirus just this weekend.

I also have to use these ideas to market myself - and my product - my voice- to radio- specifically Christian Radio - its an avenue I haven't been focused on a lot lately - but now with Dean coming, and needing some extree income - that is something I need to work on again.

Thoughts from today that I can remember

1. Its tough to remember all the thoughts that you have in a day.
2. Its going to be fun being a Dad - We were walking in Burlington Coat Factory and we were in the Baby Depot section - and I couldn't keep from smiling!
3. Sometimes I feel like a spiritual weekling, or lesser person than some who do the same things I do - or simialr things to what I want to be doing.
4. 'A person with experience is not slave to one with an opinion' - great quote I heard again today that I must remember.
5. why all of a sudden am I blogging so much?
6. Wanting to read The Tipping Point, I know, I'm behind.
7. I hate feeling behind.

Blogging effectively

So, I have been stumbling thru blogs, and reading, and my dilemma is this - after I blog on the computer - I have no desire to write in the journal or anywhere else...Is the blog for separate thoughts than the journal, or the same thing...or .....WHAT?

the line in that previous post that gets me is...

'Christians are walking billboards for the church'

Signs are all around us and they advertise all sorts of things...where to go, which way to turn, what to buy, what service is provided...(red)Stop,(green) go, (yellow)Go very fast..etc...what is the sign people see when they see us? What am I advertising? What signs that I have seen in my life do I follow?

great post from awhile back

saw this on www.Churchmarketingsucks.com

False Advertising
"The greatest challenge the church faces today is to be authentic disciples of Jesus. ... That's one reason why the statistics on Christians generally don't differ from the statistics on non-Christians. We're not living a different life." -Dallas Willard (RelevantMagazine.com)
Christians are walking billboards for the church, and too often it's a case of false advertising. Church marketing sucks, but so do we. We're a sinful and broken people, but half the time we can't admit it. We put on an air of perfection, forgetting that in our brokenness we are complete. The church is for the broken, not the perfect.
Yet rather than accept our imperfection and live lives transformed by grace, we pretend to be perfect and wallow in our sin.

good point, and so true.

Haven't been posting in a while

So here is the first post in a while.

Yay.

Late night - preparing for the Youth tomorrow night...talking about acceptance and rejection - and how we tend to lean towards always going for people who automatically accept us as our friends...instead of takinga front seat and being a person who is accepting, not rejecting, and being involved with our choices in life...hmmm. Its is you go too far one way or the other, the two sides could contradict each other. One side - paying no attention - lean toward acceptance - you get what you get - side two - be picky - and selective - so you have to play the middle...selective with who is in your inner circle, yet accepting and not rejecting, so people want to be around you in the first place.

From the Crescent City

I got an email from my former Worship leader in N.O. (Kenner) to be exact...And he has a new CD out. I've only listened to one song so far - but I intend to buy the whole cd! www.crispinschroeder.com is the website - his blog is over in the right hand corner. My wife and I were always big fans of Crispin and his music while we were in New Orleans - She always thought He had that 'Edwin McCain' sound...which is a good thing in our book! Talented guy - and I can'twait to hear the rest of the CD!

OOPS

I kinda blew up the other blog template and had to start over - it was messed up beyond what I could figure out. Thats always fun - getting in over your head!!!

the dean meter

I found this baby-o-meter today, and i thought it was very funny! (and will make my wife very happy!)

Schtuff: Happens

The latest:
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Mom was here for Mother's day. Good visit, rather intense being that I had been out of town for a week long Church Conference. Great conversation with her before she left about Church and life and kids and being a new parent. God did some cool stuff this weekend
-
I am co-hosting DMlive! This weekend with Dawson McAllister - Dave Kirby is out of town, so the Stu-meister is in! Nerves - going crazy! God's gotta have my back on this one!
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Dean update: Felt him kick for the first time last night! Very cool.
-
Vineyard Church Conference was last week in Columbus - Wow, never cried so much in worship !!!!
God rocks.
-

1 Chr. 28:20 David also said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished.

Quote that I just read that I think is good stuff

"Whether we think of, or speak to, God, whether we act or suffer for Him, all is prayer, when we have no other object than His love, and the desire of pleasing Him. All that a Christian does, even in eating and sleeping, is prayer, when it is done in simplicity, according to the order of God . . . In souls filled with love, the desire to please God is a continual prayer."

--John Wesley

totally missing the pope mobile

My first comment! WOW that rocks.

The first run around the Vatican that the new 'pope' made, in his 'pope-mobile' did not have the cool glass bubble...very disappointing! Ahh...gone are the days of the old popemobile... The cool thing is, the new mobile, did look like a hummer, but what do I know~!

UPSET. Like pulling off a scab and having a sore bleed again, was getting the news that the new midday guy in Dallas is using the name CRUZ on air...Like having a bad paper cut and then sticking it in lemon juice. Bringing it up just upsets me. The guy using the name I use on air. A couple months ago, I was informed that my name was being thought of for middays on this station, I decided I couldn't and shouldn't pursue the opportunity at the present. BOY That hurt. And now, the new guy is using CRUZ. Nothing like addin insult to injury. Like kicking you when you are down. Like chewing on tin foil. Not really like that last one, but that thought did make me cringe.

I can't spell Blog

Did you notice from the last blog, I can't spell blog...Oh well.

What about last night on NBC...Revelations...Bill Pullman and others...interesting concept for a show...I thought it was going to be a 'tv movie' not a series...it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Lots of scripture reference - which I thought was cool. This is definately a Christian based show...where Joan of Arcadia is a great show, yet does not delve into what religion God represents...Does that make sense?

God in the news lately...Terry Schiavo, the lady in Atlanta with Purpose Driven Life, The Pope passing...very cool.

1st post on the blog

today I stumbled upon tons of bogs in the ole blogosphere, and decided to take a stab into the future! Well here we go...