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, September 23, 2005
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?
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?
Thursday, September 22, 2005
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)
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)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
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
Sunday, September 18, 2005
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!
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!
Friday, September 16, 2005
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?
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?
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!
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!
Thursday, September 15, 2005
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.
Cool technique. One I’ll have to remember. See, now, I’m just getting carried away.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
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! :)
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! :)
Sunday, September 11, 2005
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.
(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.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
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...
Sunday, September 04, 2005
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 !!
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 !!
Friday, September 02, 2005
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
'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
- Loving the book Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli
- 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’.
- When it comes to paper towels, I like them to be more like towel, than paper.
- 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!
- 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.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
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:
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.
“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:
- Is this person's job fitting well with his or her talents?
- How much willingness to do the job am I seeing?
- How consistent is the person's effort?
- What are the objective results?
- 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!!!)
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!!!)
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