Hope everyone had a great Christmas. Andrea and I had a great time with her family. While we were there, we made a trip to NYC. It was my first time there. We just went sight-seeing. Went to the top of the Empire State Building. Pretty cool stuff.
I have been out of sync lately. Kinda down, out of sorts. Today, I feel like I could quite my job in a heart beat. Nothing bad has happened. I just wonder if it is where I am suppose to be. I enjoy ministry; the challenges, the growth, etc., but there are so many things I lack as a pastor. I sometimes wonder if I should be a construction worker and be involved in the church. Am I really where God wants me?It's beeen one of those days.
I am reading Don Miller's book, Searching for God Knows What. I really resonate with Don's writing. The book, so far, has been about his growth from treating God as head knowledge to being in an intimate relationship with God. If you haven't read any of his books...do it now! Check him out here!
Not too much else going on. I need to turn in my passport application today...then we might go do some Christmas returns.
More to come.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Why do I think so hard about a title??
I think writing a good catchy title is the hardest thing about regularly blogging for a non-writing type person like myself. It would be easier if I had a couple of days to think about it.
Just a couple days from Christmas. It is supposed to be close 50 degrees over the weekend...very non-Christmas weather. I am just about ready for the Christmas Eve service. I am pretty excited about it. Practice with the worship team went really well last night.
I think I am a more compulsive person than I realize. By compulsive, I mean lacking some self-control. When it comes to food...I can eat any time, anywhere, and sometimes feel I have little control to say no. Even on the internet, I am compulsive about just spending alot of time on it. I am sure there is a spiritual corealation here...maybe that is why Jesus encouraged His followers to fast...to build self-control.
Today should be a good day. Hair cut in 30 minutes-then to work. I will finish my sermon, look over the computer for all services, and then have a meeting with the other staff regarding the weekend full of services.
If I don't get to post again, have a Merry Christmas!
Just a couple days from Christmas. It is supposed to be close 50 degrees over the weekend...very non-Christmas weather. I am just about ready for the Christmas Eve service. I am pretty excited about it. Practice with the worship team went really well last night.
I think I am a more compulsive person than I realize. By compulsive, I mean lacking some self-control. When it comes to food...I can eat any time, anywhere, and sometimes feel I have little control to say no. Even on the internet, I am compulsive about just spending alot of time on it. I am sure there is a spiritual corealation here...maybe that is why Jesus encouraged His followers to fast...to build self-control.
Today should be a good day. Hair cut in 30 minutes-then to work. I will finish my sermon, look over the computer for all services, and then have a meeting with the other staff regarding the weekend full of services.
If I don't get to post again, have a Merry Christmas!
Monday, December 19, 2005
Just Catching Up
It's the week before Christmas and all through the church, every staffer was busy...ok, so I don't have the creative time to finish the story. But we are 5 days before Christmas...and we have 4 Christmas Eve services looming large. We'll see about 1,000 people on Christmas Eve, which is so exciting to share the message to that many people.
Andrea and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this past Friday (Dec. 16th). We had a perfect celebration...we went out to Big Fish Grille and had a great dinner. I suprised with a diamond bracelet. It was great.
I am reading a good book right now. It is called Walk On, and it follows U2 through their birth and talks about the faith. I am only about a quarter of the way through the book, but it is really interesting (especially as a U2 fan, and a Pastor). I believe that church (especially the American church) has done who huge disfavor to future generations by not investing in arts, music, etc.
The western church also has in place huge contradictory standards. For instance...if you show up at church once a week, control your language, etc. you are a mature Christian. But if you take your faith outside the church, engage the culture to be the salt of the earth--then there is a different standard for that. Seems that U2 was told by their home church that they should break up back in the early 80's because of the evils of the rock and roll culture. Certainly there are evils..and I would be naive to think that U2 doesn't sometimes struggle with things that are not Godly (f-bomb on TV comes to mind), but shouldn't we as a church, as ministers of the gospel be taking it to the streets, the slums, the clubs, etc.? Why do we constantly expect that people are going to come into our doors and sit to hear a message?
I think I struggle with that as a pastor working in a church. I have enough work on most days that I could never step out of my office to go into the world where there are hurting people who need Jesus (just like I do).
I believe there will be more thoughts on this book coming in the days ahead. In the meantime..Merry Christmas!
Andrea and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this past Friday (Dec. 16th). We had a perfect celebration...we went out to Big Fish Grille and had a great dinner. I suprised with a diamond bracelet. It was great.
I am reading a good book right now. It is called Walk On, and it follows U2 through their birth and talks about the faith. I am only about a quarter of the way through the book, but it is really interesting (especially as a U2 fan, and a Pastor). I believe that church (especially the American church) has done who huge disfavor to future generations by not investing in arts, music, etc.
The western church also has in place huge contradictory standards. For instance...if you show up at church once a week, control your language, etc. you are a mature Christian. But if you take your faith outside the church, engage the culture to be the salt of the earth--then there is a different standard for that. Seems that U2 was told by their home church that they should break up back in the early 80's because of the evils of the rock and roll culture. Certainly there are evils..and I would be naive to think that U2 doesn't sometimes struggle with things that are not Godly (f-bomb on TV comes to mind), but shouldn't we as a church, as ministers of the gospel be taking it to the streets, the slums, the clubs, etc.? Why do we constantly expect that people are going to come into our doors and sit to hear a message?
I think I struggle with that as a pastor working in a church. I have enough work on most days that I could never step out of my office to go into the world where there are hurting people who need Jesus (just like I do).
I believe there will be more thoughts on this book coming in the days ahead. In the meantime..Merry Christmas!
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