ipol, ipol, ipol...

just a quick shout out for a new fav. restaurant in suwanee, ga.

lane and i had a date night tonight. first one in quite a while.
we went to this great place called "ipollinos"

our waiter told us that in the summer they have jazz every friday night in the park across the street and if you sit out on the terrace you not only get good food, great service, but you get a free jazz concert as well.

also: while we are on the digestive topic- my new fav. coffee place is changing its name to BOKU coffee from BEANERZ.

it was the name that drew me in the first place. this makes me wonder- what is in a name exactly??

anybody got any cool names from places that produced recent food raves??

confession

it is said that confession is good for our soul...what does this mean for you and i?
too many times in the world of ministry, at least missional and seeker ministry, we
are too afraid to call people to take a hard look at the awfulness that is their own hearts
and souls. i thought about this today when i was reading through psalm 69, a psalm that
david prayed when it seemed that his life was crumbling down around him. he prays that, "God, you
know my folly, and my wrongs are not hidden from you."
this is such a clensing practice for those in the ministerial world. confession leads us to a place
where we are pured-out vessels and we feel all the more ready to be used and driven by God.

where does this leave us with the people that we lead?
if confession is so good for us, then why do we not call others to do the same?
do they not lead broken lives as well?
do they not feel pressure?

confession: in my life this is one of the more neglected parts of my ministry.

covenant: that i would preach the whole gospel, not just that which sounds cool and edgy.

loving life.

New Crib

Writing for the first time in my new house.

Interesting how new environments can give us a great new perspective on life.

Like my friend Jason whose wife just had a baby an hour ago...new life moments can produce

new life experiences and thought patterns.

Thanks to everyone, especially Robyn, who pretty much prayed us into this house.

I'm just being honest...

This is a saying that is widely used...especially by my best friend Ryan Britt.

That being said, i am reading more and more, especially in the futurist world about the importance of authenticity.

I even caught a post by Mark Batterson on the subject yesterday.

Below is my response post:

Be careful how much we use the term authentic, or transparent. I think that it is very important to be open and honest with people but maybe being authentic is an open door to being openly sinful and not caring. I don't think its so much about being authentic but about being more like Christ. As a Christian, our authenticity is not to be more like us, but to be more like Christ.

I think Paul says it best: "Your life is not your own. You were bought with a price."

*Props to J. Britt for his inspiration.

taming the temper

so today i got angry...not in the cool, futurist way that all the emergent church guys talk about, but really, truly, angry.
the people working on closing my house completely blew it today. seriously. we have had to push the closing a total of 2 weeks so far for one thing or another. now the seller is not happy, and i am realizing just how out of control of things i really am.
so today i took it out on the mortgage guy. not that he didn't deserve it, but he didn't deserve it from me.
i am being a little dramatic here. me getting angry with him meant that i told him that i was disappointed in how he was handling my deal, and that i was not happy. (really scary i know)
this got me thinking..when is it appropriate to get angry enough to say that you "lost your temper?" i understand what it means to have righteous indignation, but to lose your temper???
from what i understand in scripture, we are not to be slave to anything...especially our emotions. paul talks about buffeting his body, making it his slave. i assume this meant his emotions as well.
just something to think about.
all of that to say. no real damage done today. we'll close next week. we have a place to have a roof over our heads, and a place to keep warm.
amazing how understanding your blessings can effect your view of what is right and wrong in your life huh?

spring fever

just a reminder that today is the first day of spring...that means a couple of things:

1.) opening day of the baseball season is 11 days away.

2.) the master's begins in 14 days.

3.) there is so much pollen in the air here in north atlanta that it could kill you.

randomness

had a few random thoughts today...

1.) how does confidence correspond with humility?? in my life right now i feel like God is trying to rebuild my confidence after a pretty humbling two years, but how do i keep that from turning into pride?

2.) my wife is an amazing woman. right now she is driving back and forth a couple days a week just to be with me and be apart of this new start in the atl. did i mention we were also moving on sat.?? all that to say- i picked the right one.

3.) i really struggle with criticism. most of my life was spent being a people pleaser. (right now i'm in recovery) but i still feel terrible when people don't think that i am totally like whoa..

4.) i think it's fun to be a middle school pastor because you get to say things like totally like whoa...

5.) my dad is my hero.

6.) i would give up sleep for a week for sunday passes to the master's.

7.) God has made me pure and whole. "the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." 1 tim. 1:5

r-e-v

yesterday might have been one of the longest but coolest days of my life. i left the hotel (because i still don't have a house, but will on fri.) at 8, left crossroads at 11, went to tn. got ordained at one of the coolest services that i have ever had a chance to be apart of because my dad and i got ordained together, then came back to jason's house to stay. lane got up at 4:30 and i have been up since.

mad props to jason for the great challenge he gave at the ordination.

also: how cool for me to be in a room with a modern day patriarch. my grandfather is really one of those guys whose legacy of faith has reached down through multiple generations. feels good to be apart of history.

all that to say, i love my wife, she is cooler than i could ever dream of being. i also love that the people in my life are great influencers for the kingdom.

peace out from the atl.

Day One

Today is literally my first day on the job here at Crossroads. What a feeling of being overwhelmed.... I am immediately consumed it seems on every side by what can be described as a mixture of fear, anxiety, and excitement. On the other hand, God is continually teaching me mountains of faith and dependence through this time. I am reminded of how sweet and necessary some of these key relationships in my life have become. Lane is amazing. God gave me a wife who is also the strongest and most wonderfully hot woman in the world. Second, friends for support. Who am I without the relationships in my life?? Without these people life can seem pretty incomplete, like a sentence with no capitalization or punctuation. What is so great is that God is so good and faithful all throughout the day::

"On the other hand I am filled with power-- with the Spirit of the Lord.."

Micah 3:8

open sourcing

saw this over at evotional.com, batterson's blog, and found it to be amazing. (notice that i'm totally taking something from someone else's blog, but it's all good...we're not competing here)

the idea is great. what is not great is what is being taught in seminaries today is completely contradictory. did you know that there are pending lawsuits, at this moment, with pastors suing other pastors for the rights to their sermons?? i understand the need for intellectual domain and the right to one's own property, but read below...i think being on the same team could be a class that would benefit most if not all of us...


"Had an interesting brainstorming meeting yesterday with Dave Ferguson and Eric Bramlett from CCC and Todd Wilson who is the organizational guru behind the National New Church Conference. Just thought I'd post a few thoughts in process.

I'm a huge believer in and proponent of open-source resources. I have no issue with churches selling DVDs, CDs, etc. You've got to recoup cost. But I think it puts a smile on God's face when churches shareware their ideas and resources. We tried to take a step in that direction with www.chasethelion.com. All the video and graphics are free--no strings attached. Honestly? We love it when churches ask us if they can use something we've produced. And we have no hesitations sharing because nine times out of ten we got it from someone else :) Eric Bramlett threw out a word yesterday that I love: manipulatable. We talked about churches posting videos and graphics so that they are manipulatable. In other words, you take the final cut or photoshop file and make it available so that other churches can watermark it with their information.

The danger with open-source is simply copying someone else's creativity. But I'd like to think of it as stimulating creativity. I'm not sure the most creative churches in the country can come up with 52 weeks of creative material. It's OK to borrow ideas. That is what open-source is all about. We're all on the same team. Let's share best ideas and best practices. Not sure how this idea will evolve. But I think we could have significant kingdom impact if the church-at-large becomes more open-source."

Jesus Videos

The guys over at Vintage 21, an emergent church in North Carolina, put together some pretty cool videos last year for a sermon series about Jesus.

These are obviously meant tongue in cheek but it makes you wonder, what would Jesus sound like??

The link is for the first of four videos.

Vintage 21 Jesus Videos.
Vintage21 Jesus Video #1

one message, big idea, etc.

it seems like everything that i am reading these days, whether its pop culture business info, emergent church blogs, or even a book from northpoint resources, i am getting basically the same message- "it's all about communicating ONE THING"

i really like this idea, not that it is that original. did anyone else ever see city slickers 2??

all of that to say, this is important for people in ministry to understand because as much as our message has, should, and will stay the same since the time of Jesus, the way that we communicate that message must evolve.

i can't count how many churches that i've been to, or pastors that i've heard who think that because they heard one guy, 30 years ago preach and see a response, then they have to do the same. (i.e. Charles Stanley, Billy Graham, and Adrian Rodgers are so far out of my league i do not even attempt to criticize them, only the lame imitators)

then there are people who think that communication is overrated. that all you have to do is be in good standing and people won't really care how or what you communicate.

i had a friend say to me a few years ago, "a church will forgive you for a lot of things, but bad preaching is not one of them." how true.

all of this comes in the context of scripture- of course!
"Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." James 3:1

cracker barrel

had breakfast this morning at cracker barrel with my two closest friends in macon. pretty sad because tomorrow is my last day, but cool none the less. here are two guys that i have really connected with and see some cool things in their future that i think God wants to do with them.

dmv

just got back from renewing my driver's licence, and getting new tags for Lane's car. this process began at 8:45 this morning and was not over until well after lunch. one of the things that i am constantly amazed at when i have to go through this process is how painstakingly slow and arduous the time seems. here we have a service that is necessary for our well being and lifestyle, but upon entry (if you can find it) one is left dreading the next time the doors of the establishment must be darkened.

remind you of anywhere??

such a great example of why the marketing and service side of church work is so important. remember- even though what we are providing is the most important something one might have, it is still up to us to make the process pleasant. after all- who wants to go to a church where there is no ad. to get you there, no nice people to let you know what's going on, or no one who can, in 30 seconds, tell you what this place is all about.

what i'm getting at is our lack of concern for the people in our communities who come to our church and have no clue what church should be like. our expectation, much like the dmv, is for those persons to walk in, know exactly how to act and what to do, and then we will welcome and serve those people.

ask yourself, "when did i last want to go to the dmv?" the same might be asked of your church.


great site for church marketing, seriously: www.churchmarketingsucks.com check it out.