Great General Conference Blog

If you care at all about General Conference you should check out Mark Holland's blog. Its a short recap of each day described as only Mark can.

Some Wisdom

Thought i would share my devotional reading today from Proverbs 6:16-19. I particularly like the 2nd part of verse 19.

¹⁶ There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:

¹⁷ haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,

¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up dissension in the community.

Gereral Conferecne Starts Today

The General Conference of the Untied Methodist Church starts today in Dallas Texas. Here are a few things for you to check out if you are interested.
-General Conference Home Page
-Article from Tom Berlin
-Article from the Dallas Morning News,
-A daily Blog by my friend Mark Holland

What if...

"let's say I confessed to you my disgust with someone who annoyed me and how hopeless I felt about ever loving this person. What if instead of trying to make me feel better by saying, 'Nobody's perfect,' you said you believed in God's power to transform me into a radical person who pays loving attention to those who annoy me? What if you prayed for me about this? What if later that day you encountered an annoying person and without thinking, treated that person with kindness and attentiveness-partly because of the transforming effect of our conversation about the kingdom personality?"

From the devotionals Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice, based on Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart.

Hospitality

This week I preached a sermon on the hospitality and here is a quote i used from Bishop Robert Schnase's new book The Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations. He is talking about the decline of the mainline church.

"People getting mad and leaving is not the cause of our decline. Members simply grow old and die, and no one takes their places. The church as a “front door” problem rather than a “back door” problem. People are not entering into the life of the church at a rate that matches or exceeds the number maturing and dying. In many cases, we have not passed along the faith ot our won children and grandchildren.
To become a vibrant, fruitful, growing congregation requires a change of attitudes, practices, and values. Good intentions are not enough. Too many churches want more young people as long as they act like old people, more newcomers as long as they act like old-timers, more children as long as they are quiet as adults, more ethnic families as long as they act like the majority in the congregation."

Say Amen if you can!

"Server is Too Busy"

I am behind in my sermon prep this week. My wife and i celebrated our 6th anniversary by going to Myrtle Beach for a few days and I did not start working on my sermon until yesterday. And it is not going to well. So i started doing what i do when my sermon is not going well. I've prayed more than normal, I've called up a few friends and asked for old sermons or illustrations, (got hold of one friend but the stuff he gave me is not going to work). Today i want to a preaching website, www.preachingtoday.com and i did a search for my topic, (hospitality) and the response was: SERVER IS TOO BUSY. I guess i'm not the only one!!
Anyway got to have the sermon done before the final four starts tonight.

A little E. Stanley Jones for you

E. Stanley Jones, from, Conversion (1959)

"Building the Kingdom" depicts the unsurrendered self thinking it can build the Kingdom by its own efforts. But "receiving the Kingdom" depicts the surrendered, receptive self with emptied hands accepting God's gift of grace, forgiveness, conversion, new birth, and this is the point--introducing him to the most exciting fact of the universe, the Kingdom of God....

Who is in your final 4?

I have a very unexciting final 4. Two number 1 seeds, and #2 and #4. UNC, Memphis, Georgetown, and UCONN. With UNC and Memphis in the title game and UNC winning. Who do you have?

Happy 5th Birthday Jordan!

The Bald Brotherhood

A group from St. Matthew's went to hear Tony Campolo speak tonight. He was awesome as usual. Tony has been a great influence in my life and ministry and a great source for illustrations. Best line of the night, "you know your old when your wife asks you to come upstairs for sex and you say, 'honey, I can't do both."

The Hermeneutics Quiz

Before you take this quiz that was designed by Scot McKnight,
which of the following 3 categories do you think you view of the Bible will fit..

Conservative, Moderate, or Progressive?
After you take the quiz go here to see what it means and in the comments let me know what you thought you were, and what the quiz said you were and do you agree. Mine are in the comments.

donuts with dad 08

Yesterday was donuts with dad at Jordan and Karis's preschool.

Jesus Christ the Musical

Who thinks of this stuff?

Hope at General Conference?

Below is a portion of an article from the United Methodist News Service that actually excites me about our church. I will have a few comments afterwards.

A new agenda

Weary of decades of the church's top legislative meeting being consumed by debate over homosexuality and other hot-button issues, the Council of Bishops and other denominational leaders have shaped a new churchwide agenda with the overarching purpose of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The agenda includes four areas of focus: developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world; creating "new places for new generations" by starting new churches and renewing existing ones; engaging in ministry with the poor; and fighting the killer diseases of poverty such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

Church leaders believe this approach will help United Methodists unite to address the world's core needs, reclaim the church's Wesleyan heritage, start a movement and, as a bonus, reverse decades of declining membership trends.

It also is hoped that, when the nearly 1,000 delegates leave General Conference to return to their home districts and churches, they will know the four areas of focus by heart and, with a new clarity about "what my church is doing," spread that vision and sense of identity to the people in the pews.

Delegates at the briefing said it's time for Jesus Christ to "do a new thing with our church."

"I'm not hearing as much about the more controversial issues so far," said the Rev. Henry Frueh, a second-time delegate from the Troy Annual (regional) Conference in New York. "There's more talk about the church positioning itself to be more effective in the world. I think there's a sense that if we don't change the way we do church, we're going to lose the opportunity," he told United Methodist New Service.

The Rev. Tom Berlin, a delegate from Herndon, Va., said many people in his generation (ages 30 to 45) are disenchanted by past General Conferences that have focused on discordant social issues that "are so predictable in their outcome"--and not enough on substantive issues of need in the world. The result, he said, is that ordained and lay leaders are tempted to cocoon themselves in their local churches "because it's just not worth the emotional energy."

"Friends, we're going to have to lay down our arms on these other issues if we want to deal with the (new) ones," Berlin told one panel group.

My thoughts/ questions:

1. I love the 4 areas of focus that deal with the true mission statement of the UMC "make disciples of Jesus Christ": engaging in ministry with the poor, fighting the killer diseases, creating and building leaders, and starting and renewing churches for new generations. It would be like actually doing what Jesus called us to do. What a crazy thing to do? If the general conference was to get behind this agenda i believe the church could change course. I know it would chance my perception and attitude. Rev. Tom Berlin hit the nail on the head when he said "that ordained and lay leaders are tempted to cocoon themselves in their local churches because it's just not worth the emotional energy."

2. Can this happen? I think so. I've talked with a few others and they don't share my optimism. I am an eternal optimist so i think this can work. Will the very conservative and the very liberal be able to give up ground i think is the real question. Can we "lay down arms?" Are there enough people/delegates in the extreme center where i believe i am? I believe that is more and more the case and more and more people are getting frustrated with the current system. Say amen if you can.

3. Tom Berlin, is not only the skinniest pastor in America (I'm not mocking, I'm jealous) he is a great leader who is going to help the future of our church and i am pumped that he is co leading the VA conference delegation. This is what can happen when great church pastors/leaders and given the opportunity to work with the broader church. Of the 15 clergy
elected to general conference only 4 were serving churches at the time of election.

4. What do you think and what can we do to help make this vision/focus a reality?

2 years ago today....

Karis had her kidney removed. Hard to believe its been 2 years. i did not even realize it until Leigh Ann told me. Karis had something called nephroblastomatosis. I could be wrong but from what i understand/remember nephroblastomatosis is when the kidney continues in its embryonic state and continues to grow at a rapid rate. Her kidney should have been about 4 cm but hers was 14 so they had to remove it. Though it might sound strange this ended up being a blessing. Our urologist thought it was cancer after the first tests. We were also told to expect cemo after surgery even if it was not cancer. That did not happen either. Karis is a normal as normal can be and with the exception of playing football she should be able to anything she wants. Below is a picture of her a few days post surgery and one from Christmas

i'm in trouble.

i am thinking about using this for Easter? What do you think?



Hat tip to Reformissionary

Don't Blame Romo...only

First of all the Cowboys choked. The Giants won and I believe wanted it more. The better team won. The frustrating thing about the game was how poorly the Cowboys executed.

Here are some examples:

Patrick Crayton 1. Two dropped passes, one on a third down where he would have had a huge huge gain.

Poor Tackling. The Giants first score was the result of 3 miss tackles.

Special Teams. After the Cowboys go up 17-14 The G Men return the kickoff to the Cowboys 49. The Giants do not score. End of 3rd quarter, Cowboys punt, Giants return it 30 yards to the Cowboys 33. Missed tackles galore. This time the Giants score and go up for good 21-17.

Penalties- After Dallas went up 14-7 with 28 seconds left a face mask moves the Giants for the 45 to the 23. Two 3rd downs the Giants failed to convert but the drive was continued because of off side penalties. Both of these results in scores. 3rd and 7 from the Giants 11 Flowcale Adams gets one of his 2 offside penalties thus making it a 3 and 12.

Offensive Line. The Giants either figured out something or everybody got tired on the O line. In the fourth quarter Romo was hit on just about every play with the exception of the time he threw it away for no good reason.

Patrick Crayton 1 A 3rd and 14, Romo runs around a pass a perfect pass that would have procuded huge yardage, only problem is Crayon drops it.

Anthony Fasano- First drive of the second half, on a 2nd and 7 from the Giants 11 Floano is hit in the chest and drops it in the end zone.

Andre Gurode,- Had a horrible time snapping the ball. They would just kind of float in the air for a long time. This has led to an offside penalty with 31 seconds left in the game.

Time Outs- Cowboys wasted 2 timeouts in the 2nd half. One on a punt return and the other to keep from getting a delay of game. This would have really helped the Cowboys on their last drive.

Crayton part 2. This is the killer, - 21 seconds left Crayton stops on his route. Had his guy beat and the throw was there. Crayton could be the hero .


Tony Romo- On a 1st and 10 from the Giants 47 Romo takes a huge sack to brings up a 2nd and 24. Same drive, 1st and 10 threw it away for no reason and takes a intentional grounding bring up a 2nd and 20.
Under threw Owens twice in the 4th quarter.
He was frustrated like I’ve never seen him before. He was yelling at everyone and he is usually cool as can be.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Joe Gibbs and Evangelism

This article by John "Jr." Feinstein was in Monday's Washington Post, a day or so before Gibbs retired. Though i am a cowboy fan and therefore don't think much of the redskins i've always admired Gibbs for his coaching and also for the way he lives his faith. This article talks about Gibbs faith in a not so positive light. What are your thoughts?

New Christmas Worship Song

My friend Brian wrote a Christmas song called Glory Hallelujah. Below is an acoustic version (and the version i like better). If you click here you will get cord charts as well as an MP3 version of it. let me know what you think.

The Worst Food in America

also happens to be one of my favorites. According to the December issue of Men's Health.. Outback's Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing is the worst food in America (from a health prospective). Check out the stats. 2,900 calories 182 g fat, 240 g carbs. Other than that it is ok.

The article says, "even if you split these "starters" with three friends, you'll have downed a dinner's worth of calories before your entrée arrives."

The sad news is that this will not stop me from getting them the next time I'm there.