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.

It's not your birthday

I was asked by the Washington Post to write a Christmas meditaion. Just kidding, it was the Goochland Courier that asked me. Here is what i have written below. Let me know what you think.


It’s Not Your Birthday.
It’s not your birthday that we will celebrate on December 25. It’s Jesus’ birthday that we celebrate. What would happen if on one of my daughters birthdays’ I got myself some presents, my wife some presents, and my other daughters got presents, but the daughter whose birthday it is got nothing? There would not be peace on earth or good will toward men. Everybody would think we were horrible parents. The truth is that is what often happens with Christmas, we forget whose birthday it is, we forget the reason for the season. Jesus!

One of the ways we can celebrate Jesus’ birthday is by giving to the poor. As Jesus says in Matthew 25:40, “whatever you did for one of the least of these (the hungry, the thirsty, the immigrants, the naked, the sick, the prisoner, the lonely) brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” What Jesus says in this passage is that he identifies with the poor. If we serve the poor, it is the same as serving Jesus, and when we don’t serve the poor it is the same as not serving Jesus.

Jesus not only identifies with the poor, he was poor. Jesus was born in a stable. When Joseph and Mary went to present Jesus at the temple and have Jesus circumcised their sacrifice was the sacrifice of the poor, a pair of doves or two young pigeons (Luke 3:24, Leviticus 12:8). You could make the case that when Jesus started his ministry he was homeless. Jesus was always eating and staying at someone else’s house. At one point Jesus says, “foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.” When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he entered on a borrowed donkey. When Jesus and his disciples had the last supper they met in a borrowed room. After Jesus died they placed his body not in his tomb, but a borrowed tomb. Jesus identified with the poor and was poor.

My challenge to you during this Christmas season is to remember whose birthday it is and give half of your planned Christmas spending to the poor. If you normally spend $500 on Christmas this year spend $250 on Christmas and give the rest to the poor. How much of what we get or give on Christmas is really needed? There are people that have legit needs some in our own country. There are over 6 billion people in the world and half of them live on less than $2 a day. 30,000 people die a day from starvation. That is one person every 3 seconds. In the time it has taken you to read this article (3 minutes) 60 people have died. Let that sink in. This is not the way things have to be. This Christmas season, remember whose birthday it is and strive to live a simple Christmas so others might simply live.

Intuitive leadership 1

Started reading Tim Keel's book today, Intuitive Leadership and thought i would try and blog through it. I am 0 for 1 in doing this so wish me better luck this time!
Keel is pastor of Jacob's Well, a church in Kansas City Missouri. I heard Keel speak at an Emergent Conference many years ago in Nashville and also some where else, can't remember where but he left a good impression.
The back cover says, "churches need to dicover new ways of leading that embrace intuition, creativity, narrative, and the chaos and tension of our time."

Chapter 1 is about rediscovering the power of story. Keel is big into narrative and believes that churches don't focus enough on the narrative of scripture.
Keel writes on p 36, "The Bible as encyclopedia of topical religious information? Check. The Bible as blueprint hor how ti make life work? Check. The Bible as a book of answers, especially for refuting those with whom we disagree? Check. The Bible as supporting material for systematic theology? Check. The Bible as the story about the confusing presence of personal deity engaging bizarrely unpredictable people in astounding and mundane ways over long period of time? can i Get back to you on that?"

This was convicting to me. I rotate in and out of preaching on narrative but lately i have not done much of that. Keel also makes a great point about how the words "remember! Don't forget" and found again and again in the Old testament. One of the great gifts I've been given is the fact that i was taught the stories of the Bible as a child, and i have not forgotten them.

Bringing this to the my church, what is our churches story. What are the stories we should not forget in our 150 year history? Who are the characters? What are my stories that i should not forget?
Keel says "we are called to story. To remember. To live. To tell."

Jesus and Football

My friend Tom Houck has written a book about 2 of my favorite things, football and Jesus. It is titled Between the Tackles and you can get it here for only $13. I am proud to announce that we are having our first give away so the first 3 people to send me an email (pastorgkp@hotmail.com) will receive a free copy of the book.
UPDATE- The books are gone, Austin, Serena and Ryan Congratulations.

worship with the unchurched in mind

We devoted part of our service to “All Saints Day” on Sunday. We had a candle lighting in memory of all those that were part of our church community that passed away in the last year. What we did differently this year is that we used the screen to project pictures of the ones that pasted away and had family members light a candle as we showed the picture. This worked beautifully and was very meaningful not only to the families but also to the whole church.
Of the 5 people that passed away none of their families have been active in our church in quite a while and this service was an opportunity to show the families that we care and that we wanted to honor their relative and also give an opportunity for them to come back to church.
It would be safe to say that for 2 of the families they had little to no experience in worship. The sat up front, I don’t think they knew how the hymnal worked, and during communion seemed uncertain. And they really did not have anybody to help them (partly because they sat up front). One of the men gave me the attendance pad to me before the service because he thought somebody from the previous service had forgotten it, (I played along). Another gentlemen when he came up for communion starting talking with me, so we had a conversation while everyone else was kneeling around him, which is something I have never done before. For the other 3 families everything was comfortable and familiar. We say we want to reach people who don’t know the good news of Jesus, but would we be willing to change what we do to make that happen. This was a real eye opening experience for me because some of the changes I’ve made to the traditional services have been made I thought with the unchurched in mind. I guess they were not enough so. And is the contemporary service any different?

Reading C. S. Lewis today....

"That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind. We can only do it for moments at first . But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us." Mere Christianity, Chapter titled "Is Christianity hard or Easy? "

I know this and believe it, but it is still a hard thing for me to do every day. Makes no sense. I have a cure to my problem but i don't always take the medicine.

Good Post about what kingdom means

From one the best blogs out there, Jesus Creed

As Iron sharpens Iron...

so one person sharpens another." This verse from Proverbs has been on my mind all week. After church on Sunday I left for West Virginia to participate in a prayer retreat with 7 other pastors. I would say it was 3 days of iron sharpening as we prayed, worshiped, studied, ate, laughed, complained, sweated, dreamed, and shared gas (like being in college again) together. It was great for my soul. As God would have it, i just happen to be preaching about the importance of community this week. My scripture reading is from Luke 5 where a group of friends lower one of their own through the ceiling so that Jesus can heal him. While i am new to this particular group it became evident that through their years together they have all taken turns at lowing each other through that roof to get to Jesus for healing. Christian Community is a beautiful thing when it works like it is suppose to, and is one of the most overlooked characteristic of a life following and so many people miss this.
While i have not experienced that kind of community with this group (yet) i have in other groups. When Karis had her surgery to remove her kidney our small group came to be with us at the hospital. We were soaked with God's presence. A member of our groups father died and we took the church bus to attend the service. A lady in my wife's group said that this group "saved her life."
If you want to experience the transformational power of Jesus in your life, Christian community where i believe it is most likely to happen.
As iron sharpens iron so one person sharpens another.

"I have good news"

Jordan, our 4 1/2 year old had a little incident at her preschool on Monday where she hit a boy, (he had it coming). We had big talks with her after that and when i got out of a meeting this afternoon I had a voice message from Jordan (using her mom's phone), "I have good news, i didn't hit anybody today!" I guess that is good news! That's now my favorte quote as it passes, "sing it like Job."

new worship service off to a good start

This past Sunday we started our 3rd worship service (9:45) which is really our 2nd (between 8:30 & 11). It was the largest service of the day as it had over 90 in attendance. Many of those was special occasion people, some wanted to see what the service was going to be like others came to the service because it was the first one. I really believe that by this time next year because of the time, and style this will be the best attended service of the three.

We did of course have a few technical difficulties. This drives me CRAZY but whenever you have technology you have that possibility. I tested the projector and words on Saturday night to make sure everything looked like it should look. It did. Before the service we did a quick test and again everything was fine. As soon as it is time for the first song suddenly it does not work. We have to reboot the projector. Luckily we had chosen a hymn for the first song and used the hymnal and the 2nd song was the best known and over played praise song of all time and was also in the hymnal. By the 3rd song we were ready but the screen ratio was off so we sang the songs but had to guess at some of the words!

My biggest concern of the day was that our 11:00 service only had 56 people. Some went to the 9:45 and others were not there. By moving to 3 service we are most likely dividing 220 by 3 rather than by 2 and that could hurt critical mass. I think i will make the 11 more formal by (God forbid) wearing a robe, standing in the pulpit and using more liturgy.

This was good day for me. This was something i've felt called to do since i got to St. Matthew's and i feel like we are moving in the right direction.

Miracles still happen

I played golf on Wednesday with my friend Tim and i for the first time in my life i played a round without losing a ball. As a matter of fact in might be the first time i have not lost multiple balls.

A good name for a church or not?

We are vacationing in the Outer Banks this week and we saw this church trailer. We assume the name for the church is taken from Acts 2:2 and is meant to reference the Holy Spirit and the mighty winds that come off the ocean. However, that was not my first thought. What about you?

Leadership Summit 4 John Ortberg

John Ortberg who i consider to be the most consistently great preacher gave the the 3rd talk today. As usual he was awesome. The only bummer was that i had already heard him give this message and I used a lot of it in one of my sermons and even blogged on it. With that being the case still in my opinion the best talk so far.
UPDATE: Here is the page you can find the Ortberg sermon. It is the heroes of the old testament, Esther.

Leadership Summit 3 Colin Powell

Bill Hybles interviewed Colin Powell this morning and it was great. This guy should be running for president, i would then be happy about my choice. It was a presentation/interview where you were more interested in listening and soaking it in than talking notes.
Hybles would ask Powell about what called his Powellisms and then Powell would expand on them:
Promote a clash of ideas,
-even as the leader you did to discuss ideas. You make better decisions this way. He expected people to aurgue with him but then to respect the decision as if it were theirs.

Encourage a Noisy System
-Really wants to hear what you think.
-he wants what you know,

Maintain an Open Door,- said this let to a crazy office but it had many benefits.

Probe the Organization-, If people are doing their jobs they have nothing to worry about.

Reward You Best Performers Get Rid of Non Performers- The good followers are always looking, if nothing is done to correct the bad performer the good performer will follow

Be Prepared To Upset People

Check Your Ego at the Door

Have Fun in your Command

Fit No Stereotypes- expectations and sense of shame, you are of this family do not shame this family.

Optimism is a Force Multiplier-

Things Always Look Better in the Morning-

Avoid War if at All Possible- this was very touching, as he talked about the first fire fights he was in during Vietnam , and the people that died in his arms. War should be avoided not only for our young men and woman but also for the enemies young men an woman.

BE Prepared To BE Lonely- Part of being a leader means you will be lonely.


Assignment- What were some of the Powell principles that I need to work on more.

Leadership Summit 2.5 a better Summit summery

Jeff over at smart pastor is giving much better reviews about the leadership summit than i am. Check him out.

Leadership Summit 2, Marcus Buckingham

The last talk of day one was Marcus Buckingham. He was awesome. I've heard him before and he is a great communicator, great use of humor and great content. Buckingham's schtick is that we should focus more on strengths than on our weaknesses.

When asked the question, "which do you think will help you be most successful. Building on your strengths or fixing your weaknesses?" 41% of people said strengths, and 59% said weaknesses. Buckingham says there are 3 myths we need to blow up and 3 truths we need to replace them with.
Myth 1- As you grow, your personality changes
Truth 1- As you grow , you become more of who you already are.
Makes the point that most of the personality traits you have as a child you have when you grow up. We grow and mature but basic traits stay the same.

Myth 2- you grow the most in your areas where you are weakest,
Truth 2-Truth- you grow the most in your areas where you are strongest,
Gave example of Shaquille O'Neal and how instead of focusing on his bad free throws percteage the Lakers focused on his inside play. As a result he was scoring champ 3 times and won 3 championships and his free throw % improve in the process.

Myth 3-that a great team member puts aside their strengths
Truth 3– a great team member volunteers his strengths to the team most of the time.

There are 3 skills we need to maximize the use of our strengths.
1. Identify what your strengths are,
2. Change things to utilize your strengths
3. Talk about your strengths without bragging and your weaknesses without whining.

How does this affect the church? I believe many people in the church are not serving in their strengths areas. If they were they would be more joyful.

Leadership Summit 1

Today begins one of my favorite weeks of the year, as Willowcreek Community Church starts their annual leadership summit.
The highlights of this year include Bill Hybels, Carly Fiorina, Floyd Flake, Marcus Buckingham, Michael Porter, Colin Powell, John Ortberg, and Jimmy Carter.

Founding pastor Bill Hybles gave the first talk titled "Vision to Die For." His basic point was that nothing matters more to a vision than for people to have ownership of the vision. The scripture reading was from John 10 and he talked about the difference between the hired hands who watch the sheep and the owner of the sheep. Jesus said that hired hands leave when they sense trouble where as the sheep owner will do anything include give his or her life for their sheep. The vision we share about our church needs to be one that people feel like they own. If not they will not feel invested and might never be on board. When people own a vision watch out.
The process Hybles shared for a shared vision was the following:
VISION FORMATION
Don't create vision alone. Do it as a team. Ask people, "what does God want our church to look like in 5 years?" Most people don't have to have their way, they just need their way considered. This was great for me as our church is in the middle of a visioning processes. Most everything in my body wanted myself to come up with the mission and the things our church should focus on in the future. For once i listened to the part of me that was unsettled about that. It needs to be the churches vision and not Gordon Pruitt's. This was a great reminder and also shows me i need to involve more people in this process.

VISION REFINEMENT
After you get done with the first draft, have subsequent drafts and present it to different groups. Again people feel valued and the result is a better vision.

VISION DECLARATION
Vision leaks. Keep casting the vision because people forget. Celebrate the vison when the vision is being lived out. As you do this more and more ownership of the vision happens.

Are you willing to sacrifice deeply to do what God has called you to do? Are you a hired hand or a owner?