What About Bob

We Are His Gold

Who can remember the Summer Olympics in 2008? If you were like me, you went many nights staying up all hours of the night to watch the results. The one thing that amazed me was the dedication and discipline of athletes who had invested years into their particular sport to shave off nanoseconds from their best time or perhaps grab the gold by so close a margin that even instant replay caused a slow-motion conundrum. 

 This dedication challenged me to consider the modern approach to ministry in God’s church. Rather than gold medals, are we not in our very own battles for souls won to the kingdom of God for all eternity? Isn’t our main calling as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to fight the battle of darkness which pervades this world with the sword of the spirit and the holy light of God, turning back humanity from the very gates of Hell? 

 When considering this, let us ask ourselves how much more that we ministers of the greatest news that history has every known should approach our ministries as a warrior prepares for battle or as the athlete trains as to get the prize.     Click HERE to read the rest

Ushers with stun guns stir controversy

MONTGOMERY — Ron Henning recalls the day he first "put a man down" in the center aisle just before the pastor gave the altar call.
    "I thought he was reaching for a weapon in his pocket," Henning says. He rushed over, zapped the man with a church-issued stun gun and sent him to the floor for seven minutes, throwing the service into tumult. It turned out the man was heading to the altar to give his heart to Christ, but couldn't wait for the pastor to finish the altar call. The church apologized and paid the man $500, but he has not returned.
    "Mix-ups happen, but we're safer as a congregation because of the stun guns," says head usher Tim O'Daley. "There are crazies out there, terrorists who might try to take out the man on the platform."

Read more HERE.

Back blogging

Guess it's a cyclical thing. It's a beautiful, gorgeous day here. High of 82 and plenty of Sun on a Sunday after church. Lunch at Blue Goose tops an awesome weekend of worship. Worship choir sang Israel Houghton's "Say So" and the choir, band, and whole team was annointed.

Resources

Brandi and Kerry working in the Resource Center at VCC.

Authenticity

I love this post from Phil Cooke...  It seems wrong that we have to try to hard to be authentic. 

Is Authenticity As Rare As It Seems For Pastors And Non-Profit Leaders?

Whenever I work with non-profit or religious leaders in trying to brand their organizations, I usually ask the man or woman at the top, “What makes you different?” In other words, “What personal trait separates you from the pack?” The first response I invariably get is “authenticity.” I get that answer over and over. Many pastors and ministry leaders are especially proud of their authenticity, and feel like they are one of the few who have it. But that usually leaves me a bit depressed. Not because this person really is authentic, but because they consider it so special and rare. After all, shouldn’t "authenticity" be normal for pastors and ministry leaders? Shouldn’t authenticity be the baseline behavior for any spiritual or non-profit leader? Isn’t it a bit sad that we live in an era where "authenticity" is considered a rare trait for pastors and ministry leaders?

  But then again, after seeing the divorces, lawsuits, legal actions, and financial questions non-profit and ministry leaders have been facing over the last number of months, perhaps being authentic is more rare that we'd like to think.

Poison

It topples governments,
wrecks marriages,
ruins careers,
busts reputations,
causes heartaches,
          nightmares,
          indigestion,
spawns suspicion,
generates grief,
dispatches innocent people to cry in their pilows.

Even its names hisses.  It's called gossip.  Office gossip.  Shop gossip.  Party gossip.
It makes headlines and headaches.

Before you repeat a story, ask yourself:
Is it true?
Is it fair?
Is it necessary?

If not, shut up!

Enthusiastic charismatic man worries relatives

I found this a funny but telling article at Lark News.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Frank Harrison, a lifelong Lutheran, began attending a charismatic church last month and now has his family worried.
    "He’s scaring the wits out of us," says his mother. "All this praying he’s doing and the crazy talk about healing and spiritual warfare. He’s de-stabilizing the family."
    Frank says he decided to change churches when he sat through an entire Lutheran service one Saturday evening before realizing it was a funeral service.  LOL
    Out of curiosity he went to the liveliest charismatic church in town "to see the other extreme," he says. He loved it and now he greets people with "Praise the Lord!" and a big hug. He’s at church three times a week.
    But his relatives became concerned when he invited them to an all-night Prayer-athon, participated in a Jericho March around the city and tried to lay hands on and heal several people at a recent family picnic. The family met recently to discuss Frank’s "disturbing religious fervor" and to plan an intervention.
    "One day he was normal Frank, my fishing buddy, and then, bam, he was in this nutso church, speaking in tongues, fasting all the time and reading his Bible," says a cousin. "It's unnatural."
    The family intends to tell Frank they are gathering for prayer, so they know he’ll come, and then they will spring their true purpose on him. They have hired an intervention expert for the occasion.
    "We want the old Frank back," says his mother. "It feels good to be rescuing him."

John 1:10
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
John 15:19
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Understand the Power of Telling the Story

We get so wrapped up with the methods of church that we forget the most important element.  We are storytellers.  Our job is to tell a simple story about how God chose to become one of us and share His eternal plan with people who don't deserve it.  That's it.  Let's spend more time learning how to tell a story more effectively. This coming Sunday, thousands of pastors will step up to the pulpit without telling a single story. And yet, when you study the life of Jesus, that's all He ever did. He rarely lectured or preached as we conceive it; He mostly told stories that touched people and changed their lives.

The great Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman said, "Facts go straight to the head, and stories go straight to the heart." Let's make a new commitment to understanding that unless we can tell a powerful story, our ability to reach an audience is terribly diminished.

paraphrased from Vision Magazine's Phil Cooke Vol 5 Issue 1

My apologies to Phil Cooke for not making a better siting reference...

paraphrased from Vision Magazine's Phil Cooke Vol 5 Issue 1

You can read some incredible stuff at his site ...
www.philcooke.com

Bible Park

  Developers in Tennessee are pitching a $150-300 million amusement park called "Bible Park U.S.A." to local officials. Guests will walk through the gates of Jericho, see a moat connecting the Dead Sea to the Sea of Galilee, eat authentic Middle Eastern food and experience a museum called "The Bible: The Greatest Adventure."  Depictions of Moses standing before a burning bush and Noah’s Ark are envisioned as theme attractions at a “Bible Park U.S.A.” proposed for Rutherford County.

A Dome of the Light will host a museum with the exhibits such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and a recording studio where churches may record CDs to bring back to their church.
“Maybe we’ll have a battle of the choirs,” Bar-Tur said.

Read more HERE.

Pastors 24/7

 

LEWISTON, Maine — Recently, several hundred members of Holy Trinity Church watched pastor Jeremy Woods eat breakfast, work on his sermon and make a Starbucks run. Woods had just joined a growing group of pastors who are broadcasting their lives 24/7 on the Internet.
    "When I first heard of going live I thought, 'This is the future of pastoring but I'm not sure I like it,'" Woods says. But after a month he says he "totally digs it."
    "It's the next step beyond blogging or even live blogging," he says. "It's about sharing life."
    The trend is believed to have started in 2004 when Rick Givens of New York's West Side Church decided to make himself "more accountable and accessible" by webcasting every waking moment live. But his pioneering effort has forced other pastors into awkward decisions. Donald Taylor, 37, of Nebraska didn't want to go live, but relented because of pressure from his board. He hated his first week.  "It was like being in prison. You never have a moment to yourself," he says

Read HERE.