I did an interview with Salem Radio News today about our Momentum Conference. These guys do news for over 1,100 stations in the US. They were very interested in the idea of portable churches. I’m looking forward to hearing the interview when it airs. The truth is, in many parts of the country, being portable is just a reality that a lot of churches just have to deal with long term. The question is, how do we do this well and transform the environment to something that meets the needs of those in the community? That’s what the conference is … Read More
Launch Conference
For those of you that are planting churches, Nelson Searcy is hosting a free conference on launching a church from scratch in New York City on January 22-23 2007. You can get more info on Nelson’s website. Nelson’s stuff has helped us tremendously. I’m sure this is going to be well worth the time spent! Nelson is also going to be one of our keynote speakers at our Momentum Conference in March.
Pastors’ Getaway
We did a Pastors’ getaway today where myself and our Pastors did some strategic planning for 2007. I find these things hard to plan and very fulfilling once we get there. These meetings become the steering wheel for our church. It’s where we have some heated discussions but we walk out more united than ever. I’m amazed by the people that I get to serve with who share the same heart I do. We made some pretty big decisions today. We made some small decisions that I’m pretty excited about. Like this one: I’m not going to run our staff … Read More
Book Review: Spiritual Leadership
I just re-read Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. I love this book. I have recommended it 100’s of times and I want to recommend it again to anyone who is in spiritual leadership to any capacity. This book is just a powerhouse of truth and wisdom. Here are a few nuggets that I got from reading it a second time around: – “Pessimism and leadership are at opposite ends of life’s attitudes.” – “We can only lead where we ourselves have traveled.” – “A leader know how to exploit momentum” (Great name for a conference, isn’t it 🙂 – … Read More
Preaching Odds and Ends
I had a great meeting with John our other teaching Pastor, and we finalized our preaching calendar for the first 1/2 of 2007. It’s great feeling to know where you’re going. I usually work ahead, but I was challenged to put together a calendar and I’m do glad I did. I’ve been praying and thinking about this for the last couple of months, so it’s nice to see it all on paper. I see a nice mix of topical and exposition. I’m looking forward to our January series that will cover a couple of minor prophets (Does anyone else have … Read More
How to Be a Bookworm…
I get questions about reading fairly often from people at church and Pastors, so let answer some of them here. First, let me say that I was not born a bookworm. In fact, before becoming a Christ-follower the only book I had ever read completely was a biography on the life of Madonna (who would lie about something so pathetic?). But when God changed my life, I got a thirst for knowledge and books were the best way to quench it, so I started reading. So every year, I set a reading goal as part of my personal development. (I’m … Read More
Book Review: In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day
Mark Batterson was kind enough to send me a copy of his book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and after reading it I am truly grateful for his generosity. His book is insightful, inspiring, witty, and fun to read. His exposition of an obscure passage brings a man we know very little about into homes and most importantly, into our hearts. Having spent a little bit of a time with Mark, he is living out what he’s writing about. He is chasing lions and encouraging everyone around him to do the same. I think this … Read More
Captain’s (B)log Star Date 11.27.06
(This post should be read with dramatic William Shatner pauses to… get… the full… effect) I feel…much better today. Antibiotics are a wonderful thing! I will say this, I’m losing my mind. I haven’t been out of the house since Thursday. And I was out on Thanksgiving for a total of 2 1/2 hours. All I’ve done for the last 5 days is sleep, cough, and watch Star Trek (thank you TiVo). All of the shows I watch are on Christmas break, so I had to go old school. The bad news is that Carey caught what I had, so … Read More
More Ready Than You Realize Book Review
First, let me say that I love Brian McLaren’s books (I’m ducking from the bullets). I’ve read most of his books, but this one managed to evade me for a while. Needless to say, this is a great book on the subject of evangelism. More Ready Than You Realize is a wonderful departure from the world of 4 spiritual laws, EE, and all the other “canned” approaches that I don’t think really work in the real word anymore. I know people find this somewhat offensive at times, but I think street witnessing is pretty much dead, and along with it, … Read More
The High Stakes World of Competitive Eating
I’ve been tuning in to competitive eating for the last couple of years when I caught a Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest on ESPN in which Kobayashi cleaned house and ate 59 dogs! After a nap to help get over my cold, I turned on ESPN only to find that today was the Krystal hamburger eating contest. This was 60 minutes of great TV! How we haven’t thought of filming people while they eat and giving them money and trophies is sheer lunacy! Needless to say, Kobayashi won by eating 97 Krystal hamburgers. Yes, you read that correctly…97 burgers. It … Read More
