Junk Drawer Spirituality

2 Corinthians Series, 10:12-18

This passage is all about the subject of boasting.  Have you ever seen those Dos Equis beer commercials . . . the commercials about "the most interesting man in the world?"  Here's a linkto one of the commericals on youtube if you haven't seen it before, but here are some of my favorite quotes (I think it's pretty funny): "He's been known to cure narcolepsy just by walking into a room."  "His beard alone has experienced more than a lesser man's entire body."  "Every time he goes for a swim, dolphins appear."  This is a marketing campaign driven by a character they created called "the most interesting man in the world."  The way they prove he's so interesting? . . . by telling us all of these crazy, almost mythical, things about this guy.  It's boasting at it's highest level.

National Waffle Day!

Believe it or not, today is National Waffle Day.  A whole day dedicated to the celebration of sweet syrupy waffles.  Wooooooooo Hoooooooooo!  So make the most of it.  Don't blow it!  Waffle day only comes around once a year, so throw caution to the wind and whip one of those babies up for yourself.

High Rolling Senior Pastors

I don't have a really strong opinion on this one way or the other but I found it interesting nonetheless.  This article claims that a recent survey has found that the average senior pastor in America makes more than $80,000 a year. 

"Churches that draw 101 to 300 people each week pay senior pastors $72,664 per year, including benefits. The pay increases to $88,502 for pastors at churches that average a weekly attendance of 301 to 500 people, and then to $102,623 when attendance averages 501 to 750 people."

I've been through enough pastoral interview, candidating, and search committee processes over the past few years to know that those numbers seem fairly accurate (depending on the region, size of town, and multiple other factors of course).  But I'm curious to know how the average man on the street interprets those numbers.  $80,000 is no small chunk of change.  Of course, I wouldn't question whether or not pastors deserved those kinds of salaries.  I'm more interested in the way regular "Joes" would respond if they were to learn about that pay scale.  Would they be surprised?  Do you think if most people knew pastors made that kind of coin it would hurt their credibility?  Does it matter?    

Adoring God

Somewhere along the way, I picked up the little prayer acronym A.C.T.S., an acrostic that helps people remember different types of prayers to help them with their prayer time.  It's a helpful little tool.  The "A" stands for adoration.  The "C" stands for confession.  The "T" stands for thanksgiving.  And "S" is for supplication.  So if I'm saying a prayer and I get stuck, I can always think, "A . . .C . . . Oh yeah! Thanksgiving!  Thank you God for  . . . blah, blah, blah." 

Evangelicals and Politics

Are Republicans still the political darlings of the evangelical church?  Here's an interesting Washington Post article describing how things might be changing this election year among Evangelicals and their political loyalties. 

2 Corinthians Series, 10:1-11

In this section of 2 Corinthians, Paul ratchets up the defense of his ministry.  Apparently there were some leaders visiting the church in Corinth saying they were the true apostles and Paul was sort of like Screech from "Saved By The Bell"-- they pretend to be his friend but everyone knows he's really annoying and kind of a wimp.  They said, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing" (10:10).  So in other words, Paul was gaining a reputation of being a guy who could get in your face and call you out as long as he was at least 5000 miles away, but he wouldn't dare be so bold in a face to face confrontation.

2 Corinthians Series, 9:6-15

Evangelism Explosion . . .the Wordless Book . . . the Four Spiritual Laws . . . The Way of The Master . . . If you're anything like me, all of these phrases cause a mixture of emotions.  On the one hand, I have great appreciation for programs like Evangelism Explosion and Campus Crusade's four spiritual laws, which have led countless people to Christ.  There's no debating the power of the simple "If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven or hell?" question.  There's no hemmin' and hawin' over that, and I know a couple of Christ-follower friends of mine who decided to follow Jesus because of that very inquiring gut check!  So there have definitely been benefits to evangelism "methods."  Of course there are plenty of critics of the evangelism techniques that each of these programs (and more specifically, it's practitioners) have practiced.  Many of those criticisms are abundantly apparent to the readers of this blog and well documented elsewhere, so I won't get into all that.  Like any church ministry, there are windfalls and shortfalls to evangelism "techniques."

Cell Phone Mayhem!

For most of the day today, I've been trying to get my cell phone situation squared away.  I was on an AT&T account, but I'm switching to T-Mobile because Waterfront decided to go with T-Moile, and I have a line on that business plan.  The problem is, I want to keep my old phone.  So we set this thing up so that I would keep my old phone, and I would somehow get that old phone "unlocked" so that it could be used with a T-Mobile account.  But all day today, that has turned into an utter disaster.

I have driven all over the city talking with different retail outlets, juggling cell phones, sim cards, and running into closed door after closed door of people telling me that they cannot unlock my phone, or that I'm not an authorized person on the T-Mobile account to do this thing or that, or the sim card they gave me doesn't work, etc..  In the mean time, T-Mobile has shut down my AT&T account, sooooo . . . I HAVE NO PHONE ACCESS AT ALL!!

It's funny how dependednt you grow on something and when you lose that something you feel very naked. . . or disconnected, maybe.  I don't know what it is, but my only means of communication with people as of now is by email or blog, and that's it.  Kinda stinks.   

Is College A Waste of Time?

There's an interesting Wall Street Journal article by Charles Murray criticising the current state of higher academics.  He makes an interesting suggestion to use vocational certification exams like the CPA exam as benchmarks for employment rather than Bachelors degrees.  I think he has a good point.  What do you think? 

Defining The Emerging Church

I stumbled across this pdf from C. Michael Patton's blog on the emerging church.  I like this guy.  I think he's pretty fair and level-headed, even if you don't completely agree with him on everything.  Anyway, this is his take on the emerging church for better or worse.  I think he does a pretty good job.

Download Would_the_Real_Emerger_Please_Stand_Up.pdf

2 Corinthians Series, 9:1-5

When planting a church there are all sorts of preparations to be made.  I manage a church planting software for Waterfront called "Converge," which provides a step-by-step, scheduled, to-do list of all the tiny details that we church planters must accomplish before we launch.  There are HUNDREDS of those little details!  And in the middle of all that, it can sometimes feel as though the spiritual things are getting lost in the midst of details. . .  as if the task of planting a church is all about methodically following the directions.  Where's God in all of that? 

Whirlwind Weekend

It has been a while since I've posted, but it's because I've had a crazy last 4 days.  Last time I posted, I was about to begin the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek, and it was a great conference.  Over the course of Thursday and Friday, I heard from Bill Hybels, Craig Groeschel, Wendy Kopp (the founder of Teach for America), Chuck Colson, Efrem Smith, John Burke . . . the list goes on.  I think the highlight for me was Craig Groeschel's message on "it."  He talked about the fact that some churches and some leaders have "it'" (meaning some sort of special spiritual something) and some don't.  And "it" is something we can all have, but it's also something we can lose without even realizing it.

Friday afternoon I picked up my buddy Daniel, a friend of mine from Colorado.  I showed him around town alittle Friday evening, played some Guitar Hero, and then we met with a couple in downtown Naperville at a restaurant called The Sullivan Steakhouse.  This place was amazing.  Wonderful steaks and a great atmosphere.

Saturday, Daniel and I took the train into Chicago and I spent the day walking around the Loop, Grant Park, Millennium Park, Michigan Ave., eating at Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, viewing the city from the top of the Hancock building, taking the Redline to Wrigley and watching the Cubs lose (the heart of the Chicago experience), having dinner at The Tuscany Restaurant, and taking a cab back to Union Station and riding the train back home.  We covered alot of ground in one day (Here's a link to the photo album with the pictures)!

Sunday, we got up early and drove up to Schaumburg for Waterfront's 3rd Sunday Worship service at the Community Rec Center.  It was a great morning!  God definitely showed up big.  So overall, it was a fantastic weekend, although it was pretty busy.        

Leadership Summit 2008

Today and Tomorrow I am going to be at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington IL, at a conference called Leadership Summit.  It's an annual leadership conference that brings in a bunch of high-end speakers and leaders from around the world, pastors, business leaders, professors, etc (last year, Colin Powell spoke at the Summit).  It's a huge event, with 100,000 people in attendance nationwide.  Last year I went to my first Summit at a satellite host site in Naperville, when I was doing my Leadership Residency at Community Christian.  This year, the Waterfront staff decided to go to the one in Barrington, and I'm currently seated on ground level, center aisle, of a 7000 seat auditorium, 11 rows from the stage.  I'd say we got some pretty decent seats!

Bill Hybels is about to get up to speak so I'll keep you updated over the next few days. 

Scrambling

This Sunday, we have another Waterfront worship gathering, but the place we've been for the past month is unavailable ths weekend.  So we've been scrambling trying to get another place lined up for this Sunday.  Now we're 4 days away, and we're still not totally sure where we'll be.  YIKES!  Should be alright though.  We reserved a really cool spot at the Schaumburg Parks District this afternoon in case our #1 choice (to actually meet in the High School . . . cross your fingers) falls through.  Ahhh. . . the joys of church planting.  I need an antacid. 

Preaching And the Autonomy of Art

This afternoon I was watching "Storytellers" on MHD (the high definition music channel), and Dave Matthew's Band was playing. During their set, the whole band sat at the foot of the stage and chatted with the audience, and at one point Dave was talking about how lyrics to some of his songs meant one thing to him when he wrote them but then they started to mean something different to him later in life, like after 9/11. And what one of his songs means to him might be completely different from what it means to someone else, and that's ok. He said, it's like the concept artists call The Autonomy of Art. He said, “Once you stop the painting and show someone, it no longer belongs to you.”

I'm not certain Dave was using the term "Autonomy of Art" correctly, but I do like the idea that we don't necessarily have ownership of the stuff we create. I think it's true for painting, sculpturing, music, and I also think it's true for a worship service or a sermon. I know there has been many times that a person has said to me that they got something out of a sermon I preached that I never intended in its creation. I guess that's where the role of the Holy Spirit in these things can always keep an artist, preacher, or programmer humble . . . what God intends and the way He inspires is not always what we plan. And that's because once I stop the planning, it no longer belongs to me. Once I begin a message or show a peice of art or begin a worship service, it's no longer mine. . . its God's.

2 Corinthians Series, 8:16-24

Have you ever heard a phrase that sounds kind of like this:  "It doesn't matter what people think about me; it only matters what God thinks of me!"  Ever heard that phrase?  It's a great affirmation of God's love for people, no matter what anyone else thinks or says.  But believe it or not, there is at least one exception to that principle.  There's one situation where it not only matters what God thinks of you, but it also matters what people think of you too.  Wanna know what it is?

Old Man Invades Lollapalooza

This afternoon I went back downtown to Lollapalooza.  Since I already had a day of Lollapalooza under my belt (see my last post), I think I had things figured out alittle better this time.  Shortly after I arrived, The Blues Travelers were playing on one stage, but Gnarls Barkley was starting about an hour later on the main stage.  So Greg and I decided to pass on Blues Travelers and get as close as we could to the stage for the Gnarls Barkley show.  And we got CLOSE!  It was rockin', and Gnarls was awesome, doing his own bluesy, alternative music, and even throwing in a few covers, including a Radiohead cover. 

The music was great.  But I realized something while I was standing up close to that stage, squeezed elbow to elbow with sweaty strangers, passing around beach-balls, and trying to avoid directly inhaling the second-hand smoke that was emanating from all of my neighbors' pot pipes and joints  . . . I'm not 22 anymore.  I took a quick look around me and realized, with the exception of my buddy Greg and maybe Gnarls Barkley himself, I was by far the oldest dude within about 5000 yards.  Being right up close to the stage is it's own special kind of fun I guess, but that's a young man's game, I decided.  So after Gnarls, I went to perch my old butt on a nice little hill somewhere with a view of the stage for the Kanye West show.  It was really, REALLY far from the stage, but at least I'd get to sit!  When I got there, I saw where all of the other Gen-X, early thirties folks had been hanging out.  They were all kickin it on blankets and folding chairs on the hill!  So for the final act of the weekend, I sat on the hill . . . the place where young Lollapalooza rock fans go to retire after a decade or two passes them by.         

Lollapalooza 2008

A few days ago, a buddy of mine called me and told me he had come into possession of several tickets to Lollapalooza, and he asked me if I was interested in a couple.  These were full weekend access tickets, worth more than $200, so I said "Heck yeah!"  So yesterday afternoon, another friend, Greg, and I took the train downtown and went to Lollapalooza.  I'd never been to Lollapalooza before and it was amazing!  I've never seen that many people in one place before.  It was a sea of people.  We saw some pretty awesome acts, I found out about a few bands that I's never heard of and would like to know more about them, and to top the night off, we got to see one of my favorite bands, Radiohead on the main stage.  Radiohead's show was simply amazing!

It was pretty exhausting though, so I think I'm gonna take today off and go back Sunday afternoon.  On Sunday, Gnarls Barkley's playing, Iron and Wine, The Blues Travellers, NIne Inch Nails, and the headliner is Kanye West.  Should be fun!