You Can Know God

Making Fun of People

I can't help it.

I make fun of people.  Quite a bit actually.  Maybe it's because I am short, or has something to do with my childhood.  I have no idea.  But I can be kind of sarcastic.  I call people "idiots" under my breath.  It's what causes me to take the voice mails of the people complaining about our sex series and set them to music.

This sarcastic streak even comes out in my teaching.  In the past few months, I've made fun of home schoolers, the state of Alabama, Wal-mart, Christian music, the state of West Virginia, public school, Baptists, Calvinists, deacons, kids that dress all in black, the state of Minnesota, this stupid website, this website, scrap bookers, small churches, fall festivals, the Florida Gators, big churches, Wal-Mart, Kevin Cosner, Jesus fish, Christians in general, men, Left Behind 1, 2, 3, etc, women and myself.  I could probably go on. 

Maybe I have some sort of Biblical basis.  I mean, Jesus called people names.  But I don't really know that people really know what brood of vipers really means.  But it doesn't sound nice.  And there's that Old Testament story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.  He was pretty sarcastic with those folks.  Hey, you guys should yell louder.  Maybe your god is asleep, or traveling, or taking a leak.  Nice use of sarcasm there, Elijah.

For whatever it's worth, I'm sarcastic.  That's just me.  I'm not always nice.  I don't think being nice is a fruit of the spirit.  I don't think you have to like flowers and pretty music to be a Christian.  I don't think you have to lay aside your personality to follow Christ.  Sure, there are lines, and we don't get a license to say whatever we think.  But in our tolerant society, we've neutered people from speaking their mind.  We're too easily offended. 

Chances are, I've said something that offended you.  If not, then it's probably coming (maybe this week as this series starts).  But that's okay.  You've said something that could have offended me.   But since I know I'm right and you're wrong, then I just move on. :)

Sex Series Voicemails

Here's a little remix of some of the voice mails we've gotten about our recent mail out and upcoming sex series.  Mp3.  Prepare to be entertained.

Churchplanters.com Conference Day 2

Wrapped up the churchplanters.com conference yesterday.  I heard Dave Ferguson talk for the first time and he did a great job.  Perry Noble also did a great job in the final session.  That was the first time I had heard Perry.  We're taking some people from Oak Leaf to Unleash in a few weeks, so I'm looking forward to getting to see what they are doing.  (If you're a part of The Leaf and you would like to go with us over to Anderson, SC for a one day conference on Thursday, March 15, we'd love to have you.  I think it will be worth taking off work or school for).

I led my breakout for a second time.  The crowd was smaller because everyone was attending Perry's breakout, but I got to meet some great church planters who are going to plant great churches.  I hope I was helpful and practical.  Thanks for inviting me Shawn.

I'm glad to be back in the office today to put the finishing touches on an amazing weekend that's coming up.  We're starting a new series on sex.  We're filming an easter commercial.  It's going to be a great Sunday.  You guys need to do everything you can to get people to Oak Leaf on Sunday.  Remember, everything else is just a plant!

Churchplanters.com Conference

Day One at the conference was great today. Shawn Lovejoy, the lead pastor at Mountain Lake spoke in the first session.  He talked about being mean about the vision and not letting the church get sidetracked.  It was a very good word.

After that, I led my breakout session.  The room was full of future church planters and I just talked about some of the successes we had early on in launching Oak Leaf.  They asked great questions and I hope I was helpful.  It was a little nervous because Dave Ferguson, author of this book (which I just finished reading last week) was sitting on the back row and asked some questions.  He said I did a good job, but maybe he was just being nice. :)

After the final session, I ate dinner with some of the Mountain Lake crew and some of the general session speakers.  All in all, it was a fun day and I took some good notes.   There are some great sessions tomorrow, and I'm doing the breakout session again. I love being around church planters.  It increases my vision.

Sex in Middle School

I've heard of several parents that are making sure their middle school kids are in church next week as I begin a four-week series on sex. Parents want their kids to hear the message, and I can relate.  I want every single person I can find to teach my kids the same things we teach them at home.  And when they get to middle school, you better believe I want their small group leaders and other people in the church to teach them about sex. The more times they hear God's message, the better.  If I had a middle school or a high school student, I would do everything I can to get them to church this week.

Parents, don't be afraid of this difficult subject.  Your child already knows more than you think they know.  Even if they are home schooled. You'd rather have the conversation too early than too late. Seriously, I don't know many kids whose lives are ruined because they found out about God-honoring sex too early.  This series might even be a great way to bring up the subject. 

We have some middle schoolers that volunteer on Sunday.  One middle schooler told our Kidventure director that his mom said that he could volunteer in February, and start back in April, but that he had to go to the service in March.  Trust me dude, you won't be disappointed. We're going to have fun.

Monday Morning Update

A few things today...

1.  Sunday was a good day at The Leaf.  I fished up the book of Jonah with the last chapter.  I think the last two verses of Jonah are some of the most powerful verses in all the Bible.  Jonah was more concerned about a little plant than he was about the thousands of people in the city.  What a challenge to us.  Most of the things we spend time, money and energy on are just temporary plants.  We need to focus more on the eternal purpose of knowing God and making Him known.  In this context, I challenged our people to invite people to church next week as we kick off the sex series.  I let them know about our plans for three Easter services.  I encouraged them to come to the 9:00 service to free up space for guests at 10:15.  And I asked them to volunteer.

2.  I'm headed over to Mountain Lake Church for the church planting conference today.  In addition to hearing some great speakers, I'm leading a breakout session called "Launching Large."  I'm excited about the practical stuff I'm going to share with other church planters.  As I look at the conference lineup, I feel like a little fish, but I'm excited anyway.  I'll post some of my notes over at Behind the Leaf.

3.  I'm still praying for someone to write us a $10,000 check so we can buy some amazing sound equipment that's worth about $35,000.  We took the sound board for a test drive Sunday.  I know nothing about sound, but Brad said it was amazing.

4.  I'm still a little tired from my 7 day trek through West Virginia on two ski trips.  I didn't ski...I just hung out, worked and spoke.  I tried to ski with Lauren (my five year old), but the wind chill was about 5 and it kept blowing her over.  Not good.

5.  Invite someone to come to church with you this Sunday.  Even if you don't go to my church...invite someone to your church.  It's time and energy and effort well spent.  Just imagine what might happen if they said yes.

Video Fun

For your viewing pleasure, here is the little 30 second intro video to our upcoming series.  I think anytime you can work Justin Timberlake into a service, that's a good thing. And if that doesn't do it for you, here is a video of our worship pastor and Kidventure director doing a little DDR on a recent staff retreat.

Sex in Middle School

I've heard of several parents that are making sure their middle school kids are in church next week as I begin a four-week series on sex.  Parents want their kids to hear the message, and I can relate.  I want every single person I can find to teach my kids the same things we teach them at home.  And when they get to middle school, you better believe I want their small group leaders and other people in the church to teach them about sex. The more times they hear God's message, the better.  If I had a middle school or a high school student, I would do everything I can to get them to church this week.

Parents, don't be afraid of this difficult subject.  Your child already knows more than you think they know.  Even if they are home schooled. You'd rather have the conversation too early than too late.  Seriously, I don't know many kids whose lives are ruined because they found out about God-honoring sex too early.  This series might even be a great way to bring up the subject. 

We have some middle schoolers that volunteer on Sunday.  One middle schooler told our Kidventure director that his mom said that he could volunteer in February, and start back in April, but that he had to go to the service in March.  Trust me dude, you won't be disappointed.  We're going to have fun.

Can’t Wait

Some people are just fighting mad that a church would do something like this.  One lady accused us of sending out a card with a man and a boys feet on the front and implied that we were promoting pedophilia.  We obviously weren't promoting literacy since the back of the card is pretty straight forward.  Another lady threatened to sue us.  I'm thinking about making a dance remix of all the phone calls. :) 

Seriously though, I understand that some people are angry, and I wish there was a way to identify those people in advance and not send them the bulk mail.  But it's just not possible to do it like that.  We put that card in every mailbox.  Our intention is not to offend, but to talk openly and honestly about something that God created.  The right kind of sex is a good thing, and that message needs to get out there.

Through it all, I think this is going to be a defining series for us.  We don't let people decide what we teach on.  We teach the Bible.  All of it.  Even the parts that are controversial and offensive.  A simple Bible search on the topic will bring up hundreds of references.   

My favorite phone call so far was from an AIDS group in town that saw the article in the paper and wanted to help us bring "healing" to the AIDS community.  I'm not sure if this is a Christian group, but I think it's ironic that it's Christians are the ones that are upset while the rest of the world needs healing and grace. 

Home from West Virginia

I spent seven days in West Virginia on two ski trips.  Seven days is the maximum amount of time any one person should spend in the state of West Virginia. Needless to say, it was good to sleep in my own bed last night.