You Can Know God

By Myself

My wife and kids went down to Florida for a few days to visit some family, so I'm alone for a couple of days. It's quiet around the house which is kind of wierd. I miss my family when I'm gone or when they are gone.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to see a movie ("Next," which wasn't very good) and ate a bowl of cereal for dinner. Today and tomorrow, I'll just use all the time to work hard and get a lot of things done. Except for hte fact that I have a dentist appointment today. I absolutely hate going to the dentist.

Wednesday I am driving up to Virginia for one day to meet with some folks about funding for our little church plant. We desperately need some money to hire some staff. It's priority one right now at Oak Leaf. It needs to happen.

500

God is up to something at Oak Leaf. We broke the 500 barrier for the first time today (not counting Easter a few weeks ago). The message today was the Gospel. We talked about the relationship between justice and grace. Sin always has consequences and punishments and God is not being unfair when we get what we deserve. But God is also a God of grace, who wants to show mercy to His people. This is seen so vividly in the life and work of Jesus - he absorbed the wrath of God on the cross in order to make grace available to us. I know we had several pray to trust Christ for salvation today.

The band did a great job today - singing one of my new favorite songs "In Christ Alone." We showed a video from The Passion set to a very moving song called "Beautiful the Blood." All in all, it was just a great day. Next week is going to be interesting, because they are showing Spiderman 3 beginning at 10 AM!

Stuff for Sale

Eight months into our church plant, we're clearing out some stuff we no longer use. Before going to eBay, I thought I would offer here on the blog to other church planters or churches or otherwise cool people.

1. 6x14 single axle trailer. Bought in 2006 - so it's only 6 months old (we use a pod now so we no longer need). $2600. Very nice.
2. A bunch of Kidmo's. Cost $250. I've got Beefesians, Powerstack, and about four more. $100 each. Good children's curriculum.
3. Digital Juice moving backgrounds (called Jumpbacks). Volumes 11, 8, 7, 1, 13, 28, 30 and 8 (which is HD). We just have way to many of these things. I think we paid about $50 each for 7 or 8 of them. $25 each if you want some. I've also got groovy stacks 7, juicedrops cleancuts2, xtragrunge, and poplife.

I'll post some more stuff later when we actually finish sorting through it all. Check back soon or contact me through the blog if you're interested.

Joined a Gym

Even though we have a little work out room in our neighborhood, and I can just run outside for free, I just joined a local gym. Here's why:

1. I am not around enough regular people. Since I work at a church, I hang out with Christians most of the time. Over the past month, I've become convinced that I need more places to hang out with people who are not Christ-followers. I need to be around people that I can invite to church. The gym is a place where people congregate.

2. They have free childcare on Friday nights where we can drop off our kids and go out on a date. While we may not do this every night, using it once or twice a month is cheaper than paying a babysitter.

3. I need to work out.

Blogging at Conferences

I don't really know why I go to conferences because I can just read all the blogs.  I should just save the money and the trouble.  My favorite thing about conference blogging is that we all say the same thing.  People love to say who they saw, who they meet, and who they have lunch with.  So and so is cool.  I really like that guy.  This guy is funny.  And all the little links just go in a big circle, because we all hang out with the same people. :)

I am not at the Exponential Conference, but I'll just read the blogs.  I'm actually not at the Q conference yet  this morning because a sand truck flipped over on 75 and I refuse to take 1 hour to travel 6 miles.  I'll get there when I get there.

Robbie Seay on Consumerism

Some thoughts from Robbie Seay from his presentation at Q.  Good stuff here.

• All the commercials on TV try and convince you that when you get what you want, you'll be happy.  We obsess over what we don't have and think that things will bring meaning.  This just isn't true.  The rush and high that comes from something new fades quickly.  New car smells don't last forever.
• Nobody needs the crap they sell in Sky Mall magazines on planes, but people buy it.
• Adam had so much cool stuff in the Garden...all you can eat fruit and a naked woman right there!...yet he still bought into the lie and wanted more.  And look what that got him.  The Israelites literally had food falling from the sky (manna...how cool would that be), yet they complained it was too boring.  We're so similar.
• Imagine you had four kids.  One of them had millions of dollars.  But one of them had no clean water.  And another had no food.  That's a picture of planet Earth today.
• The average American spends nearly $800 at Christmas.  That's $154 Billion in this country alone.  Just $10 Billion could provide clean water for the whole planet.
• Every year in the US, people spend $18 Billion on make up, $15 Billion on Perfume, and $17 Billion on pet food.   Again, just $10 billion would mean no thirsty. 

Rick Warren on Culture

Here are some thoughts from Rick Warren on culture, from an 18 minute presentation given at Q.

• It's easy to be biblical if you don't want to be Relevant.  And it's easy to be relevant if you don't want to be Biblical.  But both are required.
• There really is no such thing as culture.  There are cultures (plural).  American culture is different from European culture.  And Indiana culture is probably different from hip hop culture.
• The key to engaging culture is humility.  Learn from different people.  Don't be a know it all.  Be teachable.  You can even learn from your critics.
• Two seemingly opposing Bible verses...."God so loved the world", and "love not the world."  In the first one, it's talking about the people.  In the second one, it's talking about a value system. Good stuff!
• A fish lives in salt water, but people still put salt on their fish at restaurants.  A fish swimming in the ocean doesn't get salty - this is a great picture of being in the world but not of it.
• Engaging the culture is not a program, it's personal.  When it comes to engaging culture, it IS all about you.
• The lust of the flesh is hedonism.  The lust of the eyes is materialism. And the pride of life is secularism.  Not sure what this has to do with culture, but it's still pretty good.
• We don't need isolation from culture (boycotts, becoming Amish, etc), and we don't need imitation (adopting world views that aren't Biblical)...we need incarnation.  As the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we need to penetrate the culture with the Gospel. 

Mind Wandering at Conferences

I confess that my mind wanders a lot during conferences.  It started this morning at the drive through then I saw the sign that said "mean free if you don't get a receipt."  Are fast food receipts really that important?  Do people really need to prove that they purchased a #2 with a Diet Coke.  It would be a much better idea to make the meal free if they forget to put a straw in your bag.

Anyway, I am at the Q conference.  I knew I was getting close to The Tabernacle (which is a most amazing place...a really old church, converter to a concert hall and bar when the Olympics came to town...I think churches should actually build like this in the first place...maybe without the bar) when I saw all the long haired guys with cool earrings wearing expensive jeans carrying messenger bags.  I realize that I am not as cool I as I think I am.

Some of this stuff is a little artsy and esoteric for me, but a few of the presentations have been great.  It's all about how the church should not boycott or blindly accept culture, but can redeem it.  I like learning from different guys and hearing new perspectives.  Believe it or not, Rick Warren has been the best of the day.  He said things like "all cultures die, the church will last" and "it's easy to be relevant if you aren't Biblical, and it's easy to be Biblical if you aren't relevant."  I'll post some thoughts from Him later.

During my mind wandering and access to wi-fi, I've also been e-mailing, planning and jotting down other random ideas.

Conference Week

I finished my message up yesterday because this is conference week. Today, we're going to Westridge for one of the Simply Strategic workshops. I'm looking forward to some practical information.  Then on Wednesday, I'm headed to Q, a conference put on by Gabe Lyons of the Catalyst Conference folks.  I have no idea what to expect from this conference - it's called a "boutique event" on their website.  I'm not sure if I will be trying mascara or what.

But some of the speakers include Rob Bell, Andy Stanley, Donald Miller, the editor of Wired magazine, a dude from BET, music producers, a seminary professor and all kinds of other people.  The conference focuses on the church as it relates to culture...something I really care about.  I'll let you know what I learn.  And what a boutique event really is.

Job Openings @ The Leaf

We're stepping up our staffing and am looking for the following positions.  Send a resume or any info you think would be helpful.

Administrative Assistant - You need to have an understanding of QuickBooks and financial management, as well as a good knowledge of computers and office stuff.  Maintaining our database a big part of the job  Must be a hard worker, quick learner and a fun person.  25-30 hours a week.

Creative Programming Director - Someone to oversee our Sunday morning programming, including leading creative team meetings, set design, involving creative arts and things of that nature on Sunday.  Part time position.