I had a great time at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit on Thursday and Friday. I now have much more to think about, to apply, and to talk endlessly to my wife about. (She loves it - although she will deny that). On top of that, our church won an award for work with HIV/AIDs in South Africa, India, and Thailand. The really cool part is that the award came with money to put into our work there!
Here are some of my favorite points:
"Success is a self-correcting phenomena." - Gary Hammel
We must stay humble during success so that we keep reaching out for new ideas, and don't let everything get stale why we look on with overconfident denial. In our connected, and fast changing world, if we depend only on our own ideas or position, we will get left behind. We must change at least as fast as the world around us.
"It's easy to confuse motion and progress." - David Gergen
We need to become reflective practitioners - constantly evaluating and learning what is effective.
"There are two ways to be your own savior: immorality and morality ... we must not only confess our wrong-doing, but also the wrong reasons for our right-doing" - Tim Keller
If we want the Father's stuff rather than the Father, we will be spiritually dead. This applies both to trying to grab the Father's stuff on our own (immorality) or trying to do everything right to earn the Father's stuff (morality).
"Start speaking to hearts instead of pounding on wills" -Tim Keller
"Your job is to equip members, not just add staff." - Harvey Carey (speaking to the church)
YES!! IMHO, most churches spend far too little time on equipping members to do the work.
Showing posts with label Random thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Random thoughts. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Some Random Thoughts
There is not enough time for blogging lately ... here's what's been on my mind.
1. our congress as a whole is dishonest and disappointing and that is about as gentle as I can put it. This article explains it well: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/17/cafferty.stimulus/index.html
2. excited that the India microfinance ministry my wife and I are helping with will have a story in the KC Star ... Wednesday I think ... look for it.
3. bummed I have to quit school for a while (Sprint cut my funding :) ). I will have to come up with some other kind of project to work on in the mean time.
4. impressed with the coaching job Bill Self did against kstate on Saturday ... assigning lesser players to begin fouling Clemente and Pullen consistently was brilliant (and perfectly legal). Clemente has got to keep his cool there.
5. btw, I think Frank did a good coaching job as well - just has less talent right now. He doesn't have the 'bring everyone up top and then lob a 30 foot pass to the big guy' option.
5. wishing people would stop calling Clemente's frustration hit to the head of Reed a punch. Reed didn't even notice it or turn around. If it was a punch, he would have. Clemente shouldn't have done it ... but it was not a punch. My two year old hits harder than that. Same deal with the elbow ... yes - it was correctly called a technical, no - he was not really trying to hurt him. Again, I've been elbowed more seriously by my two year old in the last 24 hours. :)
6. pondering why Christians have to be so cheesy. Have you listened to KLove lately ... uggh.
7. amazed at the simplicity yet profoundness of Jesus' stories - there is so much meaning packed into simple stories about seeds, wheat, fruit, harvest, loans, sons, daughters, and money.
8. also amazed at the story of Joseph - one of the few old testament men who did almost everything right. Most of the others seem to be blessed in spite of themselves.
9. now you know where I'm at in my read through the Bible in a year effort ... can't wait to blog on Leviticus. Yippee.
1. our congress as a whole is dishonest and disappointing and that is about as gentle as I can put it. This article explains it well: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/17/cafferty.stimulus/index.html
2. excited that the India microfinance ministry my wife and I are helping with will have a story in the KC Star ... Wednesday I think ... look for it.
3. bummed I have to quit school for a while (Sprint cut my funding :) ). I will have to come up with some other kind of project to work on in the mean time.
4. impressed with the coaching job Bill Self did against kstate on Saturday ... assigning lesser players to begin fouling Clemente and Pullen consistently was brilliant (and perfectly legal). Clemente has got to keep his cool there.
5. btw, I think Frank did a good coaching job as well - just has less talent right now. He doesn't have the 'bring everyone up top and then lob a 30 foot pass to the big guy' option.
5. wishing people would stop calling Clemente's frustration hit to the head of Reed a punch. Reed didn't even notice it or turn around. If it was a punch, he would have. Clemente shouldn't have done it ... but it was not a punch. My two year old hits harder than that. Same deal with the elbow ... yes - it was correctly called a technical, no - he was not really trying to hurt him. Again, I've been elbowed more seriously by my two year old in the last 24 hours. :)
6. pondering why Christians have to be so cheesy. Have you listened to KLove lately ... uggh.
7. amazed at the simplicity yet profoundness of Jesus' stories - there is so much meaning packed into simple stories about seeds, wheat, fruit, harvest, loans, sons, daughters, and money.
8. also amazed at the story of Joseph - one of the few old testament men who did almost everything right. Most of the others seem to be blessed in spite of themselves.
9. now you know where I'm at in my read through the Bible in a year effort ... can't wait to blog on Leviticus. Yippee.
Monday, December 22, 2008
25 Random Things about me
OK, my best friend from when I was a kid sent me this, and I normally don't do these things, but things are slow today so I thought, why not. However, I refuse to send it on because I am generally a kill-joy ... so my random number of people will be zero. :)
(Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose a random number of people to be tagged . You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.)
1. The scariest moment of my life was when my daughter Esther slipped while going down steps on the side of a cliff in Thailand. She was 4 and I had just told her to hold the railing. I was holding Micah who was two when Esther tripped, fell, and caught herself with one hand on the railing. She was hanging by one hand over about a 20 foot drop. We kept this moment to ourselves ... didn't want anyone back home to worry about us. :)
2. I am a 'routine' person. I am lost if what I expected for the day doesn't happen. I'm not necessarily a planner ... just a creature of habit.
3. My fondest memories as a child are of long road-trips to Phoenix to visit my relatives.
4. I use to play in a handbell choir when I was a kid ... and I was pretty good at it. I hadn't thought about that in years until I saw one playing at Crown Center last weekend.
5. Our pipes froze Sunday morning, but luckily there was no damage. I went to turn on the kitchen faucet and no cold water came out. We took a hair dryer down to the basement to defrost the pipes which evidently were not frozen solid because water started flowing in a minute or so.
6. My kids are geniuses. :) Esther is amazing at math and reading. She has yet to learn division at school. She asked me about it and I told her it was the opposite of multiplication. She looked at me and said 'so that means 100 divided by 10 would be 10, right?'. Micah is incredibly creative. He's writing and illustrating stories in first grade. His drawings are great and his stories actually have a plot with a resolution. Luke is smart enough at age 2 that when we disagree on whether he can keep his light on in his room at bedtime, he politely tells me to leave the room and close the door, then proceeds to turn the light on himself. I'm not sure what I did to deserve such cool kids!!
7. The sweetest thing my wife ever said to me was 'It's OK'. We had been in China less than 6 months and were being asked to leave our city due to visa problems. We had not had a stable home in almost a year - 1 month packing up, 2 months in Virginia, 1 month in Thailand, and 5 months in China. Finally, we were just starting to have a home again and it looked like we'd have to leave ... and leave in a hurry. I told her the news wondering how she would respond and she told me 'It's OK'. Coolest thing ever. (BTW, yelling in broken Chinese at an immigration officer does not help you get a visa! )
8. I struggle being compassionate. When someone tells me something about life not going well, my initial reaction is to say 'buck up, that's life, get over it, move on, and be happy'. I'm working on this one. :)
9. My favorite author is Dallas Willard. No one has put more thought into the workings of the kingdom of God. His writings are brilliant. My second favorite author may be John Ortberg, who basically just translates Dallas Willard's writings into readable texts.
10. I am always right, or at least think I am. (It's taken a lot of progress to add that second part.)
11. I believe that internet pornography is a silent killer that is completely ruining the sex life of most married couples. There are way too many Christian couples who wouldn't describe their sex life as 'excellent'. It just shouldn't be that way.
12. My favorite speaker is Erwin McManus. That guy can tell a good story. His books are OK, but you need to hear him speak.
13. I am lazy. I constantly struggle with doing the minimum amount necessary to make myself look good (and sometimes not even that). 'Above and Beyond' is not in my vocabulary.
14. I am astounded by the fact that time is relative ... Einstein was one smart cookie. I like to think about things that make my head spin.
15. I still think of my friends in China all the time. If I pray for Zaozhuang too long, I will begin to cry.
16. I am a cryer ... but try to hide it. Seriously ... I can tear up watching the NCAA tournament.
17. I sometimes wonder if the American church is set up exactly backwards. Shouldn't the paid 'experts' spend most of their time leading the leaders of the church, and then the leaders spend most of their time leading the attenders, and the attenders spend most of their time leading the non-attenders. It seems like in most churches the paid 'experts' try to lead the attenders and non-attenders. The leaders then don't have anyone to lead and at the same time aren't being led by anyone. This is why people can go to church for 50 years and be no more like Christ than when they started. It's tragic.
18. I think Frank Martin is a good coach for K-State. He gets a bad rap because he is unproven, but the kids play hard and love him. He has yet to have a junior/senior led team and that is when teams are good. Just watch, KU will lose some wild ones this year because they are young.
19. I will love watching KU fans stress out this year because their almighty basketball team loses more than 5 games. I absolutely loved the loss to UMass, particularly because it was partially due to a Bill Self technical foul.
20. The 2003 K-State football win over Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship was the best sporting event I have ever attended. Something about watching overconfident Sooner fans watching the 'best team in history' get destroyed.
21. The 1998 K-State football loss in the Big 12 championship was the worst sporting event I've attended ever. I seriously, was emotionally depressed for weeks. We had the national championship in our grasp!!
22. The knowledge based seminaries for training pastors in the States disturb me greatly. We have church leaders graduating from Seminary that can do expositional preaching on all kinds of passages of the Bible but have never led anyone to life in Christ. Contrast that to the Chinese house church leaders some of whom can barely read and are drastically impacting their culture for good.
23. If I ever take a job in Marketing or Accounting, shoot me.
24. I am really pumped and a little bit nervous about leading a trip to India in October.
25. I think everyone should go and live in another culture for more than a year. It makes you realize how much of the way you view things was determined by your culture. We think we are independent thinkers ... but we are not.
(Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose a random number of people to be tagged . You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.)
1. The scariest moment of my life was when my daughter Esther slipped while going down steps on the side of a cliff in Thailand. She was 4 and I had just told her to hold the railing. I was holding Micah who was two when Esther tripped, fell, and caught herself with one hand on the railing. She was hanging by one hand over about a 20 foot drop. We kept this moment to ourselves ... didn't want anyone back home to worry about us. :)
2. I am a 'routine' person. I am lost if what I expected for the day doesn't happen. I'm not necessarily a planner ... just a creature of habit.
3. My fondest memories as a child are of long road-trips to Phoenix to visit my relatives.
4. I use to play in a handbell choir when I was a kid ... and I was pretty good at it. I hadn't thought about that in years until I saw one playing at Crown Center last weekend.
5. Our pipes froze Sunday morning, but luckily there was no damage. I went to turn on the kitchen faucet and no cold water came out. We took a hair dryer down to the basement to defrost the pipes which evidently were not frozen solid because water started flowing in a minute or so.
6. My kids are geniuses. :) Esther is amazing at math and reading. She has yet to learn division at school. She asked me about it and I told her it was the opposite of multiplication. She looked at me and said 'so that means 100 divided by 10 would be 10, right?'. Micah is incredibly creative. He's writing and illustrating stories in first grade. His drawings are great and his stories actually have a plot with a resolution. Luke is smart enough at age 2 that when we disagree on whether he can keep his light on in his room at bedtime, he politely tells me to leave the room and close the door, then proceeds to turn the light on himself. I'm not sure what I did to deserve such cool kids!!
7. The sweetest thing my wife ever said to me was 'It's OK'. We had been in China less than 6 months and were being asked to leave our city due to visa problems. We had not had a stable home in almost a year - 1 month packing up, 2 months in Virginia, 1 month in Thailand, and 5 months in China. Finally, we were just starting to have a home again and it looked like we'd have to leave ... and leave in a hurry. I told her the news wondering how she would respond and she told me 'It's OK'. Coolest thing ever. (BTW, yelling in broken Chinese at an immigration officer does not help you get a visa! )
8. I struggle being compassionate. When someone tells me something about life not going well, my initial reaction is to say 'buck up, that's life, get over it, move on, and be happy'. I'm working on this one. :)
9. My favorite author is Dallas Willard. No one has put more thought into the workings of the kingdom of God. His writings are brilliant. My second favorite author may be John Ortberg, who basically just translates Dallas Willard's writings into readable texts.
10. I am always right, or at least think I am. (It's taken a lot of progress to add that second part.)
11. I believe that internet pornography is a silent killer that is completely ruining the sex life of most married couples. There are way too many Christian couples who wouldn't describe their sex life as 'excellent'. It just shouldn't be that way.
12. My favorite speaker is Erwin McManus. That guy can tell a good story. His books are OK, but you need to hear him speak.
13. I am lazy. I constantly struggle with doing the minimum amount necessary to make myself look good (and sometimes not even that). 'Above and Beyond' is not in my vocabulary.
14. I am astounded by the fact that time is relative ... Einstein was one smart cookie. I like to think about things that make my head spin.
15. I still think of my friends in China all the time. If I pray for Zaozhuang too long, I will begin to cry.
16. I am a cryer ... but try to hide it. Seriously ... I can tear up watching the NCAA tournament.
17. I sometimes wonder if the American church is set up exactly backwards. Shouldn't the paid 'experts' spend most of their time leading the leaders of the church, and then the leaders spend most of their time leading the attenders, and the attenders spend most of their time leading the non-attenders. It seems like in most churches the paid 'experts' try to lead the attenders and non-attenders. The leaders then don't have anyone to lead and at the same time aren't being led by anyone. This is why people can go to church for 50 years and be no more like Christ than when they started. It's tragic.
18. I think Frank Martin is a good coach for K-State. He gets a bad rap because he is unproven, but the kids play hard and love him. He has yet to have a junior/senior led team and that is when teams are good. Just watch, KU will lose some wild ones this year because they are young.
19. I will love watching KU fans stress out this year because their almighty basketball team loses more than 5 games. I absolutely loved the loss to UMass, particularly because it was partially due to a Bill Self technical foul.
20. The 2003 K-State football win over Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship was the best sporting event I have ever attended. Something about watching overconfident Sooner fans watching the 'best team in history' get destroyed.
21. The 1998 K-State football loss in the Big 12 championship was the worst sporting event I've attended ever. I seriously, was emotionally depressed for weeks. We had the national championship in our grasp!!
22. The knowledge based seminaries for training pastors in the States disturb me greatly. We have church leaders graduating from Seminary that can do expositional preaching on all kinds of passages of the Bible but have never led anyone to life in Christ. Contrast that to the Chinese house church leaders some of whom can barely read and are drastically impacting their culture for good.
23. If I ever take a job in Marketing or Accounting, shoot me.
24. I am really pumped and a little bit nervous about leading a trip to India in October.
25. I think everyone should go and live in another culture for more than a year. It makes you realize how much of the way you view things was determined by your culture. We think we are independent thinkers ... but we are not.
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