A-HA! Moment -- Benediction from the Back of Church

Image by pietroizzo via FlickrI had an A-HA! moment today in my small group on small churches.In many of the churches I've been to over the years the pastor has said the benediction at the back of the sanctuary after the worship service has ended.  This is where it is said: May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all...

Chess Pie

Had "Chess Pie" with lunch today and had to look up what it is when I got back to where I could get online.It was yummy.This is what Wikipedia saysChess pie is a particularly sugary dessert characteristic of Southern U.S. cuisine. According to James Beard's American Cookery (1972) chess pie was brought from England originally, and was found in New England as well as Virginia. Recipes vary, but are...

Where are Your Fields?

Image via WikipediaThen he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."Matthew 9:37-38...

Where are Your Fruit?

Image by equinoxefr via Flickr"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in...

Christian Formation Quote By Reggie McNeal

Image via Wikipedia“Spiritual formation is the number one issue for the church. It doesn’t immediately present itself as the major concern. But the loss of mission that plagues many churches is a direct result of not being shaped by the heart of God. The fact that we focus on creating members instead of missionaries grows from our lack of being captured by the heart of God for people.”Reggie...

Discipleship as a Fitness Club

Image via WikipediaMore thoughts from Nashville---Discipleship is all about before and after…what you have in folks BEFORE discipleship and what they are AFTER a year.Think about it this way.  If you're an operator of a fitness club and you want people to join your club, what change do you want to see in them?  You want them to move from overweight to a good weight.  You want them to...

"Jesus Picture" -- Getting Jesus Outside the Church

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeHeard a wonderful, powerful, Spirit-filled sermon this morning in the African American tradition.  There were a lot of "Amens" which filled our worship space.  But I wanted to share, as best I can, the story that began the sermon…a story about taking Jesus out of the church and into the world.There was a church (as often these stories go)….There was a church...

Looking for Authentic Enthusiasm

Image by Exothermic via FlickrI'm in Nashville, staying at the rather nice Renaissance Hotel next to the Convention Center for the School of Congregational Development for the United Methodist Church.  There's about 500 or so attendees, from what I've been told.  My guess is that there's more than that if worship last evening was any indication.  Lots of talks.  Lots of education. ...

William Wilberforce, Before the House of Commons 18 April 1791

Image via WikipediaGreat words from a great man against the great injustice of slavery.Let us not despair; it is a blessed cause, and success, ere long, will crown our exertions. Already we have gained one victory; we have obtained, for these poor creatures, the recognition of their human nature, which, for a while was most shamefully denied. This is the first fruits of our efforts; let us persevere...

The First Rule of Leadership

Image via WikipediaIf there’s an elephant in the room, shoot ...

Turn What You Have Into What You Want

Image via WikipediaBeen doing some thinking about TRANSFORMATION in life...not only because I want to see some changes in my life and ministry (as I think I always should)...but also because the people I'm in ministry with and the people I'm friends with are at places in their lives where they are questioning marriages, jobs, how they're raising children, their finances, etc.  It's part of life....

Pretty Buttons -- "Share This"

Anyone who reads this could share this drivel at any time.   For some, it involves cutting and pasting.   For some, e-mailing a link or two.  For some, it is all about sharing something on Facebook. I just wanted to draw your attention to the lovely little buttons at the bottom of these posts -- when you are on the actual blog post and not the entire blog page--click...

Diagnosing Your Life / Three Questions

Image by Biology Big Brother via FlickrJustin David Buzzard writes over at Buzzard Blog about life and the Gospel from what he considers is Western perspective--which is, in and of itself, an interesting perspective. He has the following in a post about how to best steward the life (and in some cases of our readers, the ministry) that God has given you.  You can begin, he says, by asking...

How to Have Power in Your Life as Pastor -- Quote

To have power in your life as a pastor, it is supremely important that you make it a first order of business for the rest of your life not to do things to impress people or gain a reputation or protect your reputation. It is very clear from the Gospels that Jesus is calling us to deny some basic things in our personality–things that need to die. Jesus says in Matthew 16:24 to deny yourself; take up...

Learning About Grace from Shirley Sherrod

The Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote an article about Shirley Sherrod.  Ms. Sherrod is the FORMER Agricultural Department official who was forced to resign (by Blackberry, no less) after comments she had made about race to an NAACP Audience, last March, I believe.What started the hoopla was two minute, edited version of an over 40 minute speech.  You can see Andrew Breitbart's edited version...

Communion By Twitter! -- Leave it to the Methodists

Image via WikipediaWell, they're Methodists in Great Britain...so it's a little different.  Anyway, the following is an excerpt from London's Telegraph newspaper:In a modern spin on Christianity's most sacred rite, worshippers are being invited to break bread and drink wine or juice in front of their computers as they follow the service online.Churches usually require a priest to take the Eucharist,...

Potential Sermon Title?: "Diapers and Depends"

This Sunday, we hear of poor Sarah who went to the story to buy depends and was told she needed to also get diapers. She laughed. Got this from Pastor Dan at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church in Anchor...

The Small Church -- This gave me chills...really.

As I go to speak at a "small" church in Fairmount, Indiana, this AM....and as I think about the great worship that's going to be had in Girdwood later on, I think this is appropriate.This post by Jared Wilson at "The Gospel-Driven Church" gave me chills.  It's entitled, "Our Church Isn't 'Cute'" and made me think of all the times we've had visitors say that about our building was "cute." It's...

Money Quote from Bo Diddley

Image via Wikipedia"Don’t let your mouth write no check that your tail can’t cash." Interesting words for individuals AND the Church....

Apple Computers & The Church

Image via CrunchBase"I'm a Mac."  There's no way around it at this point.  I became "A Mac" about 5 years ago when my Dell laptop died.  That was in the days of Windows ME and Windows XP and I, frankly, was frustrated enough with the operating system that I was open to "become a switcher."  And right now I'm on my 3rd Apple laptop...first a Macbook, then a Macbook Pro, and now...

So, What Does This Say About God?

This is a pillow apparently brought home by a 7 year-old from Bible camp.  Note how God's "comforting" word also brings doom.Interesting what this says about God and the theology that must have hit home at that Bible Camp.The picture is from over at Passive Aggressive Notes (dot) com.  And I got it by way of Jesus Needs New ...

So, What Does This Say About God?

The story is that this is a note in a store, perhaps to dissuade shoplifting.  I have to admit I've used a similar argument with our kids, basically asking them "Is Jesus happy with what you've done?"  But, as I look at the note I ask what does this say about God and our theology?I got the picture over at Passive Aggressive Notes (dot) com by way of Jesus Needs New ...

Quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. on Prayer

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathin...

Faith and Doubt

Tim Keller offered this observation in his introduction to “The Reason for God”.A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A...

Jim, "Rebel with an 8-Track Player"

Image by The Library of Congress via FlickrWay back when I was about 12 years old, or thereabouts, our family took a trip to New Hampshire with some good friends from Yorktown Heights, New York.  It was a great trip.  It truly was.  I'm sure I remember it better than it really was, but in my mind the skies were always clear, the kids never fought, and every day was awesome.  This...

A Case of Lawn Envy

 This is a picture of the side lawn where we're staying.  The house is an old country farmhouse that's being fixed upOur family has a lawn. It is a very small lawn that I hardly take care of. I use an electric, plug-in lawn mower and don't have to unplug it once. It takes 15 minutes--and that's only because I have to clean the wet grass out of the mower much more frequently than I'd care...

How I Felt In 1994 to 1995

I said before how I wanted to "get crucified" over every issue as I started out in ministry and how I had more trouble than now in discerning which burdens I should pick up.  David Hayward over at Naked Pastor has a cartoon that exemplifies this feeli...

Beautiful Indiana Sunrise

This is a picture taken this morning by our son. He happened to be up early enough to see it and snap a picture. (I even put a watermark on the bottom for hi...

Writing/Blogging as Discipline

Image via WikipediaI'm a smart guy.  And that's not really to toot my own horn.  It's just to say that, in school, I could go pretty far on just brain power alone.  However, what made me really smart is that I knew I couldn't just rely on my brain or my memory or my ability to think on my feet.  In school I was a hard worker.  I truly was.  I was the one asking questions...

The TOAST OF LIFE -- Jesus picture made out of 153 pieces of toast

Boy those Anglicans are a creative bunch.  I found this over at JesusNeedsNewPR.net, a great source of some off the wall (or on the wall) Christian stuff like th...

Holy Adventures -- How Can I Look At Vacation Differently?

Image via WikipediaHere I am in Indiana.  I sit at my laptop which I've plugged into my mother-in-law's DSL line.  Two kids are watching TV.  One just got up (at 11 AM).  And the two little ones are having fun looking at pictures with their grandma.  The sun is out. It's hot. And I hope to get to a coffee shop a little later to get my latte and coffee shop fix.So, how can...

A Gaelic Prayer for Peace

Image by ♥Denise A. Wells♥ via FlickrPeace between neighbors, Peace between kindred, Peace between lovers,    In love of the King of life.   Peace between person and person, Peace between wife and husband, Peace between woman and children, The peace of Christ above all peace. Bless, O Christ, my face,     Let my face bless everything; Bless O Christ mine eye,    ...

Riches on Earth

Image via WikipediaYeah, I know. More stuff about money. It keeps coming at me, doesn't it? This was from Pete Wilson's blog, Without Wax. It's a quote from G. Cambell Morgan that puts a good spiritual perspective on our propensity to store up riches on earth.   The Biblical background is Matthew 6:19-21:  19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy,...