Interesting House Guests

So when the very random opportunity to host some people in our home presented itself this week, I figured I better put my house where my mouth is and use my stuff for kingdom purposes (a quote from a recent sermon i delivered). To top it all off - any hesitation I had in housing two Chinese folks traveling from Chicago to Niagra Falls - was trumped by the fact that all three of our kids were away for the night leaving three empty bedrooms available - OK God... I get it.

I thought they were missionaries, they weren't.
I thought they would speak English, it was pretty broken but we could still have a conversation.
I thought they were familiar with American culture and ideas, they were members of the communist party.

That's right. One guy was a mid-level communist government official in a northwest Chinese province. The other was his younger brother - a businessman in Shanghai. The older brother has been in the States for almost a year getting his masters degree in Business administration and the younger brother and sister had come to visit him and do some traveling before they all return to China.

We talked about everything from the free-market system, to physicalism/spiritualism/ dualism, to Taoism and Buddhism, to best practices in leading businesses and staffs of people, to family issues, to Jesus' love for the poor. It was a fascinating and mind-expanding few hours. Some of my favorite questions from them included:

• how many children are you allowed to have?
• how many square feet does the government allow your houses to be?
• what career plans do you have for your children?
• do you think people are only physical or do you think they have spirits?
• who does the cooking in your home?
• are 100% of Americans politically active because it seems like that's all they talk about?
• how much did your house cost?

In the end we moved to spiritual matters - it was literally like watching the scales fall from someone's eyes. As we talked about Christianity as a world view and how it does a better job than any other world view in explaining the reality that we all live in, as we talked about the life of Jesus, and the principles of scripture the older brother (the government official) acknowledged the truth of Christianity. An amazing foundation had been laid by Chinese Oversees Christian Missions (COCM) with whom they were now traveling - but it seemed like our time reallyaffirmed in him the truth of Christianity and the trustworthiness of Jesus.

One of the more fascinating exchanges was between the brothers as the younger brother began to express concern over what would happen to the older brother if he began to talk about his new-found ideas in the workplace, etc. The older brother explained that Christianity is a better way - it influences the way you treat people and the way you make decisions and the way you go about your life, and that if he simply lived out his faith but didn't talk about it all the time, that his superiors would eventually see the truth and that it would begin to affect necessary change not just in his family, or in his department, but in China. It was amazing!

He pulled out a New Testament and asked for some guidance in how to go about reading it. I stayed up well into the night putting together some reading guides for him to follow and directing him to certain sections of Scripture that I thought would be helpful to him.

I asked if he had ever heard the story of Joseph - he said no. I told him that it would be a story of great interest to him because Joseph was a leader of his government and he had to walk the fine line of being a follower of the Most High God among people and systems that were unlike his own- he faced persecution and rejection from his family and others along the way - and still remained faithful to God and saw God's faithfulness expressed back to him. This gentleman could affect real change in China. I teased him that the communist government got more than they bargained for in that they had sent him to America for an education and he is coming back a Christian!

As we said goodbye early the following morning I realized that God had connected us in a sovereign way. The older brother expressed to me that life-change had occured in him because of our encounter. Same here.

5 Insights from Recent Tragedies

There has been plenty of tragedy around here lately. A mom and dad from Grace lost their 16 year old son in a horrific automobile tragedy while he was on a mission trip with another youth group. The depths of pain and grief were palpable around here. A young couple from Grace, after 3 years of trying, lost one of their baby twins. They're nursing a daughter along in ICU while mourning the loss of their son. Al has been brought in at some level to minister to the family who just lost their 18 month-old daughter after being mauled in her living room by the family dog. There is a distinguishable heaviness around our office here at Grace in the midst of tragedies like these.

I have not yet personally walked through tragedies like these that have hit close to my immediate home- though I know they are coming in the days and years ahead. How do we respond when tragedy strikes? A few thoughts:

1. Recognize that for all of us - our days are numbered. And God knows that number. None of this comes as a surprise to him. Man's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. (Job 14:5) The time of our birth and the time of our death are secure in God's providence and we have no control over either.

2. Recognize that God has marked out our time on this earth for a purpose. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) Even if those days and those good works are very short - our time here was for a purpose. Recognizing that some good works (in the case of this three-day old baby) were very brief, completely selfless, and intended entirely for the impact of others. Good will come of his time on this planet.

3. Suffering is real and we should walk through the depths of it - with the understanding that Jesus will grant us peace and courage through it all. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but have courage--I have conquered the world. (John 16:33)

4. Be attentive to all that God is teaching us as we walk through times of tragedy. CS Lewis has a great quote in The Problem of Pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

5. Be sensitive in the things we say to those going through tragedy. Having stood by grieving people in many a funeral home, I think I'm qualified to say that Christians say really stupid things to grieving people. We often play the role of Job's "friends" by being trite or presumptuous or insensitive in our comments. I usually try to say as little as possible to those who are grieving other than - "I can't imagine the pain you are feeling right now...." and then let them do the talking at their own pace. Be a listener, a hugger, a broad shoulder to lean on.

National School of Leadership

I had a meeting last week with two leaders from our denomination - (used to be the Baptist General Conference now is...) CONVERGE Worldwide. Pamela Heim from the National Office flew in, and Gary Shroeder from our Regional office, and I met in Dubois on Wednesday to discuss the National School of Leadership. Grace is going to be one of the pilot sites for the school. We will be one of only a few churches from around the country to pilot the program.

The NSL is a leadership development program for people who aren't pastors or church staff. We'll be encouraging emerging and existing Grace leaders to go through the school. It is a one year program that will meet for a group learning experience 6 times (every two months). These times will be taught some by Grace Pastors as well as other experts that we'll be bringing in from around the region and around the country.

We are thrilled to be involved at this level in this program - we're aware of at least 5 other churches that will be sending folks to our site and the promotion of the thing hasn't even started yet! At this point it looks like we'll hold our first class in late January sometime. Keep your ears open. You can find out a little more info here.

5 Things I Learned During the Power Outage at Church This Weekend

OK - for those of you who don't know - we had a whacky church weekend. Definitely the whackiest I've ever been a part of in my 15 years! During the 9:15 service - mid-way through my sermon - the power just went off. Everything went down. Microphones, lights, screens, toilets, drinking fountains, sound system, band equipment, computers, copiers, everything off. Well the only things that really affected me were lights, microphone, and screens. It was a little crazy.

AJ (our audio tech) went in to high gear but to no avail - it was a bigger problem - the whole area lost power. So I just belted out the rest of the sermon without amplification and we made a bunch of adjustments - scaled back the 11:00 service - and went on. Electricity ended up coming back on right in the middle of my sermon at 11:00 - so neither sermon at either hour went un-interrupted. I learned some stuff from the experience.

1. We're really dependent upon electricity for how we do church. If the window shades hadn't been raised right before the electricity went out - we would have been "up a crick" because it would have been pitch black in the worship center.

2. Our team is amazing. They handled the set back with grace and excellence. Instead of panic or egos or short tempers or just freaking out - what I saw was a calm, confident, God-honoring, solution-driven experience. The few that I witnessed were awesome: Larry - gathering bottles of water for the nursery for drinking and baby cleanup, AJ calmly making contingencies if the power came back on during 11 (which it did), Brian and his musicians sitting in a circle hand-writing words and charts for the completely ad-hoc worship set, the skit actors going on as if nothing was wrong, Al easily explaining to everyone that today might be "a little different," Bill kicking into gear getting all the info he could from the electric company ... and there was obviously a bunch of other stuff that I didn't see...

3. We don't need electricity to worship God. While we're dependent on it - we don't really require it. The worship time was sweet - people were loving the spontanaity and having to figure out worship without any words. Brian did a great job picking out familiar songs and the team pulled them off so well in their little acoustic circle down on the floor. People totally got into it. It was awesome to hear just the voices rising up in the room. We need to incorporate some very simple worship like that from time to time in the future.

4. The acoustics in our room are pretty sweet when there is no amplification. I talked to people who sat all over the room and everyone could hear every word just fine without amplification (though the teaching pastor's throat would be a bit tender after a weekend of that.)

5. We should probably think of investing in some kind of generator at some point...

Was anyone at 9:15 or 11:00 this weekend? What are your thoughts?

Crazy Sermon Weekend

My day today and my weekend this weekend will be filled with crazy sermon stuff- I'm coming down the homestretch on my sermon for the weekend at Grace. I'll be preaching at all three services. I also prepared two sermon rationales for our Creative Team meeting this morning as we plan out August creatives. I'm preaching on the 10th and 17th of August at Grace. And also today I'm preaching at a wedding for a former youth ministry student who is getting married to a lovely bride (way over his head!) I absolutely love preaching, but preparation and study for it is hard, slow, and sometimes painful for me.

To be a conduit for the word of God is not a responsibility I will ever take lightly. I am very hard on myself (ask Brian!) and want to be at my very best every time. Please pray for the sermon this weekend- we are in a series dealing with what I believe to be the biggest idol in America today- our money - specifically this weekend I'll be touching on greed. Because money is an idol that is worshiped faithfully by so many, it is a somewhat sensitive and difficult subject to deal with. But if we don't preach about the greatest idol in a culture, have we really preached the gospel?

I Love the Church When it's Working Well

I've walked out of a couple of meetings this week just amazed at how God builds his church. It is awesome to see different people with completely different gift mixes come together as a team around a common vision and chase it down together. The meetings are revolving around the continuing development of ServErie (Grace's new initiative to stop the advancement of poverty in our region).

It is awesome to see leaders and organizers and IT people and web developers and creative thinkers and detail people and big vision people and vision casters and behind the scenes folks all come together and chase a common dream. The spirit and heart of this team is amazing. We're working on the two strategic next steps for ServErie:

1. Organizing our core team around the major departments that have presented themselves and
2. Getting ServErie web based.

Right now we are doing it the old-fashioned way with a job board in the lobby where people can sign up for a service opportunity with one of our smiling ServErie staff members. Getting to a web interface is going to open up a bunch of new opportunities for Grace folks to get involved. It is also going to be the first step in taking ServErie to a wider audience. We're dreaming about the day when other churches, and colleges, and businesses in our region have a centralized location at which they can sign up to serve alongside some fine organizations in our city that are working to alleviate the stranglehold of poverty. It's an exciting endeavor to be a part of and we're praying for the day when the statistics and percentages related to poverty, and teen pregnancy, and high school dropout rates, begin to go down instead of up. May our city be changed forever - and may the body of Christ continue to work in all her glory!

You might be a metro-rednexual if…

Since my teen years I've lived in the suburbs. Protected from the harsh realities of city life and country life. My parents decided a number of years ago to move to Union City- for those of you from around here - I don't need to explain. For outsiders - Union City is the butt of many redneck jokes and worse. Anyway - I've teased my parents incessantly since their move because they don't seem to quite belong. They are attractive and always have themselves together and the whole bit. That's why I found this post from Tony Morgan so funny about a week ago. He lists the top 10 ways to know if you might be a metro-rednexual here

Should the Church Set Goals?

During the years that I've been involved in the strategic leadership side of the church- we have set annual corporate goals. I understand that people have a variety of opinions about churches setting goals ranging from:

• "of course we should set goals - all successful organizations set goals for themselves" to...
  
• "we should let the Holy Spirit lead every step and he usually leads through spontaneity and not planning" to...
  
• "goal-setting is too business-y and secular - the church shouldn't be getting caught up in secular methodologies."

Needless to say- I believe that setting goals is extremely important both for organizations and individuals - especially Christians who have the high calling of Jesus on their lives and are challenged to consistently self-reflect and evaluate their followership of the savior. A goal is an aim or objective intended to guide actions toward a desired end. I have been involved on enough athletic teams in my life to know that defining what a win looks like and then setting goals to get from here to there is essential to casting vision, and building momentum, and mobilizing people to chase it down.

2 years ago we brought in a local organizational expert to talk to our staff about the process of goal setting. She challenged us that one of the more effective ways to approach the goal-setting process organizationally is to frame it in terms of problems that need to be solved. At our recent staff getaway - we had an amazing time hashing out the major goals for 08-09. Our staff is currently working on their "success maps" - each department's piece of those bigger goals. I already leaked one - but will be leaking out some of the other goals in coming posts... I'm so pumped about what God has in store for Grace this year!

The Human Mind is an Amazing Thing - Points to an Amazing God

This has been around the blogosphere for a while - but I find it fascinating...

Cna yuo raed tihs? fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a graet mnid…Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 cna.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?

How to Keep the Church from Closing it's Doors

I viewed an advertisement for a church for sale the other day. It was a church much like ours. Large auditorium, mutli-media capabilities, beautiful children's areas. And it made me think, "what would ever cause us to put this new facility that we're in on the market?" (this is a horrifying thought for me after 5 years of intensive investment into this new facility!) We have tons of acreage for future expansion - so I don't forsee a space issue. The only reason to sell would be that Grace would one day die, board up the windows, close the doors, and throw in the towel (what an uplifting blog post Derek...)

A trend is already underway - in Roman Catholic Churches in Boston, Toledo, even Johnstown, PA, churches are boarding up their doors and windows, or consolidating 4 or 5 churches together into one because of dwindling numbers in the pews and dwindling financial streams. Mainline denominations are not far behind. United Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran... We at Grace are experiencing just the opposite - growth - life - vibrancy.

Now don't get me wrong, the Church - as in the universal church - will never die. Jesus promised that he would build his church and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. However, individual local churches are not automatically protected from extinction - as we can see by all the churches across America that are closing their doors every day. My prayer is that all types of churches who promote Jesus Christ would thrive and grow and be fruitful. I also believe that some churches need to die because they may be doing more damage than good for the cause of Christ. Churches whose vision does not match the vision of Jesus should just stop.

So how does Grace take steps to ensure vitality and life for many generations to come? In addition to maintaining an intense focus on our vision to reach out to those who are far from God, and to help those who are following Christ to follow him with more vigor and depth, in addition to consistently challenging people to invest their time and resources in kingdom causes, and hiring good staff members to champion the mission of Grace - we are taking an interesting step this year to insulate ourselves against extinction - or even worse than extinction - irrelavence. We feel so strongly about this - we have made it one of our 4 major church goals for the coming ministry year.

Here is the way we're phrasing the goal: "Begin the process of empowering younger generations to lead the church and influence ministry by assuring that we achieve 10% growth in the number of millenials (those born between 1980-2000) who are serving in each ministry department at Grace." One of the ways that the church can fight off extinction is to stay young and continue to reach and empower new generations to follow Jesus. We have modeled this philosophy by the way we have staffed at Grace (our last two hires are ages 20 and 29). But we need to assure that "young blood" is filtering in to each department and affecting how we do ministry.

The world is completely different for teenagers and 20-somethings than it was for this 37 year-old dinosaur and those older than me. Without compromizing the scandal of the gospel in any way- we must figure out how to reach out to them, and grow them in Christ, and connect them to the church, and empower them for ministry, and facilitate their worship to a Holy God. The way that we do these things will be different than the way we have done it up until now.

With the ministry staff that we have thinking and strategizing about this, I am confident that Grace will continue to re-invent herself for increasing effectiveness. Those in our church who are older will be called on like never before because the Scriptures command them to be involved in this process of training and investing in a new generation of Christ-followers. I'm convinced that Grace's best days are ahead.

What do you think are the most dangerous enemies to a local church's ability to survive and thrive?

I Met a Godly Man Today...

I had a pretty intense day today. I traveled down to Pittsburgh with a couple of ServErie colleagues to visit a ministry called Hosanna Industries, Inc. It was an eye-opening visit. The organization basically used a similar concept that we used for TARGET (a program back in the mid 90's that we did through the youth ministry at Grace to rehab homes of needy families in Erie) but they do it a 365 days a year. They do construction projects throughout the city for poor and needy families.

They now have a campus that houses a dormatory for up to 60 volunteers, warehouses for equipment, trucks, tractors, supplies, a training center for basic construction skills, a staff housing area, office complex, etc. The ministry began in 1990 by a man named Donn - who was a pastor at the time.

I knew as soon as we joined him at the table that he was a Jesus follower in the true sense - he took all of Jesus very seriously. He had plumbed the depths of faith and obedience - it was all over his face, it was in his voice, his soul was out in front of his words. I learned some stuff in the 2 1/2 hours we spent with him. Here's some of it:

1. Big dreams often start very small - in the last 18 years - this organization has done over $26 million worth of construction. It started with Donn driving around town stopping at run-down homes and knocking to see how he might help. No strategic plan, no org chart...

2. The key to the success of any organization is deep love and trust among its leaders- he repeated often that the difficult ministry times always involved a breakdown of relationship among the team. But the love of the team and their love of the mission is what keeps him going.

3. Even really godly leaders struggle with criticizm - a huge downer in ministry is when you pour yourself into what you think Jesus has called you to do and what you think is the right thing to do - and Christians criticize. It happens to him regularly and when it does he wants to quit.

4. You can tell alot about a person by what makes them cry. Three times during our conversation Donn came to tears. Once when he was talking about Jesus and his love for the poor, and twice when he was talking about the love and community that exists among his core team. Too many people only come to tears about themselves.

5. I like smart people. I've known this for a while - but I love to be around bright shining bulbs. It challenges me and puts me into "learner mode" - I just begin firing questions and writing furiously. Donn is not only a great servant -but he's really smart.

6. Even really godly leaders can have messed up families - Donn was honest about basically working 80-90 hours per week for the last 18 years and that it has been unhealthy. It's had a negative affect on his wife and kids. Ministry can be intoxicating and addictive - and before long all kinds of stuff can appear to be more important than family - and then before you know it your kids are gone and you've missed the whole thing.

7. Sometimes our hands and feet should do all the talking - some people go into the business of serving the poor with the expectation that they will lead a goodly number of them to salvation - many times, just serving them is enough. Leave the heart-changing business to God.

8. Being taken advantage of is part of what we signed up for as Christians - following the savior that we follow - we should know that we will never insulate ourselves from beging scammed, abused, and taken advantage of. There were a number of jobs that Donn walked away from in the end knowing that he had been scammed. They try to not let it happen but when it does it's in God's hands - they seek no retribution.

9. Jesus loves the poor - Donn never mentioned this one time - but it bled through in every comment he made, every breath he took, and rang true in my spirit just being near him.

10. I have an affinity for older guys who smoke pipes - after lunch Donn took out his pipe - lit it - took a robust draw on it - and kept talking - man did that thing smell good! It also somehow added to the mystique of the moment. CS Lewis, a hero of mine, also smoked a pipe. I've never owned a pipe - never smoked a pipe - maybe I'll have to run out and get me a corncob pipe and some tobaccee. (please don't send me hate mail about how christians shouldn't smoke and how I shouldn't be advocating it here on this blog - I know all that - I'm just sayin...)

It was quite a day - some debriefing is in order.

I wasn't ready for this picture

Ayden and Luke, originally uploaded by dereksanford.

OK - this is Ayden - my three year old daughter. The latest love of my life. And yes, that's just her cousin Luke helping her navigate the bustling crowds of people at Waldameer. And yes, you can call me an overprotective father. But seriously, I had a vision into the future 12 years from now to my 15 year-old Ayden holding hands with a boy. But future boyfriends beware. You'll not only have a jealousy-crazed father to deal with but a 22 year-old Caleb and 18 year-old Chase.

Just try it you punk...don't even think about it...whoever you are...even though you're only 3 years old right now and would have to be advanced enough to be able to read... well...anything...let alone this blog post....I'm just saying...be very careful.

95%

Just read a great quote from Hybels, "95% commitment to Christ is 5% short."

Being a Better Dad

Pastor's kids are sitting ducks. It's a perfect storm really. Pastor's are busy - but all kinds of dads are busy in other kinds of work - what makes Pastor's kids such a target? Well I have a couple thoughts.

• Pastoring is a people business, so any time other people come before family it feel's like dad is choosing them over us. Could cause some bitterness against other people.
• Pastoring is a church business, so any time the church comes before family it feels like dad is choosing the church over us. Could cause some bitterness against the church.
• Pastoring is a God business, so any time God-stuff comes before family it feels like dad is choosing God-stuff over us. Could cause some bitterness against God.

That's a confusing deal for kids. For a kid whose dad is a businessman - and is busy and neglectful and all that stuff - the kid might get mad at his dad and his dad's business - but that anger and bitterness doesn't necessarily get wrapped up into God and the church and weighty stuff like that. On top of it - I do believe that Spiritual Leaders are subject to a unique spiritual attack.

So all that to say, I had a question ringing in my ears all of Father's Day. "How can I be a better dad?" It is one of my most important roles as a human being, and I'm all about self-evaluation, so I wanted to ponder the question.

Instead of trying to come up with crap on my own - I decided to ask my two oldest kids (got the idea from Mark Batterson) So I asked them- "How can I be a better dad to you guys? What are the things that I'm not doing so well that I can get better at? What do you guys need more of from me that you're not getting right now?" They both really took the question seriously - they pondered and considered - they spend several minutes in quiet thought. Here's what they came up with:

Chase - "there is nothing I can really think of...one thing I thought of... but it's what a bad person would say." I said, "nothing is bad to say right now Chase - everything is fair game - tell me what you're thinking." He said, "I'm just thinking about more money and more stuff - but friends don't like rich people who don't share their stuff." I said, "that's true Chase - it's important to share our stuff." Then he said, "I would like to have you help me build a small house - we could design it together and you could teach me how to build it." Sounds like a good plan (what I resisted saying is "designing and building houses is your mom's department - ask her!")

Caleb - "there is nothing dad - you're an awesome dad. Out of all the dad's of all my friends - there is no one else's dad that I think does a better job than you."

It was encouraging but I think I still need to keep asking the question - because I know there are a lot of things that I need to do better.

Here are a couple of good fatherhood ideas that I've run across lately - one from Mark Batterson's blog and one from Tim Steven's blog.

What area of your life do you find it hardest to self-evaluate?

Looking for a good online Bible reading resource?

This one is fairly interesting - you can subscribe to the "read the bible in a year" blog that updates you every day on what the readings are for that day. It also has a spot for you to read, highlight, and journal in any version of the bible that you choose. You can also post comments, questions, interpretations, applications etc. in an interactive section. Pretty interesting. I like the look and practicality of this deal. I won't ever use something like this exclusively because I like the feel and smell of books too much. But this is a cool on-the-go resource and a great option for people who do most of their reading/writing at the computer.

Vacation Was Great

I had a great time off. Worked hard on some houses with Kim in the beginning and then did landscaping, yard work, built a swing set, etc. at our place. We also went to Waldameer and Water World on one day. It was really fun. It was an incredbily hot week to be working outside (90's everyday) but I loved every minute of it.

We had a big neighborhood cookout the other night with about 10 couples and their kids. It was great to get to know people better. There is a new family moving in to the house across from us and we got to meet them the other night which was really cool. They have kids near the ages of ours so we're stoked about that. There was so much food left over from that party that we offered to host everyone at our house the next night to consume all the leftovers. So we had a two-night-in-a-row cookout. It was pretty cool. We have some great neighbors.

The kids got off of school yesterday and are incredibly pumped for the summer. They had their report cards - and are by far the best and brightest in their respective classes. No other kids are even close to their level of achievement academically, socially, spiritually (OK - I'm a bit biased!)

A Few Thoughts as I Begin Vacation

I haven't posted for a while - sorry. Last week was a bit of a blur getting ready for vacation, plus a volunteer appreciation night, lots of serverie stuff, and preparing for a weekend of teaching. Anyway -today was my first day of vacation and it was great- helped Kim finish up a house she has been working on. She actually finished two houses in this last week and is semi-retired for the summer. She has asked for a pedicure for her birthday (this Thursday) which is a good sign that she's actually serious about taking some time off! My wife is the most amazing woman I know.

Anyway here are some brief thoughts that I considered posting about this past week but didn't have time to (lots of church related stuff - beware!):

1. We have the most amazing volunteers at Grace. We celebrated their faithfulness this past Wednesday night. They carried us through the biggest transition Grace has ever experienced. Nearly 450 people have served at Grace this past year. That's a staggering number.

2. There is not one county in the USA with a greater percentage of "churched" people than it had ten years ago.

3. There are 6 million less people going to church in the United States than were going to church in 2000. We're losing ground. It's time for the church to step up and get serious about her mission - and also get our heads around the fact that people are more fascinated than ever with Jesus but are less than compelled by the church.

4. Reggie McNeal's teaching on the Missional Church from the MBC Annual meetings are rocking my world. I've never gotten much into his books - but he has some profound things to say about the current and future state of the church.

5. I have been reading the "Evangelical Manifesto" that was published last month (I know - sounds scary right?) Anyway- I was very impressed. There are a couple of parts that I need to re-read because there were a few red flags at first pass, but by and large I think it does a fine job of re-defining evangelicalism which has been grossly misunderstood and misrepresented in recent years. Grace would definitely be qaulified as an "evangelical" church. I would encourage any Grace attender to read it (they also have a cliff notes version at the website)

6. I'm reading this book by David Bivins. It's very good - dives into the context of Jesus' life and teaching - a subject that I've been very fascinated by in recent months.

7. I just read I Am Legend (I know it's a little different than Jesus in his Jewish context) but it was just for fun. Nothing like a 1954 science fiction novel about vampires to get the heart thumping. I saw the movie and was really intrigued by the "last man on earth" concept. Holy smokes - the book is nothing like the movie. There are very few similarities. The movie was happy and gay compared with the book. I guess they tried to film some parts more like the book -but audiences hated it so they caved...

8. If you don't know Mars Hill church out in Seattle and Mark Driscoll - you should. The guy is a throwback preacher - but young and hip and all that stuff too. He has a great site called The Resurgence that has some great ministry content on it. They post videos from their conferences for free which is a great gift to other ministry leaders.

That's enough for now. Going golfing with my pops tomorrow and looking forward to it.

Two Challenges

I sent an email to our staff last week. Got some words of apprecation - so I thought I'd share it with all of you. I gave them two quick words of challenge as we head into the holiday weekend.

1. What are you going to do with a day off? Next week we have Monday off as a holiday. I think we have to be as intentional about our rest as we are about our work. So what are your plans for a) family, b) God, c) personal refreshment d) blessing others in your neighborhood or sphere of influence, during your quick day of reprieve. I know it sounds weird, but I was actually challenged in prayer last night about being intentional with Monday. So I'm actually praying about what God wants me to do with that day - I'm sure it will have something to do with a, b, c, or d.

2. What are you doing with your Economic Stimulus check? I'm not going to pretend that the best thing for all of us to do is give it to the church (although, we could sure use it!). But there is a "best thing" for you to do with yours. My challenge is to make it a matter of prayer as to what that "best thing" is. The question is, "what should we do with windfalls?" Unfortunately there is no generic answer. But I bet if you asked God, "What should I do with this particular windfall?" That He would be faithful to give you some direction.

Hope you have an amazing holiday weekend and a day of reprieve next week.

Ayden Didn't Quite Get the Miracle Right

So we were talking last night about what the kids were learning both from School and from Sunday School lately. Ayden (our 3 year old daughter) got very excited to tell what she had learned in Sunday School. She got very animated and started taking deep inhales between each phrase. She kind of missed the point of the punchline of the big miracle though. Her story went something like this:

Kim - so tell us about what you're learning Ayden...

Ayden - well all the guys with Jesus (deep breath) they got in a boat and sailed way way way (deep breath) way way way out into the water.

Kim - really - and then what happened?

Ayden - then a huge rain came... and thunder... and lightning (deep breath) and the waves were so big they almost covered the boat.

Kim - wow! then what?

Ayden - then Jesus came out (deep breath) and he got in the boat with his guys

Kim - oh man - then he must have done something pretty great next!

Ayden - yeah (deep breath) next he let the boat drift right into the storm (very deep breath like she had just finished the story)

Kim - didn't something happen after that?

Ayden - (somewhat annoyed) yeah....we had a snack.

We Saw Prince Caspian

Took the boys to see Prince Caspian amidst an absolutely crazy weekend. It was really good - captivating. Here are some random thoughts about the movie:

1. the setting was beautiful - some of the scenes, especially the children sailing back into Narnia, were just breathtaking.

2. the acting was way better this time around.

3. it was really violent - a lot of battle scenes. Chase handled it, but was pretty scared at some points.

4. the brief scene with Jadis (the white witch) was one of my favorites, both because it was so visually captivating, and because it did such a great job of painting the picture of the reality of temptation - especially the temptation of success at any cost. All the characters were drawn to it - except Edmund of course who had seen the results of giving in to that kind of temptation.

5. Maybe the best acting of the whole thing was done by the man who played Trumpkin the dwarf - he was awesome.

6. I haven't checked back in my book yet -but I think there was a scene added that wasn't in the book. Peter led an ill-advised and under-prepared attack on the Telarmine castle - it seemed out of character for Peter and a little out of place in the story. I wonder if it was supposed to be a political commentary on our current situation. If so - I didn't appreciate it's insertion into this storyline.

7. Susan's character was cheapened a bit by a weird little flirtatious thing that went throughout the movie with Caspian - I don't remember the Jr. High melodrama from the book either - but I could be wrong.

8. Reepicheep the mouse was hilarious and a very endearing part of the story. I laughed out loud at several spots in the movie as I did in the books. He also plays a really funny role in Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

9. Aslan was somewhat absent - but was in the book too. His relationship with Lucy wasn't as developed in the movie - but I'm aware that not everything can make the final cut.

10. I definitely thought that there was a softening of any spiritual themes througout. Which may explain why Walden and Disney didn't do the big marketing push to Christian audiences and churches this time around.

Overall it was very good and worth the admission price. I don't want to be one of those weirdos that always says, "the book was soooo much better," but, the book was so much better...