Live interview today with WGRC in PA

In case you're interested . . . I'm doing a live interview from 11-11:30 a.m. today with WGRC in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

I'll be speaking about my book Remember Who You Are on the show The Matter at Hand.

Here's a link to listen live: WGRC Contemporary Christian Radio :: Listen Live.

Pray that I'll have wisdom.

Blessings!

Unexpected Moments of Joy

I was reading Paul Williams' And So It Goes article in this week's issue of the Christian Standard as I was walking to my office after picking it up in my mail box downstairs. Paul's article literally stopped me in my tracks. Paul tells the powerful story of an unexpected joyful moment he shared with his daughter at her wedding a year and a half ago. As I read his written memories of a stolen moment I stood still in the hall paralyzed by the emotions this imagery evoked in me.

Upon reflection on that moment with his daughter Paul writes, "We treasure in our hearts those moments you cannot schedule or plan, when grace enters a room unannounced and showers the moment with joy."

Like Paul, I'm a father who loves my daughter and--like Paul--I'm grateful for the stolen moments I've had with my daughter over the years and especially for the moments we've had on the ride to school for the past week.

My oldest daughter started school last week and I've had the privilege of taking her to school almost every day. We've been home-schooling my daughter for the past six years, so this is the first time I've had to drive her to school . . . and I'm loving it!

Each morning I get 15-20 minutes of uninterrupted time with my daughter. Just the two of us in the car. No cell-phone calls. No meetings. No interruptions. Nothing but time and conversation with my daughter . . . . and I'm cherishing it.

I have recurring thoughts during our time in the car . . .

"I love to listen to her talk."

"I love how she thinks."

"When did she get so beautiful?"

"God, thank you for giving Ashton to me."

"Lord, give me wisdom . . . I want to be the best Dad I can be for this amazing young woman."

"She's such a good person and I'm so grateful to be her Dad."

She talks about life, church, her friend Cassie, her dog, volleyball, High School Musical 2, we review for quizzes, and . . . occasionally she talks about . . . boys.

Boys!?!

Please, Lord, give me strength!

Trust me, I understand that family is a gift to be nourished, cherished, and protected. I minister with a church, but I understand that my first ministry is not to Christ's Church but to my family, because if my wife leaves me and my family falls apart no one will really care what I have to say--or write--about Jesus.

I have a clear purpose for my life. I know that God wants me to reach people for Him and help them find their way through Christ to their heavenly home, but I also know that he wants me to start each day with the people who live in my home.

So, I'm grateful for the privilege of 15-20 uninterrupted minutes with my daughter each morning.

I love it and I cherish this opportunity, because I'm not just taking my daughter to school I'm also bringing her home.

The New Christian Church Today

If you haven't already, you need to check out the new Christian Church Today website.

I copied this from the home page:

In addition to the resources and news you already find helpful, Christian Church Today now includes links to hundreds of blogs, pod casts, and videos from churches around the country - with more added each week. Our home page features new ideas from Christian church leaders, and throughout the site we’ve created lots of ways for you to provide feedback, update information, and share content with others.

I find myself drawn to the "Forums" section. Some discussion threads are fun to read, some are thought-provoking, and some have practical helps.

I Am Christ's Church

Today we are launching a new campaign called, "I Am Christ's Church." It begins with a 5-part sermon series designed to promote our vision, to inspire our membership, and to inform our community about who we are and the opportunities that exist at Christ's Church to experience real life change.

Here's the video we're handing out this weekend.

Couple Suing Southeast Christian Church, Officers in Traffic Incident

Like many churches, we hire local police officers to help direct traffic before and after our services at the intersections of our parking lot and access roads. Church volunteers direct traffic on our property. I've been surprised to hear that--on rare occasions--some people have even lost their temper with our volunteers, demonstrating their frustration with one finger on one of their hands! This is shocking, especially when we're talking about people who are on their way to, or from, "worship."

That being said, we've never had an incident as severe as what happened at Southeast Christian Church last August. The church and two officers are being sued because of the incident.

Here's an excerpt from the Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky:

A Louisville couple has filed a lawsuit against Southeast Christian Church and two corrections officers who direct traffic for the church, claiming the officers "assaulted and battered" the pair during a stop after a church service last year.The suit, filed Monday by Bradford Hundley and Jessica Hundley in Jefferson Circuit Court, also names Metro Government and two Metro Corrections officers, Capt. Martin Baker and Officer Kelvin Brooks.The suit claims that on Aug. 6, 2006, the Hundleys were arrested at a Marathon gas station on Blankenbaker Parkway, across the street from the church. Baker and Brooks were off duty directing church traffic when they "falsely imprisoned" the pair, injuring them during an arrest, according to the suit.The suit does not say if the couple were leaving church or just driving by.Bradford Hundley, according to a police report, disregarded an officer's directions at the intersection of Watterson Trail and Blankenbaker, cut into traffic and argued after being approached by officers.Hundley kicked an officer in the chest while being arrested, according to the police citation. One of the officers used an "arm bar" to gain control of Hundley, according to the report.

The suit claims the church employed the officers, is liable for their actions and should have known they would "abuse the authority given to them," according to the suit.Cindee Coffee, a spokeswoman for the church, said she has seen the suit and "we are looking into the situation." Coffee said Baker and Brooks still direct traffic for the church.

Now . . . for the real "fun" . . . let me share with you some of the comments this story has generated on the Courier Journal website:

--Not only do I believe the folks suing the officers, I understand their frustration with the traffic jam that is involved every time there is a service at Six Flags over Jesus, aka Southeast (hypo)christian Church. That state highway is a through way, and traffic control there should be focused on getting the rest of us through there, not making it so easy for folks to sit wasting gas going to the see-and-be-seen social events that are the real focus of this eyesore. I think that SECC should be paying a huge tax to the county too offset the inconvenience the rest of us face every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings and four jams on Sunday.

--Does this couple think they're above the law? They think they're allowed to disobey the directions of the police and to resist arrest? Who do they think they are? This is ridiculous. And as for the Courier-Journal, why don't you guys start writing articles about how Southeast helps the less fortunate pay their mortgages during difficult months? Or how they send countless volunteers to New Orleans to help people they don't know rebuild their homes that were destroyed by Katrina (which not many other people seem to care about anymore, so at least this church does). Yeah, go ahead and try to stir up more controversy -- that's what sells papers, right?

--This case is going nowhere. The church over there (a pretty fine place indeed) is protected by the First Amendment -- that is a clear exercise of religion and a judge will dismiss this suit in due course. It is just these kinds of frivolous lawsuits that are going to drive our churches away and across the river to Indiana. The insurance they have to pay is insane. Shame on these people. shame.

Surely . . . .you're going to be blessed by this video . . . surely. :)

I didn't realize I was supposed to be miserable.

I'm 38.

Boy, that sounds strange. How did I get here so quickly?

I was told by a former friend :) that my 33rd year would be my most productive year of ministry, but then the tide of public opinion would turn against me . . . . . . .and you get the picture.

Thankfully, he was wrong . . . as far as I can tell.

Aging is more difficult than I thought it would be. I always thought that the use of the word "crisis" to describe what some guys experience during their 40's was too strong of a word, but the closer I get to 40 the more appropriate that word feels.

I work out hard, try to eat right, live right, spend quality quantity time with my family, be nice to the cat, and get enough rest, so I feel pretty good. In fact, I feel great and as healthy as I did when I was in college.

Aging is difficult, but--in my experience--its not miserable.

I read an article today from the UK that intrigued me. The article was entitled Why the late-30s are a man's misery years.

Here are some of the most interesting excerpts:

Some might say that all they have to worry about is getting to work on time and the onset of a little middle-aged spread. But men in their late-30s and early-40s are the least content of all of us, it seems.

Whether they are mourning the passing of their prime or struggling to cope with the demands of a job and young family, those aged 35-44 invariably hit a mid-life crisis when their happiness level plunges lower than at any other age, according to a study for the Government.

It makes them the least satisfied members of society, scoring well below teenagers, the elderly - and women of all ages. Researchers found that it takes men until they reach the age of 65 to start enjoying life as much as they did in their late-teens and early-20s.

Women said their worst years were between the age of 25 and 34, when most are coping with young children, but their wellbeing rose steadily as they got older, reaching hit a peak satisfaction level of 7.65 when over the age of 65.

Researchers found that most people rated their time at university as the best years of their life, closely followed by their retirement years. The biggest difference between the sexes was in the contentment of those not working, with women far happier than men to stay at home not seeking work.

Yes--I'm not 40 yet, but I will be in a couple of years, so I know it may be premature to predict this, but--no--I don't foresee my mid-life as a time during which I'll be miserable. Not at all.

I've had the benefit of being around a lot of godly older men in ministry and it appears to me that their mid-life was the beginning of some of their most productive and joy-filled years of ministry.

Each year of experience, in my opinion, makes life--and ministry--even more sweet.

I can't wait to see what the future holds and I feel bad for the 35-44 year-old-guys who think their best years are behind them, because--frankly--I think the best years are yet to come.

Radio Interview Tonight in Minnesota

I'm starting the promotional phase for my latest book, Remember Who You Are during which I'll be doing some live radio interviews . . . which is pretty nerve-wracking btw!


Anyway . . . if you're in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area I'm going to be doing a live interview on KKMS Live! with Jeff & Lee at 5 p.m. ET tonight. If you're not in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area you can listen to the live interview online, or to the archived interview on KKMS, by just clicking here.

It's a call-in show, so--if you get through--be nice!

Blessings!

Why I Don't Believe in Safing Faith

No, I'm not an idiot. I meant to write "Safing Faith" not "Saving Faith."

"Safing Faith" is a word I invented to define the attempt by some Churches and Christians to make faith safe.

I believe in "Saving Faith", but I am opposed to any human attempts to make faith in God "Safe."

There is a famous scene in "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis. In the scene, the young girl Lucy learns that the king they are waiting for whose name is Aslan, is in fact a full grown lion. She asks if he is safe to which Mr. Beaver replies, "Safe, no he's not safe, but he's good".

God is definitely good, but He is not safe.

In Deuteronomy 4:24 we read: For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

A consuming fire is not "safe."

A consuming fire is not controllable.

A consuming fire is not manageable.

A consuming fire is not predictable.

A consuming fire must be respected.

A consuming fire does not submit to our plans. It does not stop. It does not fade away. It takes what it wants and leaves when it is finished.

It can not be put out with our words, our opinions, our criticisms, or be extinguished with the waving of our bulletins containing our well-planned worship services.

Our God is a consuming fire and He is not safe!

God--THE consuming fire-- will not be contained. He is powerful and our attempts to make our church services and spiritual lives safe are laughable.

I don't want to be safe! I want to be faithful.

I want to build an ark, lay my all on the altar, tell Pharaoh what to do, walk around the walled city, face the giant, square off against the prophets of Baal, get out of the boat, and even stand face-to-face with a hungry lion if that's what God calls me to do. I don't want a safing faith; I want a saving faith.

As far as I'm concerned safing faith is for wimps!

Here's what a "Safing Faith" looks like in Christians:

• Never sharing your faith
• Having no non-Christian friends
• Never singing too loud
• Never opening up to other Christians
• Never praying in public
• Sitting in the boat when given the chance to tread the waves
• Giving 10%
• Never crying in front of your church or small group
• Never expressing doubts
• Never opening a Bible in private
• Never carrying a Bible in public
• Depending exclusively on life-style evangelism (i.e. never speaking about Jesus)
• Praying sporadically and only for wants
• Sitting while singing "Stand up, Stand up, for Jesus"
• Tolerating a lack 0f ethnic diversity in your church
• Criticizing the preacher when his message makes you uncomfortable
• Going to church instead of being the Church
• Making fun of homosexuals instead of eating with them
• Not clapping after a baptism
• Criticizing enthusiastic faith in young people and new converts
• Never going on a mission trip
• Talking about what God can do and what you'll do for God, but then doing nothing when God gives you the opportunity to do something for him
• Fear induced paralysis in moments requiring a step of faith

Here's what a "Safing Faith" looks like in Churches:

• Plenty of available seating and parking spaces
• Passion for the By-laws.
• Long board meetings. Short prayer meetings.
• No prayer at leadership meetings. No leaders at prayer meetings.
• All steps of faith must be approved by a congregational vote of at least 70%.
• Saving seats is preferred to saving souls.
• Expecting the preacher to do all of the evangelism since that's "what he's paid to do."
• Toleration of cliques
• Selfishness abounds
• You hear, "Back in our day" a lot.
• Obsession with keeping on schedule and finishing on time
• Frustration when a "so-called" leading of the Holy Spirit leads the worship minister or preacher to divert from keeping on schedule (thus rendering the bulletin useless) and finishing on time
• No support for world evangelism
• An unusually large Policy and Procedures Manual
• No--or very little--missions effort.
• Budget drives vision, not vice versa.
• Make bold moves only when there's enough money in the bank to pay for it.
• Fear induced paralysis in moments requiring a step of faith.

John Muir was a naturalist who lived in the late 1800's . . . and a pretty courageous man. He was an adventurer who spent most of his life exploring the west and documenting his experiences. He was not a man who seemed overly concerned with his own comfort and safety.

Storms which drove the ordinary human being indoors for shelter were an ardent invitation to John Muir. Of one of the storms of the Sierra Nevada mountains he writes:

"It was easy to see that only a small part of the rain reached the ground in the form of drops. Most of it was thrashed into dusty spray, like that into which small waterfalls are divided when they dash on shelving rocks. Never have I seen water coming from the sky in denser or more passionate streams. The wind chased the spray forward in choking drifts, and compelled me again and again to seek shelter in the dell copses and back of large trees to rest and catch my breath. Wherever I went, on ridges or in hollows, enthusiastic water still flashed and gurgled about my ankles, recalling a wild winter flood in Yosemite when a hundred waterfalls came booming and chanting together and filled the grand valley with a sealike (sic) roar.

"After drifting an hour or two in the lower woods, I set out for the summit of a hill 900 feet high, with a view to getting as near the heart of the storm as possible. In order to reach it I had to cross Dry Creek, a tributary of the Yuba that goes crawling along the base of the hill on the northwest. It was now a booming river as large as the Tuolumne at ordinary stages, its current brown with mining-mud, washed down from many a 'claim,' and mottled with sluice-boxes, fence-rails, and logs that had long lain above its reach. A slim footbridge stretched across it, now scarcely above the swollen current. Here I was glad to linger, gazing and listening, while the storm was in its richest mood the gray rain-flood above, the brown river-flood beneath. The language of the river was scarcely less enchanting than that of the wind and rain; the sublime overboom (sic) of the main bouncing exultant current, the swash and gurgle of the eddies, the keen dash and clash of heavy waves breaking against rocks, and the smooth, downy hush of shallow currents feeling their way through the willow thickets of the margin. And amid all this varied throng of sounds I heard the smothered bumping and rumbling of boulders on the bottom as they were shoving and rolling forward against one another in a wild rush, after having lain still for probably a hundred years or more." --The Mountains of California, John Muir, p. 262-3.

Did you catch that? Muir wasn't content to be safe; he wanted to get "as near the heart of the storm as possible."

Me too.

I don't want to be safe. I don't want to seek shelter while faith rages beyond the open door. I want to be right next to God . . . as near the heart of my God as possible. . . because that's the only place that is truly safe.

My Dad's Blog

A funny cartoon for all of my blogging father friends . . .

Not Just A Bagger

This is an amazing video on service.

I know a "Johnny" and I love him a lot. This video reminded me of how the "Johnny" I know has blessed so many lives and how--if we'll just try--we can bless many lives, too.