Verbal Vomit

Ever experienced that? When someone's stuff is so bottled up, the frustration and bitterness is so toxic within them, that when you end up in their path you are hit with something much more sickening than a literal technicolor yawn? Today is the day for me. Wow... God, bless this person big-time. They need your help. Give them every good thing, Lord. Heal their heart. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If you get around to reading this, please pray for her, too. Thanks.

A song revised

So, my five-year-old is in Kindergarten. She comes home singing some really cool songs. The latest was, I Love the Color Red. It's sung to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know it. So, it goes,

"Oh, I love the color red, R - E - D, Oh, I love the color red, R - E - D"

Anyway, my three-year-old loves the tune, but doesn't like the color red so much. So she sings it:

"Oh, I love the color orange, R - E - D..."

It's a pretty cute thing to hear.

Million Dollar Morning

So I got up at 6:00 am this morning and watched the final hour of "Million Dollar Baby". A quote toward the end of the movie really floored me... Something along the lines of, "She didn't come to God for help, she came to me!" The priest had just given a trite solution for a difficult thing. "Just leave it with God," he had said. So I got to thinking. Do I do that? Jesus entrusted this whole movement to his followers - so are we sending people back to God after He has just sent them to us? After all, we are the ones who have hands to help, arms to wrap around hurts, money to meet needs, food to fight hunger... God fix our lack of real care for the hurting people around us.

Wow.

This one has me thinking... If you have a few minutes, listen to the message is called “A Tale of Two Cities: Part II” at this link: http://markmoore.org/publications/sermons.html

Life in Community

So, I've been stoked to be a part of an amazing team that defines, encourages, and supports the pursuit of biblical community at Southland. It's been a challenging experience while being rewarding at the same time. I got the opportunity to meet with a group of seventeen ministers the other day to discuss what they are doing to chase this value in their respective locations in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky. We also examined what many of the other big churches in this country are doing. It was encouraging to walk away knowing that:

1) No one is doing exactly the same thing
2) No one has a "lock" on a perfect method to organize and administrate this
3) The problems that we face are the same that others are experiencing

On the positive end of things:

1) We were intrigued by the notion that maybe we should be chasing spiritual formation centered NOT around independently focused Bible studies, but centering around the teaching in the church service on the weekends.
2) Developing curriculum for personal study that allows time for an individual to reinforce the stuff taught on the weekend is a great thing.
3) Maybe Life Groups are most effective when they are freed up to become gatherings where true friendships are the number one priority.
4) It's possible that it may be better to study more material but it's best to discover, ponder, and implement ONE thing that God taught you during a weekend service and then share the testimony of that one thing with your group when you are having a cookout.

This is getting to be longer than the average post. I'm done for now.