Tomorrow winds up the third series we’ve done so far this year and I’m thankful to God for his guidance as we’ve formatted our teaching over the past few months, because every bit of feedback we’ve been getting has told us we’ve been hitting the mark.
There are only 52 Sundays in a year, so it’s important to use the opportunities they offer us to talk about things that really matter. Seems we’ve been doing that – we’ve never been too interested in trivia or obscure topics.
With every series that has come to and end, I’ve been pumped about moving into the next one and this is no exception. Can’t wait for One Prayer to start next weekend, but before that we’ve got a great day ahead tomorrow.
Great quote from my friend Gary Lamb that explains why I’m so anal about the details on Sundays -
People are not very patient and aren’t drawn to things that are not done with excellence and don’t run right. Every time the video screws up, the sound sucks, I drop the ball teaching, or the band doesn’t click could be the last straw for someone who is checking our place out. We might never get a second chance to show them how great our church is because of mistakes.
I got this photo from a person I guess was an official photographer at the Conference at Saddleback last week. He says it was used in the church’s bulletin last Sunday – I bet that drew a crowd!!!
We often joke that the only qualification for joining our church is you need to have a passport, because missions has been part of our DNA from the time we launched Church At The Movies – or Grace Church – pick the title you prefer!
We send missions teams out several times of year, but the fact is for us missions is not a trip, it’s a lifestyle and what makes so many of our folks so special is they’ve got a hold of that.
It’s the fact that reaching out to others has become a way of life that has me so pumped as we look forward to Sunday, the climax of our Xtend series when we’re going to take in one huge offering – and give it all away.
We’re going to send some to an impoverished township in South Africa to build a soup kitchen and kindergarten and another quarter will go to rebuild the homes of persecuted Christians in India. We’ll use another part for missions opportunities and needs that arise throughout the rest of the year and pass on the final 25% to Island Impact Ministries as they look for a base to establish another medical clinic in the Dominican Republic.
And how will we pay our own June bills?
Let’s wait and see what God does!
I’ve had this rash developing all over my body for the past 36 hours and had been wondering what it could be. I had chickenpox about 25 years ago, so it wasn’t that. Could be measles, but I think I had that as a kid and anyway I’m feeling fine with no fever or flu-like symptoms.
Lest I should indeed be contagious and my self-diagnosis was wrong, I went to see a doctor this afternoon and discovered I am suffering from an allergic reaction to – something!
Am I relieved I don’t need to be quarantined for a week! – Too much to do and anyway, I’m a dreadful patient!
So I’ll just keep popping the pills and wait for the itching to subside.
I like this entry in Seth Godin’s blog a couple of days ago. It explains why we talk plain English on Sunday mornings (and at other times too!) instead of Christian-ese -
I’m standing in line in a strange town, waiting to buy a cup of redbush/honeybush/rooibos tea, the tea so good it needs three names.
There’s an angry woman at the front of the line. “Double, double,” she says.
The barrista stares blankly. “How can I help you?”
“Double, double!!”
“I’m sorry, do you want a coffee?”
“DOUBLE, DOUBLE!” (At this point, it occurs to me that this might be local jargon for ‘double cream, double sugar in a standard coffee’).
Sometimes, we get hung up on catch phrases and jargon that work great when everyone understands what we mean, but fail to bring understanding to outsiders. Yelling louder isn’t always the answer. Changing your words might work better.
As Memorial Day comes to an end, I’m glad tomorrow will be a regular work day – it may well be easier than the holiday!
Was awake just after five this morning to take Basil and Cathy to the airport for an early flight to Florida, where they’ll be for a couple of days attending some special services.
After a trip to the gym, I started working on getting the back yard ready for summer. We have a few new odds and ends, each of which came with the precarious notice – Some assembly required. I hate that phrase. It seems that while our friends in China excel in producing goods for pennies that retailers can sell here for an arm and a leg, they haven’t yet mastered the last part of the process – joining everything up so that it resembles the picture on the box and not a tangled mass of bits, with a little plastic package of insufficient screws and instructions written in some oriental form of the English language.
It looks pretty good out the back now and if the weather holds, maybe I’ll start reading the paper out there in the morning instead of at the kitchen table. A sure sign summer is almost here!
+ It’s Sunday night and tomorrow’s Memorial Day, so I’m looking forward to switching my mind off for 36 hours.
+ Had a good time in church this morning. The first service doesn’t have the same buzz as the second, so teaching was harder in that one and the worship was heavy going too – that all has to do with the fact that our crowd split about 1 – 4 when we went to two services. But it was still a very good day. I was teaching on something I’m passionate about, so I was in my element.
+ Back to our summer schedule of one service soon – I’ll be happy with that in many ways. We’re in a Catch 22 situation at the moment, but it’s the right kind of problems we’re dealing with - growth issues.
+ It’s Memorial Day weekend and as I said this morning, whatever your opinion of the Iraq war, there can be no question about what we think of the men and women serving over there.
+ By the way, in my humble opinion, the new Indiana Jones movie sucks. Don’t waste your money, Harrison Ford really is too old and the plot is too tired. The last crusade really should have been the last crusade. Saw it in CA on Thursday – unfortunately!
+ Do the Mets stink or what? Of course the press is full of stories of why they should can the manager, but if multi-million dollar players can’t hit the ball, that’s hardly his fault.
+ Looking forward to next Sunday when we’re going to receive our huge missions offering that we’re giving away. I love this stuff!
+ During my teaching today Kerry Tooker shared a couple of stories about people we’ve been able to help through our Grace Care Food Pantry. We supplied food to almost 9,000 people last year, all of which was organized by Kerry who has done an outstanding job there for more than six years now.
“And now, all the way from New York, let’s hear it for the man who taught me everything I know…”
Another full day at the Purpose Driven Network Conference. I’m getting to feel like I just ate a box of a dozen Dunkin’ Donuts all by myself – stuffed! A bunch of good teaching and loads of ideas being thrown around – more than enough to think about.
Rick Warren taught for the first half of the morning and did a good job of teaching preachers about preaching. The rest of the day was devoted to four different panel discussions.
Some of them were better than others.
It was really disappointing to see Mark Driscoll live for the first time, but only as one member of a panel of five which was dominated by the two members who appeared to have the least to contribute. It would have been better to have him teach the whole session. I’m a Mark Driscoll fan in case you hadn’t picked that up here before. I thoroughly recommend his podcasts.
Had dinner tonight with my fellow moderators of the Pastors.Com Forum. We only see each other rarely though we intreact daily in cyberspace. I often think when we do get together we should bring laptops and communicate via PMs.
Last night’s meeting with Saddleback’s missions director went well – great guy. He wants Basil and I to take up the training of pastors in the city of Mumbai for them. I chatted about it some more with Basil later, especially with the limited amount of time I can offer to work in India (like, no more than I am doing now) and we agreed to move forward. There are 30 million people in the greater Mumbai area, so there’s a lot of scope for well equipped pastors in that city.
By the way, I am a great grandfather again as my grandson Jace got a puppy on Monday – Spencer. Now that’s a classy name!
Weariness is taking over – time for sleep!