Ridin' with the King

dean has left the building...

2007-07-02T07:56:00.000-05:00

we moved! i'm a wordpress guy now, completely by accident. if you have me linked or bookmarked, the new URL is:

http://deancirelli.com

look forward to seeing everybody at the new digs...

a personal revolution

2007-06-22T13:03:00.000-05:00

in the past month or so, i've written 2 articles for a series at monticello live entitled "churches in transition." i was quite surprised, and rather unprepared, for the comments that one of the articles generated... in both the quantity and the forcefulness of some of the opinions that were articulated. one commenter in particular, a fellow named wade, had some serious issues, not just with the church that was featured in that particular story, but with churches in general, concerning the way money is spent. because i was the author of the article in question, i felt i needed to stay neutral in my response to wade's concerns. i had advised him in my comments to take up the invitation of a member of that church to come and visit, and judge for himself if his concerns were legitimate or not. however, i've been haunted ever since then by the issues that wade brought up, and decided that here at my personal blog would be the appropriate place to comment more specifically...

let me say right up front, as i researched this, my world was literally turned upside down. i had a general awareness of the situation, but when i looked at the specifics, i was dumbfounded... and the more i thought things through, the more i realized that i was about to undergo a huge transformation in the way i look at the local church's role in Kingdom work.

this may be comparing apples and oranges, or even watermelons and grapes, but i firmly believe this is at least a good starting point for making meaningful change in the way churches allocate their resources for ministering in the community and the world. i am involved with a ministry called Compassion International, and i am also very familiar with the ministry of World Vision, another Christian child advocacy group. these two organizations minister to children all over the world, primarily through child sponsorship, and also through emergency aid for tsunami victims, sanitary water initiatives, malaria intervention and AIDS initiatives, just to name a few. these would be tremendous burdens to take on just here in the united states, but these organizations have a huge impact here and around the globe... and they do it by spending upwards of EIGHTY PERCENT of their funds on programs that directly affect those whom they seek to minister to. compassion international spends 84% of its money ministering to children, just under 8% for administrative costs, and just over 8% for fundraising... world vision spends 87% directly on ministry to children, 5% administrative and 8% fundraising.

because of these percentages, both of these ministries are recognized for their financial integrity by such groups as the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, and Charity Navigator. these are figures i've known about for years, and reasons why i place so much trust in how these ministries go about fulfilling their mission.

now then, after being totally convicted by the issues that were raised by wade over at monticello live, i did a little figuring, and here is what i have discovered (about one individual church, which shall remain anonymous), based on receipts and expenditures from january through may of this year... these percentages will obviously vary from one local church to another, although i suspect the variances will not be all that great. 13% of money taken in went toward missions and ministry (i included money spent on sunday school and discipleship training, which is mostly spent on church members, but giving the benefit of the doubt, i figure if a church is teaching the bible to its members, that in turn should at least partially translate into ministry in the community and the world at large, ideally speaking)... and 87% went toward administrative (basically payroll, physical plant and supplies). these percentages are very similar to what i found at compassion international and world vision, except for one little difference... THEY ARE COMPLETELY BACKWARDS. "so, what is the possibility," i wondered, "that these figures were skewed, perhaps because income fell short of expectations?" i decided to look at what was actually budgeted for missions/ministry vs. administrative to get a better idea of intent. well, i was right, the figures were skewed a bit. missions and ministry-related items, again into which i included amounts budgeted for the education program, account for 16.4% of the budget. which means that the remaining 83.6% was budgeted for expenses related to payroll, building upkeep, and supplies.

i've turned this over and over in my head in the weeks since i first looked at this. i've slept on it, and i've lost sleep over it. i've processed it, i've ranted and raved about it, i've prayed about it. and i've come to one conclusion... IT IS INEXCUSABLE, AND IT IS INDEFENSIBLE. the first thing i've had to do was personally repent of this myself, because for years as a church member and as a staff member, i bought right into this system... CONTRIBUTED to this system with my tithes, and helped LEGITIMIZE this system by taking a paycheck from it for 13 years. the thing i must do now is try to be part of the SOLUTION to the problem... by SPEAKING OUT about it, and by PUTTING MY MONEY WHERE MY MOUTH IS.

this one thing i do know... any organization is going to show what its priorities are by where it puts its money. charities like compassion and world vision have made ministry to children their top priority, and they show it by spending upwards of 87% of their money on programs that directly benefit children around the world. most of their money goes directly toward what they are most passionate about. what then does it say about churches when the vast majority of their money goes toward paying their staff and keeping up their buildings? no organization, no charity, should ever exist for the sole purpose of self-maintenance. the notion is absurd and in regards to the Church, it is downright sinful. yet, the very fact that over 80% of a church's money is spent on itself, tells me that the command of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations has taken a back seat to self-interest.

i will say that i dont believe that churches first start out with the thought in mind that their mission in this world is to build fancy buildings (especially not to go into debt to do so) and maintain a large payroll. but as time goes by, they lose focus and they become image-conscious... for all the wrong reasons. churches SHOULD be concerned about the image they convey... but that image should be one of dying to self rather than serving self. as i said earlier, i dont know if it's fair to make the comparison between the church and charities like compassion or world vision. and maybe the 80% standard is an unrealistic expectation for churches. however, just as we as individual believers know that we can never live a perfect life as Christ did, we still strive to be Christ-like, so i would venture to say that even if spending 80% or more on missions and ministry is an impossible goal for a church to achieve (and i'm nowhere near convinced that it's impossible at all), it's at least something the church should strive for. if somebody can show me where i'm going wrong here, i'd be more than happy to listen. but are there any churches out there that have even a 51-49% breakdown of missions/ministry vs. administrative? is any church spending more on being missional than they are on themselves?

i know it's unrealistic to all at once go from spending 80-plus percent on yourself to spending it on reaching people for Christ, but we need to start the ball rolling now if meaningful change is ever going to occur. even in my own personal giving, it's going to take time to adjust, but my goal is to spend more on ministry and missions than i do on myself.

how will churches manage this undertaking, if they even choose to try? i honestly believe the solution lies in something that is a foreign notion to the church. i've even had to swallow hard on this one, but in order for the Kingdom to increase, churches are going to have to decrease (in size that is). to get bigger Kingdom-wise, we're going to have to get smaller beauracracy-wise. churches are going to have to deconstruct and shift the focus in the direction of empowering their small groups to initiate and take ownership of the ministries of the church. it may even mean the house church model for some. this goes against everything i ever learned in seminary. i've had classes in which i was instructed on how to manage and maneuver through layers of church administration. i've sat in youth ministry classes and had professors tell me what i should expect to be paid, and not to accept a penny less. i'm having to throw this type of thinking out the window.

this morning i broke away from writing this to transport one of our kids to his job, and on the way back i ended up being part of a bible study at dad's place. during that bible study, we talked about God interrupting our lives, and i must tell you, God used a guy named wade to interrupt mine. it's been over 3 weeks since he raised these issues, and my way of thinking about ministry and the Church has been completely upended. i suspect i'm not going to make very many friends over this, and i hope i dont lose any of the ones i have, but i'm completely sold out to this. if ministries of the scope and size of compassion and world vision are able to get a handle on this concept... the concept that the bulk of their resources must be designated to doing ministry... then i feel certain that on the local church level it can, and must, be accomplished.

just how should a church grow, anyway?

2007-06-19T01:53:00.000-05:00

while i was busy biting off almost more than i could chew renovating the kitchen at our cottage, i had plenty of time to ruminate on a few things (btw, i'd post some pics of the new kitchen, but since i didnt bother to take any "before" shots, it's kind of pointless).

ever since reading the barna book "revolution" i've begun to take an interest in the house church movement here in america. i've had a great interest in cell groups for quite a number of years, and still lean slightly toward that method, but the house church intrigues me. as i've compared and contrasted the two, i've also been forced to re-evaluate my position on worship (or celebration) services as well.

i'm a contemporary praise and worship guy... i'll get that out right up front. there are a handful of hymns that are very meaningful to me, but by and large, contemporary praise music does it for me (please understand that i realize that hymns are sung in order to praise and worship Jesus... i'm using those labels to differentiate between the different types and styles of "church" music).

the main reason why i (so far) prefer cell groups (small groups that meet in church members' houses in various neighborhoods, but are a part of a larger church body) to house churches (small groups that meet in church members' homes that are self-contained churches) is that there are more resources available for ministry and missions in the larger corporate body.

the way it works in a cell church is that the church grows through the small groups. the intimacy and community that is fostered in small, neighborhood groups is more conducive to bringing seekers into contact with believers, and ultimately into contact with Christ Himself. usually, on sunday morning, the folks that make up the cell groups gather together corporately for a worship (celebration) service.

traditional churches also have small group meetings... most of these are known as sunday school classes, and they meet right there in the church building, most commonly right before the sunday morning worship service. in southern baptist churches, and probably in a number of other denominations as well, the sunday school is seen as the growth arm of the church (for the same reasons that cell groups are). i realize that when some folks see "church growth," they'll read "mega-church." please understand that church growth is important to me because i know each one of those numbers represents a living, breathing human being that is loved by a Heavenly Father who desires that they come to a saving knowledge of His son, Jesus Christ. honestly, i could care less about being a part of a mega-church.

now, there are a lot of opinions about how a sunday worship service should look, sound and feel. all over the country, and all over the world for that matter, there are churches that struggle with this issue. many proponents of a contemporary worship service would tell us that contemporary music and cutting edge video are necessary to attract folks to church these days. but as i listened to some folks expound on this subject, a contradiction was brought to my attention that i simply cannot ignore, thus the reason for my above-mentioned re-evaluation of how we "worship."

if we're going to buy into the idea that growth happens in the small group settings, whether they be cell groups or sunday school classes, how can we also say that the things we do or dont do in the worship service are necessary to attract the unchurched? can we have it both ways? if we're going to design worship services with the idea in mind that we're going to appeal to a media-savvy, hi-tech generation of lost people, then what's the point of having small groups? if we believe that the community and comaraderie of the small group is the thing that our lost neighbors initially find attractive about the church, then why all the fuss about the structure of the worship celebration as a means to reach the lost?

i've come (back) to the realization that the worship service is for the believers. how can our lost friends worship Someone they do not know or believe in?? they can't! so, why do we go to such great pains to design a way of worship for those who CANNOT worship? of course i know that this doesnt solve the problem of whether we worship traditionally or contemporarily, because churches still have diversity within the body of believers. but at least we can stop the charade of claiming to be trying to reach lost people by way of the style in which we choose to conduct our worship services. this is where i believe the house church may have the advantage. it isnt just an intimate setting of a small bible study group, but it is also the intimate setting of the very church body itself. and perhaps avoiding the turmoil over the style of worship in the larger setting just may be worth the trade-off of having not quite as many resources with which to do Kingdom work.

check out my new favorite website, which describes perfectly how i believe we ought to be doing church... and how we should have been doing it all along...

what is it exactly that God is supposed to have done, and how does He feel about getting blamed for it?

2007-06-19T00:41:00.001-05:00

so what's in a name?

2007-05-29T20:08:00.000-05:00

i came across these 2 signs while traveling out of state this weekend...

used to be that politicians waited until you elected them before they showed their true colors.

while the statement on this sign is certainly true, this pastor's last name may belie his real motives.

what hath we wrought?

2007-05-11T11:12:00.000-05:00

i figure this is a pretty cut-and-dried kind of a concept...

"The man said,
'This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called 'woman,'
for she was taken out of man.'
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." (Genesis 2:23-24)

and for those who like to believe that the old testament is no longer relevant today, particularly to the topic at hand, i offer up this new testament passage wherein Jesus Himself thought it was important enough to quote from genesis...

"Haven't you read,' he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." (Matthew 19: 4-5)

so, what's all the fuss about? just a little news item that, i think, merits more air time than it's been getting... definitely more than paris hilton going to jail or lindsay lohan's new movie coming out (priorities, priorities). the ramifications of this case are going to have a significant impact on family law (and the re-defining of the term "family") for years to come. the gist of the matter is that a lesbian couple (well, former couple, as they've gone their separate ways) utilized the services of a male acquaintance as a sperm donor in order to have a couple of children. after the break-up, a court ordered the ex-partner of the birth mother to pay $1,000 a month in child support. in response to that order, the partner sought to have the court force the sperm donor to ante up. the court said no, but an appellate court overturned that decision. compounding the problem now is the fact that the sperm donor died, so if the case can be made that the donor is on the hook for support, there will be social security survivor benefits available to pay child support from.

so, back to the scriptures above. it's become rather commonplace for lesbian couples to decide they want to have children "of their own" even though that is physically impossible. so the next best thing is to employ the services of someone with the necessary equipment to get the job done. the article states that the sperm donor "helped" the couple conceive. helped?? a lesbian couple CANNOT conceive, no matter how much "help" they get. two women cannot conceive children together, so this takes our donor out of the "helper" category. the DONOR and the BIRTH MOTHER conceived the children plain and simple. its' also interesting to note that the article stated that "the process was very informal. the birth mother was inseminated at home." what does that mean exactly? i doubt that fertility doctors make house calls, so there's a lot of speculation as to just how informal a "procedure" it was. anyhow, the whole episode smacks of sexual immorality, with more than just a little bit of greed thrown in for good measure.

with all the redneck comments concerning "adam and steve" aside, there is just no validation for homosexual relationships, homosexual civil unions or homosexual marriages in the bible. pro-homosexual "theologians" have to do all sorts of translational acrobatics to make the case for it. and there's plenty of good reason for why these relationships are unhealthy. even a plumber can explain one of the most practical reasons. but look at where we find ourselves at this juncture in time because of the pandora's box that was opened when society started to embrace this monstrosity. the excuses and justifications all started out with "what happens between 2 consenting adults is nobody else's business." well, that one didn't pan out too well, did it? now same-sex couples are demanding the right to adopt children, so the circle widens to include children. then same-sex partners wanted to be able to "have" children of their own, and the circle widens even more to include the person who fathers these children. and in the process, when things go wrong, the courts become involved, then the media. also, by virtue of the fact that the male participant in this fiasco is now deceased, we're all pulled into the circle because if this case is decided in favor of the partner that brought this suit, our dwindling social security pool will be dipped into for the support of the 2 children. so much for "what happens between 2 consenting adults is nobody else's business." now it's what happens among three consenting adults, and there are children involved who didn't have any say in the matter at all. the donor just figured he would make his one-time contribution and fade quietly into the background (although in this case, because he was already an acquaintance, he managed to insinuate himself into the "family" dynamic to the point where the children were not only aware of him, but knew he was their biological father. and according to court records, he spent thousands on toys and clothing for them). and in the end, we all pay financially, but more importantly, the moral fabric of our society gets shredded a little bit more.

one of the many thorny issues this has raised for the courts to figure out is that there are THREE parental figures involved, whereas most states' custody and support laws are written, and rightly so, under the assumption that there are only TWO parents. additionally, without having first-hand knowledge of what was going through the mind of the non-birth-parent partner in the case at hand, it seems that she decided that her responsibility as a "parent" only went as far as her commitment to the relationship she was in. when that was over and she got tagged for child support, she started looking for somebody else to foot the bill. so now the very foundation of the traditional family, not to mention family law, has been turned upside down, and no one is quite sure how to proceed or where this will all end up.

there is no provision in God's word for a) same sex unions, and b) third party participation in pro-creation. however, this whole third party business is not exclusive to same-sex relationships. what about heterosexual couples that cannot conceive children in the traditional way? same thing as far as i can tell. i just dont believe God is honored or glorified when a wife has sperm placed inside of her from a man that is not her husband. i dont have a problem with in-vitro fertilization or medically-assisted insemination where the husband's sperm is used to impregnate his wife when, for whatever reasons, the wife cannot become pregnant through normal sexual relations. but there is just no place within a marriage for the introduction of a third person's genes, chromosomes and DNA. surrogate mothers? no to that, too. there is a mountain of court proceedings which tell us that many donors and surrogates at some point begin to feel a bond with the children they created, and what at first seemed like a simple, even impersonal "contribution" turns into a nightmare for all involved. as can be seen in the account of abraham, sarah and hagar, the wife who cannot conceive can often be adversely affected as well.

many people claim that the Word of God is outmoded, archaic and impractical for application in a modern society. God is not an idiot. He knew and knows what's best for mankind. while we may believe we know better, a quick perusal of the headlines would tell us that left to our own devices, we have little to contribute other than chaos and confusion.

the height of irresponsibility

2007-05-04T14:12:00.000-05:00

on friday (april 20), our young girls cottage went to see "disney on ice" at alltel arena in little rock. what the houseparents told me when they returned really disturbed me, although i suppose i shouldnt have been too shocked, all things considered. well, after being absolutely snowed under with work for the past few weeks, i finally had time to call alltel today, only to discover that the person i need to speak with is on vacation until the 10th of may. but in the meantime, here's my problem...

somebody (and i'm assuming it's the person, based on what i was told by the gentleman who answered the phone, who will return my call as her voice mail promised), in their infinite wisdom, thought it would be a good idea to sell beer at this obviously child-oriented event. maybe i've gotten way too used to living in dry counties (almost 5 years in drew county, and prior to that, 4+ years in monroe county, MS), but this is inexcusable. yes, the folks that purchased the alcohol were (hopefully) adults, although i question the wisdom and capacity for common sense of anyone that would pay upwards of $4 for a cup of beer. and yes, no law was broken by the sale of beer at this event... that is assuming that they carded those who looked to be of questionable age, and again assuming no minors consumed or came to be in possession of alcohol sold at the arena.

i would venture to say that upwards of, what... 98% of the adults present were there because they took their kid(s) to see the show (yup, i personally know of a few adults that would have gone just because they love disney). now, i'm reasonably certain that very few, if any, folks went to "disney on ice" for the sole purpose of getting loaded (as i said, 4 bucks for a cup of beer... you can get your buzz on far more cost-effectively by buying a 12-pack at wal-mart, which is beside the point)... but in the 2+ hours that most folks would have been there, you can quaff a few brews. according to most studies, a 170 lb. male could achieve a .08 BAC (the legal limit in arkansas) by drinking 4 beers in an hour on an empty stomach... a 137 lb. female needs 3 in an hour. in a 2 hour span, the male needs 5 beers and the female 4.

i wont have the official information until the concession manager returns my call, but the houseparent told me that the cups appeared to be as large as a "dad's size" drink from dad's place... which would be 24 oz... so 2 of these in an hour would do it for the average male. but there's more to this than .08 BAC. according to the national highway traffic safety administration, "the risk of being in a crash rises at each BAC level" leading up to .08 BAC.

so my question is this: who is responsible for allowing alcohol to be sold at an event where the vast majority of those present are children... children who are relying on potentially impaired adults to get them safely home? alltel arena is owned and operated by the Multi-Purpose Civic Center Facilities Board, a joint entity of pulaski county and (presumably) the city of north little rock. so a government entity is allowing the sale and consumption of alcohol where children are present and either directly or indirectly affected.

i've considered different arguments and scenarios here... that any parent could get drunk at home and load the kids up in the car; that some drunk who just left his favorite bar could barrel down the street and strike a kid on her bike... blah, blah, blah. a county/municipal agency has in place a policy that puts children and adults at risk, and THAT is the height of irresponsibility!

(when ms. debbie johnson, concessions manager for alltel arena comes back from vacation and returns my phone call, i'll post a follow up.)

all i really need to know i learned from a guy with a violin... at rush hour... in a train station

2007-04-18T16:33:00.000-05:00

back in january, the washington post set up a grand experiment. they wanted to know: do we have time for beauty? do we even recognize it when it's right there in front of us? to find out, they sent one of the world's greatest violinists - joshua bell - to play some of the world's most beautiful music - bach's "chaconne", schubert's "ave maria" among others - on one of the world's most exquisite instruments - a $3.5 million, 1713 stradivarius - during rush hour in a train station right smack-dab in the hub of our nation's capital... l'enfant plaza station. they set up a hidden camera to catch the action, and even did interviews with those who actually stopped to listen or at least throw in a few bucks as they hurried by. 43 minutes and 1,100 passersby later, bell placed his strad back in it's case and left the number crunching to the post reporters. a great friend of mine sent me a link to the article (replete with video clips of the occasions when someone would actually react), and while it's a bit long, it was a fascinating read for me, and chock full of parallels and comparisons to how we do and dont relate to God, and He to us...

some observations: (excerpts from the post article in italics)

"It was all videotaped by a hidden camera. You can play the recording once or 15 times, and it never gets any easier to watch. Try speeding it up, and it becomes one of those herky-jerky World War I-era silent newsreels. The people scurry by in comical little hops and starts, cups of coffee in their hands, cellphones at their ears, ID tags slapping at their bellies, a grim danse macabre to indifference, inertia and the dingy, gray rush of modernity. Even at this accelerated pace, though, the fiddler's movements remain fluid and graceful; he seems so apart from his audience -- unseen, unheard, otherworldly -- that you find yourself thinking that he's not really there. A ghost."

oh, my... we can be an indifferent lot, can't we! how often do we find ourselves immersed in our routines, totally oblivious to God's handiwork all around us. so much to do, so little time to do it in. and yet God has surrounded us with the magnificence of His creation. He wants us to enjoy it, and even more, He wants us to see Him in it... that's what He put it here for. and the crowning achievement? US! PEOPLE! created in His image. He wants us to enjoy each other... have fellowship one with another, and yet we're just so darned busy! more importantly, He longs for us to have fellowship with Him, yet many often regard him in much the same way as the musician in the train station appeared to be: "unseen, unheard, otherworldly... He's not really (t)here." oh, but He IS HERE! and He longs for us to take the time to know Him and spend time with Him... but we just hurry on by, too consumed with the things we've chosen to clutter our lives with. no, He's no ghost; He is real and alive and He loves you and me and desires a relationship with us!

With "Chaconne," the opening is filled with a building sense of awe. That kept him busy for a while. Eventually, though, he began to steal a sidelong glance. "It was a strange feeling, that people were actually, ah . . ." The word doesn't come easily. ". . . ignoring me."

i wonder... how often do we ignore God? how does He feel when we do? i dont think for a minute that whatever He feels is so strange at all. i think it's painfully familiar in fact. the Bible says He created us for fellowship with Him! how would we feel if our spouses, our parents, our children or our best friends just quit calling or coming around? how would we feel if we knew that we rarely, if ever, even crossed their minds anymore? how would we feel if we wrote them a heartfelt love letter and they just pitched it on a shelf somewhere, partially read or maybe not even opened at all, and they were just vaguely aware that it was even in the house? when i think about where God sometimes ends up in my day-to-day, these thoughts get a little too close for comfort.

"Mark Leithauser... a senior curator at the National Gallery... oversees the framing of the paintings. Leithauser thinks he has some idea of what happened at that Metro station. 'Let's say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth Kelly, and removed it from its frame, marched it... into a restaurant. It's a $5 million painting. And it's one of those restaurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some industrious kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a price tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. An art curator might look up and say: 'Hey, that looks a little like an Ellsworth Kelly. Please pass the salt.' Leithauser's point is that we shouldn't be too ready to label the Metro passersby unsophisticated boobs. Context matters."

"context matters." that one stung a bit, because i seem to have this problem... when i'm used to seeing people in a certain context (most notably at church) that i dont see on a daily basis, , and then i see them at, say, wal-mart in the middle of the week, i sometimes have a problem remembering where i know them from or why i know them. very awkward. maybe that makes me an unsophisticated boob, but i always go away from those encounters feeling rather inadequate, that i somehow missed the chance to be a blessing to that person, because i get very vague and ambiguous at that point and dont go into specifics lest i say something totally out of left field. on a larger scale though, i dont think context should matter when it comes to God, at least not for the Christian. we should recognize Him for who He is no matter where we are. unfortunately, some folks have Him confined to certain places (the church building) at certain times (sunday, maybe wednesday). they compartmentalize God, never considering that He's the Creator of all that surrounds us, or that He's very active and involved in the world even today! and along with that comes the compartmentalization of faith. people have their "sunday" lives, and then they have their "rest of the week" lives. if we arent living our daily lives in light of what we believe... in light of what the One we believe in did for us on that cross, we live empty and meaningless lives, and much like those that walked right by the master violinist, we will miss out on the extraordinary blessings that the Master wants to bestow upon us.

"White guy, khakis, leather jacket, briefcase. Early 30s. John David Mortensen is on the final leg of his daily bus-to-Metro commute from Reston. He's heading up the escalator. It's a long ride -- 1 minute and 15 seconds if you don't walk. So, like most everyone who passes Bell this day, Mortensen gets a good earful of music before he has his first look at the musician. Like most of them, he notes that it sounds pretty good. But like very few of them, when he gets to the top, he doesn't race past as though Bell were some nuisance to be avoided. Mortensen is that first person to stop, that guy at the six-minute mark... On the video, you can see Mortensen get off the escalator and look around. He locates the violinist, stops, walks away but then is drawn back. He checks the time on his cellphone -- he's three minutes early for work -- then settles against a wall to listen... Mortensen doesn't know classical music at all; classic rock is as close as he comes. But there's something about what he's hearing that he really likes... 'Whatever it was,' he says, 'it made me feel at peace.'

there are times when the call of God is just... irresistible. one of the greatest things (besides giving His Son to die for the sin of the world) that God ever did for man was to give him free will. it's also one of the most tragic parts of life... when man uses his free will to resist God's beckoning. for some there is the struggle, and eternal life hangs in the balance as the struggle plays out. as with our mr. mortensen, there are those who struggle with God, and finally realizing a good thing when they see it, they give up the struggle and they partake of God's goodness and grace. there is a peace for us as we find refuge in the mercies of the Father.

"After 'Chaconne,' it is Franz Schubert's 'Ave Maria'... A couple of minutes into it, something revealing happens. A woman and her preschooler (Sheron and Evan Parker) emerge from the escalator. The woman is walking briskly and, therefore, so is the child... 'There was a musician,' Parker says, 'and my son was intrigued. He wanted to pull over and listen, but I was rushed for time.' So Parker does what she has to do. She deftly moves her body between Evan's and Bell's, cutting off her son's line of sight. As they exit the arcade, Evan can still be seen craning to look... The behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away."

do you remember child-like faith? many believers came to faith in Christ when they were literally children... others as adults. i fall into the latter camp, but even though i was an adult, i had faith like a child. i was downright giddy at times! i was excited about my new-found faith and i wanted to tell everybody about it, and i wanted to draw as near to Jesus as i could. but occasionally, there are people in our lives, sometimes well-meaning people, that for a variety of reasons kind of try to put a damper on the enthusiasm of new believers and even seekers... "hey there now, no reason to get carried away with this Jesus thing..." or "there are too many other things in this life to worry about; no time for God." some of these folks are not believers themselves, and they try to "save" others from falling into some religion trap, and sadly, some are (or claim to be) Christians, but they've left their first love; the fire has gone dim and they're jaded. to his credit, little evan parker tried to make a connection with the violinist right up until the moment he was whisked through the door and out of the plaza. dont let anyone sidetrack you from the things of God! crane your neck! never take your eyes off of Him! if you do, or if you have... He's not going anywhere. and just like Jesus' parents did when He was 12 years old , you'll find Him right where you left Him.

"A hundred feet away, across the arcade, was the lottery line, sometimes five or six people long... But no one (turned around). Not in the entire 43 minutes. They just shuffled forward toward that machine spitting out numbers. Eyes on the prize. J.T. Tillman was in that line... he remembers every single number he played that day -- 10 of them, $2 apiece, for a total of $20. He doesn't recall what the violinist was playing, though... 'I didn't think nothing of it,' Tillman says, 'just a guy trying to make a couple of bucks.' Tillman would have given him one or two, he said, but he spent all his cash on lotto. When he is told that he stiffed one of the best musicians in the world, he laughs."

Wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21) red letters... Jesus' own words. pretty cut and dried. withholding from God, not just your money (no this isnt going to be a screed against the lottery... although that's a small part of a much bigger issue), but your time, your talents, your thoughts, your deeds, your whole life, is pretty serious business. "eyes on the prize"... the apostle paul talked a lot about the "prize." but the prize he spoke of, and the prize(s) people often strive for, are two entirely different things. folks get caught up in the whole rat race of bigger and better, "gotta keep up with the joneses," and lose sight of what really matters. hearts become hardened to the point where God isnt even a blip on the radar screen. the earthly "prizes"... they're only temporary and they will pass away eventually. so if your treasure consists of the temporal things of this life, then it follows that your heart will be there too. it's the difference between living for yourself and living for the Kingdom, and if your heart is invested in the "stuff" you've accumulated, it's an investment with no eternal dividends.

"'Yes, I saw the violinist,' Jackie Hessian says, 'but nothing about him struck me as much of anything.' You couldn't tell that by watching her. Hessian was one of those people who gave Bell a long, hard look before walking on. It turns out that she wasn't noticing the music at all. 'I really didn't hear that much,' she said. 'I was just trying to figure out what he was doing there, how does this work for him, can he make much money, would it be better to start with some money in the case, or for it to be empty, so people feel sorry for you? I was analyzing it financially.'"

how often do we spend our time trying to figure God out? we try and fit Him into our little God-box so that we can make sense of him based on our own understanding. and we get so busy trying to figure all the angles, that we fail to hear Him, or we refuse to hear Him because He doesnt meet our expectations. worse yet, there are those who say "nothing about Him strikes me as much of anything," and not only do they put Him into a box, but they try and cram other gods in there with Him (universalism). many folks cannot make logical sense of God and His work in the world... they cant figure Him out, so they dismiss Him. "it's foolishness," "it's a fairytale," "it's a lie," "He would make a whole lot more sense if He were this way instead of that way..." it's not to say that we should switch our intellect off, because our intelligence is God-given. but God is also bigger than what we can comprehend, and there comes a point where we just need to do it the way it's meant to be done... by faith.

well, we're winding down now, and while it may seem that the news is mostly bad, fear not faithful reader! there are 3 more people of note... the last 3 people that paid any attention at all to the man with the violin...

the cultural hero of the day arrived at l'enfant plaza pretty late, in the unprepossessing figure of one John Picarello... In the video, you see Picarello stop dead in his tracks, locate the source of the music, and then retreat to the other end of the arcade... and he will not budge for the next nine minutes... Of the more than 40 people contacted, Picarello was the only one who immediately mentioned the violinist... '... I've never heard anyone of that caliber. He was technically proficient, with very good phrasing...' On the video, you can see Picarello look around him now and then, almost bewildered. 'Yeah, other people just were not getting it. It just wasn't registering. That was baffling to me.'

As Picarello stood in the back, Janice Olu arrived and took up a position a few feet away from Bell... She didn't know the name of the piece she was hearing, but she knew the man playing it has a gift. Olu was on a coffee break and stayed as long as she dared. As she turned to go, she whispered to the stranger next to her, 'I really don't want to leave.'

As it happens, exactly one person recognized Bell, and she didn't arrive until near the very end. For Stacy Furukawa... there was no doubt. She doesn't know much about classical music, but she had been in the audience three weeks earlier, at Bell's free concert at the Library of Congress. And here he was, the international virtuoso, sawing away, begging for money. She had no idea what the heck was going on, but whatever it was, she wasn't about to miss it. Furukawa positioned herself 10 feet away from Bell, front row, center. She had a huge grin on her face. The grin, and Furukawa, remained planted in that spot until the end. "It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington," Furukawa says. 'Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! '"

so i'm wondering to myself, what would be the spiritual equivalent of "flipping quarters" at one of the most accomplished virtuoso's of our day? would it be putting in an hour (and not a minute more!) at church each sunday just to satisfy an "obligation" for the week? is it putting on a "Christian" persona only out in public? how about tossing a ten in the offering plate and then running out to buy the newest cool gadget... on credit of course? wow! God deserves our all, yet often times He's lucky to get a few scraps here and there. but there are people who get it, just like these last 3 who "got" what was going on in that train station that morning. and when we've tasted of His goodness, when we realize that our sin put Jesus on the cross, but it was His unconditional love for us that held Him there... when we realize that we're the apple of His eye, when He's proven time and again that NO ONE or NOTHING can ever compare to His grace and His mercy, it is indeed totally baffling as to why everyone else cannot or will not see it.

and maybe you don't quite understand or comprehend all of the intricacies of it, but there are those moments when it's just you and Him... those moments of intimacy, those times when you pour your heart out and it seems as if there's nothing or no one at that moment except you and Him, those are the times when you say "i don't want to leave!" peter had a moment like that with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. i suspect that in those times when Jesus drew away from the crowds just to have time alone with His 12 disciples, they had that same yearning... "we don't want to leave!" but leave we must, for we are to be about our Father's business, and that entails being a presence among the lost of this world. there are sects of monks whose sole purpose is to sequester themselves for a lifetime in isolated monasteries in order to be "close to God." but Jesus knew that while it was important just to get away for a time, the more important part was to live a holy, purposeful life, shining His light in a world of darkness. sometimes we watch God at work, and while we have no idea what he's up to at the time, all we know is, we arent about to miss it!

there are times and places that i know without a doubt that i'm going to encounter my Lord. but what really gets me are the times He shows up when i'm least expecting Him. i've learned that i should never get caught off-guard, yet i'll still stand in awe as He proves Himself one more time. reminds me of the old lifesavers commercial where the little girl and her father are watching a sunset, and right after the sun slips below the horizon, she whispers, "do it again, daddy." i get onto myself sometimes for being so surprised when God comes through, but lately i've come to realize that maybe a good dose of wide-eyed wonder, of childlike faith, is far better than becoming so jaded that i wouldnt recognize my Father at work if i was standing right in front of Him.
yeah... do it again, Daddy!

pointless debates?

2007-04-04T00:30:00.000-05:00

newsweek recently invited rick warren and sam harris to sit down for a "chat" about the existence (or lack thereof) of God. harris is an author and currently working on a ph.d in neuroscience, and is decidedly atheist. warren is, of course, a Christian pastor. naturally, the debate was done in the context of harris talking as a scientist... (you cannot prove scientifically that God exists) and warren talking as a pastor and Christian (it's all about faith). in that regard, the debate seemed pretty useless to me. however, what warren had to say (for the most part) should debunk a lot of the claims of his critics that he's nothing more than a self-promoting marketing guru and not a true follower of Christ.

the comments that followed the article were far more interesting, i thought. one thing i did note was that most of mr. harris' fellow atheists seemed to either be angry and/or condescending (in the interest of fair and balanced, there was also one or two Christian commenters who were pretty heavy-handed and judgmental, even of other Christians).

while doing some checking on mr. harris' background, i followed a wikipedia footnote to this exchange, described as a "blogalogue," on beliefnet.com between harris and "Christian" blogger andrew sullivan. once again, while it was rather interesting to follow the exchange between the two, it was pretty obvious that neither of these guys was going to change the others' mind about anything. additionally, mr. sullivan is a gay catholic, hardly what anyone would consider to be representative of the majority of Christians. his claim to fame seems to be that he looks down upon fundamentalist Christians (actually fundamentalist anythings) as much as he does atheists.

so.. what good, if any, do you think comes out of these types of dialogs? do you believe that any die-hard on one side of an issue is going to persuade his or her die-hard counterpart with well-crafted arguments? to me, especially when you're talking about things taken on faith vs. things that must be proven by science, ne'er the twain shall meet, short of divine intervention.

whatcha think??

i'm everywhere you look!

2007-03-31T12:31:00.000-05:00

well, i couldnt resist. jeff posted his celebrity look-a-likes, and i just had to find out who mine are. i was a little disheartened because the first couple of pics i tried, the software said it couldnt detect a face! i was about to toss my computer out the back door when i realized i was using doctored photos that i'd cropped and pasted onto other photos, so i went with the only pic i have, which was taken with a little girl that used to live in my cottage. i was kind of jealous because HER #1 match was russell crowe! but i'm fairly satisfied with what i came out with... although i was puzzled with my #1 match... george herman "babe" ruth. i thought the software went by looks only... didnt think it could tell anything about my prowess on the baseball field... and i hope the rock hudson thing IS only about looks!

francis crick was a nobel prize winner, but i see no other resemblance there (not that i've been awarded my nobel prize just yet), alexander lukashenko is president of belarus, bono is just plain cool!, mario vargas llosa is a peruvian essayist, so i get the writer's angle there, i'm rather shocked that pierce brosnan is so far down the list!, and the only reason i included james caan is because, of the other 2 matches, one was a girl... monica bellucci of matrix fame (although she IS italian and good looking) and the other was HARRY BELAFONTE!!! so the software is flawed for sure, but fun nonetheless.

the thing i need to remember is that i am an original, and God loves me just the way i am! in fact, He loves me so much He sent his Son Jesus to die for me!! so even if i DO bear some resemblance to francis crick, its ok, 'cause God created me and mr. crick and every one of us in His image... who can argue with that??

dean cirelli, cub reporter

2007-03-23T18:34:00.000-05:00

hey, guess what? i'm sitting here waiting for the mail to run because i should be getting a letter telling me i've been nominated for a pulitzer prize! jeff noble, owner, publisher and editor-in-chief over at monticello live made me a reporter the other day... how cool is THAT?? the arkansas baptist home for children had a groundbreaking ceremony for their new duplex cottage the other day, and i noticed a reporter from the local paper there furiously scribbling notes, and i thought to myself, JEFF IS GETTING SCOOPED! when i told jeff about this, he pointed out to me that the reason he was getting scooped is because i failed to mention to him that anything was going on that day. so i felt bad for about a second, and then i offered to write the article for monticello live, and he printed it! and now, 3 days later, it's even got a PICTURE to go with it (my sources are a bit unreliable right now, but as i break bigger and more spectacular stories, they'll want to come along for the ride!)

i cant wait for my next assignment. maybe the mayor will fire somebody... but who's left? hmm... there's over 9,000 people in this berg, and there's over 9,000 stories out there waiting to be told.......

find out your true inner vehicle

2007-03-20T04:29:00.000-05:00

a friend of mine down in new orleans emailed this little quiz to me. i'm pretty happy with the outcome (even if the AFA is boycotting me)... i LOVE this car! so what's under your hood?

I'm a Ford Mustang!

You're an American classic -- fast, strong, and bold. You're not snobby or pretentious, but you have what it takes to give anyone a run for their money.

"Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

pc run amuck

2007-03-18T15:30:00.000-05:00

no jeff, i'm not talking about my computer, i'm talking about a case of political correctness even weirder than the time the elementary school in massachusetts banned the game "tag" during recess.

on friday fox news reported on its website that a school in england was planning to put on a production of "the three little pigs" and in order to keep from offending any muslims, they were changing the pigs to puppies! since friday, however, cooler heads have prevailed, including the local imam pronouncing the move bizarre and uncalled for, and the organisers of the kirklees primary music festival reversed their decision, and the pigs are back in.

what wasnt made clear in the original article is that this was a church of england school and not a public school. that was especially bothersome to me, although i do realize that the Church is not very strong as a whole in europe. also, the follow-up article stated that the play in question was not "the three little pigs" at all, but rather roald dahl's version of "little red riding hood." i looked on wikipedia (not the gold standard for research i know) but there was no reference to mr. dahl being credited with writing a version of "little red riding hood" and i sure dont remember there being any pigs in it. in any event, whether a Christian school or a public school, england or america, this is indeed quite a strange turn of events... strange to the point that even muslim leaders were condemning it, stating that stuff like this just makes them seem more and more like outcasts.

more amazing insights on political correctness on the way soon!.....

waiting for the other shoe to drop

2007-03-15T21:29:00.000-05:00

well, while the initial outcry over gen. peter pace's remarks regarding the immorality of homosexuality was just as i thought it would be, the uproar seems to have died down insofar as the general is concerned. there was outrage from the usual suspects, as well as from sen. john warner, allegedly conservative republican from virginia. and the general himself even stepped back a bit (although to his credit he has not apologized, and says he doesnt plan to), saying he shouldnt have put his personal opinions out there in the chicago tribune interview.

by the way, since when should anyone (and i dont care how public a figure they are) have to feel regret for expressing their personal opinions in a free country?? more to the point, in a country where one is free to express their personal beliefs because people like general pace have made it their vocation and given their lives to protect those freedoms? he said that "dont ask, dont tell" is the law and he stated his support for it, so he toed the line as far as the official government stance is concerned. why should being a high profile leader preclude a person from having and expressing a personal opinion? the guy's doing his job and he's upholding the law... that should suffice.

anyway, the firestorm has settled down for now, probably because alberto gonzales and karl rove are currently drawing so much attention. and even within the gays-in-the-military discussion, hillary clinton and barack obama seem to be catching more flak than gen. pace because of their recent dance around the question. but make no mistake, this isnt over yet, and we're sure to hear more voices added to the mob seeking the general's resignation. so, here's your chance to show your support for general peter pace: you can send the president (who also serves as commander-in-chief of our armed services) an email and ask him to publicly voice his support for general pace: comments@whitehouse.gov. there, just like an AFA action alert, but without being asked for money!

look for a new chairman of the joint chiefs soon...

2007-03-13T00:52:00.000-05:00

i can already hear the howls of protest and the calls for resignation or dismissal. in a time when it is probably career suicide to say anything un-politically correct, especially with a democratic majority in both houses, gen. peter pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, has gone on record in an interview with the chicago tribune as saying homosexuality is immoral, and that the military shouldnt condone it by allowing gay personnel to serve openly. he went on to equate homosexual behavior with adultery, saying that adultery would not be tolerated in the military ("... we prosecute that type of immoral behavior...") and feels that homosexual activity within the military should be treated likewise.

all this comes on the heels of the news that rep. martin meehan (D-MA) has introduced legislation to abolish the military's ban on openly gay personnel. additionally, sen. hillary clinton has gone on record as wanting to reverse the dont ask, dont tell policy that her husband signed into law... not to keep gays out of the military, but to allow them to serve openly.

hats off to gen. pace for making a bold statement... but probably ending his own career.

read the tribune article here, and tell me what you think...

brew me some coffee or the bus driver gets it!

2007-03-09T16:28:00.000-06:00

well, i've read a post from jeff where he confesses to being a coffee prostitute... i've read a post from kevin where he confesses to being a tv junkie... and of course if you read jim with any frequency you know he readily admits to being a coffee junkie... it says so right there in his blog header!

so i've come under heavy conviction after reading all these true confessions. i've only shared this with a few folks, but i can no longer be silent. i must confess. on more than one occasion, i've forced our bus driver to deviate from our designated bus route and pull in over at dad's so that i can get juiced up. yes, i'm an admitted hijacker. i am............ A COFFEE TERRORIST!

below is covertly shot footage of one of our most desperate caffeine runs... normally we take it nice and slow so as not to attract the attention of the authorities, but on this day, i was out of control. thankfully the children were already off the bus.

separated at birth??

2007-03-07T22:40:00.000-06:00

top photo: dean stockwell as wilbur whately in the film adaptation of h.p. lovecraft's "dunwich horror" circa '70.

bottom photo: mark wegley as mark wegley in high school circa '91.

talk about freaky! anyway, i've always (well, always ever since i started reading his blog) been fascinated with mark's fascination with all things h.p. lovecraft, and now i think i know the reason why!! does he harbor a secret desire to star in a re-make one day? and who would appear opposite him in the female lead played by sandra dee in the 1970 original?

now i for sure wont be posting any incriminating photos from my youthful past (if any actually existed i mean).

dear church...

2007-03-06T07:03:00.000-06:00

i recently read 2 thought provoking posts (along with their thought-provoking comments). one from jeff noble entitled "how long do you plan to be at your church?" explores the comings and goings of church members. the other post, from tj scott, entitled "choose who you will lose" discusses the differences among local bodies of believers, and the choices available to individual worshipers based at least in part on style of ministry. both link to posts from over at monday morning insight that are also well worth the read. and dont forget to weigh in with your comments on all three blogs (and here too!)... everyone's thoughts and opinions matter and can make a difference!

after you've read all that (if you havent already), i'd like to direct your attention to what might be considered the flip-side to this discussion. there are plenty of stats and surveys out there that attempt to give us a better understanding of the behaviors and habits of church goers and former church goers, but as i was perusing youth specialties president Mark Oestreicher's blog last night, i came across this amazing website: letters from leavers. its run by a couple of fuller seminary students, and its a place for folks who have left their church (and in many cases left THE Church), to basically write a "dear john" letter. all of the survey results in the world wont give the kind of insight that you'll find reading these letters. some writers are angry, some are hurt, some feel that they've been shunned or disregarded by staff, some feel they've been deceived either by their pastors or by the very tenets of Christianity itself. in any event, this is a must-see for church leaders and members alike (and while there are a series of survey questions that follow each letter, they come across in a more personal and individualized context when attached to each letter, rather than just analyzed as an anonymous group of responses to questions not fleshed out by the relating of personal experiences).

hopefully, reading these stories will give us new eyes and ears and hearts for those precious folks who sit in the pew next to us and may be struggling with that age-old question, which isnt just about church membership, but life itself: "WHY AM I HERE?"

i want one of these!

2007-03-02T22:00:00.000-06:00

anna nicole, we knew ye well... a little TOO well...

2007-02-25T01:53:00.000-06:00

i had just about decided i didnt want to fool with this, seeing as how there have been more than enough posts on the subject. my favorite so far... "go and sin some more" by timmy brister over at provocations & pantings. but this isnt really about anna nicole smith, but rather the obscenely lurid coverage of her death and all that's gone with it.

i'm not a fan of CNN. i have respected and enjoyed fox news. i'm rather ambivalent about many of the other news outlets... print, broadcast or online. but to all i'd like to say, "ENOUGH ALREADY!!" as much publicity as anna nicole generated while she was alive (and without any hard stats to back this up) i really believe she's generated far more buzz in death. i know she was a pop culture icon, and as such there was bound to be more than a passing interest in the details surrounding her death, but i first had a notion to pursue this when i saw these 2 headlines at yahoo news on february 18: "embalming of anna nicole smith's body begins" and several hours later that day: "anna nicole smith embalming completed." was the world really on the edge of its seat waiting to find out when the formaldehyde was turned on and off? we didnt even get that much information at the passing of the likes of princess diana, ronald reagan or steve irwin for cryin out loud.

for better or worse, i decided to rant about the AFA first, and then i kind of lost interest in this... until that joke of a hearing down in florida, presided over by the extremely wacky larry seidlin, the "cryin' judge." even though he managed to cram one day of testimony into four, the main reason he probably did so much weeping is because his time in the limelight barely amounted to 15 SECONDS of fame compared to judge lance ito's 15 minutes of fame during the oj simpson trial. i have 2 words for judge seidlin: BOOK DEAL. although considering how quickly he'll fade from public view, it'll be more like a pamphlet.

i really dont understand what difference it makes where anna nicole's body decays anyway. i may be missing something here, but i did develop an aversion to gravesite visits back in my childhood when we used to go visit various grandparents' graves every sunday after mass. we'd stop and buy flowers... or flags if veteran's day or 4th of july was coming up... and we'd always have to kneel and pray. i understand that was a catholic thing (having to do with purgatory no doubt), but here's the deal... THERE'S NOBODY IN THERE! that wasnt my grandfather in that hole, and that isnt anna nicole in that refrigerator in the morgue. whether they bury her in texas, the bahamas or the front yard of the playboy mansion, i just didnt get why that was so newsworthy.

and that mother of hers... you never heard 2 words out of her while her daughter was alive and wrecking her life until it was way too late. but now she wants to make a public spectacle over her departed daughter's remains. and as long as the media enables these folks, they'll stay in the limelight, too. i dont claim to know her mother's heart or motives, and she may not be a publicity hound at all, but now is not the time to be fighting for anna nicole... the time for that has come and gone. hopefully, she'll put half the effort into being some kind of positive influence in her granddaughter's life.

a little confession time here... its been a long-standing practice of mine - since i became a Christian - to pray for celebrities, among them johnny carson, madonna and howard stern (not howard k. stern, companion and lawyer to anna nicole, but howard stern of radio shock jock fame). there's no way to catch them all, but i was aware enough of anna nicole smith that she should have been on my prayer list, but she wasnt. btw, i think many Christians have adopted an "us vs. them" mentality when it comes to hollywood, the music industry, politicians, etc. i remember a good friend of mine in northeast mississippi, who is an area director for an athletics-based para-church fellowship, who had a conversation with the head of a national "Christian family values" association who was organizing a march or rally against homosexuals in washington DC a number of years ago. my friend asked this man, who also happens to be an ordained methodist minister, if he ever considered praying for these folks. his reply was: "you pray for them, i'm marching against them!" for what its worth, to me its hard to dislike someone if you're praying for them.

the glimmer of hope in all this... when i read the comments on timmy brister's "go and sin some more" post, i came across a link to a very interesting video clip... anna nicole professing Christ as Lord and Savior back in 1999. she seemed rather ditzy, though more coherent than she was toward the end of her life... of course this touched off another firestorm of controversy in the subsequent comments, but i suppose we'll never really know anna nicole's eternal destiny this side of heaven, will we.

but back to my point ( i did have one, didnt i?). oh yeah... the major media outlets are fast losing any shred of credibility they may have once had, fox news (my personal favorite) included. if they'd quit giving these camera-happy wanna-be's the time of day, i think they'd all just go away, and maybe a little dignity could be restored to the whole death part of living.

in the meantime, i hope you'll join me in putting britney spears and her family on your prayer list (really). she's beginning to look for all the world like the next big post-mortem tabloid headline. what a tragedy it would be if that came to pass.

silent witness week... aka, shameless self-promotion week

2007-02-19T16:32:00.000-06:00

i had several things i wanted to post about this week... then i checked my email and saw the latest american family association ACTION ALERT there in my inbox, and i just couldnt delete it and forget it. seems don wildmon has a new thing goin on... silent witness week. basing their idea on the famous quote by st. francis of assisi, "preach the Gospel always... when necessary, use words," AFA has minted thousands of buttons that proclaim: EASTER, HE LIVES!

here's the deal... during Holy Week (april 1-8), you're supposed to wear the button everywhere you go. you dont have to say a single word about Jesus.. the button does the "preaching" for you (thus the "silent" witness). further down in the action alert, bro don hopes your participation will bring opportunities to share the Gospel, but the point here is that they will know us by our buttons!

i have a couple of problems with this whole thing. first of all, what francis of assisi meant was that THE WAY YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE should be the silent witness to the lost. we are supposed to live our lives in such a way that sets us apart from the rest of the world. it's called holiness. but of course we should remember that many church-goers have no clue about what it means to be holy, or that we're even supposed to BE holy... so lacking that, we should wear a button i guess.

the second problem - and this is the thing that really got me - was that the buttons and magnets are not only festooned with 3 crosses and a slogan, but lest we forget who sent us out to be silent witnesses in the first place, the web address of the american family association is emblazoned across the bottom. somehow, to me, this cheapens the whole endeavor even further. if the focus is Christ, and being Christ-like, why are they attaching their web address? my attention was immediately drawn to this part of the button, even though its quite a bit smaller type than "EASTER, HE LIVES!" or the 3 crosses.

dont get me wrong... back when AFA started, i believe they took a difficult stand when it was very unpopular to do so. they were a lone voice crying out against the erosion of morality in the media, and they are to be commended for that. but some of the stuff they get involved with these days, it just doesnt make a lotta sense to me. maybe i'm being as nit-picky as the folks who sat through their church's super bowl parties waiting to be offended by prince, but something about this stunt just wont let me stand by and be a silent witness.

the case for praise bands

2007-02-11T15:03:00.000-06:00

well, i'm a contemporary worship kind of guy, although i've always thought choirs are nice for things like Christmas and Easter cantatas. but i stumbled across some startling new information that leads me to believe that choirs are far more sinister than i ever realized! it seems that a prerequisite for choir membership is to be some kind of busybody... or at the very least, you have to care a whole lot for thy fellow choir-teer. however, this sort of behavior can be detrimental not only to choir participation, or even church attendance, but also to one's desire to even continue on as a part of the human race!

at least your typical praise band member apparently isnt all up in your kool-aid... being the disaffected artist types they are. they show up for rehearsal, come to church and play their little hearts out, and then they pack up their gear and they're outta there. however, these choir types are always having some sort of fellowship or another, and doing things like sharing prayer requests and even praying for each other. they seem to even go so far as to check up from time to time to see how their afflicted co-warblers are coming along. this just seems to be waay too much attention for some folks though, and i believe for the sake of the church in general, and the future of the fellowship of the brethren, its time for choirs to go the way of pump organs and broadman hymnals.

if you think i'm full of it, just check out this pitiful tale of caring and sharing gone wrong...

02/12/07 addendum:
lest anyone be offended by the accompanying photo, i boosted it from choir-robes.com... really! but if anybody out there has any idea what THATS all about, please feel free to drop it in the comments. it just seemed to be an appropriately goofy pic to go along with the goofy article.

let's go crazy...

2007-02-07T20:00:00.000-06:00

well, it was inevitable. i guess unless the NFL and the networks book the mid-south boys for the super bowl halftime show, some folks are just not going to be happy. and even then, somebody will have something to say if there isnt a piano and organ up there on stage with them.

seems there's quite an uproar over prince's guitar solo during "purple rain" as he closed out his halftime performance. we had a super bowl party at the cottage, but i didnt get to see the show because we ate supper during halftime, and i dont allow the TV to be on during meals. anyway, when i first saw the story on yahoo news this morning, i was really surprised because i hadnt heard anything about a controversy in the days following the game. apparently many are taking offense because, for dramatic effect, a large, back-lit opaque sheet came up from the stage floor while prince was shredding his solo, and in typical guitar slinger style, the neck of his guitar was thrust upward from approximately waist level. the resulting giant silhouette, according to the offended masses, was enough to make even "bob" of enzyte fame, envious.

i skipped on over to you-tube and viewed the video and, well gee, i'm sorry, i dont get what the commotion is all about this time (late-breaking news... i was going to link to the you-tube video here, but it has been removed due to a copyright claim by universal music publishing group). i did happen to be tuned in in '04 for janet jackson's wardrobe malfunction, and i sat there rather dumbfounded, trying to figure out if i really saw what i thought i just saw. and janet and justin's lame attempts of explaining that one away were really insulting, and i thought the outrage was more than justified. i'm not so sure that CBS knew in advance, and i think the financial burden for that should have rested squarely on j&j, but that's water under the bridge now.

this time around, i think at least partly because of what happened in 2004, there are folks who just watch to see what they can nit-pick anymore, and they really had to stretch for this one. in the words of one commenter on you-tube "sometimes a guitar is just a guitar." now dont get me wrong, prince has done and said a lot of things in his career that were more than offensive, and one article i read said something to the effect that many a church group that was hosting a super bowl event got more than they bargained for during "purple rain." i submit that given prince's reputation, they should have turned the TV off long before the very last song in his set if they were so convicted about watching him. i dont propose to tell any church group how to organize their super bowl outreaches (although many of these things arent outreaches at all, they're more like desperate attempts to have some kind of turnout among their own members at their evening worship services on the first sunday in february), but all the ones i know about have some sort of devotional or message during halftime. prince sure wasnt going to be holding a church service on the 50 yard line, but i digress...

i've never been a really big fan of prince, although he had a few songs in the 80's that i liked... "purple rain" being one of them. in fact, the handful of his songs i did care for were all from the "purple rain" album. nobody can deny that he is a vastly talented performer, and much to the surprise of many, a really excellent guitar player. and as far as i could tell from the video clips, thats all he was guilty of sunday... playing the guitar solo to "purple rain" like a musician caught up in the moment.

i am a huge third day fan. i've probably been to 12 or more of their concerts since '95. its really like going to a giant church service with the best worship band you've ever heard. but they also are passionate about their music, and they rock like nobody's business... and they get caught up in the moment just like any artist that's passionate about their music. and i'm not trying to compare what prince does to what third day does (other than it's music they're passionate about), but i got to thinking... if some of these hyper-sensitive whiners who didnt know third day from three dog night ever got a look at these guys in concert, i bet they'd pitch just as big a fit as they did sunday night... the photos below: third day band members tai anderson (in sleeveless shirt) and brad avery (with singer toby mac). a guitar is just a guitar, right??

who needs a hot-shot lawyer anyway??

2007-01-28T14:35:00.000-06:00

not that i'd ever advocate going out and trying to kill somebody, but the next time you're hauled in for attempted murder, conventional wisdom would say go hire the best lawyer you can find, right? well, not so fast there, habeus corpus breath! seems there's a new way to beat the rap now... forget oj's dream team, just remember this name: james e. sheffield, and the best new defense since the insanity plea for the guilty... how about the insanity plea for the attorney. read all about it...

an optimist? yup, i are one!

2007-01-19T12:55:00.000-06:00

after having gone back and forth on the comments for the “its called discipleship” post, this started out as a reply to the latest comment, but it got so long I decided to do it as its own post. in a nutshell, the topic at hand has to do with a statistic put forth by george barna concerning the disparity between the percentage of church-goers who claim that God is the number one priority in their lives (15%), and what pastors who were asked the same question about their congregants believed that number to be (70%).

several commenters (<--this got a red line as i typed it in microsoft word, so i guess it isn’t a real word!) had put forth the idea that the pastors got it so wrong because by nature they are an overly optimistic lot, and that optimism is a defense mechanism designed to guard against discouragement and/or termination. i had started to think that i was the one that first used the word "optimism" to explain the seemingly poor grasp that some pastors appear to have on where their members are spiritually, but that first appeared in somebody else's comment (i wont go into who said what... you can click the link to the post and read the comments there). i was about to say that i brought this all upon myself by using that term :-)

it has been suggested that pastors cannot lead people where they do not wish to go (i.e: if some of the church members don’t want to be discipled, you cant make them), which I agree with 100%, and that I should allow for a bit of positive thinking for pastors who find themselves in such a position (which would be any pastor who takes on the responsibility of trying to take their people to a deeper level of commitment to Christ). although i was never a senior pastor, i did spend 13 years in youth ministry on church staffs, so i was once a "person in such a position"... i dont speak as an uninformed outsider. and while i wasnt fired from my last church because of being a realist concerning spiritual depth, it was a huge factor in my decision to voluntarily leave that church and church staff ministry in general. in another of the churches where i served as youth minister, while i wasnt outright fired, i was pressured to resign because "the numbers werent there."

as i said in an earlier comment, i once played the "numbers" game, as many do... just go to any gathering of youth ministers, ed. ministers or pastors, and inevitably the first question is "so, how many you running... in sunday school/in worship/on wednesday night/on sunday night?" and because success has been so closely associated with "how many you running?", the typical pastor often defaults to attendance as an indicator of the spiritual health of his church. when i said NO to the numbers game and started trying to take my kids deeper, thats when the doody hit the fan. i'm not against growing a church, but you cant ignore the need to give your folks the opportunity to go deeper.

take a look at rick warren's purpose-driven church model. nobody doubts that warren is into growing a church, and saddleback is huge. but part of the premise behind purpose-driven is to always be striving to bring those in the outer circles in to a deeper level of commitment. there are pastors who understand this and recognize the necessity for it... and there are those that think the numbers in and of themselves are the measure of spiritual health.

it was pointed out to me that pastors are “statistically” more optimistic. i think (and hope!) that not just pastors, but Christians in general are statistically more optimistic. if our hope is in Christ, we have the greatest reason of anyone to be optimistic!! i cant see where i ever said that it isnt a good thing for a pastor to try to be optimistic. believe me, if a down-in-the-mouth pessimist ever came to my church in view of a call, i'd vote "NO" in a heartbeat! i just don’t accept that optimism is a good substitute for realism, and for that matter, i don’t see how they are mutually exclusive.

though i may not have sounded very optimistic when i wrote that barna's findings "paint a rather bleak picture of the state of the Church in america", my optimism lies in the state of the Church world-wide. in china, vietnam, cambodia and a number of middle east countries (all places where persecution runs rampant), Christianity is not only growing numerically, but the people hunger for the Word, and they hunger to know God more intimately... and many of them are willing to die for the privilege of doing so! additionally, according to Christian history institute, the Christian population in africa has grown from 8-9% of the population in 1900, to 45% in 2000, and they report in the 20^th century alone almost 2 million Christian martyrs in africa, not including another 1.5 million who have been slaughtered during civil strife in rwanda, burundi and sudan. (even in a free country such as south korea, which is second only to the united states [and gaining fast] in the number of missionaries sent, Christianity is alive and thriving). while i may sound like the numbers-quoting pastors that i’ve been critical of in these 2 posts, it’s the numbers of people worldwide that don’t just claim the title of Christian, but seek to know and serve Christ more passionately - especially those that have died for their faith - that speak to me… shallow Christians will not put their life on the line for the sake of the Kingdom. they’ll barely sacrifice a football game for a worship service. if history is any indicator, it just may take a great persecution here in america before pastors and members alike wake up.

its called...

2007-01-16T00:28:00.000-06:00

i've recently started receiving a very useful little email... the barna update. i must have forgotten to click (or unclick) some box when i ordered his latest book, "revolution," because i dont normally sign up for inbox-clutterers when i plunder around peoples' websites. in any event, i'm glad i get this one, because its been quite an enlightening experience. the update links to barna.org where the statistical results of his surveys, and their breakdowns, can be found. so far... 2 updates received, 2 posts in the works!

from the dec 20 update... "12 most significant findings from 2006 surveys"
there were a number of items from these 12 outcomes that, when taken together, paint a rather bleak picture of the state of the local church in america.

for starters, there was a great disparity between the percentage of church attenders who said God was a top priority in their lives, and what the average pastor believed that percentage to be. a paltry 15% of regular church-goers said their relationship with God was top-priority; however, the typical pastor believed that 70% of the adults in their churches considered their relationship with God to be their #1 priority. barna found that pastors based their conclusions on things like worship and sunday school attendance and, unbelievably to me, how many participated in the singing, rather than indicators such as level of spiritual maturity, level of commitment to loving and serving God and people, the nature of each member's personal ministry, involvement in community service, accountability for spiritual development and lifestyle and use of resources to advance the kingdom of God, among others.

another finding: just 21% of adults consider themselves to be holy, by their own admission large numbers have no idea what "holiness" means and only 35% believe that God expects people to become holy.

additionally: 81% of teens say they have attended a church for a period of at least two months during their teenage years... however, 61% of today’s twenty-somethings had been churched at one point during their teen years but they are now spiritually disengaged (i.e., not actively attending church, reading the Bible, or praying).

also: 5 years after 9/11, there has been no lasting influence on america's faith... despite an intense surge in religious activity and expression in the weeks immediately following 9/11 the faith of americans is virtually indistinguishable today compared to pre-attack conditions, based on 19 faith measures that were studied.

coupled with the increase in the number of people of faith who consider themselves to be revolutionaries (defined as born again people who have made their faith in God the highest priority in their life, who believe that their faith has greatly transformed their life, and who often express and experience their faith through alternative forms of the Church), and the number of believers who are migrating toward house churches, i draw this conclusion...

the average pastor is clueless about the spiritual health of his flock, and totally out-of-touch with how little influence the local church is having on the spiritual formation of its members. the vast majority of pastors, at least according to barna's findings, are still relying on numbers to tell them how great a job they think they're doing. it all boils down to the non-existence of discipleship... a curse which has plagued local churches for decades. in their quest for sheer numbers... worship attendance, sunday school attendance, baptisms (and, i believe in many cases, the bragging rights that go along with high numbers)... churches of every denomination have put discipleship on the back burner... if its still even on the stove at all. and what we've seen is an influx of shallow, fire-insurance-carrying "Christians" (or as a former pastor of mine calls them, "two-fold children of hell"... at first they were lost but at least they knew they were... then they were fed a watered-down, rose garden version of Christianity, and now they're lost but they think they're saved).

many churches are doing a jam-up job of filling the pews, but failing miserably at making disciples. and because the american church by and large has forsaken discipleship, we have pastors who far over-estimate the spiritual maturity of their flocks, the folks who sit under their preaching have no idea what it means to be holy or that they're even supposed to BE holy, we're losing our high school graduates in alarming numbers, and when people do search for something deeper, something solid to hold on to, such as what happened immediately following 9/11, they come to our churches and they dont find it there, because quite frankly, in too many cases it's NOT.

so far, not too awful bad... SO FAR

2007-01-06T03:40:00.000-06:00

here's a first... and something you can be sure you wont see much more of here... a political post. yesterday i was set to go with this little masterpiece i put together at some sign generator site...
... but i decided against it. dont get me wrong... seeing nancy pelosi on tv yesterday in her first appearance as speaker of the house, looking for all the world like she'd just won an academy award, gave me a VERY uneasy feeling. but reading the online news this morning, i was rather impressed with a few things that have happened so far (the supremely arrogant charles rangel booting dick cheney out of his office notwithstanding).

for starters, the house voted 430-1 to ban lawmakers from accepting gifts and free trips from lobbyists (republican dan burton of indiana was the "1"... whats his deal??)

then there's the PAYGO rule, which requires tax cuts to have corresponding cuts in government spending or tax increases elsewhere to pay for them (personally i prefer the former). i'm no economist, but just from working the ol' household budget i know enough to know if you're going to decrease the income source, you better decrease the spending too, or else find another source of income. that aint rocket science, yet republicans, who are supposed to be for smaller government, managed to run up record deficits since the '94 GOP takever (and more specifically, since bush took office). for democrats, the downside to PAYGO is that it endangers their efforts to cut student loan rates and increase medicare benefits.

also, on a somewhat related note, the house passed a rule-change that requires congressmen to publicy disclose their support for pet projects (now referred to as "earmarks" although i've always been rather partial to the term PORK ). according to folks whose job it is to keep track of these things, pork barrel projects have been the main culprit in runaway spending and the resulting deficits we're saddled with today.

so, i'm somewhat encouraged by these two developments, and even more encouraged by the fact that a number of republican voted for the rule-changes as well. suddenly it seems that democrats are becoming fiscal conservatives. but the other shoe hasnt dropped yet. dems are traditionally tax-and-spend, and i suspect that even though they seem to want to curb spending right now, there's still the matter of president bush's tax cuts which are due to expire in 2010. dont look for a democrat-led congress to renew those, and dont be surprised if at some point they even try to repeal them before that time. and dont say i didnt tell you so if they actually increase taxes at some point.

of course, there's also the matter of their social and ethical agenda, which is horrific. from abortion rights to embryonic stem cell research to their interpretation of the establishment clause to entitlement programs, the democratic party is a disaster.

so maybe they're just riding the wave right now. i remember when republicans took control of congress in '94, it was euphoric... the "contract with america"! but you know what they say (actually "they" would be lord acton in this case)... "power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely." back then, democrats joked that it was more like the "contract ON america" and in the end, it sort of turned out that way to some extent. it took roughly 40 years for the country to finally get fed up with the way the democrats were running the show, yet it only took 12 years for voters to get sick of republican leadership... not very encouraging. and with another possible supreme court vacancy to fill in the next few years, i'm not the least bit optimistic that we'll keep the slim conservative majority there... so much for overturning roe v. wade.

these things run in cycles though, and the country's love affair with democrats will wane over time, and one of these days the tide will turn again. i hope we'll have learned some lessons in that time. of course it was the unpopularity of the war in iraq that got the republicans in a bind, but ethics violations, moral failures and just plain ARROGANCE were a part of the problem too.

jeff noble often espouses community involvement over at monticello live, and that's one of the things that makes this country great... ANYONE can have influence, whether on the local level or the national stage. after watching the promise of the '94 republican revolution turn just plain revolting, the need for more Christians to get involved in government is more urgent than ever. at the very least, GET OUT AND VOTE YOUR CONVICTIONS! voter turnout among Christians is traditionally very low, despite the fact that the Christian vote is often credited with putting president bush, and republicans in general, in office to beging with. dont lose faith in the system. we still have the best form of government of any country in the world... its just a matter of getting the right person for the job, regardless of party loyalty.

IF YOU'RE NOT REGISTERED TO VOTE, GET OUT THERE AND DO IT! IF YOU ARE REGISTERED, DO YOUR HOMEWORK, RESEARCH THE CANDIDATES AND GO VOTE YOUR CONVICTIONS!! after all, its the only way to earn the right to complain...

the story of ron... a new day has dawned (last of a 4 part series)

2006-12-31T01:58:00.000-06:00

upon leaving new orleans for the final time, ron embarked on what I like to call his “victory tour”, for God had indeed given ron the victory in his struggle with addiction. he first stopped and visited a former church family now living in jackson, ms., and called to say he’d be coming my way after leaving jackson. from our place, ron would head up to eureka springs, which just happens to be where he and cheryl were vacationing the sunday my wife and i joined williams boulevard church all those years ago. i was excited at the prospect of seeing ron again after all this time and all that had happened. we had a great time catching up, and he told me in more detailed fashion of how his life started to spin so out of control. he asked my forgiveness, but all I could think was that i’m the one who needed forgiving… ron and i were close… i should have been able to tell something was wrong… i should have been a better friend. and yet, a very select few ever knew the secret… one lived with it daily, and the other knew only because ron confessed it to him. in any event, God had forgiven him… how could I not??

during the course of our time together, ron told me of his plan to build an ebenezer (literally, “stone of help”)… a spiritual marker of sorts. in 1 samuel 7, God has given israel victory over the philistines after they had previously defeated the israelites and taken the ark of the covenant. after the battle, samuel set up a stone, named it ebenezer, and said “this marks the place where God helped us.” (the message). ron’s plan was to get a stone from each significant place along the way of his life's journey, and at some point use the stones to erect his ebenezer… as a remembrance that God has delivered him from his addiction. my wife is a great collector of rocks and stones. everywhere she travels, and everywhere anyone she knows travels, she has a rock from that place. so from her collection... i guess it would be her own so-far unbuilt ebenezer… she gave ron two stones.

he left us and went on to eureka springs, and then worked his way east to where cheryl was now living. unfortunately, that visit, to this day, has yet to produce fruit, but we never stop praying for reconciliation. ron decided to return to north georgia to start over. an incredible couple that had befriended him during his recovery at victory home, andy and terry pilgrim, took ron in while he got back on his feet. andy is himself a former addict and an alumni of victory home. we had the incredible experience of meeting the pilgrims last month when we went to visit ron in georgia. andy and terry live in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home, but the ministry that God has called them to is to be a halfway house of sorts for guys coming out of victory home. in this modest abode, they currently host ron, another single guy, and another graduate AND his wife! needless to say, we’re praying that God would provide a larger home for them to more effectively carry out their ministry to these men and their families.

another couple we met was perry and michelle bourlet. they, too have an awesome ministry to the residents at victory home, and have been a huge blessing to ron during his time there, and even to this day. both of these couples are members of a little country church just out of tallulah falls… hollywood baptist church… the church family that ron became a part of. he found a home there and placed himself under the watchcare and discipline of the church. ron ministered wherever and whenever needed… as he recently related to me, he became a servant. one of ron’s great strengths in ministry, besides his ability to relate with teenagers and stay on top of the ever-changing youth culture, is hospital visitation. sounds like no big deal, but i’ve had occasion to accompany him on hospital rounds when we were in new orleans, and there is no greater comfort when you’re flat on your back in a hospital bed than to have someone as caring and compassionate as ron come to see about you and pray with and for you. this, along with ministering to and leading bible studies for the guys at victory home became some of ron’s avenues of ministry at and through the church.

in conversation with ron one day, his pastor reminded him that the apostle paul wrote that the call of God is “without repentance”… king james-ese for “irrevocable.” For a man who was convinced his days as a minister were over, this was quite a revelation… God was far from through with ron!

now then.........

remember this picture from part one of ron's story? you cant see him, but amongst that crowd of men is ron, down on his knees. at first glance, you would say this is an ordination service... but you would be wrong. this is something you dont hear very much about in many churches. you see, tragically, Christians have come to be known as a people who "shoot their wounded." we have high expectations, and little tolerance for mistakes. thankfully, its not like that everywhere... and certainly not at hollywood baptist church outside of tallulah falls, georgia. for what you see taking place here is a restoration service. never heard of one? sadly, neither had i. in my years as a Christian, i've become all too familiar with churches that shun and even drive out those who have made mistakes. while it is a biblical mandate to practice church discipline, it is always to achieve restoration. we may be quick to cast aside a fallen brother, but as long as God can still use a person, who are we to say he is not worthy?

today, ron serves as associate pastor of hollywood baptist. he visits sick folks in the hospital... he leads bible studies at victory home... he ministers wherever and whenever he is needed. he is a servant of God and a minister of the Gospel. he is also a caseworker for the state of georgia, helping marginalized individuals find gainful employment and, just maybe, some shred of self-worth... a little restoration if you will. i'm honored to call ron dingus friend... and i'm proud to call him brother in Christ. meet my friend and brother... pastor ron dingus.

redemption... the story of ron part 3

2006-12-23T03:52:00.000-06:00

so....... ron and cheryl got out of new orleans ahead of katrina and made their way to missouri, and although i spoke to him on the phone while he was there, i didnt hear from him again until i called him at victory home. we talked a couple of times by phone during his stay there, and he filled me in on what had transpired since he and cheryl had left new orleans as the hurricane bore down on the coast...

after landing in missouri, they went to visit ron's mom, and right after they got there, the church called and said he was needed back in new orleans as soon as possible. williams blvd. was housing law enforcement and military personnel, and many of them were in need of pastoral care and counseling. remember hearing all the horror stories on the news? and then as the weeks unfolded, various government officials were spinning and doing damage control... saying that the vast majority of the initial reports of roving gangs of armed thugs, snipers and rape and murder in the dome and convention center were exaggerated or just plain fiction? well, the stories that the special ops guys would tell after returning to the church from patrolling the city all night not only bear out the truth of those initial reports we heard on TV, but they paint a picture far worse than what anyone was telling. ron was pretty fired up about the ministry possibilities, and was anxious to get back; however, cheryl wasnt sharing his enthusiasm, and she opted to stay with her family in ohio. ron would call cheryl from new orleans and tell her about everything that was going on, but the more he talked to her, the more he sensed that she was in no hurry to join him there.

when she finally decided to return to new orleans, it wasnt for keeps. cheryl packed her things, and before she left town, she told several friends the secret that had been kept quiet for more than a decade... that ron, her husband, the minister, was an alcoholic. in one fell swoop, a life was seemingly laid to waste. there was only one course of action to take now... confess and resign. beyond that, however, ron saw nothing else worth living for, and with marriage and ministry seemingly finished, life may as well be over with too. after confessing his hidden sin to the pastor, the plan was to go home and commit suicide. the quintessential lie from the pit of hell itself... that all is lost and there is no hope. but when you are a son of the King, there is always a way of escape. the eye-opener for ron came when the pastor asked him to consider what kind of effect his suicide would have on all those that he led to the Lord and discipled down through the years. after careful consideration of such a sobering thought, he placed his immediate future into the hands of his pastor, and arrangements were made for ron to admit himself to victory home, a Christian drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in the north georgia mountains.

ron related to me in our conversations that, even though he knew he would reject the taking of his own life as the answer to his problems, at the beginning of his stay at victory home, he still felt great shame and a sense of worthlessness. with his ministry, his marriage and his very life seemingly left at the bottom of some long-ago discarded whiskey bottle, there wasnt much to feel very positive about. but God sometimes has to break us all the way down before He can begin to build us back up. in addition to the staff at victory home, there are a number of churches in the area that are very active in the ministry there. the residents attend the different area churches on a rotating basis, and there are a number of members of these churches that have made outreach to these men their personal ministry. even though he was in his own healing process, ron was also able to minister to many of the men that were residents at victory home with him, and amazingly... or maybe not so amazingly (for ron had never lost the heart or the ability to minister during his years of addiction)... ron had a number of opportunities to preach at area churches.

when his stay was complete and he graduated from victory home's rehab program, ron returned to new orleans briefly. i received a call from him, and he told me he was leaving new orleans, and would be tracing a route that would take him back to significant places and people in his life. his aim was two-fold: first, he wanted to re-connect with those people and places that were so much a part of his life. many from williams boulevard were now scattered, and ron wished to visit and tell his story to as many as possible. his second purpose especially piqued my interest... to gather stones to build an ebenezer.....

THANK YOU JEFF!

2006-12-18T09:50:00.000-06:00

part 3 of ron's story is in the works, but i had to take time out to give a shout-out to jeff noble. one of my guys had to have some video footage of skateboarding tricks for a demonstrative speech in oral communications which is due... when else... today. we shot footage all weekend and my guy told me he had somebody lined up that could edit it for him. when it came time for editing, we discovered that what was actually said, and what sk8r-dude actually thought he heard were 2 very different things. so a desperate call went out to jeff, and he hooked us up with a laptop and an analog-to-digital converter, plus a short tutorial on how it all works. shea, our intrepid video editor got the job done, and i dont know about him, but i think i might be sold on macs myself now. too bad these things right here stand between me and a mac laptop --> $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

anyway, jeff, you were a life (and grade) saver, and while i know you didnt expect any publicity off of this, you deserve a huge THANK YOU! so.... THANK YOU!

now THERE'S your meteor shower!

2006-12-14T01:22:00.000-06:00

fittingly enough, while i'm in the midst of telling ron's story, he called me this afternoon and tipped me off to the geminid meteor shower which should hang around roughly through the 19th. but wednesday night was the peak viewing time, and IT WAS AWESOME! i'm on duty, so i couldnt get away to the country, but i was still able to view around 25 or so intermittently throughout the evening just by standing out behind the cottage.

several of the articles i read said the evening of the 14th will be a fairly good night, so make plans to get out to the country thursday night (preferably east of town since you'll be looking to the northeatern sky and you dont want to be looking back toward the glare of the monticello's lights). the last time i went out to watch was from 12:30-1:00 am, and you could literally catch them in any direction, and much higher in the sky than when i first started at 8 pm.

i dont understand how anybody can witness something this spectacular and NOT believe that God exists. He created all this just for us to enjoy... does He love us or what??

p.s: here's a pretty decent article on the geminids from the planetary society.

redemption... the story of ron part 2

2006-12-13T00:11:00.000-06:00

hurricane katrina roared ashore between mississippi and louisiana on the morning of august 29, 2005. all the years i'd lived in and around new orleans, i'd always heard the scenarios of what would happen if new orleans ever took a direct hit. at first, we all thought the city had dodged another bullet, but as the levees gave way, everyone's worst fears were beginning to be realized. i immediately started calling ron's cell phone, but it would be days before service would be restored to gulf coast mobile phone customers. when i finally reached him, he told me that they had made it to missouri, and all was well. we'd get back in touch once things settled down.

from time to time, i'd check in at the williams boulevard baptist church website just to keep up with how things were going in the aftermath of the storm. the church was housing and ministering to law enforcement and military from all over the country, and also giving updates on the progress of the recovery. as i was perusing the prayer request page one day, i saw this item: "anyone wishing to contact bro. ron may write to him at victory home...." and it gave a p.o. box in georgia. several thoughts raced through my mind... did ron decide not to return to new orleans, and instead find another ministry position? did some awful tragedy befall him and he was recovering in some nursing home? i googled "victory home" and discovered that it's a Christian drug and alcohol rehab facility for men. ron was always a youth minister at heart, and i just couldnt imagine that ministry to adults with addictions would have been his thing. i even wondered if, because of his deteriorated knees if he may have gotten addicted to pain pills. i placed a call to the church, and the secretary said, "you mean you never knew? ron is an alcoholic." she no doubt figured because ron and i were close that i was helping keep his secret, but i was dumbfounded when she told me...

have you ever had those moments when something is so totally out of place, yet it takes awhile for you to completely process the situation? like coming up on an overturned car, or a dead person in the middle of the street (i've done both of those)... that was the feeling that crept up on me as the secretary spoke those words... "ron is an alcoholic." i know cars, and i know upside down, but cars arent supposed to be upside down in the ditch. i've seen people, and i've seen dead people, but dead people arent supposed to be in the street right in front of your car at 2 a.m. well, i've been friends with ron for 13 years, and i've known alcoholics all my life, but ron isnt supposed to be an alcoholic! whatever i said in the rest of that conversation must have been feeble at best... i barely remember it. i do know i asked if i should write him or what... then i figured if his address was on the website, it wasnt much of a secret... but i decided pretty quickly that i was going to call rather than write.

i'm not sure how many days it took me to get up the nerve to pick up that phone... i didnt know if he'd refuse my call, or if he'd be angry or embarrassed that i got in touch. when i did call, a staff person answered and said ron was unavailable at the moment, but that he would give him my message when he saw him. i figured that was the big brush-off, although i was somewhat encouraged by the fact that they acknowledged that he was even there. it must have been a week or more, and i had pretty much decided he wasnt going to call me, but he did. he couldnt talk for long because there were other guys waiting to use the phone, but ron gave me permission to ask any question. the only thing that came to mind was "how long?" had he been an alcoholic for as long as i knew him (or longer)? did he just come by this dread disease fairly recently? the answer was, in the early 90's, not long after i had left williams blvd. to go to another church, ron started drinking at night to help him fall asleep. and although he was up to 20 oz. of whiskey per sitting, it never progressed beyond that reasoning... always at night, at home, in order to try and sleep. problem was, he didnt always make it to the bedroom. he'd often pass out in the kitchen floor, and his wife cheryl, a pediatric emergency room nurse who often worked the night shift, would come home and find him like that, and have to pick him up and get him to bed. for years it went this way, but no one was the wiser. our former pastor did know, and directed ron to counseling, but out of a desire to try and protect the church and (so he thought) ron's ministry and reputation, he never would allow ron to go before the church to confess and have some sort of accountability. and without that accountability, it wasnt long before counseling had gone by the wayside, and the drinking continued.

what i had been knowing was that ron had fallen behind in his doctoral work, but that was always chalked up to the added responsibilities he undertook at church when the pastor fell ill and subsequently died of cancer. what i didnt know for a long time was that ron had been dismissed from the doctoral program. his dream had been to teach youth ministry at the seminary level (his prior teaching experience had been in the under-grad program as a contract teacher), but the dream could not be realized without that degree. additionally, his knees were shot after multiple surgeries, and he could barely get around at times. physically, emotionally and spiritually, the wheels were coming off... then the storm of the century hit, and all hell was about to break loose...

redemption... the story of ron part 1

2006-12-11T06:57:00.000-06:00

i had such an awesome experience while on vacation in north georgia last week, that i was having a difficult time deciding what i wanted to write about first. this subject was high on my list, but i was debating on whether to save it for later (as in the best for last), but after reading a comment left on kevin stokes' "heart of worship" post, there was no doubt in my mind that i needed to write this NOW.

in my years as a minister, staff member and just a plain old member, i've seen my share of church folks do some of the most vile things to their so-called brothers and sisters in Christ in the name of... i dont even know in what or whose name they do these things in, but it's often done under the guise of church "business." i've seen pastors and other ministerial staff get run off, run over and starved out by deacons, wealthy families, power-wielding cliques and factions, and even other staff members. i've seen the shoe on the other foot as well, when church staff go after members to drive them away from the church, or as in what happened to jeff l. who posted the comment at kevin's blog, to keep certain folks from ever becoming a part of the church. just in the past few days, as we spent some time in MS at my in-laws, i became aware of 2 churches that may be about to split over similar issues. its happening right here in monticello as we speak, and frankly, it sickens me... it angers me and it breaks my heart. but fortunately for you, this post isnt going to be a rant about how unjust churches can sometimes be. and not that jeff l's was a situation where he was in need of restoration, for it was plain to see from what he wrote that all jeff wanted was to become a part of a local church where he could serve and worship God. but his story of a pastor who said he wasnt welcome at his church prompts me to tell you the story of a friend of mine, and how God used a hurricane, a quest for stones and a little country church to restore, rather than tear down, a fallen brother...

this scene may look familiar to many of you: the laying on of hands. you most often see this during an ordination service, when a God-called man is ordained into the ministry. but more about this photo later on....

back in 1988, while chaperoning a youth trip, i was told by one of the youth ministers on that bus that God was calling me to ministry. i laughed right in his face (and i guess, in His face too). it would be another 2 years before i quit running and finally submitted to God's call on my life... to be a minister to youth. in august of 1990, my wife and i got rid of everything that wouldnt fit into a small u-haul and a church van, and we moved from jackson, MS to new orleans where i began my studies at NOBTS. the first order of business was to find a church home. a family that i had a lot of respect for told us to try williams boulevard baptist church in kenner, just outside new orleans. our first sunday there, i knew we'd found our church. right after we joined, my first question was "where's the youth minister?" he was on vacation that week, but the very next sunday we were introduced to ron dingus. knowing a great find when he saw one :) , he invited us to come and observe and plug in wherever we were needed from week to week. before long, i was serving as associate youth minister... a non-salaried position, but nonetheless, my first church staff position! for the next 21 months, ron taught me everything i know about youth ministry (of course he didnt teach me everything HE knew about youth ministry... he's forgotten more than i'll ever pick up, and besides, 21 months was nowhere near enough time to soak it all up!)

ron is a very interesting guy... he's the product of a broken home, and there wasnt an abundance of spiritual guidance for him growing up in suburban cleveland, ohio. however, he was greatly influenced by the Godly lives of his best friend's family, and against great odds, ron became a Christian and God called him into the ministry. after college, he went to new orleans seminary, and one of his great claims to fame is that he was a part of billy graham's security team during his netherlands crusade back in the 80's. his second great claim to fame was being assigned to accompany a delegation of african evangelists as they went witnessing at a topless beach in the netherlands. much to ron's relief, the witnessing event was cancelled due to inclement weather. ron has also been a youth speaker, taught youth ministry at new orleans seminary, and written a number of articles for Christian publications.

anyway, during our time serving at williams blvd. we became good friends with ron and his wife cheryl. in may, 1992, i was called to my first paid staff position at a church about an hour away in houma, LA but we kept in touch, and our youth groups would often get together. ron eventually entered the PhD. program at seminary. by now he was associate pastor and working toward his doctorate, along with taking on increased responsibilities at church as the pastor's health declined, and we had less and less contact. i moved away from south louisiana to north mississippi, and then to monticello, and we'd exchange an occasional e-mail and talk on the phone a few times a year. i knew ron had much reading to do, seminars to attend, and papers to write, so i just figured his time was at a premium. in late summer of 2004, jim whaley and i went down to new orleans to meet with his coffee supplier, and we stopped in to see ron and cheryl at their seminary apartment, but ron was laid up with a deteriorating knee, and we only got to stay a short time. in may of '05 crissie and i had the opportunity to help chaperone a cruise for our high school seniors, and we arranged to stay overnight at williams boulevard church before boarding our ship. a perfect chance to hook up with ron, i thought, but i only got to spend about 15 minutes with him as he told me he wasnt feeling well and he left for home right after wednesday night prayer meeting. cheryl did accompany us to the french quarter that evening to eat and sight-see, but that was the last time i would talk to ron until later that year, right after hurricane katrina devastated new orleans.....

credit where credit's due...

2006-12-06T23:12:00.000-06:00

how come wegley gets credit for being the first to post his high school pictures on his blog?? mine has been over there in my profile ever since i started this thing!

dean and crissie went to the north georgia mountains, and all i got was this crummy blog entry

2006-12-04T19:51:00.000-06:00

well, our vacation turned into an extended vacation, as my boss was forced to rearrange our last few vacation days from next week and tag them onto this one, so we wont be back until thursday night late.

we went to north georgia to visit our good friend ron, and when we found out about our extra days, decided to stop by the in-laws here in mississippi since we cant be here for the big family Christmas next weekend. so much to write about, but it'll have to wait. i offer this entry simply to make it into jim's friday round-up :)

i will say this for now... i know that there's much bigger mountains out west, but getting to explore the mountains of north georgia and north carolina, replete with breathtaking overlooks and beautiful waterfalls just to name a few of the highlights, i stand in awe of the handiwork of God! talk about a worship experience!

and the story of ron... an even better example of the handiwork of God!! well, until next week..........

introducing... abc homes

2006-11-29T22:00:00.000-06:00

i thought i'd spend a few postings talking about the links over there... no, over THERE, on the sidebar... -->
these organizations, charities and churches are all near and dear to me, and i'd like to introduce you to each of them and tell you why they're so special...
abchomes is the arkansas baptist children's homes and family ministries. remember that guy victor kiam?... he used to be the head of remington shavers. for awhile, he appeared in their commercials, and his famous tagline was "i liked the shaver so much, I bought the company." well, i liked the ministry at abchomes so much, i went to work for them! like my profile says, i was a youth minister for 13 years. actually, i still am. but in the traditional sense of being on staff at a local church, i did that for 13 years. i felt like God wasnt calling me out of youth ministry, but there had to be a more effective way to impact a kid's life besides having a series of hour-long encounters with him ... and 30 of his closest friends. so when the opportunity presented itself (or more accurately, when God dropped the opportunity into our laps) to see what a children's home ministry was all about, we jumped on it... and we loved what we saw.

but this isnt supposed to be about me and what i do... i want to introduce you to the ministry that happens here at the children's home. the website is chock-full of history and info, but in a nutshell, we take kids age 4-17 that for whatever reason cannot live at home. some come from abusive or neglectful backgrounds, and some are placed with us because, for a variety of reasons, they arent able to get along in the home. they may have truancy issues, or defiance issues, or just cant get along with a sibling or parent. for whatever reason, they need a change of environment, and so do their families. referrals are made to us through the courts, dept. of human services, pastors, family friends... a few kids even take it upon themselves to seek out services. in the case of children too young to make decisions for themselves, the guardians and our staff will decide whether or not we will admit that child, but by and large our older children must agree to be admitted to the program. after they come and visit our campus and have interviews with our case managers and houseparents, they have to decide for themselves if they want to take advantage of what we have to offer. and we have plenty to offer!

on our campus, we have a swimming pool, a gym, an outdoor basketball court, a softball field, horses and livestock. our kids attend monticello public schools, and have all the same opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities as the community kids do. we have kids in the school band, the flag line, track team, basketball team, yearbook staff and gymnastics. our kids are also very active in the youth ministries of their churches. we have an active 4-H chapter on campus, the "lucky clovers," and their booth at the drew county fair earned a blue ribbon this year.

aside from all the activity, our main focus is on bringing love, structure and stability into the lives of the children in our care, and most important of all, to expose them to the unconditional, saving love of Jesus. its an absolute honor and privilege to be part of something like that, and a responsibility we do not take lightly. but we cant do it alone. we depend on so many people within our community and across our state for support. countless professionals, from doctors & dentists, to teachers, to hair stylists, help us to care for and nurture our kids on a daily basis. many individuals and groups (including a couple of motorcycle clubs) come from across the state (and beyond!) to minister to our kids and our staff with backyard bible club activities, game days, crafts, cookouts and work groups.

of course it takes a lot to sustain such a ministry to the hundreds of kids that will pass through these gates in the coming years. many churches, organizations and individuals support us through donations of food, clothing, furnishings, tools and money. but the most valuable thing anyone can offer is prayer. there are many ways to get involved with the work we do. to find out how you can get involved in this amazing ministry to these children we serve, feel free to click the abchomes link and find out how. thanks for taking a little bit of time out of your day to stop by and take a ride. see ya on down the road....

merry happy season's holiday's greetings

2006-11-27T03:05:00.000-06:00

i really enjoyed reading everyone's lists of things/people that theyre thankful for, and i enjoyed sharing mine as well. we had a quiet cozy thanksgiving holiday in central florida with my mom. seemed like we drove more than we visited, but that's ok too. hope everybody had a blessed holiday!

i hate that my mom lives so far away (she and my dad moved to florida and built a house in one of those retirement communities down there after he retired), but as many of you probably figured, the upside (besides spending time with my mother) is that i got to drive a bunch! 13 1/2 hours each way to be exact. one of my favorite things to do on a road trip like that, besides listen to music, is to think. i know you're saying to yourself, "dean, i've read that stuff you write... how much thinking do you think we think you do??" so it comes easier for some than others... sue me (<--thinly disguised attempt to direct additional page views to my blog). anyway, on the drive home saturday, i was thinking about something that started to occur to me while watching the news thursday evening. actually, it really started a year or 2 ago when AFA got all upset about certain retail establishments deciding it would be the right thing to do to replace the traditional greeting of "merry Christmas!" with something less "offensive" like "happy holidays!" or "season's greetings!" although, i used to work in retail management, and i can tell you, the closer you get to Christmas day, the less likely that exclamation point is to be at the end of whatever you're greeting your customers with. you know, for years now, the networks have been using "happy holidays" and "season's greetings" in their graphic whenever they break away from football games for commercials, but i guess maybe don wildmon doesnt watch a whole lotta football since he didnt get bent out of shape about it until the retailers hopped on board the PC train.

so, i was all over this... i signed all of don's online petitions, and i was just as righteously indignant as the next guy... until a few days ago. actually, i'm still indignant, but i've had a change in perspective. see, thursday night on the news, they had a reporter out at some shopping center in orlando, and there were these people, at 6:00 p.m. on thursday, lined up around the building waiting for the store (best buy) to open friday morning. they had chairs, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows and tents. i laughed to myself and shook my head. on friday's news, they showed these folks, who were all smiles and nicey-nice the night before while being interviewed on camera, trampling each other and any poor store clerk who happened to be in the way, trying to get to all of best buy's best buys. and we've all no doubt heard the stories of the crazy goings-on in recent years at our very own wal mart... grown men and women physically fighting over the season's must-have items, which are ALWAYS in notoriously short (or as the retailers like to call it, "limited") supply. all in the name of shopping... for gifts... for Christmas... for CHRISTmas. for me, "black friday" has taken on a whole different connotation than it does for the retailers who count on that day to get them out of the red for the year. its a dark day indeed, the way people act toward each other in the name of good cheer and capitalism.

back in my retail days, i was already beginning to get a little jaded and disillusioned by the whole process. we used to have a sales cycle that went something like this at summer's end... back-to-school, halloween, a short-time-frame-with-a-small-display-area-of-thanksgiving-stuff, then Christmas. by time i got out of the business, it was back-to-school, a very-short -time-frame-with-a-relatively-small-display-area-of-halloween-stuff, then Christmas... for a really, really long time... a long enough time that it would actually make you have thoughts like "i can't wait until this is over"... and i hated feeling that way. i've loved Christmas forever. and even though as a kid i was into the gifts, my parents had a really good perspective, and it never got out of hand... and i never lost sight of the fact that Christmas was all about Jesus (i was even joseph in the 1st grade Christmas play!) one year, back in the early 80's, one of the stores in my town had the unmitigated audacity (<-- take THAT, wegley!) to write "merry X-mas" in fake snow in their front window. a bunch of folks got upset, and the error was quickly corrected. little did anyone know that the "X" was to be the least of anyone's worries 20-something years later.

anyway, back to my thinking-and-driving... the more i ran the images from those thursday and friday newscasts through my head, the more it occurred to me that it's better that we don't associate Jesus with this obscenity we've turned Christmas into. i'm not ignorant regarding the traditions surrounding Christmas, and i'm aware that many of them have their origins in paganism. centuries ago, early believers set about to Christianize the already existing pagan festivals and celebrations, though many who have written on the subject believe that the tradition of gift-giving is unique to the Christian celebration of Christmas, and has its roots in the account of the magi bringing gifts to the Christ child. feel free to prove me wrong on that one, but my point is, gift-giving with the right motivation is one of the most heart-felt ways that i can think of to celebrate the holiday. however, crass commercialism has all but buried that notion. i just can't believe that God would look down on what we've turned Christmas into and be pleased to have His Son's name in any way associated with it. i've come to the conclusion that it's preferable, at least in the retail world, to go ahead and let them disassociate themselves as far as they possibly want and can from using my Savior's title to sell their goods. quite frankly, Christmas commercialism seems to have come full circle and more resembles a pagan festival than a celebration of the birth of our King. why pressure the retailers to pay lip service to Jesus being the reason for the season, when they honestly couldnt care less about Him in the first place?

for the record, i love Jesus, i'm a Christmas fanatic, and i get all wrapped up in the "Christmas spirit"... peace, goodwill toward men! and i'm able to maintain that perspective by staying as far away from the mall as i can between thanksgiving and Christmas eve. i keep the gifts simple yet meaningful, and my own gift expectations low. in fact, if someone wanted to give me a gift that would really make my (Christmas) day, they could send a donation to any number of Christian charities in my name. better yet, they could pledge to help support my wonderful friends dave and tina bostian as they prepare to move with their five children to be career missionaries in vitoria da conquista, brazil next year.

there's so many ways we as Christians can and do celebrate the season besides spending the equivalent of the GDP of a developing nation on the latest toys and gadgets. also for the record, i'm a red-blooded american capitalist... i just dont see that embarking on yearly bigger-is-better, shop-til-you-drop, buy-now-pay-later greed fests in the name of the Savior is a very God-honoring thing to do. so they can keep their "season's greetings" and "happy holidays" (really, would you ever dare to sound so silly as to actually say "season's greetings!" to someone??) i think Jesus will do just fine without any help from wal mart, target or circuit city. so i guess this means i'm on don wildmon's naughty list this year....

thank you, Father!

2006-11-21T03:40:00.000-06:00

well, i thought i'd report on my night of star-gazing. as it turned out, the peak night was saturday night/early sunday morning. since there was church sunday morning, with a potluck to follow... which meant getting up early and cooking before church... it was just pretty impractical to go at that time. the article did say that there would still be some amount of activity in the evenings following the peak, so late sunday night we gathered up all the blankets and sleeping bags we could scrounge and headed out to green hill to lie under the stars with my friends and their kids.

if you've never done this before, i'll warn you it isnt for the impatient, especially if you arent out there during the peak period. nonetheless, the kid-in-a-candy-store in me gets all giddy and goofy at the prospect of seeing just ONE shooting star, so i can lay out there for hours watching... waiting. and while there was an occasional sighting, just about everyone gave up within the first hour and filtered back to the warm confines of the house. crissie, tina, her 7 year old daughter christine and myself hung in there, and we finally decided to drive out further to where there was even less light pollution. things got really slow as 1:00 a.m. approached, and as we got ready to call it a night (morning), it was as if God said "wait, here's a little memory for you," and the largest meteor i'm sure i'd ever seen in my 16 years of watching this show hurtled right across our field of vision, and with a flash like lightning, it split in two and blazed out! what a finale!!

but you know what? had there not been a single, solitary meteor or falling star visible that night, it wouldnt have mattered. i got to lie out under a perfectly clear night sky, with people i dearly love, and look at thousands and thousands of stars that my Heavenly Father placed up there for me to enjoy any time i want to! and not only that, He's surrounded me with the magnificence of His handiwork right here on earth... mountains, trees, flowers, rivers, creeks, lakes, ponds, grass, critters and most important of all, people! friends, family, total strangers... made in His image, loved by Him, died for by His Son. so much to be thankful for! so many ways we're blessed!

well here's a little twist on it... while counting your blessings in the days and weeks ahead, take some time to BE a blessing to someone. while you're saying "thank you" to your Father in heaven for all the ways He's blessed you, wouldnt it be really awesome if somewhere someone was telling Him "thank you" for you?

"God of wonders beyond our galaxy....
...the universe declares Your majesty
You are holy... holy!!"
(from "God of Wonders" by marc byrd & steve hindalong)

THANK YOU, FATHER!!

of heaven and the heavens...

2006-11-17T12:16:00.000-06:00

news item: strong leonid meteor shower expected this weekend

one of the neatest things i ever did in my first year as a youth ministry intern while a student at new orleans baptist theological seminary, was to take the group out to the country, away from the city lights, and watch a meteor shower. actually, my friend and mentor ron, who was the youth minister, did the taking... i was just along for the ride. having lived my first 17 years in jersey city, with nothing resembling " out to the country" for miles around, i never knew what the night sky really looked like. a couple of times when i was in elementary school they'd take us on a field trip to the new york planetarium, and we'd sit in these recliners and they'd project a night sky show onto the domed ceiling... and my response would be "how fake is that? you cant see that stuff in the sky for real!" meteors, comets, and shooting stars were things of fairy tales and science fiction. it would be years before i came to appreciate just how much of the heavens are hidden behind light pollution.

that first time i lay down in the middle of a field and watched that meteor shower, i was dumbstruck! who knew?? i'd lived 33 years before i saw my first shooting star. and i havent missed a year of leonid since. i pastored 4 youth groups in the next 12 years, and every year i took my group and drove until the lights of the city were far behind, and we'd just look up and watch... i never had a single group of kids that werent awestruck by the magnificence of God's creation. and every year since i've been at the children's home, i've gone outside and watched... and i'd take a group of kids out with me if they could stay awake that long.

and yet, as awesome as the heavens are to our human senses, the best is yet to be seen! in the book of revelation, the apostle john attempts to give us just a glimpse of what he saw of that magnificent place. rick ousley, pastor of the church at brook hills outside of birmingham, AL spoke at the louisiana youth evangelism conference a number of years ago, and he said that when he was a kid, he would go in the summertime to visit his grandmother. her house was built on the side of a hill, and the ground sloped away from the house, leaving ample crawl space underneath the back porch, and rick would crawl up under the porch to hide or play. one night while lying out under a star-filled sky with his dad, rick asked him what he thought heaven was like. his dad replied by asking what the floorboards of his grandmother's back porch looked like when he would crawl up under there. rick described how they were all dirty, with rusty-looking nails sticking through. there were dead bugs and spider webs all over... it was pretty yicky. and his dad pointed up to the sky above them and said "son, i'm not sure what heaven is going to be like, but there's the bottom of heaven's floorboards, and it just gets better from there."

sunday night, i'll be somewhere out of town... away from the lights of monticello checkin' out heaven's floorboards... wondering what it'll be like to tread on the top-side some day.

yard art

2006-11-11T04:03:00.000-06:00

thursday i went to little rock for an annual
training workshop,and when i got back to campus, i found this in the front yard of the cottage. seems a few of my guys that were raking decided to get a little creative with their work. often times progress is measured in the smallest of steps... you dont know how impressed i was to see this!

learn all about me!!!

2006-11-08T21:56:00.000-06:00

take my quiz!!!!!!!!!

election day tale (or, something to tide me over until i have time to post)

2006-11-07T14:38:00.000-06:00

While walking down the street one day, a senator is
tragically hit by a truck and killed. His soul arrives in
Heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

"Welcome to Heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in,
it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official
around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do
with you."

"No problem, just let me in," says the senator.

"Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What
we'll do is have you spend one day in Hell and one in
Heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity."

"There's no need! I want to be in Heaven," says the senator.

"I'm sorry, but we have our rules." And with that, St. Peter
escorts him to the elevator, the doors open, and he rides
the elevator down, down, down. When the doors open again,
the senator finds himself in the middle of a beautiful green
golf course. In the distance is a club, and standing in
front of it are all his friends and other politicians who
had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and in formal dress. They run to
greet him, and they reminisce about the good times they had
while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a
friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster and caviar.

Also present is the Devil, who is a very friendly guy who
has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having
such a good time that, before the senator realizes it, it is
time to go. Everyone gives him a big hug and waves while the
elevator rises. The elevator goes up, up, up, and the door
reopens in Heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.

So 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of
contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp
and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes
it, the 24 hours have gone by, and St. Peter returns.

"Well, you've spent a day in Hell and another in Heaven.
Now, you must choose where yo! u want t o spend eternity."

He reflects for a minute and then answers, "Well, I would
never would have thought it, I mean Heaven has been
delightful, but I think I would be better satisfied in
Hell."

So Saint Peter escorts him to the elevator, and down, down,
down he goes into Hell. Now, the doors of the elevator open,
and he is in the middle of a barren land covered with waste
and garbage. He sees all his friends dressed in rags,
picking up the trash and putting it in black bags. And it's
hot, hot, hot, and the odor is just horrible.

Sweltering hot. Hot and miserable. The Devil comes over to
him and smoothly lays his arm around his shoulder.

"I don't understand," stammers the senator. "The day before
I was here, and there was a golf course and club, and we ate
lobster and caviar and danced and had a great time. Now all
there is is a wasteland full of garbage, and my friends look
miserable."

The Devil looks at the senator, smiles, and says, "Yesterday
we were campaigning. Today you voted for us."

word of God spoke…

2006-11-02T02:56:00.000-06:00

well, our retreat this past weekend couldn’t have come at a better time. by the time crissie and i get our next days off (nov. 17-20), we’ll have worked 23 straight days! we came back refreshed and renewed, though, and it was an amazing time in an awesome place. while we enjoyed everything about the weekend, God revealed something to me in our one and only adult session (all the other worship/bible study times we shared with the kids). for the 3 years we’ve been going on this retreat, i’ve been a vocal proponent of the houseparents being in the worship and bible study times with the kids rather than having our own small group times, so it was really refreshing (and a bit humbling) that God used my least-liked time slot to speak to me.

harry black, current president of the arkansas baptist state convention and former abchomes board member led the session, and his focus was on “listening to God.” he introduced us to a method called the “lectio divina” which is a slow, contemplative praying of scripture (which I’m also not going to get into the details of. Check it out at this website). where God spoke to me was in the scripture that mr. black chose for us in this exercise. normally the individual chooses his own scripture passage to pray, but for the sake of our limited time, he chose this one for us…

isaiah 61:1-3a:
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

i got really convicted by this because i often lose sight of the calling I’ve been given. i often get so wrapped up in the rules and regulations and in issuing consequences for infractions, that i fail to stay focused on the fact that i've been annointed by God to minister to not just the kids, but every person i come in contact with. my emphasis always seems to gravitate toward enforcement of rules, keeping the cottage clean and neat, paperwork, etc, etc, and while all that is part of the total package, it isnt the ultimate goal. our mission statement for the children’s home is "to develop competent, caring, Christian adults." so while enforcing rules and disciplining is part of developing competent adults, it seems (in my case at least) to get more attention than the "caring, Christian" part, and that's an out-of-balance approach, especially in light of what these verses say.

i think when i was houseparenting young girls, i became pretty good at binding up the brokenhearted, and bestowing the oil of gladness and a crown of beauty. but I often fall short in the other areas this passage talks about, especially living with teenage boys now, which disappoints me as a houseparent and as a Christian, as i've tended to neglect the most important things. however, my disappointment in my shortcomings also serves as my motivation to do things differently, and do them better.

it’s my steadfast belief that the over-arching precept for every Christian should be Christ’s admonition to His disciples in matthew 6:33… “but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” If my main pursuit is for my boys to be obedient, I will fail. If my main objective is to have straight A students, I will fail. If my main goal is to have a spotless cottage, I will fail. But if I seek first the kingdom and the righteousness of God, He has promised me that He will accomplish the rest.

retreat! retreat!

2006-10-27T06:45:00.000-05:00

we leave this morning for our annual agency-wide retreat to beautiful harriet, arkansas at the shepherd of the ozarks retreat center. i wanted in on some of the action over at jim's blog, but i was too beat (and pressed for time) to get it together. i'm interested to see how this thing plays out. appreciate allyour prayers for the weekend. thanks!

there is a way that seems right to a man...

2006-10-26T02:50:00.000-05:00

dont think i have some kind of french fetish all of a sudden, but the other day when i posted about the "paris syndrome" article, it reminded me of something i ran across back in 1995. some (or many) of you might remember this, but surprisingly enough, almost no one i've told or asked has ever heard this story before.

the year is 1965. a french lawyer by the name of andre-francois raffray arranged to buy, under the french system en viager ("for life"), the paris apartment of 90 year old jeanne calment. at $500 a month, not a bad deal for mr. raffray, considering he was only in his mid-40's at the time. even if he only had to make a few months or years worth of payments before mrs. calment's demise, under french law the apartment would be his, and at quite a bargain.

what our hapless lawyer friend didnt know was:
1. that mrs. calment would eventually become the oldest living person in the world, according to the guinness book of world records... and
2. that mrs. calment would outlive mr. raffray by almost 2 years.

andre-francois raffray died on Christmas day, 1995 at age 77. jeanne calment died in august, 1997 at age 122. to add insult to injury, mr. raffray's widow was obligated to continue making payments, and had mrs. calment outlived her, the raffray children and grandchildren would have been on the hook for the $500 per month. when all was said and done, mr. raffray and his wife paid $184,000 for an apartment that was valued at around $60,000, and which mr. raffray never even got to spend a single night in. nothing illegal or even immoral took place here. the elderly property owner receives a steady and predictable monthly income, and, in theory, the buyer gets a heck of a deal on some prime real estate... in theory.

up front it seemed like a pretty smart business deal on the part of mr. raffray, but the apostle paul, writing to the church in corinth, had something to say about the world's idea of what's smart and what isnt...

"do not deceive yourselves. if any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards
of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. for the
wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. as it is written: "He
catches the wise in their craftiness." (1 cor 3:18-20)

we're never told if mr. raffray was a Christian or not, but there's plenty here for the Christian to take note of. its pretty safe to say that as mr. raffray's investment neared the break-even point, he probably began to wonder if he'd done the smart thing after all. by the time of his death, when he'd paid over 3 times what the apartment was worth, he must have held a world record of his own... the biggest case of buyer's remorse ever. how often have we as Christians found ourselves literally consumed by the fallout of some ill-conceived (read: not-prayed-over) idea we've hatched? and its not just our finances that get hijacked, but our energy, our hearts and our minds can get diverted from our Kingdom service as well. when we fall into such traps, it takes our focus off of God and the plans He has for us... nothing will stop a Christian in his tracks faster than guilt and regret. they can suck the life right out of a person. of course, it should be noted that at such times in our walk, our focus was no doubt already off of Him, hence the reason for many of the mistakes we make.

God gave us our brain, and He wants us to use it. mark wegley has an awesome (long, but awesome) post about this right here. but just like if somebody were to give me the most souped up mac on the market, i'd be tracking down jeff noble for as much guidance as i could get before booting that sucker up. in the same way, God wants us to seek Him out when we have decisions to make, and herein lies the value of hiding His Word in our heart.

truth be known , i had actually intended to publish this post before "this world is not our home," but for reasons unknown to me at the time, i went ahead and posted that one first. after hearing and reading tj's and mark's responses, i realize God wanted to use that post at that particular time, and i'm humbled and awestruck by the thought. oh that i would always be so sensitive to His leading...

this world is not our home

2006-10-24T00:27:00.000-05:00

news item: "Paris Syndrome" leaves tourists in shock

at first i figured well, while the french can behave rather idiotically at times, surely nobody's shocked anymore. but then i read the article, and it seems "paris syndrome" has a particularly adverse effect on the japanese. seems their culture is so foreign to that of the french, that unsuspecting travelers end up suffering from a wide variety of mental ailments after just a short time in gay paree. says one such tourist, who calls herself aimi: "for us, paris is a dream city. all the french are beautiful and elegant ... and then, when they arrive, the japanese find the french character is the complete opposite of their own."

the first thing i wondered was, if paris is such a shock to the system, how come the japanese love new york so much? maybe because they dont have such grand illusions of the big apple...

then another thought struck me... how come we Christians often dont suffer from "earth syndrome"? why are we sometimes so at home in a place that is the complete opposite of what our heavenly home is? i'm not saying that this place should make us crazy, but neither should it become our "dream city." Jesus said we should be in the world but not of it. i had a sunday school teacher who was very fond of saying "you can be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good." i'm not buying that for a minute. dont get me wrong, i'm not one to sit around pining for the day that Jesus takes me home, but if my mind isnt on heavenly things, how can i possibly reflect His light in a dark world?

there are 2 things that motivate me to share the Gospel... one is the very thought that God loved me so much that He sacrificed His Son for me. He suffered and died... and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for my sin. the other is the fact that the ultimate reward for accepting that free gift is spending eternity in heaven with Him, and i want as many people as possible to be there with me!

but for now, i'm here. i'm just a pilgrim, a guy traveling through. a stranger in a strange land. i have a job to do while i'm here, but at the end of the trip, i'm history, and there'll be no looking back. the japanese have expectations of beauty and elegance that paris can never live up to... i, on the other hand, have expectations that can never live up to the beauty and elegance of my heavenly home.

"red rover, red rover, we call the principal on over"...

2006-10-19T08:10:00.000-05:00

news item: massachusetts elementary school bans tag
can duck duck goose be far behind? are these people for real? kids have played tag, touch football, and any number of other "unsupervised chase games" since the beginning of time... give or take a few millenia. people have become afraid of their own shadows anymore. i hate to put all the blame on trial lawyers, but i do understand how our increasingly litigious society would cause a school to stop and think. but if we're going to start suing over a game of tag or two-hand touch, something's seriously amiss.

how do you have school boards across the country coming out with all kinds of school nutrition guidelines because our kids are too fat (and they are), and then right on the heels of that, you tell them they arent allowed to exert themselves at recess? (btw, i had this written this morning before whaley told me fox news already worked that angle). you watch... it wont be too long before somebody sues some school somewhere because their kid was denied proper exercise, and now he's even more obese than he was from eating twinkies and kool aid for lunch before bill clinton single-handedly (dont believe it? just ask him) removed junk food from school lunch menus.

also, they made a pretty fine point of making sure we all know they are banning "unsupervised chase games" from the playground... as opposed to what?? what exactly constitutes a supervised chase game? i submit to you that a parent inclined to sue (read: greedy, opportunistic and/or highly susceptible to the advances of ambulance-chasing lawyers) would be even MORE inclined to do so if there was supervision ("you mean to tell me that there were teachers right there and my kid still got hurt??")

[a little side note concerning ambulance chasers... not even 2 weeks after filing workman's comp to recoup medical expenses from my wife's OTJ injury and subsequent surgery, we've already received letters from 2 lawyers who scour new workman's comp claim files in search of people they can entice to sue somebody, ANYBODY even remotely connected to the accident. in this case it would boil down to the owner of the property where the horseback riding accident occurred, or the owner of the horse she was riding... the former is a fellow church member, the latter is a co-worker, and even if we werent related to them in those capacities, suing would never be a consideration].

so, how far do we carry this nonsense? when mark wegley writes stuff like "pseudo-intellectual, equine laxations" when commenting on my blogs, can i sue him for making my brain hurt? when jeff noble gets through explaining to me the finer points of "parking a domain", can i sue him for making my brain hurt?? enough with the lawsuits already... probably the most disturbing thing in the whole article was the last quote, attributed to one celeste d'elia, whose son is a student at the school in question. says she: "i've witnessed enough near collisions." OH PLEASE! i guess we better start sending our kids to school dressed like this--> ma'am, with all due respect, please dont emasculate your son... he's an elementary school boy. its his job to have collisions.

one last thing... how come schools are so worried about what parents might do to them for allowing their kids to run around on the playground, yet be so insensitive about parents' concerns over things like giving their children birth control without their knowledge or permission, or forcing them to sit through indoctrinations into islam or homosexuality without their approval? talk about swallowing a camel and straining at a gnat.

ok, i give up...

2006-10-18T15:29:00.000-05:00

i've had my eye on all the construction at mcdonalds for awhile now, and i pretty much have everything figured out except those steel beams they stuck in the ground right in front that dont appear to have anything to do with anything.

i bet jeff noble has the scoop on this, but anybody that knows, clue me in...

the parable of the workers revisited

2006-10-16T11:05:00.000-05:00

at my job, besides being house-pappy to 8 teenage boys, there are various and sundry other duties we have to fulfill on a daily basis. when i first started here, my "other duties as assigned by supervisor" (the default catch-all at the end of every job descripition at every place i've ever worked at, including union jobs) was to run transportation, which involves getting kids where they need to be when they need to be there. of course it involved DRIVING, which was just icing on the cake for me. so it sort of blows my mind that just about everyone else who has ever done this job hates it. as time went by and they realized i could be better utilized doing maintenance projects, i was taken off of transportation.

recently due to unique circumstances, i was re-assigned (temporarily) to transportation, and of course, i'm lovin it! even on the worst day of the week for appointments, its the easiest job i've ever had in my life, and i just eat it up. so as i was tooling around in the great outdoors the other day, i got to thinking about why some folks will do everything in their power to avoid something that they knew they were going to have to do when they signed up for the job. i get especially amused by pro athletes, who make obscene amounts of money to play games, and then they want to re-negotiate a legal and binding contract to get even more obscene amounts of money for having a good time, and for only a few months out of the year at that. if ed superstar signed a 5 year contract to play catch with the quarterback for 20 mil, great for him and his agent. then bob superduperstar signs for 35 mil and then it hits the fan and ed refuses to show up for mini camp unless his contract is re-negotiated. i say, more power to bob and HIS agent for making a better deal. ed, in 5 years, its your turn again.

so after feeling all self-righteous for about a minute, because after all, i have way more morals than people like ed, i remember back to when i was in seminary and working maintenance at a hospital in new orleans. we were helping a doctor move from one office to another, and we spent the entire shift lugging exam tables and boxes of files from one building to the next. because i was taking night classes, i had to leave about an hour early, and one of the guys from the next shift took over for me. the next day, the doc gave us all 20 bucks for helping him (even though we were all on the clock), including the guy that worked for an hour after i left. man, did that fly all over me! i worked 7 hours, and he worked 1 hour, and we both got a jackson for our troubles.
then it dawned on me what a bozo i was being. in the first place, i was already being paid by the hospital to do the job i was doing. in the second place, it was the doctor's money, and he could do whatever he wanted with it. some folks wouldnt see it that way, and i'm no beacon of virtue for figuring it out either. it was only because of the conviction of God's Holy Spirit, and He used scripture i had hidden in my heart to convict me with. in matthew 20, Jesus told the story of the workers in the vineyard, and while the point He was making wasnt so much about wages as it was about the sovereignty and grace of the Father, the principle still applies. as a child of God, He will meet my needs as i seek His kingdom. and if He provides for my needs, and someone else's needs AND wants are provided to them, what is that to me??

in my sunday morning Bible study we talked about being content. i'm not always a big fan of that word, because sometimes it conveys COMPLACENCY, but really those are 2 different words entirely. whereas contentment is satisfaction with what God has blessed me with, complacency is satisfaction with what i've done for myself, often at my own peril. as i live my life for Him daily, i desire more contentment and less complacency.

about bellevue...

2006-10-09T22:25:00.000-05:00

it was pointed out to me by a friend of mine that i may have left an inaccurate impression in my "warrenism" post, and after re-reading it for myself, i tend to agree. i was surprised to hear that there was a terrible rift threatening to tear bellevue baptist church apart, and so i was checking things out to see what was going on, and after following a number of links, found myself at a site called stateofthechurch.com. this site is solely devoted to trashing purpose driven, rick warren and what's come to be known as the "church growth movement." it was at this site that i found a particularly disturbing page that misrepresented the truth (and even told several out and out lies) concerning what happens when a church is transitioned to a purpose driven church. that was what i intended to be the sole focus of the "warrenism" post.

anyway, the way i made the leap from talking about the situation at bellevue baptist, to talking about the lies against purpose driven made it seem that i was lumping the folks that are at odds with their pastor at bellevue in with the anti-warren crowd at stateofthechurch. i dont have a dog in that race over at bellevue, and i dont know any current members there. however, i do have a huge amount of respect and admiration for the late adrian rogers, and considering he pastored bellevue for over 30 years, that sentiment sort of carries over to the church as well. also, it grieves me whenever ANY local church goes through such turmoil, regardless of who may be in the wrong.

however, i'm learning that in such a public forum as the blogosphere its a whole 'nother ballgame than emailing privately with a friend, and i always want to be accountable for the things i write and how i write them (not that i'd ever say one thing in public and another in private, but because i know many that read the blog wont know my heart that well, i have to be more concise and not assume that everyone knows exactly where i'm coming from).

that being said, i feel i need to retract a statement i made in my last post. while on my way to making my point about the lies against purpose driven, i had said that if the things that steve gaines is being accused of turn out to be true, then he should resign. in all my church-going life, i have NEVER called for the resignation of the pastor of my own church, much less the pastor of a church i have no connection with. the proper thing to do would be for pastor gaines to examine himself and repent if and where repentance is needed. if in this time of self-examination the Holy Spirit impresses upon him that his ministry and the ministry of bellevue would best be served by his resignation, then he should follow the conviction of the Spirit. i dont believe he should resign because of pressure brought to bear by any group within or outside the church, but only at the urging of God's Holy Spirit. repentance where repentance is due should be the first objective whether there is a resignation or not. if reconciliation can be achieved, all the better.

this holds true for the savingbellevue camp as well. i've read volumes from both sides, and without knowing any of these folks, it's hard to say what's what. there's humility and arrogance in abundance on both sides of the issue, and the fact it has blown up in such a public way has not pleased God at all.

so to summarize... my beef is not with steve gaines or anyone with concerns about him. i hope there would be honesty and transparency from both sides, and my prayers are with both. i think it was unfortunate that savingbellevue chose to link to the stateofthechurch website, and i would hope that they'd do a little more research and disassociate themselves from the lies and half-truths being put forth from those folks. after all, i find it hard to believe that a church that has grown from a tiny log cabin to 29,000 members could be anti-church growth!

"warrenism"?? purpose-driven church under attack

2006-10-07T05:37:00.000-05:00

wow… where to begin. first of all, I had no idea that there was so much downright hatred toward rick warren and purpose driven. i mean i’m not so naïve to think everybody buys into his methodology (heck, I don’t even buy into every aspect of it), but I really had no idea. i first got a clue when I was referred to the brewing controversy over at bellevue baptist in memphis, and the more i dug, the crazier things seemed to get. and the more links i clicked, the deeper i got lost in the labyrinth (<--75 cent word!!) of websites and blogs. i should have left a trail of breadcrumbs because i almost didn’t find my way back out. (ironically, when just for fun I checked synonyms for “labyrinth” one of the words that came up was… “warren”!) now, let me just say that the whole steve gaines (senior pastor of bellevue) thing seems pretty bizarre, and if what some are saying he did is true, he should resign. however, that isn’t what i wanted to address (in this post, anyway). while at savingbellevue.com (a site put up by a deacon opposed to pastor gaines), i linked up to http://www.stateofthechurch.com/ its not really clear who’s behind this site, but whoever he or they is/are, they are dead-set against what they call the church growth movement, and the two people they believe are the driving force behind it: rick warren and bill hybels. while i was checking that site out, i clicked the following link, and that’s when i decided to get enraged… uh, i mean engaged. not too many things i dislike more than misrepresentations and outright lies. to make sense of the rebuttal I emailed to the website (which appears below), you’ll need to click the above-referenced link and check out the issues they raise, and the very misleading topic titles assigned to said issues. the article they have taken exception to was written for pastors.com by chuck mcalister, senior pastor of church at crossgate center in hot springs, ar. the links on the “transition an established church” page will take you to different sections of the mcalister article. it’s many of those link titles that i have big problems with.

as i said, i don’t subscribe to every single strategy that pastor warren or pastor mcalister espouse, but there are better ways to challenge somebody’s methodology than to tell out-and-out lies about it. if Christians cannot dialog without lying and misrepresenting the facts, we have even more serious issues within the body of Christ than i thought. what i will say about the so-called church growth movement is that i believe they have it right so far as the big picture is concerned. they empower and encourage individual Christians to utilize their talents and spiritual gifts to go into their communities and do ministry. its through this strategy that churches like saddleback have grown. the only importance that warren places on the numbers is that every number represents a soul being impacted by the gospel message as its not just preached, but also as its lived out in the lives of believers. this is what i alluded to in my comment on jim whaley’s first quote from the book “organic church.”

well as i’ve looked back at all the links i inserted into the paragraphs above, i seem to have created my own little labyrinth, haven’t i… bring plenty of bread crumbs.

my email to stateofthechurch.com:
dear sir(s):

i read with quite a bit of interest and concern some of your self-titled topics on your "transitioning" page, and i have a few questions/comments.

several of your topics are quite misleading, which becomes quite obvious to any balanced person who happens to click the link and read what's actually there. for example...

- "change church name (remove baptist)": nowhere in the text does it state "remove baptist" from the name of the church. while some churches do indeed decide to remove "baptist" from their name, many do not.

-"let-um go if they don't like it": that is a very misleading statement in light of what one reads after clicking on the link:

"You must remember that the transition will not please everyone - that would be impossible. Do not abandon your vision to appease a person or even a group of persons who choose to leave. God will send other leaders to take their place. This is the most difficult part of the process for some pastors because we are wired to please people. You must remember that pleasing God is what matters; besides, the church does not belong to you or a disgruntled church member. It belongs to Jesus Christ. We are simply called to do what God says is best for His church."

so what would you propose to do about church members who choose of their own volition to leave the church? force them to stay? the implication of your wording is to turn those church members out, when in fact what the author is saying is if they choose to leave, GRACIOUSLY allow them to do so. again, very misleading.

-"remove baptist name": same as my first point above. nowhere in the text of the article did they specifically say to drop "baptist" from the name. additionally, no matter what they changed the name to, the article is very clear that the church members' support was enlisted for the name change.

-"sermon notes on IMAX": how do you equate a church video projection system with an IMAX theater? you do realize that IMAX is approximately 5 stories high, and wider than the peripheral vision of the audience in order to give a sense of "being there". IMAX doesnt lend itself well to simple projection of song lyrics (with maybe an aesthetically pleasing background). i believe you grossly exaggerated this point, perhaps out of ignorance, perhaps out of vindictiveness. additionally, i know of many people, particularly the elderly, who have poor eyesight which makes trying to follow along from a hymnal difficult, if not impossible. many of these folks are very appreciative of having the song lyrics projected because the text is large enough for them to see.

-"rewrite old hymns": another misrepresentation of what the author actually wrote. introducing new arrangements of hymns is a far cry from re-writing old hymns. by the way, are you aware that many of our most beloved hymns are merely re-writes (lyrically) of old saloon songs? no one seems to have much of a problem with singing Godly words to the tune of an old drinking song. why do so many people have a problem with singing those same Godly lyrics to a different arrangement of the music??

-"phase out organ and piano, bring in guitar and drums": what the author wrote was "gradually de-emphasize piano and organ..." there is a big difference between phasing out and de-emphasizing. in order to bring other instruments into the mix, of course the instruments that formerly garnered all the musical attention must be de-emphasized. the author never made the case for getting rid of the piano and organ. furthermore, why do you have a problem with guitars and drums? are you not aware that psalm 150 pretty much includes all types of musical instruments to be used to praise God? i'm not even real sure that there was any sort of instrument that would have been comparable to an organ back in Bible times. the organ might very well be the most "unbiblical" of the instruments mentioned in this discussion. you shouldnt equate 18th, 19th and 20th century worship forms with "the only right way" to worship.

-"reshape the core members thoughts": you make this sound like some sort of insidious brain washing. the author is merely stating that many church members have operated under the belief that their spirituality is somehow connected to how busy they are for God. that sounds an awful lot like works-based salvation to me, and i agree that those people need a (literally) healthy dose of re-education. surely you would agree that it isnt healthy for the church or the people that a very few should shoulder all the work. ALL of us should be involved in the ministries of the local church. however, i also know that some folks feel that they have "control" if they can monopolize things, so new members or even long-time members that have never been involved before are shut out because those that have "done it" for so many years dont want anyone else involved. this is neither healthy or biblical.

-"kiss them goodbye and good reddens": i assume you mean good "riddance." it is nonetheless another of your misleading topic titles. the author specifically states that the departure of some church members is a heart-breaking experience. he goes on to state "you love them and you want what is best for them..." how do you get an attitude of "good riddance" from that?

well, that pretty much covers the misrepresentations. however, i was curious about some of the other topics you focused on, and wanted to ask you about those if i may.

why do you have such a problem with reaching the unchurched? is that not the essence of the Great Commision? do you feel threatened by the possibility of new believers joining your church? if so, why?

concerning adopting new by-laws: what problem do you have with adopting by-laws that "comply with the biblical structure for a church"? dont you want your church's structure to model the structure of a new testament church?

concerning a church covenant: your topic states that it is a new covenant. what i get from what the author wrote was that he isnt necessarily espousing replacing an existing church covenant, but rather introducing a covenant where none existed before. however, as with new by-laws, if the church covenant needs re-working in order to help members grow spiritually and personally, why is that a problem?

about dismissing staff that dont go along with changes being made. i dont know you, but i would suspect that you would have no problem dismissing the author if he were a staff person in your own church because you disagree with his vision for ministry within the church. if i'm wrong, please accept my apology. in any event, in order for a church to move in a certain direction, no mater what that direction may be, all staff must be on the same page. how could a pastor, a shepherd, lead a flock toward green pastures if some of the under-shepherds are trying to lead the flock in another direction, or simply trying to make the flock stay put?

not interested in swapping church members... i dont even know what to say to this. i cant even imagine that you would have a problem with this statement. do you mean to tell me that you would condone taking members from other churches in your area? our churches dont need to be "sheep stealing" but rather going out and gathering lost sheep into the fold.

"identify the 'power people' (possible troublemakers)": i respectfully challenge you to show me where the author ever used the term "possible troublemakers." i am tempted to assume that you may be a "power person" in your church, and you feel threatened by change. power people feel threatened by change because change may mean they can no longer control the church. they should feel threatened, and they should not be in control. if i've mis-characterized you, again, accept my apology. in the case of churches where deacons are the power people, the author was dead on target when he said they should be moved to a servant role. the book of
acts makes it perfectly clear that the role of a deacon is to be a servant. period. deacons do not run the church. deacons should not run the church. deacons should be too busy tending to the needs of the church members to have the time or energy to want to run the church.

changing of the church structure: the author plainly stated that the church family readily embraced this. if the church body is in favor, why is there a problem for you? and the new structure has enabled the church members to utilize their spiritual gifts more effectively in
order to carry out the ministries of the church. surely you dont have a problem with that, right?

starting activities for men... i'm speechless that you would have any problem with this at all. what would be your alternative to having God-centered fellowship opportunities for the men of
your church... or the women or the children for that matter?

i hope i havent overwhelmed you with my many questions. i'm just a curious type of person i guess. i'm also passionate about the work of the church in my community, and the world. our churches and our church people need to be equipped to carry out the great commission. there are well over a billion people in our world that have yet to hear the gospel, and any church that can make changes necessary to more efficiently carry out the great commission is a church that God is well pleased with.

thank you for your time.
in His service,
dean m. cirelli

not an "i told you so"...

2006-10-04T08:18:00.000-05:00

... but perhaps a little vindication. don wildmon finally caught up with the rest of the world and sent out his action alert with the pre-requisite petition concerning veggie-gate. i guess he was waiting for nbc to hand down their decision concerning madonna and her faux-crucifixion stunt, and whether they were going to edit it out of her upcoming special (SURPRISE!!! they left it in). that worked out for bro. don because then he could really go to town on nbc (they get the double whammy... God bad, madonna good).

anway, in his action alert, he quoted phil vischer from another article, in which mr. vischer stated that had he known how much censorship NBC would exercise, he would not have signed on for the network deal. so while some may see a castrated veggie tales as being better than no veggie tales at all, not even the guy who created the franchise thinks this deal turned out all that great.

of course, what IS great about the whole thing is that God IS bigger than the boogie man (and the nbc censors), so i have no doubt that what man intended for evil, God intended for good... a romans 8:28 moment where some kid somewhere will get his parent to buy him some REAL veggie tales videos. and maybe what God wanted us to learn from this all along is that He will do exceedingly well even when we mess it up. after all, in our weakness, He is strong!

God and mammon

2006-10-03T07:52:00.000-05:00

news item: COURT SAYS TITHING NOT AN OPTION FOR THE BANKRUPT

well, this is one i can see both sides of, although the law, the way it's written is certainly flawed. to cut to the chase, in 2005 congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. part of this law states that if a person or family makes more than their state's median income, that person or family cannot include their tithe (or any charitable giving) as part of their living expenses, which must be reported to the banruptcy court. the 1998 law, which the new law replaces, allowed tithing and charitable giving in all bankruptcy cases. a more detailed explanation of how the new law affects filers can be found here.

i couldnt find any statistics to reflect who files and why, but basically you have 2 categories of bankruptcy filers:
1) honest hard-working people that either fall on hard times (laid off, injured, etc) or, due to the actions of others who have failed to pay them what they owe, are unable to pay their own creditors. having been a paint contractor for almost 10 years, i've seen a number of self-employed tradesmen lose their business, and pretty much everything else they have, because someone they did work for wouldnt (or couldnt) pay them for their services. they in turn, are unable to pay for materials or labor, and are often forced into bankruptcy.
2)unscrupulous or irresponsible people who run up an impossible mountain of debt, and skip out on it by filing bankruptcy.

the law obviously needs fixing. even the authors of the bankruptcy protection act (sen. orrin hatch, sen. chuck grassley, sen. jeff sessions) were caught off guard by the way the law was interpreted by the judge in new york. i would hope part of the fix would include a way to distinguish between those who were forced into bankruptcy by circumstances beyond their control, and those who irresponsibly run up needlees debt and then walk away. also, that whole median income thing is something that needs to be scrapped altogether. what in the world that has to do with anything is beyond me. if you make $10,000 and have $100,000 in debts you can't pay, or if you make $100,000 and have $10,000,000 in debts you can't pay seems immaterial to me. the circumstances under which a person has filed for bankruptcy should carry more weight than whether or not their income is above or below the median income of the state in which they live.

it is indeed a poor witness for a Christian to fail to honor their obligations, and i can certainly see the point of a creditor who would have a problem with someone continuing to tithe to their local church while they -the creditor - have been left holding the (empty) bag. at the same time, i see no place in the bible where God make exceptions for His people not to give back to Him what is His to begin with.

so, to borrow a phrase from bill o'reilly... what say you??

wild horses

2006-10-02T03:29:00.000-05:00

...one of my all-time favorite rolling stones songs. the whole "wild horses" thing hit really close to home this weekend when my wife decided to go horseback riding with a group of our kids. at 11:00 saturday, i got a phone call saying that she'd had an accident and an ambulance was on the way to get her and take her to drew memorial. all the info i had was that the horse took off all at once and she lost her balance and hit a tree. on the way to the hospital i called her mom in MS, then i called in some prayer support... i dialed up my road warrior jim "dad" whaley, and my dearest friend and sister-i-never-had, tina b. not surprisingly at all, i got way more than i asked for. not only did they pray and tell others to pray, but both got to the hospital right after i did to lend their moral support as well. jim stayed until right before the ambulance got there, and then he had to get back to mind the store. tina stayed with me until they allowed me to go in back to be with crissie. later in the day when we were about to be discharged, i suddenly realized that between the EMT's and the folks at the ER, most of her clothing had been cut off of her (well, not her jeans anyway), and jim and denise came back to the hospital and brought some shirts so we could get home with some shred of dignity.

my co-workers jumped in without having to be asked and covered for me while i was at the hospital, as well as the rest of saturday and all day sunday. days off are few and far between around here, so i thank them for unselfishly offering to come back to work so i could be at crissie's side.

the ambulance folks from MASI were outstanding and did a great job for her, and i appreciate all they did to stabilize her and get her safely to the hospital. we were really fortunate... she got away with a broken wrist, 3 broken ribs and an array of bumps, bruises, scrapes and scratches... the thought of crashing into a tree while falling off a horse at full gallup conjured up images i didnt even want to consider.

i'm truly overwhelmed at the care and concern we continue to receive... we've had more food brought to us than you'd see after any funeral, and one of the girls we used to care for even bought crissie a 24-pack of dr. pepper, a gift of high value (to crissie anyway) if ever there was one! so many have called and stopped by to see how we're doing.

all this outpouring of love has reminded me of how it must have been in the early days of the Church, and God expects nothing less of His people today. in acts 2:42-47, the Christian community came together thusly:

42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

that last part of verse 47, where the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved... that, friends, is a direct result of folks looking at our lives, and seeing how we treat each other in His name. see, we dont have to be bold orators or great teachers. st. francis of assissi once said "preach the gospel always... when necessary, use words." some very kind and heartfelt words have been spoken to us this weekend, but by far what has been most meaningful are the expressions of Christian love and kindness that have come our way!

yeah, the stones had a hit on their hands with "wild horses", but just a few years prior, a guy by the name of peter scholtes wrote a more excellent song...
"...and they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love; yes they'll know we are Christians by our love."

tj scott.. you tha man!! (and an honorable mention to jim whaley too!)

2006-09-28T08:18:00.000-05:00

i've gotten a number of great compliments about my bloghead, and i wanted to give all credit where all credit is due. the minute i decided on a title for the blog, i had this image in my mind of a 50-something model cadillac. i searched around until i found just what i was looking for (although i'd have preferred a black one instead of red, but it was the exact profile of the car that i envisioned in my head... plus, with the black template i'm using [another great tj scott idea] a black caddy would have been almost invisible). i used that pic in my first posting, and was in dad's place the next day and was kind of wishing out loud that i was talented and knowledgable enough to figure out how to put that pic in my header.

jim whaley, never one to sit on a good idea, told tj what i was thinking about, and tj took the ball (or the cadillac in this case) and ran with it. the highway scene that takes up the majority of the header was all tj's brainchild, and it really does look awesome! i would never have thought of adding that element, but its so much cooler than just having the car acros the top of the page.

so be sure to drop some compliments on their blogs for making it happen for me... and if you talk real nice and buy him lots of drinks from dad's, i bet tj'd hook you up too! in fact if you havent seen tj's bloghead, click his link to the right and check it out too!

THANKS TJ AND JIM!!

Jesus on the cutting room floor

2006-09-27T09:29:00.000-05:00

news item: NBC SLICES AND DICES VEGGIE TALES

in a nutshell, nbc has picked up veggie tales for its saturday morning cartoon block. i feel certain that phil vischer, veggie tales creator, saw a great opportunity to put some God-honoring, moral and decent fare on network television, and he jumped on it... maybe it looked like such a great opportunity that he moved a little too fast, and didnt dot all his i's and cross all his t's before signing on the dotted line. because veggie tales is a straight-to-dvd production, naturally some editing would have to be done for commercial-heavy network television viewing. apparently what ol' phil possibly failed to consider was what the peacock network would want to see left out of the final product. he says they originally told him only the bible verse at the end would have to go, but now everything "God" about veggie tales is history (on saturday mornings that is). so, some folks are moaning and groaning about how mean nbc is, and how double-minded they are, and how anti-God hollywood is.

and while all that's true, is anybody really surprised?? what did people expect? i know phil vischer and the rest of the crew over at big idea have more talent in the little finger of their non-mouse hand than i do in my entire body. but if i ever were to stumble upon a Godly idea so fantastic that any network or cable company would consider wanting it, i think i'd be danged sure that i had an iron-clad contract and full creative control.

as the article mentioned (well its more of an op-ed piece than an article), this is the same nbc that fought tooth and nail for the "right" to use the f-word on the golden globes. maybe that would lead one to believe that God would be pretty safe territory for kids on a saturday morning. me, i was more shocked that phil vischer was caught off guard than i was at how hard the nbc censors slammed their jack-booted foot down on his neck. heck, even don wildmon hasnt sent me an email and a petition to sign on this one, and he gets pretty worked up about stuff that should be pretty obvious to us all by now.

but this is all just a drop of water in the ocean, friends. we're still by far the freest country on earth (for more on this, read this excellent post from tj scott). nobody's kicked in the doors to our churches yet, and that day is still a long ways off (unless God gets as tired of us as He used to get with israel, and humbles us good when we least expect it).

i'm afraid that phil vischer has cast his pearls before swine on this one, and that's too bad. it really was a great opportunity, and maybe theres a few lessons for the rest of us in the Christian community to glean from this unfortunate turn of events. as Jesus told His disciples when He sent them out in matthew 10:16, "...be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." here's praying that we all heed that instruction as we go out to shine our light in a dark and treacherous world.

speaking of road trips...

2006-09-26T01:08:00.000-05:00

i want to take a minute to thank my friend and purveyor of caffeine, jim whaley, for his kind words and his warm welcome to the blogosphere. he made mention of the virtues and medicinal qualities of the proverbial road trip, which reminded me of one particular road trip that he and i took a couple of years ago. jim was in the process of fulfilling a dream of his... to open his own coffee house. he tracked down a supplier in new orleans, and had to go down to make the initial purchase of supplies and product, as well as learn how to make the stuff with their equipment.

knowing of my undying love for all things new orleans (i went to seminary there and lived and worked there for 9 years), and having signed on as painter/plumber/electrician/maintenance man for his budding business, he asked me to ride along. i thought i was making like priceline and hooked us up with a room at the providence house, the official size and weight hotel of the new orleans baptist theological seminary. i told the desk clerk that i was a distinguished alumnus, and i wanted the special distinguished alumni rate. i dont remember exactly when it was that i finally told jim we got the same rate everybody gets, but it was still considerably cheaper than anyplace else in town. after we checked in, we hit the quarter and jackson square. we ate muffellatas at cafe maspero's, we walked the quarter, we pointed and laughed as we passed by starbucks, and we even dropped into the ultra-trendy, super-chic canal place and checked out the facilities... only the best for us. i rang up a former youth group member of mine who was now a seminary student herself, and she and a few friends met us at cafe dumond (what, you thought jim whaley was gonna spend a weekend in new orleans and NOT kick it at dumond?)

saturday we were up bright and early and got the tutorial treatment from the folks at new orleans coffee works... they even got me to try some stuff (prior to this, it would have had to be 50 below with a gun to my head for me to put a cup of coffee to these lips). pretty good stuff, it turns out. after jim spent all his money and promised to send them his daugher as final payment, we were back on the road home.

ah, the road trip! my wife, she prefers to fly. its a nice novelty... if you can get a window seat and fly at night. but there's nothing like settling in behind the wheel and tooling down the interstate to one great destination or another. this Christian life is a lot like that. its a journey... the apostle paul describes it as a race, but not a sprint... nor hurtling through the stratosphere in a pressurized aluminum tube, in a giant hurry to get there and get back. its more like a marathon... or a road trip. take in the sights, experience places and faces along the way. leave your mark, make a difference.

jim, thanks for the invite, and for turning me on to great coffee. oh, hang on, let me pull over so the nice officer can get by. well gosh, he must want to say hi... he's stopping right behind us.......

on the road...

2006-09-23T17:12:00.000-05:00

as with vcr's, computers, dvd players, dialup internet connections, dsl internet connections and hummus(??), i always said i'd never have need of a blog. well, i was wrong all those times, and i was wrong this time too. i've never thought i was interesting enough, and if i did have something interesting to say, why wouldnt i just email it to whoever i wanted to say it to and be done with it? then all these people i know started blogging about stuff like racism on school campuses, and where the heck are all the youth in our churches going, so i figured, well, you still dont have to have a blog, you can just comment on other peoples' blogs. well, no, you cant. not unless you have a blog. so now i have a blog...

"ridin with the King" has a lot of significance to me...

#1, its a killer song. most folks attribute it to b.b. king and eric clapton, but go back to 1983 and find the original on john hiatt's album of the same name.

b) i love driving, but before i loved driving, i loved riding. oh the places we would go! (apologies to dr. seuss) the drive from jersey city to my aunt's house in teaneck was all of about 30 minutes, but it seemed like we were going cross-country, baby! imagine my sheer ecstacy when we actually piled in the car (me, my dad and my uncle) and drove to MICHIGAN! 16 straight hours of asphalt heaven! so, when the momentous occasion finally arrived (my 17th birthday, the year of every teenager's emancipation in new jersey) and i got my license, it was all over... except for that part about not having my own car. dad was kind of funny that way... HE had to buy his own first car, and the tradition was passed down.

finally, but most significantly, there came a time in my life when i figuratively had to slide on over to the passenger side and let the King take the wheel. i got to driving down some pretty dangerous roads... they were wide and spacious for sure, but they were deadly. so He swung the car around and we got on this narrow little road. and it isnt always a smooth road by any means, but its fun, and its an adventure even better than driving all night to michigan, cause i'm riding with the King.

now then... where'd them racists and disaffected teenagers get off to...........