A little blog from an upstart theologian that will do its best to exemplify Christ while sharing a thing or two along the way.
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| Preachin's Blog A little blog from an upstart theologian that will do its best to exemplify Christ while sharing a thing or two along the way. |
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Thursday, March 24, 2005 Ti-VangelizedHere's an interesting article on the changing culture of our offices thanks to the lovely TiVo: click here! I think its pretty interesting that our world is quickly getting to be more "on-demand." The implications of this  technology are mighty. Certainly we can see the immediate issues of it allows us to continue in our normal schedules, even adding more to our plates, and can still be plugged into the cultural mainstream. Even more pressing is the ability (if you are technologically adept...which most of our under-35 crowds is) to record the particular show, drop it to a handheld (like the new PSP) and go. The urban implications with this are unlimited: sitting on the metro into work, watching last night's episode of my favorite prime-time show, sipping a mocha. Since you can skip commercials, an hour long show is only forty minutes long. Imagine what is going to happen to media if we continue to compress. Furthermore with the burgeoning national wifi system that will be up sooner than we think, the connectedness is going to be bring our world to a whole new era.The church must be on the front end of this technological wave if we intend on competing (or being relevant.) My point to this is, we have the ability to connect, we have the know-how to connect, we have the best message to connect. What are we going that is going to reach out and grab people. If we are truly serious about getting people plugged into the Gospel and reaching them where they are, why don't we drop the facade of engagedness and begin developing and embracing technologies and methods which allow us to be on the cutting edge of ministry. As I sat in the Younger Leaders forum last week a great comment was made, the church has to be ahead of the curve five years if it wants to be relevant. We have to begin designing and implementing effective solutions to be able to plug in. My suggestion: a media based platform with transmitable (and free) information that allows optimum engagement with a technological changing environment. Moreso, we need to create communities of connectedness (virtual and physical) which encourage people to engage at their availability. How many churches have a service industry worship service which allows those who have to work on Sundays to connect in their congregation? Who is doing the best at reaching out to people with the best platforms? Collaboration is the key. The landscape ahead of us is fresh and ready to go. Let's capture it. posted by Preachin Jesus | 11:49 AM | Wednesday, March 23, 2005 Sports and TortsThe spring days are soon ahead of us. Memories of dew misting the soft green grass of the infield on your local Little League Baseball Diamond, the smells of a new day filling your senses, a soft breeze caressing your neck. The days when the familiar metallic ding of an alluminum bat against a baseball are soon upon us. Yet as march through this month and into Opening Day with the Little Leaugers' schedules full of potential wins we do so with the spectre of a atheletes abusing substances that gave them an unfair edge. For me, this is another disgrace for Major League Baseball. The disgraces for Baseball all seem to come from the same location. The Players' Union. After several years of strikes, threatened strikes, steriod cover-ups, player misconduct, and so forth Baseball has successfully forfeited itself from the once  uncontested moniker of Great American Past Time. We, the once loyal fan base, have been forced to endure all the pointless histrionics from both owners and players while hoping that we can once again go and drink in the rich atmosphere that is the stadium. Now we find ourselves staring at continual news stories about player substance abuse and their staring back at us chastizing us, the fans for not believing it is natural to gain 150% more muscle mass naturally over the course of an off season. We sit and groan internally as another player ascribes his John Hancock to another deal worth more than any of us will ever see in 100 years...all so he can chase a little ball around with his friends. We sit and watch the teachers in our high schools dodge bullets, spitballs, curses, and threats every day for what one of these players makes in a week. Of course I need not further explore the problems in salary differences here.This is not to say all baseball players are evil, nor are all owners of teams evil. Rather I believe there are many who wish to do good, but are trapped in a bad situations with the aggressive nature of the players' union. In surveying the landscape of American life I believe the issue of unions is one which needs to be addressed. Unions once played a great role in providing a strong voice for downtrodden workers in our country, yet in contemporary America they have become nothing more than a hindrance to some companies' productivity. This is exactly the case in Major League Baseball. The union has so confounded the ability of players to play and owners to...well..own that we the once supportive fan public are left sitting in the stands wondering what happened to our fond memories of spring, summer, and if we're lucky...fall. When will the greed for powerful and lucer finally give way so we can be returned to a enjoying the game without bitterness? We deserve better than hiding behind lawyers and stolid denial. We deserve more than cop outs and refusing to talk about the past. If there are still good men in the game will they stand up and say enough? Baseball is facing a time when they must either choose to right road to fall into the trap of the NHL and face exteremination by their own hand. posted by Preachin Jesus | 9:25 AM | Friday, March 18, 2005 On Emergent LeadersWell I had an excellent opportunity yesterday to attend the Younger Leaders Dialogue with Dr. Jimmy Draper (President of Lifeway) here in Atlanta. The idea behind this luncheon is to engage younger leaders (those 45 and younger) in a conversation about where we see the SBC going and what might we do about it. I thought Dr. Draper did a fabulous job in his role there. Taking time out of his  schedule to meet with younger people like myself is something I am extremely appreciative of and I found him to be extremely engaging. Also Drs. Bob Record (President of the NAMB) and Bob White (Executive Director of Georgia Baptists)were wonderful to talk with during this time. For their part each of these fine Christian men contributed greatly and exercised immense patience and grace at times.My goal in going to this meeting was two fold: 1. I wanted to plug in and network with younger ministers who have a passion for their work, a directed vision, a mindset of growing their churches, and are really involved in ministry. 2. I wanted to see what kind of discussions were going on about the SBC and where it is headed and capture the thoughts of younger leaders like myself. I found myself somewhat disappointed at both ends. While I am sure there were young ministers there with the above characteristics I didn't run into them. The younger ministers I did run into and converse with were in maintanence mode with their churches or were discouraged in their works. I did find a couple of guys who were trying to build unique works and was edified by them. During the dialogue Q&A time with Dr. Draper the first several questions were good questions, then the meeting seemed to digress into a complaint session with some younger leaders being rather abrupt in their questions and demands (yep...one guy demanded some stuff) for answers. It occurred to me that if there are any future leaders of the SBC at that meeting they were probably doing what my fellow Minister in Residence and I were doing...keeping their mouths shut. Also that any of the true SBC future leadership was simply not at these meetings because they couldn't afford to (in regards to their time) be there. I remember that I had friends at seminary who would trounce around the campus and marvel at how they were best kept secret in the SBC and how they were going to fix things when they become president...I really try to stay away from people like that. Power trips are a good thing to stay away from in my book. Seems that we have a lot of young people who want to be given the rank of Colonel (or General) but don't want to grow up from being a private. I recall a day when I believed that I was the next best thing, then I quickly came to my senses and realized I'm not. There really has to be a consistent effort show yourself approved and able to handle a great work. The men who occupy the higher positions have done that work of showing themselves approved. Of course its not the SBC's fault that young men who see some older men occupying the stage at convention envy them and say "I can do that" or something along those lines. This always happens in society. Maybe the best thing we could do is show why getting involved at the associational level is the primary importance if you want to be connected. The SBC is powerful because it only exists two days a years (technically) and because the convention is directly responsible to the local church. The headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention is the local church. Plain and simple. I found some of these potential leaders' attitudes to be quite incredulous towards those they were asking questions of during the time. One youngster got up and read a short list of reasons why he doesn't go to the annual convention. Granted I do fall into some of his categories (lack of financial resources in the past) but I don't complain about it to people. There are better things that could have been discussed at the meeting. Why is the associational support necessary? What can I do help my local DOM? How important is Sunday School in the future? Why don't cell groups work? Where is the SBC going in regards to teaching Baptist distinctives? How can I help out the process, even if it means licking envelopes at my dinner table for three hours a week? That would have been constructive. I really appreciate Dr. Draper taking the time to listen to these younger leaders, but really I was disappointed in the younger leaders. The future leadership will not let the SBC down, we are young and conservative theologically...though progressive in our methodologies. I pray for the current and future leaders. May God raise up a nation of Billy Sundays and D.L. Moodys...may we be used to advance the Heavenly Kingdom and not be worried about the earthly Kingdom. posted by Preachin Jesus | 8:24 AM | Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Error in Reportinggot this from FoxNews.com: Robber Fended Off With French Fries AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch cafeteria owner used piping hot french fries to fend off a gun-wielding would-be robber, police in the southern city of Helmond said Friday. Fries, or "frites," are a national snack in Holland and Belgium, where they are deep-fried in oil and then salted and eaten with mayonnaise and chopped onions. It was not known if the culprit, whose age was estimated at 16, was burned. He had threatened the owner and his wife with a handgun Thursday night, police said. "He wanted money," a police report said. "But once he had hot frites coming his way, he decided he had had enough." The fries were cooling in a pot when the owner threw them at the intruder. Police described the youth, who is still at large, as "thin, white, and with a plump nose." now technically...these must have been Freedom Fries since true French fries would have gone cold, limp, and surrendered at the first sign of trouble. posted by Preachin Jesus | 8:41 AM | Tuesday, March 15, 2005 Quik HitsOkay, not much on the front burner I guess, well at least nothing significant. Things have been going great and I find myself further enschonched in God's blessings. Just a couple of quick things which come to mind as I have a moment to write: 1. Blessings to Stan Grenz's family. He was a wonderful philosopher/theologian who did much work for the Church. Though his particular brand of theological vodka is not necessarily my own, I must say I have indeed been edified by his writings. He will be missed in our community. 2. I'm constantly becoming more and more aware that Sunday School (or Sunday Morning Bible Study, etc) is the single most impacting move a church can make at connecting with their members. Thinking that connection will happen at a worship service only is not likely, cell groups provide too many problems, yet Sunday School...when done right...can and is perhaps the single most impacting point of connection within the church. 3. There are several things in life which simply don't exist. I believe a perfect one time March Madness bracket is one of those things...another is the perfect Slurpee 4. I think Christianity would be different if our ministers went into church settings with a lifetime ministry mindset. What is taught (I guess by default) at most seminaries is that you work hard at being at a church for longer than the average ministry bear, this would be five years (subjective I know.) But what if you went to a church and served there with a fairly intact staff for thirty plus years? How much better would you be able to serve the Kingdom? 5. Married life is better than anyone told me...how could something this good be so undersold in our society? posted by Preachin Jesus | 3:17 PM | Tuesday, March 08, 2005 The Growth MindsetPart of the program that I"m a part of affords me the wonderful opportunity to sit and connect with leaders of great churches in our convention. These last two weeks in particular I have been able to attend two different conferences dealing with the educational ministry end of the local church. In these meetings I have sat and listened to churches that looking expand on various fronts. One of the more interesting things is churches that are making a great impact for the Kingdom are churches whose pastor and congregation have a growth mindset. Knowing that growth of the body, not just in numbers but in substantive spiritual impact, is key to creating more disciples for the Kingdom is a vital part of their ministry. I am on board with this and must say that I want to be with a staff whose mindset is growth and reaching people. Far too many churches are in a maintenance mindset and declining because of this. Growth has to be on our hearts and in our actions as we see our communities of faith impacting the world for the Kingdom. posted by Preachin Jesus | 3:44 PM | |
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