Prime Your Spiritual Pump

Today I had the privilege to preach a sermon called "Prime Your Spiritual Pump" based out of 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24. The message focused on addressing our actions, attitudes, and acceptance of God's truth. The main illustration was based upon one of my mentor's talks, "Prime The Pump." It was a great Sunday, and always good to reminisce about time spent with Mr. Ziglar! Click here to listen to the sermon.

So Good It's RiDQulous!

Love the new DQ tagline... so good, it's riDQulous!

11 Helpful Tips for Mission Trips

I read this article today and found it helpful and interesting, so I am sharing an abbreviated form of it here. For the full article from the original source, click here for Jeremy Parks post.

1. Know the difference between Missions vs. Ministry: Ministry is about loving people. Missions is about loving people so that His kingdom might expand into the hearts and minds of people. Mission teams usually need to be about missions, not ministry.  

2. When in Rome, Eat as the Romans Eat: Eat what you are given, when you are given it. Never refuse, make faces, joke about, or make a big deal of what’s offered, it is typically their very best they have to offer. Eat like your grandmother was serving you your meal.  

3. Flexibility: You’ve go to go with the flow in regards to your schedule, job changes, tasks, and inconveniences… go along and get along.  

4. Just accept it: Don’t critique the choices that the missionaries make: food, shopping, clothing, schooling, driving, how they spend their money, how they educate their children.

 5. Don’t be high maintenance: Consider not going if you are diabetic or hypoglycemic, an extremely picky eater, if you must have air conditioning, or if you are a vegans, vegetarians, and gluten-free eater… leave your diet at home too!  

6. Minister to the missionary: Financially, personally and vocationally, do whatever you can to encourage others. Remember that you could very well be the only American Christian they see and spend time with all year, always be a source of encouragement to them.  

7. Practice your testimony. Be able to share your story in 3-4 minutes.  

8. Learn the Language: Make an attempt to learn the basic of communication with nationals, whether through gestures common to the people or through some basics words, but do it without constantly asking the missionary.  

9. Partner: Unless you possess a special set of skills that is needed in a variety of locations, find a missionary, a strategy, and a people group with whom you can partner for a few years.  

10. Think: Show a willingness to use creativity and the wealth of resources we have in the United States in order to present high quality work and projects.  

11. Learn: Most missionaries are forced to use out of the box techniques for reaching people for Christ, pay attention to what they do and apply it to your work back home. Go with your cup empty, not full!

Baby Sleeping Positions

This is funny, because it is true... thanks to failblog.org for the find!

TRANSFORMAITON: A Look at the Life of Peter

TRANSFORMAITON: A Look at the Life of Peter, was a sermon based on the highs and lows of the Disciple/Apostle Peter. His experiences following Christ shows grace in our own failures and successes. Most of all, they show that transformation is a process where God never gives up on His followers!

Father/Son Campout 2012

 Coleman I got to experience our first camping adventure together Friday night… this was my first time camping since college, 2^nd time ever! We attended a father/son campout hosted by WYLegacy. This group was founded by Bud Baab and has been creating opportunities for Fathers to intentionally connect with their children for over a decade. During the weekend we got to:

Setup Camp

 

Fish

4-Wheel

 

Play Sports

Bond

And Making Memories

 

It was a great overnight adventure and I hope we can do it again!

Dealing With Your Critics (2 of 2)

10 Tips for Dealing with Critics: 

1. Determine if it is Constructive or Destructive
2. See the critic, not criticism – some people mean to help
3. Guard your attitude – don’t let the beat-down beat you down
4. Check yourself (spiritually) – be angry and do not sin
5. Prove the critic wrong in time – this comes from my competitive nature
6. Concentrate on your mission – don’t get distracted from what God has called you to
7. Change your mistakes – if there is truth in the criticism
8. Find the truth in the criticism – Even if there is just a hint of truth, typically you can learn from anything
9. Own your mistakes – don’t ever blame others or pass it off on others, own whatever mistake you made and apologize for them
10. Thank whomever criticizes you – if they meant well, you will affirm them; if they were being a jerk, you can kill em' with kindness

Dealing With Your Critics (1 of 2)

It really disgusts me when I hear preachers with nothing better to do than to pick on other preachers. As a former staff member of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX, I received a great deal of criticism from other pastors, seminary professors, and other seminary students. They really seemed to enjoy telling me how wrong we were for the size of our building, budget, and how we did church. It was always amusing to me to hear such criticism, because it was coming from people who had never been to Prestonwood and knew nothing about anything we actually did. Pastor Jack Graham, Mike Buster, Todd Bell and the other leadership were (are) godly men who wanted to reach that region for Jesus. Although thousands of people came to Christ during my years there, critics remained. Focus is the key to successful ministry and dealing with critics. We are called to preach the Gospel, not fight with other people who claim to know Jesus but do not like us. Perry Noble preached on this subject and cited advice from Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church, who gave him 3 insights for dealing with critics: 1. Out-love your critics. 2. Out-live your critics. 3. Out-fruit your critics. May we out-love, out-live, and out-fruit those who have nothing better to do than waste time criticizing others instead of fulfilling the calling Christ placed upon their lives. Mark 9:38-41 states, “John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." 39But Jesus said, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40 For the one who is not against us is for us. 41For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.” May our focus be on Jesus and what He has called us to!

5 Tips for Buying A Used Car

It is a well-known fact to some, that I love searching for cars, although my time with this hobby is over for now! If you are looking for a used car, avoid the following mistakes. The best tip I can give you though is to ditch Kelly Blue Book altogether, it is outdated and I have found it to be worthless in buying a car, use the industry standard NADA!  

Mistake #1 – Not checking the vehicle history report This is a no-brainer when buying privately or from a dealer. You want to make sure the vehicle has never been in an accident, a hurricane, had the odometer rolled back, or was a rental unit! A lease return is ideal! There are two vehicle history reports available: Carfax.com and AutoCheck.com.

Mistake #2 – Not checking the vehicle inspection report Simply ask to see the mechanic’s inspection report on the vehicle you want to purchase.

Mistake #3 – Ignoring fuel consumption It’s more difficult to ignore a vehicle’s EPA fuel mileage rating when gas prices are at $4 per gallon. The best place to research fuel consumption is a user-friendly, government website: FuelEconomy.gov.  

Mistake #4 – Ignoring certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicles You’ll pay a bit more for a certified pre-owned vehicle, but those benefits won’t diminish if you make a great deal on the selling price.  

Mistake #5 – Don’t comparison shop The Internet has changed how new and used cars are bought and sold, there are now ample tools online to comparison shop. Ignore Kelly Blue Book, just use NADA.com for pricing, then check sites such as Craigslist.org or Cars.com to see how similar vehicles are priced. Most of this was taken from yahoo, click here for the entire article.

Grounded in the Word

This sermon, Grounded in the Word, was part of a series called "Conquering the Flesh." 2 Timothy 3:16-17 was the focal passage. The idea was to share what a great resource God has given His followers in the Bible!

Bible Story-ing

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Storying through the Bible is a method/strategy to engage a group of people in learning Scripture. There is great flexibility in teaching this way and you could walk through the Bible from the Old Testament to the Cross, work through the Gospels, highlighting different aspects of Jesus’ life, or work through a specific book like Acts. In order to maximize effectiveness, a group should follow this general outline:

1.     Every week the small-group leader learns one of the stories to tell or they assign someone in their group to learn the story.

2.     The assigned storyteller learns the story so that he or she can tell it without reading it – not word for word but so the story remains true to the meaning.

3.     While the storyteller is telling the story, the small group reads along to see if the storyteller has missed anything.

4.     When the story is finished, the storyteller or the leader of the group will rebuild the story pointing out anything that was missed.

5.     The leader often asks someone to tell the story back to everyone without reading it.

6.     No one knows who will be asked, so everyone pays attention just in case he or she is chosen.

7.     Once the story has been told, rebuilt, and told again, the small group leader asks questions that draw out the important truths in the story:

·      What new thing did you discover in the story that you did not know before?

·      What did you learn about God?

·      What did you learn about people?

·      Which person is most like you in the story?

·      What will you take away from this discussion?

·      What will you do with what you have learned?

• If the leader is asked a question they do not know the answer to, they need to say, “I don’t know, but I will know by next week.”

This post was basically taken from Jim Putman’s Real-LifeDiscipleship (p. 158)

Lace Em' Up

This sermon, Lace Em Up (click here), was focused on living not for self, but for God in 2012. I am excited about the three challenges we gave to our church this year. The challenges are to:

1. Read through the Bible in a year & memorize 1 verse a month
2. Serve regularly in our church
3. Be involved in a mission/outreach effort.

Let's lace em up, as we Run the Race this year!

2011 in Review

1. Clay: Half-Baby, Half-Amazing Joins the Family
• Technically he was born in 2010, but he didn’t get home until 2011. He has been our easiest baby, a total joy, and an awesome addition to our family!


2. Coleman is Potty-trained
• My goal was for this to happen before Clay was born, instead it happened before summer arrived. More than just this, Coleman was all-sports, all-go, all the time! I love that he always wants to play, and that he always wants me to play with him!
3. Family Vacation to the Beach
• We went to Galveston for our family vacation this year and had a great time. Everyone enjoyed it, and Galveston proved to be a perfect destination for our 3 kids under 5. In addition to this, we got to see Christy’s cousin get married and Chloe got to be the flower girl!

4. Dallas Mavericks win the title
• As a lifelong Maverick fan, I cannot believe this is true, but the Dallas Mavericks are the champions and the greatest team on the planet in 2011! If you are curious, I am good with whatever they do for the rest of my life!

5. Chloe starts Kindergarten
• This was harder than we thought, starting with the worst first day of school ever. In her first day of school ever, she had a substitute (an old man at that), a lockdown (there was a robbery down the road), and her parents were a mess (she only saw strong parents). Kindergarten has been a struggle, but it is getting better!

6. Texting is embraced
• I am not a fan of texting, nevertheless, we text now.

7. Rangers win the AL again, blow the World Series
• When we won the pennant in 2010, I honestly thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment. So much so, that I paid $150 to go see game 5 with my grandfather, father, & brother – money well spent. Then, in 2011, the Rangers go and win the AL again… only to have Nelson Cruz fall asleep in the bottom of the 9th with 2 strikes and 2 outs, as a fly ball flies over his head and we choke off the Series in 7.

8. Parenting Class is a Success
• Part of my doctor of ministry program is to address an issue in our church; my parenting class was the project. For me personally, it was great. The participants agreed too. This was awesome!

9. Chloe’s Team goes 8-0
• Our team was awesome. We went 8-0 and outscored our opponents 180-46, including a game 8 score of 54-10… having the best 1st grader on the planet was the secret to our team’s success! The funny thing about this is that it was a Kindergarten-1st grade team. Chloe played awesome defense. No they don't keep score, but this parent sure did!

10. Dissertation is complete… many revisions await, I’m sure!
• Around 10:54AM, December 25, 2011, I completed my dissertation. Granted there will be several rounds of reviews, the initial draft is complete. One way or the other, I will be out of the doctoral program May 19, 2012!

Texting, Because We Don't Care to Talk to People Anymore

Have you ever really thought about texting? Have you thought about what you are communicating when you text? At its best a text means that I have something to say to you, just not the time to talk to you. At its worst, texting means I have something to say to you, I just don’t want to talk to you. If it is not obvious, I am not a fan of texting. Granted it has its place, I just don’t like it. Regardless, we are texting now and instead of fighting it as some fad, I’ll try to get over my feelings and embrace it.

How The BCS Got It Wrong… 2011 Edition!

Last year, the BCS delivered on phenomenal bowl games, this year they reverted to their normal ways. One might naturally think this is going to go towards the OSU/Alabama debate, but that is not their fault. The 40 year old “man” named Mike Gundy gets to bear all the burden for that one! The problem is the games themselves will not be fun to watch. Currently, the games are just boring and they should not have been.

Here is a list of what they are verse what they should be:
ROSE – Is: Wisconsin vs. Oregon, should be: Wisconsin vs. Stanford.
This game poses two contrasting styles that will simply be boring to watch. Spread verse the run. New school verse old school… this has the makings of a terrible game for the viewers.

FIESTA – Is: OSU vs. Oregon, should be: OSU vs. Oregon
See Rose bowl notes. In all fairness, 3 vs. 4 sounds good on paper, but this game does not matter at all… none of the BCS games do this year. Can you imagine watching the ball flung throughout the stadium as these two offenses battle for who will have the ball last and go for the win?

SUGAR – Is: Michigan vs. VT, should be: Michigan vs. Baylor
VT deserves this bowl as much as Oklahoma does… not at all! However, if you put a resurgent historic Wolverine team against a team that has no history in Baylor, it would be awesome. In addition to this, football fans would come from all over to see RG3 battle Denard Robinson – call it the battle of the 2 most electrifying players in college football. This game would have been awesome. Some will point to KSU having a better ranking and beating Baylor, but remember that this game does not matter and KSU isn’t fun to watch!

ORANGE – Is: Clemson vs. WVU, should be: Bama vs. Boise
Let a legitimate team beat the dog out of Boise. It would shut them up for years and Bama’s Nick Saban would relish the opportunity to unleash all of his fury on a team he does not think deserve to be in the BCS, much less ranked in the top 25. I would love this game!

BCS TITLE: Is: LSU vs. Bama, should be: Highlights of LSU’s season.
LSU has nothing left to prove. Their season was as close to a playoff that we have seen in the history of the BCS. The fact that they have to play a team they beat on the road is stupid. Just give them the title… they already earned it. If you want to fill seats, put Nebraska in here, they corn faithful travel well and are no threat to ruining what LSU has already accomplished.

Gundy, the Pokes, and the BCS

So many people are lamenting “the rematch” as a travesty. They want to blame the humans, ignorant coaches like the one from Air Force that apparently does not own a TV or have common sense. However, all of those people are not the problem, it is not their fault, and ultimately this is not on the BCS… it is all on the 40+ year old “man” named Mike Gundy.

Having never been in that situation before, he said Bama deserved to be #2 on November 28. Instead of thinking they could actually beat OU and have a case for the BCS title game, he sheepishly submitted to Alabama being a better team. As a lifelong Dallas Maverick/Texas Ranger fan, I understand his thinking that they wouldn’t actually do it… but keep it to yourself Gundy!

That being said, he should have harped on the fact that his team lost in double OT to a team on the road the same day his school has the worst tragedy of any school all year. He should not have made excuses, but played the media in such a way to say something like, "today was an extremely tough day for OSU. The plane crash and deaths were a huge distraction, we played with heavy hearts, and I am glad we were able to play at all with such a tragedy." That is the truth everyone in the country knew, believed, and would’ve sympathized with. 18-22 year old kids played a competitive game on the road under the worst of circumstances…

Gundy should have also, in the same breath, harped on the fact that Bama lost at home, after a bye week. Bama had their shot, at home, and lost. Bama had their shot after an off week, and lost. Bama had their chance, and lost. OSU did loose to Iowa State, but on the road under the worst of circumstances, Bama lost at home after a bye week.

Les Miles has proven that there is no room for a high road when it comes to the BCS. You plead your case non-stop, and let everyone know why they would be idiots to put any other team ahead of yours. Gundy cost OSU a shot at the title; it is his fault and no one else’s. The BCS media and coaches should have had the common sense to see the situation for what it was, but ultimately Gundy is to blame for not wanting to “politic.”

Although the BCS blew the title game, the real question is why wouldn’t they after what Gundy said.

Book Review: Real-Life Discipleship by Jim Putman

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Real-Life Discipleship is a book about how Jim Putman’s church (Real Life Ministries) makes and trains disciples. Putman has a gift for explaining and communicating how discipleship should occur within a church context. While his model is specific to his church, there are many great things to learn and apply from this book. His hope from the book is stated that the reader will begin to intentionally, relationally, and strategically disciple others.

This book is broken down into three different parts. The first part is about setting the stage for discipleship. He states that discipleship requires real teaching and real learning (conversation, modeling, encouragement, etc.) in the context of a relationship. His definition of a disciple is good too, “A disciple is one who is following Christ, being changed by Christ, and committed to Jesus’ mission to save people from their sins.” Following principles he studied from the Gospel, he points towards three keys to success: intentionality, relational environment, and having a process.

He uses the following stages of a disciple’s growth: Spiritually dead; Spiritual infant; Child; Young Adult; and Parent. Since Putman places discipleship within the context of a relationship he discusses the importance of a relational environment that includes real teaching, shepherding, transparency, accountability, and guided practice. Within the relational focus, he specifically addresses the importance of church and the necessity to be engaged in a local church family.

True to form, Putman explains the process disciple-makers follow to make disciples. His reproducible process is for people to share, connect, minister, and disciple. In the second part of this book he explains each one of stages. Before he gets into that though, he gives the reader a reminder that they must understand they are only responsible for their part in the process. God has His part, the disciple has their part, and we have our part! We cannot control or dictate anything other than our own actions; a good reminder.

He then details his strategy by identifying people at different stages of spiritual growth. Without giving a full rundown of everything included it would be best just to look at the diagram he provides that I found online:

Putman states that they need to keep Bible central to what we are doing in our small groups (Good Call!), so they partnered with Avery Willis (creator of MasterLife) to develop Storying thru the Bible. Basically, instead of a printed material, they read a Bible story, have someone recite a Bible story, discuss how that person did (if they added to or missed anything in the story) and then ask discussion question to dig deeper and apply the lesson. They love the model and have seen many benefits from this style of learning including that it makes the story stick, easy to recruit leaders, meets people where they are, arms people for service, helps disciple kids, evaluates where group members are, keeps groups from getting boring, and helps people get to know one another.

The final part of this book is about letting disciples emerge as leaders. He communicated the need to disciples to grow up by relating to the development of a child, into a teen, young adult, and then a parent. It is unnatural to stay in one stage of life and that should be true about our spiritual growth as well.  He said, “God gives specific gifting to people in the church in order to help the church work together effectively.” This statement speaks to the fact that God calls upon every one of His followers to be used and useful for His purposes.

This was a great book, with a phenomenal and tangible explanation for how to make disciples in a church small group setting. Putman is able to clearly communicate what his church does to the reader, therefore it is no surprise that Real-Life Ministries has grown from 12 people to over 12,000 members. I love the heart, detail, and functionality of this book. It is a must read for those who want to make disciples.

The One You Need by Shane and Shane

Thanks to Cody Brumley for sharing.

Rules of Dinner

1. Everyone Eats Together
2. The Dinner Table is a Safe Place
3. No Distractions
4. Say Please and Thank You
5. Sit Facing the Table (her rule is All Four on the Floor, one I always break)
6. Try a Bit of Everything
7. Use an Inside Voice
8. Play High and Low (points of the day)
9. Only Compliments to the Chef
10. Everyone Helps Clean Up

Rules of Dinner can be found here by a lady named Jenny.

JibJab Family Baseball Game: Go Rangers!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Book Review: Church Is a Team Sport By Jim Putman

This book starts off with a lengthy introduction to tell the reader how the author got where he is and the motivation behind the book. Putman is a wrestler and former wrestling coach who views the world and church through the lens of sports. He views himself as a new kind of coach, most call his role a pastor though, but he has several other coaches on his staff as well. He sees his church as a team, which should be a natural link. As a sports fan this is something I rather enjoyed.

Throughout the book he also talks about winning, something he majored on before Charlie Sheen broke on the scene with his drug-inspired freak show! One of the things I really enjoyed was how he made clear that churches should seek to win. He also defined winning by stating, “Winning is making disciples – converts who are disciple onto God’s team and taught to take part in Christ mission” (70). He showed how pathetic the state of the North American church is too through the Barna Groups research/ Of the 360,000 church in America, only 2-5% are experiencing conversion growth. Also, 50% of all evangelical churches in America did not have a single convert last year – pathetic! There are more stats, but that is enough to get a Christian fired up!

He also talked about the need for churches to win, because we belong to God and God has given us the keys to prevail over the world – in short, every church should be seeing people coming to faith in Christ and developed into disciples. Putman makes it clear that winning starts with coaches. Coaches need to move beyond their comfort zone and discover God’s purpose for the church. He views relationship, real, authentic, vulnerable relationships where you really know people and they really know you as the key for this to take place.

In his 3rd portion of the book he outlines what his church does and why. Everything is connected to the main purpose of the church. There are no independent programs or ministries, everything is interdependent and fruitful to the primary purpose of the church – in short they are a focused church. The primary method or means to make this happens is through small groups. Small groups are the fuel for making disciples and everything they do points towards getting people in small groups, so they can be involved, serve, and eventually start leading their own small group. Their goal is to develop players and them set them loose to play.

The fourth section has to do with making sure everyone is on the same page. They are all aligned for reaching the victory they have in mind. He encourages unity and the church values unity above most everything else when it comes to having everyone on the same page. It is refreshing to see the value he places on this necessity. From coaches to players, his church makes sure everyone is able to read from the same playbook. While he views theology as highly important, he is intentional to avoid useless disagreements about minor aspects of the Christian faith.

His final part of the book summarized the book and provides useful information for leaders. He speaks to hiring and recruiting new leaders. He also places a high value on constructive criticism. One of the things many pastors do not talk about is their inability to handle criticism. Putman encourages pastors/coaches to create an environment where staff and members can offer suggestions for how a pastor can improve (he really includes everyone). He says, “A coach must allow others to evaluate him; there must be a culture of accurate assement in an organization. A coach must become vulnerable and positive when he received honest feedback, or the process ends right there… An accurate and honest assessment encourages better leadership” (208). He ends the book with a challenging pep talk.

Overall, this was a very good book. He sticks to his personality and is true to himself. It was easy to read and beneficial for any church leader. The most insightful thing I read from the book was his outline of the discipleship process. He lists it as 4 Phases of Discipleship:

1. Share-Phase: knowing Christ or hearing of Him (no real difference between praying a prayer or hearing the message – I know my explanation is not what he means, but I am not elaborating here!)
2. Connect-Level: Being involved in a small group, sharing life in a Christian community
3. Ministry-Level: Serving others, moving from the consumer level (connect-level) to being a contributor
4. Disciple-Level: Training others to do what you do.